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Our weekly round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been pointed in the direction of) out there on T’Internet:

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

If you’re going to BEA in Los Angeles, stop by the Orbit booth (number 1720) to pick up advance reading copies of Orcs by Stan Nicholls, and The Company, by K.J. Parker. And be sure to drop off a business card to sign up for our new bookseller enewsletter.

Jennifer Rardin, author of the Jaz Parks series, is over at Fantasy Debut talking about life, writing and camel tipping (seriously). You can read the whole interview here and check out Jennifer’s latest Jaz Parks novel, Biting the Bullet (UK/US), in stores now.

Over at Grasping for Wind, there’s a great review of Brian Ruckley’s Bloodheir (UK/US), including this fantastic bit on how Brian avoids ‘Middle Book Syndrome’:

Often, the second book in a trilogy is accused of something called “Middle Book Syndrome”. The idea is that the second book in most trilogies is mostly filler and very little plot movement really happens. And often it is true. But if anyone accuses Brian Ruckley’s second book in The Godless World trilogy, Bloodheir of suffering from middle book syndrome, I’m afraid I will have to scoff in his face. Read the rest

You can find Bloodheir in all good bookstores this June or win a copy over at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review now. You can also listen to Brian read from Bloodheir here.

Update: The Book Swede is running a contest for his ARC of Bloodheir. You can enter here.

Lilith Saintcrow visits Jennifer Rardin’s blog to talk about her upcoming urban fantasy series, Night Shift.

To be honest I never knew I was writing urban fantasy until my agent told me so. I was just writing this thing I liked–ordinary fantasy didn’t have enough guns OR fast cars, and I’m a big fan of morally and ethically ambiguous heroes and characters. (It’s the noir I read/watched at a very tender age. Scarred me for life.)

Visit jenniferrardin.com for more.

If you’re going to Wiscon, look out for Orbit author Pamela Freeman. She’ll be there talking about her new book, Blood Ties, and reading from her academic work (If you get a chance to chat, be sure to ask her about her thoughts on science in fantasy fiction.)

Pamela’s Wiscon Schedule (check the site for up-to-date details.)

Saturday, 10:00-11:15 A.M: Reading from Blood Ties.
Sunday, 11:30 P.M. to 12:45 A.M. Imagination as Resistance, panel.
Monday, 10:00-11:15 A.M: Kings. What a Good Idea: Monarchy in Epic Fantasy Fiction.

Another online competition for you folks to enter - we know you love your competitions - this time with a rather interesting twist; one that Lilith Saintcrow fans will love, and that might just require the use of your best thinking caps…

Over at My Favourite Books, blogger Liz has set a Dante Valentine-themed crossword puzzle. Five successful puzzle solvers will win a copy of Lilith Saintcrow’s new novel, Night Shift [UK / US], the first in a new series starring demon slayer Jill Kismet, which we’ll be publishing in the US and UK in July.

Hmmm. Eight letters, “devilishly tricky”? That would make it ‘fiendish’, then…

Another weekly round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been pointed in the direction of) out there on T’Internet:

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

A number of Orbit’s UK-based authors put in an appearance at Derby’s 2008 Alt.Fiction day back in April (see our earlier report) and we promised you some video coverage from the day.

Here then, for your amusement, edification and general entertainment, are a selection of book readings by Orbit authors Philip Palmer, Brian Ruckley, Charles Stross and Mike Carey. Admittedly, the sound quality isn’t always the best - the rooms were a bit echoey and the microphone a little small - so you may have to turn the volume up a tad. And Sam requests that you don’t say anything mean about her camera-work; tables weren’t always available and knees don’t always make the best camera-mounts…

(more…)

Pamela Freeman, the bestselling Australian author, was in the UK office on Friday and was kind enough to sign some copies of her latest book, Blood Ties.

We’re giving away 5 (yes, 5!) signed copies of Blood Ties. To enter, send your name with the subject line ‘Blood Ties’ to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk. The winners will be chosen at random on June 5th, which is when everyone else can find it in booksellers nation-wide!

Another weekly round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been pointed in the direction of) out there on T’Internet:

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

There’s a new review of Midnight Never Come [UK / US], Marie Brennan’s new novel of Elizabethan intrigue and fae power-politics, over at Curled Up With a Good Book.

Reviewer Mervi Hamalainen was particularly taken by the variety and depth of the often chillingly cruel fae characters in the novel:

“Midnight Never Come returns the fairies to their roots: terrifying, alien, yet captivating at the same time. Queen Invidiana is cold and cruel, and every English fae is scrambling desperately to stay on her good side. The mortal pets of the fae who have been changed by their stay among the fairies are sad and frightening figures not allowed to even keep their own names.”

Read the full review over at www.curledup.com.

Congratulations to Ian G, the winner of our competition for a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thanks to everyone that entered!

The new blog (with the awesome name) Rescued By Nerds interviewed Jeff Somers about the star of his novels, Avery Cates:

I’ve created a character who kills people, who physically assaults people when annoyed, who has stepped over the bodies of friends in order to save himself—albeit, perhaps, regretfully. Then I went ahead and made him kind of fun and charming. It feels good on some primitive level to then smack Avery in the head with a lead pipe. It feels like the Literary Lead Pipe of Justice.

Visit the nerds for the full interview.

There’s also a new messageboard for any citizens of Old New York who aren’t feeling like themselves lately. You can find that here (at least until the SSF takes it down).

Following its successful launch in the US in 2007, and a record year for the imprint in the UK, Orbit announces its intention to expand both lists. In the US, Orbit is going to double the size of the list over the next 3 years, taking its title output to 70-80 titles per year by 2011. In the UK, where Orbit is already the biggest SFF imprint, it will increase the size of the list by approximately 10% each year over the next three years. (more…)

Welcome to our latest quick-fire round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors:

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

We’ve teamed up with Chris, The Book Swede for this one: another incredibly simple-to-enter email sweepstake, with a copy of Blood Ties [UK / US] - the first part of Pamela Freeman’s Castings Trilogy - up for grabs by one lucky winner.

The book is out now in the US but won’t be be published next month in the UK. So if you’re a UK reader then this is a great chance to get your hands on an early copy… signed by the author, no less! And the Book Swede has also reviewed the novel, concluding: “Blood Ties is an excellent book, fun, clever, and well written, with distinctive characterisations, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next book in the series!”

Full entry terms and conditions are available over on the Book Swede’s blog. Good luck!

The UK’s biggest sci-fi magazine, SFX, has posted a four-star review of Midnight Never Come [UK / US], the new novel by Marie Brennan, out now from Orbit UK, and published next month by Orbit US.

The book, which is set towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, impressed reviewer Eddie Robson with its mix of an authentic Elizabethan atmopshere and darker, fae elements: “…firmly rooted in real history, set in a convincingly-constructed Elizabethan England, but with a secret faerie court existing beneath London. Its ruler, Invidiana, is a cruel capricious sort, whose subjects live in dread of her schemes and whims.”

Eddie also enjoyed Midnight Never Come’s highly-intriguing plot: “…refreshingly for this genre, [it's] a political thriller, with conspiracies, spies and shady machinations … The novel starts slowly, concentrating first on world-building and putting pieces on the board, but it keeps you hooked until the plot really kicks in.”

Midnight Never Come is out now in the UK and will be published next month in the US. To read the full review, pick up a copy of the June 2008 edition of SFX Magazine.

Anyone who’s read EMPRESS – or any of the early reviews of the novel – will know that it’s a book with a very unsympathetic central character (and that there aren’t a lot of hugs to go around at the end.)

Over at Grasping for the Wind, John Ottinger talks to Karen about how the book upends the expectations of epic fantasy:

GFTW: Although Hekat is a sympathetic character at the beginning of the novel, we have come to dislike her very much by the end. How were you able to write a character that rather than having an upward spiral toward a “happily ever after” instead moved on a downward spiral filled with selfishness and hate?”

Read Karen’s responses here.

You can read the first chapter of EMPRESS here.

There’s a new interview with Orbit’s own Brian Ruckley online over at Mania.com.

Pat Ferrara asks Brian about how he got started as a fantasy writer, his major inspirations, the influence of Scotland on the lands of the Godless World, what fans can expect from the soon-to-be-published sequel, Bloodheir [UK / US] and where Brian will be turning his writerly attention to, once his debut series is finished.

They’ve also posted a great review of Winterbirth [UK / US] which says things like: “…the author’s ability to balance meticulously calculated plot with heart-pounding action is second to none. Winterbirth steadily gains momentum as it unloads backstory, building to a climactic ending…”

Read the full review at www.mania.com as well.