Category: Orbit UK
- James Long - January 23rd, 2012
At Orbit we’re big fans of World Book Night, so are delighted to see so many SFF titles appear in the final UK shortlist for this year’s event on 23 April 2012 – especially since one of the selected titles is THE PLAYER OF GAMES, by our very own Iain M. Banks. The final US shortlist is here.
THE PLAYER OF GAMES is a standalone title in Iain’s hugely successful Culture series of novels, and follows the adventures of Jernau Morat Gurgeh – the Player of Games, master of every board, computer and strategy.
Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad to take part in the ultimate game with the ultimate prize: the throne of Azad itself. But it’s a game in which blackmail and murder are part of the rules, and very soon Gurgeh finds himself in the most dangerous game of his life.
The inclusion of THE PLAYER OF GAMES on the World Book Night UK shortlist represents a unique opportunity to introduce thousands of new readers to the wonders of science fiction – and what better way to do it than by giving away copies of one of the finest works by a true master of the genre.
If you’re based in the UK, you can sign up to be a ‘giver’ for THE PLAYER OF GAMES on World Book Night UK by visiting the official website. You’ll be given 24 free copies of the book to distribute throughout your community as you choose, spreading the love of reading and of incredible books. If you’d like to be a part of this amazing event, be sure to sign up by the deadline of 1 February 2012!
Join us in showing the world the wonders of Iain M. Banks and science fiction!
by James Long • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit UK, World Book Night 2012
- Rose Tremlett - January 20th, 2012
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.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
by Rose Tremlett • 3 Comments • Posted in: Art, Awards, Contests, Covers, Giveaway, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Jenni Hill - January 20th, 2012
We released Jaye Wells’ new urban fantasy novel SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL (UK/ANZ/US) this month, and to celebrate this and the fact that there’s a lot of love on the Orbit team for all the urban fantasy heroines out there, we created a quiz to give you the chance to test your knowledge against us!
Can you guess which urban fantasy heroines uttered the quotes below? If you recognise one, comment with the number of the quote and the name of the leading lady who uttered it. Try to be the first to get them right! No googling, because that’s just cheating!
We had a lot of fun coming up with these quotes, and we hope you have fun guessing too . . .
- “I took one more thing to bed with me, a stuffed toy penguin named Sigmund. I don’t sleep with him often, just every once in a while after someone tries to kill me.”
- (“What up, peeps?”) I looked at the hairless cat for a moment. “‘What up, peeps?’ You’ve been watching MTV again, haven’t you?” (“Word.”)
- “If the Apocalypse comes, beep me.”
- “This feels a little bit like what a vampire bar would look like if it were a ride at Disney World.”
- “Another werewolf thing. Like most animals, we spent a large part of our lives engaged in the three Fs of basic survival. Feeding, fighting and… reproduction.”
- “She’s a thousand-year-old vampire who’s joined the cheerleading squad. There’s a whole different set of rules in play here.”
- “So here’s the plan. I’ll get us tickets to New Orleans, we’ll go save the world from abstract evil, and afterward we’ll hang out in the French Quarter for a couple of weeks and blow off steam.”
- “I was dragged through Hell, betrayed by my god, left in Jersey, and finished up nearly being drowned by a demon with a bad haircut.”
- “Lycans are allergic to silver. We have to get the bullets out quickly, or they end up dying on us during questioning.” (“What happens to them afterward?”) “We put the bullets back in.”
- “So in the sweltering heat of a July night, I sang a Christmas carol to a room full of fae, who had been driven out of their homelands by Christians and their cold-iron swords.”
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“But the next noise to echo through the hall was one I was pretty sure I recognized. It was the unmistakable sound of the sh*t hitting the fan.”
Clue: There are some TV heroines, some film, and some from novels, both Orbit books and non Orbit books.
EDIT: It’s 26th January 2012 and we’re providing the answers to this quiz, here they are now . . . Read the rest of this entry »
by Jenni Hill • 13 Comments • Posted in: Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Ellen Wright - January 19th, 2012
The Mystery Writers of America announced their nominees for the 2012 Edgar Award this morning, and Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Company Man (US | UK | ANZ) will be on the ballot for ‘Best Paperback Original’!
This comes on the heels of The Company Man‘s Philip K. Dick Award nomination, and almost exactly a month before the release of Robert’s new novel, The Troupe (US | UK | ANZ). The Troupe follows 16-year-old piano prodigy George Carole and the mysterious vaudeville troupe he runs away to join, whose performances have a strange effect on their audiences. George gradually realizes the troupe is not simply touring: they are running for their lives.
by Ellen Wright • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Fantasy, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Jenni Hill - January 19th, 2012
Helen Lowe’s brilliant debut fantasy novel, THE HEIR OF NIGHT (UK|ANZ), comes out today in mass market paperback.
A DARK ENEMY. AN ANCIENT WAR. A NEW CHAMPION.
Young Malian is being trained to rule. Her people garrison the mountain range known as the Wall of Night against an ancient enemy, keeping a tide of shadow from the rest of their world. Malian is expected to uphold this tradition, yet she’s known little of real danger until the enemy attacks her fortress home and the Keep of Winds becomes a bloodbath.
Malian flees deep into the Old Keep – and when the danger is greatest her own hidden magic flares into life. But if she accepts its power, she must prepare to pay the price.
THE HEIR OF NIGHT by Helen Lowe is a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world.”
– Robin Hobb
THE HEIR OF NIGHT is the first novel in Helen’s skillfully weaved epic fantasy series, The Wall of Night. The second volume in this series, THE GATHERING OF THE LOST, (UK|ANZ) will be released from Orbit UK on the 5th of April this year. Only three months to wait now!
by Jenni Hill • Post a Comment • Posted in: Fantasy, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Uncategorized
- James Long - January 13th, 2012
UNCLEAN SPIRITS (UK | ANZ) is out (at last!) in the UK and our international markets this month. It’s the first novel in the Black Sun’s Daughter series by M. L. N. Hanover and we think you’re going to love it: a pacy, action-packed urban fantasy featuring Jayné Heller, a heroine who is strong and sassy, yet who often doubts her ability to tackle the burden that life has given her. As Kelley Armstrong so rightly says, she’s great!
Jayné Heller has always lacked a clear direction in life. She’s just dropped out of college and she really doesn’t get on with her family. So when her uncle Eric dies and leaves all his worldly possessions to her (which just so happens to include properties all over the globe, along with a considerable amount of cash) it seems that she has the chance to start her life afresh.
Except that this new-found wealth comes with a sinister price. It turns out that her uncle spent most of his life fighting a secret battle against ‘riders’ – evil spirits that take over human bodies and then control them. And it seems to be Jayné’s responsiblity to carry on this war from where her uncle left off . . .
UNCLEAN SPIRITS is available now and we’ll be continuing the series over the next few months: DARKER ANGELS comes out in February, VICIOUS GRACE in March and KILLING RITES in April.
Read a sample of UNCLEAN SPIRITS here!
Praise for UNCLEAN SPIRITS:
‘A strong beginning to an intriguing Urban Fantasy series, Unclean Spirits introduces readers to a fascinating new supernatural world. M. L. N. Hanover’s debut novel in the genre teems with promise, and I am excited to see where the next book leads’ - Book Smugglers
Between the novel’s energetic pacing, Jayné’s undeniable charm, and the intriguing concept behind the riders, Unclean Spirits is a solid entry in the urban fantasy genre’ - Fantasy Book Critic
‘Hanover’s treatment of the subject matter makes it a very entertaining book where the pages turn all too easily. I’ll be back for more and I reckon I’ll see you there with me’ – Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review
by James Long • Post a Comment • Posted in: New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- Jenni Hill - January 11th, 2012
We’re really pleased to reveal the cover for the second volume of Helen Lowe ’s epic fantasy series, THE GATHERING OF THE LOST, (UK|ANZ) which will be out this April! Click on the images below for the super high-resolution versions…
The covers have been designed by Duncan Spilling, one of our in-house designers here at Orbit, and we feel that they really get across the spirit of this fantastic series. The first book in the Wall of Night series, HEIR OF NIGHT (UK|ANZ), is coming out in paperback next week, on January 19th! HEIR OF NIGHT has also got a beautiful cover, we’re sure you’ll agree…
by Jenni Hill • 5 Comments • Posted in: Art, Covers, Fantasy, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- Ellen Wright - January 10th, 2012
The nominees for the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award, for science fiction paperback originals, were announced today, including three books from Orbit: The Company Man (US | UK | ANZ) by Robert Jackson Bennett, Deadline (US | UK | ANZ) by Mira Grant, and the Samuil Petrovitch trilogy by Simon Morden (comprising Equations of Life [US | UK | ANZ], Theories of Flight [US | UK | ANZ], and Degrees of Freedom [US | UK | ANZ]).
The award will be presented by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust to the winner at Norwescon in Seattle on Friday, April 6, 2012. The full list of nominees appears below.
- A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson (Ace Books)
- After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
- Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit)
- The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
- The Other by Matthew Hughes (Underland Press)
- The Postmortal by Drew Magary (Penguin Books)
- The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden (Orbit)
by Ellen Wright • 1 Comment • Posted in: Awards, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Jenni Hill - January 10th, 2012
SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL is the fourth novel in the Sabina Kane series by Jaye Wells, and it’s OUT NOW to buy as a paperback or ebook.
The series that Sookie Stackhouse author Charlaine Harris called ‘fast-paced and fun’, these novels follow the assassin Sabina Kane as she tries to end the war between the vampire and mage races. In SILVER-TONGUED DEVIL, a series of sadistic murders threaten to stop peace talks between the vampires and the mages, but Sabina’s investigation soon has her questioning everyone she thought she could trust…
We really enjoy this series at Orbit, and we think that you’ll also love its mixture of humour, action and truly captivating characters. (My personal favourite? The demon ‘Giguhl’, trapped in the form of a hairless cat!) If you haven’t yet managed to read RED-HEADED STEPCHILD, THE MAGE IN BLACK, and GREEN-EYED DEMON, here are several more people who think you should…
A fast-paced trip through a dark and dangerous landscape featuring an unusual take on vampires, mages, faeries, and demons. It hooks you on page one and takes you for a great ride!” – Kat Richardson, author of the Greywalker series
The series is truly fab… a great urban fantasy I would definitely recommend.” – Book Chick City
Wells burns up the pages as if they were soaked in gasoline. Jaye Wells is the next coming of LKH and Kim Harrison.” – Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble Explorations
A seriously wild ride.” (Top Pick!) – RT Book Reviews
Plenty of humour alongside the action and suspense’ – Deathray
by Jenni Hill • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
author post
I’m going to level with you here: I kind of pulled the premise for my third novel out of my ass.
I can remember the moment quite clearly: it was late 2008, and I was driving down 15th street here in Austin, talking on the phone with my agent (yes, I was That Guy that day – for some reason most of my important publishing conversations happened to take place while driving back then). I was just in the finishing stages of signing my first contract with Orbit, and the subject of an “option” arose – an “option” being a fancy legal term for “first dibs,” in this case being first dibs on my third novel.
So this begged the question – did I have any ideas for a third novel?
I was completely new to the publishing world then (and I still am, pretty much), but I knew that I did not want to let any important publishing people down, and I definitely knew I didn’t want to look like a chump and say, “No, no, I have no ideas for a third novel, I am completely fresh out and you are all totally hosed and you should have never hitched your wagon to my star.” So, while sitting at a green light, I wondered what to say.
But the odd thing is, I did have an idea for a novel rattling around in my head.
I had read an article just that day about vaudeville. It had made the curious point that vaudeville was one of the first moments of American mass cultural cross-pollination: the rails opened up all theaters all across the country to touring acts, so people had the first chance to see things they’d never seen before.
And I remember thinking, “How interesting. It’d be fun to write about that.” Specifically, I thought it would be fun to write a little fairy story about vaudeville, one about art, creation, and the nature of perception. Read the rest of this entry »
by Robert Jackson Bennett •Post a Comment • Categories: Fantasy, Guest Post, Orbit UK, Orbit US • Tags:
At Orbit we’re big fans of World Book Night, so are delighted to see so many SFF titles appear in the final UK shortlist for this year’s event on 23 April 2012 – especially since one of the selected titles is THE PLAYER OF GAMES, by our very own Iain M. Banks. The final US shortlist is here.
