Archive for Orbit US

Germline available now!

Two years ago, in the fall of 2009, I received a submission for the book that would eventually become Germline. At the time, it was more a series of linked novellas than a novel, but immediately I knew there was something there. The writing was incredibly raw, utterly riveting, and simply exciting. This was military science fiction– there were super soldiers, futuristic weaponry, powered armor– but not like I’d ever seen it before. The emotional depth to the characters was incredible and their experiences were genuinely harrowing. That first read through reminded me more of accounts from actual soldiers and journalists embedded in the field than the standard action-movie fare. This was The Hurt Locker, and Jarhead, and Restrepo… just with super soldiers, flachette rifles, and powered armor.

Now, Germline is finally here in its finished form. The first of three novels, each telling the story of this future war through the eyes of a different combatant: a journalist on the front lines, a genetically engineered soldier, and a man tasked with hunting down escaped genetics.

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Kate Elliott’s COLD FIRE: the cover launch

This is to launch the wonderful, fiery and dramatic cover for Cold Fire (US | UK | ANZ), book two in Kate Elliott’s new Spirit Walker series. This was illustrated by Larry Rostant and designed by Peter Cotton and I think they’ve created a fabulously atmospheric cover.

To me, this gives off hints of magic and danger in an age of adventure, where a young girl must choose her path. It’s certainly exciting stuff and this fantasy adventure is published by Orbit internationally next month, so not long to wait now! And if you want to quickly get up to speed on the series, Cold Magic (book one, US | UK | ANZ) is published in mass market this month. Elizabeth Moon found it ‘a definite hands-down great read’ and FantasyBookCritic ‘utterly loved it’.

And here’s a little more on the story of Cold Fire itself:

Trapped within a maze of blood, treachery and magic …
Cat and her cousin Bee are key players in a drama of dragons and politics. Warring factions want to use or destroy their growing powers, and they’re closing in. The Cold Mages are conspiring to take them prisoner and the warlord Camjiata thinks it’s their destiny to help him conquer Europa – whether they want to or not. And the man Cat was forced to marry is back, as arrogant and annoyingly handsome as ever. Worse still, as Hallows Night approaches, powers hidden deep within the spirit world are rising. Cat must seek allies against these threats, for if she makes the wrong choices, she’ll lose everything. Only one thing is certain. When Hallows’ Night comes the Wild Hunt will ride – and it feeds on mortal blood.”

Cover Launch: The Troupe

The Troupe by Shirley Jackson Award winner Robert Jackson Bennett hits shelves February 2012. When you have an intelligent combination of thriller, horror, and Americana…you end up with a book that stands on its own.

I’m going to write more about the process and how I got to the final design. But since we’re so excited about launching the cover, here it is today!

After the jump see the cover full-size with a teaser…

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of comedy

Tom Holt’s comic fantasy Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages (UK | US | ANZ) was published recently and has delighted reviewers already. With some trepidation, we asked Tom the classic author interview question: where the heckers does he get his ideas from?

“One disadvantage I suffer from is that I don’t lead a funny life. Hilarious things don’t happen to me, which means I have to make it all up. Whoever arranges these things sees to it that somebody else gets all the good material – the wrong suitcase picked off the airport carousel, the hilarious mistaken-identity incident, all that – while I’m left with days that go something like –

7.00am: wake up
7.15am: drive to smallholding; feed pigs; feed chickens; feed pigs; feed cows; cut firewood
10.30am – 3.30pm: sit in front of computer trying to think of funny stuff
3.35pm as 7.15am
8.00am – 2.00pm as 10.30am

 And so on, day after day (except in winter, when it’s still as dark as a bag at 7am), with never a hint of a free joke or a spontaneously-occurring outbreak of hilarity that I can pick up, shove under my coat, take home and effortlessly convert into marketable prose. The only break in the routine comes when I have to dispose of the body of the latest person foolish enough to tell me about some comic incident in their own life, with the recommendation (usually the last thing they ever say) that I ought to put it in one of my books. (more…)

The Future of Yesterday

The last ever space shuttle mission landed on Thursday morning in Florida, and it’s in light of this that I post this blog entry.

It’s mostly an excuse to send you to this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7QBLt36xo

… which is a self-proclaimed love-letter to the wonder that has been the last thirty years of space travel, on which subject I have a proper rant on my own blog: www.kategriffin.net

… and which here provoked me to have a mull about how the past has written about the future!  This is, after all, a place for science fiction and fantasy writers to ramble, and what is this genre for if not to think about The Way Things Might Be?  (more…)

San Diego Comic Con!

It’s here – the annual crush of awesome that is San Diego Comic Con. This year Orbit is hunkering down in booth #1116, right across from the fabulous Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore. After the jump you’ll find some Orbit events and programs you won’t want to miss.  And be sure to come by the Orbit booth #1116 to say hello – we’ve got lots of fun stuff to share!
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A look behind the cover art of THE KEY TO CREATION

THE KEY TO CREATION has now been released in trade paperback, completing Kevin J. Anderson’s TERRA INCOGNITA trilogy – which in Kevin’s own words is “A complex and sprawling tale of sailing ships and sea monsters, intrepid explorers voyaging to uncharted lands, and a religious war that has thrown two continents against each other.”

If that doesn’t sound extremely cool, we don’t know what does. If you’re itching for some exciting swords-and-sails action, then rejoice because the first two books in the trilogy – THE EDGE OF THE WORLD and THE MAP OF ALL THINGS – are readily available in mass market paperback. So if you like your sea monsters, quite frankly you’ve got no excuse.

To mark the completion of the TERRA INCOGNITA trilogy, we asked cover artist Lee Gibbons a few questions about the wonderful illustrations he came up with for the books.

Can you tell us a little about the way you approached illustrating the TERRA INCOGNITA series? Were there any particular influences that you drew upon?

When I was first commissioned to produce these illustrations, Peter Cotton the designer had already decided on the layout he wanted: two elements separated by the type. It was always planned to have a scene at the bottom of the page and a close up of a piece of shiny navigational equipment at the top, linked by the map in the background.

Two things I had to bear in mind from the brief were that this had to appeal to both the UK and US markets and also to downplay the fantasy elements in the maritime scene, instead emphasising exploration and adventure. To this end, I drew on the influence of Victorian maritime paintings, which I have always had a soft spot for.

By the time we arrived at book two things had got a bit free and easy as regards the fantasy content! I was keen to have the map background continue across the three covers, but have to admit that with the type in place you would be hard pressed to notice that on the final printed covers. (more…)

Cover Launch: EXOGENE by T. C. McCarthy

Mid-series covers are at the same time a relief and a challenge. On one hand you already have the general look and feel of the art established, so a lot of the trial and error is skipped. Unless something has gone terribly wrong you are usually commissioning art from the same artist, and they start working a lot closer to the target. The type style is usually set, and overall it’s kind of fun to be able to play within those constraints. However you also can’t play it too safe and end up with boring art, or at least, art that isn’t pushed to its full potential. Because sometimes, especially in the case of a new author, the second cover is even more important than the first—you want to really show this author is establishing a strong series and the world is something you want to be drawn into. I know a lot of people—in fact, I am married to one—that won’t start a series if just the first book is out. (For example, he’s recently got into Game of Thrones on HBO and was really interested in reading the books until he heard it wasn’t a completed series…and yes, these are the fights that go on in my house) Thus, it’s really important to make mid-series covers as awesome, if not MORE awesome, than the first cover.

This brings me to Exogene, the next book in T. C. McCarthy’s Subterrene War series (Germline is the first, which just came out and is getting great reviews). Steve Stone did a fabulous job on the Germline cover – it was the perfect tone – obviously military SF but the attitude tells you there is something deeper going on here. Of course, this makes the Exogene cover harder. For one, a female lead character which means you are immediately fighting certain clichés, and (I don’t want to give away anything here) she is a character full of contradictions. We wanted to capture her maybe right on the edge between blind belief and doubt. A soldier still heroic, but perhaps with just the slightest uncertainty beginning to show on her face. And add to that delicate proposition the fact that it’s a beautiful young woman who also happens to be bald. And then make her look like a convincing soldier. Not an easy task. But in my opinion, yet again, he nailed it.

After the jump, see the cover next to Germline and get a teaser…. (more…)

MR. SHIVERS Wins the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel!

We’d like to extend our heartiest congratulations to our author Robert Jackson Bennett, whose debut novel MR. SHIVERS was chosen as Best Novel at the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards, held this past weekend at Readercon. MR. SHIVERS, compared by Publishers Weekly to “a collaboration between Stephen King and John Steinbeck” and called by the Guardian(UK) “a startling debut, a deft amalgam of thriller, cerebral horror and American gothic, written with a stark and artful simplicity.”

If you haven’t yet read MR. SHIVERS, do — and don’t miss Robert’s second novel, THE COMPANY MAN, about which Booklist notes, “Bennett does the seemingly impossible here. He’s written an alternate-history novel that measures up in every respect to Philip K. Dick’s masterful The Man In the High Castle.”

High praise indeed — and completely deserved.