We are delighted that two Orbit titles have been shortlisted for this year’s Kitschies - awards that celebrate the most ‘progressive, intelligent and entertaining works of genre literature’, run by the excellent Pornokitsch website.

Jesse Bullington’s The Enterprise of Death is a finalist for the Red Tentacle for best novel, and the cover for Simon Morden’s Equations of Life is a finalist for the Inky Tentacle for best cover.  Congratulations to Jesse and our very own designer Lauren Panepinto!

To celebrate we want to give you the opportunity to read these great books and judge for yourselves.  We have 10 copies of each to give away.  Just fill in your details below and we’ll pick the winner in two weeks time, the day before the winners are announced at the SFX Weekender 3 Kitschies Award Ceremony (sponsored by Kraken Rum, making it even more certain to be a great event).

Please read the full terms and conditions.

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That’s five sets of the following titles:

THE FALLEN BLADE by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S. A. Corey
THE DRAGON’S PATH by Daniel Abraham
THE EDINBURGH DEAD by Brian Ruckley
SEVEN PRINCES by John R. Fultz (New! Publishing this Jan. 2012)

The competition is open to the UK and US.  Full terms and conditions below.  Complete the following form for your chance to win one of the sets!

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. This prize draw is for one set of books as listed above.
2. The Winner will be selected at random from the entries received in accordance with these terms and conditions by Orbit marketing, whose decision will be final.
3. The Winner may see their name posted on the Orbit website, newsletter and possibly other websites and Twitter accounts.
4. There is no purchase necessary to enter.
5. The prize draw opens at 12:01am GMT on 12th December and closes at 11:59pm GMT on 12th January. Any entries received outside these specified times and dates will not be eligible for entry into the competition.
6. The prize draw is open to anyone aged 16 or over who resides in the UK or US, except employees of Little, Brown Book Group, their families, or anyone professionally connected to the competition either themselves or through their families.
7. Only one entry per person allowed. Second or subsequent entries will be disqualified. Entries will not be accepted via agents, third parties or in bulk.
8. Little, Brown Book Group is not responsible for contacting or forwarding prizes to entrants who provide unclear or incomplete information or for entries lost, misdirected, delayed or destroyed.
9. Little, Brown Book Group reserves the right to alter the prizes or cancel the prize draw without notice. No cash alternatives to prizes will be provided.
10. The Winner will be emailed directly.
11. Little, Brown Book Group will only use email addresses of the entrants, and the Winners’ postal addresses, in compliance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and in accordance with our privacy policy. The emails from the entrants, and from the Winner with their postal addresses (including any other record of the address), will be deleted respectively after the end on the competition and after the prize has been posted.
12. By entering the competition each entrant agrees to be bound by these terms and conditions.
13. This competition is being organised by Little, Brown Book Group 100 Victoria Embankment EC4Y 0DY London, UK.

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Orbit UK have gathered together some of our authors with books publishing this June-Aug, and are holding a BIG SUMMER SIGNING!

Come to Forbidden Planet, London on Saturday 30th July, 3-4pm, to meet…

TIM LEBBON, PHILIP PALMER, SIMON MORDEN and NICOLE PEELER

Four brilliant authors, loads of fantastic books and an entire shop worth of other exciting distractions.  What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?

Full details on the Forbidden Planet events page, here.

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* Friday 3rd June: Alt.Fiction, Leicester

Phoenix Square, 7pm – more information

* Sunday 5th June: Hay Festival, Wales

Elmley Foundation Theatre, 7pm – more information

* Monday 6th June: British Library, London

Utopias and Other Worlds, 6.30pm – more information

* Tuesday 7th June:Birmingham SF Group

Birmingham Library Theatre, 7pm – more information

* Saturday 11th June: The Sage Gateshead

Presented with New Writing North, 7pm – more information

Tickets are needed for all events.

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Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Ken MacLeod will be taking part in a panel discussion on ‘Science Fiction and International Orders’ at the London School of Economics on Thursday 17th February.  The event will look at what scholars in the social sciences can learn from the imagined worlds of science fiction and fantasy.  Tickets are free but must be registered for here and the event is from1.15-2.45pm.

Full details can be found here.

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‘The Windup Girl embodies what SF does best of all: it remakes reality in compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking ways, and it lives on vividly in the mind’ – Guardian

‘Vigorous and compelling… the action scenes, related in taut, breathless prose, can be stunning.  Tremendous entertainment’ – Independent on Sunday

‘Pitch-perfect writing… It’s science-fiction as warnings of the future, as social commentary, and as just bloody good storytelling… SF at its very best’ – SFX

‘Deserves all of the critical adulation already heaped upon it… one of the finest SF books we’ve read’ – SciFi Now

‘One of the best debut novels of recent years’ – Salon Futura

International praise

‘Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson: this is cyberpunk without computers’ – Time Magazine

‘Clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year’ – Publishers Weekly

‘An exciting story about industrial espionage, civil war, and political struggle, filled with heart-thudding action sequences, sordid sex, and enough technical speculation for two lesser novels’ Cory Doctorow

‘It’s ridiculous how good this book is’ Techland

‘Postmodern Bangkok springs to life in Bacigalupi’s brilliant dystopian tale of culture clash, recalling the best of China Mieville and Neal Stephenson’ Library Journal

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Jon Courtenay Grimwood‘s latest novel hits the shelves today, and marks a major change of genre for the critically acclaimed science fiction author.  The Fallen Blade is a meticulously researched and extremely compelling fantasy thriller, set in an alternate 15th century Venice – a city in the grip of corrupt politics, a decadent age, and under threat from a mysterious assassin… 

So far the consensus is that Jon definitely hasn’t lost his touch, and that this is not your average vampire novel!

‘A fantastic evocation of Renaissance Venice, both the atmosphere and architecture of the city, the beauty of the culture it gave birth to and the merciless, brutally violent and Machiavellian politics that ran alongside it … Grimwood has made [a] fusion of genre energy and literary depth his calling card.’ – Damien G. Walter, Guardian Online

‘Conjures up Venice so vividly you can almost smell it… Impressive, but not nearly so impressive as the way Grimwood draws Tycho, essentially a vampire teenager subject to fierce emotion because he doesn’t even realise yet that he craves blood.  He’s a figure both frightening and yet also, at different moments, pitiable and even downright noble…  Reinventing the Vampire myth. Never, ever let it be said that Jon Courtenay Grimwood lacks for ambition.’ - Jonathan Wright, SFX 

‘Sick to death of vampires?  Take heed, because Grimwood’s take on the subject is leagues away from your average fangbanger… The writing is elegant, the dialogue is sharp, the characters economically but well drawn, the action unrelenting, and the story moves – to pardon a phrase – like shit off a shovel…  Hits all the right notes.’  - Alastair Reynolds, SciFi Now

‘It’s too early to start dealing in hyperbole about fantasy books of the year, so let’s just say this one is a very good start.  It’s a novel you can gorge yourself on; a fast-paced, swashbuckling adventure of the old school, full of fire and brimstone thrills and rich flavours.  Yet, unlike many such page-turners, it doesn’t leave a bad aftertaste.  Rather, it leaves plenty to ponder… I’d recommend this book to anyone.’ - Sam Jordison, Salon Futura

Events

Signing at Forbidden Planet, London this evening (Thurs 3rd Feb) with Kate Griffin, 6pm

SFX Weekender – various panels and signing, Sat 5th Feb

Discussion event at the London School of Economics with Ken MacLeod, Thurs Sat 17th Feb

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Kate Griffin and Jon Courtenay Grimwood will both be signing at Forbidden Planet London on Thursday 3rd Feb to launch their new books: The Neon Court and The Fallen Blade.  Shaftesbury Avenue, 6-7pm.

They will also both be at the SFX Weekender in Camber Sands for panels on Saturday 5th Feb. Here’s their schedule:

11am: Main Void - Essential SF, fantasy and horror classics - with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Joe Abercrombie, David Wingrove, Peter F Hamilton, Adrian Tchaicovsky and Kevin J Anderson.

11.45: Screening Zone - Dual Brittania: creating alternate Englands - with Kate Griffin, China Mieville, Al Ewing and Stephen Baxter.

12.30: Main Void - What’s next for TV vampires?  Pitching a new vampire show - with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Toby Whithouse and Sarah Pinborough.

(Exact schedule and line-ups all subject to possible change)

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Iain’s first event on the eve of publication at the Round House was a sell out, and he answered the audience’s questions for nearly 2 hours!  Then on Thursday he signed for a great crowd at Forbidden Planet.

If you haven’t managed to attend any of the events so far, Forbidden Planet, Blackwells in London and Foyles all have signed first editions of Surface Detail (though probably not for long!)

And the tour doesn’t end there…

@Waterstones are doing a twinterview with Iain on Tues 19th October - tweet them your questions!  #mbanks

Waterstone’s Edinburgh, Tues 12th October

Waterstone’s Glasgow, Wed 13th

Waterstone’s Deansgate, Thurs 14th

Morley Literature Festival in Leeds, Fri 15th

Cheltenham Literature Festival, Sat 16th and Sun 17th

Waterstone’s Salisbury, Mon 18th

Luton Central Library, Tues 19th

The Chepstow Bookshop, Wed 20th

City Books in Bexhill, Thurs 21st

Toppings Bath, Mon 1st November

Forbidden Planet Bristol, Tues 2nd (plus they’ll have signed copies of Surface Detail for BristolCon a few days later)

Toppings Ely, Tues 2nd

Heffer’s Cambridge, Wed 3rd

Waterstone’s Norwich, Wed 3rd

Guest of Honour at Novacon, 12th-14th Nov

Lennoxlove Book Festival, 21st Nov

Waterstone’s Sterling, 27th Nov

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It all kicks off with a signing at 5.30pm so do come along to meet our great authors!  There are VIP drinks and a panel event after and SFX are running a competition to win tickets to this.

Even if you can’t make it, why not check out their latest books…

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