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Seeing I am such a cover hound, I thought it would be interesting to get Zanne Raby’s take on the cover for Descent Into Darkness. It sure is colorful and intriguing, making me want to know what is happening. Welcome Zanne.

Subject: Discuss your cover

Hello All! I’m really excited at being featured as a guest author on the Fundinmental blog and I’d like to thank Cheryl for inviting me to write about the cover of my latest novel, Descent into Darkness, the second book in the sci-fi/ space opera series, “The Chronicles of Deneb”. Since I’m working on a series I’d like to begin with a little background to set the scene.

Let’s jump forward to the year 2080 CE. In the sixty years separating us from the characters in my series, humanity has just about ignored every little bit of science related to our climate catastrophe and allowed our beautiful planet to plunge into decay. Politicians and big multinational companies wore blinders over the decades that resulted in droughts, famine, and mass migration. But rather than own the problem, the developed world manned the guns and doubled down on isolationism. That’s not all folks, because NASA, the European Space Agency and ROSCOSMOS banded together and created the Space Ark Project – three massive shuttles that were built to be the saviors of the human species. Except in 2080, that’s not what’s really going on. When Dr. Daniel Radu, the project manager of the United States of North American’s Space Ark Project, overhears the truth he decides that he’s not going to take it lying down. He didn’t get to be one of the best astronomical engineers on Earth by twiddling his thumbs after all. Daniel arranges for his team to take control of the Space Ark Mayflower and off they go, leaving the rotting planet and the even rottener politicians behind while they rocket through space and on to their destination: Deneb7. Now fast forward three years to 2083 CE and let’s catch up with the crew in the second novel of the series, Descent into Darkness, where they try to integrate into Denebian society. Little did the intrepid space travellers realize that the desert planet was populated until their arrival and by then, it was too late. The war-like denizens of Deneb sent out a greeting party and you can just imagine that things didn’t go so well for the crew. The refugees try their best to integrate with their new neighbours. But what do you know, the humans bring along some unintended guests in the form of a deadly disease that begins to blaze through the local population. With Denebians dying like flies, a lack of communication and a series of misunderstandings spark off a deadly planet-wide conflict. The cover of Descent into Darkness is a reflection of this. The fires of war blaze in the background while one of the powerful warbirds descends through the roiling clouds of smoke to bring battle to the enemy. The entire planet is ablaze and I tried to capture that on the cover bThanky portraying mushrooming clouds of greasy orange smoke billowing up from the ashes of destruction. Above it all, isolated from the carnage, is one of the weapons of annihilation. There, high above the wreckage and safe in their warbird, a pilot is about to make their descent. High above the planet’s ravaged surface they soar, unseeing of the destruction they unleashed on the city below, unaware of the carnage they wrought that extinguished thousands of lives. The title of the novel, “Descent into Darkness”, alludes not only to the actual massacre of the population and destruction of the planet exacted by the war on Deneb, but also of the moral abyss into which the characters find themselves falling. In the novel’s cover, I’ve tried to distill some of the more important elements of the plot to incorporate them into the cover. If you want to dive into the depths of Deneb, why not to pick up a copy of Descent in

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. Happy to have you here, Zanne.

Descent Into Darkness by Zanne Raby

GENRE: Science-Fiction / Space-Opera

BLURB

Descent into Darkness: Mayhem follows the Mayflower in the second book of The Chronicles of Deneb series. Journey along with the crew of the Space Ark Mayflower as they adapt to their new home on the planet Deneb. But along with their struggle to integrate into an alien culture, a new battle sweeps across the planet with the arrival of the human-transmitted Chimera bactovirus, bringing war and fanning the flames of racial intolerance. With a bloody conflict raging across the planet, the crew of the Mayflower is split between the two factions and embroiled in the chaos and destruction. Descend with the crew into darkness, where the only survivors of a global war will be on the right side of the border.

EXCERPT

“Pallav? You alright?” Tara’s voice broke him from his reverie and he pasted on a phony smile.

“Sorry darling, I was a million light years away. I’ll be fine,” he promised. Sweat trickled down his back in the unrelenting heat of the Denebian day, his disruptive pattern shirt already sticking to his body as he shrugged into his rucksack.

“Daddy, I’m gonna miss you.” The chirpy sing-song voice of little Jolanta gave him cause to smile at the child as she held out her arms to him. Swooping her up, Pallav dropped a kiss on the little girl’s rosy brown cheek, her eyes glistening with tears.

“And I’m going to miss you too, little one.” Hugging the orphaned girl to his chest, he burrowed his face into the cloud of dark hair that was as soft as a feather before pinching her cheek and gently setting her down. Guilt pierced his heart at the sad resigned look on the child’s face. Had it not been for him, Jolanta would be snug as a bug with her biological parents and not in lockdown high above the capital city living with a pair of humans.

Poor little thing… she’s known so much loss in her short life, he thought. Surrounded by death as the human Chimera bactovirus raged across Deneb, Jolanta had been cruelly abandoned by her mother after Tara retrieved the fallen child from the cobblestoned marketplace in the centre of the capital city. He could still picture his wife walking through the door with the tiny tot in tow. Shocked, surprised, but then captivated, Pallav let the child into his heart. It wasn’t like his two teenagers wanted him around anymore. No, Luke and Isabella were busy chartering their own course in the Wessel world with Gomalan insisting that they attend the best boarding school in the nation.

Taking advantage of his position, Pallav had initiated a thorough search for Jolanta’s parents only to get confirmation that they were amongst the thousands in Styria who had succumbed to the pandemic. Since her arrival, the young orphan had been his little shadow, never leaving his side, following the big man’s movements with her luminous opalescent eyes. He smiled inwardly at the thought of Jolanta climbing into her little cot and begging her new daddy for a bedtime story. Guilt-ridden he realized that he’d miss her more than his own children who were so immersed in their new lives that even their weekly holotalks were rushed and awkward. Laughing at himself, Pallav knew he was totally under the child’s spell.

“I promise to be back in time for market day, so no tears, okay?” Taking the little urchin’s chin in his hands, Pallav stared into her eyes. “And you have a promise to make to me too young lady, don’t you?” The little brown head nodded up and down, serious eyes acknowledging the responsibility her adopted father had assigned to her.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

Since the days of the Napoleonic War, there has always been a member of Zanne’s family in uniform. Choosing to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors, Zanne joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1980, and was selected to attend the Royal Military College of Canada – the first year that women were accepted into that prestigious academy of learning. After graduation, she studied to become a Transportation and Movements Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

During a career spanning 38 years, some of the most memorable experiences involved command of 8 Mission Support Squadron as part of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, leading a study on support to the Canadian Arctic involving several trips to Northern Canada, including Canadian Forces Station Alert (the most northern settlement in the world), a three–year tour with NATO at Joint Force Command Brunssum, a deployment as the NATO Liaison Officer to United States Central Command, and finally a nomination as the Deputy Commander for the Canadian Forces Recruiting Group.

After hanging up the uniform and putting away the combat boots, Zanne bought a small acreage in Central Ontario and designed her own house. With an office overlooking the picturesque shores of Georgian Bay, surrounded by maps and images of alien worlds, she is pursuing her life-long ambition to become an author. Enough of the reports and returns that littered her desk over her career, now she could turn her attention to unleashing the creativity that had taken a back seat to the analytical world of logistics. The time had come to shake the dust off and begin a new career. The winds of change had called.

Zanne is currently crafting The Chronicles of Deneb, a sci-fi series that will take the reader from a dystopian earth on a voyage across the galaxy in search of a safe haven. But the planets the team discover provide anything but the sanctuary they sought. In her spare time, Zanne enjoys travel, photography, hiking, and gardening. And always, a good story to pass the time.

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