Unique Art Compo

MARKET AND COVER BRIEF
TITLE		Footvote
AUTHOR		Peter F Hamilton
SHOUTLINE		A short story from his new collection MANHATTAN IN REVERSE
IMPRINT		Tor	CLASSIFICATION	Science Fiction and Fantasy
FORMAT		Ebook	PUB. DATE	September 2011
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
It’s our world, present day – Gordon Brown is in power – the UK is going to rack and ruin. There are strikes, the power facilities don’t have enough technicians to continue running them, oppression and a terminal malaise afflicts the country and there seems no respite from the economic catastrophe. Then Bradley Ethan Murray opens a wormhole, a passage through to a new world and, potentially, a new world order. New Suffolk is available for all ‘decent people’ from the UK to start a new life – free from the troubles of the UK they will leave behind them. Janette and Colin are divorced with two kids. Janette believes that we all have a responsibility to fix the problems that we’ve created – that running away is the coward’s way out. But Colin disagrees – and taking their two children he organises to take them through the wormhole.
TARGET AUDIENCE	Genre readers of all ages. Male bias.Hard core Peter F Hamilton fans, they’ll have read a good selection of his books (if not all) and will know his cover style well and will have an opinion of whether the illustration has been imagined properly! They’re always on the look out for a new quality SF read. So previous Peter F Hamilton fans and those looking to experiment with a new author.
SIMILAR AUTHORS	Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Neal Asher, Gary Gibson, Charles Stross, Kevin J Anderson, Greg Bear, Ian MacDonald, Richard Morgan.
DESIGN APPROACH
SUGGESTIONS	Quality and high-end, Peter F Hamilton is top ten bestselling author. Think about where the image is going to be seen, how you will make the image appealing as thumbnail. You don’t need to include: Peter F Hamilton name or Manhattan in Reverse on your design (unless you really want to) as we will place them on afterwards. We are looking for the illustration/background design. Try to keep it about the scene and people, look at recent Peter F Hamilton covers and see what the style is. A couple of descriptive passages are attached for inspiration: Backpackers marched along it, about ten abreast, a constant file of them. I couldn’t see the end of the line in either direction. They all had the same eager smile on their faces as they strode ever-closer to the wormhole. Zoe and I probably looked the same. ‘There!’ Olivia suddenly shouted. She was pointing at the trees on the other side of the backpackers. For a moment I was confused, it was as if a dawn sun was shining through the trunks. Then we cleared the end of the little wood, and we could see the wormhole directly. The zero-length gap in space-time was actually manifesting as a sphere three hundred yards in diameter. Murray had opened it so that the equator was at ground level, leaving a hemisphere protruding into the air. There was nothing solid, it was simply the place one planet ended and another began. You crossed the boundary, and New Suffolk stretched out in front of you. That was the notorious eye-twister which made a lot of people shiver and even flinch away. As you drew near the threshold, you could see an alien landscape dead ahead of you, inside the hemisphere. Yet it opened outwards, delivering a panoramic view. When you went through, you emerged on the outside of the corresponding hemisphere. There was no inside. It was early morning on New Suffolk, where its ginger-tinted sun was rising, sending a rouge glow across the gap to light up the English countryside. We were half a mile away now. The kids were completely silent, entranced by the alien sunlight. Zoe and I flashed a quick triumphant smile at each other. Or: As we inched our way across the motorway flyover I could look down on the solid lines of motionless vehicles clotting all the lanes below. There were hundreds of them, thousands. All of them waiting their turn to drive up the off road. Each one full of people who wanted to go through the wormhole. So many? Actually seeing how many people wanted to leave was quite a shock. The news says it’s like this every day. How can that many people be stupid enough to swallow Murray’s promises? I know the country isn’t perfect, but at least we’re trying to make it progressive, somewhere we’re not ashamed to have our kids grow up in. The bus finally made it to the rally area. A huge Airbus A380 flew low overhead as we climbed out, coming in to land at Stansted just a few miles to the north. I had to press my hands over my ears the engine noise was so loud. I didn’t recognize the airline logo; but it was no doubt bringing another batch of eager refugees from abroad who wanted to join the exodus. I tracked it across the sky. And there right ahead of me was the wormhole. It was like some gold-chrome bubble squatting on the horizon. I squinted into the brilliant rosy light it was radiating. ‘I didn’t realize it was that big,’ I muttered. The damn thing was intimidating this close up.