Science Fiction Book Cover

Reclamation (Book 1 of the Art of War Trilogy)

Richard Swan

Reclamation is the first book in a space opera trilogy. The blurb:

Tier Three: a compact of six vast interstellar empires, intricately bound by political, diplomatic and trade accords. Together, after centuries of massacres, brushfire wars, trade embargoes and political assassinations, they have finally brought a modicum of peace to a turbulent galaxy.

But all of it is about to unravel.

In deep space, the kaygryn inexplicably launch a suicidal attack on an Ascendancy crusade fleet; on the shared world of Uvolon, the Ascendancy shoots down a kaygryn corvette over the human city of Anternis.

Zavian Yano, a member of the United Nations’ élite Xeno Division diplomatic corps, has one job: to stop the provar and the kaygryn from going to war.

Strike Commander John Garrick, one of Solar Operations Command’s most senior generals, also has one job; but he has been side-lined by the President at the height of tensions.

On a rainy Uvolonese mountainside, Special Agent Lyra Staerck is killed by a kinetic railstrike, and must find out why.

And Captain Ben Vondur, a pilot in UNAF's 6th Goliath Squadron, has orders that seem designed only to inflame the situation.

Four people, separated by thousands of lightyears, are bound by fate.

And all the while the galaxy hurtles towards war…

Fans of sci fi

Reclamation
Book One of the Art of War Trilogy

Richard Swan

The first book and I had for this was a piece of artwork by the famous sci-fi illustrator Jon Harris (it was a licence, not a commission): https://images.app.goo.gl/23TTWAKyDKUMrLQM7

As you can see it is clearly science-fiction, but it is also quite subtle. I like this look a lot.

The next book, I commissioned was much more involved, it was artwork that I actually had done specifically for the book and you can see it's again very science-fiction but looks a bit amateurish:

https://images.app.goo.gl/Kp7YnkmZ8KK6SqVA8

Of these two images, I much prefer the first one. However, I don't want a picture of a spaceship against a black star field; in fact black as a book cover colour should be avoided entirely. For an excellent example of use of colour for science-fiction novels, I love these book covers:

https://images.app.goo.gl/fbdmCQNjygDRJz8n6

In fact this is a good example of the kind of thing I'm looking for; slightly abstract, good use of colour, bold, sans serif white lettering, the artwork is not "clean" like a photographic image.

I'm open to a range of styles, either minimal like the very first image I provided, or slightly more dynamic like the last link here. I'll know what I'm looking for when I see the potential designs, but I probably don't want "action" scenes. Rather, something more subtle and grown-up. The artwork of John Harris is an excellent guide.

The designers should entirely avoid use of photographs, obvious 90s style CGI imagery, "cool" sci-fi typography with lots of cracks and bullet holes and things. As I said above, I don't want a picture of just black space with white stars on it. I'm not looking for "busy" covers or scenes of battles or anything.