Candlemark & Gleam is known for finding exciting new voices. Yet an equally integral part of our vision is to give shuttles to bold experienced astrogators.

I first became aware of Jo Graham when I read Black Ships, an absorbing take on the Aenead with a young sibyl as its narrator. Since then, Jo has gone on to create twenty-five speculative fiction novels (including The Order of the Air historical fantasy series with Melissa Scott and tie-ins for Stargate series), two books on pagan spirituality, and two online games, and has garnered a slew of SFF and Romance awards.

So I was thrilled when Jo chose Candlemark as the launch pad for her mythic space opera Sounding Dark (the first of a planned series, The Calpurnian Wars), a conflict of human cultures flung between the stars that awakens powerful mythic avatars of advanced technology that have become indistinguishable from magic. With echoes from Minoan Crete and Imperial Rome, Sounding Dark is equal parts late Star Trek and Firefly. Here’s the appetite-whetting synopsis:

Sounding Dark is a legend, a ghost ship missing two hundred years. Now it may be the only hope for the pirate republic of Eresh to stand against the mighty Calpurnian Navy. In the wake of a terrible defeat, Adelita Massacre, the Steel Captain, knows that their days are numbered without a miracle.

Bister is the only survivor of the defeat, a Tainted smuggler and fixer from the interdicted world of Inanna. Found alive, adrift in a spacesuit hours after its air supply should have run out, her survival is a literal miracle. Has the Lady of the Void herself chosen Bister to free her from imprisonment?

Now Adelita, Bister, Bister’s lover Griffin, and the mysterious Navigator must find Sounding Dark and her ancient weaponry if they hope to protect Eresh from the Calpurnian attack. But Sounding Dark will not give up her secrets easily….

You will agree that such a riveting work calls for a cover artist of equally potent talent. Today I get to share the haunting, evocative cover of Sounding Dark, created by Eleni Tsami (click twice on the image of the cover to embiggen). Eleni’s stunning, painterly work has graced several previous Candlemark efforts, including Melissa Scott’s Finders and Water Horse. The back of the cover shows the mighty Lady of the Void—but equally beguiling are such marvelous touches as the subtle embroidery on the Navigator’s vest, and the kore/kouros half-smile of Bister’s reflection on the viewport.

Sounding Dark will launch on December 14. Keep this frequency open and fingers on engine buttons!