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2 mins and 18 secs is all it takes Philip Palmer to make me want to read Debatable Space (US/UK) again. See Philip talking about his stunning debut novel here:

Via Charlie Huston’s excellent website comes news that Charlie has been interviewed in Second Life - or, more correctly, his avatar has been interviewed on the Second Life Cable Network, SLCN.TV. As the man himself says:

“Carlos Suave is a Latin R&B Producer, the owner of a West Hollywood lounge, and a Promoter Extraordinaire, and, if you catch him on the right night, he will admit he knows a guy who can get you a little maryjane, comprende? Also, he writes bloody thrillers and horror novels. Trust us: This ese es loco!”

This will all make sense if you go here and here. Your third destination should probably be your local book shop to pick up a copy of Half the Blood of Brooklyn, published by Orbit in the UK just last month.

Ian Irvine has put together a punchy intro to his latest series, the Song of the Tears, and you can catch it now on YouTube. It’s suitably dramatic with music, animation and a fine collection of Ian’s (many) book covers … and what more could you ask from a video clip?!

The Curse on the Chosen was out at the end of last year, and fans can look forward to the end of this year for the epic finale.

Back in October, Charles Stross gave a talk at Google during a west coast tour, during which he read from and discussed his new book Halting State, which Orbit UK is publishing in January. There’s now a video of Charlie’s talk on YouTube - check it out here.

Mike Carey, the author of the Felix Castor novels, recently came in to the Orbit offices, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to sit him down in front of a camera and ask him to talk about his new book, Dead Men’s Boots (which is attracting some really good early reviews — as you can see here).

Of course, having Mike talk about the third book was too good a chance to pass up, so we also recorded him talking about the two previous books in the series, The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle.

You can see the resulting videos by following the link below, and also on our YouTube page.

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It’s still quite a long way off, but planning has already started for the Alt.Fiction event in Derby next April.

2007 was Orbit’s first year at the event, and we really enjoyed it: I appeared on a panel with literary agent John Jarrold and John Berlyne of sfrevu.com, Mike Carey did a workshop and a reading, and Iain M Banks rounded off the day in triumphant style with the first public reading from his forthcoming Culture novel, Matter (a covert recording of which turned up on YouTube shortly afterwards!).

After such a great experience, we were keen to return for the 2008 event, and I’m very pleased to say that we’ll be back there next April — so far, Orbit authors attending include Mike Carey, Philip Palmer and Brian Ruckley and Charles Stross. You can follow updates to the Alt.Fiction schedule at organiser Alex Davis’ blog.

This month, Orbit UK is publishing Odalisque, the start of a new series by Fiona McIntosh. It’s a dark novel set in a world of Byzantine manoeuvres and courtly intrigue — Interzone commented in their review: “I approached her new book Odalisque, set in the city-state of Percheron, with high expectations. They were more than justified . . . a beautifully structured novel, full of cruelty, wonder, mystery and terror. It has a splendid momentum that holds its audience through thick and thin. Fiona McIntosh goes from strength to strength. This is a dazzling start to her Percheron series.”

Fiona was in the UK on holiday last week, and in between sightseeing managed to get in a number of signings at bookshops in London: particular thanks to Stef at Waterstone’s 19-23 Oxford Street, Jon at Borders Oxford Street, Lee at Borders Charing Cross Road and C.J. at Waterstone’s Trafalgar Square. However, we also arranged for Fiona to make a short video about Odalisque, and you can see it on our YouTube page.

Orbit UK author Charles Stross can be seen on www.bookzone.tv, discussing his latest book The Atrocity Archives, which we’re publishing in paperback next month.

This month, Orbit UK is extremely excited to be publishing Dark Space, the new start of a new series from Marianne de Pierres.

As a sharply written space opera, it’s something of a departure for Marianne, who until now has been best known for her near future thrillers. It’s great to be able to report that reviewers seem to agree: in particular, there’s a great review of the book in Hub Magazine:

“This is serious modern space opera, grappling with big themes and painting on a broad canvas with a great eye for detail, and readers of simple spaceship adventure stories may wish to pass this title by. On the other hand, readers who hunger for perceptive, intelligent and unflinching literary science fiction should seek this book out as soon as possible.”

Here’s the trailer, and there’s more on Marianne’s official website.

In the bestselling tradition of Trudi Canavan and Fiona McIntosh, Karen Miller’s debut for Orbit, The Innocent Mage, is an irresistibly compelling tale of destiny and forbidden magic, and the first volume in the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series.

We’re very excited at publishing Karen in the UK this month — and our sister imprint Orbit US will be publishing the series for American readers in the autumn.

It’s not always straightforward for us to get across our enthusiasm for a book in writing, so we decided to go straight to the author and sat Karen down in front of a video camera. This is a bit of an experiment for us, but we’re intending to do a lot more of these sorts of videos, and we hope that you’ll enjoy this first attempt and will perhaps try the book.