Archive for Covers

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.]

A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER: The Making of the Map

Welcome to a behind-the-scenes post on how maps get created in the Orbit universe. I thought A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER (US | UK |AUS) was the perfect opportunity to do a write-up on, because the map design even made it to the cover. I’ll be your narrator, and welcome Author Alex Marshall, and illustrator Tim Paul.

LP: People often ask how we decide which books are going to have maps, and most times it is author-driven. Some authors use mapmaking as part of their worldbuilding process, and some authors only have a more general idea of geography as they’re writing. If a map or diagram comes naturally out of a story, then I always like to create something to expand the reader’s experience of the book. And sometimes a “map” is not really a map – for example we’ll be doing a process post soon on BLACK WOLVES (US | UK | AUS) by Kate Elliott – that book has tattoo designs for each important clan in the book in lieu of a geographic map.

In the case of A Crown for Cold Silver, I knew the author had a very specific concept for the map, and when I want the author and map maker to work together directly, my go-to artist is Tim Paul. I’d actually known Tim for a few years for his more stylized illustrations. One day we were sitting at the Society of Illustrators in NYC, at some art event or another, and he was saying he was dragging out all his old Dungeon Master props and maps to start up a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. He was talking about how much he enjoyed geeking out on the mapmaking, and my head snapped over to him and I said, so….you like making maps huh? Have you ever illustrated one for a client? (See, networking is real!)

TP: Hurray for networking, and talking about yourself!

LP: Map illustrators are a special – and rare – breed. You have to really be into the process of drawing the map out of the author, and tolerate a lot of fine-tuning. If you aren’t really excited by that, then you burn out quite quickly on all the revisions. You have to love the collaboration process. Many illustrators feel map work isn’t as creative as other types of illustration, but good mapmakers know there’s a lot of room for artistic license.

TP: It’s true about being a rare breed. I’ve had lots of illustrators tell me they won’t touch maps, and those few that do try, end up deciding not to do them again. As one person described, it’s like doing 50 – 100 little illustrations that are always changing. I actually find drawing thousands of little trees and mountains relaxing, even as I strive to make each mountain unique.

I’ve played D&D since I was 14. The maps in the books and modules were one of my favorite aspects. As a kid, I always made my own maps and worlds. Surprisingly, it took a long time to put my love of making my own maps into another way to making a living with my art. (more…)

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!

Fall 2015 – Winter 2016 US Cover Launch

Screen Shot 2015-02-19 at 3.31.39 PM

Mondays can be pretty dull sometimes. The weekend is over and everything seems a little grey and colorless…but not this Monday! To brighten your day with a splash of color and a full serving of awesomeness, here is a collection of our upcoming Fall 2015 and Winter 2016 titles.

Click on the images below to see a larger version and appreciate each cover in its full glory. Pin, tweet, and comment away with reckless abandon! We’d love to hear which books have already piqued your interest!

Grant_Chimera-HC Elliott_BlackWolves-TP Leckie_AncillaryMercy-TP

Carriger_Imprudence-HC Watson_ReignofIron-TP  Sykes_MortalTally-TP

Abraham_SpidersWar_TP Carriger_Prudence-TP Grant_Symbiont-TP 

Marshall_CrownColdSilver-TP McClellan_AutumnRepublic-TP McClellan_AutumnRepublic-TP

CHIMERA: Design by Lauren Panepinto; ANCILLARY MERCY: Art by John Harris, Design by Kirk Benshoff; BLACK WOLVES: Art by Larry Rostant, Tattoo Design by Stephanie Tamez, Design by Lauren Panepinto; IMPRUDENCE:Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Type by Chad Roberts, Design by Lauren Panepinto; REIGN OF IRON: Art by Larry Rostant, Design by Ceara Elliot; THE MORTAL TALLY: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Images Arcangel; THE SPIDER’S WAR: Design by Kirk Benshoff; PRUDENCE: Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Type by Chad Roberts, Design by Lauren Panepinto; SYMBIONT: Design by Lauren Panepinto A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Map by Tim Paul; THE AUTUMN REPUBLIC: Art by Gene Mollica and Michael Frost, Design by Lauren Panepinto; RADIANT STATE: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Images Trevillion

Autumn 2015 – Winter 2016 UK Cover Launch

Autumn2015OrbitUK

The Orbit design team has been very busy, and this morning we are very excited to present to you a selection of the beautiful art they’ve been working on for books coming out this Autumn and Winter 2016!

Click on the cover thumbnails below to see a larger version, and feel free to sound off in the comments (or hit us up on Twitter and Facebook) about your favourites.

Grant_Chimera-HC Elliott_BlackWolves-TP Leckie_AncillaryMercy-TP

Carriger_Imprudence-HC Watson_ReignofIron-TP Abraham_SpidersWar_TP

Marshall_CrownColdSilver-TP McClellan_AutumnRepublic-TP

CHIMERA: Design by Lauren Panepinto; ANCILLARY MERCY: Art by John Harris, Design by Kirk Benshoff; BLACK WOLVES: Art by Larry Rostant, Tattoo Design by Stephanie Tamez, Design by Lauren Panepinto; IMPRUDENCE:Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Type by Chad Roberts, Design by Lauren Panepinto; REIGN OF IRON: Art by Larry Rostant, Design by Ceara Elliot; THE SPIDER’S WAR: Design by Kirk Benshoff; A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER: Design by Lauren Panepinto, Map by Tim Paul; THE AUTUMN REPUBLIC: Art by Gene Mollica and Michael Frost, Design by Lauren Panepinto;

Cover Launch: IMPRUDENCE by Gail Carriger

We’re thrilled to launch the cover for IMPRUDENCE (see below), the sequel to PRUDENCE (US | UK | AUS), the greatly anticipated new novel by New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger!

Readers will love this terrific new series starring Prudence, the daughter of Alexia Maccon from the Parasol Protectorate series. The Custard Protocol has got it all: vampires, werewolves, dirigibles, and Gail Carriger’s sharp wit and absorbing prose.

The action and adventure kicks off on March 17th when Prudence travels to India on behalf of Queen, country…and the perfect pot of tea.

Pre-order your copy of PRUDENCE today, and head on over to Facebook to see if Gail Carriger will be stopping by your hometown for a visit.

Carriger_Imprudence-HC

 

Photo by Shirley Green, Illustration by Don Sipley, Type by Chad Roberts, Design by Lauren Panepinto
IMPRUDENCE releases March 2016.

 

Cover Launch: CHIMERA by Mira Grant

One book. Two books. Red book. New book!?! Heck yeah!

Mira Grant visited us at the Orbit offices this afternoon to help us launch the cover of CHIMERA – book three of the Parasitology series! Check out the fabulous cover designed by Orbit’s own Lauren Panepinto!

The exciting conclusion to Mira Grant’s pulse-pounding SF thriller will be available worldwide from Orbit in hardcover, e-book, and audio formats this November. Stay tuned and most importantly…stay alive.

CHIMERA-verticle-rectangle Grant_Chimera-HC

 

Want start reading the Parasitology series? Here is an excerpt from PARASITE!

Cover Launch: THE PARADOX, sequel to THE OVERSIGHT by Charlie Fletcher

We’re delighted to launch the cover for THE PARADOX, the much-anticipated sequel to THE OVERSIGHT, coming out in August this year. The reviewers will be pleased…

‘This feels like the start of something amazing’ M. R. Carey, author of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

‘I’ll certainly be reading the next one’ Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net

‘It’s oh so moreish a morsel. I’d read a prequel this evening, a sequel as soon as‘ Niall Alexander, Tor.com

‘A trilogy worth sinking your teeth into’ SciFiNow

‘The second book can’t come soon enough’ Booklist (starred review)

The Paradox: the sequel to The Oversight by Charlie Fletcher

SOMETIMES YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR – SOMETIMES IT LOOKS BACK.

Those who belong to the secret society called The Oversight know many things. They know cold iron will hold back the beasts in the darkness. They know it is dangerous to stand between two mirrors. And they know that, despite their dwindling numbers, it remains their duty to protect humanity from the supernatural.  And vice versa.

But two of the society’s strongest members, Mr Sharp and Sara Falk, are trapped in the world between the mirrors, looking for each other, searching for a way back home. What they discover there will have ominous consequences both for The Oversight and the world it protects, effects that will make them question everything they thought they knew.

 

Cover design by Lauren Panepinto and DogEared Design

Cover Launch: The Good, the Bad and the Smug by Tom Holt

The Good, the Bad and the Smug: comic fantasy by Tom Holt

We’re feeling pretty good (one might even say a little smug) about launching this gorgeous cover by Lauren Panepinto, for Tom Holt’s newest comic fantasy, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SMUG.  The only bad news is, you’ll have to wait until 28th July to read it…

New Evil.
Same as the Old Evil, but with better PR.

Mordak isn’t bad, as far as goblin kings go, but when someone, or something, starts pumping gold into the human kingdoms it puts his rule into serious jeopardy. Suddenly he’s locked in an arms race with a species whose arms he once considered merely part of a calorie-controlled diet.

Helped by an elf with a background in journalism and a masters degree in being really pleased with herself, Mordak sets out to discover what on earth (if indeed, that’s where he is) is going on. He knows that the truth is out there. If only he could remember where he put it.

Cover launch: Tracer by Rob Boffard

Tracer by Rob Boffard

We’re excited to be able to show you cover for TRACER: a blockbuster SF thriller coming up from Orbit in July 2015.

It’s set in a future when our planet is in ruins, and all that’s left of humanity is jammed into a space station called Outer Earth – floating three hundred miles above the surface of the planet.

Our main character Riley is a tracer, a courier – and when you need something taken to another part of Outer Earth, she’ll sprint through the corridors and catwalks to get it there fast. But when her latest cargo turns out to be something rather gruesome, she realises she’s taken on more than she bargained for . . .

I can’t express how awesome this book is. And we are: Very. Excited. Indeed.

The author is Rob Boffard, a journalist who’s written for people such the Guardian and Wired, and TRACER is his first novel. Find him on Twitter as @robboffard.

And get ready for a thrill ride when his book releases this July.

Cover design by Nico Taylor, Little, Brown Book Group UK.