‘Jemisin’s first novel has a wistful, lyrical tone, and the intrigue – both romantic and political – is skilfully handled. Book one in the Inheritance Trilogy is sensitive, restrained high fantasy.’ - The Guardian, Eric Brown

‘…a story that manages to be both fantastically grand and very personal. Definitely recommended.’ - Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

‘More than the sum of its parts… Jemisin is well worth keeping an eye on.’ - SFX, Guy Haley [also included in the SFX books of 2010 round-up]

‘Extremely well-written, imaginative, emotionally gripping, and featuring a compelling narrator, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an almost perfect debut… and could end up being one of the best fantasy releases of the year.’ - Fantasy Book Critic, Robert Thompson

‘Convoluted without being dense, Jemisin’s engaging debut grabs readers right from the start… a complex, edge-of-your-seat story with plenty of funny, scary, and bittersweet twists.’ - Publishers Weekly

‘Debut author Jemisin creates a mesmerizingly exotic world where fallen gods serve as slaves to the ruling class and murder and ambition go hand in hand… an engaging heroine and a fresh take on traditional dynastic fantasy make this trilogy opener a delight for the fantasy reader and introduce a strong new voice to the genre.’ – Library Journal

‘A similar blend of inventiveness, irreverence, and sophistication — along with sensuality — brings vivid life to the setting and other characters… The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms definitely leaves me wanting more of this delightful new writer.’ – Locus

 ’Wonderfully filled with family secrets, brutal betrayals, a remarkable romance and the mystery of a mother’s love, the book rises above others of its type not only by creating a complex world and mythology, but by populating the former with characters of many different skin colors.  In this reviewer’s opinion, this is the must-read fantasy of the year.’ – Bookpage

‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an impressive debut, which revitalizes the trope of empires whose rulers have gods at their fingertips.  It feels suitably big, and yet incredibly intimate as well.  And we can’t wait to read the other two volumes of the Inheritance Trilogy.’ – io9.com

‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an excellent novel… brilliantly weaves the themes of revenge, patience, justice, love, and power into an original fantasy setting that will hook you until the end, and leave you wanting more… A highly recommended read… one of the most captivating new voices in fantasy. I eagerly await the next novel in the trilogy.’ - Civilian-Reader.blogspot.com

‘I was not prepared for how GOOD this book turned out to be… Damn Near Perfect debut novel that is a great blend of fantasy and romance, religion, mythology, politics, gender and race. The writing is lovely, the plot is superb (with a few surprises) and the characters made a hole in my heart the size of a volcano. The only thing that can fill it now is book 2’ - The Book Smugglers.com [9/10]

‘One of the strongest debuts I’ve read for a while… A confident, mature, powerful, feminist, and entertaining debut in fantasy. And in the running for The Reads Top Five 2010.’ - NextRead.co.uk

‘Author NK Jemisin pulls off an astounding feat in managing to combine fantasy, romance, political intrigue, and superb writing… high recommendation to all.’ - TheBookBag.co.uk

‘This volume should be enjoyed as one of the freshest new fantasy voices we have had for quite some time. (It’s also the first book that’s ever made me miss my stop on the London Underground, so immersed was I!)’ - BookGeeks.co.uk

‘…there does seem to be something for just about every type of fantasy fan in here… all woven together into a vigorous whole and there are plenty of surprises along the way. If you find other fantasies predictable and overlong try this one – it might remind you what you are missing. A treat.’ - MyShelf.com

‘An enthralling read… you wouldn’t have thought that The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was Jemisin’s debut… I’ll definitely be reading the sequel.’ – Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review [9.25/10]

Writing books is a great way to learn new tricks and new ways to mix them up: different kinds of characters, different locations, situations, incidents.  Science fiction, in particular, allows a writer to bounce from near-future/near-space medical emergency (my first published SF) to cloning and reproductive politics, to genetic engineering and life-extension treatments, to frivolous consideration of aliens and weather balloons, to galactic exploration, to tangles of time-travel…anything, basically, with some linkage to our time and place–our external reality.  Surely that’s enough tricks to occupy any writer for a lifetime…isn’t it?

Yes, but….but some of us are like the broomtail mustang with burs in the mane and a bad attitude about fences.  Out there are other pastures to graze and tricks to learn.   In my case, this tendency to roam from genre to genre undoubtedly comes from a childhood and adolescence spent reading everything in the house, the school libraries, and the town library.    Mysteries, historical novels, political novels, contemporary fiction,  travelogues and personal experiences, straight-up history and science (including three different encyclopedias, two of them cover to cover), and books intended for kids my age (horse books, dog books, adventure stories.)   If it had print on a page, I read it, or at least started it (at nine and ten, the adult situations in some of the contemporary stuff bored me. )

As a result, my first stories were an ungainly mix of genres: horse stories with spy-thriller subplots, very inaccurate and romantic historicals set in distant places, where a heroic collie or wolfhound burst from the undergrowth to save someone from a giant cobra.  (My knowledge of cobras was confined to Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.”)    I learned not to show these stories to teachers, whose idea of what girls should write did not include adventure, violence, mystery,  and certainly not girl characters doing any of this stuff.

I came to fantasy (other than mythology) late–I was already writing science fiction by then (not very good, alas.)   For awhile I tried combining them–some of the science fiction-labeled stories I read also combined them–but my version was far, far worse.

Gradually, I sorted out the kinds of writing I liked to do, and could do well enough to endure re-reading.   The two that rose to the top were science fiction and fantasy.   I also love mysteries, but so far haven’t concocted one that mystifies friends for more than five pages.   “Oh, I know,” they’ll say brightly.  “It’s the guy in the helicopter this time.”  “What tipped you off?” I ask.    “It’s just obvious,”  one will answer while the others nod.  So…no mysteries unless I’m hit by a Mystery-Talent Bolt.

And thus I began the random-walk approach to a writing career with fantasy in one hand and hard SF in the other (yes, my first two sales were exactly like that.)  A few people suggested that sticking with one genre made more sense, career-wise, because the audiences are not identical, but…no.

And that’s why, after starting with three fantasy novels, I jumped to SF for two (the chance to work with Anne McCaffrey was a definite reason to do it right then!), and then wrote two more fantasy novels, and then fourteen SF…and now have gone all the way around to the same fantasy world where I started.   Meanwhile, I often wrote SF short fiction while writing fantasy books, and fantasy short fiction while writing SF books.  It’s refreshing–fun–to change gears between these two.

Some things are the same:  the need for good research to make the completely imaginary and unreal feel real to readers.  The need for engaging characters to do interesting things.  But in SF, there’s the fun of playing with the shiny! new! tech toys, and in fantasy there’s the fun of playing with the deep, dark caverns of human society and psyche that lie behind our mythologies and religions and cultures.

This writer-mustang grazes all over the map, from the near-future neuroscience of The Speed of Dark, to the far-flung space adventures and cultures of Vatta’s War, to the complicated politics and religions of Paksenarrion’s world, where Oath of Fealty is set.

I must say I. LOVE. THESE. COVERS. I love everything about them. I love Steve Stone’s wonderful art work – in particular that fact that he didn’t just pick a generic fantasy boy and girl for the first and last covers but actually made them look like Wynter and Alberon ( Not having read The Rebel Prince, he even went to the trouble of contacting me to ask what Alberon looked like!) Steve’s artwork rocks. Go! Now! Run to his website and check out all the great covers he’s done. I love how designer Peter Cotton has incorporated a vital element of the story into each cover. For example:

The castle from book three

The throne on book one

The funeral pyre on book two

I also love all the little design touches that Peter and Steve follow through on each cover. Like these, the lovely wreathed Ravens that are placed on each spine (I use birds symbolically throughout the trilogy). Touches like this – along with the illustrations under the blurbs: the ghosted ‘Arabic’ script and the framing of each character in foliage – flow from cover to cover, to give a sense of unity and cohesion to the three books.

And finally I love that each cover has its own colour scheme. Somehow the palates seems to perfectly suit the very different stories they illustrate: the cool greens of the first reflect the suppressed emotions of The Poison Throne; the reds and oranges of the second convey the frenzied violence of The Crowded Shadows, and somehow the third palette reminds me of armour and gunmetal – the cold, hard colours of the instruments of war. Wonderful work. Just wonderful. Thank you Peter and Steve!

The Poison Throne

The Crowded Shadows

The Rebel Prince

She has been getting some incredible advance praise in her native Australia:

“…a bold, inventively original world…a sweeping saga that unmistakeably marks her as one of Australia’s best speculative fiction writers.”

―Nexus, Issue 259, Dec 2009

“What a tale! Can’t wait for the next instalment. This is a GREAT book.”

―AurealisXpress, Aug 2009

“With this novel, (Larke) moves into a realm of sheer virtuosity… The plot is engrossing and the characters fascinating.”          

―The West Australian, 31^st Oct 2009

“…a fantasy novel in which everything about the world felt original and so utterly fascinating that even 640 pages didn’t seem enough.”

― Book Thingo, 10^th Sept 2009

Also, THE LAST STORMLORD has been selected in the UK as Waterstone’s SF/F Book of the Month. This is a tremendous accolade and we hope that it will get readers’ attention in Waterstone’s stores throughout the UK.

THE LAST STORMLORD is epic adventure of the first order…check it out for yourself and read the first chapter!

As you guys know, your friendly neighborhood Creative Director has been slaving away at the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 Orbit covers (yes, we work that far in advance) and now that the covers are (mostly) done I’ve started to launch them on the blog for your viewing pleasure, and general online critique. Well, I have a special treat above for devoted Orbit fans, cover design aficionados, and especially admirers of Ms. Alexia Tarabotti, heroine of Soulless. Timed to celebrate this month’s release of Changeless, Alexia Tarabotti’s second adventure, I have a special Making of the Cover Video for the next book, due out in September 2010, Blameless.

Over 6 hours of my onscreen compositing, retouching, color correction, type obsessing, all condensed down to a slim sexy one minute 55 seconds of cover design. Trust me, no one wants to watch it in real-time…and even then I left out the not-as-riveting-onscreen stages of my cover design process, such as reading the manuscript, sifting through Alexia photoshoot outtakes, background photo research, etc. And since this is a series look that has already been established for Soulless and Changeless, there weren’t the usual batches and rounds of versions of different designs that happen with standalone or first-in-a-new-series covers. That would be a weeklong video!

I of course just want to mention and thank everyone who worked on the cover or video: First, our Alexia: Donna Ricci, goth/steampunk supermodel and proprietress of Clockwork Couture, a fabulous place to shop for all kinds of fun steampunk clothing and accessories. (You can even buy many items Alexia has worn on her covers thus far. And an awesome octopus parasol I’ve been coveting.) Also the photographer of the cover, Tiny Dragon Productions. Also I cannot leave out the fabulous Eric Westpheling, whose work you might recall from this Philip Palmer’s Version 43 cover. And of course, thank you to the author, Gail Carriger, for writing such fun stories that we could have so much fun packaging.

I know you guys have been really into the little bit of behind-the-scenes action I was able to sneak in during my first year at Orbit, when I was kind of hanging on by my fingernails and not able to plan ahead so much. So hang on folks, this is only the beginning of a lot more fun art fabulousness on the blog. I hope you enjoy. And now, hopefully, my parents will finally understand just what it is I do all day.

Translated from the original German by the very talented Sally-Ann Spencer, this is the eagerly anticipated sequel to The Dwarves (UK/ US/ ANZ), described by SFRevu as: ‘The kind of solid fantasy that the market thrives upon’, and by The Bookbag as ‘A fabulous addition to the fantasy genre’. Read an extract here!

The other reason I watched it again is my next book, The Mage in Black (out April 1), contains an homage of sorts to Palahniuk’s brainchild in the form of a Demon Fight Club. I think we can all agree the idea of watching two demons beat the crap out of each other is wholesome entertainment for the entire family. Or it’s unwholesome entertainment for those twisted enough to enjoy my books. You’ll have to read it and let me know which.

Anyway, because my brain is an interesting place, thinking about these two fight clubs led me to another permutation: Author Fight Club.

I’ll give you a moment to let the awesome sink in. Don’t worry. Take your time. Makes your brain happy, right?

Literary history is filled with famous feuds between authors. Perhaps you’ll recall my own scandalous altercation with one Nicole Peeler, whose totally self-aggrandizing account of the brawl can be found here. Up until now I have refrained from discussing the incident on the advice of my attorney. Also I seem to be suffering some long-term memory loss from the cheap shot Dr. Peeler foisted upon me with a metal chair. But I digress.

For the most part, the days of author-on-author violence have sadly dwindled into random verbal skirmishes in hotel bars during conventions or, even more pedestrian, passive aggressive snarkfests on twitter. But I think we need to resurrect the good old days where true catharsis was found in bloodied noses and split lips. Instead of book tours, publishers can host cage matches. The combatants will be chosen from the house’s stable of authors. Or better yet, publishers can hold cross-promotional events wherein they pit their bestsellers against each other. Naturally, editors will referee the matches and reviewers will provide the color commentary.

What say you Orbit fans? What authors would you like to see duke it out in the ring?

Photo Credit: Mary GT Webber

I’m delighted to say that Orbit will be the very proud publisher of a brand-new fantasy series by Karen Miller, launching 2012. The series title is the Tarnished Crown, and Karen describes it thus:

A tale of love and hate, treachery and power, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the remaking of a world. The theme of this fantasy saga is contained in its title: nobody is innocent. Every crown is tarnished. Redemption is possible but at a great price.

Karen Miller’s INNOCENT MAGE (US | UK) was one of our launch titles for Orbit in the US, following its publication earlier that year (2007) in the UK. Its sequel, THE AWAKENED MAGE (US | UK), followed hot on its heels, and these two books rapidly became one of the fastest selling new fantasy series of recent years. Karen is a natural storyteller, and a fearless one. Her next novel, EMPRESS (US | UK), introduced Hekat, quite possibly one of the scariest protagonists you will ever encounter.

Karen returned to the “Mage” sequence with THE PRODIGAL MAGE (US | UK), and has just completed the final book, THE RELUCTANT MAGE, which we will be publishing later this year.

And there’s some great news, too, for fans of Karen’s Rogue Agent series (written under the pen name K.E.Mills), which began with THE ACCIDENTAL SORCERER (US | UK). Karen will be writing at least two more books in the series, bringing the total to five.

Orbit will be publishing these books in the US, UK and Australia.

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