- The Orbit Team - September 3rd, 2009
Symir: The Drowning City. Home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government.
Amanda Downum’s fantasy adventure debut is out this week in both the US and the UK. Set in the dark alleyways of a port city on the edge of a corrupt empire, Isyllt Iskaldur must find and finance the rumored revolutionaries on behalf of her country. A necromancer and a spy, she must find a way to complete her mission, topple the palaces of Symir, and prove herself to the crown. But in a land where even the dead are plotting, she will be lucky to escape with her own life intact.
“THE DROWNING CITY is a compelling fantasy in a richly imagined setting dripping with visceral detail, building to a conclusion at once unexpected, appropriate and moving.”
— Jacqueline Carey
“If you read only one first novel this year, read this one. I promise it’s good.”
— Elizabeth Bear
“Lush, evocative. Amanda Downum creates a richly realized, refreshingly Eastern world full of charms and spirits, espionage and intrigue and the wars of great powers fought by proxy.”
— Brent Weeks
“Amanda Downum may just be a force to be reckoned with.”
–fantasyliterature.com
“[A] complex and striking debut”
– Publisher’s Weekly
by The Orbit Team • 4 Comments • Posted in: Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - September 3rd, 2009
So says Charlie Jane Anders, of i09, speaking of N.K.Jemisin’s “Non-Zero Probability” in the new issue of Clarkesworld.
As do we, which is one of the many reasons Orbit will be publishing N.K.Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, come February 2010. Mark your book-buying calendars now.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Devi Pillai - September 3rd, 2009
Sadly, the summer is over, and with it, (hopefully) the rain, the rain, and the rain. But not to worry, yours truly went to the Caribbean, and got a tan. So not a total waste. But on to the exciting news: Read the rest of this entry »
by Devi Pillai • 2 Comments • Posted in: Deals and Deliveries, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - September 1st, 2009
“Stunning”, “a book that makes you think”, “complex and wildly imaginative” “a corker of a thriller” — not many contemporary novelists get these many quotable lines in a single rave review, but when Iain M. Banks is the novelist in question, and his newest novel TRANSITION the book reviewed — in this case we think it safe to say, this in today’s Independent (UK) will only be the first of many.
Update: Listen in to Banks on BBC Radio 4 talking about Transition.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Orbit US
- Anna Gregson - September 1st, 2009
No, we’re not just throwing out random insults at our readers for the hell of it . . . this is actually the title of the new laugh-out-loud vamp-themed book from Christopher Moore, which Publishers Weekly have aptly described as:
‘[A] cheerfully perverse, gut-busting tale’
and Booklist as:
‘[A] hilarious mockery of the pursuit of the appetites’.
In this rambunctious tale, Tommy, a naïve and eternally lusty 19-year old from Incontinence, Indiana, is rather peeved to find out that his hot vampire girlfriend Jody has turned him into a bloodsucking fiend too.
If he admits it, there are some pretty cool things about being a vampire – like eternal youth, super-strength and enhanced senses, and hey – even his zits have cleared up! It’s just the fact of being dead which is a bit of a bummer, along with the fact that anything except blood makes him projectile vomit, and that he passes out every day at sunrise, making trips to the mall rather difficult.
So Tommy and his girlfriend set out to find a minion to run errands for them and generally be their slave-around-the-house. And who better than the angsty goth teenager they meet at the local drugstore? Meanwhile, Tommy and Jody have other more important things to worry about, like fleeing from Tommy’s former turkey-bowling pals who have turned on him, and the fact that the centuries-old vampire who bit Jody in the first place has decided he wants her back.
If you fancy a nibble too, check out an extract of You Suck (UK/ANZ) here.
by Anna Gregson • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, Commentary, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
