With sinister echoes of 1984 and Brave New World, this original novel features a near-future city where medical science invents a single-dose pill for eradicating many common genetic defects . . .
Read a sample
Out this month is the gun-blazing, throat-slitting, hover-riding, brain-augmenting THE TERMINAL STATE (UK/ US/ ANZ), the fourth book in Jeff Somers’ near-future thriller series, the Avery Cates sequence.
To celebrate its release, you might remember that Jeff Somers ran a competition to give his readers the chance to act out the roles of their favourite characters, by providing voiceovers for several videos based on the book. Jeff obviously managed to get people’s creative juices flowing, and received some highly inspired entries. The winners have now been chosen and they are the following:
Canny Orel – read by Ben Linford
Wa Belling – read by Tyrel Devlin from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
The Poet – read by Jeffrey Lamar from Chandler, Arizona
Mara - read by Patty Blount from Framingville, New York
The videos, with readers’ voices added, are now up on the site right here: www.theterminalstate.com (roll over the images to find the hidden footage).
If you haven’t checked out the Avery Cates novels and want to find out why SFX has called them ‘brash, brutal, [and] brilliant’, and the Guardian ‘an exhilarating example of powerful and entertaining storytelling’ then you can read an extract from the first book here.
Brent Weeks kicks off a video blog tour today — answering questions from John at graspingforthewind.com about his forthcoming book, THE BLACK PRISM. Find out how THE BLACK PRISM is different from the Night Angel Trilogy, where the inspiration for the color magic system came from, and why Kip isn’t your typical fantasy hero.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more video interviews from some of your favorite sff sites!
THE BLACK PRISM is coming out August 25, (US | UK | AUS) and to help introduce you to the amazing new world Brent has created we’ve just launched the “What Color is Your Magic?” quiz on www.brentweeks.com. Take the quiz and find out what kind of drafter you’d be.
It seems that I like to blow things up. Hm…Don’t know if that surprises anyone. But wait, it gets better! “Yellows tend to be clear thinkers, intellect and emotion in perfect balance.”
‘This is one of the great ironies of contemporary literature: the books that ask the deepest and most profound questions tend to be situated in the most marginalised of genres . . . Ken MacLeod’s The Restoration Game, like his previous novels The Execution Channeland The Night Sessions, are works of science fiction so worryingly close to reality that he may well be hailed as a prophet . . .’
So says Scotland on Sunday and I’m hardly inclined to argue. As you can see, Ken MacLeod‘s latest novel, The Restoration Game, published earlier this month, is already garnering high praise from the critics:
As ever, MacLeod’s grasp of political intrigue is first rate, and in Lucy he’s created a complex heroine forever in doubt as to the true nature of events’ Guardian
This is a writer at the peak of his powers’ SFX
Hear! Hear! And to celebrate publication, we are delighted to present this small but perfectly formed interview that Ken did on a recent trip to Orbit Towers.
What, exactly, is the hitherto undisclosed secret of Ken MacLeod? Watch closely and learn. The answer may shock you . . .
When the manuscript that eventually became THE UNIT landed on my desk, I was a little skeptical. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction but after having recently read The Road and playing Fallout 3 more than was strictly healthy, I wasn’t sure I was ready for the grueling, depressing grind of another story about the end of times. Oh, how wrong I was…
THE UNIT is the post-apocalyptic story I hadn’t realized I was waiting for. Unflinching, honest, brutal, tender, and, above all, humane– Terry DeHart’s debut floored me on the first read. It’s not that it’s not dark. It’s not that horrible things don’t happen to good people. But it does what so many post-apocalyptic stories fail to do, it reminds us of the essential humanity of every player in the story.
One of my colleagues instantly pegged it as, “hey, it’s like The Road if they ever fought back” which, moving beyond the glib, was exactly what I thought was missing from Cormac McCarthy’s excellent, soul-crushing, tale.
Anyhow, you don’t have to take my word for it:
a striking picture of human vulnerability and strength.” — Publisher’s Weekly
Like a crowbar to the skull, the lethal narrative intensity of this novel comes from its brutal realism and all-too plausible story line.” –Explorations
And io9.com picked it as one of their July picks with a description that trumps any copy I’ve ever come up with:
You’ve got a zombie plan, I assume. How’s your fallout preparedness? Vacationing in the Sierra Nevadas, the Sharpe family survives a nuclear strike, but anyone who’s ever read Alas, Babylon! knows that’s the easy part. Now they’ve got to deal with radioactive snowstorms and killer teenagers. Jerry, a badass ex-Marine, just wants to get his family home to Sacramento, while his wife, Susan, does her level best to keep nurturing the kids. Their daughter, Melanie, tries to maintain her pacifist convictions, while her brother, Scotty, goes totally Red Dawn on the people chasing them. Worst family trip ever.” — io9.com
THE UNIT is out in stores now. Read the first chapter here and go download a wallpaper for your computer or mobile device here.
Ms. Nicole Peeler is out with an awesome new novel, Tracking the Tempest. Back in Rockabill, Jane True is learning to control her powers – and finding out more about the paranormals in her community. She’s also making time for Valentine’s day with her blood sucking boyfriend Ryu, but a murder or two later and Jane is involved in much more than a romantic getaway.
It’s in US stores now and out next month in the UK and Australia, and you can read an excerpt here.
We’ve heard from a few others on Jane True:
“Irresistible.” – Romantic Times
“Witty and fun, with a dash of dark suspense.” — Scifichick.com
“Grounded equally in ancient myth and the challenges of modern life, Jane True lives up to her name … true, and truly unique! A fascinating, fast-paced, sexy storm of a book.” — Rachel Caine
Tweet it from the rooftops, a new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks will be released in October.
The title is SURFACE DETAIL, which refers to a number of things, not least one of the principal characters, who is covered, externally and internally, with congenitally administered tattoos.
Here’s the cover:
Here’s the blurb:
It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.
It begins with a murder.
And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.
Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to
risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.
Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful – and arguably deranged – warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war – brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it’s about
to erupt into reality.
It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.
Orbit will be publishing SURFACE DETAIL worldwide in print and e-book editions this October.
I’m delighted to announce, after much careful tweaking, amending and perfecting, that we now have artwork for Gail Z. Martin’s The Sworn, book 1 in the Fallen Kings cycle (US I UK I ANZ). This is a new series but has many familiar faces from Gail’s Necromancer series, so will be great for new readers and Gail Martin fans.
We wanted something that would draw you into Gail’s world, that would hint at the action and pure thrill of her writing and I think Steve Stone has delivered something wonderfully atmospheric with this visual. Here be swords, brigands, dark magics and other forms of mayhem aplenty, so those seeking adventure between the pages need look no further.
In addition to saying something about this new book, we were also keen to produce something that would be in sympathy with the cover style of the Necromancer Chronicles, as this book is set in the same world as that series. But at the same time, we had to balance this against not wanting to reproduce the previous style exactly as this book is of course the start of something new. And to find out for yourself just how much excitement is in store, have a look at our first sneak preview of The Sworn with this early extract here.
You can also expect more from Gail Z. Martin all this week, as she will be talking about this new book as part of her Hawthorn Moon online book event. This has been a great success for several years now, so look out for interviews, giveaways, twitter-only extras, podcasts and much else!
This extraordinary book was released in the UK this month, and is a powerful tale of politics and war …
“Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning and, above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he’s only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough.”
You can read a free extract of it here and it’s also available in the States and will be out soon in Australia.
K. J. Parker has attracted huge amounts of critical praise throughout a long career (UK I US), and here’s just a selection of it, below:
‘I have reviewed books before that I thought might someday be found to have achieved greatness . . . K.J. Parker is writing work after work that demands to be placed in this category’ Orson Scott Card
‘Impressive . . . there’s a mordant wit to the workings of Parker’s mind’ TIME OUT
‘I was hooked from the very first scene’ LOCUS
‘Parker raises the bar for realistic fantasy war craft’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
‘Has a complexity and ambiguity that’s lacking in much fantasy fiction’ DEATHRAY
The griffins have landed in the UK! Here’s one of the majestic beasts caught on camera causing havoc in London just today. With the arrival of these ferocious creatures of fire, it may be that half of the city will turn to desert by this evening . . .
We’re wondering if you’ve spotted any griffins in your local vicinity? Send your reports and photos to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk and we’ll reward the five most vigilant (and creative) people with copies of the first two books in the Griffin Mage series: Lord of the Changing Winds (UK/US/AUS) and Land of Burning Sands(UK/ US/ AUS). They’re released this month and next month in the UK, and are already available in the US.
The author, Rachel Neumeier - a long-term griffin observer and specialist - may be able to offer some helpful advice for dealing with any griffin nuisances in your local area. You can read Rachel’s account of what happens when griffins and humans clash on the SFX website. And for further information on the author, see her brand new website, launched just last week: www.rachelneumeier.com
- - August 4th, 2010
When the manuscript that eventually became THE UNIT landed on my desk, I was a little skeptical. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction but after having recently read The Road and playing Fallout 3 more than was strictly healthy, I wasn’t sure I was ready for the grueling, depressing grind of another story about the end of times. Oh, how wrong I was…
