Category: News
- The Orbit Team - June 7th, 2011
I am absolutely delighted to report that Helen Lowe won New Zealand’s premier genre award for Best Novel over the 
weekend, with her wonderful epic fantasy adventure The Heir of Night. The award was actually shared this year, as Lyn McConchie’s The Questing Road also took the top spot, showing the strength of the shortlist. The Sir Julius Vogel awards were announced at the ConText convention and Helen talks more about the award on her blog – and we couldn’t be more excited for her.
Robin Hobb called this wonderful epic fantasy adventure ’a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world’. I can’t recommend it highly enough myself and suggest that you get right out and discover all the dark treachery-ness of it for yourselves! Happy reading.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- The Orbit Team - May 23rd, 2011
We are very happy to have not just one, but several pieces of good news on the awards front, in no particular order:
First of all, Helen Lowe’s The Heir of Night has been nominated in two categories for the prestigious Sir Julius Vogel New Zealand genre awards. She’s up for Best Novel for the book itself and Peter Fitzpatrick has been nominated for Best Professional Artwork for his wonderful map. We’ll be crossing our fingers in the lead up to the awards, to be announced at New Zealand’s ConText convention on 3rd – 6th June in just a few weeks.
Congratulations also go to Marianne de Pierres who has won the award for best Science Fiction Novel at the Aurealis Awards for her novel Transformation Space.
Finally, don’t forget to vote for your favourite book for this year’s Gemmell Awards. We’re strongly represented across all three categories, firstly with three titles in the running for the Legend Award for best fantasy novel: The War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz, Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson, and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. We also have The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin nominated for the Morningstar award for best fantasy debut. And lastly, this book is nominated yet again in the Gemmell’s Ravenheart category for best fantasy book cover, with Cliff Neilson as illustrator and our Lauren Panepinto as designer.
Good luck to the shortlisted nominees and congratulations again to Marianne de Pierres!
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: Awards, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- Anna Gregson - May 11th, 2011
Tech news site The Register recently held a poll to ask readers which SF book most deserves to make it to the big screen, but has up until now been shamefully overlooked by the Hollywood bigwigs. An impressive 27,088 people voted, and the winner - with a stunning 10,032 votes - was Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.
It seems Iain is a popular choice, with Consider Phlebas, Excession, The Player of Games and The Algebraist all also making it into the top 50. But Use of Weapons was the clear favourite.
So what more evidence does Hollywood need? It’ll be a sure fire hit – get it into production straight away!
You can see the results of ‘The Best Sci-Fi Film Never Made’ poll right here. But the question is: who should play the leading man Zakalwe…?
by Anna Gregson • Post a Comment • Posted in: News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- The Orbit Team - April 21st, 2011
Brent Weeks burst onto the fantasy scene in 2008 with the launch of his internationally bestselling Night Angel Trilogy, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Now, he’s returning to the world of The Night Angel Trilogy with Perfect Shadow, a novella that tells the origin story of the legendary assassin Durzo Blint.
The ebook edition of Perfect Shadow will be available in the US and the UK in June, 2011. It will be simultaneously released as an unabridged audiobook for digital download, online where books and music are sold.
In the official press release, Brent explains: “When I wrote Perfect Shadow, I was afraid it was going to fall into a publishing no-man’s land: too short to be distributed as a novel, too long to be sold as a short story. Orbit’s digital publishing has given me a way to get this story out. More than that, it’s given me the artistic freedom to write a story exactly as long as it needs to be.”
We’re glad he did! You can find the novella’s description after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: News, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - March 30th, 2011
WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE METROZONE COMING IN
Waterloo – 30/03/2011 – 1100 hours:
Southbank – 30/03/2011 – 1500 hours:
Stockwell – 30/03/2011 – 1700 hours:
REPORT YOUR SIGHTINGS TO THE AUTHORITIES HERE.
READ A SAFETY ADVISORY ABOUT THE METROZONE HERE.
by The Orbit Team • 1 Comment • Posted in: News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Anna Gregson - March 29th, 2011
THROUGHOUT THE CAPITAL, THE SIGNS ARE APPEARING
THE APOCALYPSE IS ALMOST HERE
AND WHAT WILL REMAIN IS THE LONDON METROZONE
WE STRONGLY ADVISE THAT YOU MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE INZONE
INDIVIDUALS LEFT IN THE OUTZONE WILL NOT BE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP
BORDERS WILL SOON BE CLOSING
FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO GAIN ENTRY, VISIT THE NEW OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE
by Anna Gregson • 1 Comment • Posted in: New Titles, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Alex Lencicki - February 22nd, 2011
We’re thrilled to launch the Orbit podcast, hosted by Jack Womack. The first episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Joe Abercrombie, whose new book, THE HEROES, is out now. Subjects covered include: hand-to-hand combat, warfare and film, gallows humor, death metal, the American Civil War, and more. You can listen to the full episode below, or subscribe on itunes or the RSS feed.
UPDATE: It looks like some people are having problems downloading via itunes. It should be resolved shortly, but if you can’t download directly, try subscribing to the podcast in itunes.
by Alex Lencicki • Post a Comment • Posted in: News
- The Orbit Team - February 4th, 2011
The general public often thinks science fiction writers are supposed to predict the future.
Science fiction writers, of course, know better.
Sometimes, all the same, fiction and reality unexpectedly — and uncannily — overlap.
The narrative of Walter Jon Williams’ new novel DEEP STATE, correlates in any number of ways with the ongoing situation in Egypt. He writes about how he came about he did this, and what he thinks about it, both as the latest Big Idea at John Scalzi’s Whatever, and on io9.com today.
Check out what he has to say — then go read the book, to see for yourself.
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Fiction, New Titles, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- James Long - January 13th, 2011
We’re delighted to see four Orbit titles on io9′s ’15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010′ list!
The four titles are as follows:
THE WINDUP GIRL by Paolo Bacigalupi
“One of the strengths of The Windup Girl, other than its intriguing characters, is Bacigalupi’s world building. You can practically taste this future Thailand he’s built…It’s rare to find a writer who can create such well-shaded characters while also building a weird new future world.”
SURFACE DETAIL by Iain M. Banks
“This triumphant return to Banks’ beloved Culture series wasn’t just one of the best books we read this year – it’s also one of the best books in a series full of outstanding tales of far-future astropolitics. A character study and a tale of revolutionary change that shakes multiple civilizations, Surface Detail is a smart, satiric look at what happens to the concept of Hell in a posthuman galaxy.”
FEED by Mira Grant
“The action scenes (crossbows!) and setting were what kept me going all the way to its very emotional end, which I think is a testament to how well-written the characters and setting are…The first in the proposed Newsflesh trilogy, Feed is a thought-provoking and entertaining read that makes me eager to see what Grant will serve in her next novel, BLACKOUT.”
THE BROKEN KINGDOMS by N. K. Jemisin
“Someone has found a way to kill gods, and unless Oree discovers the truth, the gods and this new god-slaying serial killer will tear the city apart between them. It’s the set up for a really great mystery, but Jemisin manages to turn it into a thought-provoking, haunting story…that keeps you turning pages long past your bedtime.”
Plenty of other Orbit books made various ‘best of 2010′ lists – see our earlier post for the full details!
by James Long • 3 Comments • Posted in: News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- The Orbit Team - December 15th, 2010
We are pleased to announce that Orbit titles are once again plentifully represented in this year’s Best Of lists, including those at Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, the Times of London, NPR and more.
Congratulations to all of our recognized authors as we look forward to having Orbit books appear on even more lists in 2011! This year’s full rundown appears after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
