Archive for Orbit UK

Gorgeous new Celia Friedman cover

We’ve just had in the most gorgeous visual for Celia Friedman’s Wings of Wrath, in mass market paperback, out in August in the UK. This is the second book in Friedman’s masterful Magister trilogy, and I am just loving the bold design and glowing colours of these covers. Book One, Feast of Souls (UK I ANZ) is already out in mass market and you can still get Wings of Wrath (UK I ANZ) in its trade paperback size too (the same, but bigger, with less glow-y colours).

The author also had some really nice things to say, always appreciated: ‘I think the British books are GORGEOUS, especially the WoW. Your artist got the flavor of the Souleaters  beautifully — I was thrilled! — and the color and composition of the design are  breathtaking … a real delight for me.  Can’t wait to get the last one to you and see what you do with it!’

And take a look at these reasons why you should read, with this praise for the Magister trilogy:

  • ‘It’s potent stuff … Friedman is an excellent writer, so that you feel involved in the plot’s urgency’
    SFX
  • ‘Set in a casually grim world where cloak-and-dagger political intrigue is necessary for survival … Beautifully written’ 
    Publishers Weekly
  • ‘Friedman keeps the tension at a high level throughout … emotionally charged’
    SFFWorld.com
  • ‘Typically superb writing style, dark content and well-drawn characters … Wings of Wrath is highly recommended and a must for fans of C.S. Friedman’
    FantasyBookCritic
  • ‘One of the very best fantasy novels of the year … Wings of Wrath is C. S. Friedman writing at the top of her form. This series is head and shoulders above most of the competition on the market today’
    Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
  • ‘An excellent new fantasy trilogy … highly recommended’
    NethSpace

The Engineer trilogy reissues — get your free extracts here

As well as some tempting frontlist books, January also brings Orbit UK some very handsome reissues of K. J. Parker’s Engineer trilogy. And free extracts are available here for all three books: Devices and Desires (click here for extract), Evil for Evil (extract here) and The Escapement (extract here).  The reissues will also be available via Orbit Australia from March. It’s great to see this trilogy getting a new lease of life as it’s received so much critical acclaim since its first publication. SFX deservedly called it ‘One of the finest fantasy trilogies of recent years,’ and I’ll leave you with a quote from Locus to further whet the appetite:

‘I was hooked from the very first scene … The whole thing is brilliant – disturbingly so, since these fantasies (without a whit of magic) explore the human condition and reveal it all, brain, heart, guns and bowels, with a starting precision. Parker gets back to basics, the things that drive the oldest tales: love and war, hope and betrayal’

   

The Electric Church in One Minute

The date is drawing closer for the UK release of The Eternal Prison (UK/US/ANZ), the third novel in Jeff Somers’  fast and furious techno-thriller series, the Avery Cates sequence. By putting his genius video-making skills to use, Jeff has provided us with two handy bite-size films to remind you of the series so far in speedy fashion. Here we present the first: ‘The Electric Church in One Minute.’  (And for those poor misguided individuals who haven’t  sampled the sheer awesomeness of Avery Cates yet – no fear! Doesn’t feature too many spoilers…)

Stay tuned for ‘The Digital Plague in One Minute’!

Sony options Jeff Somers!

Fantastic news: Sony have optioned the movie rights to Jeff Somers’ Avery Cates novels. A very wise move in our opinion, as there’s no doubt that these books would make the most awesomely full-throttle, kick-ass movies ever.

Read all about it here, and if you haven’t been lucky enough to experience the explosive, pedal-to-the-metal action-fests that are the Avery Cates novels yet, check out the third instalment, The Eternal Prison (UK/US/ANZ), released in February in the UK and Austalia, and already available in US. And while you’re at it, why not take a peek at our very attractive reissues of The Electric Church (UK/US/ANZ) and The Digital Plague (UK/US/ANZ).

Mike Cobley’s SF news frenzy

To follow on from Darren’s post, Michael Cobley has started his year with a bit of a roar. The mass market of Seeds of Earth was out yesterday. Then book two of this trilogy, The Orphaned Worlds is out in April (see the amazing cover, right) and Michael’s not slowing down any time soon …

He has a short story, Black Fragmentia, out in the latest edition of PS Publishing’s Postscripts Quarterly (PS 20/21). Then The Maker’s Mark (set in the Seeds of Earth universe) is to appear in Newcon Press’s Conflicts short story anthology, due out in February/March 2010. March will also see Michael at  Glasgow’s Aye Write festival as one of their featured authors. Amongst other things, he’ll be participating in a panel entitled ‘The Early Days of a Better Future’, along with other genre authors Ken Macleod, Richard Morgan, Hal Duncan and Debbie Miller. Then, in April, Michael will be at this year’s annual SF/F Eastercon convention where he’ll be chairing a couple of panels.

And lastly, as a treat for his fans, Michael is running a little competition to give away copies of the Seeds of Earth mass market edn. On ruminating his test question, Michael says he swung ‘between absurdly easy (how many letters are there in Greg’s surname and can you chew gum and walk at the same time?) or arcanely obscure (what is the Irish Gaelic translation of the 5th word on the 9th line on page 156?)’ but ultimately he went for something inbetween, and see here for more details. The deadline is 28th Jan … unless he changes it.

Looks like Michael has a busy Spring season ahead, and we’ll be keeping an eye on his rather stellar trajectory. Go Mike!

D is for The Deed of Paksenarrion

And D is for The Deed of Paksenarrion, an omnibus edition of Elizabeth Moon‘s much loved fantasy series. Comprising The Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold, this massive tome is a wonderful read in its own right but also serves to whet the appetite for Elizabeth’s first new fantasy in almost two decades. Oath of Fealty will be published in March, but meanwhile, you can discover for yourself what prompted praise like this:

‘Engrossing’ Anne McCaffrey 

‘A superlative fantasy trilogy’ Booklist

‘Elves, dark sorcery, and high chivalry … thrilling’ blogcritics.org 

and you can read an extract from The Deed of Paksenarrion here.

In Their Own Words: Robert Jackson Bennett on MR SHIVERS

Robert says:

When I first started writing Mr Shivers, I eventually realised that what I was trying to write was a mythology.

Myths are fundamentally part of our deep collective subconscious. They’re figures and stories that are instantly recognisable, buried so deep they’re practically ingrained in us. I wanted to use mythology of the Great Depression and Southern folklore, things we all could identify without thinking – Hoovervilles and dirt roads and bogwater ditches, ramshackle homes sitting abandoned in empty fields, and desperate drifters trekking across harsh countries. Overloaded Zephyrs and Fords trundling west, kicking up dust. The echo of blues and gospel music haunting the hobo camps, and trading liquor or tobacco for a knife or a place to sleep. And always the promise of greener pastures out there, hiding somewhere behind a stretch of the horizon.

I wanted to take that and mix it with an even older mythology. Something much more primal, much more savage. Maybe when these wanderers struck out for the West they stumbled across something in the far ranges. An old story that’d been going on since before time was time. Maybe they’d found a place where the very bones of the earth rose up and pierced the rock and the dust. And maybe there was something living in those bones, something that’d been making its home there and had just been returning after a long while abroad . . .

It was about then that I realised Mr Shivers had been wandering for a while, but it was about time someone set him to paper.

Mr Shivers [UK|US|AUZ] is available from all good booksellers now.

C is for Cobley

C is for Cobley. Michael Cobley‘s Seeds of Earth, the opening volume of his Humanity’s Fire series, was published last year to great acclaim and a very gratifying response from the reading public, whose voracious demands sent it back for multiple reprints.
The mass market paperback is now unveiled for your reading pleasure – and a pleasure it is, indeed. The great Iain M. Banks thought well of it, calling Seeds of Earth:

‘Proper galaxy-spanning Space Opera with lots of weird aliens, secret ancient technologies and mysterious hyperweapons – a worthy addition to the genre’

Volume two, The Orphaned Worlds, will be published in trade paperback in April, giving you ample opportunity to addict yourself to this wonderful new series. 

You can read an extract from Seeds of Earth here.