Robert Buettner, author of Orphanage and Orphan’s Destiny (which Orbit US will reissue along with the new book Orphan’s Journey in April 2008) was interviewed in Steven Euin Cobb’s podcast The Future and You. Click here to hear an interview with Bob about his military science fiction novels starring Jason Wander. Also interviewed on the same show are Battlestar Galactica’s Bodie Olmos (“Hotdog”), and Mike Resnick.
I’m thrilled to announce an updated cover design for the US edition of Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin. We’re publishing her first book in October and we thought this was a fabulous look to start off a new series. We’ll be doing her next two books, Another One Bites the Dust and Biting the Bullet in December 07 and February 08. See the new covers after the jump.
Sean Williams’ fantastic new space opera, Saturn Returns, is garnering lots of well-deserved attention, from being Waterstone’s SF Bookseller’s Choice this month to this 4-star, out-of-this-world review in The Bookbag: “It’s part detective story and part examination of the nature of identity and people’s relations to each other — between individuals, and between an individual and larger parts of society . . . it’s well written and brought off neatly enough to keep the reader’s interest, and there’s enough mystery to keep you hooked — and there’s really only one central question: Who is Imre Bergamasc and what’s his story?”
Great news from the fourth estate. Trudi Canavan’s Voice of the Gods, the rather magnificent conclusion to the Age of the Five trilogy, will debut at No. 4 in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller chart this weekend. This is the third consecutive Top Ten bestseller for Trudi, and the first time one of her books has broken into the Top Five.
If there was any doubt that Trudi is now officially a Big Hitter in commercial fantasy publishing (and, quite frankly, there isn’t — not in the Orbit offices, anyway!) then I think this dispels it. Many congratulations to Trudi on this well deserved success.
And to those of you who have finished the trilogy and are sitting around, empty-handed, with a what next? look on your face . . . well, we’re afraid you’ll have to wait a while longer for The Magician’s Apprentice, the prequel to the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy. Trudi’s hard at work on it, but it’s unlikely to appear much before late ’08 / early ’09. You can find out more about Trudi’s plans for the future in our recent interview.
Meanwhile, you could do a lot worse than look to the links on the right of the screen and try out one or two of Orbit’s other fine authors . . .
Orbit author Karen Miller, whose novel The Innocent Mage was published by Orbit UK in April and will be published by Orbit US in September, has started a programme of interviews with female speculative fiction writers on her Livejournal — the first in the ‘Fantastic Women’ series is an interview with Glenda Larke, whose book Heart of the Mirage is published by Orbit UK next month.
Blogger Graeme Flory has just reviewed Fiona McIntosh’s Odalisque, which Orbit UK publishes this month. He says of it: “I found myself racing through the book to find out how it ended and now I want to read more. McIntosh has created a cast of characters that get under your skin and stay there; relationships are vividly drawn and made this reader want to work through to their conclusions.” You can read the rest of his review here, and there’s also a competition to win one of ten signed copies.
Micro-blogging tool Twitter seems to be the web application everyone’s talking about at the moment. If you’re using it, you can follow updates to this site through our Twitter page.
Finally, Orbit readers in South Africa may be interested in the Fantasy Feast, a special promotion being run through August and September at the Reader’s Paradise bookshop in Cape Town.
At her newly redesigned site, Lilith Saintcrow writes about the inspirations for the Dante Valentine series.
Originally she came from several piecemeal sources. I was watching a lot of the first Kill Bill movie and a wonderful Roman Polanski movie based on an Arturo Perez-Reverte novel, The Ninth Gate, not to mention watching a lot of Seven Samurai. (I’m a big Kurosawa fan.) Danny has a katana because, well, what else does a samurai have? Edged metal and honor. She’s my answer to Toshiro Mifune, I guess.
Other cinematic inspirations? Lady Vengeance, Lady Snowblood, and La Femme Nikita.
The extraordinary, and fantastically gripping, conclusion to Trudi Canavan’s Age of the Five trilogy, Voice of the Gods, was published last week by Orbit UK. To mark the conclusion of her second trilogy, Trudi was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions that we had about her writing, her life and what’s coming up next . . .
The publication of Voice of the Gods will mark the completion of your second trilogy. How do you think your life and your writing have changed between when The Black Magician trilogy was published and now?
Aside from moving house three times, and going from different levels of broke to having financial security, there’s a structure to the future that I’m not used to having. Having been self-employed for over a decade, I was used to not knowing what I’d be doing in a year or two. Now I plan my future in book series.
Orbit UK author Charles Stross has contributed a piece to the BBC website, published today. It’s a fascinating look at the effect that increased data storage will have on history and memory:
We’ve had agriculture for about 12,000 years, towns for eight to 10,000 years, and writing for about 5,000 years. But we’re still living in the dark ages leading up to the dawn of history.
Don’t we have history already, you ask? Well actually, we don’t. We know much less about our ancestors than our descendants will know about us.
Indeed, we’ve acquired bad behavioural habits — because we’re used to forgetting things over time. In fact, collectively we’re on the edge of losing the ability to forget.
This month, Orbit UK is publishing Odalisque, the start of a new series by Fiona McIntosh. It’s a dark novel set in a world of Byzantine manoeuvres and courtly intrigue — Interzone commented in their review: “I approached her new book Odalisque, set in the city-state of Percheron, with high expectations. They were more than justified . . . a beautifully structured novel, full of cruelty, wonder, mystery and terror. It has a splendid momentum that holds its audience through thick and thin. Fiona McIntosh goes from strength to strength. This is a dazzling start to her Percheron series.”
Fiona was in the UK on holiday last week, and in between sightseeing managed to get in a number of signings at bookshops in London: particular thanks to Stef at Waterstone’s 19-23 Oxford Street, Jon at Borders Oxford Street, Lee at Borders Charing Cross Road and C.J. at Waterstone’s Trafalgar Square. However, we also arranged for Fiona to make a short video about Odalisque, and you can see it on our YouTube page.
