Archive for August, 2007
- The Orbit Team - August 8th, 2007
Much ecstatic piping on the tin whistle (Clarke original, key of D, natch) greeted the news that Mike Carey’s superb debut The Devil You Know, featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor, has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel.
The award will be presented at Fantasycon in Nottingham this September, which Mike will be attending — along with fellow Orbit author Terry Brooks, who is one of the Guests of Honour.
You can read an extract of The Devil You Know here.
Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, and our best wishes to Mike — everyone at Orbit is hoping for a well-deserved win for Felix Castor’s first outing.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 7th, 2007
Glenda Larke’s latest book, Heart of the Mirage, has been getting some wonderful reviews of late:
This month’s Starburst gives it a five star rating and says “those looking for a ‘sense-of-wonder’ fix need look no further. Larke doesn’t conform to the cookie-cutter school of fantasy and has a talent for world building and a fondness for unstable landscapes . . . It’s also great fun”.
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review thinks: “It is nice sometimes to break out of the typical medieval Fantasy City and go somewhere different. Larke accomplishes this by setting her tale in the equivalent of Ancient Rome and the deserts of Africa and decorates the proceedings with some stunning imagery in the process.”
And The Bookbag calls it: “highly enjoyable, this book’s got love, betrayal, skullduggery, espionage, adventure, magic, heartbreak and plenty more besides.”
Interested in taking a peek at the finest (and possibly only) book this year to feature heartbreak and skullduggery? You can check out a sample of the first chapter here, and find the book at all good bookstores and online retailers.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Contents, Orbit UK, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - August 6th, 2007
We’re delighted to announce that from September 2007, Orbit UK is going to be distributing titles from Yen Press, the new manga line set up by our sister company, Hachette Book Group USA. We’re extremely excited at this development, and are looking forward to the first titles being available next month.
You can find out more about Yen Press, and forthcoming titles, on their website.
You can read the official press release here (you’ll need Acrobat Reader, available free from this link).
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 3rd, 2007
We’ve had a number of excellent reviews for our titles this week:
SFDiplomat enjoys Sean William’s Saturn Returns: “Well-written, exciting and surprisingly smart despite being very accessible, it is genuinely difficult to find fault with.”
The Book Swede seems to have fallen in love with Karen Miller’s The Innocent Mage: “Intriguing, funny, well-written, and worthy of many more praising adverbs . . .With great characters, a world that becomes increasingly easy to visualise and a story that captured my imagination, this book is, well, excellent!”
The Gravel Pit discovers R Scott Bakker’s The Darkness That Comes Before: “I would say that characterisation is certainly one of the strengths of R Scott Bakker as a writer . . . reading this book felt like an intellectual challenge in some ways. One that I really cherished. I have not encountered any pacing problems throughout the novel, the narrative flow is pretty consistent . . . If I take the characterisation, prose, scope and world building and the fact that there is undoubtly still room for some improvement, into consideration I would rate it eight and a half out of ten.”
Finally, Clandestine Critic reviews Mike Carey’s The Devil You Know, described as: “a satisfying and engrossing read, with an interesting character in Felix Castor that makes me want to read more. I look forward to the next book in the series.”
by The Orbit Team • 3 Comments • Posted in: Contents
- The Orbit Team - August 2nd, 2007
No, not the Orbit Christmas Party (although . . . ); we’re talking about virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which seem to be being invaded by a new wave of cyber-crooks. There have been two stories floating about teh Intarwebs recently, involving criminal action in Second Life. Why do we care? Apart from a deeply held concern for our fellow beings, obviously? Because Orbit author Charles Stross anticipated them both. Who says SF can’t predict the future?
In an amazing case of (second) life imitating art, this story circulated a little over a week ago, outlining the theft of $3.2 million Linden Dollars from Second Life. This is scarily close to the central theme of Charlie’s forthcoming Halting State. We don’t publish Halting State until January 2008, but remember Charlie wrote it last year, so it still counts as prophecy! And as if that wasn’t enough Nostradamus-like gazing through the veil of time, we just spotted this on the website of The Australian newspaper. Again, Mr Stross was there first. The advent of virtual terrorism was outlined in this article Charlie wrote for online gaming site Guildcafé last March.
At the risk of taking liberties with Oscar Wilde’s famous wit: to predict one future event can be seen as fortunate, to predict two begins to look like cleverness.
So, if you want to know what the future might look like, read Charles Stross. He can’t do the lottery numbers (we checked) but there are few better authorities on emergent technology and how it might affect our lives.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Commentary, Contents, News, Orbit UK
