Shadowhawk brings to you another cover reveal, this time from Strange Chemistry, the Young Adult imprint of Angry Robot Books.

“Very introspective, thoughtful and dreamy, this is a wonderful cover, and definitely one of Strange Chemistry’s best yet.” ~Shadowhawk

Strange Chemistry launched last year to great fanfare. As the sister imprint to the highly successful Angry Robot Books, themselves a division of the Osprey group, they have enjoyed great success themselves. Part of that success is launching each title with covers that seem to constantly outdo the last. Of all their titles released so far, the ones for Martha Wells’ Emillie and the Hollow World, and Kim Curran’s Shift, have been incredible so far and are my favourites. Personally, I’ve read three of their books (Cassandra Rose Clarke’s The Assassin’s Curse – review, Laura Lam’s Pantomime – review, and Sean Cummings’ Poltergeeks – review), and have enjoyed all three for the most part, so Strange Chemistry and their authors are most assuredly on my list of people to look out for.

In fact, six of their titles made my “50 Most Anticipated Releases of 2013” list, which you can see here. Christian Schoon’s debut novel, Zenn Scarlett, is one of these novels, and today I have the cover reveal for your viewing pleasure.

Just looking at that cover evokes childish dreams of grandeur, ones in which you want to reach out and grab the stars. A bit dramatic? Well, that’s exactly the kind of cover this is. I look at the cover and I wonder what the character, Zenn, is thinking of as she looks at the sky. The entire city is spread out below her, and above are the unlimited reaches of space. Does she want to leave her life and go see what’s out there beyond Earth? Another thing going for the cover is the colour palette/composition that is used, what I would call soft and dreamy colours. The effect is one where you are pulled into the scene itself, and you wonder.

And that’s all before you read the blurb! So here are both.

Zenn Scarlett is a bright and occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 17-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. She specializes in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous. Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars was going well – until there are a series of inexplicable animal escapes from the school that Zenn finds herself blamed for. As if this isn’t enough to be dealing with, her father vanishes under strange circumstances, and Zenn is worried that she has started hearing the thoughts of the creatures around her…

With the help of Liam, a towner boy, and Hamish, an alien bug also training at the clinic, Zenn must try to find her father, rescue the animals and unravel the mystery of who is behind the attacks on the school. And all without failing her first year.

And the blurb wins me over, not that I would have really cared what the blurb says, after seeing the artwork, which is enough to get me to read the book. The blurb is just the icing on a really delicious cake.

Release: April 30th, 2013 US/Can and May 2nd, 2013 UK

Large Paperback: $9.99 | Medium Paperback: £7.99 | eBook: $6.99 / £5.49

My excitement for this book has doubled after seeing the cover and I’m eagerly anticipating the release. What about you?

I’m pretty excited. Are you?