www.orbitbooks.net

Following its successful launch in the US in 2007, and a record year for the imprint in the UK, Orbit announces its intention to expand both lists. In the US, Orbit is going to double the size of the list over the next 3 years, taking its title output to 70-80 titles per year by 2011. In the UK, where Orbit is already the biggest SFF imprint, it will increase the size of the list by approximately 10% each year over the next three years. (more…)

We’ve teamed up with Chris, The Book Swede for this one: another incredibly simple-to-enter email sweepstake, with a copy of Blood Ties [UK / US] - the first part of Pamela Freeman’s Castings Trilogy - up for grabs by one lucky winner.

The book is out now in the US but won’t be be published next month in the UK. So if you’re a UK reader then this is a great chance to get your hands on an early copy… signed by the author, no less! And the Book Swede has also reviewed the novel, concluding: “Blood Ties is an excellent book, fun, clever, and well written, with distinctive characterisations, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next book in the series!”

Full entry terms and conditions are available over on the Book Swede’s blog. Good luck!

The UK’s biggest sci-fi magazine, SFX, has posted a four-star review of Midnight Never Come [UK / US], the new novel by Marie Brennan, out now from Orbit UK, and published next month by Orbit US.

The book, which is set towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, impressed reviewer Eddie Robson with its mix of an authentic Elizabethan atmopshere and darker, fae elements: “…firmly rooted in real history, set in a convincingly-constructed Elizabethan England, but with a secret faerie court existing beneath London. Its ruler, Invidiana, is a cruel capricious sort, whose subjects live in dread of her schemes and whims.”

Eddie also enjoyed Midnight Never Come’s highly-intriguing plot: “…refreshingly for this genre, [it’s] a political thriller, with conspiracies, spies and shady machinations … The novel starts slowly, concentrating first on world-building and putting pieces on the board, but it keeps you hooked until the plot really kicks in.”

Midnight Never Come is out now in the UK and will be published next month in the US. To read the full review, pick up a copy of the June 2008 edition of SFX Magazine.

Anyone who’s read EMPRESS – or any of the early reviews of the novel – will know that it’s a book with a very unsympathetic central character (and that there aren’t a lot of hugs to go around at the end.)

Over at Grasping for the Wind, John Ottinger talks to Karen about how the book upends the expectations of epic fantasy:

GFTW: Although Hekat is a sympathetic character at the beginning of the novel, we have come to dislike her very much by the end. How were you able to write a character that rather than having an upward spiral toward a “happily ever after” instead moved on a downward spiral filled with selfishness and hate?”

Read Karen’s responses here.

You can read the first chapter of EMPRESS here.

Welcome to another quick round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors:

If you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

Another online giveaway to tell you about: this time, we’ve teamed up with Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review to give away a pair of Mike Carey novels - his first two ‘Felix Castor’ titles, The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle, to be precise - and all you have to do to enter the sweepstake is send an email to Graeme by May 6th.

For details, see the competition post at www.graemesfantasybookreview.com.

Tom Holt’s latest work of comic genius, The Better Mousetrap, is out today and to mark the occasion, Tom was kind enough to write a piece for our blog. Hope you all enjoy and be sure to look out for The Better Mousetrap, in stores now!

Suppose, just suppose, you actually could travel faster than light -

There would be problems, of course. For one thing, you wouldn’t be able to see where you’re going, which means you’d run an unacceptably high risk of bumping into something solid, like an asteroid, or unpleasantly warm, like a star. For another, you’d arrive before you left, with the inevitable result that, no matter how meticulous you might be about planning your journey, you’d always arrive at your destination to find that you’d left the tickets or the hotel reservations at home. And, of course, there’d be all the aggravation with your luggage. It’s bad enough travelling sublight and finding that your spongebag and nightwear have wound up on a different tectonic plate. Factor in a fourth dimension, and the possibilities are as infinite as the multiverse itself.

But just suppose. Time travel; piece of cake. When do you want to go today?

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Over at The Book Swede’s blog, Chris talks to Orbit author Marie Brennan about her forthcoming novel of Elizabethan faerie intrigue, Midnight Never Come, which we’re delighted to say is out now in the UK and will be published next month in the US.

Marie talks about her Shakespearean inspiration, the detailed historical research that went into every aspect of the novel’s background and back-story, her favourite folk tales and much more.

Read the full interview over at thebookswede.blogspot.com and catch up with Marie’s blog at her LiveJournal page.

Tonight the winner of the 2008 Arthur C Clarke awards will be announced and, while we know who we’re rooting for, we thought what better way to celebrate than to give away a book by the great man himself! Up for grabs is a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey* by Arthur C Clarke, complete with a foreword by Stephen Baxter, one of this year’s shortlisted authors.

To enter, send your name with the title line “Arthur C Clarke” to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk. The winner will be chosen at random two weeks from today (May 14th). Good luck!

* This link doesn’t take you to the edition we’re giving away, but to the paperback copy that’s available to buy now.

This Saturday’s annual Alt.Fiction event in Derby was a fantastic example of just how vibrant and lively the UK genre scene currently is. A panel-packed day offered readings from some of the UK’s top genre talent - including Orbit’s very own Charles Stross, Mike Carey, Philip Palmer (who has posted his own Alt.Fiction write-up) and Brian Ruckley (who has likewise posted his impressions of the day) - as well as discussion sessions and workshops on a variety of writing and publishing-related topics.

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Orbit in the US is seeking an editor to join its fabulous publishing team, based in New York. All details are here.

Over at Wired’s GeekDad blog John Baichtal reviews Matter and writes:

“Of all the books I’ve read of ultrapowerful galactic civilizations, this one does it best. Incredible tech and a huge scope, yet telling a very human story that stands out among the vastness.”

Check out the whole review here.

Here at Orbit Towers we’re all absolutely delighted that Halting State [UK] by Charles Stross has been shortlisted in the ‘SF Novel’ category of this year’s Locus Awards.

In addition, Mr Stross has also been shortlisted in the Novelette category for ‘Trunk and Disorderly’ and Ken MacLeod has been shortlisted in the Best Short Story category for ‘Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?’

The Awards were voted for via online poll and the winners will already be known to the organisers, but won’t be announced until the Locus Awards Ceremony takes place in Seattle on June 12th. We’ll be keeping our fingers very firmly crossed for Charles and Ken until then!

Best of luck, chaps!

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has a great piece on Jeff Somers’ The Digital Plague (UK/US) today, where he calls it:

Last year I was lucky enough to get hold of a copy of Jeff Somers’ debut ‘The Electric Church’, a gritty ‘dystopian future’ thriller that (while by no means perfect) I had a lot of fun with and left me eagerly waiting for the sequel. Well, it’s ‘sequel time’! :o) Actually, it isn’t ‘sequel time’, it’s ‘great sequel time’…Highly recommended to anyone who likes their sci-fi mean, streetwise and drenched in bullets!

You can read the full review here.

Here’s a quick round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors, that we’ve found - or have been brought to our attention - this week:

If you spot an interesting online article featuring an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

We’re publishing The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers in both the UK and US next month, but in the meantime we’ve teamed up once again with Pat St Denis of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist to give away two copies of the book in an email sweepstake.

Simply visit the Hotlist and follow the instructions to email in your entry. Good luck!

This Saturday, April 26th, the cream of the UK genre fiction crop will be heading to Derby’s Assembly Rooms for the third annual Alt.Fiction Festival.

Alt.Fiction is a one-day convention that brings together sf/f/h authors, readers and publishers for a series of panel sessions, workshops, readings and more. Think Eastercon or Fantasycon, condensed into a single day and organised to within an inch of its life by Alex Davis and his team of willing and enthusiastic volunteers from Derby City Council, and you’ll get the picture.

This year, several Orbit authors will be in attendance, including Mike Carey, Philip Palmer, Brian Ruckley and Charles Stross. The four of them will be appearing on various panels and reading sessions throughout the day; you can see which ones by checking out the schedule of events.

And yes, that is yours truly on a panel at 12.00 on the topic of ‘Writing and the Internet’, alongside Simon Spurrier and Hub Magazine editor Lee Harris. Hecklers welcome!

Tickets for Alt.Fiction are on-sale now at a very reasonable £20 from the Derby Assembly Rooms website.

To celebrate the launch of Pamela Freeman’s Blood Ties, we’ve put together a stonecasting widget that may just know what the future holds in store for you! (and yes, if you cast more than once you may get a different fortune, but we have it on a stonecaster’s authority that only the first throw counts) You can read an extract from Blood Ties here.

Over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Patrick posts one of the first reviews of Bloodheir, book two in Brian Ruckley’s Godless World Trilogy, and concludes: “Without the shadow of a doubt, it should be one of the fantasy books to read in 2008.”

U.S. readers can find the mass market edition of book one, Winterbirth, in stores next week. Bloodheir will be out in both the US and the UK in June.

The April issue of Locus magazine carries its annual “British Book Summary” – a report on SFF publishing in the UK. I admire and appreciate Locus’s amazingly comprehensive reporting on all things SFF-y from around the world, but as somebody in the publishing industry I have to say that this survey always bothers me. (more…)