The Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas has announced the finalists for the 2013 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Here’s the full slate:
The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks (US | UK | ANZ)
Congratulations to Orbit authors Iain M. Banks, David Brin, Ken MacLeod, and Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as to the rest of the finalists! The winner will be announced during the Campbell Conference in Lawrence Kansas on June 14th.
Locus has just announced the finalists for the 2013 Locus Awards, and we’re thrilled to see some familiar names on the list! Congratulations to Iain M. Banks, James S.A. Corey, and Kim Stanley Robinson for their nominations in the Science Fiction Novel category; and to N.K. Jemisin and Charles Stross for their nominations in the Fantasy Novel category.
Below are the full lists of nominees for those two categories.
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (US | UK | ANZ)
The finalists for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2013 have been announced, and we’re delighted to see 2312 (UK | US | ANZ) by Kim Stanley Robinson and INTRUSION (UK | ANZ) by Ken MacLeod both on the shortlist. Here’s the full list of nominees:
Nod by Adrian Barnes (Bluemoose)
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (Headline)
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
All of us at Orbit offer our congratulations to Stan and Ken, and to the other authors on the shortlist. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society in London on 1 May 2013.
Praise for 2312:
Robinson blends mystery and suspense with lyrical evocation of a complex future” – SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
“Polymathic, visionary brilliance” – FINANCIAL TIMES
Mira Grant was also nominated, as Seanan McGuire, for three other Hugo Awards in the Best Novelette and Best Fancast categories. She breaks a record as the first person to appear on the ballot five times in a single year!
In addition, Mur Lafferty was nominated this year for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, for the second year running. We’ll be publishing Mur’s novel THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY (US | UK | ANZ) next month.
Today, the SFWA announced the list of 2012 Nebula Awards nominees. Congratulations to all the nominees, but especially to Orbit authors Kim Stanley Robinson and N.K. Jemisin for their nominations for Best Novel! This is Jemisin’s third nomination for the award in as many years.
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13) Ironskin, Tina Connolly (Tor) The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc) Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Coming up in March is something we’ve all been waiting for: a new novel in the mind-blowing Philip K. Dick Award-winning Samuil Petrovitch series by Simon Morden. THE CURVE OF THE EARTH (UK | US | ANZ) is a pure hit of adrenaline-filled science fiction goodness. It features everyone’s favourite foul-mouthed, bad-tempered, cybernetically-enhanced, AI-implanted, sociopathic, mad Russian genius Samuil Petrovitch.
This novel is a great place for anyone new to the Petrovitch novels to start. If you’re a fan of the likes of Richard Morgan and his classic novel Altered Carbon (another Philip K. Dick Award winner) then this is certainly for you.
THE CURVE OF THE EARTH is set 10 years after the previous three Petrovitch books ended (EQUATIONS OF LIFE, THEORIES OF FLIGHT and DEGREES OF FREEDOM) and features more high-octane action in the gritty world of the Metrozone – a dangerous post-apocalyptic London full of crooked cops, mad cults and gun-toting nuns.
This story will again see Petrovitch come head-to-head with those people he just loves to hate: Reconstructionist America. But this time he’s on a trip to the frozen slopes of North Alaska to find out what’s happened to his adopted daughter Lucy…
The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) have announced their annual award nominations, and up for the ‘Best Novel’ category are Orbit’s very own Kim Stanley Robinson for 2312 [UK | US | ANZ] and Ken MacLeod with INTRUSION [UK | ANZ]. Everyone at Orbit extends their congratulations to both authors and all the other nominees. The full shortlist can be found here.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 is a bold, critically acclaimed vision of humanity’s future, imbued with “Polymathic, visionary brilliance” (Financial Times).
With INTRUSION, Ken MacLeod has created a “disturbingly real socialist dystopia” (Guardian) where one woman’s decision to refuse a state-sanctioned pill may have terrible consequences for both her and her family.
In other exciting awards news today, Jesse Bullington’s THE FOLLY OF THE WORLD [UK | US | ANZ] has been nominated for the coveted ‘Red Tentacle’ (best novel) at the 2013 Kitschies, the awards given by the popular UK genre website Pornokitsch.
This is the second successive year that Jesse has been nominated, after making the shortlist last year for his superbly dark novel THE ENTERPRISE OF DEATH [UK | US | ANZ]. In Jesse’s own words:
“I’m honored and moved by the jury’s recognition, and wish the best of luck to all my fellow nominees/worthy competitors/mortal enemies.”
THE FOLLY OF THE WORLD tells the tale of one great flood, two warring cities and three uneasy conspirators. Working together they could find fortune beyond reckoning beneath the waves, but the lost souls below will not give up their treasures so easily . . .
“Smart, funny, and full of wild exuberance” – Lauren Beukes
Congratulations to all the other authors nominated! The full shortlists can be found here.
This week we’ve released UPLIFT (UK | ANZ), an omnibus edition of the first three award-winning Uplift books. It’s one of the most highly regarded classic science fiction series ever written. And it’s no surprise – because I can’t help but seeing signs everywhere that David Brin seems to get things so very right . . .
In the Uplift universe, humans have the technology to enhance the intelligence of other species – such as dolphins and apes – and they have raised these animals to our own level of consciousness. In fact, in these books no species has ever reached a level of sentience without being genetically “uplifted” by another race. But humans are the only ones who have seemingly never been helped out in this way . . .
This book raises some very interesting questions. Why does humanity seem to be the only species on Earth to have broken through what you might call a “glass ceiling” of sentience? What makes us so different to all the other species? And if we could genetically “uplift” other species – should we?
This question is much more pertinent now than you might think.
Recently, as reported by the New York Times, scientists have been experimenting with increasing the intelligence of monkeys by using brain implants. Granted, the research is aimed at helping people who’ve had their brain damaged through dementia, strokes or injury – rather than trying to help out the little furry dude involved. And for the moment, it’s just a case of the monkey being able to match up some objects and pictures a little better than usual – rather than hold a conversation about the meaning of life and the universe.
But the question arises – how long will it be until we really can raise an animal’s intelligence level to that of a human being?
Perhaps not that long, according to an article from the University of Edinburgh. It claims that a new gene has been discovered that might have played a crucial role in our development towards using tools and language. This gene is unique to humans, and seems to have developed after we evolved from apes. What’s more – it seems to have come from nowhere. It emerged fully-formed, over an incredibly brief period of time, from DNA thought to be “non-coding”, or else termed “junk DNA”. (David Brin asks, of course – might it have been “donated”?)
The very isolation of this gene, which brings us a step closer towards working out what makes us human, could also bring us closer to being able to artificially create it within other species. And if we can do this – what might these new, more intelligent animals be like? And what could we learn about the world and our place within it? But what risks might we also take by doing so? Planet of the Apes, anyone?
If this question interests you as much as it does me, check out David Brin’s Hugo, Locus and Nebula award-winning UPLIFT (UK | ANZ), an omnibus containing SUNDIVER, STARTIDE RISING and THE UPLIFT WAR – out now.
And don’t forget that in January we’ll also be releasing EXILES (UK | ANZ), an omnibus containing the three Uplift Storm novels BRIGHTNESS REEF, INFINITY’S SHORE and HEAVEN’S REACH.
And if you’re really keen, check out this awesome Uplift merchandise. A great Christmas present for a nerd near you!
RT Book Reviews has revealed the full set of nominees for the 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards, and a number of Orbit books are among them. Congratulations to all the nominees!
Best Fantasy: The Traitor Queen by Trudi Canavan (US | UK | ANZ), The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin (US | UK | ANZ), The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks (US | UK | ANZ)
- - May 16th, 2013
Coming up in March is something we’ve all been waiting for: a new novel in the mind-blowing 
