The winners of this year’s Hugo Awards were announced last night at Chicon 7. Congratulations to all the winners, especially Orbit author Seanan McGuire (Mira Grant), who as part of SF Squeecast won a Hugo Award for Best Fancast! Mira Grant is the author of the Newsflesh Trilogy, including Deadline (US | UK | ANZ), which was one of the Hugo Award nominees for Best Novel.
You can read the full list of winners here.
In September, Brent Weeks is going on tour! You can find more details and book signing etiquette (US, UK to follow soon) on Brent’s blog. Below, click through to RSVP on Facebook for each of his US events.
Tuesday, September 11: Powell’s, Beaverton (near Portland), OR, 7 PM
Wednesday, September 12: University Bookstore, Seattle, WA, 7 PM
Thursday, September 13: Borderlands, San Francisco, CA, 7 PM
Friday, September 14: Tattered Cover, Denver, CO, 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 15: Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA, 2 PM
Sunday, September 16: Barnes & Noble, Santa Monica, CA, 2 PM
Monday, September 17: Book People, Austin, TX, 7 PM
Tuesday, September 18: A Real Bookstore, Fairview (near Dallas), TX, 7 PM
Wednesday, September 19: Barnes & Noble, Orlando, FL, 7 PM
Thursday, September 20: Barnes & Noble, Atlanta, GA, 7 PM
Friday, September 21: Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC, 7 PM
Saturday, September 22: Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH, 7 PM
We’re also pleased to announce additional tour stops in the UK. Below are the full details on Brent’s UK tour.
Tuesday 25th September: Waterstones Birmingham New Street, 7pm
Wednesday 26th September: Waterstones Bristol Galleries, 1pm
Wednesday 26th September: Forbidden Planet London, 6pm
Thursday 27th September: Waterstones Milton Keynes, 12noon
Thursday 27th September: Waterstones Nottingham Bridlesmith, 7pm
Friday 28th September: Waterstones Leeds, 12.30pm
Friday 28th September: Waterstones Manchester Deansgate, 6pm
Saturday 29th September: FantasyCon Brighton, all day
Tuesday 2nd October: Waterstones Edinburgh West End, 6pm
Also, if you’re going to be at either Dragon*Con or Worldcon over Labor Day weekend, keep an eye out for the several Orbit authors who will be attending each convention!
In honour of the sizzling new urban fantasy, FULL BLOODED (UK | US | ANZ) by Amanda Carlson – out this September – we’ve put together a fun Friday quiz for you. If you, just like Jessica McClain, are new to being a werewolf and to the supernatural world, you might need just a few handy tips on how to read the signs when dating a shifter . . .
(Click on the quiz to see a larger version.)
So how did you do? Check your results here!
For more steamy supernatural action, check out FULL BLOODED (UK | US | ANZ) by Amanda Carlson, out in September (you can already read the action-packed opening chapter online here). If you think you just can’t wait for it to come out, the fantastic prequel novella BLOODED, is already available.
THE IRON WYRM AFFAIR (UK | US | ANZ) is a steampunk fantasy about what happens when all the geniuses of Londinium are targeted by a vicious killer. The sorceress Emma Bannon and one of the last remaining such geniuses, Archibald Clare, must struggle to solve the mystery and stay alive!
Archie’s unnatural deductive faculties are why he’s in danger – and of course Emma’s not too bad at solving mysteries herself! Can you deduce like a Victorian detective? Read on to try your skills . . .
Question: Although those on a mission for the crown have little time for frivolous parlour games, there’s no harm in keeping one’s deductive faculties sharp. Bannon and Clare have decided to test each other over the dessert course . . . Emma tells Archibald about an American gentleman and his son who were involved in an industrial accident in one of Londinium’s clockhorse factories. The man was killed, but the son lived and was rushed to St. Thomas’s Hospital. The head surgeon glanced at the boy and confessed, “I cannot operate upon this patient – he is my son!” How could this be?
Highlight the space below to reveal the answer:
Archie tells Emma that the doctor was the young gentleman’s mother.
Question: Archibald tells Emma about a Grecquean island where those from the North side of the island always lie, and those from the South always tell the truth. Archie was sampling the cuisine at a local restaurant when three men approached him. The first man told Archie that himself and his compatriots were from the North. The second man said ‘only one of us is from the South’. The third man said nothing at all. Archibald asks Emma which of the men were from the North.
Highlight the space below to reveal the answer:
Emma knows that only the second man was from the South, but scolds Archie for the frankly preposterous nature of his riddle.
Question: Emma regales Archibald with the details of her visit to a charming country estate while investigating its owner for crimes against Queen Victrix. Although the owner was not at home, as Emma was returning to her carriage a vicious guard dog lunged at her. Although it could not reach her as its chain was attached to a tree, it followed her every move, growling horribly, and had access to both of her carriage doors. Although her bodyguard Mikal was keen to shoot it for threatening his mistress, Emma sternly told him to put away his pistol as she could see a way back to her carriage without the use of force or magic. What did she do?
Highlight the space below to reveal the answer:
Archibald guessed correctly that Emma led the dog around its tree until the chain had been shortened enough that she could reach her carriage.
Question: Inspired by Emma’s canine riddle, Archie tells her about the time a hired hansom was conveying him through the streets of Londinium. The hansom came to a street painted entirely black. The gas lamps were broken, no doubt by flashboys, and neither Archie nor the coachman were carrying lanterns. Nevertheless, the coachman managed to swerve in time to avoid the entirely black dog that ran out on the road in front of them. How could he have seen the dog in time?
Highlight the space below to reveal the answer:
Happily for the dog, Emma concludes, it was daylight.
How did you do? Share some of your favourite riddles with us in the comments . . .
Only two weeks to go before the big release of THE BLINDING KNIFE (UK | US | AUS) by Brent Weeks! Gavin, Kip, Karris, and all of your favorites are gearing up for the next adventure. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, be sure and do so through your favorite retailer.
Meanwhile, show your true colors as a fan of the Lightbringer series with these striking wallpapers.
iPad | iPhone/iPod | 1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 | 1920 x 1200 | Facebook cover image
In other Brent Weeks news, the book tour kicks-off on the 11th in Beaverton, Oregon. Visit the Brent Weeks Facebook page to see if he’ll be coming to a town near you.
Staffer’s Book Reviews posted a spoiler-free review of THE BLINDING KNIFE yesterday saying, “It isn’t only the best book he’s written; I consider it one of the best epic fantasies I’ve read.” Click to read the full review.
Comic Book Therapy also posted an interview with Brent earlier today. As a warning to those of you who have not read THE BLACK PRISM yet there will be spoilers here.
This year’s hottest new urban fantasy will be released this September, and excitement is already building on the interwebs! It’s from debut author Amanda Carlson, and is called FULL BLOODED (UK | US | ANZ), book one of the Jessica McClain novels.
Jessica’s the only female in an all-male werewolf race – and unlucky for her, it seems her very existence might spell out the doom of the werewolf race. It certainly ain’t easy being a girl sometimes . . .
Shown above are the shiny, shiny covers for FULL BLOODED and HOT BLOODED (out next April). They should give you a glimpse of the sexy excitement and adventure in store.
But if you just can’t wait until September to read book 1, don’t forget that you can get your hands on a piece of shifter Jessica McClain already! There is a novella available called BLOODED which gives an insight into her world, and it in fact acts as a great prequel to FULL BLOODED. (more…)
Today we can unveil the cover for one of the most exciting debut fantasy novels you’re going to see next year.
Presenting: FADE TO BLACK by the estimable Francis Knight, to be released worldwide by Orbit in February 2013.
We’d like to welcome you all to the fantasy world of Mahala. It’s a towering city that rises up from the deep, dark depths of a valley.
Mahala is built up in layers, not across – with streets piled upon streets, and buildings balancing precariously upon buildings. It’s a city that the Ministry rules from its lofty perch at the sunlit summit, and where the forsaken lurk in the shadowy depths of the Pit.
This compelling tale follows the story of Rojan Dizon – a bounty hunter who’s grown up in the shadows of Mahala. Everyone knows he’s a rogue, a womaniser, a shirker of all responsibility. But what they don’t know is that he’s also a pain-mage: someone able to draw magic from his own and other people’s pain. Rojan’s not keen on using his abilities, but when his niece is abducted and taken to the dark depths of the Pit, he’ll be forced to unleash his powers to find her.
We jumped at the chance to publish Fade to Black – because the world that Francis has created just blew us away. It’s both awe-inspiring and vertigo-inducing, and Rojan’s tale makes the story just un-damn-put-downable. Think of the murky atmosphere of Sin City, filled with the action and pace of Brent Weeks or Scott Lynch.
I could go on about it for days, but all you have to know is this: FADE TO BLACK is the fantasy debut to look out for next spring. So remember one and all: That season, black is most definitely back!
Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Assassini trilogy – described by the Sunday Times as “Gritty, grimy, decadent and compelling” – is a dark vision of a Venice in peril, and the rise of a young man cursed with amnesia and a taste for human blood. This epic tale began with THE FALLEN BLADE [UK | US | ANZ] and continued in THE OUTCAST BLADE [UK | US | ANZ].
The third and final instalment, THE EXILED BLADE, will be published in April 2013. For now, here’s the finished cover – courtesy of our talented designer Emma Graves – in all its grandeur.
If you’ve not yet delved into the depths of Grimwood’s dark, dangerous Venice, you can read a sample chapter from THE FALLEN BLADE here.
THE TRAITOR QUEEN (UK | US | AUS) has gone straight into the Sunday Times fiction chart at number one in the UK, showing that her fans have been desperate for the final instalment in this fantastic series. To mark the publication, we asked her to tell us how she feels about reaching the end of such a beloved series, here’s what she said:
Sequels. Prequels. Love them or hate them, you can’t escape the fact that every author who has a book published will be asked if there will be more. When the last page was proofed of the last book in the Black Magician trilogy I had been working on it for over seven years and I have to admit it, I was tired of the world and (gasp!) even sick of the characters I had lived and loved and cried with for so long. So my answer then was ‘no’.
I’ve learned since then to never give such definite answers to these kinds of questions.
You see, even as I wound up the story in The High Lord, there were little ideas twitching in the corner of my vision whispering, ‘This could be fun to develop.’ Then it occurred to me that the story of the Sachakan War, the impetus for the formation of the Magicians’ Guild of Kyralia, might fill a book. Still, I ignored these ideas, knowing they weren’t substantial enough. Yet.
By the time I had written the Age of Five trilogy, those ideas had grown up, met, had a few parties, married and bred new bold little ideas, all demanding to be written. Enough time had passed that I was ready to venture into the world of Sonea and the magicians of the Guild again.
So first came The Magician’s Apprentice (I am still amazed that nobody had yet written a book by that title), set around six hundred years before the events in the Black Magician trilogy. (It turns out it’s impossible to make it clear in the narrative that a book is a prequel. You can’t have characters thinking that it’s six hundred years before an event that hasn’t happened yet. It really did my head in.) Then came the Traitor Spy trilogy, set twenty years after the Black Magician trilogy. I learned that writing a sequel has its own challenges and rewards. Thinking about this recently, this recipe popped into my head:
Brent Weeks will be hitting the road in September for the release of THE BLINDING KNIFE (US | UK | ANZ) — book 2 in the Lightbringer series and sequel to THE BLACK PRISM. There will be events in both the US and the UK, and you can find all the details on Brent’s blog.
