Archive for Orbit UK

What would you put in your apocalypse pack?

The year is 2014.  A virus has been released that is turning the majority of the population into rabid, flesh-eating monsters. NOT COOL. You’re being forced to flee your home and can only take three things with you . . . tough call, but what would you pack?

To celebrate the fact that Feed (UK/US/AUS) is now out in the UK, we asked the author Mira Grant for her top three zombie-apocalpyse essentials. Every gal’s gotta have ’em! They are the following:

1) My house earthquake kit. Yes, it’s cheating a little, but if I have an apocalypse, I’m going to grab my pre-packed backpack full of water purification tablets, protein bars, multi-vitamins, first aid supplies, and knives.  That’s what an earthquake kit is for.

2) A folding stock pump shotgun. Simple, effective, commonly used by law enforcement agencies, which will make ammunition easy to find once the initial looting of the Wal-Marts and gun shops has otherwise exhausted the supply.

3) My easily irritated, extremely clingy Siamese cat. Not even a zombie is going to function very well when hit with a face full of pissed-off clawing white thing with a score to settle.  And trust me, you make her go outside, she’s got a score to settle with you.

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Griffin spotted in Trafalgar Square!

The griffins have landed in the UK! Here’s one of the majestic beasts caught on camera causing havoc in London just today. With the arrival of these ferocious creatures of fire, it may be that half of the city will turn to desert by this evening . . .

We’re wondering if you’ve spotted any griffins in your local vicinity? Send your reports and photos to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk and we’ll reward the five most vigilant (and creative) people with copies of the first two books in the Griffin Mage series: Lord of the Changing Winds (UK/US/AUS) and Land of Burning Sands (UK/ US/ AUS). They’re released this month and next month in the UK, and are already available in the US.

The author, Rachel Neumeier – a long-term griffin observer and specialist – may be able to offer some helpful advice for dealing with any griffin nuisances in your local area. You can read Rachel’s account of what happens when griffins and humans clash on the SFX website. And for further information on the author, see her brand new website, launched just last week: www.rachelneumeier.com

Interview With Tom Holt

BLONDE BOMBSHELL is Tom Holt’s hilarious science-fictional debut and features one of the most fiendishly clever weapons of mass destruction you are likely to encounter. With the future of mankind possibly at stake, we did what any publisher would do. We asked the author some questions and then hid under a table.

10. How smart can a missile really be?

Not that smart, or it wouldn’t allow itself to get blown up to further a socio-political disagreement between partially evolved primates. I wouldn’t want to play chess with one, though.

9. Could the events you describe in the book actually happen?

Actually, they already did (see below; extensive research), though the Orbit guys have done a great job blaming the ash cloud on the Icelanders. As with all my novels, nearly all the non-fiction bits are partially true. (more…)

Griffins!

Land of the Burning SandsAt Orbit, we love to try something new… and in this case, the something new was Griffins. We are publishing Lord of the Changing Winds and Land of the Burning Sands in May and June.

When I first read Rachel, I was instantly transported to my favorite book as a child, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip.  I thought Rachel’s story of the relationship between griffins and mortals in a world where magic and science coincide was too amazing to pass up.  So of course, I bought the whole series – just so I could read it in one go!

They are both out now so you can grab them at your nearest bookstore – and the final book in the trilogy, Law of the Broken Earth, will be out this December.  So all three books out in six months.

Cover Launch: LIGHTBORN

Tricia Sullivan is the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of an impressive body of work, including Maul, Double Vision and Sound Mind.  Here’s just a sample of the praise that has been heaped upon her work:

‘A challenging, disturbing, often compulsive read’ Time Out

‘Tricia Sullivan returns to science fiction not a second too soon . . . I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long time’ Guardian

‘Painfully gripping throughout – read it if you dare’ The Times

‘Maul confirms an increasingly badly-kept secret – Sullivan is one of the best and most ambitious SF writers around’ Dreamwatch

‘Intelligent, sensitive and engrossing . . . You’ll be thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading’  SFX

‘Tricia Sullivan is why I refuse to give up on science fiction’ Pat Cadigan, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author

 
I think it’s clear from the above that Tricia is almost universally regarded as an audacious and original voice in modern science fiction. And what better way to signal that to the reader than with an audacious and original cover. Ladies and gentlemen (and other forms of life – we’re not speciesist at Orbit!), we give you Lightborn:

Lightborn is a revolutionary new technology that has transformed the modern world.

Better known as ‘shine’, it is the ultimate in education, self-improvement and entertainment – beamed directly into the mind of anyone who can meet the asking price.

But what do you do if the shine in question has a mind of its own . . . ?

 

Lightborn will be published in October. Design by Nathan Burton Design. Art direction by Duncan Spilling – LBBG.

Cover Launch: THE HAMMER

K.J. Parker’s critically acclaimed Engineer trilogy featured  three great covers by Keith Hayes. Since then, Parker has been writing  stand-alone novels, and any one of them is a great place to jump in without any series-long commitment. Of course, I’m sure you’ll be back at the bookstore buying the Engineer books as soon as you finish any of these books, but you can start slow if you don’t believe me…

The Company was really an ensemble story, so we wanted to show the characters on the cover, but for The Folding Knife and The Hammer, I really wanted to continue the “artifact” look of The Engineer Trilogy.

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Two Orbit Nominations for the Moby Awards

Hundreds of entries have been submitted for the first annual Moby Awards for Book Trailers, a contest to select both the best and the worst of the past year’s book trailers sponsored by MobyLives.

We’re very pleased to note that in the category of Best Low Budget/Indie Book Trailer, Jeff Somer’s trailer for his novel THE ELECTRIC CHURCH (US/UK) is one of the select; and that in the category of Best Big Budget/Big House Book Trailer, the
trailer put together by Orbit Creative Director Lauren Panepinto for Gail Carriger’s BLAMELESS is a strong contender (we’re also happy to point out that though categorized as Big, the budget for the latter was extremely reasonable indeed).

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony in New York on Thursday, May 20.

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!