Archive for Extracts

Get your extract of Jim Butcher’s PRINCEPS’ FURY here

So now that we all have a bit more time in our diaries to do things that don’t revolve around eating, buying presents and fitting in drinks with everyone you’ve ever known into a two week period, how about a spot of reading???

And to start you off, please click HERE for an extract for Princeps’ Fury (UK I ANZ), the fifth instalment of the Codex Alera, Jim Butcher’s powerful Romanesque fantasy. Praise for the series has been tremendous, and here are a couple more quotes for Princeps’ Fury to tempt you further:

The rousing fifth instalment of Butcher’s military fantasy cycle finds the land of Alera recovering from Lord Kalaruss’ rebellion, an invasion by the wolven Canim and a bloody slave revolt … No less powerful than his intense battle scenes, Butchers vivid characterizations, based on ancient Roman Republican ideals, range from duty-honor-country austerity in battle to brilliant peacemaking’
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Once again, Jim Butcher has created a masterpiece of high fantasy. The many battlefronts create an atmosphere of adventure that will sweep you up in the excitement that is Codex Alera’
SFSite.com

The last book, First Lord’s Fury (UK I ANZ) will be out in May this year so you won’t have long to wait for the next one!

Marianne de Pierres: ‘Space opera supreme’

That’s how the Sydney Morning Herald has described Marianne De Pierres’ phenomenal Sentients of Orion series. Out this week is the fantastic third instalment of the series, Mirror Space (UK/ AUS), and readers are in for a treat.

We continue to follow Mira Fedor, a young baroness with the ability to pilot sentient spaceships, in her attempt to liberate her home planet Araldis from hostile forces. As the Orion League of Sentient Species seems unable or unwilling to help, she’s forced to enlist the help of ruthless mercenary captain Rast Randall. But Rast’s contacts may have their own, more sinister agenda in mind . . .

With previous books in the series being lauded as:  ‘Brilliant in all sense of the word’ (Sean Williams),  and ‘A beautifully plotted, full-on action ride with gorgeous twists’(Aurealis), we suggest you take the advice that Hub Magazine gave about the series:

‘Readers who hunger for perceptive, intelligent and unflinching literary science fiction should seek this book out as soon as possible’

You can read an extract here.

YOU SUCK!!!

No, we’re not just throwing out random insults at our readers for the hell of it . . . this is actually the title of the new laugh-out-loud vamp-themed book from Christopher Moore, which Publishers Weekly have aptly described as:

‘[A] cheerfully perverse, gut-busting tale’

and Booklist as: 

‘[A] hilarious mockery of the pursuit of the appetites’.

In this rambunctious tale, Tommy, a naïve and eternally lusty 19-year old from Incontinence, Indiana, is rather peeved to find out that his hot vampire girlfriend Jody has turned him into a bloodsucking fiend too.

If he admits it, there are some pretty cool things about being a vampire – like eternal youth, super-strength and enhanced senses, and hey – even his zits have cleared up! It’s just the fact of being dead which is a bit of a bummer, along with the fact that anything except blood makes him projectile vomit, and that he passes out every day at sunrise, making trips to the mall rather difficult.

So Tommy and his girlfriend set out to find a minion to run errands for them and generally be their slave-around-the-house. And who better than the angsty goth teenager they meet at the local drugstore? Meanwhile, Tommy and Jody have other more important things to worry about, like fleeing from Tommy’s former turkey-bowling pals who have turned on him, and the fact that the centuries-old vampire who bit Jody in the first place has decided he wants her back.

If you fancy a nibble too, check out an extract of You Suck (UK/ANZ) here.

Terry Brooks Times Two!

Last month was the paperback publication of the concluding volume of Terry Brooks’ fantastic Genesis of Shannara series. You can read the first chapter of the concluding volume, The Gypsy Morph, here.

But the post title says Terry Brooks x 2 and that’s what we have for you! We thought the ending of one series would be the perfect time to give you all a sneak peek of the next. A Princess of Landover is coming out this September and (as you might’ve guessed from the title!) it’s a return to the world of Landover. If you’ve never read a Landover book before, A Princess of Landover is the perfect place to start. It’s got all the great storytelling and excitement you’d expect from Terry Brooks and, of course, we have an extract for you here.

The Edge of the World

This month sees our international publication of The Edge of the World by Kevin J. Anderson, the international bestselling author of the Saga of Seven Suns space opera sequence and, of course, co-author of the bestselling Dune prequels. The Edge of the World, Book One of Terra Incognita, is the beginning of a series that promises an incredible ride through a fully-realised fantasy landscape – and seascape. It’s a compelling, rollicking, maritime epic fantasy, set in a world modeled after Europe in the great Age of Discovery.

It is a time of sea monsters and mermaids, lost islands and ghost ships, leviathans and weather witches, in which brave captains in sailing ships explore the uncharted regions of the world, where even the finest maps are marked only with ‘Here Be Monsters’ or ‘Terra Incognita’. 

UK Jacket
UK jacket

After generations of friction, the leaders of two lands meet in the holy city of Ishalem to bring an end to the bloodshed and to divide the world between them.

Sadly, this new spirit of fellowship is shortlived. A single tragic accident destroys, in minutes, the peace that took years to build. The world is once more cast into the fires of war – and this time the flames may burn until nothing remains. From the highest lord to the lowest servant, no man or woman will be unchanged by the conflict.

The Edge of the World (US Jacket)
US jacket

But while war rages across both continents, a great quest will defy storms and sea serpents to venture beyond the horizon, where no maps exist – to search for a land out of legend. It is a perilous undertaking, but there will always be the impetuous, the brave and the mad who are willing to leave their homes to explore the unknown.

Even unto the edge of the world . . .

International bestseller Kevin J. Anderson gives us a story writ large on a canvas as big as the globe, but told through the eyes of the very human men and women caught up in events beyond their control. The journey to The Edge of the World starts here . . .

The Grand Conjunction

The Grand Conjunction (UK/AUZ), Sean William’s fantastic conclusion to the Astropolis series, is out this month and the reviewers have been saying some great things about it. Gary at Conceptscifi.com thinks that:

‘The Grand Conjunction is an absolute winner and a joy to read.’

And Liviu at Fantasy Book Critic says:

‘The novel succeeds grandly indeed. Highly, highly recommended.’

This is certainly a book on a ‘grand’ scale. Readers can expect more of the awe-inspiringly mind-boggling concepts that make Sean Williams’ space opera so exceptional. (more…)

Congratulations to Ken MacLeod!

So, how did you spend your Saturday evening? I spent mine at LX 2009, the 60th Eastercon, watching multiple World Fantasy Award-winning author, Tim Powers, present Ken MacLeod with a well-deserved BSFA Award for Best Novel for his latest book, The Night Sessions. A gripping hybrid of SF thriller and police procedural, The Night Sessions is set in the future of The Second Enlightenment, where religion has finally been crushed and removed from political life:

A priest is dead. Picking through the rubble of the demolished Edinburgh tenement, Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson discovers that the explosion wasn’t an accident. When a bishop is assassinated soon afterwards, it becomes clear that a targeted campaign of killings is underway. No one has seen anything like this since the Faith Wars.

After the Middle East wars and the rising sea levels – after Armageddon and the Flood – came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there’s no religious persecution, but believers are a marginal and mistrusted minority. And now someone is killing them. But who? And – perhaps more importantly – why?

The more his team learns, the more the suspicion grows that they may have stumbled upon a conspiracy way outside their remit. Nobody believes them, but if Ferguson and his people fail, there will be many more killings – and disaster on a literally biblical scale . . .

It’s a terrific book with a mystery to unravel and a future world to explore, told with the characteristic dry wit and insight that makes Ken MacLeod one of British science fiction’s most consistently interesting and acclaimed voices. But don’t take my word for it – you can read an extract of The Night Sessions, here, and if that whets your appetite, you’ll be delighted to learn that it’s out now in paperback from all good booksellers. Or you could always buy it in hardback if you wish – it is an award-winning novel, after all!

Congratulations, Ken, from all at Orbit!

More Dresden Files by Jim Butcher – Turn Coat extract

To get you in the mood for the next eagerly-awaited instalment of the Dresden Files, we thought we’d pass on a few sample chapters of Turn Coat, out in hardback in April.

In this latest outing for Harry Dresden, professional wizard, Harry is placed in the unlikely position of helping his long-time nemesis Morgan. This is a man with “hard, steady eyes, and all the comforting, reassuring charm of a dental drill” and all he wants is for Harry to clear his name and save his life. But one false step could spell disaster for Chicago’s leading freelance wizard-for-hire. Needless to say, this is action-packed, completely un-put-downable and contains all the hallmarks of a top-notch urban-fantasy noir.

The summer sun was busy broiling the asphalt from Chicago’s streets, the agony in my head had kept me horizontal for half a day, and some idiot was pounding on my apartment door.

I answered it and Morgan, half his face covered in blood, gasped, “The Wardens are coming. Hide me. Please.”

His eyes rolled back into his skull and he collapsed.

Oh.

Super.

Up until that moment, I’d been labouring under the misapprehension that the splitting pain in my skull would be the worst thing to happen to me today.

I’d been completely wrong.

Read the full extract here.

The Judging Eye – Chapter 1 Extract

Some exciting news for all you Prince of Nothing fans! A full chapter one extract of R. Scott Bakker’s The Judging Eye is now available to read:

The tracks between whim and brutality are many and inscrutable in Men, and though they often seem to cut across the impassable terrain of reason, in truth, it is reason that paves their way. Ever do Men argue from want to need and from need to fortuitous warrant. Ever do they think their cause the just cause. Like cats chasing sunlight thrown from a mirror, they never tire of their own delusions.

At the behest of their Holy Aspect-Emperor, the priests of the Thousand Temples harangued their congregations, and the Judges of the Ministrate scoured the land, seeking out and destroying all those who would either dispute the Truth or choose avarice over the mortal demands of the darkness to come. Everyone, whether caste-slave or caste-noble, was taught the Great Chain of Missions, how the words and works of each made possible the words and works of the other. They learned how Men, all Men, warred all the time, whether tilling fields or loving their kin. All lives, no matter how humble, were links that either fortified the Great Chain or impaired it, leading to the First Ring, the link from which the world itself hung: the Holy War against the apocalyptic designs of the Consult …

Or as it came to be called, the Great Ordeal.

Read the full chapter here >