Author Archive

Butcher is back, and this time it’s… ghostly

Out now in paperback
Available in August

We recently asked Jim Butcher fans to tell us why they loved reading The Dresden Files as part of a competition to win a load of great books, and we were innundated (in the best possible way!) with positive feedback.

We knew there was a lot of love out there for Jim Butcher and the world of Harry Dresden P.I., and his fans have definitely delivered. We’ve shared some of the responses below. Congratulations to Kieran who was randomly selected as the winner of our nineteen-book prize!

We also heard from all of you that the end of Changes – which is out in paperback this month – left most people at the edge of their seats for the next book, so when the first trickles of text from Jim Butcher’s upcoming book Ghost Story came in this week, we wanted to get it up for you as soon as we could.  You can now read chapter one of Ghost Story here (note: you should probably read Changes first if you haven’t already). (more…)

A taste of Venice and The Fallen Blade

Jon Courtenay Grimwood was recently described in the Guardian as making ‘the fusion of genre energy and literary depth his calling card,’ and his latest book certainly fits such a description. If you’ve read his posts this week, you may already suspect this truth: The Fallen Blade is probably unlike anything you would have read before.  This is a novel that simultaneously reclaims the vampire myth, crafts a thrilling political landscape, fits in both romance and brutal violence and portrays a fifteenth century Venice so vividly that you’ll swear you’ve been there (and then!).

So in this trailer for The Fallen Blade, we’re taking you there…

You can read the first chapter here.

Version 43 is here

You’ve seen the new wallpaper and the dueling videos.

You’ve probably read the extract.

You may have seen the brand new and exclusive Amazon interview and article.

And you might even have heard when SFREVU called Philip Palmer’s work ‘relentlessly energetic, inventive and shamelessly ambitious.’

But if you don’t pick up a copy of Version 43 for yourself this month, or do any of the above actions for that matter, then… well, you should.  Or the cyborg will know.

The day’s arrived for The Heir of Night

If you’re in Australia and New Zealand, you’re definitely in the right place to get your hands on some exciting new fantasy as Helen Lowe’s Orbit debut, The Heir of Night, hits bookshelves today in all of its beautifully plotted and blazing red glory!

In case you missed it, the author has explained the world of The Heir of Night for us here, and the blogosphere has already weighed in favourably on this start to a new series:

‘The Heir of Night is a carefully plotted story in a complex world’ – fantasyliterature.com

‘Very promising and fast-paced new epic fantasy.’ – bookloons.com

‘A very rich and complex story with a perfect balance between action and character development that got me hooked from the first page.’ – fictionkingdom.blogspot.com

‘Helen Lowe’s prose flows effortlessly from the first pages to the last page and she uses magic in a good way.’ – risingshadow.net (more…)

Blondesweeper

Blonde BombshellTom Holt’s Blonde Bombshell (UK | US | ANZ) – the intergalactic comedy about blonde bombshell Lucy Pavlov – blasted into UK bookstores last week, with US and Australia hot on their heels for a June/July publication.

To celebrate, we’ve created a game based on the Windows95 classic, Minesweeper, or Blondesweeper in this case.

We’ll also be giving away a collection of Tom Holt‘s books to the person with the highest score, so be sure to make the most of the game’s Twitter sharing function and tweet your high score @orbitbooks!  The high score winner will be announced on the US pub date of June 10.

Good luck!

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. . .