Author Archive

What kind of fantasy do you write?

For that matter, what kinds of fantasy do *I* write?

Many of the panels at the World Fantasy Convention this year were about specific categories of fantasy:  for example, Fairytale, Epic, Urban, and Sword and Sorcery.  Naturally all those panels tried to define their particular subgenre, frequently showing that there’s significant disagreement about what constitutes any particular type of fantasy.

During the Sword and Sorcery Panel, Patricia Bray specifically urged attendees to look up The Griffin Mage trilogy and made several flattering comments about it. And it was a packed panel, so many thanks, Patricia!

But I wouldn’t have thought of The Griffin Mage trilogy as Sword and Sorcery.  Later, thinking about what subgenre I’d personally put The Griffin Mage in . . . well, I’m still not sure. Of course the sub-categories of fantasy blend into one another, but here goes an attempt to sort them out: (more…)

Cover Launch: THE EDINBURGH DEAD

Edinburgh Dead CoverThe Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley hits shelves August 2011. This project was exceptionally interesting for me. The book is a historical fantasy that takes place in 1827 Edinburgh, Scotland. It follows an officer of the recently formed city police who is on the trail of undead hounds, emptied graves, brutal murders, and a criminal underclass involved with the darkest of powers.

The photo illustration, by Larry Rostant, is a beautiful and haunting cinematic look into the story. We made the main character front and center with very specific details hinting at the plot without being campy or having to spoon feed the audience. (more…)

Space Monsters! The Interstellar Void! Coffee & Muffins!

US readers! From November 23 to December 7, the full text of Greg Bear’s HULL ZERO THREE will be available for free on the just-launched Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! The novel will also be available in hardcover and ebook editions in bookstores.

The Starbucks Digital Network offers customers access to premium, free content on the in-store Wi-Fi network. Customers will be able to access the complete text of HULL ZERO THREE on their laptops, tablets, and many smart phones.

Stop by your local Starbucks, put in your order, have a seat, open your laptop, log on. You’ll find HULL ZERO THREE in the Bookish Reading Club on the network’s Entertainment channel.

WARNING: While reading, maintain a firm grip on your coffee at all times in case of unexpected gravitational anomalies.

HULL ZERO THREE is Science Fiction legend Greg Bear’s highly anticipated return to deep space. Publishers Weekly called it: “a beautifully written tale where nothing is as it seems,” and Locus Magazine says HULL ZERO THREE is “a testament of faith both in human beings and in something beyond them.”

The Walking Dead 1.03 with Jesse Petersen

Jesse Petersen is the author of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES and the forthcoming FLIP THIS ZOMBIE. Like many of us here at Orbit HQ, she’s also a fan of The Walking Dead on AMC. She’ll be offering recaps of each week’s episode here every Monday. This post will contain SPOILERS (also zombies). For previous recaps see 1.01 and 1.02

Hello again, Undead Army! I’m so excited to watch this episode of “The Walking Dead” since I think the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan. If you don’t remember, when we last left off Rick had found some other survivors in Atlanta who helped him escape the zombie horde AND it turned out they were part of the very same band that his own wife, son and former partner are living with. Wife Lori is still getting it on with former partner Shane (and being a little bit unlikeable in the process) and Rick and the gang are heading back to camp even as we speak. Here we go: (more…)

Love the One You’re With

This being November, I’ve been wasting my internet time on my favorite pre-holiday activity: lurking on the NaNoWriMo forums. In fact, if you post in the fantasy section, I’ve probably read your description of your story in 15 words or less or your critique of the above user’s excerpt.  Reading the NaNoWriMo fantasy forums is an exercise in masochism on my part because they make me so freaking mad. Allow me to give you an example. Nine times out of ten, when you navigate over to the forum to see what’s new, you will find some variation of the following:

  • Top ten most hated fantasy cliches
  • How do you avoid cliches?
  • Help! I’m worried my novel is too cliched! T__T
  • How my novel is going to lift fantasy out of the stinking pile of cliche we all know it is

Ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. (more…)

Nano advice: Break the rules…

I’m back to talk about National Novel Writing Month some more. This time, instead of complaining on the internet about how mean everyone is—because that’s productive—I figured I’d take a shot at giving advice. This, of course means, that I will get to be the target of enraged tweeting and, with any luck, at least one table-thumping LiveJournal post.

Anyhow, as with last week, this is all with the caveat that any advice I have is targeted towards Fantasy and Science Fiction writers, because that’s what I know and that’s what I love, and this is the Orbit blog, so, frankly, you’re probably a SFF fan anyways. Also, this is all from the perspective of someone who hasn’t written anything longer than an editorial letter since college. So, advice from an editor. Not even advice, let’s say it’s some things you may want to think about if you have a moment between pounding out thousands upon thousands of words a day. (more…)

Best in Class for N. K. Jemisin!

N.K. Jemisin is blowing up in 2010! Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was released to widespread acclaim.

“The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms… is an impressive debut, which revitalizes the trope of empires whose rulers have gods at their fingertips.— io9.com

“The very best kind of sequel: as lush and evocative and true as the first, with all the same sense of mystery, giving us the world and characters we already love, and yet with a new story and a wonderfully new perspective on the whole dazzling world and pantheon the author has built.”
— Naomi Novik on The Broken Kingoms

Now, the best of lists are coming in and it seems the critical attention was well deserved!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is #5 on the Amazon’s Top 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy list!

And both The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and the sequel, The Broken Kingdoms, are on  Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2010 list!

Check out both at bookstores or online retailers near you. . .



Publishers Weekly: Three Orbit Titles in 2010’s SF/F Top Five

We’re very happy to announce that in a remarkable showing, three of the five books selected by Publishers Weekly as the best science fiction/fantasy titles of 2010 are published by Orbit — THE BONE PALACE by Amanda Downum, FEED by Mira Grant, and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS/THE BROKEN KINGDOMS (a two-for-one deal!) by N.K. Jemisin.

Congratulations to our authors!! And if you haven’t yet gotten around to these books — happy reading!

Greg Bear on How Videogames Affect Writing

Greg Bear, author of the upcoming Hull Zero Three, talks about the relationship between videogames and writing over on kotaku.com. And, he settles the age old debate (that age being about five years ago) “are games art?”

Roger Ebert has said that video games cannot be art. Similar judgments have been made over the decades and centuries about novels, plays, movies, television, comic books, and of course science fiction.Now, videogames are up in front of the Supreme Court. Once again a new and innovative form of art and entertainment is being put through an almost ritualized process of legal justification.

My take? The Supreme Court will decide video games are protected speech. And video games are definitely capable of being art.

It’s definitely worth the read and includes some interesting tidbits about the upcoming book. Check it out!

Hull Zero Three will be available on November 22.