THE HUNTERS by David Wragg (COVER REVEAL and Q&A)
Today we’re here to bring you the official book announcement and cover reveal for David Wragg’s upcoming release of The Hunters.
This will be the first book in a new trilogy titled Tales of the Plains, which will be published by Harper Voyager.
Let’s get straight to showing you the cover in all its glory shall we?
(Cover Artist: Gavin Reece. Twitter: @gavinreece62)
Isn’t that absolutely gorgeous?! Just wow!!
The Hunters will be released on 20th July and you can pre-order your copy HERE
Now we have a Q&A with David where we find out exactly what his new trilogy is all about…
Welcome back to The Hive David! Firstly thank you for letting us host your official book announcement for The Hunters and the cover reveal. How pleased are you with that stunning cover design? How involved in the process were you?
Thank you very much for having me, it’s great to be back on the Hive.
I’m delighted with the cover. You can see we’ve sprung for colour this time around and it looks fantastic.
It really does pop out at you in colour!
My involvement with the cover is in preparing character descriptions for the principals, including snippets from the manuscript and the odd image reference (where available) for details of costume, equipment, hairstyles etc. It’s quite a detailed document by the time I send it over! The composition and artwork are, of course, all the work of the extraordinarily talented designer and artist, and the result has been spectacular.
(Don’t tell anyone but sometimes I think the best part of being published is seeing the covers for the first time!)
Did you gasp?!
I most certainly did. It’s so vibrant, and gives a wonderful feeling of setting and character.
So David, tell us a bit about your new trilogy, Tales of the Plains? What can readers expect from The Hunters?
The trilogy follows the adventures of Ree, a middle-aged horse farmer with a chequered past, and her 12 year-old niece Javani, who are living (at the start of the series at least) at the very edge of the ‘civilised’ world, in the far reaches of the Serican protectorate (for those who remember Serica and its capital Arowan from The Righteous). This is mining country, with its own politics and power structures, and just because you’re a thousand miles from princes and palaces doesn’t mean you can leave intrigue behind.
In The Hunters, Ree and Javani find themselves the sudden target of several different (extremely dangerous) groups, and must run for their lives – but as for why they’re being hunted, and by whom… thereby hangs the tale (that means you need to read the book to find out).
There are three interlinked stories in the trilogy, and while I wouldn’t read them out of order, each one stands alone with a beginning, middle and end. What I’m saying here is: NO CLIFFHANGERS, so anyone who felt exercised by the end of The Black Hawks can rest easy this time around!
The book is set in the same world as your previous duology, Articles of Faith but thirteen years later. Can you tell us how the world has changed or progressed within that time?
Well, time has passed, the world has moved on, and people have got older, some have died, and some new folks have been born, here and there. The march of technology has continued, and some of the innovations that featured towards the end of The Righteous have become a little more commonplace, especially in the … less-policed … areas of the world. Fans of blasting powder, mechanical crossbows and full plate armour will not be disappointed…
Let’s discuss your characters in more detail! What can we expect from Ree and Javani?
Ree is someone who has lived a long(ish) and interesting life, and has tried to leave all that behind and assume a modest existence far from sources of trouble with her young niece. (This strategy may not have been totally successful.) Of course, said niece wants the opposite of a modest existence – Javani is firmly set on a life of adventure, and prepared to go to great lengths to engineer one. (This strategy may also be questionable in outcome.) Their relationship is the foundation of the trilogy, with a great deal of sniping, arguing, name-calling and complex emotions along the way. It’s possible, for example, that Ree hasn’t been entirely honest with her niece about either of their histories…
Intriguing!
What about your other characters? Can we look forward to a few familiar faces?
YES INDEED, but not immediately. Fans of Articles of Faith will have plenty of easter eggs and nods to places, characters and events from the first series, but there’s no need to have read the first series to enjoy the new one. The Hunters will feature some family connections, and by the end of the trilogy I’m sure we’ll all be seeing some favourites again (*cough* Lemon *cough*).
*squeals in delight* Please let there be wolves too?
Well, the setting is a bit of a departure from the original books, geographically speaking, but no matter where you go, wolves are never far away…
One of the aspects I love about your books, and I’m sure other readers do too, is the humour and the… well… batshit crazy shenanigans! Will Tales of the Plains also include this?
There will absolutely be shenanigans.
Yessssss!
The tone of the new books should feel pretty familiar to anyone who read Articles of Faith, with perhaps one minor difference. Things have been pretty bleak for the last few years in the real world, and I didn’t want to write more morally grey characters in a hopeless, cynical world where every choice was wrong. I hope this series will deliver a (maybe slightly old-fashioned) sense of adventure, excitement and good triumphing over evil, but with the inevitable quirks of my writing. Above all, I want it to be FUN.
That’s not to say it’s not chock full of vicious murder, great peril and bad things happening to good people (one scene in The Hunters still makes me sniffly) but I hope overall it’s an uplifting and invigorating read!
And I don’t want to give too much away, but all those technological advances I mentioned earlier precipitate some flat out ridiculous chases and confrontations across the first book, and the second may or may not feature clifftop battles and outrageous archery. Your shenanigan quota will not go unfulfilled.
And for that I’m glad!
And lastly, if you were transported into the world of Tales of the Plains, how would you fare?
Oh, very very badly indeed. One of the nice things about writing about lawless, chaotic and lethal wastelands populated by killers and thieves is knowing you’ll never need to go there yourself, not even on holiday.
Haha! Thanks for joining us David!
Thank you so much for having me!
[…] https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2023/01/the-hunters-by-david-wragg-cover-reveal-and-qa/ […]