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

Share/Bookmark

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.

Share/Bookmark

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)

Share/Bookmark

Helen says: “I’m absolutely delighted – not least for the recognition for speculative fiction, and I’m really looking forward to working exclusively on THE WALL OF NIGHT series!”

The Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing was founded by the University in 1979 to promote and provide support for New Zealand’s many talented writers. Helen will hold the residency until July 31 2012; the project she will be working on during the residency is THE WALL OF NIGHT Book Three, DAUGHTER OF BLOOD. She shares the prize with the poet David Eggleton.

Book One, THE HEIR OF NIGHT (UK/ANZ) will be out in Mass Market Paperback on the 19th of January 2012.

Share/Bookmark

On the shortlist for the same award was another fabulous Orbit author, N.K. Jemisin, for her debut The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (US | UK | ANZ). It’s widely available (as is Mr Shivers) so grab a copy now if you haven’t read it yet. Jemisin’s new book The Kingdom of Gods (US | UK | ANZ) hit the bookshops in the UK, Australia and New Zealand on 6 October and is out in the US next month.

Share/Bookmark

Nora was also nominated for the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award. She won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

Share/Bookmark

If you haven’t yet read MR. SHIVERS, do — and don’t miss Robert’s second novel, THE COMPANY MAN, about which Booklist notes, “Bennett does the seemingly impossible here. He’s written an alternate-history novel that measures up in every respect to Philip K. Dick’s masterful The Man In the High Castle.”

High praise indeed — and completely deserved.

Share/Bookmark

Share/Bookmark

Robin Hobb called this wonderful epic fantasy adventure ’a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world’. I can’t recommend it highly enough myself and suggest that you get right out and discover all the dark treachery-ness of it for yourselves! Happy reading.

Share/Bookmark

First of all, Helen Lowe’s The Heir of Night has been nominated in two categories for the prestigious Sir Julius Vogel New Zealand genre awards. She’s up for Best Novel for the book itself and Peter Fitzpatrick has been nominated for Best Professional Artwork for his wonderful map. We’ll be crossing our fingers in the lead up to the awards, to be announced at New Zealand’s ConText convention on 3^rd – 6^th June in just a few weeks.

Congratulations also go to Marianne de Pierres who has won the award for best Science Fiction Novel at the Aurealis Awards for her novel Transformation Space.

Finally, don’t forget to vote for your favourite book for this year’s Gemmell Awards. We’re strongly represented across all three categories, firstly with three titles in the running for the Legend Award for best fantasy novel: The War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz, Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson, and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. We also have The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin nominated for the Morningstar award for best fantasy debut. And lastly, this book is nominated yet again in the Gemmell’s Ravenheart category for best fantasy book cover, with Cliff Neilson as illustrator and our Lauren Panepinto as designer.

Good luck to the shortlisted nominees and congratulations again to Marianne de Pierres!

Share/Bookmark