Cover Art & Blurb - 'The Hive Construct' (Alexander Maskill)

While I try to wean myself off 'retro-comfort reading' (and try to remember enough about 'The Crimson Campaign' to be able to write a review...) have a look at the cover art for 'The Hive Construct'...

How can a cover have so much going on but be so bland at the same time? It actually takes a level of genius to come up with the kind of cover that says 'I'm safe, read me and no-one will ever know what you are reading about...' Shame really as the blurb looks promising,

Situated deep in the Sahara Desert, New Cairo is a city built on technology - from the huge, life-giving solar panels that keep it functioning in a radically changed, resource-scarce world to the artificial implants that have become the answer to all and any of mankind's medical problems.

But it is also a divided city, dominated by a handful of omnipotent corporate dynasties.

And when a devastating new computer virus begins to spread through the poorest districts, shutting down the life-giving implants that enable so many to survive, the city begins to slide into the anarchy of violent class struggle.

Hiding amidst the chaos is Zala Ulora. A gifted hacker and fugitive from justice, she believes she might be able to earn her life back by tracing the virus to its source and destroying it before it destroys the city. Or before the city destroys itself . . .

'The Hive Construct' won the 2013 Terry Pratchett Prize  and will be published early next month. The cover art for 'The Hive Construct' will win no prizes whatsoever but does have my grudging respect (for what it's worth).