Archive for April, 2008
Samantha Smith - April 30th, 2008
Tonight the winner of the 2008 Arthur C Clarke awards will be announced and, while we know who we’re rooting for, we thought what better way to celebrate than to give away a book by the great man himself! Up for grabs is a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey* by Arthur C [...]
No Comments - Posted in All posts, Awards, Contents, Contests, Orbit UK
The Orbit Team - April 29th, 2008
This Saturday’s annual Alt.Fiction event in Derby was a fantastic example of just how vibrant and lively the UK genre scene currently is. A panel-packed day offered readings from some of the UK’s top genre talent - including Orbit’s very own Charles Stross, Mike Carey, Philip Palmer (who has posted his own Alt.Fiction write-up) and [...]
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The Orbit Team - April 28th, 2008
Orbit in the US is seeking an editor to join its fabulous publishing team, based in New York. All details are here.
No Comments Tags: help wanted
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Alex Lencicki - April 28th, 2008
Over at Wired’s GeekDad blog John Baichtal reviews Matter and writes:
“Of all the books I’ve read of ultrapowerful galactic civilizations, this one does it best. Incredible tech and a huge scope, yet telling a very human story that stands out among the vastness.”
Check out the whole review here.
No Comments Tags: Iain M. Banks, Matter, review
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Darren Turpin - April 25th, 2008
Here at Orbit Towers we’re all absolutely delighted that Halting State [UK] by Charles Stross has been shortlisted in the ‘SF Novel’ category of this year’s Locus Awards.
In addition, Mr Stross has also been shortlisted in the Novelette category for ‘Trunk and Disorderly’ and Ken MacLeod has been shortlisted in the Best Short Story [...]
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Samantha Smith - April 25th, 2008
Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has a great piece on Jeff Somers’ The Digital Plague (UK/US) today, where he calls it:
Last year I was lucky enough to get hold of a copy of Jeff Somers’ debut ‘The Electric Church’, a gritty ‘dystopian future’ thriller that (while by no means perfect) I had a lot of fun [...]
2 Comments - Posted in All posts, Contents, New Titles, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
The Orbit Team - April 25th, 2008
Here’s a quick round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors, that we’ve found - or have been brought to our attention - this week:
The new Iain M Banks Culture novel, Matter, has been thoroughly discussed by four of the UK’s top genre bloggers this week.
Jim Butcher has been posting a series of [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 23rd, 2008
We’re publishing The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers in both the UK and US next month, but in the meantime we’ve teamed up once again with Pat St Denis of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist to give away two copies of the book in an email sweepstake.
Simply visit the Hotlist and follow the instructions to email [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 23rd, 2008
This Saturday, April 26th, the cream of the UK genre fiction crop will be heading to Derby’s Assembly Rooms for the third annual Alt.Fiction Festival.
Alt.Fiction is a one-day convention that brings together sf/f/h authors, readers and publishers for a series of panel sessions, workshops, readings and more. Think Eastercon or Fantasycon, condensed into a single [...]
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Alex Lencicki - April 22nd, 2008
To celebrate the launch of Pamela Freeman’s Blood Ties, we’ve put together a stonecasting widget that may just know what the future holds in store for you! (and yes, if you cast more than once you may get a different fortune, but we have it on a stonecaster’s authority that only the first throw counts) [...]
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Alex Lencicki - April 22nd, 2008
Over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Patrick posts one of the first reviews of Bloodheir, book two in Brian Ruckley’s Godless World Trilogy, and concludes: “Without the shadow of a doubt, it should be one of the fantasy books to read in 2008.”
U.S. readers can find the mass market edition of book one, Winterbirth, [...]
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Tim Holman - April 21st, 2008
The April issue of Locus magazine carries its annual “British Book Summary” – a report on SFF publishing in the UK. I admire and appreciate Locus’s amazingly comprehensive reporting on all things SFF-y from around the world, but as somebody in the publishing industry I have to say that this survey always bothers me.
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Alex Lencicki - April 21st, 2008
With EMPRESS marching up the bestseller charts, My Book The Movie asks Karen Miller who she would cast to play Hekat, Nagarak, and others. Karen is adamant that the movie will never get made … but with a cast like this, we sure want to see it!
1 Comment Tags: , empress, karen miller
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Darren Turpin - April 18th, 2008
Over at John Scalzi’s legendary Whatever blog, Orbit author Kate Elliott explains the genesis of the ‘eagle reeves’ - the Big Idea in her latest series, Crossroads - and how a certain Swedish pop combo may have had far more to do with it than anyone previously realised…
The first two volumes of Crossroads - Spirit [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 17th, 2008
Orbit UK & US author Jennifer Rardin posted an interview with Orbit US author Robert Buettner, over at her blog just yesterday.
They talk about Robert’s ‘Jason Wander’ series, what he sees as the main differences between science fiction and urban fantasy, his life in interesting times as “soldier, Spook, palaeontologist and lawyer” and his approach [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 17th, 2008
We’ve just this minute unveiled the brand new Orbit Facebook page.
If you’re a Facebook user, please feel free to head on over and sign up as a fan. We’ll be posting a range of regular updates, including news updates from the main website, as well as monthly cover galleries of our new releases, details [...]
3 Comments - Posted in All posts, News, Orbit UK, Orbit US
Bella Pagan - April 16th, 2008
Following our exciting Codex Alera acquisition, we have more great Jim Butcher news. This week Small Favour hits a fantastic (yet very much grounded in reality) No.2 spot in the New York Times bestsellers chart!
In the UK’s Nielsen BookScan listings, Small Favour is also showing a great third week in the top 10, on [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 16th, 2008
Fantasy fiction mega-blogger Pat St. Denis, of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist fame, is currently running a sweepstake to win one of two copies of Small Favour, the brand new Dresden Files novel by Jim Butcher.
The entry conditions are simplicity itself: all you have to do is send Pat an email with your postal address. Just the [...]
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Darren Turpin - April 16th, 2008
This year’s James Tiptree Jr Award - the annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender - was announced this week.
Alongside the winner, the award committee also announced the 2007 Honor List and Orbit authors Charles Stross and Karen Miller were both named, for (respectively) Glasshouse and [...]
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Samantha Smith - April 14th, 2008
Fantasy Book Critic has just posted a great interview with Kate Elliott, author of Shadow Gate, over at his site:
For someone who hasn’t read any of your titles, how would you describe your writing style and where would you recommend they start?
I write lurid adventure fiction.I write historical novels set in imaginary worlds.I write HBO-style [...]
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