I'm Christopher Husberg, fantasy author (of the Chaos Queen Series), desultory blogger, and zombie apologist. Also Buffy fanatic. Ballroom danced a bit. Etc.
The covers continue to roll out! I have to say, the color scheme for this one is perhaps my favorite of all the covers I've had up to this point--the crimson and pale grey look gorgeous together. This cover also continues the German series aesthetic (cool-looking crowns, basically--check out the covers for the German editions of Book 1 and Book 2), which I also think is awesome.
Also, the parade of covers is likely to continue; as I understand it, books 1, 2, and 3 of the Chaos Queen Quintet will all be coming out in Poland next year, so I should start seeing covers for those books soon as well..
Anyway. Clearly I've been incredibly fortunate as far as covers are concerned, so far. If they're all even close to as good as this one, I'll be one happy writer.
The most common complaint I hear about Duskfall criticizes the lack of a map in the US/UK editions.
First of all, I'm quite content with the fact that the #1 complaint about my first book is something that was largely out of my control. (If I could've dictated everything about the publication of Duskfall, of COURSE it would've had a map; it would've also had a hardcover edition, and a collector's edition, and a platinum-plated "edition" edition where the text of the book was made up of little diamonds embedded in the metal. What I'm getting at, here, is that it's probably a good thing I wasn't in charge. Also, it's my first published novel for crying out loud--I'm just ecstatic to see it on shelves, to see that it has a beautiful cover, and to see people reading it and reviewing it and talking about it. All that is pretty amazing stuff, you know.)
Ahem. Anyway.
Secondly, the wonderful irony is that my German publisher actually did decide to put a map in their edition of the book--and I love how the map turned out. The artist responsible (Andreas Hancock--you can check out his webpage here, although it's in German, so good luck) was kind enough to allow me to post the image on my webpage for all of my US/UK fans.
So, without further ado, and with great pleasure, I present Roden and Northern Khale, the small portion of the Sfaera in which Duskfall takes place:
Most of the proper noun names are quite similar to, if not exactly the same as, the english version, so I don't think you'll have much trouble figuring out which city is which, etc. That said, the legend in the top left corner is obviously in german, so I'll provide a little legend for that legend. I won't try to write out the german words because I don't even think I could transcribe them correctly; the words below correspond with the words in the legend, going from top to bottom.
Legend legend:
forest
mountains
lakes
rivers
roads
small cities/towns
large cities
capital cities
So there you have it, folks! A real, genuine, official map! I hope that helps everyone's reading of the book.
* Wait. They don't love you like I love you. See also:
Okay, have I mentioned that Duskfall is getting a publication run in Germany this fall?
Well, it totally is, by the pub house Dromer-Knaur. And they just revealed the cover:
That is a fantastic cover, amirite? I particularly love the color scheme. Anyway, if any of you folks are from Germany, check out my publisher's website here.
