Archive for Orbit US

The Black Prism Quiz

THE BLACK PRISM is coming out August 25, (US | UK | AUS) and to help introduce you to the amazing new world Brent has created we’ve just launched the “What Color is Your Magic?” quiz on www.brentweeks.com. Take the quiz and find out what kind of drafter you’d be.

Me?

I’m a yellow magic drafter!

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

It seems that I like to blow things up. Hm…Don’t know if that surprises anyone. But wait, it gets better! “Yellows tend to be clear thinkers, intellect and emotion in perfect balance.”

Whoa. Thanks Brent! I am in perfect balance:)


Comic-Con Part the Second: Costume Out-takes!

The most visible part of San Diego Comic-Con – and the hardest part to explain to non-geeks – is the costumes. I was trying to explain to a friend who had never been to any con before (talk about sink or swim, your first public geek experience being SDCC) that Comic-Con is like the prom, and everyone who dresses up is totally Prom King and Queen of their own personal universe. People who maybe are too shy, or just not attention-seekers normally can dress up as a kick-ass superhero and feel like a rockstar all day at con. All day people want to take pictures of you, tell you how awesome your costume is, tell you how much they love your character (and the more obscure, the better accolades). I have never dressed up for a con, but I have hit more than a few halloweens in NYC dressed up as Lara Croft, Dark Phoenix, assorted Jedi, and a few vampires, and it is kind of a heady experience. I can only imagine to do it at a con is even better. (more…)

Comic-Con Part the First: Orbit/Yen Booth Happenings

I had high hopes of blogging my first San Diego Comic-Con as it was happening (or at least, at the end of each day) but I woefully underestimated the sheer craziness going on every minute of the day and night. Even prepared with multiple cameras and an iPad, there wasn’t a spare minute to post! So, I’m going to be catching you all up now, categorically.

There is so much thorough SDCC coverage around the web that I’m going to try to keep this stuff edited to unique pics taken by me (or Orbit/Yen team members) and try to keep it edited down to a few topics. But don’t doubt for a second that I have a bajillion pics of bespandexed cosplayers posing like they practiced all year…and you know they did. (more…)

Smart Protagonists

The other day I happened to be reading through Janet Fitch’s post on 10 Writing Tips That Can Help Almost Anyone. The list is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by Tip #7: Smarten up your protagonist.

Fitch writes, “The more observant [your protagonist] can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating.” This is no doubt true, but it’s not what leaps to my mind when I think about smart protagonists. (more…)

Comic-Con Is Upon Us!

Comic-Con San Diego is right around the corner! If you’re attending, be sure to stop by the Orbit US  booth (#1116) throughout the convention for signings and giveaways, and mark your day planner with the events below to meet our authors.

And if you’re in the San Diego area but didn’t get a pass to Comic-Con – don’t fear! The reading on Sunday with Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, and Patrick Rothfuss is open to all. Full schedule and all the details after the jump! (more…)

Duck and Cover! The Unit is here…

When the manuscript that eventually became THE UNIT landed on my desk, I was a little skeptical. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction but after having recently read The Road and playing Fallout 3 more than was strictly healthy, I wasn’t sure I was ready for the grueling, depressing grind of another story about the end of times. Oh, how wrong I was…

THE UNIT is the post-apocalyptic story I hadn’t realized I was waiting for. Unflinching, honest, brutal, tender, and, above all, humane– Terry DeHart’s debut floored me on the first read. It’s not that it’s not dark. It’s not that horrible things don’t happen to good people. But it does what so many post-apocalyptic stories fail to do, it reminds us of the essential humanity of every player in the story.

One of my colleagues instantly pegged it as, “hey, it’s like The Road if they ever fought back” which, moving beyond the glib, was exactly what I thought was missing from Cormac McCarthy’s excellent, soul-crushing, tale.

Anyhow, you don’t have to take my word for it:

a striking picture of human vulnerability and strength.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Like a crowbar to the skull, the lethal narrative intensity of this novel comes from its brutal realism and all-too plausible story line.” — Explorations

And io9.com picked it as one of their July picks with a description that trumps any copy I’ve ever come up with:

You’ve got a zombie plan, I assume. How’s your fallout preparedness? Vacationing in the Sierra Nevadas, the Sharpe family survives a nuclear strike, but anyone who’s ever read Alas, Babylon! knows that’s the easy part. Now they’ve got to deal with radioactive snowstorms and killer teenagers. Jerry, a badass ex-Marine, just wants to get his family home to Sacramento, while his wife, Susan, does her level best to keep nurturing the kids. Their daughter, Melanie, tries to maintain her pacifist convictions, while her brother, Scotty, goes totally Red Dawn on the people chasing them. Worst family trip ever.” — io9.com

THE UNIT is out in stores now. Read the first chapter here and go download a wallpaper for your computer or mobile device here.

Why Radioactive Spider Bites Are Just Fine By Me

When it comes to fantasy, I don’t mind if a writer ignores reality.  This shouldn’t be that odd.  Fantasy is, by definition, an escape from reality.  Or, if not an escape, at least a chance to see a world that might have been.  The important element is that, either way, fantasy is just reality as we know it with a tweak here or there that allows the impossible to happen.

I go into fantasy with eyes wide open, knowing that reality can be, will be, discarded if it allows a human to teleport or an invasion of space robots.  I don’t need a justification beyond this is fantasy, and that’s what makes it awesome. (more…)

Wallpaper: THE UNIT

Here is a brand new wallpaper for a brand new Orbit release: The Unit by Terry DeHart. This after-the-bomb novel is a fascinating look at the lengths a family will go to survive a disaster. Plus, the author is a former Marine, and a security analyst for NASA, so the book is terrifyingly plausible.

(more…)

Cover Launch: MR. SHIVERS

With a fresh new look for its paperback debut, here’s Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett. If you’ve been reading along with these cover posts you know I love to take an opportunity to revisit the art when there’s a change of format…it’s especially fun to take a fresh look at a book and art that you like already, and just shake it up a bit.

If you caught Mr. Shivers in hardcover, you will recognize the hobo symbol for Mr. Shivers himself now taking front and center on the cover. You can also see more about the book and the hobo symbols at www.mistershivers.com.

Mr. Shivers is a great read kind of straddling historical fiction, suspense, and horror. and my favorite review (Publisher’s Weekly starred review) of the book says it all for me: “…Like a collaboration between Steven King and John Stienbeck.” Um, how does that not sound awesome? (more…)