- Lauren Panepinto - September 30th, 2011
Wow, now that’s a lot of covers! A whole season in fact. With our US Spring-Summer 2012 catalog sneaking out into the world we wanted to go ahead and post all the early covers in one place so you don’t have to go sneaking about the interwebs looking for them. As this is catalog time, and pretty much a whole year before these books will go to print, a lot is still in development, and a lot will still change, so I’ve marked the not-final covers so there is no confusion. After the jump you can link and download each cover individually.
So go ahead! Get excited! Make your christmas lists, birthday lists, and beach-reading lists, and in the coming months we will be launching each of these covers with all the pomp and circumstance (and fun background videos, insider info, and semi-lucid ravings of yours truly) you have come to expect right here on orbitbooks.net
Read the rest of this entry »
by Lauren Panepinto • 9 Comments • Posted in: Art, Covers, Orbit US, Syndicate
- Lauren Panepinto - September 26th, 2011
Today I am very excited to launch a hotly-anticipated book (and cover!) for The Seven Princes by John R. Fultz. I am absolutely in love with the art by Richard Anderson. I love his loose, impressionistic fantasy style. This project is a perfect example of everything we try to do at Orbit – make an amazing cover that absolutely oozes fantasy, yet do it with an infusion of a fresh new style or new angle. The book is a very classic fantasy tale but told in a really fast-paced cinematic, almost modern pulp kind of feel, and I am just thrilled with this marriage of artist and story. Definitely go check out the artist’s site and blog, he’s been working on concept art for Guild Wars for a long time, and if you are familiar with the game you’ll definitely recognize things, but all of his portfolio pieces are super drool-worthy. I am very excited to get working on the next cover in the series soon!
After the jump, get a teaser and see the art big and sexy…(yes sexy is a technical art-direction term!) Read the rest of this entry »
by Lauren Panepinto • 3 Comments • Posted in: Art, Covers, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Syndicate, Uncategorized
author post
For me it’s always about the big and the little, even before reading John Crowley’s amazing novel Little Big. As a kid nothing excited me more than thinking about how vast the universe was, and how small the world was, and how small my home town was within it, but that it was still part of this universe that included massive gas giants, black holes (who isn’t thrilled by those monsters) and super novas. I always had trouble fitting that into my mind (I still do) I positively ached with the excitement of it, but I had so much trouble expressing that, letting it out until I started writing.
It was writing that helped me contain the big and the little. And made me understand that one doesn’t really have much meaning without the other.
Read the rest of this entry »
by Trent Jamieson •1 Comment • Posted in: Guest Post, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
author post
I’m honored and incredibly excited that Orbit’s release of the first book in my Riyria Revelations, Theft of Swords, has been selected as Library Journal’s Fantasy Debut of the Month for September.
In the conclusion of LJ’s review they said, “VERDICT: Fans of Fritz Leiber’s classic “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” novels should welcome the adventures of Hadrian and Royce. A winning debut for fantasy lovers.” This is not the first, and probably won’t be the last, time that my series has been compared to Fritz Leiber’s classics that were mainly published between 1940 and the mid 1970’s. As my series features two unlikely heroes, a larger fighter and a smaller thief, there are valid reasons to make correlations between the two.
But here’s my dirty, little secret…I’ve never read Leiber’s works, so any similarities are completely coincidental. I know. I know. You’ve just met me and already I’m admitting to what could be a fatal fantasy faux pas. Yes, I admit that I’m not an expert in all the classic fantasy that has come before I showed up. But my shame goes even deeper…I didn’t even know that F&GM even existed! Let me explain how I found out about them. Read the rest of this entry »
by Michael J. Sullivan •3 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Guest Post, Orbit UK, Orbit US
author post
I don’t know exactly where Mal came from (other than the twisty recesses of my mind), but I can tell you what his building blocks were — a host of dark emotions: disappointment, anger, impatience, bitterness. As I mentioned in my first post about the events that led me to write Blood Rights, that book started as an outlet for my frustrations – something I highly recommend to those of you feeling bummed at the way things are going with your career! And since the bones of my heroine, Chrysabelle, were already developing into something very distinctly bright and full of light, I knew I couldn’t pour all that darkness into her.
Mal became the perfect receptacle. He is, to me, the embodiment of the dark, tortured hero. He’s got soul deep wounds that aren’t going to be healed in four hundred pages. If you don’t already know, he’s also a vampire, but he’s so much more than that.
Let’s back up. Let’s start when Mal was human, before his existence fell apart. I decided as his back story to make him a headsman. The job of executioner in the late 1500s, when Mal would have been alive, was one that both isolated and somewhat vilified the individual that held it. Superstition said that the executioner took upon him the sins of those he was paid to dispatch, the full weight of the souls of those rapists, murderers and thieves. Read the rest of this entry »
by Kristen Painter •Post a Comment • Posted in: Guest Post
- The Orbit Team - September 21st, 2011
We are looking for three people to join our awesome publishing team in New York. To apply to be an Editor, click here. If Online Marketing is your thing, click here. Publicists, click here. We look forward to hearing from you!
Important note: Please read the job descriptions carefully and confirm that you have the required experience, skills, and attributes before you apply!
The Orbit Team
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit US
author post
I’ll define a trilogy as three novels with a thematic or narrative relationship OR as a novel in three parts. N.K. Jemisin’s fabulous Inheritance Trilogy is an example of a trilogy in which each volume stands alone as a complete story while a larger thematic narrative arc is addressed across all three books. My own Spiritwalker Trilogy is a novel in three parts. I do attempt to give each volume a beginning, a middle, and some manner of emotional resolution at the end, and I think I manage that fairly well, but the full story will take all three books to tell.
One of the challenges in writing this kind of trilogy arises in how to start volumes 2 and 3. I’m not starting a new story; I’m continuing one. Most of the readers who pick up volume 2 will have read volume 1, but a few won’t, so I need an effective way to introduce the world to new readers while not boring returning readers. Additionally, many returning readers will have read volume 1 many months ago, and the situation and characters may not be fresh in their minds. So I need to reintroduce them to both the characters and the situation in a way that engages them as well. Meanwhile, other readers will recently have read COLD MAGIC, or will have re-read the closing chapters to reacquaint themselves with the story. I don’t want to bore them. Read the rest of this entry »
by Kate Elliott •Post a Comment • Posted in: Guest Post
author post
I’ve been a writer since a very young age, but when I started writing with the goal of publication, the first full length book I produced was a fantasy romance featuring a half-elf merc and a fire-wielding mage. I loved that book. It poured out of me in a way writing never had before, but that was long before I’d been weighted down by the rules of writing. No matter what genre you’re in, there are rules and people who will eagerly tell you about them and when you’re breaking them.
After years of trying to write within the confines of those rules and construct a book that fit the wants and desires of the romance publishing industry, I burned out. The broken promises and the inability to write without those rules in my head pushed me to a breaking point. I started to question why I was even writing if I no longer enjoyed it.
I reverted to my angsty high school self. The me that used to get lost in comic books and fantasy novels and autobiographies of Isaac Asimov. I got mad. Anger is an emotion I don’t do often but my Sicilian bloodlines allow me to tap into it pretty well.
All of that pushed me to write something new. Something that wasn’t for anyone else but me. This story, this book, this character sketch (I really didn’t know what I was writing, just that I was writing) became the vehicle for all my dark and twisty emotions. I poured everything I felt into those pages. I affectionately termed whatever it was that I was writing my Screw You book. Screw the rules, screw what anyone said I could or couldn’t write, I just wrote to make myself happy. Read the rest of this entry »
by Kristen Painter •2 Comments • Posted in: Guest Post, Uncategorized
- James Long - September 15th, 2011
Ever feel like you need more adrenaline-fuelled adventure in your life, where technological gadgetry and big explosions come as standard? If so, then you’re in luck: today sees the ebook releases of Andy Remic’s turbo-charged techo-thrillers, SPIRAL, QUAKE and WARHEAD.
In Remic’s future vision of Earth, nuclear warheads can be hidden in a suitcase, bio-plagues can be held in a teardrop . . . and the elite organisation known as Spiral is humanity’s last line of defence against global armageddon. Operating in secret, Spiral fights a constant war against rogue states, deadly assassins and ruthless dictators that will not stop at anything to get what they want – even if it means the Earth’s destruction.
Praise for Andy Remic’s Spiral trilogy:
Hugely entertaining and packed with more explosive action scenes than is probably decent, SPIRAL starts off loud and ends in a bang” WATERSTONE’S BOOKS QUARTERLY
“Spiral is certainly chock full of action … ideal summer reading if you’re looking for something filmic” SFRevu
“A new writer who knows what a regular reader sitting on the bus wants - action . . . Pure Die Hard, pure Rambo. This has got to be a film, surely!” LADSMAG
“Fans of the action adventure genre will not be disappointed by SPIRAL . . . A light, fast read with quick action” THE REVIEWS PAGE
About the author:
ANDY REMIC is a larger-than-life action man, chainsaw warrior and chef. He has written a variety of thriller, SF and fantasy novels, and sometimes delves into the murky underworld of teaching. If pushed to describe himself, Remic claims to have a love of extreme sports, violent computer games and kickass bikes. Andy is also married and has sired two strapping young boy cubs. Remic is now working on various new SF and fantasy projects, and threatens he will never stop writing.
Andy can be found on the web at his personal website.
Keep your eyes peeled for a couple of articles from Andy in the near future!
by James Long • Post a Comment • Posted in: New Titles, News, Orbit UK, Uncategorized
- The Orbit Team - September 14th, 2011
As we’ve had such a fine crop of reviews for Philip Palmer’s rumbustious tale, we thought it was only fair to share. Click on the following links for more on Hell Ship’s swashbuckling story (UK | ANZ | US ) plus here’s a free extract and reviews follow below … the Sun review is just hilarious in itself!
No one writes SF quite like Palmer… Hell Ship is a freewheeling extravaganza replete with a hundred varieties of alien, vast spacecraft, exotic worlds… aficionados of bizarre space opera will be amazed and delighted”
GUARDIAN
“The triumphs and tragedies of this novel are told in the style of ancient legend. But there is also a sense of irrepressible fun … This is epic science fiction with a twinkle in its eye”
SUN
“I really do recommend Palmer’s work – he’s an unflinching and relentlessly ballsy writer”
SFREVU.COM
“Great storytelling … a joy to read. Great stuff from Philip which proves why he’s fast becoming my favourite science fiction author”
FALCATA TIMES WEBSITE
“Palmer’s imagination knows no bounds … readable and enjoyable”
THEBOOKBAG.CO.UK
“I knew I would love it after reading just a couple of pages … You will be treated to an entertaining tale of heroics, tragedy and selfless sacrifice all written with a gleam in the eye”
IWILLREADBOOKS.COM
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fiction, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
