My publisher, Dutton, sent me a copy of the final hardcover version of The Paradise Prophecy today. The one you'll see in stores.

There's nothing like that anticipation you feel when you're tearing the envelope open, wondering if you'll be happy with what you see. It doesn't matter if you've seen it as a digital file. Or an ARC. As beautiful as you my think the typesetting looks on a computer screen, or on the slick pages of that ARC, you can't really know what the real thing will look and feel and smell like until you have it in your hands.

I'm happy to tell you that The Paradise Prophecy looks and feels and smells wonderful. The book's design is truly a work of art. But it isn't just the cover that wows me (created by Richard Hasselberger). The interior design is beautifully rendered, utilizing the striking and evocative Paradise Lost illustrations of Gustave Dore.

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In portraying his subjects—such as Satin falling to earth after being cast out of Heaven—Dore gave us works of art that managed to be both dramatic and eerily transcendent. We're looking at the otherworld in motion, populated by creatures that seem both human and alien. Angels who have warred against their god and lost.

These are not the evil creatures that we think of as demons. That's something we can assume comes later in their history. Instead, what Dore shows us—just as Milton did—are misunderstood rebels who feel betrayed. Who would rather build their own kingdom in Hell than be subservient to anyone.

Dore's etchings so perfectly match Milton's masterpiece that you think the two men must have been in psychic communication.

So, obviously, I'm thrilled to see some of these illustrations as part of The Paradise Prophecy's design. While they don't comment directly on the story itself (the book's setting is predominately modern—pretty much a balls-out international thriller), they do allow the reader a glimpse into another world and help convey the story's historical and mythical underpinnings.

Thank you, Dutton, for an amazing job.