Author Archive

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages

It’s at last time to release Tom Holt’s Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages (UK | USA | ANZ) into the wilds of the bookosphere. And this  imaginative comedy is pure Tom Holt magic — a tale of our world but not as we know it, featuring pigs and parallel worlds. And look no further than this free extract and handy plot outline  to find out more:

Polly, an average, completely ordinary property lawyer, is convinced she’s losing her mind. Someone keeps drinking her coffee. And talking to her clients. And doing her job. And when she goes to the dry cleaner’s to pick up her dress for the party, it’s not there. Not the dress – the dry cleaner’s. And then there are the chickens who think they are people. Something strange is definitely going on – and it’s going to take more than a magical ring to sort it out.

Tom Holt’s previous books have scored highly when it comes to praise, being called: ‘Clever, funny, tirelessly inventive (Christopher Moore), ‘Dazzling’ (Time Out) and ‘Uniquely twisted’ (Guardian). And here are some reviews in already for the latest book itself:

A great mix of the fantastical and the funny … another great satirical offering from Tom Holt that entertains thoroughly while effortlessly moving between the silly and the smart”
Bookgeeks.co.uk

“Crazy, absurd, complex and hilarious … His writing is in the same mould as that of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde”
TheBookBag.co.uk

“I loved this book … prepare to have a wild ride that doesn’t always make sense, has lots of twists and turns and craziness but is good, clean, mind-bending fun”
LifeWithBooks.com

Orbit acquires IRON DRUID trilogy by Kevin Hearne

Current US covers for Iron Druid series

I’m very pleased to announce that Orbit UK has acquired an imaginative, witty and action-packed new urban fantasy trilogy which is currently getting a huge buzz in the US.

The Iron Druid trilogy by Kevin Hearne is set in Arizona and introduces us to Atticus O’Sullivan. He’s a rare book salesman, herb peddler, and 2,000 year old druid – the last of his kind – who has been on the run for over two millennia from a very angry ancient Celtic god. The books are set in the modern day world, where gods, myths, and magic are very much alive.  The first book HOUNDED primarily features the many Celtic gods; HEXED will focus on Coyote and the Bacchants; HAMMERED will be about a plot against Thor. (Everybody hates Thor.)

Kevin Hearne was also excited about the deal, saying: ‘I’m thrilled to be with Orbit UK and hope people will enjoy this blend of history and legend dropped into the modern world. The rich mythology of the Irish is endlessly fascinating to me, and an allusion to British lore in HOUNDED will eventually become important later in the series as Atticus finds himself in trouble near Windsor Castle.’

I first read the manuscript for HOUNDED in 2009 but it was before I moved to Orbit, and although I loved the story, I couldn’t see a way to make it work on my list back then (I was mainly publishing crime thrillers). When I heard the Iron Druid series was still looking for a UK home I couldn’t believe my luck, and I’m delighted to be bringing Atticus to the UK after all. And since we’re publishing these books this September, October and November, I don’t have long to wait to share them with everyone else here too. You’re in for a treat!

The Man, the Plan, the Challenge – this weekend

THE MAN
Tim Lebbon is an award-winning, New York Times-bestselling writer from South Wales — and he’s looking forward to two big events over the next two months. One, dare I say it, is Orbit’s publication of his amazing gritty fantasy Echo City (UK | ANZ) in July. But the other will be rather more dangerous …

THE PLAN
You might wonder how fantasy writers do their worldbuilding, and Tim Lebbon will be gathering a LOT of new material this weekend. Today, Tim and four of his friends are driving to Fort William in Scotland, ready to begin the Three Peaks Challenge – the challenge being to scale all three peaks in three days. OMG.

The adventure will commence with the ascent of Ben Nevis tomorrow at 5pm, with the team hoping to descend before 11pm. This sounds dangerous enough already to me – mountaineering, in the dark?! But this is only the start. They next drive to Scafell Pike in Cumbria and start that climb early on Sunday morning, head-torches on full-beam. Then it’s on to Snowdon where, if everything goes to plan (…) they’ll finish their descent by 5pm, thus completing the challenge in 24 hours. Tim seemed very sure that no part of the climb would take place on the train either, definitely not. So, the group are aiming to collect some foot-miles of almost 10,000 feet of ascent and descent, with 27 miles walked, as well as about 500 miles in a mini-bus. As I write this, it’s thundering here in London, so fingers crossed for him up north.

(more…)

Surely not Steven Seagal: Near-Future Sci Fi Movies Almost as Good as The Avery Cates Novels

You know, when the Telegraph called my Avery Cates novels “an action movie in print,” my immediate reaction was, of course, anger and suspicion. What kind of action movie did they mean? Jean-Claude Van Damme? Dolph Lundgren? Surely not . . . Steven Seagal?!?!? Bastards. I would have my revenge, I thought.

Then someone forced me to drink several cups of strong black coffee, put me in a warm bath, stroked my hair for a few minutes, and suggested perhaps they meant to reference good action movies. Something from the Bruce Willis oeuvre, perhaps. Or some classic Steve McQueen. I mean, if you’re trying to say that my books are like Steve McQueen jumping the fence on his motorcycle in The Great Escape, well, okay then. Tantrum regretted.

What’s interesting about living in the modern world is that we’re a bunch of people who have never lived without films, for the most part. You can no longer really write a novel without having movie conventions and styles in your head. I have no idea how people imagined things before movies. Even if you somehow avoid imagining things as movie scenes in your head as you write, your readers will no doubt do that heavy lifting for you, friend. You can’t win. All you can do is try to imagine a really good movie version of your story as you write. As opposed to, say, something by Uwe Boll. I know at least that for every line of the THE FINAL EVOLUTION I wrote, something like this was happening in my head:

The Avery Cates novels are set in an unspecified future (more…)

Jaz Parks Finale

I am always sad when a series comes to a close. Doubly so with this one, as I had worked with Jennifer since 2006, when we first acquired the Jaz Parks series, to 2010, when she passed away.  Jennifer was one of the nicest authors to work with — and with a fabulous sense of humor to boot. Her humor, her sense of adventure, and her charm all came across in the Jaz Parks novels.

And with Jaz’s final mission to hell closing out the series in DEADLIEST BITE, I’m sad to let go. But readers will now have the chance to read and enjoy the books — as I have. We also have short fiction stories set in the Jaz Parks world that are available here.

A brief description of the final book:

I have two choices. Carve Brude’s name into Hell’s bile-encrusted gates. Or lose my soul.

After an assassination attempt on Vayl, I find myself pulled into a tangled web that takes the gang to Romania. So how will I save a ghost, rescue a demon, and cheat the Great Taker out of a soul he’s slavering for while defeating my nastiest foe yet so that Vayl can, at last, cherish a few precious years with his sons? With careful planning, major violence, and one (hopefully) final trip to Hell.

BLOOD RITES by Jim Butcher: a Dresden Files reread

Mark Yon has been a reviewer and web administrator at SFFWorld, one of the world’s biggest genre forum sites, for nearly ten years. He has also been on the David Gemmell Awards organisation committee for the last two years. In this series of rereads, Mark will guide us below through the whole of Jim Butcher’s fabulous Dresden Files series as we count down to the new hardback Ghost Story at the end of July.
*************************************************************************************

‘Family. Nothing but an accident of birth. Family is meaningless. It is nothing but the drive of blood to further its own. Random combination of genes. It is utterly insignificant.’
‘Your children don’t think that,’ I said. ‘They think family is important.’
He laughed. ‘Of course they think that. I have trained them to do so. It is a simple and convenient way to control them. (The enemy confronted by Harry.)

After the events of Death Masks, things in Blood Rites get deeper and more personal. This book is largely about  family and relationships (see the snippet above) and these themes, as you might expect by this point in the series, are developed here and exciting changes occur as a result.

The other main thrust of the book is dealing with vampires, and previous readers will remember Harry’s had his problems with them in the past! Yes, we still know he’s responsible for the on-going Cold War between the wizard White Council and the vampire White, Red and Black Courts. But here Harry has his own private issues with vampires to contend with too …

(more…)

THE HEIR OF NIGHT triumphs at the Vogel awards!

I am absolutely delighted to report that Helen Lowe won New Zealand’s premier genre award for Best Novel over the  weekend, with her wonderful epic fantasy adventure The Heir of Night. The award was actually shared this year, as Lyn McConchie’s  The Questing Road also took the top spot, showing the strength of the shortlist. The Sir Julius Vogel awards were announced at the ConText convention and  Helen talks more about the award on her blog — and we couldn’t be more excited for her.

Robin Hobb called this wonderful epic fantasy adventure ‘a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world’. I can’t recommend it highly enough myself and suggest that you get right out and discover all the dark treachery-ness of it for yourselves! Happy reading.

Why London is the perfect setting for post-apocalyptic fiction

Welcome to the Metrozone. To give it its full name, the London Metrozone. Twenty-five million people, set behind a wall of concrete and wire a hundred miles long, reinforced by automatic guns and watchtowers. It has the economy of a prosperous industrialised nation, its citizens come from every corner of the planet and it’s the last city in England.

Things look the same, but different: the Houses of Parliament – disused but safe from flooding behind a massive dam. Marylebone station lies dormant: no more trains to the Midlands, because the Midlands are an irradiated wasteland. Buckingham Palace is still at the end of the Mall, but it’s flagless. Regent’s Park is now home to thousands of refugees in their converted shipping-container houses. England, as a country, has ceased to exist. The only part of it remaining is the Metrozone.

What happened? Armageddon. But the brief, world-changing years of nuclear terrorism are a fading memory. The city remains.

So why pick on London? I mean, what’s it ever done to me? Do I take perverse delight in trashing my capital city, threatening it with flood, fire, war and disease, wrecking the national monuments and destroying millennia of history?

Yes. But that’s not reason enough. Okay, setting a series of novels in a post-apocalyptic London is an obvious choice, simply because it’s the biggest and most well known city on these islands. It has iconic buildings and internationally recognisable landmarks, in a way that Coventry, Aberystwyth or Motherwell don’t. St. Paul’s, the Gherkin, Battersea power station, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge: all are instantly recognisable from thousands of books and hundreds of films by people who live half a world away and will never see London for real. (more…)

DEATH MASKS by Jim Butcher: A Dresden Files reread

Mark Yon has been a reviewer and web administrator at SFFWorld, one of the world’s biggest genre forum sites, for nearly ten years. He has also been on the David Gemmell Awards organisation committee for the last two years. In this series of rereads, Mark will guide us below through the whole of Jim Butcher’s fabulous Dresden Files series as we count down to the new hardback Ghost Story at the end of July.
*************************************************************************************

Book Five of the series and things are still getting darker.

A little more Harry Dresden-focused after the events of Summer Knight, Death Masks is, in some respects, a smaller scale book – there is little reference to the NeverNever, more happenings around Chicago.

The war between the wizard’s White Council and the vampire’s Red Court is continued, but here the attention is clearly on Harry’s role in it all. Harry, in an attempt to settle the war, is challenged to a duel by Paolo Ortega, a reputed member of the vampire Red Court royalty. In the organised fashion that seems to be the way in the world of magic and demons, seconds are called for and the duel is arranged – at Wrigley Stadium in Chicago.

(more…)