With sinister echoes of 1984 and Brave New World, this original novel features a near-future city where medical science invents a single-dose pill for eradicating many common genetic defects . . .
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Released in February is The Legend of Eli Monpress( US | UK | ANZ) - Rachel Aaron‘s fantasy tale of the incorrigible thief who plans to pull of the greatest heist in history . . . If you’re a fan of K. E. Mills’ Rogue Agent series or Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora then this is likely right up your street. You can sample the delights of an extract right here.
This edition contains the three titles The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater – all in one handy volume and topped off with this gorgeous packaging from Sam Weber (see this great post here showing him at work in his studio on these very illustrations).
Take a minute to stop by Rachel Aaron’s attractive new site, where’s she’s posted some very interesting tidbits recently, such as this fantastic book trailer put together by our friends at Orbit France for the très sophistiquée French version of The Legend of Eli Monpress. Also, check out this extremely creative pictorial review for The Spirit Thief, part one of the Legend. Good effort!
Having a long series of books (aka more than a trilogy) is a lot of fun, because over time, just as the reader does, you get a better feel for the character, and it definitely comes out in the cover art. Craig White has been really hitting his stride with Sabina Kane, I feel like each cover has more and more personality. The great photo shoots by Shirley Green with Toni Busker as our model certainly help. Toni is a veteran of many geek projects, and she is super fun to work with as she is always game for climbing about and playing with all kinds of weapons…Actually you may recognize her as a mermaid in the recent Pirates of the Caribbean #4. If that’s not geek cred for a cover model, I don’t know what is.
So, back to the cover at hand – as you can see, Sabina is back and prowling in NYC, and after the jump you can get a little teaser, along with the covers in order…
Up until a week ago, I was really looking forward to the UK release of The Heir of Night (The Wall of Night, Book One) today and was busy making plans around how to best celebrate on my blog. But I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, and just over one week ago we were hit by a massive and destructive earthquake. Although fortunate enough to survive, and very well off compared to many, it does not seem like the right time for the usual release day celebrations.
The road to publication—from the original idea, through giving effect to it on paper, the production process and finally printing and distribution—is a long one and release day is the obvious time to celebrate your book finally getting to the shelves and the public, and party up. But release day also gives you the opportunity simply to hold the book in your hands and enjoy the tangible sense of completion that gives you, even if there is no opportunity for fanfare.
And I do love this UK edition of the book: the starkness of the black-on-red colour scheme and the way the cover image captures both the strength and vulnerability of the central character of Malian, the Heir of Night. Most of all though, holding The Heir of Night in the context of the last week’s terrible events has made me reflect on the story being told inside the dramatic cover. The Heir of Night is epic fantasy, and in this case, an epic that speculates on both the grand sweep of events and their catastrophic consequences for the individuals and societies caught up in them. Love and hate, fear and courage, struggle, friendship and people choosing to support or undermine each other—this may be epic fantasy, but it is also absolutely the stuff of real life as it has played out in Christchurch over the past week.
It was great to have two of our highly talented international Orbit authors, Karen Miller and N. K. Jemisin, over in the UK recently. At their joint signing at London’s Forbidden Planet store, we put a few questions to these two fantabulous femmes of fantasy fiction. Take a look below to hear their views on the role of the fantasy genre and to hear about some unusual fan reactions . . .
The Crowded Shadows (UK | US), book two in Celine Kiernan’s Moorehawke trilogy, is officially out in the UK today ( following the US date) and there’s a free extract here. Then in October we’ll release The Rebel Prince (UK | US) in both the UK and US, so the author has a packed few months coming up. But despite this, Celine has kindly said she’ll visit our blog over the next few weeks to say a few words about her work, writing fantasy, wolves and other things not necessarily beginning with ‘w’. Her first post was an insight into illustration, Celine being a classical character animator by trade.
Celine told us that a few years ago she had a shoebox filled with the usual myriad rejection slips that all writers collect. Holding down two jobs with two children, she would secretly write at night. But much hard work later she’s now the proud owner of a finished trilogy with some very shiny covers! She’s also accumulated two nominations for the Irish Book awards and a raft of great reviews for The Poison Throne (UK | US), book 1 of the trilogy:
‘Marvellous, vivid writing, and storytelling at its absolute best . . . I was utterly engrossed’ Roddy Doyle
‘Atmospheric, complex, and intense … this epic starts strong and doesn’t falter one iota’ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
‘All the ingredients of an international bestseller: political skulduggery, passion, violence, loyalty and betrayal’ Irish Independent
‘Told with great assurance … this is an exciting, fast-paced story’ SFX
‘Kiernan will stun you with her debut … sure to captivate’ Romantic Times
‘A complex and original story… Kiernan has created a world that fascinates’ Bookgeeks.co.uk
So, with further books hitting shelves internationally over the next few months, we’ll look forward to hearing more from the the author over the next few weeks. Watch this space!
Celine Kiernan is not only a talented author but also a gifted animator and illustrator — and she has done the most incredible illustration of her main protagonist Wynter Moorehawke for us. We have six super-limited edition prints, on cream canvas, to give away to readers. Email orbit@littlebrown.co.uk with your name and address to enter the draw, and get a chance to win this really incredible original artwork!
And if you have any interesting pictures of The Crowded Shadows (UK | US) in the wild to share with us (for example, at your local bookstore or courtesy of your own PhotoShop mash-up parlour) they would be gratefully received at the same email as above.
If you haven’t seen her post, Celine’s description of how she approaches illustrating is fascinating. And the animation of this Wynter drawing taking shape before your eyes in seconds is just amazing. And to see it again, click HERE.
It’s been a while since I posted on the Orbit blog. Running three separate websites of my own has kinda sapped my blogging energies. However, Aussie Con 4 is just around the corner, and down here we’re very excited to be getting the opportunity to meet visiting Orbit-ites Charlie Stross, Kate Elliot, Mira Grant, Gail Carriger, Helen Lowe, and of course Kim Stanley Robinson.
So … I’m delighted to say that Mira Grant has guest blogged at my main site on pseudonyms and things. Charlie Stross has promised me a post when he’s finished eating “yesterday’s stone cold vomit” (*Facebook reference on edits). And I’m about to email Gail, Kate and Helen (fell free to beat me to it gals!) in the hope that they’ll also drop by and say hello.
I know I skipped a week (I’ve been busy working on the Spring/Summer 2011 season), so to make up for it I give you not only a cover launch but also a fun behind-the-scenes video I made at the photo shoot for the collected edition of Lilith Saintcrow’s Dante Valentine Series.
I know a lot of you are already familiar with the five books of the Dante Valentine series, and as a fan myself, I was excited to get a chance to try a new look for Dante. The original series covers were very cool and graphic, but we felt for the relaunch with the Omnibus edition we wanted to go for a whole new look, and it would be fun to get a chance to actually personify Dante in the flesh. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh, I am a very happy camper. Would you like to know why? Shall I tell you? Indeed I shall. This is why: my amazing, fantabulous wonderful designers at Orbit have sent me the cover art for The Rebel Prince: Book Three of the Moorehawke Trilogy. So, I now have all three covers to smile over and stroke fondly, and call my very own.
I must say I. LOVE. THESE. COVERS. I love everything about them. I love Steve Stone’s wonderful art work – in particular that fact that he didn’t just pick a generic fantasy boy and girl for the first and last covers but actually made them look like Wynter and Alberon ( Not having read The Rebel Prince, he even went to the trouble of contacting me to ask what Alberon looked like!) Steve’s artwork rocks. Go! Now! Run to his website and check out all the great covers he’s done. Read the rest of this entry »
- - January 31st, 2012
Released in February is The Legend of Eli Monpress ( US | UK | ANZ) - Rachel Aaron‘s fantasy tale of the incorrigible thief who plans to pull of the greatest heist in history . . . If you’re a fan of K. E. Mills’ Rogue Agent series or Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora then this is likely right up your street. You can sample the delights of an extract right here.
The Crowded Shadows (
Oh, I am a very happy camper. Would you like to know why? Shall I tell you? Indeed I shall. This is why: my amazing, fantabulous wonderful designers at Orbit have sent me the cover art for The Rebel Prince: Book Three of the Moorehawke Trilogy. So, I now have all three covers to smile over and stroke fondly, and call my very own.