I took a trip to the bookstore today, intending to buy THE HIDDEN WORLDS by Kristin Landon and THE HAUNTING OF CAMBRIA by Richard Taylor. However, only the Landon book was in stock. Therefore, I will feature her book first.
I considered featuring Marr's WICKED, LOVELY and Grossman's SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBIE, but they seem to be getting plenty of attention and are on the bestseller lists. It is my intention with this blog to feature the lesser-known gems.
THE HIDDEN WORLDS was placed cover-out, and there were about seven copies. It piqued my interest because its been a while since I've read any science fiction and because I'm in the mood for a love story.
The cover is good, but not spectacular. I would have been more interested in seeing a rendering of one of the cold minds than a guy and a girl, even if the girl has a cool gun. The city in the background is intriguing.
Here is the cover blurb:
After the Earth was destroyed by ruthless machine intelligences known as the Cold Minds, the remnants of the human race sought refuge on far-flung planets. Humanity was saved by a hereditary guild of jump pilots who now control all travel and communication among the Hidden Worlds.…
Nineteen-year-old Linnea Kiaho lives on a backwater hostile planet, one of the poorest of the Hidden Worlds. To save her family, Linnea does the unspeakable: She accepts an indenture on the decadent home world of the Pilot Masters, hoping that she will be able to barter an old family secret into a future for her loved ones—and perhaps her planet as well.
Linnea's unwilling master, the pilot Iain sen Paolo, knows nothing about her secret. But to spite his father, he joins her in uncovering a truth that could throw the Pilot masters into chaos at a time when they can least afford weakness. For after six centuries, the Cold Minds have discovered the Hidden Worlds.…
6 comments:
Haven't heard of this one. Not too impressed with the cover either, but it might worth a pickup...
It's turning out quite different than I expected. Not the lighthearted read that I thought it would be. I think the cover gave me that false impression. And so far, neither character has held any wicked-looking guns!
As you might expect, that was a marketing decision, not mine. . . . I trusted them, and overall I think it's a great cover.
The one thing I asked (and I did get it) was that my heroine would not be a bosomy swooner. Maybe the guns are compensation for that. ;)
Oh, yes, thank goodness. Now I know that depicting the Cold Minds would be impossible, although the blue glow might have been interesting.
The cover did make me think it was more of a romance than it really is. If I were to have to give it a sub-genre, I would choose "thriller" rather than "romance".
Well, Linnea Sinclair (very kindly) blurbed it, so my publisher was aiming at appealing to romance readers as well as SF readers. I didn't write HIDDEN WORLDS with anything but SF in mind—I'd never read much romance and wouldn't have known where to start.
And I made the more horrific aspects as intense as I could, which I (mistakenly) wouldn't have done if I'd been deliberately trying to appeal to romance readers.
But as it turned out what I did was right—the book has been getting good reviews from romance sites, which delights me.
That's great! And yes, I found the horrific aspects quite intense, so well done!
By the way, thanks for stopping by and commenting on my comments. It's always fun to get author feedback!
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