Here’s the final version of John Picacio’s powerful, evocative cover for Darkest Hour, Book Two of the Age of Misrule, which will be published by Pyr in the US in June. You can pre-order it here.

Darkest Hour US Cover

A giant fossil sea monster found in the Arctic and known as “Predator X” had a bite that would make T-Rex look feeble, scientists said Monday.

I’m a sucker for stories like this.

I’ve just signed contracts with Pyr to publish the three books of The Dark Age sequence – The Devil in Green, The Queen of Sinister and The Hounds of Avalon – in the US. They are scheduled to appear across three months in early 2010.

The Dark Age is a continuation of the story begun in Age of Misrule, which Pyr is publishing in May, June, and July this year. As UK readers know, this is all part of a sprawling nine-book sequence – a mosaic of interlocking trilogies – which tell a story spanning two thousand years of human history, dealing with the mythologies of several world religions, and set in this world, the Otherworld, and the world beyond death. Yes, it’s a big story.

I’ll also be writing a new essay as an introduction to detail how The Dark Age fits into the wider story started in Age of Misrule. Some UK readers were a little baffled originally and thought it was a completely different story. Wouldn’t want that happening again.

The British Fantasy Society has announced the guests for its annual Fantasycon convention, this year to be held in Nottingham, UK, over the weekend of September 18 – 20. They are:

Jasper Fforde, the genre-blurring author of the Tuesday Next series and the Nursery Crime series

Brian Clemens, the TV legend behind The Avengers, The Persuaders and Thriller.

Gail Z Martin, author of the best-selling fantasy Chronicles of the Necromancer series

The Master of Ceremonies is Ian Watson, author of many acclaimed SF novels including The Fire Worm and Whores of Babylon

To me, that looks like a great line-up. Fantasycon is one of the highlights of the UK convention calendar and is certainly worth checking out. For more information go to www.fantasycon.org.uk.

The Solaris SF/F imprint has been put up for sale by its owner, Games Workshop. Solaris is publishing Lord of Silence in July, and I’m told that publication will still go ahead, as will every book announced up to early 2010.

Of course, we all did know this, right?

(I didn’t make this, btw: the video on the progression of information technology was researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman. Google them to find out more of their work.)