When you’re voting, don’t forget to consider works by some of our fabulous Orbit authors. Mira Grant’s DEADLINE(US | UK | ANZ) and James S.A. Corey’s LEVIATHAN WAKES (US | UK | ANZ) are both up for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, while Mira Grant’s COUNTDOWN, published as part of the Orbit Short Fiction program, is up for Best Novella.
Mira Grant, as Seanan McGuire, is up for another two Hugos: for Best Related Work for her album Wicked Girls and for Best Fancast as part of SF Squeecast. This ties the record for nominations on a single Hugo slate, and marks the first time a woman has been nominated for four Hugo Awards in the same year.
Mur Lafferty, author of the upcoming THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY, is also a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Deduction and magic combine in a new Steampunk series by Lilith Saintcrow that debuts next month. It’s the first book that features detective duo Emma Bannon and Archibald Clare.
Whether you are a current fan of Lilith’s novels or someone who loves a good mystery with a Steampunk twist– THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR (US | UK | AUS) is a book you’ll want to investigate further. Publishers Weekly gave this book a starred review saying, “sensual writing, intricate plotting, and sympathetically quirky, satisfyingly competent characters make this series one to watch.”
Here is the first chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter One: A Pleasant Evening Ride
Emma Bannon, Sorceress Prime and servant to Britannia’s current incarnation, mentally ran through every foul word that would never cross the lips of a lady. She timed them to the clockhorse’s steady jogtrot, and her awareness dilated. The simmering cauldron of the streets was just as it always was; there was no breath of ill intent.
Of course, there had not been earlier, either, when she had been a quarter-hour too late to save the other unregistered mentath. It was only one of the many things about this situation seemingly designed to try her often considerable patience.
Mikal would be taking the rooftop road, running while she sat at ease in a hired carriage. It was the knowledge that while he did so he could forget some things that eased her conscience, though not completely.
Hey Ladies and Gentlemen, fans of all things Steampunk and Vampiric and Victoriana: for your device’s pleasure we have made you some fantastic God Save The Queen wallpapers! Please plaster across all your screens and enjoy at your leisure. We have also started making facebook timeline headers for your social media adornment!
For more info on the making of the cover, please stay tuned for a behind the scenes video of the photoshoot coming soon!
As SFX Magazine said this month, Kate Griffin’s acclaimed Matthew Swift novels ‘tell of a parallel and eldritch capital’. In her new book STRAY SOULS [UK | US | ANZ] coming out this October, we find ourselves in the same fantastical London as the Matthew Swift novels, but with a new twist – meet Sharon Li: barista and shaman, on whose shoulders rest the fate of the city. Matthew Swift makes an appearance too, but it’s Sharon and her friends at Magicals Anonymous (a self-help group for people with magical issues) who must step up to save the day.
Here, just for you, we can now exclusively reveal the jacket, put together by our very own UK creative director Duncan Spilling:
STRAY SOULS will be out worldwide from Orbit in simultaneous paperback and ebook this October.
In his stunning novel,2312 [UK | US | ANZ], Kim Stanley Robinson combines detailed research with a vivid imagination to create the most incredible descriptions of our galaxy 300 years in the future. While he was in the UK, we filmed him reading from the book at Toppings in Bath (big thank you to Jeanette Weston at Magus Studios).
Here he reads a passage depicting dawn on the planet Mercury… prepare to be entranced.
And for a chance to win a SIGNED hardback of 2312, comment below with your favourite quote from the reading! (Terms and Conditions apply)
Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence recently seized a damaged reel of film from enemy territory.
It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.
This film, along with other classified reports, confirms our worst fears: that a Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers.
British Intelligence may be forced to resort to our own dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.
– – – End of report – – –
Bitter Seeds (UK | ANZ), the phenomenal debut novel from Ian Tregillis, is released today. Read an extract here.
‘A major talent . . . I can’t wait to see more’ George R. R. Martin
‘Mad English warlocks battling twisted Nazi psychics? Yes please, thank you . . . A white-knuckle plot, beautiful descriptions, and complex characters’Cory Doctorow
‘Remarkable . . . A confident and thrilling debut’ SFX Magazine
‘ Just superb’ Fantasy Book Critic
‘Tregillis delivers a dynamite first novel in Bitter Seeds’ SFRevu
‘Nothing short of an awesome read as far as I’m concerned’ Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review
‘Easily one of the most impressive debut works I’ve read’ Bookworm Blues
It’s that time of year again. Time for a horde of readers, superheroes, and Jedi to descend on the city of San Diego for Comic Con!
To kickoff the festivities, a new piece of Newsflesh short fiction is available now and set during San Diego Comic-Con…the very last San Diego Comic-Con.
It was the first days of the Rising and no one realized that most of the people who picked up their badges that fateful weekend would never make it out alive. This was the last stand of the California Browncoats.
SAN DIEGO 2014 a really fun story whether you are a regular at the convention or not. If you couldn’t make it out to California, you can still get a taste for the experience by picking up SAN DIEGO: 2014. For those of you who are going to Comic Con, then definitely stop by our booth: #1118. We will be giving away the yellow button that you see on the cover at various times throughout the weekend. Mira will also be at the show this year so check out her panels and signings.
The only thing we ask is that you leave the zombie plague at home. Remember the Rising doesn’t happen until for another two years, but if you must shamble on over to San Diego, please snack responsibly and try not eat the cast of Firefly.
Exciting news for fans of award-winning SF author Orson Scott Card: his bestselling Shadow Saga is now available in a single volume!
THE SHADOW SAGA [UK | ANZ] omnibus contains the novels ENDER’S SHADOW, SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON, SHADOW PUPPETS and SHADOW OF THE GIANT.
The first novel, ENDER’S SHADOW, runs parallel to Card’s classic novel ENDER’S GAME [UK | ANZ], while the subsequent three books all explore the roles of various Battle School recruits following the end of the intergalactic war, as various factions struggle for world domination.
ENDER’S GAME is currently being developed into a major Hollywood film, featuring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield and Ben Kingsley. The movie will also include elements and events from ENDER’S SHADOW.
Orson Scott Card himself recently visited the movie set and was hugely impressed with what he saw from the actors – “It was wonderful to see how Ford and Butterfield responded to each other’s timing. It was such a delicate dance – and they worked perfectly together.”
Card talks at length about his trip – and also gives his thoughts on The Avengers, Harry Potter and the work of Joss Whedon – in this recent article.
The film of ENDER’S GAME is set for release in November 2013.
En garde! SHARPS (US | UK | AUS) is a new novel by the K.J. Parker featuring a high-stakes competition that will topple kingdoms. You won’t see action like this in the summer Olympics that’s for sure.
Publishers Weekly described it as “a ripping good adventure yarn, laced with frequent barbed witticisms and ace sword fighting… Parker’s settings and characterizations never miss a beat, and the intricate political interplay of intrigue is suspenseful almost to the last page.”
Collected here are five spoiler-free interviews with K.J. Parker about SHARPS and some of Parker’s earlier novels.
Nicole Peeler‘s Tempest Fury (UK | US | ANZ) is out now. It’s book five in her Jane True series (which starts with Tempest Rising – UK | US | ANZ) and to celebrate, here’s a guest post from Nicole on the inspiration for the series . . .
For me, it was a no brainer to make my protagonist, Jane, a selkie. Although it’s a relatively obscure mythology to some, and I only learned of it as a teenager, it’s the perfect inspiration for fiction.
For those of you who don’t know the selkie mythos, I blogged about it ages ago, with the help of a story from the Heritage of Orkney site. Basically, all the stories of selkie maidens are similar: man finds (or steals) a random seal skin left on the beach, woman shows up that night and they marry, many babies are born. Years pass, until the day one of the children finds the skin, and gives it to mom. Despite her love for her human family, the lure of the sea and her sea husband are stronger, and off she goes.
US cover
Sometimes she takes her children with her, and sometimes she doesn’t.
As a teenager, so many aspects of this myth affected me: the idea of a woman who could be trapped so easily; the idea of a person torn between two worlds; the idea of having something so important that other loves are swept aside for that one thing. But it was the children that really struck my fancy. What about the ones taken to sea? Did they miss their human life? Even more intriguing, however, were the ones left behind. What happened to them, cut off as they were from the magic that was half their heritage?
The resonance of the selkie mythology stuck with me. So when it came to write my own story, and my first thought was to write an anti-heroine, my next thought was almost instantaneous – “and she can be half-selkie.” It was like my intellectual curiosity had come full circle – I’d always wondered what happened to those children, and now I got to explore the possibilities in my own writing. And that opportunity for exploration is what I try to bring to my fiction – I’m curious about the world I’ve created, and I try to convey that curiosity to my readers.
So if you’re an aspiring writer, try to do something similar. Write what you love, what you’re interested in, what’s always made you think. You’ll find so much passion for your subject, at the same time you get to scratch an intellectual itch. And everyone enjoys a good scratch.
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