www.orbitbooks.net

The Orbit US edition of Orcs is out next week, but the verdict is in on the cover model: UGLY. Which is, of course, exactly what we were going for when we hired the orc on the cover (we interviewed hundreds of orcs before settling on Walter, who had the perfect combination of pathos, anger and ugly.)

Walter’s visage has proven too ugly even for some of the genre’s most prominent critics. Jeff VanderMeer (who, let’s be honest, must have seen an awful lot of ugly covers in his years as an SFF critic) eventually decided he had to pretty up the orc.

Jeff writes:

“Just look at what a few randomly applied stars, flowers, smiley-faces, and the like can do to make a cover more humane! In fact, maybe Orbit should even run a “Beautify Your Orcs” contest. I bet readers would get a kick out of that.”

So inspired by Jeff’s suggestion, we’re asking you to beautify Walter. Here’s a link to a jpg image of the cover - Photoshop it, print it out and draw on it, scribble on it in MS Paint - then post the result to your blog or send us a copy of the image. To sweeten the deal we’ll send a copy of Orcs to the first five people to email their image to orbit@hbgusa.com .

Where did Walter come from, you ask? Our orc was sculpted by Nimba Creations, an FX firm that has created effects for films including King Kong, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Nightmare on Elm St.

Every wrinkle, scar, and pore on Walter was done by hand. And there are a lot of lovely details that you don’t see on the final cover – Walter’s slightly beseeching eyes and gloriously awful teeth. You can practically smell his breath just looking at him.

We’re hugely excited about the recent release of Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series here in the UK. Shapeshifters, werewolves, vampires and mechanics? We were hooked!

And now there’s not one but two opportunity to win the entire series - Moon Called, Blood Bound, and Iron Kissed - and check them out for yourself. Visit LoveVampires.com and Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review for your chance(s) to win today!

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!)

Midnight on Monday was the cut-off point for entries to our Midnight Never Come prize quiz competition and Tuesday saw a flurry of activity as the overall winner and runners-up were selected (by means of our polyhedral plastic random number generating system) from amongst the fantastic volume of correct entries we received.

Thank you very much indeed to everyone who took part, and we do hope you enjoyed puzzling out the answers. All the winners were contacted earlier this week, so I’m afraid if you haven’t heard from us by now, then your luck wasn’t in… at least, not this time - do keep your eye out for more Orbit competitions in the future.

The overall winner - who will soon be enjoying a $500 spending spree with their book retailer of choice, as well as receiving a signed copy of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come - is:

Carmen R from Columbus, Georgia

And the ten runners-up, who will be receiving a signed copy of Midnight Never Come, are (in approximate order of distance from Orbit’s London HQ):

- Ian S from Dunstable, Bedfordshire
- Linda R from Mildenhall, Suffolk
- Susie A from Alsager, Cheshire
- Bill T from Huyton, Merseyside
- Brian S from Beverley, East Yorkshire
- Kathleen G from Haddon Heights, New Jersey
- Charlene C from Hymera, Indiana
- Mary W from Chicago, Illinois
- Kristy G from Orem, Utah
- Dawn L from Redwood City, California

Many congratulations to our overall winner and runners-up, and we do hope you all thoroughly enjoy reading Midnight Never Come!

The sixth and final question in our Midnight Never Come themed prize quiz went live on Friday, on the Competition Gallery page over at www.midnightnevercome.com.

Correctly unravelling all six cryptic clues will grant you six entries to our email sweepstake. The competition will remain open for entries until midnight (GMT) on June 30, after which the over-all winner and runners-up will be drawn at random from the correct entries received.

So, you still have a week to puzzle out the answers and make sure you’re in the running for the £250 / $500 book voucher first prize..! What are you waiting for? www.midnightnevercome.com!

[P.S. Don't forget, if you wish to gain entry to Invidiana's court, you'll need to look to the moon...]

The dice-of-randomness have spoken again and we’ve drawn weekly winner #2 in our Brian Ruckley Facebook competition. This week’s lucky winner is - Jan Ove B from Norway - who will be receiving a signed, personalised copy of Brian’s brand new novel, Bloodheir [UK/US] in the near future.

There are now just two more chances to win during June, folks. To be in with a shout, you’ll need to sign up as a Fan of Brian’s Winterbirth Facebook Page in time for the remaining draws at lunchtime on June 20 and 27.

The third of six cryptic clues linked to the world of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come [UK/US] has been revealed today, over at the Competition Gallery page of www.midnightnevercome.com.

Remember, correctly answering all three questions gives you a triple chance of winning the first prize of £250 / $500 of vouchers from your favourite book retailer. And with another three conundrums to come next week, that will give you a half-dozen chances to win… tell me, what could you possibly be waiting for?

Oh, and have you made your way to Invidiana’s court yet? You haven’t? Well then, perhaps you should look to the night sky..?

Midnight Never Come, Marie Brennan’s novel of suspense, intrigue and fae magic at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, is now available in both the UK and the US. To celebrate we’ve launched a micro-site, packed with background information on the characters and locations in the novel, over at www.midnightnevercome.com.

And as of today, there’s another reason to visit the site: the first phase of our prize competition - in which you could win £250 / $500 (or the local equivalent) of vouchers to spend with your chosen book retailer, with ten runners-up each receiving a signed copy of the UK edition of the book - has now gone live.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks a new cryptic question will be posed via the Competition Gallery page of the site. Solving each puzzle will result in your being invited to submit your email address to enter the competition (so by answering all six questions correctly, you’ll be able to enter a total of six times). Full entry instructions, rules and regulations are available on the site and the usual entry restrictions (employees of the Hachette Book Group are unable to enter, etc.) apply.

The competition will be open for entries until Midnight (GMT) on June 30 and the overall winner and the ten runners-up will be announced by the end of that week.

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to www.midnightnevercome.com, dust off your thinking cap and by the end of the month, £250 / $500 worth of book vouchers might very well be yours…

And meanwhile, in other Marie Brennan news, Marie has been interviewed by SF CrowsNest and we recently posted excerpts from a couple of great reviews of the book.

Congratulations to Jill B from Sheffield, UK who was the first weekly winner of our Brian Ruckley Facebook competition and who will be receiving a signed, personalised copy of Brian’s brand new novel, Bloodheir [UK/US].

Remember, there are still three more chances to win during June. Simply sign up as a Fan of Brian’s Winterbirth Facebook Page and you’ll be entered into the remaining draws on June 13, 20 and 27.

Congratulations to Stuart M, Karina M, Karen W, Michael G and Eileen B, winners of our competition to win a free signed copy of Pamela Freeman’s Blood Ties, available in all good booksellers this month.

Many thanks to everyone that entered!

This month’s Locus has a fantastic review of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come (UK/US), saying:

Brennan ably combines elements of danger, romance, and individual moral choices that could affect the fates of great realms, for a tale that’s rich in plot and character. She interweaves historic and fantastic details with scholarship, inspired acts of imagination, and a keen wit.

And over at The Book Swede there’s another great review:

Of course, in faerie fiction, having an icy queen ruling the faerie throne, while a human queen lives above, is not that unusual. A great light does cast a great shadow. Nor is having a faery story with intrigue and spying…set in Elizabethan England really new. What sets Marie Brennan apart, then, is the quality of her writing, the complexities of her plot, the characterisations, the world-building…everything. (Read more)

You can also read his interview with Marie Brennan here. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of Midnight Never Come you might want to check this site out. . .

Want to win a signed, personalised, hardback copy of Bloodheir [UK/US], Brian Ruckley’s brand new novel of The Godless World? Of course you do. Here’s how:

Every Friday lunchtime between now and the end of June (so that’s the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th) we’ll be randomly selecting one fully signed-up Fan of Brian’s ‘Winterbirth’ Facebook page to receive a hardback copy of Bloodheir. What’s more, Brian has very kindly agreed to sign and personalise the book as per the wishes of the lucky winners.

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is head over to the Winterbirth page on Facebook and click the ‘Become a Fan’ link, (as well as performing all the necessary confirmations etc.), which means that the sooner you sign up as a Fan, the more chances you have of winning a copy of the book. And if you’re signed up as a Fan already then you’ll automatically be entered into the draws throughout June, which gives you four chances of winning…

The only exceptions to the general rule-of-thumb detailed above are employees of Orbit (or its parent companies, Little, Brown and the Hachette Book Group) who can darn well buy their own copy, or anyone who wins a copy of the book during the competition; they won’t then be eligible for future rounds, which we think is fair enough and gives everyone else a better chance of winning. And yes, you do have to be a Facebook member to participate in this one, otherwise you won’t be able to sign up as a Fan.

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over and declare your Winterbirth / Bloodheir / Brian Ruckley Fan-hood! The first draw takes place on Friday…

Over at Grasping for Wind, there’s a great review of Brian Ruckley’s Bloodheir (UK/US), including this fantastic bit on how Brian avoids ‘Middle Book Syndrome’:

Often, the second book in a trilogy is accused of something called “Middle Book Syndrome”. The idea is that the second book in most trilogies is mostly filler and very little plot movement really happens. And often it is true. But if anyone accuses Brian Ruckley’s second book in The Godless World trilogy, Bloodheir of suffering from middle book syndrome, I’m afraid I will have to scoff in his face. Read the rest

You can find Bloodheir in all good bookstores this June or win a copy over at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review now. You can also listen to Brian read from Bloodheir here.

Update: The Book Swede is running a contest for his ARC of Bloodheir. You can enter here.

Another online competition for you folks to enter - we know you love your competitions - this time with a rather interesting twist; one that Lilith Saintcrow fans will love, and that might just require the use of your best thinking caps…

Over at My Favourite Books, blogger Liz has set a Dante Valentine-themed crossword puzzle. Five successful puzzle solvers will win a copy of Lilith Saintcrow’s new novel, Night Shift [UK / US], the first in a new series starring demon slayer Jill Kismet, which we’ll be publishing in the US and UK in July.

Hmmm. Eight letters, “devilishly tricky”? That would make it ‘fiendish’, then…

Pamela Freeman, the bestselling Australian author, was in the UK office on Friday and was kind enough to sign some copies of her latest book, Blood Ties.

We’re giving away 5 (yes, 5!) signed copies of Blood Ties. To enter, send your name with the subject line ‘Blood Ties’ to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk. The winners will be chosen at random on June 5th, which is when everyone else can find it in booksellers nation-wide!

Congratulations to Ian G, the winner of our competition for a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thanks to everyone that entered!

We’ve teamed up with Chris, The Book Swede for this one: another incredibly simple-to-enter email sweepstake, with a copy of Blood Ties [UK / US] - the first part of Pamela Freeman’s Castings Trilogy - up for grabs by one lucky winner.

The book is out now in the US but won’t be be published next month in the UK. So if you’re a UK reader then this is a great chance to get your hands on an early copy… signed by the author, no less! And the Book Swede has also reviewed the novel, concluding: “Blood Ties is an excellent book, fun, clever, and well written, with distinctive characterisations, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next book in the series!”

Full entry terms and conditions are available over on the Book Swede’s blog. Good luck!

Another online giveaway to tell you about: this time, we’ve teamed up with Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review to give away a pair of Mike Carey novels - his first two ‘Felix Castor’ titles, The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle, to be precise - and all you have to do to enter the sweepstake is send an email to Graeme by May 6th.

For details, see the competition post at www.graemesfantasybookreview.com.

Tonight the winner of the 2008 Arthur C Clarke awards will be announced and, while we know who we’re rooting for, we thought what better way to celebrate than to give away a book by the great man himself! Up for grabs is a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey* by Arthur C Clarke, complete with a foreword by Stephen Baxter, one of this year’s shortlisted authors.

To enter, send your name with the title line “Arthur C Clarke” to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk. The winner will be chosen at random two weeks from today (May 14th). Good luck!

* This link doesn’t take you to the edition we’re giving away, but to the paperback copy that’s available to buy now.

We’re publishing The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers in both the UK and US next month, but in the meantime we’ve teamed up once again with Pat St Denis of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist to give away two copies of the book in an email sweepstake.

Simply visit the Hotlist and follow the instructions to email in your entry. Good luck!