www.orbitbooks.net

Biting the Bullet — book three in Jennifer Rardin’s Jaz Parks series — is out, and over at Jaye Wells’ blog there’s a memo from Jaz about the challenges of working for a vampire boss. Be sure to bookmark Jaye’s blog (blahg?) while you’re there. Her urban fantasy debut — Red-Headed Stepchild –- will be out from Orbit in 09.

In this week’s Time magazine, Lev Grossman reviews Matter:

The Culture novels (there are eight of them) are about the challenges of a world in which thinking beings must deal with one another across vertiginous gulfs of cultural and technological difference–a world, in other words, both completely different from and identical to our own.

And in an interview at the NerdWorld blog he asks Banks if the Culture is a utopian society, and if he’d live there if given the chance:

Good grief yes, to both! What’s not to like? …Well, unless you’re actually a fascist or a power junkie or sincerely believe that money rather than happiness is what really matters in life.

You can read the complete interview here.

There’s a terrific review of Matter over at the Onion’s A.V. Club.

“Kings, princes, evil viziers, treachery, and court intrigue share the stage with galactic civilizations, manufactured hollow worlds, interstellar spies, and terminal technologies in Matter, the triumphant new novel in Iain M. Banks’ loosely connected Culture series.”

Read the whole review here, and be sure to check out the lively discussion in the comments.