Space Monsters! The Interstellar Void! Coffee & Muffins!

US readers! From November 23 to December 7, the full text of Greg Bear’s HULL ZERO THREE will be available for free on the just-launched Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! The novel will also be available in hardcover and ebook editions in bookstores.

The Starbucks Digital Network offers customers access to premium, free content on the in-store Wi-Fi network. Customers will be able to access the complete text of HULL ZERO THREE on their laptops, tablets, and many smart phones.

Stop by your local Starbucks, put in your order, have a seat, open your laptop, log on. You’ll find HULL ZERO THREE in the Bookish Reading Club on the network’s Entertainment channel.

WARNING: While reading, maintain a firm grip on your coffee at all times in case of unexpected gravitational anomalies.

HULL ZERO THREE is Science Fiction legend Greg Bear’s highly anticipated return to deep space. Publishers Weekly called it: “a beautifully written tale where nothing is as it seems,” and Locus Magazine says HULL ZERO THREE is “a testament of faith both in human beings and in something beyond them.”

The Walking Dead 1.03 with Jesse Petersen

Jesse Petersen is the author of MARRIED WITH ZOMBIES and the forthcoming FLIP THIS ZOMBIE. Like many of us here at Orbit HQ, she’s also a fan of The Walking Dead on AMC. She’ll be offering recaps of each week’s episode here every Monday. This post will contain SPOILERS (also zombies). For previous recaps see 1.01 and 1.02

Hello again, Undead Army! I’m so excited to watch this episode of “The Walking Dead” since I think the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan. If you don’t remember, when we last left off Rick had found some other survivors in Atlanta who helped him escape the zombie horde AND it turned out they were part of the very same band that his own wife, son and former partner are living with. Wife Lori is still getting it on with former partner Shane (and being a little bit unlikeable in the process) and Rick and the gang are heading back to camp even as we speak. Here we go: (more…)

Love the One You’re With

This being November, I’ve been wasting my internet time on my favorite pre-holiday activity: lurking on the NaNoWriMo forums. In fact, if you post in the fantasy section, I’ve probably read your description of your story in 15 words or less or your critique of the above user’s excerpt.  Reading the NaNoWriMo fantasy forums is an exercise in masochism on my part because they make me so freaking mad. Allow me to give you an example. Nine times out of ten, when you navigate over to the forum to see what’s new, you will find some variation of the following:

  • Top ten most hated fantasy cliches
  • How do you avoid cliches?
  • Help! I’m worried my novel is too cliched! T__T
  • How my novel is going to lift fantasy out of the stinking pile of cliche we all know it is

Ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. (more…)

Nano advice: Break the rules…

I’m back to talk about National Novel Writing Month some more. This time, instead of complaining on the internet about how mean everyone is—because that’s productive—I figured I’d take a shot at giving advice. This, of course means, that I will get to be the target of enraged tweeting and, with any luck, at least one table-thumping LiveJournal post.

Anyhow, as with last week, this is all with the caveat that any advice I have is targeted towards Fantasy and Science Fiction writers, because that’s what I know and that’s what I love, and this is the Orbit blog, so, frankly, you’re probably a SFF fan anyways. Also, this is all from the perspective of someone who hasn’t written anything longer than an editorial letter since college. So, advice from an editor. Not even advice, let’s say it’s some things you may want to think about if you have a moment between pounding out thousands upon thousands of words a day. (more…)

And the Winner Is…

And the winner is…….Bountiless! The contest really did come down to the wire between Bountiless and Breathless, but in the end, Boba Fett took the prize. And speaking of prize, we were SO impressed with the quality of the contestants, and the feverish commenting, that we decided to award the winner with a $100 gift certificate to Clockwork Couture, helmed by none other than expert panelist and Alexia model, Donna Ricci.

Mr. Fett, please contact me at lauren (dot) panepinto (at) hbgusa (dot) com and we’ll work out the details on the prize.

Of course, ’tis true that Boba Fett is a bit of a tough fit for the world of the Parasol Protectorate, but I think it can work if you think of it like this: If you forget that this is a reimagining of Boba Fett, and just take the costume fresh and just on Steampunk merit, it is absolutely a fine piece of craftsmanship and design. And a hell of a lot of manpower. And I think there is definitely room in the Parasol Protectorate for a helmeted bounty hunter.

And, you know, besides that, it’s freaking Boba Fett in Steampunk. That’s awesome.

You can find out more about the mysterious Mr. Fett at his facebook page. I hear he is available for parties!

Truth be told, all of our finalists — and really all of the contestants — embodied the best aspect of Steampunk: they had fun. I love Steampunk and other “retrofuturism” because you really can bring so much of yourself to it, and look awesome doing it. Your own background, look, culture, your own nerdy obsessions. And it takes chutzpah to dress up on a day not related to Halloween, even for a convention where a whole lot of other people are dressed up too. I applaud the entire Parasol Protectorate Class of 2010. And get working on your costumes again for next year!

Cover Launch: Mystery Cover Revealed!

Hey remember this picture? Way back in August I was working on a photo shoot with photographer Laura Hanifin for a cover, and I had to share a picture of one of the crazy props we were using that day. Yes, it was a real live—well, actually, dead—octopus, which Laura had dyed with food coloring in a ziplock bag in her fridge. Yes, I am the one holding it, and yes, it was really really slimy.

I got a lot of questions about it, especially after I made the shot my facebook profile pic, but I just couldn’t tell you guys what the images were for until we were ready to launch the cover, just in case it didn’t work out. But luckily it worked out even better than we had hoped, and launch day is finally here, and I actually have not one but two covers to show you. The shoot went so well that we’ve already used photos on two covers, and we’ve still got more good images left. I’m hoping that will make it up to Laura that her apartment stunk like dead fish for at least a month afterwards. (Sorry!)

A few people DID guess that the octopus was standing in for some kind of intergalactic space creature, and I can finally say that you are correct…and the mind that thought up that creature is none other than Philip Palmer, author of Debatable Space, Red Claw, Version 43, and now…Hell Ship! (more…)

Best in Class for N. K. Jemisin!

N.K. Jemisin is blowing up in 2010! Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was released to widespread acclaim.

“The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms… is an impressive debut, which revitalizes the trope of empires whose rulers have gods at their fingertips.— io9.com

“The very best kind of sequel: as lush and evocative and true as the first, with all the same sense of mystery, giving us the world and characters we already love, and yet with a new story and a wonderfully new perspective on the whole dazzling world and pantheon the author has built.”
— Naomi Novik on The Broken Kingoms

Now, the best of lists are coming in and it seems the critical attention was well deserved!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is #5 on the Amazon’s Top 10 Science Fiction and Fantasy list!

And both The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and the sequel, The Broken Kingdoms, are on  Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2010 list!

Check out both at bookstores or online retailers near you. . .



Publishers Weekly: Three Orbit Titles in 2010’s SF/F Top Five

We’re very happy to announce that in a remarkable showing, three of the five books selected by Publishers Weekly as the best science fiction/fantasy titles of 2010 are published by Orbit — THE BONE PALACE by Amanda Downum, FEED by Mira Grant, and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS/THE BROKEN KINGDOMS (a two-for-one deal!) by N.K. Jemisin.

Congratulations to our authors!! And if you haven’t yet gotten around to these books — happy reading!