Category: Interviews
- The Orbit Team - August 27th, 2008
Two Orbit Authors – Brian Ruckley and Jeff Somers – recently took part in the first BookGeeks SF and Fantasy Writers’ Panel.
The round-robin discussion, which also includes contributions from authors Alastair Reynolds and Jaine Fenn, is on the subject of the marriage of prose and visuals. Specifically: maps (is their inclusion in sf / fantasy books a good thing / bad thing?), cover art (should an on-cover portrayal of a book’s characters or vehicles be encouraged / avoided?) and visualised representations of the authors’ work (what would they like to see, what would work best – games, comcis, movies?)
The piece is presented in round-robin format, with each authors’ responses to the three questions then commented upon by the other three authors, which works quite nicely to build up a the discussion between the participants. It all makes for some very interesting reading. Do check it out and do leave your own comments; pieces like this always work best with plenty of feedback.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Commentary, Interviews, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - August 22nd, 2008
It’s Friday lunchtime, which can mean only one thing (well, around here, anyhow): it’s time for our weekly round-up post of links to items of interest featuring Orbit authors:
- Marie Brennan comments on varying reader reactions to her work, and possible reasons therefore, over at sfnovelists.com.
- Marianne de Pierres and Sean Williams have both contributed to an article entitled ‘How I Write‘ over at ConceptSciFi.com.
- Robert Jordan fans and collectors, take note: large parts of his collection of antique and reproduction swords, spears, hatchets and knives will be auctioned via eBay in the next couple of weeks.
- Stan Nicholls (author of Orcs, out this September from Orbit US) was interviewed on the Wonderlands ning community.
- Jennifer Rardin‘s kick-ass heroine Jaz Parks is the latest guest of Jezebel the Demon over at the Cat and Muse radio talk-show.
- A fresh slice of writing advice from Lilith Saintcrow, this time on the subject of avoiding unnecessary deletion.
- And Lilith Saintcrow has launched a Wiki to provide background for her writing – check out The Shadow Journal and feel free to contribute (as per submission guidelines).
- Sean Williams talks to ConceptSciFi.com about his recent work, including the Astropolis series and his work on the official novelisation of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
- Over at Grasping For the Wind, there’s an interesting discussion developing on the merits of urban fantasy (a subject very dear to the Orbit team’s collective heart) and what a select group of bloggers think might be the Next Big Thing, genre or sub-genre-wise.
As always, if you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)
by The Orbit Team • 2 Comments • Posted in: Commentary, Interviews, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - August 19th, 2008
Charlie Huston, author of the Joe Pitt series, is over at Fantasy Book Critic talking to Rob about his upcoming book, Every Last Drop, published by Orbit in March 0’09:
Q: To begin with, for someone who has never read a Charlie Huston novel, how would you describe your writing style and where would you recommend they start?
Charlie: I think my prose is very direct. There’s a writer’s voice, and I have a style that’s meant to keep things moving, but the stories are delivered without much in the way of decoration. Dark, violent and profane are all apt adjectives…
You can read the full interview here or an excerpt from Every Last Drop over at Charlie’s blog.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: All posts, Contents, Extracts, Interviews, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 1st, 2008
Welcome once more, gentle reader, to our regular Friday links round-up. We have another choice selection of Orbit authors’ online activities for you to peruse this week:
As always, if you see any online articles, reviews or interviews that feature an Orbit author, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know! We’ll happily name-check your website or blog with a heads-up credit in return (please remember to provide us with a link…)
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Commentary, Interviews, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews, Signings and Events
- The Orbit Team - July 31st, 2008
Charles Stross features in the latest podcast from Rick Kleffel’s Agony Column, which is a recording of a Geekspeak interview that was broadcast on KUSP radio on Monday.
Rick and Charlie, along with Lyle Troxell and Sean Cleveland, talk about a wide range of topics, including Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein; two of the major literary influences on Charlie’s recently-released novel Saturn’s Children.
They then go on to discuss the building blocks of the milieu that Charlie explores in Saturn’s Children: artificial intelligence, a robotics-based and dehumanised future extension of human civilisation, interplanetary travel, space exploration (and the necessity for robotics therein), memory backups and personality duplication, the class-structure of robotic society in the book, the ethics of programming an artificial intelligence and a whole range of other great sf-nal subjects.
You can visit Rick Kleffel’s Trashotron site to read the intro to the podcast, and then download the MP3 file from a link in the text.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Audio, Contents, Interviews, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 24th, 2008
Iain [M] Banks enjoyed providing answers for his first email Q&A session so much that he’s asked us to set up another one right away.
And so, without further ado, we hereby call for all you Banks-fans and readers to send in your questions for Iain. Visit the official Iain Banks website for more information, general guidelines etc.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Interviews, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 23rd, 2008
Over at FantasyBookCritic, blogger Robert Thompson has posted a hugely complimentary review of the second of Mike Carey‘s Felix Castor novels, Vicious Circle, which we published back in 2006 (and have since followed up with volume three in the series, Dead Men’s Boots).
Robert says:
“Vicious Circle … makes a strong case for being one of the top urban fantasy novels released this year. Simply put, I think Mike Carey is one of the most exciting new authors in supernatural fiction today and I can’t recommend the Felix Castor series enough.”
He’s also added an email interview conducted with Mike, which includes an update on a number of writing projects (including a fifth Felix Castor novel), the progress on a couple of film projects, his many comics-related interests, and what Mike sees as the future of fiction in printed form.
Check out the full review an interview at FantasyBookCritic.blogspot.com.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Interviews, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 21st, 2008
We’ve just posted the write-up of the first email Q&A session with Iain [M] Banks, over at his official website, www.iain-banks.net.
In case you missed the announcement first time around, we invited readers of this site and www.iain-banks.net to submit their questions for Iain – ideally something other than the usual sort of thing he tends to be asked at readings and convention appearances all the time – and then we selected a half-dozen question to put to Iain.
So, if you’d like to know which Culture character Iain would choose to write a novella on, or whether Iain would ever write a science-fiction novel that wasn’t filled with war and violence, or even which parts of Scotland Iain recommends for a visitor who’s also a fan of his books, then www.iain-banks.net is the place to head to next.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Interviews, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 21st, 2008
Ken MacLeod is the subject of the latest podcast interview at www.scifidimensions.com.
The discussion ranges across a number of subjects, including Ken’s new novel, The Night Sessions, which we’re publishing in the UK next month, and his previous title, The Execution Channel, which we published in paperback back in March.
Interviewer John C Snider also discusses with Ken how it feels to be nominated for awards, his current thematic interest in writing near-future speculation with an alternate-history twist, Heim theory, Ken’s politics (and how his views affect his writing), new media, blogging, how The Night Sessions was (partly) inspired by a U2 video, and much more.
Download the full 40-minute podcast file by visiting www.scifidimensions.com.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Audio, Interviews, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 18th, 2008
Former military intelligence officer turned military-sf writer Robert Buettner is the subject of the 47th Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast.
The first three volumes in Robert’s Jason Wander series are out now from Orbit US and will all be published by Orbit UK in August:
- #1 – Orphanage [US / UK]
- #2 – Orphan’s Destiny [US / UK]
- #3 – Orphan’s Journey [US / UK]
I’ve just finished Orphanage myself and I thought it was a cracking, high-octane read that will definitely appeal to fans of Allan Cole & Chris Bunch’s Sten series, but don’t just take my word for it: check out these two recent reviews of Orphan’s Journey at bookreviewsandmore and sffworld.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Audio, Commentary, Interviews, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Reviews
