It is May! MAY!!! How did that happen?!?! This is the month I’ve been anticipating for some time, what with Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3 in a little over a week followed by a week’s vacation with my lovely wife Mary to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. May 2014 is going to be one for the record books.

And it all starts with the May 2014 edition of Cover Story. Cover Story is the monthly feature showcasing genre cover art for works scheduled for publication within said month. I do judge books by their covers, at least on the first pass. It was the art on science fiction book covers that drew me in as a young reader, and I believe it is important to promote the artists and designers, and the book companies that employ them, for the efforts made to keep alive the grand tradition of eye-catching genre cover art.

(Monthly Disclaimer: I am not an art critic and have no formal artistic training. “Eye-catching” means exactly what it says, these images caught my eye and drew my attention to the works they grace, compelling me to search out more information about the book. Opinions contrary to mine, and suggestions for works that I missed that caught your eye, are always welcome.)

The opening image for this post is by John Harris.

With those formalities out of the way, let’s get to the cover art, shall we? May has some really tempting works coming down the publication line.

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Title: The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister
Author: Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire LeGrand, and Emma Trevayne
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release date: May 27th, 2014
Artist: Alexander Jansson

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Artist Alexander Jansson’s mash-up of, well, curiosities, is just plain fun. You can see why more clearly if you check out a larger version of the image.

When I see a cover like this I feel compelled to discover how each little piece of the image ties into the stories included in the collection.

These are authors I have never heard of prior to finding this book cover image, but Jansson’s work makes me want to give them a try, and that is the bottom line of what cover art should do.

It should draw the reader to pick up the book.

Despite the creepy critters peering out of windows and popping out of drawers, I cannot help but want to take a ride on this contraption.

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Title: “Friends Til the End”
Author: Bethany Neal
Publisher: Tor.com
Release date: May 27th, 2014
Artist: Ashley Mackenzie

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There can be great beauty in simplicity, and this piece by Ashley Mackenzie is proof.

Created for an upcoming work of original short fiction on the Tor.com site, Mackenzie’s piece is beautiful.

I love the way the mist, vapor, smoke has such an ethereal quality to it.

I am impressed by the way in which definitions of the character are there underneath.

The choice of a completely dark background keeps the focus where it needs to be and allows the image to be at its most effective.

Irene Gallo has quite the talent for picking artwork to accompany Tor’s original fiction that causes me to try out authors who are new to me, as will be the case with Bethany Neal’s story.

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Title: “The Insects of Love”
Author: Genevieve Valentine
Publisher: Tor.com
Release date: May 28th, 2014
Artist: Tran Nguyen

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Irene Gallo can also bring me back to read authors whose work I’ve enjoyed before.

Tran Nguyen’s image may be familiar if you popped by here yesterday to check out the art judging contest that I am currently hosting.

It is up for a Spectrum Award in the Editorial Category. We will see how it fairs at the Spectrum 21 Awards Ceremony on May 10th.

It is a haunting, lovely image that speaks of metamorphosis, of change.

Genevieve Valentine is an author whose short fiction has made an impression on me and I cannot wait to read this story…and yet I must, because it won’t be out for our enjoyment until the end of the month.

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Title: Starship Grifters
Author: Robert Kroese
Publisher: 47North
Release date: May 6th, 2014
Artist: Patrick Faricy

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I am an avowed fan of the way in which artists in the 40’s and 50’s imagined the future (which in many cases is now our present..or even our past).

Patrick Faricy’s cover art could easily be described as “retro”, and, for me, this retro style of art is FUN.

This cover also evokes a great deal of sentiment, because I have a soft spot for classic science fiction.

Looking at the cover for Starship Grifters not only makes me want to find out what the story is about, but also stirs up the desire to revisit the Heinlein juveniles and Andre Norton science fiction books I have scattered around the house.

Amazon shows with their 47North imprint that covers for lesser known authors need not be plagued with ugly, ineffective art.

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Title: Authority
Author: Jeff Vandermeer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux
Release date: May 6th, 2014
Artist: Eric Nyquist

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I mentioned the cover art for this trilogy back when I gave a deservedly glowing review to the novel Annihilation. What I said then bears repeating.

The covers for these books when seen on a computer screen do not do them justice.

The work of Eric Nyquist, which is seen more fully when you open up the cover and see the end pages, really pops on the actual physical book.

FSG does a wonderful job of design on these small trade volumes, the books are works of art in and of themselves.

I will once again encourage you to go look for these books when you are at the bookstore. Trust me, they are cool.

I have high expectations for Authority. Annihilation blew me away.

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Title: Reach for Infinity
Author: Jonathan Strahan, editor
Publisher: Solaris Books
Release date: May 27th, 2014
Artist: Adam Tredowski

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I am such a sucker for spaceships. I honestly believe that my interest in art created with digital tools was first sparked because of the incredible spaceships that various artists were creating using those tools.

Adam Tredowski is an artist I discovered a few years back when he was doing incredible covers for Interzone Magazine.

His starships and science fictional landscapes are daydream-inducing.

This series of short stories, edited by Jonathan Strahan, has not only been terrific from the point of view of the stories included, but each volume has been blessed with really nice cover art.

Kudos to Solaris for publishing this latest volume.

I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

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Title: The Art of John Harris: Beyond the Horizon
Author: John Harris
Publisher: Titan Books
Release date: May 27th, 2014
Artist: John Harris

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This may be cheating a bit, but given my affection for the art of John Harris, you can hardly blame me.

If this image is familiar it is because it was on my Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Covers for 2013 list as the cover image for John Scalzi’s novel, The Human Division.

This painting is also the stand out reason I nominated John Harris for the Best Professional Artist Hugo this year (and I’m happy to say that he made the list of finalists).

I am so excited for this book to come out later this month. John Harris has been so prolific these past several years and his work has been crying out to be collected.

Irene Gallo recently mentioned seeing this book and her praise has upped my excitement level.

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Title: Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor.com
Release date: May 7th, 2014
Artist: Richie Pope

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Speaking of John Scalzi, he has a new novella coming out this month that functions as a prequel, of sorts, to his upcoming novel Lock In.

Richie Pope’s cover art has a kinship of style to the work of Jeffrey Alan Love, who has shown up frequently in editions of Cover Story.

I like the way that the image plays off the title and also gives some visual reference to the title of the upcoming novel.

The muted color choices are effective and I even enjoy the way the font choice for the story’s title work with the image from a design perspective.

A new John Scalzi short is certainly another reason to believe that May 2014 is going to be one kick-butt month.

Now if I could only take the rest of the month off to get caught up on my reading!

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Title: Jack in the Green
Author: Charles de Lint
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Release date: April 30, 2014
Artist: Charles Vess

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So this may be cheating too, given that this book was released yesterday, but it is the combination of one of my favorite authors and favorite artists…so there you go.

Subterranean Press has released this lovely version of Charles de Lint’s novella with cover and interior art by Charles Vess.

I can attest to its loveliness because I received my copy in the mail two days ago. The endpaper fabric alone is worth gushing over. Wow!

Charles Vess creates fairy tale images that make you want to go on a journey, even if it is one that promises to be full of the danger inherent for mortals entering the land of the fae.

The predominately green cast of this image makes me happy that it is Spring and the world is doing its best to come alive like this. That choice makes the young woman’s yellow dress really pop.

Look for a review of this novella very soon.

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And that ends the May edition of Cover Story. I will once again thank John DeNardo for his always tempting monthly posts about genre books soon to be released. He was kind enough to give me a sneak preview of today’s post last night so that I could get a jump on putting this together.

Feel free to share your thoughts on my selections, agree or disagree, and don’t forget to point out any great covers coming out this month that I may have missed.

And for convenience sake, here are the previous 2014 issues of Cover Story:

January 2014 Cover Story
February 2014 Cover Story
March 2014 Cover Story
April 2014 Cover Story