Photo by JR Blackwell

We are more than excited to announce a new novel by Mur Lafferty to the Orbit list! Her announcement is here. We plan to publish THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY worldwide in Spring/Summer 2013.

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Gail’s a master at weaving together a world together intricately and spectacularly – and you simply cannot resist being awed by the strong sense of atmosphere she creates . . .  In the dark, medieval-gothic world of the Fallen Kings Cycle, necromancers wield deathly powers of magic, ghosts toy with the living, and vampires, werewolves and demons roam the land.  See some of the fantastic reviews this series has earned so far:

‘Top notch, engrossing fantasy’ SFRevu.com

‘Those who enjoy the large-scale fantasy of George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan should enjoy this’ Library Journal

‘I found myself caught up in the story and the characters almost from the first page …very enjoyable’ Bookgeeks.co.uk

‘Very well-written and intricately plotted . . .  I can’t wait for the second book in the cycle, The Dread’ Civilian Reader

You can also read a sample extract right here.

Summoner-King Tris Drayke takes what remains of the Margolan army north to fight a war Margolan is ill-prepared to fight, as reports from spies confirm Tris’ worst fear. A new threat rises across the sea: a dark summoner who intends to make the most of the Winter Kingdoms’ weakness.

And in Isencroft, King Donelan is assassinated and Tris’s wife, Kiara, will now have no choice except to return and claim the crown. But the rogue mage’s agents will go to any length to prevent her from reaching her goal.

Kiara and Tris must discover the truth behind the dark summoner, the mysterious power surrounding their infant son, and face the awesome power of the Dread as they rise from their barrows for the first time in over a millennium.

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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:

Eli Monpress is talented. He’s charming. And he’s a thief.

But not just any thief. He’s the greatest thief of the age – and he’s also a wizard. And with the help of his partners – a swordsman with the most powerful magic sword in the world but no magical ability of his own, and a demonseed who can step through shadows and punch through walls – he’s going to put his plan into effect.

The first step is to increase the size of the bounty on his head, so he’ll need to steal some big things. But he’ll start small for now. He’ll just steal something that no one will miss – at least for a while.

Like a king.

Aaron’s outstanding fantasy debut is the first in a trilogy about unrepentant thief Eli Monpress . . . Fast and fun, Spirit Thief introduces a fascinating new world and a complex magical system based on cooperation with the spirits who reside in all living objects. Aaron’s characters are fully fleshed and possess complex personalities, motivations, and backstories that are only gradually revealed . . . Highly recommended for all fantasy readers. – BOOKLIST

Witty, smart, snappy, sassy, fast, furious and let’s not forget fun . . . Rachel Aaron isn’t so much knocking at the door as kicking it down – TOM HOLT

The Spirit Thief is a delightfully giddy romp of a novel – KAREN MILLER

Wry humour, engaging characters and full-tilt action - GAIL MARTIN

 

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UNCLEAN SPIRITS (UK | ANZ) is out (at last!) in the UK and our international markets this month. It’s the first novel in the Black Sun’s Daughter series by M. L. N. Hanover and we think you’re going to love it: a pacy, action-packed urban fantasy featuring Jayné Heller, a heroine who is strong and sassy, yet who often doubts her ability to tackle the burden that life has given her. As Kelley Armstrong so rightly says, she’s great!

Jayné Heller has always lacked a clear direction in life. She’s just dropped out of college and she really doesn’t get on with her family. So when her uncle Eric dies and leaves all his worldly possessions to her (which just so happens to include properties all over the globe, along with a considerable amount of cash) it seems that she has the chance to start her life afresh.

Except that this new-found wealth comes with a sinister price. It turns out that her uncle spent most of his life fighting a secret battle against ‘riders’ – evil spirits that take over human bodies and then control them. And it seems to be Jayné’s responsiblity to carry on this war from where her uncle left off . . .

UNCLEAN SPIRITS is available now and we’ll be continuing the series over the next few months: DARKER ANGELS comes out in February, VICIOUS GRACE in March and KILLING RITES in April.

Read a sample of UNCLEAN SPIRITS here!

Praise for UNCLEAN SPIRITS:

‘A strong beginning to an intriguing Urban Fantasy series, Unclean Spirits introduces readers to a fascinating new supernatural world. M. L. N. Hanover’s debut novel in the genre teems with promise, and I am excited to see where the next book leads’ - Book Smugglers

Between the novel’s energetic pacing, Jayné’s undeniable charm, and the intriguing concept behind the riders, Unclean Spirits is a solid entry in the urban fantasy genre’ - Fantasy Book Critic

‘Hanover’s treatment of the subject matter makes it a very entertaining book where the pages turn all too easily. I’ll be back for more and I reckon I’ll see you there with me’ – Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

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To celebrate this week’s release of the majestic epic fantasy adventure that is Seven Princes (UK | US | ANZ) by John R. Fultz, we’re giving  7 copies of this title away absolutely free. To enter, all you need to do is fill in the form for your relevant territory, and 7 winners will be picked at random worldwide next week. Good luck!

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(and yes I think we’ve finally mastered the iPad flippable art thing. ha!)

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We’ve drawn up a quiz based around the number 7 – lucky for some – to celebrate the release of the epic fantasy Seven Princes (UK | US | ANZ) by John R. Fultz.

Find out if the number 7 is lucky for you by taking the quiz below.

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Something mystical. Something downright magical.

Looking back through history, literature, religion, and philosophy, one can see this number coming up again and again – usually with a significant aspect invoking holiness, mystery, power or prosperity.

A few examples:

- In Buddhist mythology the newborn Buddha took seven steps right after he was born, declaring “I alone am the World-Honored One.”

- In Christian mythology the Walls of Jericho fell seven days after seven priests marched around the city seven times with seven trumpets.

- In Islamic mythology there are seven heavens and seven hells.

- In the ancient Roman Kingdom there were seven kings who ruled before the birth of the Republic. Rome itself is built on seven hills.

- In the folklore of diverse cultures, the seventh son of a seventh son is either a werewolf or a possessor of strange powers that set him apart from humanity.

The more you examine numbers and numerology, and their links with the past, the more you see patterns and powers associated with each number. Among the ranks of numerologists, 7 is generally associated with Thought and Consciousness. For astrologers, 7 is the number of heavenly bodies that influence our earthly life. These are the seven objects visible to the naked eye from our planet, including Sun, Moon and five planets.

Seven has inspired thinkers, dreamers and artists for many ages. In his famous poem William Shakespeare proposed that there were exactly “Seven Ages of Man,” spanning each portion of his life from birth to manhood to death. Neil Gaiman brought to life seven cosmic beings called The Endless in his phenomenal SANDMAN series. In Tolkien’s THE SILMARILLION there are seven Lords of the Valar and seven Ladies of the Valar, who are effectively the “gods” of Middle Earth. In that immortal book (the fertile soil from which LORD OF THE RINGS grew like a mystical tree), the infamous Feanor, King of the Noldor, has seven fated sons.

Seven’s magic is hard to deny. There are seven notes in Western musical scales both major and minor. Now there’s some real magic for you . . . just listen to some Mozart, some Johnny Winter, or some old-school Black Sabbath. You’ll hear and FEEL the magic of the seven notes. (Substitute any of your favorite music here.) Indian music also features seven tones, or “Saptak Swaras.”

There are Seven Gods of Good Fortune in Japanese mythology. Britain’s folk hero Thomas the Rhymer lived in Faerie Land for seven years. The mythical island-nation of Atlantis was rumored to have seven main islands. Spanish conquistadores in the New World tried and failed to find the legendary Seven Cities of Gold.

Akira Kurosawa’s magnificent film SEVEN SAMURAI inspired the American classic THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Both of these films inspired George Lucas to make the original STAR WARS, which changed cinema forever when it was released in 1977.  There are seven deadly sins and seven holy virtues. Seven days in a week. Seven seas. Seven is the winning number in traditional dice-rolling games. Seven is the most common “lucky number.”

SEVEN PRINCES is the first volume in the Books of the Shaper series. There are indeed seven princes in the book, although one of its main characters is not a prince at all. She’s a brave and headstrong young woman. Sharadza is the sister of three princes, all of whom are children born to Vod the Giant-King and his human Queen.

Not all of these seven princes will survive to become the SEVEN KINGS of the sequel. Nor will many of them join the ranks of the SEVEN SORCERERS in the third book. Yet there are several ongoing characters for readers to follow through all three books.

In SEVEN PRINCES the determined Sharadza strives to understand and master the Seven Tenets of Sorcery. It is a task for which she is more suited than anyone suspects.

Seven is more than a simple number. Seven is Power. Enlightenment. Consciousness. Enchantment. Legend. Myth.

All of which you will find in the pages of SEVEN PRINCES.

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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 . . .

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Seven Princes - released Jan 2012

So what’s your book about?

Is there any more difficult question for an author to answer? I know I have a hard time with this one. After spending so much time (often years) crafting a novel, living inside the souls of your characters, building the intricate world in which they live, overseeing the progress of an invented history and chronicling the fictional exploits of your literary “children”, it’s hard to encapsulate all the diverse threads of a novel into a single statement.

Yet the market demands a “hook” or “premise” on which any novel can hang its metaphorical hat. After all, if readers don’t know what to expect, why should they even buy the book? Blind faith? Hardly. Word of mouth? Well, that’s the best advertising you can get . . . but consider the irony. If you as the author don’t come up with a satisfying answer to “What’s your book about?” then your early readers and reviewers are going to do it FOR YOU. They’re going to summarize, encapsulate and foreshorten your Massive Undertaking of Artistic Purity to a description worthy of a sound-byte (or at least a Facebook update). So authors are better-off coming up with their own answer to this big question, rather than leaving it up to somebody else to explain.

All of this begs the question: “What is SEVEN PRINCES about?”

If you look at the cover text, SEVEN PRINCES is about war. “An age of legends. An age of heroes. An age of war.” Now that’s a great tag line. It’s engaging, evocative, and it rings with mythic resonance. Ready for more irony?

Here’s the thing: I never considered this book a “war novel” when I was writing it. Yet war itself is definitely one of the themes that drives the characters and the plot. Some characters want to prevent war—they know the red tragedy and the pointless slaughter that it brings—while others actively seek war to prove themselves, to avenge wrongs, or simply as a means of grabbing power. So the concept of war itself is definitely buried in there. There’s even a conversation at one point between two characters who argue about the essential nature of Man as a war-like being. Is Mankind capable of living in peace—true peace—for long? That’s a question that also lies at the heart of SEVEN PRINCES. So yeah, it’s about war. But it’s also about a lot more . . .

SEVEN PRINCES is about family. It’s about sons (and daughters) living in the giant shadows of their fathers. It’s about generational differences, the human drive to change the world to suit our tastes, our desires, and our terrible pride. It’s about people . . . mostly members of various royal families embroiled in a conflict that goes back farther than known history.

SEVEN PRINCES is about sacrifice. It’s also about Wisdom, and the journey from youth to adulthood. It’s about the timeless depths of infinity, and the confining walls humanity builds about itself to avoid staring directly at the Shape of Eternity. It’s about hidden forces that move behind the veils of the known world and drive the currents of history, spinning the tapestry of civilization to suit cosmic ideals, theoretical imperatives, or wicked perversions. It’s about POWER. It’s about the mad fires of Love that burn us hotter than flames, and the killing frost of Hate that chills our beating hearts and splinters our souls.

SEVEN PRINCES is about intriguing characters caught in dire circumstances. The fact that most of them are members of royal families makes them no less human, no less relatable, no less interesting than common folk. In fact, it makes them MORE interesting. In most fantasy worlds the common folk are far too busy herding goats, building roads, tending crops, and generally making a living to explore the great Emotions, Conflicts, and Adventures that make for epic storytelling. And besides, who among us hasn’t wished to be a member of the glorious elite at least once in his or her life? The closest that most of us ever come to being a prince or princess is when we visit Grandma’s house and she spoils us rotten. So this book may also be about the burdens carried by royalty . . . but it’s far more about the burdens of simply being human.

SEVEN PRINCES is about the clash of sword and shield, the fury of unleashed sorceries, the unyielding passions light and dark that drive us to our destinies. It’s about loyalty, friendship, jealousy, rage, vengeance, death, and the overwhelming power of blood. (Both the literal and hereditary kinds.)

This description of the novel may not work too well as a sound-byte, and it’s definitely too long for a Tweet or a status update. But stories are too complex to be completely reduced to a single line or two. So let this piece serve as a brief-yet-comprehensive answer to the most common question I’ve been asked about the First Book of the Shaper.

I can already hear the next question echoing at me from somewhere in the near future: “So what’s the NEXT book about?”

I’ll tell ya later.

Promise.

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