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Read a sample from HELEN AND TROY’S EPIC ROAD QUEST

Martinez_HelenandTroy-TPOn cross-country road trip, a minotaur girl and an all-american boy will discover the adventure of a lifetime in HELEN AND TROY’S EPIC ROAD QUEST — a new comic fantasy by A. Lee Martinez! Publishers Weekly called it “a sweetly charming, gleefully entertaining tale of two teens traveling across the country, one mythic encounter at a time,” releases next week. Get ready to laugh out loud until your sides hurt and check out the first chapter!

Chapter One

The strangeness of a minotaur working at a burger joint wasn’t lost on Helen, but she’d needed a summer job. If she’d applied herself, she probably could’ve found something better, but it was only a few months until she started college, so why bother?

Fortunately Mr. Whiteleaf had been pretty cool about it. He didn’t make her flip burgers, and he didn’t make her stand out on the curb with a sandwich board as she’d feared he might. She usually ran the register, and while some customers might give her funny looks before placing their orders, that was their problem, not hers.

Full-blown minotaurism was rare in this day and age. Last time she’d checked, there had been thirteen recorded cases in the last hundred years. All the others were male. The enchantment or curse or whatever you wanted to call it usually didn’t take with girls. Not all the way.

The last full female minotaur, Gladys Hoffman, aka Minotaur Minnie, had made a name for herself as a strongwoman touring with P. T. Barnum’s Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome. Gladys had made the best of her circumstances, but that was 1880. The world was different now, and Helen had more options. Or so she liked to believe.

She was still a seven-foot girl with horns and hooves, dozens of case studies in various medical journals, and her very own Wikipedia page. But she’d learned to roll with the punches.

Read more.

 

New Wallpaper: LAST BLOOD by Kristen Painter

LastBlood-wallpaperIt’s  almost time for the final showdown between the forces of dark and light in LAST BLOOD (US | UK | AUS), the fifth novel in The House of Comarré  series. The covers for each of these books have been absolutely stunning so I urge you to take a moment and check out the rest of Nekro’s gorgeous artwork.

Here are a few wallpapers for you to download, and if you want to read an excerpt from the first novel, BLOOD RIGHTS (US | UK | AUS), then that can be found here. Enjoy!

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The Laundry Files: Listen to the Audiobooks!

Fancy some spy-fi on your morning commute? The first two adventures in Charles Stross’s Locus Award-winning supernatural thriller series the Laundry Files came out today as audiobooks:  THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES (UK|ANZ) and THE JENNIFER MORGUE (UK|ANZ). You can click on the images below to sample the first chapters now!

 NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ACTIVE DUTY . . .

Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob’s under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe – but then he went and got Noticed. Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it will take more than a full system reboot to sort this mess out . . . THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES is the first novel in the Laundry Files.

SOME AGENTS HAVE ALL THE FUN.  OTHERS SAVE THE WORLD.

Bob Howard is an IT expert and occasional field agent for the Laundry, the branch of Her Majesty’s Secret Service that deals with occult threats.  Dressed (grudgingly) in a tux and sent to the Caribbean, he must infiltrate a millionaire’s yacht in order to prevent him from violating a treaty that will bring down the wrath of an ancient underwater race upon humanity’s head. Partnered with a gorgeous American agent who’s actually a soul-sucking succubus from another dimension, Bob’s mission (should he choose to accept it) is to stop the bad guys, avoid getting the girl, and survive – shaken, perhaps, but not stirred. THE JENNIFER MORGUE is the second novel in the Laundry Files.

The four books so far in supernatural spy thriller series The Laundry Files

You can now buy the entire Laundry Files in the new paperback cover style (click on the image for the full size covers). THE RHESUS CHART, the fifth novel in the series, will be out July 2014.

Orbit at San Diego Comic-Con

Yes, Orbit is going to SDCC next week — and so are some of our authors! Our schedule of signings and panels is below.

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Thursday, July 18
2 PM: Daniel Abraham signing in our booth

Friday, July 19
2:30 PM: Daniel Abraham on the Epic Fantasy Panel, Room 24ABC
4:30 PM: Mira Grant signing in our booth
6:30 PM: Our colleagues at Yen Press will have their Industry Panel, Room 28DE.

Saturday, July 20
10:00 AM: Marlene Perez on the Urban Fantasy Panel, Room 7AB

Sunday, July 21
12:00 PM: James S.A. Corey and Mira Grant on the Science Fiction and the Future Panel, Room 24ABC
3:00 PM: James S.A. Corey signing in our booth

We’ll be in booth #1116, and we’ll have some neat swag to give away even when nothing else is going on. Stop by and say hi!

The Making of a Cover in 13 Parts: David Dalglish’s SHADOWDANCE Series

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As you may have seen start to spread across the interwebs, the new Orbit covers for David Dalglish’s Shadowdance series  have been released (to great early acclaim! yea!). We knew from the very start that these covers were going to be a special project, and thus, we thought, damn, this would be an awesome opportunity to do a behind-the-scenes series more in depth than anyone has ever documented before. So everyone here in the Orbit Art Department – and everyone who worked on this freelance – have kept records of all the stages and steps that it took to make these covers a reality. We’ve even got video footage!

If you have ever wanted to know what went into creating a book cover, absolute start to the very final end, from acquisition on thru to final books, well, you’re in for a treat. We’ll me taking an in-depth look at the stages of the cover development. I will be your host, and I will have everyone involved in the process chime in.

Since this is kind of an epic undertaking, we’ve already plotted out exactly what the posts are going to be, and I’ll list them here, so you can get excited. And as we go along, if there’s specific questions you have about that stage of the process, feel free to comment, I’ll try to answer all your questions. So whether you’re a fan, an aspiring author, or an artist, stay tuned for the entire cover process, start to finish:

  1. Acquisition
  2. Cover Briefing Meeting
  3. Cover Meeting 1: Directions
  4. Shoot Planning I: Photographer & Illustrator
  5. Shoot Planning II: Cover Model
  6. Shoot Planning III: Trampoline?
  7. Shoot Planning IV: Costume & Props
  8. Photo Shoot Day
  9. Rough Cuts
  10. Design Roughs
  11. Final Retouched Illustrations
  12. Final Cover Designs
  13. Final Books (and a special treat)

Bonus: Interior Maps

(and maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a few bonus posts along the way)

 

Exclusive Interview With BLOOD SONG Author Anthony Ryan

BloodSongBLOOD SONG (UK | ANZ) was published last week to a chorus of rave reviews and online buzz that heralded the novel as one of the year’s best epic fantasy debuts and author Anthony Ryan as a huge new talent in the genre. In this exclusive interview, Anthony talks to us about his work and inspirations.

Blood Song is an epic fantasy in every sense of the word – particularly in that it took you six years to write! Why did it take so long and what was the spark that started it all?

Working a full time job whilst studying part time for a history degree had a lot to do with the time taken to write Blood Song. Also, although I had a one page synopsis, I wasn’t working to a detailed plan, something I’ve subsequently learned is very useful in speeding up the writing process. It’s always difficult to pin down the genesis of an idea but I recall the basis of Blood Song germinating for a few years but not really coming together until I started my history studies. The themes of religious conflict and political intrigue were also at the forefront of my thinking in the aftermath of 9/11 which probably had an influence.

You were influenced initially by Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles, and then later by legendary British fantasy author David Gemmell. What was so special to you about the works of these two writers, and how do you think they influenced your own writing?

Although I was aware of Tolkien as a kid my first foray into fantasy began with Lloyd Alexander, who was writing YA fantasy long before it had a name. The Prydain Chronicles are essentially a coming of age tale mixing Welsh legend and epic fantasy, completely capturing my ten year old imagination from the moment I picked up The Book of Three. There are echoes of my main character Vaelin in Alexander’s Taran, orphan and apprentice pig keeper continually beset with questions over his past and doubts about his future. Whilst Lloyd Alexander began my love of fantasy, David Gemmell ensured it continued into adulthood with the wonderful Wolf in Shadow, an action packed but also sublimely sombre tale mixing the western with fantasy. Gemmell is primarily remembered for the pace and action of his books but I also think his characterisation is excellent; his characters are flawed, conflicted and, most importantly, consistent whilst also being capable of change, all elements I’ve tried to include in my own work.

Anthony RyanWhat is it about epic fantasy as a genre that attracted you to it, from a writing perspective? Given that you studied medieval history, did you ever consider writing a purely historical novel?

I’ve read plenty of historical novels but not yet had the yen to write one – though I do have a germ of an idea for a historical detective story, so who knows? However, at the moment I think I would find it too restricting; you have to spend a long time on research and are stuck with recorded events that can’t be changed. Epic fantasy gives the writer the room to create the history of their imaginary world allowing a great amount of scope for drama, spectacle and a combination of themes that would be denied the historical novelist.

You originally self-published Blood Song and achieved considerable success, so why did you decide to sign with a traditional publisher? (more…)

2013 Chesley Shortlist

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Everyone knows the Hugo Awards, but for SFF artists, it’s the Chesley Awards that are the big news from the annual World Science Fiction Convention. The shortlist and nomination ballot was released today and we are proud to report that our very own Lauren Panepinto was shortlisted for Art Direction. If you’re a member of the ASFA, make sure you go vote now! Even if you are not a member, feel free to look at all the fabulous art in all the categories here.

Charles Stross on Planetbuilding for NEPTUNE’S BROOD (Part 2)

Earth (Photo: NASA)
“It won’t be long until you have to answer another question: why would they ever want to have anything to do with a planet, ever again?”

You can find Part 1 of this piece at this link, posted last week on the Orbit blog.

If you posit a future populated by human beings – or posthumans – who are able to live in space without rapidly dying of asphyxiation or radiation exposure, it won’t be long until you have to answer another question: why would they ever want to have anything to do with a planet, ever again?

Planets are bundles of matter so massive that their own gravitational field smooths out their bumps, dragging them into a roughly spherical shape. They’re so massive that most of their volume is inaccessible, hundreds or thousands of kilometres underfoot when you’re standing on the surface. They’re also a royal nuisance if you are a spaceborne society: it takes an inordinate amount of work to give an object lying stationary on the surface sufficient kinetic energy to overcome its gravitational potential energy, i.e. to put it into orbit.

It seems logical that a space-based civilization would therefore only bother with a planet if it provided resources unavailable in smaller gravity wells, such as asteroids. And the fly in the ointment with this issue is that most planet-bound resources are far too cheap to be worth boosting into orbit. Oxygen? Water? They’re everywhere. Carbon? There’s an entire class of asteroids – carbonaceous chondrites – made of dirty carbon. Metals like platinum? They might be rarer in free-floating rocks than in planets, but in the process of planetary formation they’re likely to sink towards the iron/nickel core while the proto-planet is still mostly molten. (We know from seismic studies that the core of the Earth is not only incredibly hot and under tremendous pressure, but it’s almost certainly made of heavier elements than the upper mantle and crustal rock formations.)

So what can you mine on a water world that would justify the expense of settling its hydrosphere?

The answer depends on how long it is since the planet formed . . . (more…)

Charles Stross on Planetbuilding for NEPTUNE’S BROOD (Part 1)

Photo showing the launch of the Kepler spacecraft (Photo: NASA/Jack Pfaller)
The launch of the Kepler spacecraft, 7th March 2009

We are living through the golden age of exoplanetography, and nobody seems to be paying any attention!

I’ve spoken a lot about the economic side of NEPTUNE’S BROOD (UK|ANZ), but pretty much forgot to say anything about one of the other aspects of this novel – the planet much of the action is focussed on, and in orbit around. So it’s time to fix that . . .

Until the tail end of the 20th century, the existence of planets outside our solar system was widely believed in by astronomers – but never directly observed. Planets do not (with a very few extremely odd exceptions) emit heat or light directly: we can only see them by the light they reflect from their sun. This in turn makes them extremely hard to see. If you approximate a star to a light bulb a kilometre away, then the planet you’re trying to see is a dust mote orbiting within a metre of the light bulb. Any photons reflected our way from the planet are drowned out by the comparative torrent from the light bulb itself.

There are ways to measure planets indirectly, of course. In 1992, several planets were detected orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12 – their mass perturbed the spin of the pulsar, adding slight irregularities to its output. But improvements in experimental design, and then the launch of the Kepler planet-finder telescope, brought a deluge of new exoplanets to light. We now know of 899 planets in 698 planetary systems, and the Kepler mission has detected another 18,000 candidates: astronomers are still trawling through the embarrassment of riches.

One thing has, however, become clear: extrasolar planets are weird. In fact, they’re so weird on average that it’s beginning to look as if our home solar system is itself the exceptionally weird one, and star systems where multiple gas giants whirl in orbit single-digit millions of kilometres from their primary are the new normal.

So, in NEPTUNE’S BROOD I decided to have some exoplanet-building fun. (more…)

Kate Elliott on the Spiritwalker Trilogy

cold magicFor the Spiritwalker project I wanted to write a multicultural world in which a mixing of cultures and people was the expected, the norm. I happen to think that when cultural change is considered across time, mixing is the norm. It is going on all the time throughout history. Interaction and influence are what keep cultures dynamic. A closed, static culture is a dying culture. In addition, these processes are not one-way. Cultural change happens in many directions, some of them exploitative and coerced and others subtle, subversive, and unexpected.

Certainly living in Hawaii since 2002 has influenced my choices in this regard. My earlier Crossroads Trilogy is influenced by although not specifically based on the Asia-Pacific cultural mix of Hawaii. COLD MAGIC (US | UK | AUS) and the other Spiritwalker books do not use any specific local-to-Hawaii cultural influences; however, they do incorporate ways in which I perceive that local culture has found to keep the cultural integrity of varying cultural groups (not always easily, and certainly the Native Hawaiian culture has fought a tremendous battle against colonization and erasure) allowing a unique syncretic local culture to arise that incorporates elements from all the different ethnic and cultural groups that co-exist here.

cold fireIn Spiritwalker the cultural mixing is a bit different but the process is similar: an immigrant Malian culture meets and mingles with northwestern Celtic Europe while old imperial Rome and merchant Phoenicia retain a strong influence, just to name the four most prominent cultural groups in the book (the second novel, COLD FIRE (US | UK | AUS), adds the Taino culture of the Caribbean to the mix). I admit that I wanted to highlight the immense and too-often overlooked power and richness of the West African Mande traditions and civilizations, specifically the Malian Empire. Western media and narratives too often and too easily dismiss sub-Saharan Africa (as if it is all one thing) with a few words: famine, civil war, guns, blood diamonds, slavery, and so on, and in doing so miss, denigrate and outright disappear the significant history and culture that was present historically not to mention the actual life and culture and history-in-the-making that is there right now. The history and culture of Mali is not my story to tell but I did feel I had a story to write about how we TELL history. (more…)