Archive for Uncategorized

Cover Launch: THE HAMMER

K.J. Parker’s critically acclaimed Engineer trilogy featured  three great covers by Keith Hayes. Since then, Parker has been writing  stand-alone novels, and any one of them is a great place to jump in without any series-long commitment. Of course, I’m sure you’ll be back at the bookstore buying the Engineer books as soon as you finish any of these books, but you can start slow if you don’t believe me…

The Company was really an ensemble story, so we wanted to show the characters on the cover, but for The Folding Knife and The Hammer, I really wanted to continue the “artifact” look of The Engineer Trilogy.

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SFX Summer of SF Reading launch event, Monday 10th May

Orbit authors Michael Cobley, Mike Carey, Philip Palmer and Kate Griffin will be attending the SFX ‘Summer of SF Reading‘ launch event at Waterstone’s Piccadilly on Monday 10th May.

It all kicks off with a signing at 5.30pm so do come along to meet our great authors!  There are VIP drinks and a panel event after and SFX are running a competition to win tickets to this.

Even if you can’t make it, why not check out their latest books…

FROSTBITTEN: The Book Trailer

It’s been a Kelley Armstrong kind of month. Two weeks ago, Kelley shared her first trip across the pond for World Horror Con with us, and we heard about her new books last week.  So, in the balance of thirds, we thought we’d cap it off with a bang.

We’ve got an exciting new book trailer for Frostbitten, out this Thursday in the UK, and while there are book trailers, there are also BOOK TRAILERS!!!! We tend to think that this one falls into the latter category, but we’ll let you be the judges of that, as always. . .

When Will You Rise?

www.theFEEDBOOK.com
FEED has arrived and with it all the zombie noshing, political savvy, and smart-assed badassery you can handle. This isn’t your parent’s zombie story, although we’re pretty sure Mira Grant knows where the bodies are hidden…

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we had created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives– the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

Head on over to www.theFEEDBOOK.com where you can learn the history of The Wall, find out more about the bloggers who saved the world when the mainstream media fell apart, get a glimpse of the web circa 2040, and read the first chapter! Plus keep an eye on our Twitter feed @orbitbooks for chances to win a copy of the book all day.

After the jump, have a look at some zombieriffic ads from 2040! (more…)

New titles from Kelley Armstrong

Following Kelley Armstrong’s very successful trip to the UK, during which she had fans from as far as Germany queuing up to meet her, we thought we’d remind you just how busy she’s been on the writing front.

Last month saw the release of The Reckoning (UK /ANZ), the third book in Kelley’s Darkest Powers young adult series. This is definitely one to look out for, considering that the second book in this series was a No. 1 New York Times children’s bestseller, and that Charlaine Harris claimed about the series that ‘there’s never a slow moment in their journey or a false line in Armstrong’s writing’. (more…)

Cover Launch: THE FALLEN BLADE

This lovely Monday we have an awesome cover for a book I really enjoyed reading and working on, The Fallen Blade, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. The fabulous Larry Rostant provided the very atmospheric imagery, and I had obvious fun playing with the type. With both the image and the type, we wanted to clearly evoke renaissance Venice, but portray the strong main character and dark adventure of the story.

The Fallen Blade is the best of both worlds: an alternative historic fiction set in a renaissance Venice at the height of her power, populated by supernatural creatures and backstabbing political intrigue, AND a fast-moving fantasy adventure tale of vampires, werewolves, assassins, and pirates. Jon Courtenay Grimwood does such a fantastic job of describing Venice that you feel a really strong sense of geography and atmosphere. I was just in Venice in January and I was really impressed with how true the historical and geographical details felt, and it makes following the characters and story weaved around this framework all the more immediate. I can’t wait to see where the story is going to go in the next book.

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Cover Launch: LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGES

Sorry folks, I know monday is usually cover launch day, but things are a little hectic in the Art Dept. and  this week wednesday is cover launch day. But never fear, I have a cover all ready for next monday too!)

Tom Holt is a funny guy. Orbit UK has been publishing him for a long time and I was thrilled to get to redesign his look with his US launch of Blonde Bombshell in June. I can’t wait to start applying the new look to the backlist titles waiting to roll out. But first we have another new book, one which wins for my favorite title of all time* Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages.

Tom Holt is all about funny, absurdist scifi/fantasy, and when I read my first Tom Holt book I was pleasantly surprised how like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett it felt. and that’s high praise from me. I really like the humorous scifi/fantasy subgenre, and I think we’ve been packaging it well here at Orbit with the A. Lee Martinez books especially, and I’m really happy to add these books to the list.

I love a chance to hand-draw a cover, because most of the time everything happens solely on the computer. I especially enjoy hand-drawing type. I’ll have to try to work it in to more covers, even if it’s not as purposely rough-style like these covers. (more…)

Changeless becomes a New York Times Bestseller!

Changeless by Gail Carriger just hit the New York Times best seller list at #20!

Congratulations to Gail!

Whoo hoo!! We’re over the moon over here and hope you share in our excitement! I need to go find a football team so I can practice chest bumping!

You can check out the first chapter here or check out the video on how we made the cover for the upcoming Blameless here.