Archive for Awards

Locus Awards winners announced

The winners of the 2014 Locus Awards have been announced, and we’re thrilled to see two Orbit authors among them!

Congratulations to James S.A. Corey for winning the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for ABADDON’S GATE (US | UK | ANZ); to Ann Leckie for winning the Locus Award for Best First Novel, for ANCILLARY JUSTICE (US | UK | ANZ); and to all the rest of the winners!

You can see the full list of winners here.

Corey_AbaddonsGate_TP Leckie_AncillaryJustice_TP

PROMISE OF BLOOD wins the Morningstar Award!

Last week we attended the David Gemmell Awards ceremony – now in its sixth year – and were thrilled to see PROMISE OF BLOOD by Brian McClellan win the Morningstar category for best debut novel.

EMPEROR OF THORNS by Mark Lawrence won the Legend award for best novel, while the artwork for the same book – created by Jason Chan –  won the Ravenheart category for best cover art.

Many congratulations to Brian and his fellow winners, and also to all the other authors and designers who were shortlisted.

Brian’s new novel, THE CRIMSON CAMPAIGN (UK | US | ANZ)  is out now in hardback, ebook and audio. The third and final novel in the Powder Mage trilogy, THE AUTUMN REPUBLIC, will be published in February 2015.

Praise for PROMISE OF BLOOD:

‘Just plain awesome . . . Innovative magic, quick-paced plot, interesting world. I had a blast’ – Brandon Sanderson

‘An historically influenced fantastical romp filled with machismo, intrigue and magic’ – SciFiNow

Promise of Blood is the best debut I’ve read in ages’ – Peter V. Brett

‘A French Revolution with wizards; McClellan’s debut packs some serious heat’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘Tense action, memorable characters, rising stakes . . . Brian McClellan is the real thing’ – Brent Weeks

                                  The-Crimson-Campaign autumnrepublic

 

ANCILLARY JUSTICE is the Nebula Award winner!

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced the winners of the 2013 Nebula Awards this past weekend and we are thrilled to report that Ann Leckie has won the Nebula award for Best Novel!

Congratulations to Ann, who adds the Nebula Award to her Clarke Award, her BSFA Award for Best Novel and her Kitschie Award for Best Debut Novel, all for her spectacular first novel.

You can read a sample from ANCILLARY JUSTICE here. To find out more about the author, check out her website or follow her on twitter at @ann_leckie.

Publisher of the Year!

Publisher of the Year Award 2014 for Little, Brown Book Group UK (with Orbit team))As some of you may know, Orbit UK is an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group – and we’re proud to report that Little, Brown scooped up the prestigious Publisher of the Year title in the Bookseller Industry Awards last night.

Here’s a photo of the award and some key members of our team.

 

 

Orbit on the Locus Awards Shortlist!

Locus award shortlistWe’re very pleased to report that we have three shortlisted nominees on the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel! Our congratulations go to ABADDON’S GATE by James S.A. Corey, SHAMAN by Kim Stanley Robinson, and NEPTUNE’S BROOD by Charles Stross (also nominated for a Hugo Award this year). The awards are voted on by readers of Locus magazine, and the full shortlist is:

MADDADDAM, Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart; Bloomsbury; Talese)
ABADDON’S GATE (US | UK | ANZ), James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS, Karen Lord (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
SHAMAN (US UK | ANZ), Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
NEPTUNE’S BROOD, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK) (UK | ANZ)

Congratulations also to Ann Leckie, whose debut ANCILLARY JUSTICE (nominated for many awards this year including the Hugo and Nebula, and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award, the BSFA and a Kitschie) was nominated in the Best First Novel category. The shortlist is as follows;

ANCILLARY JUSTICE (US | UK |ANZ), Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, Helene Wecker (Harper)
THE GOLDEN CITY, J. Kathleen Cheney (Roc)
A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)
THE THINKING WOMAN’S GUIDE TO REAL MAGIC, Emily Croy Barker (Dorman)

And finally, we ourselves are shortlisted in the Best Publisher category! Best of luck to the other nominees.

ANCILLARY JUSTICE is the Arthur C. Clarke Award winner!

We heard the fantastic news last night that Ann Leckie is the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award! This is a simply astounding achievement for any author, but especially for a debut novelist.

The award is given to the best science fiction novel of the year by a panel of judges invited from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival. 

ANCILLARY JUSTICE was announced as winner in a ceremony last night at London’s Royal Society. The Orbit team was attending and we all had a wonderful time.

The judges read over 120 different science fiction novels submitted by 42 different publishing houses and imprints, narrowing the shortlist down to just six spectacular novels before picking ANCILLARY JUSTICE as the winner.

Our biggest congratulations go to Ann, who adds the Clarke Award to her BSFA Award for Best Novel and her Kitschie Award for Best Debut Novel, all three awards for ANCILLARY JUSTICE. Hope she’s got room on the mantelpiece!

You can read the award coverage in The Guardian today.

 

The Clarke Award for ANCILLARY JUSTICE

 

Ann Leckie wins BSFA Best Novel Award with Gareth L. Powell

The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards were announced in a ceremony two days ago at the Satellite 4 Eastercon 2014 in Glasgow.

Ann Leckie and Gareth L. Powell made history by being the first winners to ever tie for position in the Best Novel Award, which has been awarded to both authors. Ann won with her debut space opera ANCILLARY JUSTICE and Gareth with alternate history adventure ACK-ACK MACAQUE.

Ann had twice the reason to celebrate over the Easter weekend, with her place on the Hugo Awards’ Best Novel shortlist announced just the day before! She was joined by other Orbit authors Mira Grant (for PARASITE), Charles Stross (for NEPTUNE’S BROOD), and Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (for the Wheel of Time series).

See all the BSFA winners including Best Short Fiction, Best Non-Fiction and Best Art at the BSFA website. Many thanks to Dan Franklin for collecting Ann’s award.

ANCILLARY JUSTICE makes the Clarke Awards Shortlist!

Our congratulations go today to Ann Leckie, who has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award for her debut novel, the fantastic space opera ANCILLARY JUSTICE!

This means that ANCILLARY JUSTICE has so far had an unbroken chain of shortlistings for every science fiction award of the year: that’s the Kitschies (where it already won the Golden Tentacle), the Philip K. Dick Awards, the BSFA Awards, the Tiptree, the Goodread Reader’s Choice Awards and the Nebula Awards. What a record!

The shortlist this year has been characterised by several debut novels – Ann Leckie, Kameron Hurley and Ramez Naam are, impressively, all first time novelists. Alison Flood at the Guardian wrote about the debuts here: ‘SF newcomers invade Arthur C Clarke award shortlist’.

Big Orbit congratulations to Ann, and to all the shortlistees! The full shortlist is here:

ANCILLARY JUSTICE by Ann Leckie
GOD’S WAR by Kameron Hurley
THE MACHINE by James Smythe
THE DISESTABLISHMENT OF PARADISE by Phillip Mann
NEXUS by Ramez Naam
THE ADJACENT by Christopher Priest

ANCILLARY JUSTICE wins the Golden Tentacle!

We are delighted to announce that Ann Leckie won the Golden Tentacle at the Kitschie Awards last night, in a ceremony at London’s Seven Dials Club. The judges were charged to find the most progressive, intelligent and entertaining genre novel written by a debut author in 2013, and picked ANCILLARY JUSTICE, Ann’s incredible space opera tale, released by Orbit last October.

Other winners on the night were Will Staehle, who won the Inky Tentacle for best cover art for his work on THE AGE ATOMIC; Ruth Ozeki, whose TALE FOR THE TIME BEING won the Red Tentacle for Best Novel, and Malorie Blackman, who won the Black Tentacle for a special contribution to genre literature.

Previous Kitschie winners include Patrick Ness, Lauren Beukes, China Miéville and Nick Harkaway. Winners receive £2,000 in prize money, as well as one of the prize’s iconic handmade Tentacles and (of course) a bottle of Kraken rum.

The Golden Tentacle!

Here’s what others have been saying about ANCILLARY JUSTICE:

‘Our #1 pick for the year’s best science fiction or fantasy book . . . this Iain M. Banks-esque tale was the book that made us most excited about the future of science fiction in 2013’ io9.com

‘It’s not every day a debut novel by an author you’d never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance’ Liz Bourke, Tor.com

‘Unexpected, compelling and very cool – Ann Leckie nails it. I’ve never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed’ John Scalzi

‘Thrilling, moving and awe-inspiring’ Guardian

‘Signals the arrival of a hard science fiction author who just might fill the gap left by Iain M. Banks. ANCILLARY JUSTICE is a highly original novel. Highly recommended’ Independent on Sunday

‘Total gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you’d written it. Ann Leckie’s ANCILLARY JUSTICE may well be the most important book Orbit have published in ages’ Paul Graham Raven

‘Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh’ Elizabeth Bear

You can read a sample from ANCILLARY JUSTICE here. To find out more about the author, check out her website or follow her on twitter at @ann_leckie.

BSFA Awards shortlisting for Ann Leckie!

Ann Leckie’s ANCILLARY JUSTICE has just been shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel!

With shortlistings also announced for the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Kitschie Awards, Ann’s debut novel has so far been shortlisted for every single science fiction award it is eligible for. Wow!

Our biggest congratulations go to Ann and to all of the other finalists this year! The shortlists were as follows:

Best Novel

GOD’S WAR by Kameron Hurley (Del Rey)
ANCILLARY JUSTICE by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
EVENING’S EMPIRES by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
ACK-ACK MACAQUE by Gareth L. Powell (Solaris)
THE ADJACENT by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)

Best Short Fiction

SPIN by Nina Allan (TTA Press)
“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar (STRANGE HORIZONS)
“Saga’s Children” by E. J. Swift (THE LOWEST HEAVEN, Pandemonium)
“Boat in the Shadows Crossing” by Tori Truslow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

Best Artwork

Cover for Tony Ballantyne’s DREAM LONDON by Joey Hi-fi (Solaris)
Poster for METROPOLIS by Kevin Tong (tragicsunshine.com)
“The Angel at the Heart of the Rain” by Richard Wagner (INTERZONE #246)

Best Non-Fiction

WONDERBOOK by Jeff VanderMeer (Abrams Image)
“Going Forth by Night” by John J. Johnston (UNEARTHED, Jurassic)
“Sleeps with Monsters” by Liz Bourke (Tor.com)

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Satellite4 Eastercon science fiction convention the Crown Plaza Hotel, Glasgow, where you can also meet Orbit authors such as Charles Stross and Ken MacLeod.