Category: Uncategorized
- The Orbit Team - March 17th, 2011
Starting this April, Orbit will be publishing brand-new original short fiction written by our authors as eBooks. The stories will be available at all major eBook retailers – initially in the US, further afield in the very near future. You can sign up to our announcement list here.
We’ve got a fantastic list of stories from Mira Grant, Jaye Wells, T.C. McCarthy and Jennifer Rardin. You can find details about our launch stories after the jump!
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by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit US, Uncategorized
author post
As I’ve said elsewhere, writing a book is a bit like making a sculpture from the inside. You have a plan, an aim, and as you progress you have some notion of how it should appear to an onlooker when its all done. Except … creating something as big as a novel can have unintended consequences and many of those consequences reside within the minds of readers, an arena that we writers can only hope to influence in exactly the way we’d like.
Yup, reading is an interactive activity – the reader creates much of the world of the book within their own head, and much of that inner creation depends on the writer’s facility with evocative prose with all its cues of description and plot and character and dialogue…
Sometimes writers play games during the writing process – for example, while writing the Greg Cameron character I half-imagined him being played by David Tennant, on the cinema screen of my mind. Theo Karlsson I saw being played by Sean Connery (yeah, I know, Sean is Scottish and Theo is partly Swedish, but if SC can do a Russian sub commander then he’ll do for Theo). Kao Chih always struck me as a younger Jackie Chan, while Robert Horst could have been played by Joseph Cotten….or Rutger Hauer. Read the rest of this entry »
by Michael Cobley •Post a Comment • Categories: Guest Post, Uncategorized • Tags:
- The Orbit Team - March 2nd, 2011
It’s almost time for us to release (tomorrow, in fact …) the truly wonderful epic adventure that is The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe. We’ve had fantastic advance praise for this book and can’t wait to see it on both real and virtual shelves in the UK. But to see for yourself, have a read of this dramatic and also free (!) extract.
Helen will be visiting our blog tomorrow and over the next couple of weeks, and here are just a few of the great things that have been said about the book so far:
The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe is a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world’ Robin Hobb
‘It’s a well-told tale … an enjoyable read’ SFX
‘Appealing characters and a richly detailed world’ Library Journal
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Uncategorized
- Rose Tremlett - February 15th, 2011
Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Ken MacLeod will be taking part in a panel discussion on ‘Science Fiction and International Orders’ at the London School of Economics on Thursday 17th February. The event will look at what scholars in the social sciences can learn from the imagined worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Tickets are free but must be registered for here and the event is from1.15-2.45pm.
Full details can be found here.
by Rose Tremlett • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit UK, Signings and Events, Uncategorized
- Rose Tremlett - February 4th, 2011
The winner of an extraordinary five of 2010′s major international SF awards, and named by Time Magazine as one of the top ten novels of the year, The Windup Girl has garnered Paolo Bacigalupi incredible critical acclaim since UK publication in December:
‘The Windup Girl embodies what SF does best of all: it remakes reality in compelling, absorbing and thought-provoking ways, and it lives on vividly in the mind’ – Guardian
‘Vigorous and compelling… the action scenes, related in taut, breathless prose, can be stunning. Tremendous entertainment’ – Independent on Sunday
‘Pitch-perfect writing… It’s science-fiction as warnings of the future, as social commentary, and as just bloody good storytelling… SF at its very best’ – SFX
‘Deserves all of the critical adulation already heaped upon it… one of the finest SF books we’ve read’ – SciFi Now
‘One of the best debut novels of recent years’ – Salon Futura
International praise
‘Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson: this is cyberpunk without computers’ – Time Magazine
‘Clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year’ – Publishers Weekly
‘An exciting story about industrial espionage, civil war, and political struggle, filled with heart-thudding action sequences, sordid sex, and enough technical speculation for two lesser novels’ Cory Doctorow
‘It’s ridiculous how good this book is’ Techland
‘Postmodern Bangkok springs to life in Bacigalupi’s brilliant dystopian tale of culture clash, recalling the best of China Mieville and Neal Stephenson’ Library Journal
by Rose Tremlett • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit UK, Reviews, Uncategorized
- Rose Tremlett - February 3rd, 2011
Jon Courtenay Grimwood‘s latest novel hits the shelves today, and marks a major change of genre for the critically acclaimed science fiction author. The Fallen Blade is a meticulously researched and extremely compelling fantasy thriller, set in an alternate 15th century Venice – a city in the grip of corrupt politics, a decadent age, and under threat from a mysterious assassin…
So far the consensus is that Jon definitely hasn’t lost his touch, and that this is not your average vampire novel!
‘A fantastic evocation of Renaissance Venice, both the atmosphere and architecture of the city, the beauty of the culture it gave birth to and the merciless, brutally violent and Machiavellian politics that ran alongside it … Grimwood has made [a] fusion of genre energy and literary depth his calling card.’ – Damien G. Walter, Guardian Online
‘Conjures up Venice so vividly you can almost smell it… Impressive, but not nearly so impressive as the way Grimwood draws Tycho, essentially a vampire teenager subject to fierce emotion because he doesn’t even realise yet that he craves blood. He’s a figure both frightening and yet also, at different moments, pitiable and even downright noble… Reinventing the Vampire myth. Never, ever let it be said that Jon Courtenay Grimwood lacks for ambition.’ - Jonathan Wright, SFX
‘Sick to death of vampires? Take heed, because Grimwood’s take on the subject is leagues away from your average fangbanger… The writing is elegant, the dialogue is sharp, the characters economically but well drawn, the action unrelenting, and the story moves – to pardon a phrase – like shit off a shovel… Hits all the right notes.’ - Alastair Reynolds, SciFi Now
‘It’s too early to start dealing in hyperbole about fantasy books of the year, so let’s just say this one is a very good start. It’s a novel you can gorge yourself on; a fast-paced, swashbuckling adventure of the old school, full of fire and brimstone thrills and rich flavours. Yet, unlike many such page-turners, it doesn’t leave a bad aftertaste. Rather, it leaves plenty to ponder… I’d recommend this book to anyone.’ - Sam Jordison, Salon Futura
Events
Signing at Forbidden Planet, London this evening (Thurs 3rd Feb) with Kate Griffin, 6pm
SFX Weekender – various panels and signing, Sat 5th Feb
Discussion event at the London School of Economics with Ken MacLeod, Thurs Sat 17th Feb
by Rose Tremlett • Post a Comment • Posted in: New Titles, Orbit UK, Reviews, Signings and Events, Uncategorized
- Lauren Panepinto - February 1st, 2011
Well, as you can tell from the infrequency of the postings from the Art Dept since the holidays, it’s been craaaaaazy busy here. Our Fall/Winter 2012 covers are due in 3 weeks, and we’re killing ourselves bringing you the coolest artists and designs we can. We also have a couple new features in the pipeline which we’ll be talking more about after the evil 2/18 deadline, so hang with us. Meanwhile, we are going to finish posting the rest of the Spring/Summer 2011 Covers for your viewing pleasure, starting with one of my fave series…
Here you go folks, Heartless, the fourth Alexia Tarabotti/Soulless book by Gair Carriger. I love this series, and I am really digging the covers too – who wouldn’t, when I get to work with such fun material as the photos Steampunk icon Donna Ricci keeps sending me? The photographer this round was Pixie Vision Productions.
I tried to find a good British castle as a stand-in for the pack headquarters, and I think the cool heavy stonework here does the job – I can totally picture Alexia going up and down those steps to visit with the werewolves camped out on the back lawn…and whipping some military discipline into them!
After the jump is a teaser, and I’ve tried to take out as many spoilers as I could, but still, if you haven’t read the previous books (Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless) then BE WARNED, SPOILER ALERT. Read the rest of this entry »
by Lauren Panepinto • 24 Comments • Posted in: Art, Covers, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Rose Tremlett - January 31st, 2011
Kate Griffin and Jon Courtenay Grimwood will both be signing at Forbidden Planet London on Thursday 3rd Feb to launch their new books: The Neon Court and The Fallen Blade. Shaftesbury Avenue, 6-7pm.
They will also both be at the SFX Weekender in Camber Sands for panels on Saturday 5th Feb. Here’s their schedule:
11am: Main Void - Essential SF, fantasy and horror classics - with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Joe Abercrombie, David Wingrove, Peter F Hamilton, Adrian Tchaicovsky and Kevin J Anderson.
11.45: Screening Zone - Dual Brittania: creating alternate Englands - with Kate Griffin, China Mieville, Al Ewing and Stephen Baxter.
12.30: Main Void - What’s next for TV vampires? Pitching a new vampire show - with Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Toby Whithouse and Sarah Pinborough.
(Exact schedule and line-ups all subject to possible change)
by Rose Tremlett • Post a Comment • Posted in: Conventions, New Titles, Orbit UK, Signings and Events, Uncategorized
- The Orbit Team - December 23rd, 2010
Power down the reactor-core, that’s all from us until the New Year.
Congratulations to our epic loot winners: Abdel M, Katie B, Leeann P, Jennifer K, Storm H, Rachel K, Neal S, and David M!
And if you find yourself here over the next week — and you still need holiday cheer — be sure to check out ‘Twas the Night Before the Uprising, our Holiday Study of the Genus Elvum, and Robert Jackson Bennett on The Truth About Santa Claus.
See you in 2011!
by The Orbit Team • Post a Comment • Posted in: Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
- Lauren Panepinto - December 21st, 2010
Update – This giveaway is now closed!
The year is winding down, and so are our Epic Loot Giveaways. To finish it off, we’ve got posters of the first two books of The Necromancer Chronicles by Amanda Downum. Sign up after the jump for a chance to win these two art prints, along with copies of The Drowning City and The Bone Palace. We’ll select the winner on Thursday the 23rd of December. And thanks everyone for reading!
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by Lauren Panepinto • Post a Comment • Posted in: Art, Contests, Covers, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized
