THE CORAL BONES by E. J. Swift (COVER REVEAL)

[EditorAdmin]

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We’re delighted to be back at the Fantasy Hive to reveal the cover for our upcoming publication, E.J. Swift’s The Coral Bones. 

 

Here’s the blurb:

 

This is what it looks like when coral dies.

Present day. Marine biologist Hana Ishikawa is racing against time to save the coral as of the Great Barrier Reef, but struggles to ght for a future in a world where so much has already been lost.

1839. Seventeen-year-old Judith Holliman escapes the monotony of Sydney Town when her naval captain father lets her accompany him on a voyage, unaware of the wonders and dangers she will soon encounter.

The sun-scorched 22nd century. Telma Velasco is hunting for a miracle: a leafy seadragon, long believed extinct, has been sighted. But as Telma investigates, she nds hope in unexpected places.

Three women: divided by time, connected by the ocean. Past, present and future collide in E. J. Swift’s The Coral Bones, a powerful elegy to a disappearing world – and a vision of a more hopeful future.

 

E.J. Swift: 

“I’m thrilled to share the cover for my new novel, The Coral Bones.

Central to the design is a leafy seadragon, a creature I came across early in my research into Australia’s dazzling marine life, having previously only known of their more familiar relative, the weedy seadragon. For me, the leafy represents the sheer beauty, ingenuity,

and eccentricity of the more-than-human world, and I knew at once that this animal would have a pivotal role to play in the novel’s future strand, where humanity is striving to restore ecosystems and save our fellow inhabitants of the planet. Vince Haig’s stunning design captures the seadragon’s fragile, otherworldly presence, whilst the placement of the white title text speaks of the corals, their protective and symbiotic role within ocean ecosystems and the threat they face from bleaching, which is central to Hana’s present day storyline. Placed against a luminous background suggestive of rolling ocean and reef, I couldn’t have asked for a more evocative cover for this book. I hope the novel lives up to this lovely image and that readers will find something to connect with in the stories of Hana, Judith and Telma.” 

 

Dan Coxon, Editor:

“We had so many discussions about the cover for this one! The Coral Bones is such a unique book that getting the right tone for it took a few attempts. It’s intimate but also plays out against the expansive backdrop of a dying planet; it’s science fiction but it also dabbles in history and crime. In the end, though, I think we nailed it with this design by Vince Haig. The leafy seadragon takes centre stage, as it does in the story, but hopefully there’s just a hint of literary fiction about it as well as SF – think David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas with a climate fiction twist.”

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E. J. Swift is a speculative fiction writer based in London. She is the author of The Osiris Project trilogy, a series set in a world radically altered by climate change, and Paris Adrift, a tale of bartenders and time travel in the City of Light. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Sunday Times short story award and the British Science Fiction Award, and has appeared in a variety of anthologies from Solaris, Salt Publishing, Jurassic London and Penguin Random House Digital. The Coral Bones is her latest novel.

Twitter: @catamaroon

Instagram: @catamaroon

 

The Coral Bones will be published 8th September 2022 by Unsung Stories and is available for pre-order:

Forbidden Planet | Amazon.co.uk | Waterstones

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