www.orbitbooks.net

Orbit is pleased to announce the upcoming releases of four new books from four new stars of fantasy fiction: BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie (June 2009); THE SAD TALE OF THE BROTHERS GROSSBART by Jesse Bullington (Sept. 2009); SOULLESS by Gail Carriger (Nov. 2009); and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin (Sept. 2009). (more…)

This month look for

• Path of Revenge by Russell Kirkpatrick
• Bitten to Death by Jennifer Rardin
• Warrior by Marie Brennan
• Witch by Marie Brennan

Welcome once more, gentle reader, to our regular Friday links round-up. We have another choice selection of Orbit authors’ online activities for you to peruse this week:

As always, 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! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)

The Orcs are coming! And to help introduce them we’ve created an Orc Mail website and Orc widgets.

And… if you’re one of the first ten people to post an Orc widget to your website or myspace page, and you email us the link at orbit@hbgusa.com, we’ll send you a finished copy of the book when it’s available in September! (US residents only!)

All in all, we had a great time at the show. Lilith Saintcrow rocked the Eye on the Present panel, which should be online eventually. We had a limited giveaway of Orcs galleys which were snatched up by fans in minutes. Kevin J. Anderson chatted with us about The Ashes of Worlds (vid to come) And our friends at Yen Press threw a great rooftop party complete with fireworks.

Canberra’s fifth annual Conflux convention takes place later this year, over the weekend of Friday October 3rd - Monday October 6th, at The Marque, Canberra, Australia.

Ahead of the main event, Conflux is staging a Virtual Minicon this coming weekend, August 2nd - August 3rd.

Participation is easy: simply sign up for the Conflux Forums and then log in at the appropriate time, depending on the author(s) you’d like to chat to via the forums and bearing in mind the relevant time-difference between your own timezone and Canberra’s (GMT +10) of course.

A number of Orbit authors are taking part in the online activities over the course of the weekend, with time-slots as follows (again, these are Canberra-time…)

Saturday August 2
12.00 p.m. - Glenda Larke
7.00 p.m. - Karen Miller

Sunday August 3
11.00 a.m. - Sean Williams
12.00 p.m. - Kevin J Anderson
5.00 p.m. - Marianne de Pierres

Visit the Virtual Minicon page of the Conflux website for more information.

Welcome to our regular Friday links round-up. Plenty to get through this week, so without further ado:

As always, 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! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)

According to our content-management system (and we have no reason to believe that it would lie to us) this is the 300th post to go out on the Orbit website since we launched it back in March last year.

To celebrate, we thought we’d take the opportunity to consult with our traffic analytics software and run off a list of our Top 30 content items to-date. Looks like you folks really like your extracts! Well, we hear you, and we’ll make sure we keep them coming.

We’d also love to hear which articles you, our readers, have particularly enjoyed. Any hidden gems or more recent pieces that didn’t quite make the Top 30, for instance? Please feel free to use the comments below to let us know what sort of content you’d like to see more of (or less of - we can take it!) on the site.

And now, without further ado, here are those Top 30 items since March 2007:

1. Read an extract from Matter by Iain M Banks
2. Read an extract from Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley
3. Read an extract from Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin
4. Read an extract from Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross
5. Priestess of the Write: An Interview with Trudi Canavan
6. Read an extract from The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
7. Read an extract from The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
8. The Wheel of Time Continues to Turn
9. Announcement of Robert Jordan’s passing
10. Read an extract from Black Ships by Jo Graham
11. Read an extract from Debatable Space by Philip Palmer
12. Read an extract from Empress by Karen Miller
13. Read an extract from The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller
14. Orbit announces plans to expand in the US and UK
15. Mike Carey on camera
16. Introducing The Last Wish
17. Tom Holt Talks Time Travel
18. The Escapement arrives
19. Read an extract from The Devil’s Right Hand by Lilith Saintcrow
20. Introducing Matter
21. Urban Fantasy come true
22. Orbit acquires Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells
23. Just another day at the office… IN HELL!
24. Standing Out or Fitting In? Tim Holman on Orbit cover art
25. The bestselling debut of 2007 - The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller
26. Devi Pillai reports from World Fantasy 2007
27. Orbit in Australia
28. Fiona MacIntosh’s video-intro for Odalisque
29. Orbit acquires two more books in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series
30. Best Summer SF Reads in The Times

Well, not beyond really, but Lilith Saintcrow will be at Comicon in San Diego! She’ll be on the “Looking at Our World: Eye on the Present” panel along with Kelley Armstrong, L. A. Banks, Kate Brallier, Marjorie M. Liu, C. E. Murphy, Justine Musk, and moderator Samantha Sommersby ( Room 3). That’s a veritable who’s who of urban fantasy stars, so if you’re a fan this is a can’t miss event.

And stop by the Orbit booth to get your books signed and to pick up a sweet Orcs pin, which will likely be handed to you by a bedraggled looking guy with a few days’ old beard (me). You can also get some great stuff from our friends at Grand Central Publishing, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Yen Press. For a complete listing of HBGUSA events at Comicon, including panels with Stephenie Meyer, Jacqueline Carey, Brad Meltzer, Method Man and more, download our event schedule here.

If you can’t make it to Comicon, you can still catch up with Lilith at her sparklingly redesigned site, www.lilithsaintcrow.com – and stay tuned for a free, never before seen serialized novel coming very soon.

We’ve just posted the write-up of the first email Q&A session with Iain [M] Banks, over at his official website, www.iain-banks.net.

In case you missed the announcement first time around, we invited readers of this site and www.iain-banks.net to submit their questions for Iain - ideally something other than the usual sort of thing he tends to be asked at readings and convention appearances all the time - and then we selected a half-dozen question to put to Iain.

So, if you’d like to know which Culture character Iain would choose to write a novella on, or whether Iain would ever write a science-fiction novel that wasn’t filled with war and violence, or even which parts of Scotland Iain recommends for a visitor who’s also a fan of his books, then www.iain-banks.net is the place to head to next.

Welcome to this week’s round-up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors that we’ve found (or have been sent in to us) over the course of the past seven days or so:

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! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)

Former military intelligence officer turned military-sf writer Robert Buettner is the subject of the 47th Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast.

The first three volumes in Robert’s Jason Wander series are out now from Orbit US and will all be published by Orbit UK in August:

• #1 - Orphanage [US / UK]
• #2 - Orphan’s Destiny [US / UK]
• #3 - Orphan’s Journey [US / UK]

I’ve just finished Orphanage myself and I thought it was a cracking, high-octane read that will definitely appeal to fans of Allan Cole & Chris Bunch’s Sten series, but don’t just take my word for it: check out these two recent reviews of Orphan’s Journey at bookreviewsandmore and sffworld.

Marie Brennan pops in over at Whatever, John Scalzi’s blog, to talk about her novel, Midnight Never Come, and the Big Idea behind it:

What would faeries be doing while English history is trundling along? Of course, that automatically implies something: that the fae aren’t static, timeless creatures. They have a history, too, and it reflects, contrasts with, or otherwise interestingly comments on what humans are doing.

Fittingly, then, the first thing I came up with was Invidiana: Elizabeth’s dark mirror. Being a faerie, she’s all about immortal beauty; Elizabeth tried desperately to create an unchanging image of herself as the beautiful Virgin Queen, even as she aged and her teeth went bad and smallpox left its scars. Elizabeth never married; Invidiana is the most loveless creature you can imagine. And both of them, of course, are reigning queens of England. I originally just implied a metaphysical link between them, but in the book it’s explicit: when Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower during Mary’s reign, she made a secret deal with Invidiana, that they would help each other out.

Read the full piece here and pick up Midnight Never Come at all good booksellers today!

Okay, okay… so there was this retired succubus and this model-47 femmebot… no, wait, that’s not how it goes. Alright, I’ve got it: a retired succubus and a trenchcoat-wearing wizard walk into a Chicago bar and… no, that’s not right, either.

But seriously, folks, Freya Nakamichi, star of the new Charles Stross novel Saturn’s Children, and the one and only Harry Dresden, loved the world over by fans of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, are the subjects of the latest couple of author Jackie Kessler’s Cat and Muse interviews.

In this ongoing series, fictional character Jezebel the former demon interviews fellow fictional characters about their lives, loves, longings and, in Freya’s case, fashion nightmares. Jezebel also chatted to Lune, of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come fame, not so long ago. Check them all out, well worth a tea-break read!

Welcome to the latest weekly round up of links of interest featuring Orbit authors; various item that we’ve found online (or have been sent in to us) over the course of the past week:

As always, 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! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)

In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen a flurry of reviews of Lilith Saintcrow’s brand new novel, Night Shift [US | UK], the first in a new series starring kick-ass demon-hunter Jill Kismet.

Writing for the My Favourite Books blog, Liz was particularly impressed with the strength of Lilith’s new protagonist:

“Lilith has again created a vibrant, strong, female heroine who keeps you running behind her in a breathless charge against forces you just know you would never be able to walk away from completely unscathed.”

Graeme, of Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review fame enjoyed Lilith’s moody and atmospheric prose:

“I like what she is setting up; it’s very atmospheric (in a noir kind of way) and dark. Just the right kind of vibe for the story being told. The good news is that Saintcrow makes sure that her scene-setting doesn’t get in the way of telling a fast paced and gritty tale.”

Over at the Midwest Book Review site (not the easiest to navigate, but stick with it) Terrilyn Fleming highlights the noir-cinematic feel of Lilith’s writing:

“Lyrical language and movie-worthy fight scenes are staples in Saintcrow’s novels, and this one is no exception. In Night Shift, Saincrow’s usual beautiful language is complemented with almost Chandleresque noir phrases … Her fight scenes contain blood spatters that hang in the air and a billowing coat that snap out parachute-like when Kismet jumps from roofs. The scenes are so well painted it is like reading a graphic novel.”

And whilst Amanda at www.lovevampires.com bemoans the lack of proper vamps in Jill Kismet’s world, she was still suitably impressed enough to conclude:

“Night Shift powers readers through an action packed nightscape of bloody death - usually dispensed by our heroine Jill. In my view Night Shift makes for more engaging reading than the Dante Valentine books but I think that readers will have to make up their own minds. Certainly if you have enjoyed the earlier [series] I can’t see you being disappointed by Night Shift.”

You can sample the first part of the book for yourself by reading an extract from Night Shift here, read Lilith’s intro to the book in our recent In Their Own Words item and can find out much more about the author, her new series and her previous books, over at her official website: www.lilithsaintcrow.com.

Over at his Fantasy Book Critic blog, Robert has posted the longest and most detailed interview we’ve seen to-date with Marie Brennan, author of Midnight Never Come [UK/US].

Robert and Marie discuss the origins of the story, the differences between Midnight Never Come and some of the other Elizabethan Faerie titles currently being published, here next novel And Ashes Lie (scheduled for publication in 2009), her earlier books (which we’re reissuing in the US this summer), her short fiction writing, her academic background in anthrolopogy and folklore and more.

Great stuff, well worth a read if you’re a fan of Marie’s first Onyx Court book already, or are at all curious about the background to the series.

If you’re a subscriber to the Orbit US enewsletter, you may have had a bounce-back error when entering our most recent sweepstakes – if that’s the case, just resend your entry to orbit@hbgusa.com . Sorry for any inconvenience!

Author Jeff Somers put together a great little trailer for his latest novel, THE DIGITAL PLAGUE.

If you’re in New York, make sure to save the date on August 20th to see Jeff at the Fantastic Fiction reading series.

Kevin says:

Yeah, I know you’ve been burned before. As a SF/F reader, you tend to look at anything touted as “a new epic series” with a jaded eye. You’ll believe it when the author actually delivers finished books instead of promises.

You’ve gotten hooked before by reading the first volume or two, and then the author goes AWOL, losing interest in the series, or being years late on delivery, or — worse — the purported trilogy turns out to be ten books or more, with no end in sight.

I stand before you humbly offering my “Saga of Seven Suns” — planned as a seven-volume continuous story (“Seven Suns” = 7 volumes, get it?) with a beginning and an actual end, not to mention a lot of high points in between.

Just as a good architect draws a detailed blueprint of a skyscraper complex before breaking ground and erecting the framework, so I outlined the “Saga,” knowing generally where all the features were going to be, but leaving plenty of room for embellishments.

I’ve worked eight years of my life on this series, which I consider to be my love letter to the science fiction genre: galactic empires, alien races, lost civilizations, strange worlds, horrifying monsters, exciting space battles, a vast cast of characters, dozens of tangled plot threads, romance, betrayal, politics, religion, and even some nasty robots.

Each book in the “Saga” came out on time, each year, seven years in a row. As a fan and a reader myself, I know what you expect from your authors — and if you read this series, I hope you think I’ve delivered what I promised.

Book 1: Hidden Empire
Book 2: A Forest of Stars
Book 3: Horizon Storms
Book 4: Scattered Suns
Book 5: Of Fire and Night
Book 6: Metal Swarm
Book 7: The Ashes of Worlds