Winner of officially the hardest cover of the season to nail: Feed by Mira Grant. I don’t want to give too much away on this one, because it’s one of those books that sounds a little odd in the describing, but then blows you away when you read it. There are a lot of layers going on in this book and it’s really smart. It’s an adventure, a political drama, a medical thriller, a character-driven almost first-person memoir style book that sucks you in and you literally cannot put down. And there’s zombies. Yes, a smart book about zombies. But don’t get hung up on the zombie thing. this book is not a joke, or a gimmick. Seriously people, I literally teared up at the end, I got so into the characters. I don’t do that for a lot of science fiction books. (Okay, I cried at the end of Endymion Rising. And Ender’s Game. but that’s it, I swear.)

As I have said before, liking a book a lot before you start designing is a bit of a curse, because you kind of put a lot of pressure on yourself to do a good job. That was definitely the case with Feed, but even worse it was a book that had to combine so many things into a smart package: zombies, politics, blogs, science fiction, horror, and a real world this-could-happen-to-you kind of impact. Tall order.

So I hope I pulled it off. I got a great email from the author, which I will copy here, just because I think it’s the first time I’ve made an author cry — from happiness: “Thank you so much.  It’s gorgeous, and it gives me the graphic “feel” of the book right out the gate.  I’m thrilled.  (Actually, I’m crying, but that’s good, I promise.)”

(I love hearing from authors—when they like a cover especially.)

I know usually I put a description in at this point, but I’m not going to yet. I don’t want to give you any misconceptions because this is a really hard one to pin down. Just trust me, and read it.

Also, because this was much discussed at Orbit HQ: Do you “get” the symbol on the cover? Did you think it was just some weird grafitti thing, or did you recognize it right away? Comment please…