Orbit US: Fall-Winter 2012-2013 Schedule

September 2012

The Blinding KnifeThe Blinding Knife

Brent Weeks

Sep-12 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-07991-4

Gavin Guile is dying.

He’d thought he had five years left–now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side. All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies. Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.

The SodditThe Soddit

Or, Let’s Cash in Again

A.R.R.R. Roberts

Sep-12 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-21395-0

Bingo Grabbins is a soddit who enjoys a comfortable life (apart from his feet, of course). But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandef, and a company of bizarrely Welsh dwarves drag him away on an adventure.

They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard (or so they say) guarded by Smug, a large and very tedious dragon. Bingo is reluctant to take part in this insane venture, but a dwarven dagger held to his throat soon surprises even himself and off the companions go on a quest that seems truly epic (well, until you read about what later happened to Bingo’s cousin, at any rate).

Oh, and Bingo finds this ring thing…

Full BloodedFull Blooded

Amanda Carlson

Sep-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-20520-7

It’s not easy being a girl.  It’s even harder when you’re the only girl in a family of werewolves.  But it’s next to impossible when your very existence spells out the doom of your race… Meet Jessica McClain — she just became part of the pack.

In the vein of Kelley Armstrong and Patricia Briggs, a new urban fantasy that rewrites the werewolf myth…

Stray SoulsStray Souls

Kate Griffin

Sep-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-18726-8

Sharon Li has just discovered she’s a shaman. And just in time: London’s soul has gone missing. If anyone can solve the mystery and rescue the dying city, she can, but she’ll need help-from the support group she’s just set up for people with magical issues. Among them are a vampire who is O, a druid who suffers from allergies and a lack of confidence, and a banshee looking for an evening class in impressionist art. Now, this motley crew must find a way to save the world …

Seed of EarthSeeds of Earth

Michael Cobley

Sep-12 | MASS MARKET | 978-0-316-21398-1

Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. The first intelligent species to encounter mankind attacked without warning. Merciless. Relentless. Unstoppable. With little hope of halting the invasion, Earth’s last roll of the dice was to dispatch three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. The human race would live on … somewhere. 150 years later, the planet Darien hosts a thriving human settlement, which enjoys a peaceful relationship with an indigenous race, the scholarly Uvovo. But there are secrets buried on Darien’s forest moon. Secrets that go back to an apocalyptic battle fought between ancient races at the dawn of galactic civilization. Unknown to its colonists, Darien is about to become the focus of an intergalactic power struggle where the true stakes are beyond their comprehension. And what choices will the Uvovo make when their true nature is revealed and the skies grow dark with the enemy?

October 2012

The Hydrogen Sonata

Iain M. Banks

Oct-12 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-21237-3

It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, they helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment.  Now they’ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

Amidst preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed.  Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted – dead, not alive.  Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command – find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. Cossont must discover the truth before she’s exiled from her people and her civilization forever – or just plain killed.

Newsflesh Trilogy Boxed Set

Mira Grant

Oct-12 | BOXED SET | 978-0-316-22507-6

“Alive or dead, the truth won’t rest. My name is Georgia Mason, and I am begging you. Rise up while you can.”

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

This box-seet includes the complete Newsflesh Trilogy: Feed, Deadline, and Blackout.

Out for bloodOut for Blood

Kristen Painter

Oct-12 | MASS MARKET | 978-0-316-20017-2

After nearly dying at the hands of the Aurelian, Chrysabelle finds new determination to move beyond life as a comarré. That is until the Kubai Mata bring a new task to her doorstep: rescue the child Tatiana has kidnapped, or Mal becomes enemy number one.

The Orphane WorldsThe Orphaned Worlds

Michael Cobley

Oct-12 | MASS MARKET | 978-0-316-21401-8

The fight is on. So let the battle begin.

Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic struggle. Hegemony forces control the planet, while Earth merely observes, rendered impotent by galactic politics. Yet Earth’s ambassador to Darien will become a player in a greater conflict as there is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world.

An ancient temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has never known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic struggle, and their servants work on their release. Now a new war is coming.

Parasol ProtectorateThe Parasol Protectorate Boxed Set

Gail Carriger

Oct-12 | BOXED SET | 978-0-316-21226-7

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

The Parasol Protectorate is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

This boxed set includes the whole series: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless.

The Folly of the WorldThe Folly of the World

Jesse Bullington

Oct-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-19035-0

On a stormy night in 1421, the North Sea delivers a devastating blow to Holland: the Saint Elizabeth Flood, a deluge of biblical proportions that drowns hundreds of towns, thousands of people, and forever alters the geography of the Low Countries. Where the factions of the noble Hooks and the merchant Cods waged a literal class war but weeks before, there is now only a nigh-endless expanse of grey water, a desolate inland sea with moldering church spires jutting up like sunken tombstones. For a land already beleaguered by generations of civil war, a worse disaster could scarce be imagined.

Yet even disaster can be profitable, for the right sort of individual, and into this flooded realm sail three conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless conman on the cusp of fortune, and a half-feral girl balanced between them. If they work together they may find reward beyond reckoning, but such promise is no guarantee against betrayals born of greed, rage, and lust.

In a topsy-turvey world where peasants feast while noblemen starve, these three uneasy confederates will learn that theft, fraud, and even murder are simply part of politics as usual in the island-city of Dordrecht, and even if their scheme succeeds they may not live long enough to enjoy it…

 

November 2012

Red Country Red Country

Joe Abercrombie

Nov-12 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-18721-3

Shy South comes home to her farm to find a blackened shell, her brother and sister stolen, and knows she’ll have to go back to bad old ways if she’s ever to see them again. She sets off in pursuit with only her cowardly old step-father Lamb for company. But it turns out he’s hiding a bloody past of his own. None bloodier.

Their journey will take them across the lawless plains, to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feuds, duels, and massacres, high into unmapped mountains to a reckoning with ancient enemies, and force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, a man no one should ever have to trust …

The Ascendent StarsThe Ascendant Stars

Michael Cobley

Nov-12 | MASS MARKET | 978-0-316-21403-2

War erupts in the depths of space…

Battle-ready factions converge above Darien, all with the same objective: to control this newly discovered planet and access the powerful weapons at its heart. Despotic Hegemony forces dominate much of known space and they want this world too, but Darien’s inhabitants are determined to fight for their future.

However, key players in this conflict aren’t fully in control. Hostile AIs have infiltrated key minds and have an agenda, requiring nothing less than the destruction or subversion of all organic life. And they are near to unleashing their cohorts, a host of twisted machine intelligences caged beneath Darien. Fighting to contain them are Darien’s hidden guardians, and their ancient ally the Construct, on a millennia-long mission to protect sentient species. As the war reaches its peak, the AI army is roaring to the surface, to freedom and an orgy of destruction.

Darien is first in line in a machine vs. human war — for life or the sterile dusts of space.

Spirit's EndSpirit’s End

Rachel Aaron

Nov-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-19836-3

Eli Monpress is clever, he’s determined, and he’s in way over his head.

First rule of thievery: don’t be a hero. When Eli broke the rules and saved the Council Kingdoms, he thought he knew the price, but resuming his place as the Shepherdess’s favorite isn’t as simple as bowing his head. Now that she has her darling back, Benehime is setting in motion a plan that could destroy everything she was created to protect, and even Eli’s charm might not be enough to stop her. But Eli Monpress always has a plan, and with disaster rapidly approaching, he’s pulling in every favor he can think of to make it work, including the grudging help of the Spirit Court’s new Rector, Miranda Lyonette.

But with the world in panic, the demon stirring, and the Lord of Storms back on the hunt, it’s going to take more than luck and charm to pull Eli through this time. He’s going to have to break a few more rules and work with some old enemies if he’s going to survive.

GodspeakerThe Godspeaker Trilogy

Karen Miller

Nov-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-20921-2

Sold into slavery, Hekat dreams of power. Fate leads her to the warlord Raklion, and she begins turning dreams into reality. For the nameless god of Mijak is with her, and it promises her the world.

Far away, the King of Ethrea is dying. His daughter Princess Rhian is ready to rule, but if her enemies have their way the crown of Ethrea will never be worn by a woman.

Dexterity Jones is a toymaker. To protect Rhian and his country, he must place his trust in an exile from Mijak. Yet, as Ethrea comes ever closer to civil war, a greater danger awaits. Hekat still desires the world … and power is no longer a dream.

This omnibus edition of THE GODSPEAKER TRILOGY includes Empress, The Riven Kingdom and The Hammer of God

December 2012

The Red KnightThe Red Knight

Miles Cameron

Dec-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-21228-1

Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.

Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern’s jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men – or worse, a company of mercenaries – against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.

It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he’s determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it’s just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can’t deal with.

Only it’s not just a job. It’s going to be a war. . .

Time of ContemptThe Time of Contempt

Andrzej Sapkowski

Dec-12 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-21913-6

Geralt was always going to stand out, with his white hair and piercing eyes, his cynicism and lack of respect for authority — but he is far more than just a striking-looking man. He’s a witcher; his sorcerous powers, enhanced by elixers and long training, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer; his targets are the vile fiends and demons that ravage the land. But first appearance can often be deceptive; not everything monstrous-looking is a monster — and even the fairest can have a bite!

January 2013

Seven KingsSeven Kings

John R. Fultz

Jan-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-18783-1

In the jungles of Khyrei, an escaped slave seeks vengeance and finds the key to a savage revolution.

In the drought-stricken Stormlands, the Twin Kings argue the destiny of their kingdom: one walks the path of knowledge, the other treads the road to war.

Beyond the haunted mountains King Vireon confronts a plague of demons bent on destroying his family.

Iardu the Shaper weaves history like a grand tapestry, spinning sorceries into a vision of apocalypse.

Giants and Men march as one to shatter a wicked empire.

The fate of the known world rests on the swift blades of Seven Kings…

Jill KismetJill Kismet: The Complete Series

Lilith Saintcrow

Jan-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-20919-9

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.

Not everyone tries.

But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.

She’s a Hunter, trained by the best — and in over her head.

Welcome to the night shift…

The omnibus edition of Jill Kismet contains: Night Shift, Hunter’s Prayer, Redemption Alley, Flesh Circus, Heaven’s Spite and Angel Town.

Ice ForgedIce Forged

Gail Z. Martin

Jan-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-09358-3

Condemned as a murderer for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine ‘Mick’ McFadden has spent the last six years in Velant, a penal colony in the frigid northern wastelands of Edgeland. Harsh military discipline and the oppressive magic of the governor’s mages keep a fragile peace as colonists struggle against a hostile environment. But the supply ships from Dondareth have stopped coming, boding ill for the kingdom that banished the colonists.

Now, McFadden and the people of Velant decide their fate. They can remain in their icy prison, removed from the devastation of the outside world, but facing a subsistence-level existence, or they can return to the ruins of the kingdom that they once called home. Either way, destruction lies ahead…

February 2013

The Queen is DeadThe Queen Is Dead

Kate Locke

Feb-13 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-19613-0

When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it’s up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping with what she is, the political factions vying for her favor, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who wants her head. Add this to a being a suspect in a murder investigation, a werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy, and Xandra barely knows which way is up. One thing she does know is that she’s already lost one sibling, she’s not about to lose another.

American ElsewhereAmerican Elsewhere

Robert Jackson Bennett

Feb-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-20020-2

Ex-cop Mona Bright has been living a hard couple of years on the road, but when her estranged father dies, she finds she’s had a home all along: a little house her deceased mother once owned in Wink, New Mexico.

And though every map denies Wink exists, Mona finds they’re wrong: not only is Wink real, it is the perfect American small town, somehow retaining all the Atomic Age optimism the rest of world has given up on.

But the closer Mona gets to understanding her mother’s past, the more she begins to understand that the people in Wink are very, very different – and what’s more, Mona begins to recognize her own bond to this strange place, which feels more like home every day.

Emperor MolluskEmperor Mollusk versus The Sinister Brain

A. Lee Martinez

Feb-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-09353-8

Emperor Mollusk.

Intergalactic Menace. Destroyer of Worlds. Conqueror of Other Worlds. Mad Genius. Ex-Warlord of Earth.

Not bad for a guy without a spine.

But what’s a villain to do after he’s done . . . everything. With no new ambitions, he’s happy to pitch in and solve the energy crisis or repel alien invaders should the need arise, but if he had his way, he’d prefer to be left alone to explore the boundaries of dangerous science. Just as a hobby, of course.

Retirement isn’t easy though. If the boredom doesn’t get him, there’s always the Venusians. Or the Saturnites. Or the Mercurials. Or . . . well, you get the idea. If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s also the assassins of a legendary death cult and an up-and-coming megalomaniac (as brilliant as he is bodiless) who have marked Emperor for their own nefarious purposes. But Mollusk isn’t about to let the Earth slip out of his own tentacles and into the less capable clutches of another. So it’s time to dust off the old death ray and come out of retirement. Except this time, he’s not out to rule the world. He’s out to save it from the peril of THE SINISTER BRAIN!

Fade to BlackFade to Black

Francis Knight

Feb-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-21768-2

Today isn’t Rojan’s day. His latest bounty almost killed him three times, his girlfriends all found out about each other and trashed his rooms—and his niece has been kidnapped. Now he’s got to use his magic to find her – and there is a good chance it will end up destroying him.

Rojan follows his niece’s trail to the Pit, the underbelly of the city. The Pit was evacuated when the Synth-tox wiped out most of the city’s residents —and a new city was built over it. But what he wasn’t told is that the Pit was never emptied. And Rojan isn’t the only one using pain magic. And there is more at stake than the life of one little girl.

March 2013

Wolfhound CenturyWolfhound Century

Peter Higgins

Mar-13 | HARDCOVER BOOK | 978-0-316-21967-9

Inspector Vissarion Lom has been summoned to the capital in order to catch a terrorist — and ordered to report directly to the head of the secret police. A totalitarian state, worn down by an endless war, must be seen to crush home-grown terrorism with an iron fist. But Lom discovers Mirgorod to be more corrupted than he imagined: a murky world of secret police and revolutionaries, cabaret clubs and doomed artists. Lom has been chosen because he is an outsider, not involved in the struggle for power within the party. And because of the sliver of angel stone implanted in his head.

Hot BloodedHot Blooded

Amanda Carlson

Mar-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-20521-4

Jessica McClain has just discovered she’s the biggest threat the supernatural world has seen in over eight-hundred years, but there’s only one thing on her mind—finding her mate. Rourke’s been kidnapped by a wicked goddess and his only chance of survival lies in her hands.

Finding Rourke and defeating the goddess proves to be difficult enough, but when the Underworld comes calling and Jessica discovers she’s accused of crimes she hasn’t committed, the entire game changes. The price they are demanding for her freedom is too steep. There is no way she can ever pay it back.

RebellionRebellion

Ian Irvine

Mar-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-07285-4

Hightspall is dying. Every year the winters worsen, and the realm’s protective magic disappeared with the traitor-king, Lyf, two thousand years ago.

Now Lyf is back, bent on wiping Hightspall off the map and rebuilding his ancient land anew. Lyf also killed Tali’s mother and now he is hunting Tali, for the master pearl she bears inside her holds the key to saving the realm – or destroying it.

Can Tali find Lyf before he tears Hightspall apart? And if she does, can she put aside her quest for vengeance to save her country? Or will Lyf cut the pearl from her and use its magic to plunge her world into perpetual darkness?

The Curve of The Earth

Simon Morden

Mar-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-22006-4

RebellionWelcome to the Metrozone – post-apocalyptic London of the Future, full of homeless refugees, street gangs, crooked cops and mad cults. Enter Samuil Petrovitch: a Russian émigré with a smart mouth, a dodgy heart and a dodgier past. He’s brilliant, selfish, cocky and might just be most unlikely champion a city has ever had. Armed with a genius-level intellect, extensive cybernetic replacements, a built-in AI with god-like capabilities and a plethora of Russian swearwords – he’s saved this city from ruin more than once. He’s also made a few enemies in the process – Reconstruction America being one of them. So when his adopted daughter Lucy goes missing, he’s got a clue who’s responsible. And there’s no way he can let them get away with it.

DoughnutDoughnut

Tom Holt

Mar-13 | TRADE PAPERBACK | 978-0-316-22610-3