Archive for New Titles

Shaun Hutson on UNMARKED GRAVES

Unmarked GravesMaster of the dark, Shaun Hutson, has two books out this month, the paperback release of Unmarked Graves and the new hardback release, Body Count.

Shaun was kind enough to answer some questions for us in anticipation of the books’ release:

Did the idea for Unmarked Graves come to you fully realised or did you have one particular starting point from which it grew?
It came from one idea and I expanded it. Every book I’ve ever written has come about like that. I think Unmarked Graves went through more changes than any novel I’ve ever written. The ideas I originally wanted to explore ended up disappearing in successive re-writes but the racism thing was there from the beginning.

How does it compare to your other novels?
For what it’s worth, I like to try and do something different in each novel and it contained an idea and themes I hadn’t tackled before. I’d never done voodoo before so it was something new for me. I don’t like to keep recycling the same idea over and over again in a different guise. That’s cheating your readers and I’d never do that.

You can read the rest of the interview in the back of Unmarked Graves, out this month!

Orbit UK schedule update: December 2008

The Orbit UK Schedule page has just been updated with details of the three great new titles that we’ll be publishing in the first week of December 2008:

  • The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore – Chaos ensues as the none-too-bright Archangel Raziel attempts to make a young boy’s Christmas wish come true.
  • Dark Heart by Russell Kirkpatrick – The second part of the Husk trilogy sees continents torn apart by cataclysm and war.
  • Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks – the concluding volume of the Night Angel trilogy, from a new author who’s set to take the fantasy genre by storm.

Click the titles to read the trailer text over at the UK schedule page. Don’t forget, they’ll all be available from early December from all good bookstores and online retailers.

Shannara, Star Wars and All That

The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks, UK hardbackYou say ‘to-MAY-to’ and I say ‘to-MAH-to’,
You say ‘shu-NAR-a’ and I say ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
‘shu-NAR-a’ . . . ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
‘shu-NAR-a’ . . . ‘SHAN-uh-ra’,
Let’s call the whole thing Geekspeak. . .

Behold! The Gods of Geek have seen fit to bestow upon me a brand new, super-shiny iPhone, and – lo! – I have become addicted to podcasts.

Hmm. So what does the above mock-portentous gibberish have to do with the ill-conceived George and Ira Gershwin pastiche that opened this blog post? I’m glad you asked! This morning on the train in to work, I passed the time standing up, plotting horrible deaths for the train company executives who can’t organise enough seats for paying customers listening to Terry Brooks discussing his career on Rick Kleffel’s excellent Agony Column podcast.

This particular episode is a ‘cast of Geekspeak, Santa Cruz public radio station KUSP’s live weekly show. Terry talks about how he got started as a writer, his Shannara series (the latest volume, The Gypsy Morph, is available now), Star Wars, writing the Episode One tie-in and a whole lot more.

Check it out here.

Ugly is the new Awesome

The Orbit US edition of Orcs is out next week, but the verdict is in on the cover model: UGLY. Which is, of course, exactly what we were going for when we hired the orc on the cover (we interviewed hundreds of orcs before settling on Walter, who had the perfect combination of pathos, anger and ugly.)

Orcs

Walter’s visage has proven too ugly even for some of the genre’s most prominent critics. Jeff VanderMeer (who, let’s be honest, must have seen an awful lot of ugly covers in his years as an SFF critic) eventually decided he had to pretty up the orc.

Jeff writes:

“Just look at what a few randomly applied stars, flowers, smiley-faces, and the like can do to make a cover more humane! In fact, maybe Orbit should even run a “Beautify Your Orcs” contest. I bet readers would get a kick out of that.”

Pretty?

So inspired by Jeff’s suggestion, we’re asking you to beautify Walter. Here’s a link to a jpg image of the cover – Photoshop it, print it out and draw on it, scribble on it in MS Paint – then post the result to your blog or send us a copy of the image. To sweeten the deal we’ll send a copy of Orcs to the first five people to email their image to orbit@hbgusa.com .

Where did Walter come from, you ask? Our orc was sculpted by Nimba Creations, an FX firm that has created effects for films including King Kong, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Nightmare on Elm St.

Every wrinkle, scar, and pore on Walter was done by hand. And there are a lot of lovely details that you don’t see on the final cover – Walter’s slightly beseeching eyes and gloriously awful teeth. You can practically smell his breath just looking at him.

Ugly?

Orbit UK schedule update: November 2008

We’ve just updated the Orbit UK Schedule page with six great new titles that we’ll be bringing to UK readers in November 2008:

Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong, UK paperbackA Sword From Red Ice by J.V. Jones, UK paperbackChaos Space by Marianne de Pierres, UK paperback
Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams, UK paperbackShadow's Edge by Brent Weeks, UK paperbackThe Curse on the Chosen by Ian Irvine, UK paperback
  • Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong – her brand new Otherworld novel.
  • A Sword From Red Ice by J.V. Jones – book three of the Sword of Shadows saga.
  • Chaos Space by Marianne de Pierres – the second part of Marianne’s Sentients of Orion space opera saga.
  • Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams – part two of Sean’s galaxy-spanning Astropolis series.
  • Shadow’s Edge by Brent Weeks – the second part of Brent’s debut fantasy series about a reformed assassin seeking to escape his violent past.
  • The Curse on the Chosen by Ian Irvine – the second instalment of the epic fantasy saga The Song of the Tears.

Click the titles to read the trailer text over at the schedule page, and start firing up those retailer wish-lists!

‘Saturn Returns’ on Big Dumb Object

Big Dumb Object has a great review of Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns today, calling it:

Space opera with cool (far) future tech. Just up my street. The main plot follows Imre Bergamasc as he tracks down his old crack team of soldiers, along with trying to figure out what in the galaxy is going on. . .

The plot has a good pace, chunks of action, plenty of enigmas and time for the characters to think. There are also some great sensawunda set-pieces.
(Read more)

Saturn Returns is out in UK bookstores this week. Pick up your copy today!

‘Midnight Never Come’: Reviews and More

Marie Brennan - Midnight Never Come (UK)This month’s Locus has a fantastic review of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come (UK/US), saying:

Brennan ably combines elements of danger, romance, and individual moral choices that could affect the fates of great realms, for a tale that’s rich in plot and character. She interweaves historic and fantastic details with scholarship, inspired acts of imagination, and a keen wit.

And over at The Book Swede there’s another great review:

Of course, in faerie fiction, having an icy queen ruling the faerie throne, while a human queen lives above, is not that unusual. A great light does cast a great shadow. Nor is having a faery story with intrigue and spying…set in Elizabethan England really new. What sets Marie Brennan apart, then, is the quality of her writing, the complexities of her plot, the characterisations, the world-building…everything. (Read more)

You can also read his interview with Marie Brennan here. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of Midnight Never Come you might want to check this site out. . .

Another Set of Great Reviews for ‘Bloodheir’

Rob over at Fantasy Book Critic is adding to the string of great reviews for Brian Ruckley’s Bloodheir (UK/US), saying:

There are battles, assassinations, and the war between the True Bloods and the Black Road becomes as intense as it has ever been…I am really looking forward to the final book in the trilogy and hope it will deliver a rousing and fulfilling finale to cap this remarkable series…( Read more.)

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review is also a fan, saying that Brian Ruckley can be:

Compared to George R. R. Martin… for the sheer grittiness of his work and the fact that he can throw the reader a wicked curve ball that blows your expectations right out of the water… Ruckley puts the ‘epic’ into his work with some particularly brutal affairs where no expense is spared in showing the reader exactly what is going on. More please! (Read more)

Bloodheir goes on sale in the US and the UK this month – so pick up your copy soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Facebook giveaway!