Category: Extracts
- The Orbit Team - January 21st, 2010
B is also for Bennett. Robert Jackson Bennett, whose remarkable debut, Mr Shivers, is published this month in the UK, US and Australia. Robert’s US editor, DongWon, has waxed lyrical about Mr Shivers in this post, and has summed up the excitement perfectly. Go read it (the post and the book).
‘Mr Shivers is a startling début, a deft amalgam of thriller, cerebral horror and American gothic’ Guardian
You can read an extract here.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - January 20th, 2010
B is for Bakker, the author of the groundbreaking Prince of Nothing trilogy, who now returns to the world of Earwa with the first book of The Aspect-Emperor, The Judging Eye.
For readers who haven’t heard the buzz, no less an authority than Steven Erikson says:
‘Exquisitely intelligent and beautifully written . . . this is fantasy with muscle and brains, rife with intrigue and admirable depth of character, set in a world laden with history and detail. Take note, one and all, something remarkable has begun here . . .‘
You can read an extract from The Judging Eye here.
Fans of rich, robust fantasy rejoice! R. Scott Bakker is back.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 20th, 2010
It seems appropriate to begin the New Year with an ABC (for those of us who celebrated the Yule so . . . enthusiastically, that they’ve managed to mislay, for the moment, the neurons that deal with such matters). And so, in the finest traditions of children’s television, these are Orbit UK’s new releases for January . . .
A is for Abraham, whose Long Price Quartet has garnered extraordinary praise from the great and good of the literary world – not least, this fulsome endorsement from Junot Diaz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Literature:
‘Daniel Abraham is one of the reasons the fantasy genre continues to haunt my dreams. Abraham is fiercely talented, disturbingly human, breathtakingly original and even on his bad days kicks all sorts of literary ass . . . If you are meeting him for the first time I envy you: you are in for a remarkable journey.’
Orbit is delighted to be publishing Daniel Abraham‘s Long Price novels – A Shadow in Summer, A Betrayal in Winter, An Autumn War & The Price of Spring – in two omnibus editions: Shadow and Betrayal & Seasons of War. You can read extract from Book One here.
by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 19th, 2010
As Darren said in his round-up, the fantastic final volume of Pamela Freeman’s beautifully written Castings Trilogy is now here. Full Circle (UK I ANZ I US) is a tremendous read, set in a troubled land of warlords and outcasts where the echoes of past atrocities taint the present. The Eleven Domains were forged in blood a thousand years ago and old wounds have been reopened as a ghost army marches to avenge ancient wrongs. But don’t just take our word for it, read a free extract HERE and check out just some of the praise we’ve had, below.
Plus, we have our fingers crossed for Pamela this weekend, as her illustrated children’s book Victor’s Challenge is on the shortlist for its category at the prestigious Australian Aurealis Awards.
PRAISE FOR THE CASTINGS TRILOGY
- ‘Lots of great ideas … A very effective fantasy debut’
– BookGeeks.co.uk
- ‘Sometimes, a jewel rises to the top … I loved reading Blood Ties’
– Grasping for the Wind
- ‘Freeman shies away from simplistic morality, building elegantly well-rounded characters’
– Publishers Weekly
- ‘A rich and magical world where insurgency is definitely brewing’
– Romantic Times
- ‘Blood Ties has the feel of Ursula le Guin’s fantasy novels … a wonderfully satisfying series’
– Aurealis Xpress
- ‘An impressively different fantasy novel’
– Sydney Morning Herald
- ‘There is nothing predictable about Freeman’s storytelling … I was completely hooked’
– Good Reading Magazine
And see Blood Ties (bk 1, UK I ANZ I US) and Deep Water (bk 2, UK I ANZ I US) here too:
by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: Extracts, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - January 16th, 2010
In case you hadn’t noticed, vampires are very much the In Thing at the moment, pretty comfortably dominating the worlds of literature, television and movies. Yes, indeed - with a twinkle in the eye and a disturbingly pointy smile, the debonair bloodsuckers are doing very nicely, thank you.
With one exception: Joe Pitt. Joe’s not doing so well, as it happens. Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - January 14th, 2010
Ian Irvine has been impressing with his latest mighty trilogy, as you can see from SFX’s review for The Destiny of the Dead, the fabulous conclusion to The Song of the Tears books:
‘Thanks to Irvine’s light prose and insane sense of entertainment the story fairly flies off the page … Even the ending doesn’t let up — the series of dastardly twists leave you frazzled and you’re grateful for the warm fuzzy feeling on the last page. For sheer excitement there’s just no one else like Irvine around at the moment’
But Ian Irvine is no stranger to great reviews, as these comments on previous books show:
‘ Epic, non-stop action adventure’ — Starburst
‘An intense story … a worldbuilding labour of love with some truly original touches’ — Locus
‘A page-turner of the highest order … Irvine can now consider himself comfortably ranked next to the works of Robert Jordan and David Eddings. Formidable’ — SFX
And to find out what all the fuss is about, click HERE for your Destiny of the Dead extract.
by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit UK
- Anna Gregson - January 13th, 2010
There’s more extracty goodness coming up for you right HERE, in the form of a chapter 1 excerpt from Beyond the Wall of Time (UK/US), the stunning conclusion to Russell Kirkpatrick‘s Broken Man trilogy.
See our previous post if you’d like to find out more.
by Anna Gregson • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, Extracts, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - January 13th, 2010
So now that we all have a bit more time in our diaries to do things that don’t revolve around eating, buying presents and fitting in drinks with
everyone you’ve ever known into a two week period, how about a spot of reading???
And to start you off, please click HERE for an extract for Princeps’ Fury (UK I ANZ), the fifth instalment of the Codex Alera, Jim Butcher’s powerful Romanesque fantasy. Praise for the series has been tremendous, and here are a couple more quotes for Princeps’ Fury to tempt you further:
The rousing fifth instalment of Butcher’s military fantasy cycle finds the land of Alera recovering from Lord Kalaruss’ rebellion, an invasion by the wolven Canim and a bloody slave revolt … No less powerful than his intense battle scenes, Butchers vivid characterizations, based on ancient Roman Republican ideals, range from duty-honor-country austerity in battle to brilliant peacemaking’
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Once again, Jim Butcher has created a masterpiece of high fantasy. The many battlefronts create an atmosphere of adventure that will sweep you up in the excitement that is Codex Alera’
SFSite.com
The last book, First Lord’s Fury (UK I ANZ) will be out in May this year so you won’t have long to wait for the next one!
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- Anna Gregson - November 6th, 2009
That’s how the Sydney Morning Herald has described Marianne De Pierres’ phenomenal Sentients of Orion series. Out this week is the fantastic third instalment of the series, Mirror Space (UK/ AUS), and readers are in for a treat.
We continue to follow Mira Fedor, a young baroness with the ability to pilot sentient spaceships, in her attempt to liberate her home planet Araldis from hostile forces. As the Orion League of Sentient Species seems unable or unwilling to help, she’s forced to enlist the help of ruthless mercenary captain Rast Randall. But Rast’s contacts may have their own, more sinister agenda in mind . . .
With previous books in the series being lauded as: ‘Brilliant in all sense of the word’ (Sean Williams), and ‘A beautifully plotted, full-on action ride with gorgeous twists’(Aurealis), we suggest you take the advice that Hub Magazine gave about the series:
‘Readers who hunger for perceptive, intelligent and unflinching literary science fiction should seek this book out as soon as possible’
You can read an extract here.
by Anna Gregson • 2 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Commentary, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Reviews
- Anna Gregson - September 1st, 2009
No, we’re not just throwing out random insults at our readers for the hell of it . . . this is actually the title of the new laugh-out-loud vamp-themed book from Christopher Moore, which Publishers Weekly have aptly described as:
‘[A] cheerfully perverse, gut-busting tale’
and Booklist as:
‘[A] hilarious mockery of the pursuit of the appetites’.
In this rambunctious tale, Tommy, a naïve and eternally lusty 19-year old from Incontinence, Indiana, is rather peeved to find out that his hot vampire girlfriend Jody has turned him into a bloodsucking fiend too.
If he admits it, there are some pretty cool things about being a vampire – like eternal youth, super-strength and enhanced senses, and hey – even his zits have cleared up! It’s just the fact of being dead which is a bit of a bummer, along with the fact that anything except blood makes him projectile vomit, and that he passes out every day at sunrise, making trips to the mall rather difficult.
So Tommy and his girlfriend set out to find a minion to run errands for them and generally be their slave-around-the-house. And who better than the angsty goth teenager they meet at the local drugstore? Meanwhile, Tommy and Jody have other more important things to worry about, like fleeing from Tommy’s former turkey-bowling pals who have turned on him, and the fact that the centuries-old vampire who bit Jody in the first place has decided he wants her back.
If you fancy a nibble too, check out an extract of You Suck (UK/ANZ) here.
by Anna Gregson • 1 Comment • Posted in: All posts, Commentary, Extracts, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
