Posts Tagged ‘science fiction’

The Expanse at SDCC!

It was great seeing so many of you at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend. For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, we brought you back a souvenir!

Check out DRIVE by James S. A. Corey on Syfy.com. This free short story is set 150 before the events of LEVIATHAN WAKES (US | UK | AUS) and concerns the invention of the Epstein Drive.

We also brought back pictures of Syfy’s Expanse Cafe, which you can check out on the James S. A. Corey Facebook fan page.

The main event of the weekend was The Expanse panel where the first episode was screened in its entirety. While you’ll have to wait until December to see it on television, you can check out some of the panel highlights and reviews by io9 and B&N’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog right now!

Last but certainly not least, Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive on a new extended trailer. Go. Now. Watch. Is it December yet?

SIX WAKES: Thriller in Space — WITH CLONES!

Fans of Mur Lafferty! Fans of Firefly, Sunshine, Leviathan Wakes! Fans of awesome sf with a cool hook! Come hither!  (Or was that yon? Or hither and yon? Its hard to tell on the intrawebs…)

When we first got the proposal for Mur’s new novel, SIX WAKES, the whole team fell in love with the hook: The whole crew is murdered — but when their clones wake up, they know that one of them is the killer. How cool is that? I will answer that question for you — SO COOL!

It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.
 
 At least, Marie Shea iv had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died: from illness once and from injury once…
 
Maria’s vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Pituitary, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. Apparently Maria wasn’t the only one to die recently…

Mur Lafferty Photo 2 - JR BlackwellMur Lafferty should be a familiar name to most. She is a writer, podcast producer, gamer, geek, and martial artist. She is the host of the award winning podcast I Should Be Writing, and the host of the Angry Robot Books Podcast. She is the winner of the 2013 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. And she is also a writer who has a million awesome ideas ready to leap out of her brain.  We are excited that this is her next big project with Orbit and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

We’ll be publishing in trade paperback next Fall.

Harry August wins John W. Campbell Memorial Award!

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Many congratulations to Claire North, whose THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST (UK | US | ANZ) has won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year.

The Award was presented at the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet and Conference, held at the University of Kansas and which focusses on the writing, publishing, illustration and criticism of science fiction.

Claire flew over from for the ceremony and – despite having had some issues getting the trophy through airport security – she is delighted and honoured to have received this prestigious award.

Congratulations to Claire, and to all the other nominees!

Advance Praise for TRACER by Rob Boffard

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

We’ve been getting some impressive early praise for TRACER by Rob Boffard – the blockbuster debut thriller releasing next month.

TRACER is set on Outer Earth – a huge space station floating 300 miles above the planet’s surface. It contains all that remains of humanity – a million souls crammed into this broken-down, rusting, inescapable station.

What’s more, there’s a madman hiding on the station, and he’s about to unleash havoc . . .

If you imagine The Bourne Identity meets Gravity then you’ll be some way towards imagining what a thrill-ride this book is. See below for some of the great things people have been saying so far, and for the eye-catching full UK cover.

‘Fast, exhilarating and unforgettable, and once you start it you can’t stop. I loved it’ – Sarah Lotz, author of The Three

‘TRACER sets a new standard for all-action SF’ – Ken MacLeod

‘Riley Hale battles to save the last remnants of humanity in the claustrophobic, brilliantly evoked world of a crumbling space station where danger lies around every corner. A stunning debut by Rob Boffard that never lets up, from the nerve-jangling beginning to the explosive end’ – James Douglas, author of The Doomsday Testament

‘Ludicrously fast-paced, with a brilliant sci-fi setting, TRACER is an absolute blast of a read’ David Owen, author of Panther

‘Compelling, compulsive…Thoroughly entertaining – this one’s worth picking up if you’re in the mood for some sci-fi action’ Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviews

Full cover for TRACER by Rob Boffard, and science fiction thriller set in space (Click to enlarge)

Cover launch: Speak by Louisa Hall

Arriving at Orbit this summer from Waterstones Book Club author Louisa Hall comes SPEAK, a novel which will make readers everywhere question what it really means to be human.

Emily St. John Mandel, Arthur C. Clarke winner and author of STATION ELEVEN, calls SPEAK the ‘rarest of finds’, and it is already one of Huffington Post‘s Brilliant Books You Won’t Want to Miss this Summer.

She cannot run. She cannot walk. She cannot even blink. As her batteries run down for the final time, all she can do is speak. Will you listen?

From Alan Turing’s conviction in the 1950s to a Silicon Valley Wunderkind imprisoned in 2040 for creating illegally lifelike dolls. From a pilgrim girl writing her diary to a traumatised young girl exchanging messages with a software program, all these lives have shaped and changed a single artificial intelligence – MARY3. In Speak, she tells you their story, and her own. It the last story she will ever tell, spoken both in celebration and in warning.

When machines learn to speak, who decides what it means to be human?

[Cover design by Jack Smyth from the Little, Brown Book Group Design team.]

Cover Launch: The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

Coming July 2015, THE ANNIHILATION SCORE is the latest science fiction thriller from Charles Stross, in a series where British spies take on the supernatural.

The Cover for Charles Stross's latest science fiction spy thriller, The Annihilation Score, showing a London scene and two spies pointing guns at each other, with a glowing violin pattern overlaying the picture.

NOBODY DOES IT BETTER . . .

Dr Mo O’Brien is an intelligence agent at the top secret government agency known as ‘the Laundry’. When occult powers threaten the realm, they’ll be there to clean up the mess – and deal with the witnesses.

The Laundry is recovering from a devastating attack and when average citizens all over the country start to develop supernatural powers, the police are called in to help. Mo is appointed as official police liaison, but in between dealing with police bureaucracy, superpowered members of the public and disgruntled politicians, Mo discovers to her horror that she can no longer rely on her marriage, nor on the weapon that has been at her side for eight years of undercover work, the possessed violin known as ‘Lecter’.

If this wasn’t bad enough, a mysterious figure known as Dr Freudstein is committing heists and sending increasingly threatening messages to the police. Who is Freudstein and what is he planning?

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross

Many thanks to crushed.co.uk and Sophie Burdess for their beautiful cover!

THE LAZARUS WAR: a brand new space adventure

The Lazarus War: Artefact - a new military science fiction adventure novel by Jamie Sawyer, endorsed by Jack Campbell, author of the Lost Fleet books
  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Do you like cool SF adventures in space?

Do you like colossal starships and elite military  teams?

Do you like just general awesomeness?!

Then we have something here that will be right up your street. We’re excited to present THE LAZARUS WAR: ARTEFACT (UK | US | ANZ) – the start of an explosive new space adventure series publishing digitally this March.

It’s from a talented new science fiction author called Jamie Sawyer. My excitement dial got turned up to 11 – hell, maybe even 12 – when I first read this book on submission.

It features Captain Conrad Harris, a man who has died hundreds of times. How so? Well . . . he’s the head of the Simulant Operations Program – an elite military team who remotely operate avatars in a war against an alien race. He runs suicide missions in deep-space battles where no real human could survive. But what happens when Harris finds himself stranded on a hostile alien planet without the use of his simulant bodies? For once, he may have to fight this war for real . . .

If you’re a fan of space opera and military science fiction like James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series and Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet books, or films like The Edge of Tomorrow, Avatar and Alien, then this is for you. The legend Jack Campbell himself describes this as “A gripping read that moves as warp speed.” Couldn’t say it better myself.

We’re releasing this on the 24th March as a low-price digital edition for a limited time. You can read a little snippet below for a taster . . . In the meantime, please welcome Jamie to Orbit list! You can find him on Twitter as  @JSawyerAuthor.

“Do you wish you’d brought along a gun now, Mr Olsen?” asked Blake.

“I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” Olsen said, defensively. “I wouldn’t know how to.”

“I can’t think of a better time to learn,” Kaminski replied. “You know – ”

The overhead lights went out, corridor section by corridor section, until we were plunged into total darkness. Simultaneously, the humming generated by the life support module died. The sudden silence was thunderous, stretching out for long seconds.

“How did they do that?” Olsen started. His voice echoed off through the empty corridor like a gunshot, making me flinch. On a dead ship like the Haven, noise travelled. “Surely that wasn’t caused by the Krell – ?”

I held up a hand for silence.

Something creaked elsewhere in the ship –

“Scanners!” I whispered.

That slow, pitched beeping: a lone signal somewhere nearby…

“Contact!” Blake yelled.

In the jittery pool of light created by my shoulder-lamp, I saw something spring above us: just a flash of light, wet, fast . . .

 

TOUCH by Claire North: “I am left staggered into an awed slow-clap”

Touch - a dark thriller novel by Claire North, author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live someone else’s life?

TOUCH (UK|US|ANZ) by Claire North is out now. It’s a high-concept thriller about a being who can jump from body to body, just with a touch.

Claire North is the author of THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST (UK | US | ANZ), one of the UK’s bestselling SFF novels of last year. And her new book TOUCH is wowing critics across the board:

‘I am left staggered into an awed slow-clap at everything North has accomplished here. Touch is touching, horrifying, magnificent; step into it, and it will step into you’ NPR

‘As intriguing and breathless as it is brilliantly original, constantly defying expectations and a step (or two) ahead of the reader . . . this one will keep you awake at night in the search for answers’ LOVE READING

‘A dark thriller that asks readers to imagine whom they would be if they could be anyone. . . The high stakes and breakneck pace of the plot will draw readers in, and the meditations on what it means to be human and to be loved will linger long after the last shot is fired’ KIRKUS

‘Bolstered by an impeccable sense of setting, a challenging central character and a sinister plot that doesn’t for a second stop, Touch is its own singular, spirited thing, as fascinating and affecting as its predecessor’ TOR.COM

‘The quality of the writing and the dazzlingly imaginative heart of this exciting book will seduce even scifi sceptics, and keep readers absolutely hooked to the dramatic conclusion’ SUNDAY MIRROR

‘Triumphant . . . This novel is utterly engaging, addictive, and thought-provoking . . . simply superb’ CIVILIAN READER

‘Seriously I cannot get over how amazingly good Claire North is. I could have read this book forever. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was so smart, Touch is beyond genius. This will be one of THE books of 2015. Mark my words’ BITE THE BOOK

‘Powerful, disquieting, and provocative’ PORNOKITSCH

‘The writing is stunning; the action . . . exhilarating; the depth and emotion – always – thought-provoking and touching’ THE LITERARY TREE

‘One of the cleverest, most compelling books I’ve read in a long time . . .  Claire North is one hell of a writer’ C. L. Taylor, author of THE ACCIDENT

‘A work of sparkling originality that works both as mesmerising thriller and exploration of what it means, at the most profound level, to be human’ Alex Marwood, author of THE WICKED GIRLS

‘Touch is fast, smart, cinematic and with a cracking central idea. This is absolutely destined to be one of the biggest thrillers of 2015’ Rick O’Shea, radio presenter

‘I was totally and utterly gripped, it’s just extraordinary. Absolutely mesmerising’ Clare Mackintosh, author, feature writer and columnist

‘The writing is gorgeous. As I read, my fingers were itching to underline quotes on virtually every page. The characters are richly drawn and compelling. The plot is utterly riveting. The book is pretty much perfect, is what I’m saying’ BOOKTOPIA

‘Fast-paced, imaginative . . . There is plenty of conspiracy and intrigue in this deftly paced novel, but North also poses subtle questions about identity and love’ WASHINGTON POST

‘Absolutely phenomenal. It is an intricate, edge-of-your-seat book that is unforgettable. It is thought provoking in ways that I never really expected or anticipated, and toys with that moral grey area that I love so much . . . My final thoughts: Read this book. Read it now’ BOOKWORM BLUES

Intrigued?

TOUCH is out now from Orbit in the UK and Redhook in the US.

Follow Claire North on Twitter as @ClaireNorth42

BREAKING: NEW YORK IS CHASING CHICAGO

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

From the Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh comes an enchanting new short story: CITY LIVING:

Enter a world of moving cities. The war is over and Hitler is dead, but rumors are flying that Chicago has just attacked Boston. That Moscow has crossed into the US and attacked Chicago. And New York is on the way to chase down the Windy City. Some cities are rumbling that they don’t feel like part of the USA anymore.

But what form of energy is giving them the power of locomotion?

City Living is available now in the US and UK. And don’t miss the author’s other work: Defenders (US | UK | AUS), Love Minus Eighty (US | UK | AUS), The Perimeter, and The Heist.