FEED has arrived and with it all the zombie noshing, political savvy, and smart-assed badassery you can handle. This isn’t your parent’s zombie story, although we’re pretty sure Mira Grant knows where the bodies are hidden…
The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we had created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.
Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives– the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.
It sometimes feels like you have to wait SO long from when a book is acquired until you can share it with other readers (probably because this process does take, oh, around two years…). But I am now delighted to say The Poison Throne (UK I US) was released this month at a bookstore or via an online retailer near you — and you can get an advance peek via an extract here!
We knew the author Celine Kiernan was chock-full of talent, and here are just a couple of quotes from a mountain of early praise.
“Marvellous, vivid writing, and story telling at its absolute best … I was utterly engrossed” Roddy Doyle
“Told with great assurance and attention to detail, this is an exciting, fast-paced story” SFX
“Atmospheric, complex, and intense … this epic starts strong and doesn’t falter” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Eloquent, sharp and lush…set to surprise a lot of readers” SFRevu.com
And Celine has of course visited the Orbit site already, with her really insightful (plus amusing) article on the perils and wonders inherent in being translated, and she’s discussed our covers and what she makes of them, always an interesting subject. We’ll have more Celine Kiernan news in the form of a new and exciting competition which is a bit of an Orbit first, but news to come next week!
Tweet-log of Gabriella Gossip, Houston’s top social columnist-on-the-move. She snarks directly at the source, so you don’t have to! Last Saturday, we sent Gabriella to check out some of the hottest writers in the hottest new genre around . . . Urban Fantasy! It’s . . . um . . . urban! And fantasy!
[@gabgoss Sat 24 April 4:45 via TweetGasm] I’ve been sent to Murder By The Book to attend @GailCarriger, @JayeWells, and @NicolePeeler’s signing. No real celebs in town, obviously.
[@gabgoss Sat 24 April 4:50 via TweetGasm] Yawn. Do people even read books anymore?
[@gabgoss Sat 24 April 4:58 via TweetGasm] I want a drink. Oh wait, the shindig is finally beginning. Thank the lawd.
[@gabgoss Sat 24 April 5:01 via TweetGasm] Wells and Carriger look nice, but I’m not feeling Peeler’s bouffant. Is she channeling Wilma Flintstone? Read the rest of this entry »
Ever think you know exactly how a character in a novel should sound? Think you could put on a good performance of playing that character yourself?
Well Jeff Somers has set up a competition in which you have the chance to do just that. For the official website of his next novel, The Terminal State (UK/ US), Jeff is creating four mini video clips to represent four different characters from his series. He’s already provided some superb images to depict the nature of each character, and mini excerpts from the book have been supplied as scripts.
All that’s missing is you - the reading public - to put on your best acting voices and provide voiceovers for the videos. Whichever voice clip that Jeff feels best represents each character will be used on the final site. Visit this site to hear some examples that Jeff has provided himself, such as the one below. There, you’ll also find more information on how you can get creative and start sending in your own voiceover submissions.
Following Kelley Armstrong’s very successful trip to the UK, during which she had fans from as far as Germany queuing up to meet her, we thought we’d remind you just how busy she’s been on the writing front.
Last month saw the release of The Reckoning(UK /ANZ), the third book in Kelley’s Darkest Powers young adult series. This is definitely one to look out for, considering that the second book in this series was a No. 1 New York Times children’s bestseller, and that Charlaine Harris claimed about the series that ‘there’s never a slow moment in their journey or a false line in Armstrong’s writing’. Read the rest of this entry »
What? Three covers at once?! Yes, we’re doing another 3-in-3-months release starting this October, and the series is awesome. The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater are the first three books in the Legend of Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron, and be prepared, this story is seriously habit-forming. And we’re super excited to be giving you a big dose of Eli Monpress and his misfit crew all at once. Read the rest of this entry »
I made my first trip to the UK at the end of March. Before the volcanic ash problems, but during the British Airways strike. Is it always so hard to get into (and out of) the UK? I hope not, because I really would like to return! Read the rest of this entry »
It’s nice to be at the cutting edge. Well, of my own progress as an SF writer, at least. One of the great strengths of the SF field is the way concepts and tropes are in constant flux, being shared and tweaked, refurbed and upgraded, modded and galvanised, rivetted for the steampunk milieu, or even just given go-faster stripes. Of course, some carping cynics will say that this is also a major weakness since it encourages lazy writing and a lack of speculative rigour, and I have to say that there’s a lot to that.
For my own part I must admit culpability in employing certain well-known, off-the-shelf notions like AIs, FTL drives, colony worlds, ancient aliens and so forth. But I do like to think that I have contributed something new with my own take on hyperspace. This is where hyperspace (as well as being a contiguous plenum which permits FTL travel) consists of levels upon levels upon deeper levels, each one being the compacted remains of an entire universe, piled one on top of another, sedimentary layers of dead universes that descend into the primal depths of reality. Read the rest of this entry »
I know all of you are scifi/fantasy geeks (or else why are you here, really), but not all of you are art geeks as well, so you may not have heard of Spectrum, the annual competition for contemporary scifi/fantasy/horror art…but to those of us you might classify as “geek artists”, inclusion in the Spectrum annual is a big deal. So I am thrilled to announce that 3 of our books made the annual:
- - April 30th, 2010
Ever think you know exactly how a character in a novel should sound? Think you could put on a good performance of playing that character yourself?
Following Kelley Armstrong’s very successful 
