Fantasy Faction Fantasy Book Reviews & Community http://fantasy-faction.com
Tigerman's Cover Design & Competition
The majority of fantasy readers will be familiar with Nick Harkaway, the highly acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker - both of which were smothered with awards. This week though comes what many reviewers - and Nick himself - are calling his best work to date, Tigerman. It is a novel about ex-colonies, superheroes and paternal love. Here's the blurb: Lester Ferris, sergeant of the British Army, is a good man in need of a rest. He’s spent a lot of his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. He has no family, he’s nearly forty and burned out and about to be retired. The island of Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to serve out his time. It’s a former British colony in legal limbo, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution – a down-at-heel, mildly larcenous backwater. Of course, that also makes Mancreu perfect for shady business, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, offshore hospitals, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester’s brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye. But Lester Ferris has made a friend: a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comicbook fixation who will need a home when the island dies – who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. Now, as Mancreu’s small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer. In the name of paternal love, Lester Ferris will do almost anything. And he’s a soldier with a knack for bad places: “almost anything” could be a very great deal – even becoming some sort of hero. But this is Mancreu, and everything here is upside down. Just exactly what sort of hero will the boy need?
1/2
Fantasy Faction Fantasy Book Reviews & Community http://fantasy-faction.com
In addition to being an incredible read, Tigerman has been getting a lot of attention for its BEAUTI-FUL cover that started out as a finger-print painting inspired by a passage in the book: 'He plunged his hand into the black paint and across the face of the ballistic shield, fingers shaping the pigment. He slashed one way, then the other, and screamed, hammered his fist down onto the worktop. Paint splashed. His other hand delved into the yellow pot and clapped down dotting and slicing, and suddenly a tiger's face leaped from the flat surface, made real by the contrast. The eyes were luminous.' Here's a video that the publishers, Windmill Books, have been kind enough to share with us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFkWdZcefe0
Nick says of Tigerman that 'this book is from the heart in a huge way. The story is about geopolitics, the 24 hour news culture, comic books, drug smuggling and the search for justice. But underneath that it's about being a dad, and about how we do anything for those we love … I truly believe it's my best.' --In addition to giving us permission to share some insight into the cover's creation, Windmill Books have been good enough to offer up three copies of the book in a Fantasy-Faction giveaway competition. All you have to do in order to win one is tell us why you'd like to read it in the comments below. We will pick three names at random, so you don't need to be too creative about how you answer; whether it is because you are a fan, the blurb has you intrigued, the cover is awesome or something else - just submit that comment and you may be one of the lucky three getting Tigerman through your door very soon!
2/2 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
