Orbit UK Titles April – June 2009
Click any of the following book titles for further information, or scroll the page to browse our forthcoming UK schedule for February – April 2009
Visit the Orbit UK 2009 Publication List to see the full list of titles we’ve published in the UK so far this year.
- A Madness of Angels – Kate Griffin (April 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Turn Coat – Jim Butcher (April 2009, £12.99 Hb)
- The Night Sessions – Ken MacLeod (April 2009, £6.99 Pb)
- Bloodheir – Brian Ruckley (April 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Red-Headed Stepchild – Jaye Wells (April 2009, £6.99 Pb)
- The Awakening – Kelley Armstrong (May 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Furies of Calderon – Jim Butcher (May 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- The Better Mousetrap – Tom Holt (May 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- The Grand Conjunction – Sean Williams (May 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Fall of Thanes – Brian Ruckley (May 2009, £14.99 Hb)
- May Contain Traces of Magic – Tom Holt (May 2009, £12.99 Hb)
- Academ’s Fury – Jim Butcher (June 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Blood Noir – Laurell K. Hamilton (June 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- Orphan’s Triumph – Robert Buettner (June 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- In Ashes Lie – Marie Brennan (June 2009, £7.99 Pb)
- The Edge of the World – Kevin J. Anderson (June 2009, £12.99 LPb)
April 2009
A Madness of Angels
By Kate Griffin
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497334 | Urban Fantasy Noir | Paperback
When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. – Samuel Johnson
In fact, Dr Johnson was only half right. There is in London much more than life – there is power. It ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the city, makes runes from the alignments of ancient streets and hums with the rattle of trains and buses; it waxes and wanes with the patterns of the business day. It is a new kind of magic: urban magic.
Enter a London where magicians ride the Last Train, implore favours of The Beggar King and interpret the insane wisdom of The Bag Lady. Enter a London where beings of power soar with the pigeons and scrabble with the rats, and seek insight in the half-whispered madness of the blue electric angels. Enter the London of Matthew Swift, where rival sorcerers, hidden in plain sight, do battle for the very soul of the city …
Author Info: www.kategriffin.net
Turn Coat
By Jim Butcher
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841496979 | Urban Fantasy Noir | Hardback
Harry Dresden, professional wizard, has done his best to keep his nose clean where the White Council of Wizards is concerned. Even so, his past misdeeds have cast a constant shadow of suspicion over him in the eyes of the Wardens, those wizards responsible for enforcing the Laws of Magic. Now Dresden finds himself faced with a nightmarish dilemma: Morgan, formerly his chief persecutor among the Wardens, has been wrongly accused of treason against the White Council – and has come to Harry for help.
Dresden faces a daunting task: clear Morgan’s name while simultaneously hiding him from the Wardens and the supernatural bounty hunters sent to find him, discover the identity of the true turncoat and, of course, avoid accusations of treachery of his own. A single mistake may mean that heads – quite literally – will roll. And one of them could be his own …
Author Info: www.jim-butcher.com
The Night Sessions
By Ken MacLeod
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841496481 | Science Fiction | Paperback
A priest is dead. Picking through the rubble of the demolished Edinburgh tenement, Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson discovers that the explosion wasn’t an accident. When a bishop is assassinated soon afterwards, it becomes clear that a targeted campaign of killings is underway.
No one has seen anything like this since the Faith Wars. In this enlightened age there’s no religious persecution, but believers are a marginal and mistrusted minority. And now someone is killing them. But who? And – perhaps more importantly – why?
The more his team learns, the more the suspicion grows that they may have stumbled upon a conspiracy way outside their remit. Nobody believes them, but if Ferguson and his people fail, there will be many more killings – and disaster on a literally biblical scale …
Author Info: kenmacleod.blogspot.com
Bloodheir
By Brian Ruckley
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841494395 | Fantasy | Paperback
As ever greater battles are fought between the Black Road and the True Bloods, so each side in the conflict becomes ever more riven by internal dissent and disunity. Amidst the mounting chaos, Aeglyss the na’kyrim gradually masters the remarkable powers that have been unleashed upon him by his crucifixion. Twisting everything and everyone around him to serve his own mad desires, he begins to exert a dangerous, insidious influence over the course of events both near and far.
Orisian, lord of the ruined Lannis Blood, faces not only the consequences of that malign influence, but also the machinations of his supposed allies and the stirring of the long-dormant Anain, the most potent race the world has ever known.
Author Info: www.brianruckley.com
Red-Headed Stepchild
By Jaye Wells
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497563 | Urban Fantasy | Paperback
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn’t really fit in. And being an assassin – the only profession fit for an outcast – doesn’t help matters. But she’s never brought her work home. Until now.
Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she’s on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal …
Author Info: jayeblahg.blogspot.com/
The Awakening
By Kelley Armstrong
May 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497112 | Urban Fantasy | Paperback
Chloe Saunders used to be a normal teenage girl – or so she thought. Then she learned the shocking truth – she is a walking science experiment. Genetically altered at birth by a sinister group of scientists known as the Edison Group, Chloe is an aberration – a powerful necromancer who can see ghosts and even raise the dead, often with terrifying consequences. Even worse, her growing powers have made her a threat to the surviving members of the Edison Group, who have decided it’s time to end their experiment – permanently …
Now Chloe is running for her life with three other supernatural teenagers – a charming sorcerer, a troubled werewolf and a temperamental young witch. Together they have a chance for freedom – but can Chloe trust her new friends?
Author Info: www.kelleyarmstrong.com
Furies of Calderon
By Jim Butcher
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497440 | Fantasy | Paperback
For a thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the furies – elementals of earth, air, fire, water and metal. But now, Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, grows old and lacks an heir. Ambitious Lords manoeuvre to place their Houses in positions of power, and a war of succession looms on the horizon.
Far from city politics in the Calderon Valley, young Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. At fifteen, he has no wind fury to help him fly, no fire fury to light his lamps. Yet as the Alerans’ most savage enemy – the Marat – return to the Valley, his world will change. Caught in a storm of deadly wind furies, Tavi saves the life of a runaway slave. But Amara is actually a spy, seeking intelligence on possible Marat traitors to the Crown. And when the Valley erupts into chaos – when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies – Amara will find Tavi invaluable. His talents will outweigh any fury-born power – and could even turn the tides of war.
Author Info: www.jim-butcher.com
The Better Mousetrap
By Tom Holt
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841495040 | Comic Fantasy | Paperback
It touches all our lives; our triumphs and tragedies, our proudest achievements, our most traumatic disasters. Alloyed of love and fear, death and fire and the inscrutable acts of the gods, insurance is indeed the force that binds the universe together.
Hardly surprising, therefore, that Frank Carpenter, one of the foremost magical practitioners of our age, felt himself irresistibly drawn to it. Until, that is, he met Jane, a high-flying corporate heroine with an annoying habit of falling out of trees and getting killed. Repeatedly.
It’s not long before Frank and Jane find themselves face to face with the greatest enigma of our times: When is a door not a door? When it’s a mousetrap.
Author Info: www.tom-holt.co.uk
The Grand Conjunction
By Sean Williams
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841495231 | Science Ficition | Paperback
Imre Bergamasc is lost. His search for answers has led him up an alley so blind even his sense of self has become uncertain. Before he can save the galaxy from ruin, he must find the strength to carry on and reclaim his ultimate purpose.
But more than two million years in our future, the fight has changed. Former allies are now enemies, and enemies have taken on entirely new forms. Chased from the very edge of humanity’s vast empire into the heart of an ancient conspiracy, he must finally come face to face with Himself, for without the truth of his past humanity’s future will never be secured.
Author Info: www.seanwilliams.com
Fall of Thanes
By Brian Ruckley
April 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497877 | Fantasy | Hardback
Tension between the clans of the Black Road and the True Bloods is mounting, as each side in the conflict becomes ever more riven by internal dissent and disunity. And Aeglyss the na’kyrim continues to spread chaos in the world, exerting a dangerous, insidious influence over events both near and far.
As events mount to a climax, the world will change and no side can anticipate the twisted pattern of what lies ahead.
Author Info: www.brianruckley.com
May Contain Traces of Magic
By Tom Holt
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841495057 | Comic Fantasy | Hardback
There are all kinds of products. The good ones. The bad ones. The ones that stay in the garage mouldering for years until your garden gnome makes a home out of them. Most are harmless if handled properly, even if they do contain traces of peanuts. But some are not. Not the ones that contain traces of magic.
Chris Popham wasn’t paying enough attention when he talked to his SatNav. Sure, she gave him directions, never backtalked him, and always led him to his next spot on the map with perfect accuracy. She was the best thing in his life. So was it really his fault that he didn’t start paying attention when she talked to him? In his defence, that was her job. But when ‘Take the next right’ turned into ‘Excuse me,’ that was when the real trouble started.
Because sometimes a SatNav isn’t a SatNav. Sometimes it’s an imprisoned soul trapped inside a metal box that will do anything it can to get free. And some products you just can’t return.
Author Info: www.tom-holt.co.uk
Academ’s Fury
By Jim Butcher
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497457 | Fantasy | Paperback
For centuries, the people of Alera have relied on the power of the furies to protect them from outside invaders. But the gravest threat might be closer than they think.
Tavi has escaped the Calderon Valley and the mysterious attack of the Marat on his homeland. But he is far from safe, as trying to keep up the illusion of being a student while secretly training as one of the First Lord’s spies is a dangerous game. And he has not yet learned to use the furies, making him especially vulnerable.
When the attack comes it’s on two fronts. A sudden strike threatens the First Lord’s life and threatens to plunge the land into civil war. While in the Calderon Valley, the threat faced from the Marat is dwarfed by an ancient menace. And Tavi must learn to harness the furies if he has any chance of fighting the greatest threat Alera has ever known …
Author Info: www.jim-butcher.com
Blood Noir
By Laurell K. Hamilton
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841496931 | Urban Fantasy | Paperback
Anita is scared. Really scared. And not much gets under the skin of a US Marshall with jurisdiction over preternatural matters, who also happens to be a necromancer. Anita’s life is dangerous, and she wouldn’t have it any other way, but the scars – both mental and physical – are starting to show.
You’d think that her connections with the vampire, werewolf and wereleopard communities would come in handy. However, as her powers grow and develop in new and uncharted ways, her links to both friends and lovers could endanger them all.
Author Info: www.laurellkhamilton.org
Orphan’s Triumph
By Robert Buettner
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497624 | Science Fiction | Paperback
Mankind’s reunited planets now control a vital crossroads after forty years of fighting, one that secures their uneasy union. The doomsday weapon that can end the Slug war, and the mighty fleet that will carry it to the Slug homeworld, also lie within humanity’s grasp – but all is far from won.
Since the Slug Blitz orphaned Jason Wander, he has risen from infantry recruit to commander of Earth’s garrisons on the emerging allied planets. But four decades of service have cost Jason not just his friends and family, but his innocence. Then an enemy counterstroke threatens to reverse the war and destroy mankind, Jason must finally confront not only his lifelong alien enemy but the reality of what he has become after a lifetime of conflict.
Author Info: www.robertbuettner.com
In Ashes Lie
By Marie Brennan
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841497181 | Fantasy | Paperback
September, 1666 – The mortal civil war is over. But the war among the fae is still raging, and London is its battleground. There are forces that despise the Onyx Court, and will do anything to destroy it.
But now a greater threat has come, one that could destroy everything. In the house of a sleeping baker, a spark leaps free of the oven – and ignites a blaze that will burn London to the ground. For three harrowing days, the mortals and fae of the city will fight to save their home.
While the humans struggle to halt the conflagration that is devouring London street by street, the fae pit themselves against a less tangible foe: the spirit of the fire itself, powerful enough to annihilate everything in its path. Neither side can win on its own – but can they find a way to fight together?
Author Info: www.swantower.com/marie
The Edge of the World
By Kevin J. Anderson
June 2009 | ISBN: 978-1841496634 | Fantasy | Large Paperback
After generations of friction, the leaders of two lands meet in the holy city of Ishalem to bring an end to the bloodshed and to divide the world between them.
Sadly, this new spirit of fellowship is shortlived. A single tragic accident destroys, in minutes, the peace that took years to build. The world is once more cast into the fires of war – and this time the flames may burn until nothing remains. From the highest lord to the lowest servant, no man or woman will be unchanged by the conflict.
But while war rages across both continents, a great quest will defy storms and sea serpents to venture beyond the horizon, where no maps exist – to search for a land out of legend. It is a perilous undertaking, but there will always be the impetuous, the brave and the mad who are willing to leave their homes to explore the unknown.
Even unto the edge of the world …
Author Info: www.wordfire.com