We’re pleased to reveal both the Tor Books and Tor UK covers for Laura Lam’s upcoming novel, False Hearts. It’s Orphan Black meets Inception: Two formerly conjoined sisters are ensnared in a murderous plot involving psychoactive drugs, shared dreaming, organized crime, and a sinister cult. Learn more about the novel and check out the full cover art for both the US and UK editions below!
False Hearts publishes simultaneously in the US and UK on June 14, 2016. From the catalog copy:
Raised in the closed cult of Mana’s Hearth and denied access to modern technology, conjoined sisters Taema and Tila dream of a life beyond the walls of the compound. When the heart they share begins to fail, the twins escape to San Francisco, where they are surgically separated and given new artificial hearts. From then on they pursue lives beyond anything they could have previously imagined.
Ten years later, Tila returns one night to the twins’ home in the city, terrified and covered in blood, just before the police arrive and arrest her for murder—the first homicide by a civilian in decades. Tila is suspected of involvement with the Ratel, a powerful crime syndicate that deals in the flow of Zeal, a drug that allows violent minds to enact their darkest desires in a terrifying dreamscape. Taema is given a proposition: go undercover as her sister and perhaps save her twin’s life. But during her investigation Taema discovers disturbing links between the twins’ past and their present. Once unable to keep anything from each other, the sisters now discover the true cost of secrets.
The US cover, designed by Jamie Stafford-Hill:
Tor Books Editor Marco Palmieri adds:
How do you visually capture a book that, stripped of everything else, is about sharing—a shared heart, shared dreams, shared identities, shared fears, shared dangers? Tor cover designer Jamie Stafford-Hill experimented with numerous approaches for False Hearts, until he hit his eureka moment with the deceptively simple elements he combined so artfully to crystallize the novel’s elegant central idea. Just as importantly, Jamie’s cover depicts Taema and Tila, the remarkable characters at the core of Laura Lam’s amazing near-future thriller. To me, False Hearts reads like a brilliant mashup of Orphan Black and Inception, and this cover captures that perfectly. I can’t wait for people to experience Laura’s new novel for themselves.
And the UK cover, designed by Neil Lang:
Bella Pagan, Editor at Tor UK, had this to say:
False Hearts is a thrilling, addictive and action-packed story featuring twins and the ultimate crime. This powerful near-future read needed a cover to match, that would bring out the potent mix of elements to give a real sense of the story within. And I think our UK design department have done a fabulous job, creating a look that I hope will really resonate with our UK and Australian readers and beyond. We’re planning fabulous finishes, such as printing it on scuffed up, cracked, silver foil for a wonderfully tactile look. Red end papers would look gorgeous too for that extra hit of colour.
The starting point was of course the title. We wanted to produce something that resonated with the title but had to be careful we didn’t go down an overly romantic path, possibly signalled by ‘hearts’. Yes, there is a hint of romance, but the book’s sensibility is definitely on the darker side! It has a feel of a near-future Martina Cole, given its gangland elements—with the glamour of Blade Runner and the feel of Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls.
I think that our designer Neil Lang has come up with a really clever solution… We wanted to hint at a struggle for identity, a dash of crime and a certain type of cool gritty-ness. We have the linked hearts, showing the personal story—but the fingerprints give it that crime sensibility to take the edges off a possible softness. We didn’t want to make it look either too science fictional or too ‘crime’, so that it would appeal to a really broad range of readers. Yes, we wanted it all! I’m also hoping that this elegant, simple cover will appeal to those who enjoyed Gillian Glynne’s Gone Girl, with its pared-back but effective look, as well as the authors mentioned above.
We’re really excited about both covers, and we hope you all are, too! Look for False Hearts from Tor Books and Tor UK in June, 2016.
