Here’s the final version of the cover, front and back. There’s also a PDF of the cover available for download (623K).

As a reminder, yes, the cover painting is by the great Stephan Martiniere, who deserves all the accolades you can possibly shower upon him and more.

The copy on the back is nothing you haven’t already seen before, if you’ve visited the MultiReal website. At the top are abbreviated blurbs by Peter Watts, Nick Sagan, and Robert J. Sawyer. (They’re abbreviated because the full versions wouldn’t fit; the full versions will be right inside the front cover.) And the description of the book comes straight from the About page on the website. Cindy, you will be pleased to note that the phrase “the return of enemies old and new” has been changed to “the machinations of enemies old and new,” because as you rightly pointed out, a new enemy can’t exactly return if he wasn’t there in the first place.

The release date of the novel remains July 21, 2008. Since I’m not quite J.K. Rowling, bookstores will likely be stocking the book on the shelves a little ahead of that date.

What is there to say about this cover that isn’t implied by “holy fuck!!!!”? It complements the MultiReal cover incredibly well. You’ve got the buildings curving at exactly the opposite angle, you’ve got a color scheme that provides a nice contrast, and you’ve got the same circular mechanical whatchamacallits that are present in the other painting.

When you enlarge the pic, you can see all kinds of groovy stuff here too. I love the way those pink light rays or whatever they are frame the illustration. The holographic image to Jara’s left is, I think, the same one that appears to Natch’s left on the MultiReal cover.

Once again the illustration doesn’t quite match up with the vision I had in mind. I never provide a detailed description of hoverbirds in the books, but I’m pretty confident I never implied they were supposed to look like the cover of Led Zeppelin’s first album. And if that’s Jara standing there, she doesn’t have the mass of curly dark hair and Sephardic features I described in the book. (Nor could I ever picture her wearing a slinky dress and a flower in her hair.)

But once again, I just don’t care. Jara’s posture captures her attitude perfectly, and the world outside her window feels more like the world of Infoquake than an actual photograph from the year 359 YOR would.

I noticed a few slight differences in the covers of Infoquake and MultiReal, and I’m not sure if they’re intentional or simply oversights, because not everybody’s as obsessive-compulsive as me. The title type for MultiReal is transparent while here it’s white. There are also slight font sizing, spacing, and leading differences throughout. If they’re intentional differences because of the different demands of trade paperback and mass market paperback publishing, heck, that’s just fine with me. And if they’re unintentional… well, rest assured that the same maniacal and pointless attention to insignificant detail I’m exhibiting here also goes into my novels.

One last note: as far as I’m aware, Pyr will still be using the old black-and-blue Infoquake cover with the curved building on their trade paperback edition, and they have no plans to recover it. Which I’m perfectly okay with, because I really dig that cover too and would hate to see it disappear from the shelves altogether. But I’m sure if the Infoquake mass market zips to the top of the Amazon sales charts and Oprah finally returns my calls, Pyr might be moved to reconsider. (Oprah, if you’re reading this, that’s a hint.)

Feel free to leave digital burnt offerings on the altar of Martiniere in the comments below.