Archive for Orbit US

Two new short fiction releases!

Today we have two short fiction releases over at Orbit Short Fiction.

We have a new Jaz Parks adventure — or rather — a blast from the past for Jaz Parks fans.

An Evening for Vayl and Jaz takes place after the events of Bitten To Death –– when Vayl and Jaz spend a romantic evening together. Told from both their perspectives, it’s one of the few times we see the story from Vayl’s perspective.

We have more Jaz Parks stories here, but Jaz Parks series is now finished (this month!) with the Deadliest Bite.

So if you like this one — check out the whole series starting with Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

 

From the hilarious Jesse Petersen, we also have SHAMBLING WITH THE STARS.

While the short fiction piece is set in the  Living with the Dead series, the story is told from the viewpoint of completely different characters.

Avery Andrews is her name and directing celebrity telethons after tragedies is her game. But the Northwestern Zombie Outbreak isn’t your average tragedy… and once the infection spreads to the studio, Avery and her crew will have to worry about staying alive, not ratings.

Jesse Petersen is the author of Married with Zombies, Flip this Zombie — and out next month– Eat, Slay, Love.

Find out more about them–and other short fiction titles–at Orbit Short Fiction!

Cover Launch: THE GRIFFIN MAGE Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier

It’s omnibus week here in the Orbit Art Department, and the fangirl in me loves an omnibus. Get a whole story arc or series all in one giant go? Yes please! Today we have the cover launch for The Griffin Mage Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier, which collects Lord of the Changing Winds, Land of the Burning Sands, and Law of the Broken Earth.

I really enjoyed this series, it gave me a very Robin McKinley/Anne McCaffrey feeling and that’s a very good thing in my book. Classic heroine coming of age story, with a novel take on griffins, bringing them back to more wild animal (and wild magic) roots. I make no secret of my lack of griffin respect in their past fantasy incarnations, but I love that these griffins feel legitimately dangerous rather than cartoonish. That was the angle we took with the original covers, but I always love a chance to reinvent a cover for a new format, and here I think the cover gives the right feeling of menace, while still keeping Kes the center of the story.

After the jump, a teaser! (more…)

Deals and Deliveries

Deals! There have been a few. Perhaps this is an understatement. There have been many and now I have to trace my brain back to the last time I’ve posted — please excuse me if you are already aware of some of the below already.

In March, Orbit worldwide also acquired OUT FOR BLOOD and LAST BLOOD in the House of Comarre series by Kristen Painter.  Kristen is the author of the upcoming BLOOD RIGHTS (quickly followed by FLESH AND BLOOD and BAD BLOOD) in Fall 2011 with three books in three months.

Orbit US has signed for four new novels with Joe Abercrombie. The first will be a standalone and then a trilogy — all set in the same world as the First Law trilogy.  Joe is hard at work writing as we speak! And I can’t wait to read his newest, which we plan to publish next fall 2012!

Orbit worldwide also acquired two new novels from the acclaimed N.K. Jemisin: THE KILLING MOON and THE SHADOWED SUN. We’ll be publishing them in May 2012 and June 2012. I absolutely loved the KILLING MOON — and then THE SHADOWED SUN blew me out of the water — it’s full of assassin priests, mad kings and a goddess of death.  Nora has been nominated for the Hugo and the Locus Award for Best First Novel (as well as a host of other awards). We’ll have covers for you soon on those two…

And finally, Orbit worldwide is publishing a new Lilith Saintcrow series. It is tentatively titled THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR (As in Bannon and Clare in…THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR).  Lilith has outdone herself in this amazing Victorian steampunk urban fantasy (yes! I already read the first draft!!!). I won’t give much away other than to say imagine Sherlock Homes and Dr. Watson — if Dr. Watson was a sorceress. It will be out next August 2012.
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Cover Launch: EYE OF THE TEMPEST (Jane True #4) by Nicole Peeler

One thing I love about our Orbit roster is our kickass heroines (often written by real-life kickass ladies)…but they’re not JUST kickass. (Ok, not allowed to say “kickass” for the rest of the post, promise.) Our heroines have unique voices and over the course of a series begin to feel utterly real. Sometimes when I am working on covers I literally hear a voice of a character in my head saying yea or nay. Now, I don’t create the art for Nicole Peeler’s Jane True books in the US, but I know illustrator Sharon Tancredi has got a little Jane inside her egging her on. I was so excited to see Blondie make the cover of Eye of the Tempest, Jane’s fourth adventure, and she looks like a fabulous teammate for Jane. Of course, it is known I have a soft spot for cool tattoos…and to really help our dynamic duo pop, we upped the boldness with a bright shock of red for the title bar. I’m also going to show the back cover, which I rarely do, but you must see the fantastic octopus Sharon created to go with the cover!

After the jump, get to see the US back cover and the requisite teaser text…..and if you haven’t met Jane True yet, you really must pick up the rest of the series…here’s a fabulous review from B&N to whet your appetite…True Love: Nicole Peeler’s Selkie-Halfling Heroine Jane True is Paranormal Fantasy’s “It Girl”

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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

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…)

Discover the Map of All Things . . .

Kevin J. Anderson’s TERRA INCOGNITA fantasy series began in 2010 with the release of THE EDGE OF THE WORLD – “a classic adventure story” (Total Sci-Fi Online) – that introduced the seafaring countries of Tierra and Uraba, whose fragile truce is shattered by a tragic accident, casting the world once more into the fires of war.

THE MAP OF ALL THINGS continues this epic story of  politics, warfare and daring adventure upon storm-wracked, serpent-infested seas. For a map has been discovered that reveals the location of the Key to Creation – a weapon that could change the course of the war . . . and the fate of the world.

With the third book in the series, THE KEY TO CREATION, due for release in trade paperback next month, now is the perfect time to dive in to Kevin J. Anderson’s TERRA INCOGNITA.

Here’s what the critics have had to say about THE MAP OF ALL THINGS:

“For a book full of fantastical events, The Map of All Things is scarily true to life in its depiction of religious fanaticism and the ruthlessness and futility of war. Such attitudes ground the novel, making it all the more effective at absorbing us into a world both brutal and beautiful” – Total Sci-Fi Online (8/10 rating)

“The Map of all Things has everything you want from a fantasy epic – intrigue, land and sea battles, assassinations and assassination attempts, discoveries, magic, strange creatures – as well as sense of wonder that is usually associated more with space opera, but the author managed to transpose that in the “swords and sails” context superbly” – Fantasy Book Critic (A+ rating)

“If you like your fantasy sweeping and epic, with a smattering of giant sea monsters, this is the ideal book for you” – The Bookbag

“The prose is sharp, the descriptiveness ideal and the characters really leap off the page to make them a cast that you just can’t wait to adventure with” – Falcata Times

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.

Wallpapers: CHASING THE MOON by A. Lee Martinez

Here’s another great wallpaper for all your fancy devices, this time for A. Lee Martinez’s CHASING THE MOON, out now in Hardcover.

Will Staehle has been doing fantastic covers for the A. Lee Martinez books. They’re not a series, and the designs all strongly stand alone, but Will’s quirky sensibility sets a tone across all the books that really works for Martinez’s voice. If you haven’t read any yet, you can jump in anywhere…but I think Divine Misfortune is my personal fave. (And it’s a great cover.)

Here’s all the wallpaper download links…if anyone needs a specific dimension made, let me know!

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