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 . . .
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The nominees for the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award, for science fiction paperback originals, were announced today, including three books from Orbit: The Company Man (US | UK | ANZ) by Robert Jackson Bennett, Deadline (US | UK | ANZ) by Mira Grant, and the Samuil Petrovitch trilogy by Simon Morden (comprising Equations of Life [US | UK | ANZ], Theories of Flight [US | UK | ANZ], and Degrees of Freedom [US | UK | ANZ]).
The award will be presented by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust to the winner at Norwescon in Seattle on Friday, April 6, 2012. The full list of nominees appears below.
A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson (Ace Books)
After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
The Other by Matthew Hughes (Underland Press)
The Postmortal by Drew Magary (Penguin Books)
The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden (Orbit)
I know it’s been a little while since we’ve done a fun wallpaper in the house (It was a great wallpaper too – Leviathan Wakes, if you didn’t download it you totally should!). So, I have written before about how much I love how the covers for the Simon Morden books came out, and have taken the opportunity to do a poster, a video, and now…wallpapers! Just in time for the third book to hit shelves. So make sure you go pick up Equations of Life, Theories of Flight, and Degrees of Freedom…
Available for screens of all sizes, now you can carry a mind-warping piece of the Metrozone with you everywhere! I even finally figured out how to make the ipad version work with the vertical/horizontal twist. As usual, if I missed a specific screen size you’d like, leave a comment and I’ll format it for you!
‘Morden keeps up a breathless breakneck pace that doesn’t sacrifice character depth or intelligence . . . promises to be a fast-paced thrill ride for the cynical urban space cowboy in all of us’ i09
‘Petrovitch is one of those characters you can’t help but warm to, and readers will be eager to experience more of his adventures and his relentless Russian swearing’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘The action is relentless and Morden has a natural talent for a plot that keeps the reader guessing’ GUARDIAN
‘A fantastic piece of work – a roller-coaster ride through a post-plague hit London that made me think of Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon colliding head on with Gibson’s Neuromancer, whilst side-swiping Stephenson’s Snowcrash. I absolutely loved it!’ SFREVU
‘A heart-stopping onslaught of science and action for much of its perfectly judged duration, paced like a runaway train, and Morden handles the fireworks with a steady hand . . . truly exhilarating stuff’ THE SPECULATIVE SCOTSMAN
So I have written before about how I love the Simon Morden trilogy that has started hitting shelves. Samuil Petrovitch is my favorite kind of snarling sarcastic anti-hero, and a genius rocket scientist to boot. My kind of guy. And I especially love Orbit for letting me be a bit daring with the cover design and rock these really graphic optical illusion covers.
So what you don’t know is that the initial design was even crazier. I wanted to hide the cover text IN the optical illusions. Slight legibility problem, I admit, for a teeny book cover…but FABULOUS for a poster. And since I know you guys love these how-to videos, I screen-captured my process so you too can make your own Editable-Text Optical Illusion Poster…and melt the retinas of all your friends. After the jump you can even download the Illustrator file I used, and add your own text. Read the rest of this entry »
You can learn to make your own in our How-To video, or you can win your own! Just sign up below and you’ll be entered to win one of ten “Mind the Gap” posters.
We are exceptionally proud to present the covers for an explosive trilogy of near-future thrillers that will be storming onto the scene next year. Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees Freedommake up this bold, fast-paced and highly intelligent new series that is a real breath of fresh air. It’s unlike anything else on the market at the moment and we wanted a striking new cover style that would convey that very fact – so here they are for your viewing pleasure.
Simon Morden has impeccable SF credentials, having edited the BSFA’s Focus magazine and served as a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He’s also a bona fide rocket scientist, having degrees in geology and planetary geophysics . . . so we were obviously expecting great things! I’m very glad to say that when we first read his series we were all astonishingly impressed – totally blown away. And since we don’t think you should have to wait for the future, we’ve decided to publish three books in three months – April, May and June 2011.
Well, if that headline doesn’t get your attention, nothing will.
I’m absolutely delighted to announce that Orbit has agreed a three-book World Rights deal with Simon Morden for three superb future noir thrillers. Simon has been the editor of the BSFA’s writers’ magazine Focus, a judge for the Arthur C Clarke Award and is a bona fide rocket scientist, having degrees in geology and planetary geophysics – not many SF writers have held a chunk of Mars in their hands! He is also the author of the acclaimed YA novel The Lost Art. Let me assure you, though, that there’s nothing ‘Y’ about these books – they’re all ‘A’!
Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees of Freedom are set in the Metrozone – a dystopian future London – and feature protagonist Samuel Petrovitch: a Russian émigré with a smart mouth, a dodgy heart and a dodgier past. He’s brilliant, friendless, cocky and – even in a world where the No. 1 rule is ‘don’t get involved’ – stands out as a selfish, miserable b*****d.
The books are fast-paced, wise-cracking, action-packed romps through the overcrowded, decaying urban jungle of a not-so-distant future, featuring – amongst many other ingredients – exiled yakuza, Russian gangsters, gang warfare, virtual reality and a two-metre-tall warrior-nun packing an unfeasibly large automatic pistol. If these books don’t get your adrenaline pumping, you don’t have any!
We’ll publish in the UK, Commonwealth and US in the second quarter of next year – clear a space in your reading schedule.
- - January 10th, 2012
