Category: Extracts
- Anna Gregson - January 31st, 2012
Released in February is The Legend of Eli Monpress ( US | UK | ANZ) - Rachel Aaron‘s fantasy tale of the incorrigible thief who plans to pull of the greatest heist in history . . . If you’re a fan of K. E. Mills’ Rogue Agent series or Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora then this is likely right up your street. You can sample the delights of an extract right here.
This edition contains the three titles The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion and The Spirit Eater – all in one handy volume and topped off with this gorgeous packaging from Sam Weber (see this great post here showing him at work in his studio on these very illustrations).
Take a minute to stop by Rachel Aaron’s attractive new site, where’s she’s posted some very interesting tidbits recently, such as this fantastic book trailer put together by our friends at Orbit France for the très sophistiquée French version of The Legend of Eli Monpress. Also, check out this extremely creative pictorial review for The Spirit Thief, part one of the Legend. Good effort!
Read on for the blurb and some great reviews: Read the rest of this entry »
by Anna Gregson • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fantasy, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit France, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews, Videos
- The Orbit Team - January 1st, 2012
Today is a momentous day. It is not only the first day of 2012, but it also marks the beginning of our Seven Days for SEVEN PRINCES feature. To celebrate the release of this fantasy adventure of epic proportions we’re going to be going 7-crazy on all of our Orbit channels for a whole seven days. Look out for the number 7 to find competitions, quizzes, giveaways and behind-the-scenes insights from the author. It’s one hell of a week for one hell of a book.
From author John R. Fultz, this debut fantasy novel wowed us here at Orbit and we’re just itching to bring it to the world. A tale where men and giants walk side-by-side, where ancient necromancers make a bid for power with chilling sorcery, where ordinary men do battle with monstrous creatures.
It’s a breakneck-paced, breathtaking adventure that’s unashamedly enjoyable and impossible to put down. With an entrancing fairy tale feel, this book really made us sit up and take notice – and it also showed us that John has a very exciting future ahead of him.
To see what we’re getting excited about, have an exclusive read of the prologue right here, and keep an eye out for all things 7 . . .
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - October 6th, 2011
“Impressive height or exceptional length of a limb is not the be all and end all of a creature. What I say is: the taller you are, the more likely you are to get hit!”
—Boïndil “Ireheart”, Doubleblade of the Secondling Clan of the Swinging Axes.
“Now and then you hear malicious remarks about dwarves. They are said to be of inferior build, to be cranky, to have a weird sense of humor; it is told that they only drink beer that is as black as night and are not able to appreciate music unless a hundred voices are bellowing in unison. But I say: only when you have been a guest in their majestic halls, as once I was, should you have the right to pronounce on these rumors and confirm them all to be true. Let us not laugh at them as if they were lovable children with long beards, but, on the contrary, let us praise the magnificent way they have preserved all of us from total destruction. More than once.”
—Excerpts from the ten-volume work My Life and Uniquely Heroic Exploits—the Memoirs of the Incredible Rodario.
The Revenge of the Dwarves (UK / US / ANZ) is out now in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and is released next month in the US. Join the adventure – read the start of their tale right here.
by The Orbit Team • 4 Comments • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - September 14th, 2011
As we’ve had such a fine crop of reviews for Philip Palmer’s rumbustious tale, we thought it was only fair to share. Click on the following links for more on Hell Ship’s swashbuckling story (UK | ANZ | US ) plus here’s a free extract and reviews follow below … the Sun review is just hilarious in itself!
No one writes SF quite like Palmer… Hell Ship is a freewheeling extravaganza replete with a hundred varieties of alien, vast spacecraft, exotic worlds… aficionados of bizarre space opera will be amazed and delighted”
GUARDIAN
“The triumphs and tragedies of this novel are told in the style of ancient legend. But there is also a sense of irrepressible fun … This is epic science fiction with a twinkle in its eye”
SUN
“I really do recommend Palmer’s work – he’s an unflinching and relentlessly ballsy writer”
SFREVU.COM
“Great storytelling … a joy to read. Great stuff from Philip which proves why he’s fast becoming my favourite science fiction author”
FALCATA TIMES WEBSITE
“Palmer’s imagination knows no bounds … readable and enjoyable”
THEBOOKBAG.CO.UK
“I knew I would love it after reading just a couple of pages … You will be treated to an entertaining tale of heroics, tragedy and selfless sacrifice all written with a gleam in the eye”
IWILLREADBOOKS.COM
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fiction, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - September 7th, 2011
The Business of Death (ANZ | UK | US) is out this month and a fun-packed, fast-paced basket of grim it is too! Trent Jamieson’s fantastic Death Works trilogy is a lively, urban fantasy read featuring a hard-pressed hero whose job is to ease the passing of spirits from one world to the other. But as Steven de Selby’s life goes rapidly to hell in a handcart, he finds there’s more rather more at stake than the job description indicated:
Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and exercise are the last thing he wants. But that’s what he gets when someone starts shooting at him. Steven is no stranger to Death – Mr. D’s his boss after all – but it’s still a shock when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate. It’s a bigger shock when he finds his friends, family and colleagues have also been targeted. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld, but he didn’t expect to find his loved ones among his ‘clients’.
With Mr. D missing and no one in charge, the living are being hunted, the dead start rising and the whole city is headed for a regional apocalypse. Steven must shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out just what’s going on – or there’ll be hell to pay.”
The Business of Death is a three-book omnibus (you can get a sample chapter here) so no need to wait for next instalments. And terrific quotes for this series include the following:
Jamieson writes a fast-paced story studded with action-movie beats”
Financial Times
”An intriguing evolution of the undead genre”
The Telegraph
“Refreshingly original and enjoyable”
TheBookBag.co.uk
“There is a lot to like … Combine this with the corporate version of Death, the subtle blend of humour and dry wit and you get a well-thought-out rewarding story. I heartily recommend.”
SFBook.com
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fiction, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - September 6th, 2011
The wonderful drama that is Kate Elliott’s Cold Fire (US | UK | ANZ) is at last out and ready for reading! This follows up last month’s mass market paperback publication of Cold Magic (US | UK | ANZ) and moves on that story with high tension and style. You can get a free extract here and here’s a bit more on this wonderful, stirring tale of two girls finding their path in a world of magic, deceit and complex politics:
Cat and her cousin Bee are key players in a drama of dragons and politics. Warring factions want to use or destroy their growing powers, and they’re closing in. The Cold Mages are conspiring to take them prisoner and the warlord Camjiata thinks it’s their destiny to help him conquer Europa – whether they want to or not. And the man Cat was forced to marry is back, as arrogant and annoyingly handsome as ever. Worse still, as Hallows Night approaches, powers hidden deep within the spirit world are rising. Cat must seek allies against these threats, for if she makes the wrong choices, she’ll lose everything.
Only one thing is certain. When Hallows’ Night comes the Wild Hunt will ride – and it feeds on mortal blood.”
Also, if you’re still here (not dashing around already trying to get hold of the book …) here are a few of the great things that have been said already:
Elliott skillfully blends intrigue and romance in this lively series about strong women caught among powerful and deadly forces’
Publishers Weekly
‘Something pretty unique. Add to this the author’s usual authoritative writing voice, a cracking love story and wrap it all up in politics, machinations alongside double dealing and the result is a very tired but sated reader after a marathon night time session … the result is something that makes this for me Kate’s best series to date. Great stuff’
Gareth Wilson, Faltaca Times
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fiction, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
- Anna Gregson - August 5th, 2011
Every August the city of Edinburgh is put in the spotlight due to the festival of comedy, music and theatre that’s held there. But lurking beneath this surface of joviality and hedonism, there is a much darker, more disturbing side to this city that most festival-goers don’t see. It’s a sinister and murky history littered with murder, grave robbing, executions and witchery . . . and it happens to be a wickedly exhilarating backdrop for an exceptional book we have out this month.
From Brian Ruckley, author of the critically acclaimed Godless World trilogy, comes The Edinburgh Dead (UK | US | ANZ), a darkly thrilling tale of murder, body-snatching and black magic. And it’s woven throughout with real-life characters and happenings from the shocking, all-too real history of the city.
The book is set in a period when medical scientists were experimenting the gruesome practice of dissection for the first time. In the operating theatres of Edinburgh, corpses were being sliced apart in front of the eyes of horrified and entranced spectators. The bodies used were supposedly obtained by honourable means. But those who know their Scottish history know that a certain pair called William Burke and William Hare were looking to make a tidy profit off these recent advancements in anatomical science. They realised how much a corpse could fetch on the black market at the time. However, they weren’t quite prepared to wait for their victims to die of natural causes before selling on their bodies . . .
When Brian turned his eternally eloquent hand to this dark episode from history, and elaborated the facts with a gripping fantastical twist, I was amazed at the results. Drenched in atmosphere, heart-stoppingly suspenseful and thoroughly transfixing - I urge you to read this excerpt to see just what’s in store for you.
The Edinburgh Dead (UK | US | ANZ) is out now worldwide. Read on for the blurb… Read the rest of this entry »
by Anna Gregson • 6 Comments • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 7th, 2011
I feel like announcing this with some kind of roar or perhaps a drum roll as I’ve been waiting for this for so long and today is actually LAUNCH DAY! But as we’re open plan and I’m highly unmusical I’ll let this do the job …
Charles Stross’s Rule 34 (UK | ANZ) is many amazing things. It’s a fast-paced Edinburgh-based crime novel set a few years into the future. It also displays lashings of Charles Stross’s wry humour and I enjoyed more than a few winces and chuckle-out-loud moments. Another aspect I really enjoyed was Stross’s extrapolation of our current technology, where our usual gadgets have been moved on a step or three. The BBC’s Click technology programme covered augmented reality just last month, but in Rule 34 it’s a useful, fully-fledged reality.
But perhaps most importantly, I found myself completely caught up in the colourful characters (a detective inspector, a young scalleywag called Anwar and a master criminal showing signs of psychosis known as the Toymaker). There’s not the space here to revel in the bizarre crimes DI Liz Kavanaugh has to investigate (domestic appliances in unlikely places …), or talk about the highly suspicious Eastern European bread-mix young Anwar is peddling. But you can sample for yourselves by reading this plot summary or by enjoying chapter one here. Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - June 14th, 2011
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
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, Fiction, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - April 4th, 2011
There has been plenty of wow-ing (a technical term we use round these parts) about this glorious visual for Michael Cobley’s next book – The Ascendant Stars. Illustrator Steve Stone and designer Peter Cotton have done us proud with this one and the content is no less exciting I promise you!
This is the culmination of an SF trilogy packed with invention and adventure and you can check out extracts from Seeds of Earth (book 1, UK | ANZ) and The Orphaned Worlds (book 2, UK | ANZ) with more to come in due course on book 3, published in November. Can’t wait. If you can’t wait either, keep an eye on Mike’s website too for hints, tips and updates.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Art, Extracts, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
