www.orbitbooks.net

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.

Brian Ruckley’s fantastic debut novel, Winterbirth, is now on Facebook. Visit the page here to become a fan, read extracts and find out all the latest news about The Godless World series!

Don’t have a Facebook account? You can still get all the latest news and extracts by visiting Brian Ruckley website.

Wonderful news just in that Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns has made the final ballot for the Philip K. Dick Award, presented annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.

Sean is quite naturally extremely pleased and reports receiving “a wave of Dick jokes, the likes of which I haven’t seen since High School”.

Many congratulations to Sean and all of the shortlisted authors.

Orbit UK’s parent company, Little, Brown Book Group, is now on Facebook! You can take a look and become a fan here.

Via Charlie Stross’ journal, I found out about a group blog called www.sfnovelists.com. It features an impressive list of contributors, many of them Orbit authors — including Daniel Abraham, Kate Elliott, Tanya Huff, Charles Stross and Sean Williams (all published by Orbit UK); Karin Lowachee (published by Orbit US); and Marie Brennan and Karen Miller (published by both Orbit UK and Orbit US).

If you’re a member of Librarything (or just interested in the social lives of books) check out the Orbit US library. And if you are a member, friend us!

Some excellent news for fans of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series: following the sad news of Robert Jordan’s death earlier this year, it has been announced that fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson has been selected to complete the twelfth and final book in the series, A Memory of Light. You can read more about this announcement here.

All right, I admit it: that’s a terrible title for a blog post. What’s far from terrible, though, is the fact that Glenda Larke, Marianne de Pierres and Sean Williams all have novels on the shortlist for the 2008 Aurealis Awards!

Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens is shortlisted in Best Fantasy Novel Category, while Marianne’s first foray into space opera, Dark Space, and Sean’s most recent excursion into similar territory, Saturn Returns, are both shortlisted in the Best SF Novel category. Song of the Shiver Barrens will be available in an Orbit edition in May next year (although the very wise amongst you will seek out the first two books, Heart of the Mirage and The Shadow of Tyr, to see what all the fuss is about!), while Dark Space and Saturn Returns are available now (with a mass market paperback of Saturn Returns coming next June).



Many congratulations to Glenda, Marianne and Sean, and all the shortlisted authors.

Have you ever wished you could appear in a book? Well now’s your chance! Terry Brooks is offering you the opportunity to immortalise your name in his next Magic Kingdom of Landover title. Right now, Terry is finishing the final chapters of book three in the Genesis of Shannara trilogy and is already planning his next book – which could feature you!

The price of fame doesn’t come free as you will have to bid for the prize. But just think – you could be in a Terry Brooks novel and help a good cause at the same time. And you’ll get to read the book before anyone else!

For details on how to bid go to www.terrybrooks.net

Charles Stross is being interviewed today in Second Life, courtesy of Information Week. The audio of the interview will also be available on the Dr Dobbs’ Chatbridge and will be available after the event as a podcast.

Mitch Wagner of Information Week has some kind words for Charlie’s new book Halting State, which we publish in January:

Halting State is a well-realized and intelligent treatise about near-future effects of networked technology . . . It’s also an extremely entertaining, thrilling, and funny crime caper novel . . . I really, really loved Halting State.

You can find out more about the book here – and be sure to look at some of the other ringing endorsements from the great and the good of the SF and Technology worlds.

We’d just like to report that this particular quest might actually be over . . . We’ve just heard that Ian Irvine now has over a million books in print around the world, and would like to add our happy congratulations!

Ian’s latest book with Orbit in the UK is adding to the aforementioned domination this month: The Curse on the Chosen is the second book in an impressive fantasy trilogy set within his Three Worlds Cycle. It deals in corruption, despair and, ultimately, hope and is also a fabulous epic read!

Oooh, and news just in – Ian’s gearing up for a new quest – to reach a million copies with his Three Worlds Cycle alone. Luckily he hasn’t got far to go.

We’ve received a number of queries from fans asking if there is any news regarding the final volume of The Wheel of Time, which Robert Jordan was writing when he sadly passed away last month. At this stage, there is no news. As soon as we have news, we will announce it here.

We’re delighted to see that Ken MacLeod has gone from writing SF to appearing in an SF short story! The critically acclaimed author of The Execution Channel and the Hugo, Clarke and BSFA Award-nominated Learning The World, gets a mention from a character in Security Question by Ramon Rozas III, an online short story appearing at Every Day Fiction:

“How far in the future do you come from?”

“Pretty far, actually. I made it to the ships, if that means anything to you.”

“Should it?”

“I can’t remember whether you’ve read Ken MacLeod yet.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Oh, you will. Anyway, I’m far enough in the future that I have to offload memories from this old brain,” the man tapped his skull, “and store them elsewhere.”

Go on, check it out. And then spend some time contemplating which, if any, MacLeodian future the time traveller comes from. Hey, why not? It’s the weekend, after all . . .

Congratulations to Karen Miller, whose second novel, The Awakened Mage (out this week), has charged straight to the top of the SFF paperback bestseller charts in the UK. In the US, both The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage are among the Top 5 mass-market fantasy bestsellers. Karen is very happy — and so are we!

Over at the Unfiction message board a team of players just solved the last puzzle on The Electric Church Website: unlocking the story hidden in the site, saving Ty’s old friend, and learning the secret ingredient in author Jeff Somers’ homemade moonshine. If you were one of the players at Unfiction, drop us a line at the email listed at the finish line, we’d love to hear from you. And thanks to everyone for playing!

If you haven’t poked around the site, you can still play the game – and if you get stuck, Unfiction provides a lively walkthrough.

This is our first attempt at building an ARG for a book promotion, and it was a lot of fun to put together. We’d love to know what you thought – what we did right, what we did wrong, and how we can improve next time.

For posterity, (and any players who need to find the penultimate password ) the blogad is here.