Category: News
- The Orbit Team - August 10th, 2007
Philip has been pretty busy recently, what with checking the proofs for Debatable Space and finishing the first draft of his next book for Orbit — it’s no wonder the strain is starting to tell . . . But seriously, Philip has been doing a huge amount of work in recent months for his new radio play for Radio 4, and you can catch this tonight from 9-10pm.
The play is entitled Breaking Point and is an insightful and powerful exploration into psychological manipulation, and how to ‘break’ people in interrogation. We see the story from an unusual perspective as we follow Jon Starkey, undergoing training to become a British Army interrogator. As the drama unfolds, we see the effects on him and his family as he joins the ‘war against terror’. Philip talks about the play on his blog and you can also find out more on Radio 4′s site.
If you miss the play on Friday, you can listen for a further week after broadcast, courtesy of Radio 4′s ‘listen again’ facility. Philip has also written an interesting piece on the making and recording of the play, an engaging read.
Radio 4 describes its Friday plays as “strong stories that reflect the world: entertaining, emotionally engaging and challenging” and Breaking Point will certainly be all of these things.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Contents, News, Orbit UK
- Tim Holman - August 9th, 2007
Here’s a question: whose next SF novel features spaceships with the following names?
Now We Try It My Way
Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall
Subtle Shift in Emphasis
Liveware Problem
Don’t Try This At Home
You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave
Without doubt one of the most highly anticipated SF novels to be published next year, Matter is the new novel from Iain M. Banks, the UK’s bestselling SF author. It’s a Culture novel — the first for 8 years — and Iain has just delivered the final manuscript. And I’ve just read it. And . . . WOW!!! (that’s a technical publishing term). Being a Culture novel, we’ve also got a whole heap of new Culture ship names to look forward to. My favourite today is Don’t Try This At Home. We’re scheduled to publish Matter in the UK and the US in February next year, and here’s a sneak peek of the cover:
by Tim Holman • 5 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Contents, News, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - August 8th, 2007
Much ecstatic piping on the tin whistle (Clarke original, key of D, natch) greeted the news that Mike Carey’s superb debut The Devil You Know, featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor, has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel.
The award will be presented at Fantasycon in Nottingham this September, which Mike will be attending — along with fellow Orbit author Terry Brooks, who is one of the Guests of Honour.
You can read an extract of The Devil You Know here.
Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, and our best wishes to Mike — everyone at Orbit is hoping for a well-deserved win for Felix Castor’s first outing.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Contents, Conventions, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 6th, 2007
We’re delighted to announce that from September 2007, Orbit UK is going to be distributing titles from Yen Press, the new manga line set up by our sister company, Hachette Book Group USA. We’re extremely excited at this development, and are looking forward to the first titles being available next month.
You can find out more about Yen Press, and forthcoming titles, on their website.
You can read the official press release here (you’ll need Acrobat Reader, available free from this link).
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - August 2nd, 2007
No, not the Orbit Christmas Party (although . . . ); we’re talking about virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which seem to be being invaded by a new wave of cyber-crooks. There have been two stories floating about teh Intarwebs recently, involving criminal action in Second Life. Why do we care? Apart from a deeply held concern for our fellow beings, obviously? Because Orbit author Charles Stross anticipated them both. Who says SF can’t predict the future?
In an amazing case of (second) life imitating art, this story circulated a little over a week ago, outlining the theft of $3.2 million Linden Dollars from Second Life. This is scarily close to the central theme of Charlie’s forthcoming Halting State. We don’t publish Halting State until January 2008, but remember Charlie wrote it last year, so it still counts as prophecy! And as if that wasn’t enough Nostradamus-like gazing through the veil of time, we just spotted this on the website of The Australian newspaper. Again, Mr Stross was there first. The advent of virtual terrorism was outlined in this article Charlie wrote for online gaming site Guildcafé last March.
At the risk of taking liberties with Oscar Wilde’s famous wit: to predict one future event can be seen as fortunate, to predict two begins to look like cleverness.
So, if you want to know what the future might look like, read Charles Stross. He can’t do the lottery numbers (we checked) but there are few better authorities on emergent technology and how it might affect our lives.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Commentary, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 27th, 2007
Charlie Huston
(photo: Karin Kohlberg)
I’ve just been looking through the fourth issue of Death Ray, which, it’s pleasing to report, is full of nice things.
First up is a terrific interview with Charlie Huston, talking about his Joe Pitt books, his thrillers and his work for Marvel Comics on Moon Knight. Later in the issue, there’s a fantastic review of the new Joe Pitt book, No Dominion:
Bloody great . . . brilliantly rendered . . . The dialogue is exquisite, pared-down and telling you as much by what’s not said as by what is . . . it’s deceptively simple; there’s actually loads going on here, with relationships deepened, politics furthered, events put into motion and firmer shape given to the overall arc of the series . . . the result is a thrilling read that you’ll want to gulp down in a single draft.
Terry Brooks
(photo: Judine Brooks)
Fifty pages later, there’s a flagship feature on Terry Brooks — there’s an extremely expansive interview, touching on all aspects of his work; a selection of eight of his best books with accompanying reviews; and an interview with literary agent John Jarrold, who has published Terry at various stages in his career and outlines Terry’s enduring appeal and the enormous influence his work has had on the genre. The piece concludes:
Whether it’s his affable style, his prodigious capacity to feed his fans with new books, or the simple fact that he can spin a fine yarn is unimportant: Terry Brooks remains one of the most successful fantasy writers ever, and probably will remain so for many years to come.
The first volume in Terry’s new series The Genesis of Shannara, Armageddon’s Children is out now in paperback, and Terry will be touring the UK in September to promote his new title The Elves of Cintra — watch this space for details!
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Contents, News, Orbit UK, Reviews
- The Orbit Team - July 23rd, 2007
The Dresden Files television series was shown earlier this year in both the UK and the US (on Sky One and the Sci-Fi Channel respectively). This was a fantastic treat for the many fans of Jim Butcher’s books. Of course, we’ve all been eagerly anticipating more, but the future now looks rather uncertain, as despite good ratings and great reviews, commissioning of a second series has still to be confirmed.
But there is still something we can do — it’s not too late (yet)! Those helpful fans at Dresden City have put together a simple and helpful guide on how to keep the series alive, with details on exactly how to:
- Write snail mail letters to those most directly responsible for programming at the Sci-Fi Channel and Lionsgate
- Call the Sci-Fi Channel feedback line
- Let everyone online know your love for the show
More on the subject can be found here and of course check Jim Butcher’s official site for masses of Harry Dresden info and more.
Thanks for your support — you know it’s worth it!
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Commentary, Contents, News, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - July 17th, 2007
In January 2008, we’re publishing Debatable Space, a debut novel by Philip Palmer. Subtitled ‘a tale of revenge and revolution’, it’s a space opera of extraordinary imagination, a brilliantly plotted revenge novel, and a vividly realised future history.
It is being published by Orbit on both sides of the Atlantic, and is beginning to attract praise from readers — award winning SF writer Jon Courtenay Grimwood describes it as: “well written, fast moving and defiantly weird in places — definitely a new voice worth listening to.”
Philip Palmer’s official website has launched this week. You can learn more about Philip’s life as a soldier of fortune, lover, murder detective, military interrogator, forensic pathologist and captain of a pirate spaceship, follow his blog, and read an extract from Debatable Space.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Contents, New Titles, News, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - July 17th, 2007
Hot on the heels of the publication of Dark Space, Marianne de Pierres has decided on a title for the second book in the Sentients of Orion series: Chaos Space. With chaos theory at the heart of her new space opera, it’s an elegant and appropriate title, and we can’t believe it never occurred to us before.
But let’s not forget about book one! Dark Space continues to draw rave reviews from all corners of the SF world. Like these, for instance, at SFF World and Specusphere, not to mention this interview, also at SFF World.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Contents, Interviews, New Titles, News, Orbit UK, Reviews
- Devi Pillai - July 16th, 2007
I’m thrilled to announce an updated cover design for the US edition of Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin. We’re publishing her first book in October and we thought this was a fabulous look to start off a new series. We’ll be doing her next two books, Another One Bites the Dust and Biting the Bullet in December 07 and February 08. See the new covers after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
by Devi Pillai • 1 Comment • Posted in: Contents, News, Orbit US
