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We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera sequence in a major four book deal.

Jim Butcher is the bestselling and critically-acclaimed author of the Dresden Files series, featuring wizard-detective, Harry Dresden, which has sold over 150,000 copies for Orbit and was recently televised by the SciFi Channel.

The Codex Alera is a series of epic fantasy novels set in a world where courage and ingenuity may yet triumph over magic and power. For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies - elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal. But now, Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, grows old and lacks an heir. Ambitious Lords manoeuvre to place their Houses in positions of power, and a war of succession looms on the horizon.

Far from city politics in the Calderon Valley, young Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy - the Marat - return to the Valley, his world will change. Caught in a storm of deadly wind furies, Tavi saves the life of a runaway slave. But Amara is actually a spy, seeking intelligence on possible Marat traitors to the Crown. And when the Valley erupts into chaos - when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies - Amara will find Tavi invaluable. His talents will outweigh any fury-born power - and could even turn the tides of war.

Orbit commissioning editor Bella Pagan said, ‘We are really delighted to be publishing Jim Butcher’s fabulous Codex Alera sequence. After the huge popularity of Jim’s ongoing Dresden Files series, it is exciting to have a new direction to offer fans. With its fast pace, fine world-building and compulsive plot twists, this more traditional fantasy series will also attract an army of new enthusiasts.’

The Codex Alera series will start with Furies of Calderon, to be published by Orbit in summer 2009.

And speaking of polls, you can vote for your favourite SF and Fantasy authors of all time over at SFX. There’s no suggested list, though we could think of a few (or many!) Orbit authors that fit the bill…

We’ve been checking out the 2008 Locus Poll & Survey in the office this week. This is the final voting poll, and you don’t actually have to be a Locus subscriber to register your vote.

In each of the categories there are a number of suggested titles, sourced from the 2007 Locus Recommended Reading List, or you can add your own titles via the write-in boxes on the form.

We’re particularly happy to see a number of Orbit’s lead publications for last year included in the recommendation shortlists, including:

• The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod (Best SF Novel)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Best SF Novel)
• Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil and The Escapement from The Engineer Trilogy, all of which we published in the US in 2007 by K.J. Parker (Best SF Novel… interestingly)
• A Betrayal in Winter, which we published as part two of The Long Price in the UK, by Daniel Abraham (Best Fantasy Novel)

Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross also have long-listed pieces in the Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story lists. And what’s that you say? Orbit are long-listed under Best Publisher? Well, yes, but we’re all far too polite to mention it…

Further to Bella’s post, below, on the 2008 Eastercon, I thought it worth mentioning that Eastercon returns to the Radisson Edwardian at Heathrow (amusingly nicknamed the “Radisson Non-Euclidean” by convention wags), in two years time. Even more exciting for us at Orbit Towers is that the convention committee have shown the great good taste to invite Mike Carey as one of their Guests of Honour.

First Charles Stross, now Mike Carey - they can hold Eastercons at Heathrow every year, as far as we’re concerned!

The web-comic Unshelved took a look at Jeff Somer’s The Electric Church over the weekend. Check it out!

We’re delighted to announce a new addition to the Orbit team in the UK. Darren Turpin joins us on 7 April, in the role of Marketing Executive. Also known to some in genre circles as Ariel, Darren has been involved with science fiction and fantasy for many years. During his time as a bookseller, he was co-editor of The Waterstone’s Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and he created the very-near-legendary genre website The Alien Online. Most recently, he has worked as a freelance web developer, and built websites for many of our authors, including Philip Palmer and Brian Ruckley. We’re enormously excited that he’ll be working on websites and online campaigns for our authors.

Darren, welcome!

The shortlist for the 2008 Hugo Awards has just been released, and we are delighted to see that Charles Stross’s cutting-edge near future heist thriller, Halting State, has made the ballot. This is the fifth consecutive year that a Charles Stross novel has been shortlisted for the Hugo, passing the great Robert Silverberg’s previous record, which is an amazing achievement. Many congratulations to Charlie on his most recent shortlisting - we’ve all got our fingers crossed that he walks away with the rocket ship, this year!

Oh, and I’ve read his forthcoming space opera, Saturn’s Children - don’t bet against it being six-in-a-row, this time next year . . .

The News At 10:00 last night carried the sad story that Sir Arthur C. Clarke had passed away, some three months after his 90th birthday.

Although best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke’s work encompassed so much more than just an iconic date.  The Fountains of Paradise won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards and his brilliant Rendezvous with Rama went one better by adding the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The scenes at the opening of Independence Day, of giant spaceships appearing over the Earth’s major cities, is straight out of the majestic Childhood’s End, written over forty years earlier.  

His incredible body of work is reason enough to consider ‘greatness’ an entirely appropriate adjective, but Clarke was so much more than simply a science fiction writer.  He gave us Clarke’s Three Laws; he served in the RAF during the Second World War, where he was involved in the development of the early warning radar defence system; and in a paper published in Wireless World in October, 1945, he practically invented the telecommunications satellite.

When I heard the news last night, I went upstairs and took my copy of The Collected Short Stories off the bookshelf.  I’ve read pretty much everything Clarke’s written over the years - certainly all the solo works - but it has probably been over twenty years since I’ve read any of his short stories.  As I looked down the contents page trying to decide where to start, it was like reading a Shakespeare play and seeing all the quotes leap out. An unremitting catalogue of brilliance stared out at me: here was Loophole, there was Rescue Party; The Wall of Darkness, Nemesis, Second Dawn, All the Time in the World, The Lion of Comarre, No Morning After, A Meeting with Medusa, “If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth. . . “, Encounter at Dawn, Expedition to Earth, The Other Side of the Sky, Transit of Earth, The Wind From the Sun, Against the Fall of Night. 

Those who know anything about Arthur C. Clarke will have spotted three glaring omissions in the above, and of course, that’s where I started. I re-read The Nine Billion Names of God, then I re-read The Star, and then I re-read The Sentinel. In some cases, the prose style may have dated a little, but the concepts and the execution are as powerful as ever. If you’d asked me as a teenager what reading Arthur C. Clarke felt like, I’d have said ‘having my brain pried open and the universe poured in’.  After reading those stories again last night, I’d say my teenage self had it spot on.

We lost one of our Greats yesterday. Farewell, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the world is poorer for your passing.

We’re happy to announce that Brian Ruckley, Charles Stross, Mike Carey and Philip Palmer are going to be at this year’s Alt.Fiction event, taking place at the Assembly Room in Derby on Saturday, April 26th.

If you’re not familiar with Alt.Fiction it’s a fantastic weekend of writers, writing and all things genre. The schedule of events and more information is available here and here. Hope to see you all there!

Just a reminder to all those in the Glasgow area - and all those who have a chance to get to the Glasgow area - the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival is on this weekend. Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod will be discussing their latest novels, Matter and The Execution Channel, at The Mitchell Library at 6pm on Sunday, March 9th.

Find out more about the festival and buy your tickets here.

The official Iain (M.) Banks website has been re-launched at www.iain-banks.net. Check it out for all the news and reviews, along with some very interesting contests coming up…

Meanwhile, in an interview at io9.com Banks reveals the hidden Thunderbirds influence that runs through the Culture novels:

“Thunderbirds gave me a love of big explosions I’ve yet to shake off. It’s kind of ingrained by now. Almost the first thing I think of when I’ve come up with an idea for a Really Big Artifact is how you could blow the living bijeesus out of it…”

And in the i09 review of Matter, Annalee Newitz sums up her thoughts on the book in the headline: “Iain M. Banks’ New Novel Kicks Ass on a Galactic Scale.”

While at BookPage Gavin Grant writes:

Matter is Banks in top form. His characters—whether human, alien or drone—are spiky, opinionated, diverse, occasionally short-sighted and tragically believable

Matter is available from Orbit in the US and the UK.

More award news, with the shortlist for the 2008 Ditmars being announced over the weekend, and we’re delighted to see Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Marianne de Pierres’ Dark Space on the shortlist for best novel. Sean and Marianne were also both shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, and we’ve got our fingers crossed that one of them will win this time. Or perhaps both - is a tie too much to ask for?

Awarded since 1969 in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror, the Ditmar is one of the premier awards for Australian speculative fiction. Previous winners of the Ditmar for Best Novel include Garth Nix, Peter Carey, George Turner, Victor Kelleher, Greg Egan and - on no fewer than five occasions - Sean Williams.

The Ditmars will be presented at Swancon, the 47th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held over the Easter weekend.  Guests of Honour include Orbit’s very own Ken MacLeod and Glenda Larke. Ken’s The Execution Channel is, of course, on the shortlist for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel (also to be presented over Easter), and Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens was shortlisted for last year’s Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

On the whole, we’re rather pleased with the way 2008’s shortlists are developing.

Orbit is thrilled to announce that we have pre-empted a three-book urban fantasy series by debut author Jaye Wells in a six-figure deal with agent Jonathan Lyons of Lyons Literary LLC. The first volume, RED-HEADED STEPCHILD will be published in 2009. (more…)

Debatable Space is on Facebook! Give us a poke here and become a fan of the sci-fi debut of the year, which the Guardian is calling:

So crammed with startling ideas, scintillating prose, incredible aliens and plot twists that it evokes wonder and admiration . . . Palmer has achieved the very difficult feat of presenting big ideas that don’t overshadow the human element. It’s a debut of rare accomplishment.

Don’t have a Facebook account? You can still get all the latest news at Philip Palmer’s website and read an extract here.

We recently offered copies of Jo Graham’s Black Ships as part of the Librarything early reviewer program, and the reviews are starting to come in!

“I was pleased with the first chapter, but by the end of the fourth chapter, I had to call up my sister (a fellow fan of Mary Renault) and share my excitement over this new author to follow. This book never let me down.” ( reviewed by selkins )

“… I wasn’t sure if it could compare to old favorites like Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia series or Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. Surprisingly, it does—not by slavishly emulating them, but by telling its own story.” (reviewed by Trismegistus)

You can see all the current reviews at Librarything, or visit the Orbit US Catalog.

Black Ships will be in bookstores in March. Read the first chapter here.

Can’t wait to get your hands on the new Iain M. Banks Culture novel? Use your ears instead!

Matter is available for pre-release download on iTunes UK. Listen to the complete, unabridged version for only £21.95. You can also buy the abridged version on CD February 7th.

The shortlist for the 2007 BSFA Awards has recently been announced, and we’re absolutely delighted to see Ken MacLeod’s wonderful The Execution Channel in the running for the Best Novel. 

Fighting has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia to the borders of China. In the US, refugees from climate-change disaster subsist in FEMA camps. Images of official executions circulate on the Internet like al Qaeda videos. State agencies sponsor conspiracy theories as cover-ups. As the troops of the last superpower stand astride the last of the oil, China and Russia aren’t the only states considering their options: certain nations of Old Europe are quietly preparing for the worst.

The war on terror is over. Terror won.

 As with all of Ken MacLeod’s novels, The Execution Channel has garnered great critical acclaim.  The Times calls it ‘Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that’s absolutely mind-blowing’; noted critic Paul Kincaid, writing for Strange Horizons, says ‘A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . an extraordinary novel’; while SFX sums it up as ‘Jaw-droppingly audacious’.

The BSFA Awards will be presented on 22nd March at Orbital, this year’s Eastercon, where a very smartly attired paperback edition will be available for your reading pleasure!

Hmm. . . ‘Orbital’, eh?  Dare we see that as an omen . . . ?

Iain M. Banks will be reading and signing copies of his new book, Matter, the last week in February. Get your tickets now!

City Books
When: Monday 25 February, 6:30pm
Where: The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove
Tickets: £6, including a complimentary glass of wine
Contact: info@citybookshove.co.uk

Waterstone’s Bristol
When: Tuesday 26 February, 7:00pm
Where: Waterstone’s, 11a Union Galleries, Broadmead, Bristol
Tickets: £3, redeemable against the purchase of a book
Contact: enquiries@bristolgalleries.waterstones.com

Waterstone’s Norwich
When: Wednesday 27 February, 7:00pm
Where: Waterstone’s, Castle St, Norwich
Tickets: £3, redeemable against the purchase of the book
Contact: enquiries@norwich-castlestreet.waterstones.com

Waterstone’s Lincoln High Street
When: Thursday 28 February, 7:00pm
Where: Waterstone’s, 297A High St, Lincoln
Tickets: £3, redeemable against the purchase of the book
Contact: enquiries@lincoln-highstreet.waterstones.com

And so is Charles Stross!

The 2007 SciFiNow awards have been announced in the latest issue. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, Charles Stross and Halting State, his latest novel, have been voted the fan favourites in the Best Author and Best Novel categories. Hurrah!

You can check out all the fantastic things Starburst, DeathRay and The Book Swede are saying about it here and pick it up at bookshops near you this month.

Tad Williams just relaunched his website over at www.tadwilliams.com!

Check it out to read his blog, visit the message board and learn more about his writing, including his latest novel, Shadowplay, which Orbit UK is publishing in paperback this March.