The cover art for Bradley P. Beaulieu’s third Lays of Anuskaya novel has just been released by Night Shade Books.

“Incredible detail and a most representative cover.” ~Shadowhawk

Bradley P. Beaulieu’s The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy is number 8 on my “Top 25 Series I want To Read In 2013” list. I’ve been wanting to get into these books for a while now, and as part of this reading challenge for the year, I’m pretty confident that I’ll get around to them.

One of my main attractions to this series is the fact that they are all very Russian-themed, and fantasy to boot. I think that the mix is excellent, and definitely something niche, which is of course what most SFF series today are all about, finding that one special segment of the market that they can capitalise on and get instant brand recognition.

Another is the gorgeous covers for the first two books, The Winds of Khalakovo and The Straits of Galahesh, which you can see below:

The hast to be one of the most evocative and beautiful covers ever, seriously. The whole composition, with its soft hues and the suggestion of a sundown (or a sunrise!) incredible. I saw this cover and I thought, I have to read this book. Didn’t work out that way, but as I said above, gonna change that this year.

The character here is merely jumping between buildings, but if you take the name into a metaphorical context, then he is crossing a strait, and the image becomes that much more compelling. I love the consistency between this and the cover for The Winds of Khalakovo in that the colour palette is still soft and easy-going. Details pop out here and there but it’s all rather subtle.

Joining these two beauties is the recently released cover for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, which is the final book in the series.

The cover design for this isn’t out yet, but as Bradley said in his post, this is a fantastic cover, and maintains a distinct continuity of style with the other covers, even though they’ve all been done by different artists. I’d say that it is definitely one of the best covers I’ve seen yet for a 2013 release. So bring on more!

On the book:

The Flames of Shadam Khoreh begins nearly two years after the events of The Straits of Galahesh. In it, Atiana and Nikandr continue their long search for Nasim, which has taken them to the desert wastes of the Gaji, where the fabled valley of Shadam Khoreh lies. But all is not well. War has moved from the islands to the mainland, and the Grand Duchy knows its time may be limited if Yrstanla rallies its forces. And the wasting disease and the rifts grow ever wider, threatening places that once thought themselves safe. The Dukes believe that their only hope may be to treat with the Haelish warriors to the west of Yrstanla, but Nikandr knows that the key is to find Nasim and a lost artifact known as the Atalayina.

Will Nikandr succeed and close the rifts once and for all? The answer lies deep within the Flames of Shadam Khoreh.

Expected publication: April 2013.

You can read the first fifteen chapters for free here.

Bradley P. Beaulieu

Aaron J. Reily

The Flames of Shadam Khoreh on Goodreads