If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on in an author’s head, you can get a sense of it by following them on twitter. Here, Jeff Somers waxes eloquent on technology.
See more author tweets after the jump, and click any of them to follow on twitter yourself!
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On the subject of the talented Jim Butcher, we’ve just acquired the last two books in his traditional fantasy series.
The Codex Alera sequence is set in a colourful Roman-esque world, where Alerans fight against the aggressive races that inhabit this world and against each other, helped by their unique bonds with elemental creatures of fire, water, earth and air. It’s a brutal land at times, the action being set against a background of ambition and power as the First Lord of Alera grows old and lacks an heir. Noble houses manoeuvre to place their people in influential positions, and a war of succession looms on the horizon.
Princep’s Fury (book 5) will appear in the UK in December 2009 and First Lord’s Fury (book 6) will be out in May 2010.
And as a reminder, the first four books will appear in Orbit from May this year. There’s plenty of drama to come and click here for more on book one, plus see the fantastic cover art here!
The Magician’s Apprentice is Trudi Canavan‘s latest novel, and is a prequel to her bestselling Black Magician Trilogy. Trudi is visiting both Canberra and Sydney next week for book signings, so be sure you don’t miss out on meeting Australia’s highest selling speculative fiction author!
CANBERRA
Tuesday 3 March
5.00 – 6.00 p.m.
Gaslight Books
Unit 10, 83 Wollongong Street
Fyshwick ACT 2609
SYDNEY
Thursday 5 March
5.30 p.m.
Gaslight Books
143 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Please contact the bookstores for more information on these signings and don’t forget to check with them before you travel, in case of last-minute alterations.
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.
Orbit’s Jeff Somers posted a hilarious video of his experiences as a Comicon newbie. Check it out!
We have just bought two new books in David Farland’s fabulously imaginative Runelords series, which began with The Sum of all Men. Berserker (Runelords book eight) and Runelords book nine continue the story of a world that was torn into damaged shadows of itself in ages past, creating a multitude of worlds all corrupted by darkness. Fallion, a powerful flameweaver, is trying to banish evils from his world by uniting these broken pieces. But the healing goes badly wrong. Instead of a harmonious binding of many lands, only two worlds are merged, with the greatest ills of each vying for supremacy. Now monstrous beasts known as wyrmlings haunt the nightmares of men.
We plan to publish Berserker in September 2010, and you can catch up on all previous Runelords books by clicking here.
We’ve updated the Orbit UK Schedule page with details of our forthcoming titles for April 2009. The following Orbit books will be available from all good bookstores – high street and online alike – round about April 2nd:
You can also see a preview of Orbit UK’s March 2009 titles, or you can check out our UK publishing schedule for February to April 2009.
Orbit will be at New York Comicon this weekend at booth #1921. Stop by and have a gander at some of our upcoming titles. And keep an eye out for Jeff Somers, who will be speaking, twittering, video-ing, and signing copies of The Electric Church and The Digital Plague.
Friday 2/6, 3pm: Jeff Somers signing at the Orbit booth. (Jeff explains: “Swing by and I’ll sign anything you want, even body parts. Well, most body parts.”)
Saturday 2/7, 1:30pm: Sci-Fi, Supernatural and Fantasy Authors Round Table, followed by a book signing and giveaway with Jeff Somers in the Autograph area.
Award-winning Night Sessions author Ken Macleod is set to host a discussion on how computer games inform our ideas of evolution at The Drill Hall, Edinburgh this Saturday 7th February 2009.
How life-like are games like Spores and Second Life and what can they teach us about human evolution?
Ken and synthetic biologist Dr Alistair Elfick will be leading this debate, hosted by The Skinny Magazine and the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research forum.
For more information on this free, ticketed event click here.
