Writer's Grove

New Iron Druid editions

To celebrate ten years of the Iron Druid Chronicles and to give the entire series a consistent look, Del Rey is reissuing the adventures in trade paperback featuring cover art by Sarah J. Coleman (@Inkymole). They’ll be released three at a time spaced a few months apart, and the first three will be available March 15, 2022!

The second three will be released in the summer, and so on, so that you’ll be able to have the entire series with a consistent look (which has been A Thing We Needed). What I love about this is that you get both Atticus and Oberon on the cover, Celtic knotwork that represents the magic system, and book-specific art in the corners/on the spines. The different colors are going to look absolutely gorgeous on your shelf, and there’s BONUS CONTENT in these editions!

Each book will contain some short stories or a novella that was previously available only in ebook and audio, or, in one case, printed out of sequence in the series, and in another case, it’s completely new stuff. We’re giving print readers all the goodies this time—and updating the text a bit too, fixing typos and such!

The new edition of Hounded will contain two short stories, “Clan Rathskeller” and “Kaibab Unbound.”

The new edition of Hexed will include the novella Grimoire of the Lamb.

The new edition of Hammered will feature the short story “A Test of Mettle.”

When we get to the reissue of Tricked, that will include the novella Two Ravens and One Crow. It’s supposed to fall chronologically between books 4 and 5, but previously had been included at the end of book 6. So we’re fixing that!

And the new edition of Trapped will feature all-new stuff from Oberon: “The Book of Five Meats” (Oberon’s attempt at a cookbook) and “The Dead Flea Scrolls” (which establishes the dog religion, Poochism).

But enough about the words—let’s see that cover art, eh? Here’s Hounded (presented with spine on the left)!

Love the blazing sun and the suggestion that things are going to get hot—as they do when Aenghus Óg opens a portal to hell. I also love the knotwork and that Oberon is properly sized—lots of people are unaware just how huge wolfhounds are until you see them standing next to someone. The eyes you see up top represent magical sight or the Third Eye.

For Hexed, we chose purple as a nod to the favorite color of the Sisters of the Three Auroras. If you look in the top corners, you’ll see some demon rams there! And there are some mystical symbols worked into the knots as well.

Hammered has some of my favorite goodies in the art: Thor’s hammer (which Leif Helgarson wears in the book) is at the top, along with some thunderbolts, and down below you’ll see Ratatosk as well as Odin’s ravens, Hugin and Munin. The midnight blue references the nighttime raid on Asgard.

Here’s a look at the spines, which should give you a glimpse into how cool the series will look on your shelf:

Breaking that down — we have a cool world tree design at the top, and some subtle sun/moon stuff going on. Then you have the book title, the number in the series, and then a cover element specific to the book. A Celtic knot for Hounded, a mystical symbol from Hexed, and a raven for Hammered. Then my name and the publisher logo. That’s going to be a consistent look across the series, and of course there will be different dominant colors, so it’s going to be quite the rainbow when finished!

All hail artist Sarah J. Coleman and designer Ella Laytham! You can preorder these beautiful editions now using this convenient page. (If the cover art isn’t quite there yet it will show up soon—sometimes the retailers take a few days to update.)

For those of you who might wish to have signed copies, I’ll try to get something arranged for that! My hope is that I’ll be able to visit at least one indie store (if not more) in the US and they’ll be able to ship you signed copies wherever you are. But if you’re cool with unsigned copies, that link above is ready to go!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. If you’d like to enter a sweepstakes to win a handpainted mini of Atticus O’Sullivan together with a trade paperback edition of Hounded, enter here! (You can order your own Atticus mini from Hero Forge in colored plastic (seen on the right) or get an unpainted one and paint it yourself. The painted model on the left with the tattoos and strap and everything was done by Alan O’Bryan, who can be found as @gorillabrush on Twitter and @gorillawithabrush on Instagram. Get your own Atticus mini from Hero Forge here.

Thank you all so much for reading the Iron Druid Chronicles and spreading the word over the years. I hope you’ll love these beautiful new editions and all the goodies inside!