FIRST LOOK: The cover of Reimar Breaking

Jonathan Rivalland’s exhilarating new fantasy series The Iberan War will be exploding onto our scene in August with the first book Reimar Breaking, The Prelude to the Iberan War. It’s not just the start of a fantasy series though… it’s our first vision of a universe that has been populated by Jonathan in a masterpiece of world-building.
 

Artwork: Alison Buck
Artwork: Alison Buck

Reimar is one country in the continent of Iber, on the world of Brisia. Brisia is linked to other worlds by the Helion, a portal through which the Reimarans trade. But Reimar is not alone on Iber, they are bordered by other nations many of whom covet the Helion and the prosperity it brings. There is Iln to the North and both Arn and Shar to the East, not to mention the untrustworthy Archipelagans to the south. Trouble is brewing and someone is fomenting rebellion. Welcome to the court of King Abarron du Tealdan.

You’ll need to wait until August to meet the King, his daughter Siera who is proving to be a great military commander in the making, and her older brother Ramiros who rather enjoys life at court. But to make the wait a bit more bearable – or maybe to tease you and make the wait less bearable – we can give you a first look at the book’s cover. Jonathan’s world-building included a map, of course, identifying the various countries, cities and significant topographical features. As Jonathan himself says: “Fantasy titles with lots of locations but no map somewhat irk me – I want to know!” So it was clear that his map should be included in the book, and Jonathan’s draft map has been fully realised by our multi-talented artist Alison Buck. It can be seen in all its glory here on our series page and on Jonathan’s own website The Fourth World where much riveting background material can also be found.

Once the map was completed we set about discussing the best cover for the book – one suggestion was a shield to suggest the military aspects (although the word ‘War’ in the subtitle is probably an even bigger clue!) – but having seen the map, Jonathan commented “if I see a book with a huge map cover I’m thinking there’ll be depth to this one.” We agreed that the map would be the perfect background for the cover of the book. I hope you think so too.

Jonathan’s immediate reaction was “This cover looks fantastic”. Phew!

Reimar Breaking, The Prelude to the Iberan War will be available as an eBook from the 19th August and in paperback in November (just in time for Novacon!)