Art by Troy Howell
Penguin U.K. has released their Fall Catalogue, giving us another Doomwyte summary and providing some interesting tidbits about the U.K. edition of the book.
First up, the summary:
When young mouse Bisky convinces the creatures of Redwall Abbey to go in search of fabled treasure, they do not suspect that the evil Korvus Skurr and his sinister ravens, the Doomwytes, will be vying for the very same treasure. Bisky and his fellow Redwallers must summon all their courage to face their most ruthless enemies yet in an exhilarating, terrifying treasure hunt.
Far more intriguing is the fact that the catalogue boasts Troy Howell’s cover to the book, released a few weeks ago.
Former U.K. cover artist David Wyatt told The Newsline last October that he wouldn’t be able to provide cover art for Doomwyte, so we knew changes were on the way, but this is still rather surprising. Since the beginning of the series, U.K. and U.S. covers have remained distinctive from one another, with the only overlap occurring in the realm of companions, storybooks, and audio books. Following last year’s abrupt cancellation of the U.K. hardcover edition of Eulalia!, it seems clear that Penguin is streamlining the series.
Speaking of the cover, I was able to extract a larger, (marginally) higher resolution version from the catalogue, which you can see by clicking on the above thumbnail. For an actual high resolution version without the title dress, see the following article.
Also interesting to note is that the catalogue lists there being “approximately 20 black-and-white line drawings” in the book. Since that’s a remarkably low number for a Redwall book, the Newsline contacted illustrator David Elliot for comment and he said that it is, indeed, a mistake. He actually completed a total of 43 illustrations for Doomwyte (39 chapter illustrations, 3 part titles, and 1 map).
The Doomwyte hardcover is due out in the U.K. this October with an ISBN of 9780141384375.
Stay tuned to the Newsline for more developments.
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