With sinister echoes of 1984 and Brave New World, this original novel features a near-future city where medical science invents a single-dose pill for eradicating many common genetic defects . . .
Read a sample
So this is it . . . the final countdown. Witness how events came to a head. I think it’s safe to assume that Philip Palmer and Jeff Somers are no longer on speaking terms.
So it’s come to this . . . Jeff Somers and Philip Palmer arguing over whose character is better with the laaaaadies.
Again, Philip Palmer has resorted to getting a scientific expert involved – a certain Dr Paul Bostock (according to Phil, a ‘Professor in Protagonism and Genre Conflict at the Heinlein University, Colorado’ – this hasn’t yet been verified).
Ladies – judge for yourself.
(And mind the spoilers if you haven’t read Jeff’s previous 3 books yet!)
Since we began releasing the footage showing the incendiary events that occured during the filming of a joint promotional video, Jeff Somers has expressed his sheer outrage over the entire episode, and Philip Palmer has published an official ‘apology’ to Jeff here.
Though we are not proud of what has happened, we have decided to continue to release the footage so that the viewing public may come to their own conclusions about the events. In this video, Philip Palmer lists the many, many ways in which his character Version 43 is superior to Avery Cates. Orbit would like to make clear that it does not endorse the behaviour of either author involved in this incident . . .
The squaring off continues between Jeff Somers and Philip Palmer. This time they pitch the plots of The Terminal State and Version 43 against one another. Seriously guys – it’s not a competition . . .
Here on Planet Orbit we generally think there’s a pretty good community spirit – both in the office and amongst all our authors out there. But sometimes – just sometimes – those good times go bad.
Believing Jeff Somers and Philip Palmer to both be “team players” and decent, honourable gentlemen, we thought it might be a good idea to ask them to discuss and compare, in a series of videos, and in a sensible and controlled manner, their newest science fiction titles and their protagonists. But APPARENTLY that wasn’t possible. We’re still going to post the footage – if only to be an example to you all.
Out this month is the gun-blazing, throat-slitting, hover-riding, brain-augmenting THE TERMINAL STATE (UK/ US/ ANZ), the fourth book in Jeff Somers’ near-future thriller series, the Avery Cates sequence.
To celebrate its release, you might remember that Jeff Somers ran a competition to give his readers the chance to act out the roles of their favourite characters, by providing voiceovers for several videos based on the book. Jeff obviously managed to get people’s creative juices flowing, and received some highly inspired entries. The winners have now been chosen and they are the following:
Canny Orel – read by Ben Linford
Wa Belling – read by Tyrel Devlin from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
The Poet – read by Jeffrey Lamar from Chandler, Arizona
Mara - read by Patty Blount from Framingville, New York
The videos, with readers’ voices added, are now up on the site right here: www.theterminalstate.com (roll over the images to find the hidden footage).
If you haven’t checked out the Avery Cates novels and want to find out why SFX has called them ‘brash, brutal, [and] brilliant’, and the Guardian ‘an exhilarating example of powerful and entertaining storytelling’ then you can read an extract from the first book here.
…or a day in the life of Jeff Somers at least. If you haven’t already spotted it on his site, see below for a glimpse of an artist at work. Seem familiar to anyone?
It’s time for the next instalment in Jeff Somers’ ingeniously speedy recap of the Avery Cates series so far. Presenting: ‘The Digital Plague in One Minute’. OK, so as pointed out on the previous video, maybe it’s just a little longer than a minute, but I guess Jeff figured that ‘The Digital Plague in One Minute and Forty-Two Seconds’ isn’t nearly as catchy . . .
***SPOILER ALERT!***
Disclaimer: As Jeff’s publisher we cannot *quite* back up the veracity of his final statement…
The date is drawing closer for the UK release of The Eternal Prison (UK/US/ANZ), the third novel in Jeff Somers’ fast and furious techno-thriller series, the Avery Cates sequence. By putting his genius video-making skills to use, Jeff has provided us with two handy bite-size films to remind you of the series so far in speedy fashion. Here we present the first: ‘The Electric Church in One Minute.’ (And for those poor misguided individuals who haven’t sampled the sheer awesomeness of Avery Cates yet – no fear! Doesn’t feature too many spoilers…)
Stay tuned for ‘The Digital Plague in One Minute’!
- - July 1st, 2011
