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Seven Days for SEVEN PRINCES: The Significance of the Number 7

7 days for SEVEN PRINCESThere’s something strange about the number 7.

Something mystical. Something downright magical.

Looking back through history, literature, religion, and philosophy, one can see this number coming up again and again – usually with a significant aspect invoking holiness, mystery, power or prosperity.

A few examples:

– In Buddhist mythology the newborn Buddha took seven steps right after he was born, declaring “I alone am the World-Honored One.”

– In Christian mythology the Walls of Jericho fell seven days after seven priests marched around the city seven times with seven trumpets.

– In Islamic mythology there are seven heavens and seven hells. (more…)

Seven Days for SEVEN PRINCES: The Preview

The cover for the debut fantasy novel Seven Princes by John R. FultzToday is a momentous day. It is not only the first day of 2012, but it also marks the beginning of our Seven Days for SEVEN PRINCES feature. To celebrate the release of this fantasy adventure of epic proportions we’re going to be going 7-crazy on all of our Orbit channels for a whole seven days. Look out for the number 7 to find competitions, quizzes, giveaways and behind-the-scenes insights from the author. It’s one hell of a week for one hell of a book.

From author John R. Fultz, this debut fantasy novel wowed us here at Orbit and we’re just itching to bring it to the world. A tale where men and giants walk side-by-side, where ancient necromancers make a bid for power with chilling sorcery, where ordinary men do battle with monstrous creatures.

It’s a breakneck-paced, breathtaking adventure that’s unashamedly enjoyable and impossible to put down. With an entrancing fairy tale feel, this book really made us sit up and take notice – and it also showed us that John has a very exciting future ahead of him.

To see what we’re getting excited about, have an exclusive read of the prologue right here, and keep an eye out for all things 7 . . .

 

Happy Holidays from Orbit!

Things are winding down at Orbit HQ for the Holidays and we just want to say, whatever continent (or planet) you’re on, whatever race (human or alien) or creed or religion you are, whatever holidays you celebrate (if any), we can all come together on at least one topic…Where’s our freaking jetpacks?! Here’s to hoping 2012 is finally the year of the commercially available jetpack! Happy Holidays and a great start to a New Year, from everyone at Orbit!

See you in 2012…once you recover from your New Years Eve festivities do remember to check in, because starting January 1st we have a very special week planned…

Thanks to Gregory Titus for providing the Jetpack Santa!

SEVEN PRINCES: It’s About Blood

The cover of the debut fantasy novel ‘Seven Princes' by John R. Fultz, showing a band of princes going to war
Seven Princes – released Jan 2012

So what’s your book about?

Is there any more difficult question for an author to answer? I know I have a hard time with this one. After spending so much time (often years) crafting a novel, living inside the souls of your characters, building the intricate world in which they live, overseeing the progress of an invented history and chronicling the fictional exploits of your literary “children”, it’s hard to encapsulate all the diverse threads of a novel into a single statement.

Yet the market demands a “hook” or “premise” on which any novel can hang its metaphorical hat. After all, if readers don’t know what to expect, why should they even buy the book? Blind faith? Hardly. Word of mouth? Well, that’s the best advertising you can get . . . but consider the irony. If you as the author don’t come up with a satisfying answer to “What’s your book about?” then your early readers and reviewers are going to do it FOR YOU. They’re going to summarize, encapsulate and foreshorten your Massive Undertaking of Artistic Purity to a description worthy of a sound-byte (or at least a Facebook update). So authors are better-off coming up with their own answer to this big question, rather than leaving it up to somebody else to explain.

All of this begs the question: “What is SEVEN PRINCES about?”

If you look at the cover text, SEVEN PRINCES is about war. “An age of legends. An age of heroes. An age of war.” Now that’s a great tag line. It’s engaging, evocative, and it rings with mythic resonance. Ready for more irony?

Here’s the thing: I never considered this book a “war novel” when I was writing it. Yet war itself is definitely one of the themes that drives the characters and the plot. Some characters want to prevent war—they know the red tragedy and the pointless slaughter that it brings—while others actively seek war to prove themselves, to avenge wrongs, or simply as a means of grabbing power. So the concept of war itself is definitely buried in there. There’s even a conversation at one point between two characters who argue about the essential nature of Man as a war-like being. Is Mankind capable of living in peace—true peace—for long? That’s a question that also lies at the heart of SEVEN PRINCES. So yeah, it’s about war. But it’s also about a lot more . . . (more…)

NPR’s Best SFF of 2011

NPR posted their list of The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy today, and we were pleased to see Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes (US) get a mention! Lev Grossman called Abercrombie “not nearly as well-known in the U.S. as he should be,” and sung the praises of his gritty style of fantasy:

It’s as if Tolkien cared about the back story of every individual orc: Each soldier is one among thousands, floundering in the fog of war, but each feels like he’s living out a tragedy or a triumph with himself as the hero. There’s no right side and wrong side — even the warriors aren’t sure which is which — and in the end the question of who’s the real hero comes down to who survives to tell the story.

The rest of the list has some other great books, so be sure to take a look.

Helen Lowe Wins Creative Writing Residency

a photo of the fantasy author helen lowe in conversationOur congratulations go to Helen Lowe, author of epic fantasy series THE WALL OF NIGHT, who has been awarded The Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing by the University of Canterbury!

Helen says: “I’m absolutely delighted – not least for the recognition for speculative fiction, and I’m really looking forward to working exclusively on THE WALL OF NIGHT series!”

the cover to The Heir of Night, the first novel in the fantasy series The Wall of Night. A girl stand in a fiery doorway, looking determinedThe Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing was founded by the University in 1979 to promote and provide support for New Zealand’s many talented writers. Helen will hold the residency until July 31 2012; the project she will be working on during the residency is THE WALL OF NIGHT Book Three, DAUGHTER OF BLOOD. She shares the prize with the poet David Eggleton.

Book One, THE HEIR OF NIGHT (UK/ANZ) will be out in Mass Market Paperback on the 19th of January 2012.

A very special holiday giveaway

To celebrate some of the amazing books Orbit have launched during 2011 (and taking a sneaky peak at 2012) we are having a giveaway – but it’s a giveaway with a difference!  We have 5 sets of Advance Reading Copies up for grabs.  Obviously they are not so much in advance any more, but they are exclusive, limited editions that money can’t buy – and they are a great sampling of some of Orbit’s biggest and best titles of the year!

picture of the five proofs you could win

That’s five sets of the following titles:

THE FALLEN BLADE by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
LEVIATHAN WAKES by James S. A. Corey
THE DRAGON’S PATH by Daniel Abraham
THE EDINBURGH DEAD by Brian Ruckley
SEVEN PRINCES by John R. Fultz (New! Publishing this Jan. 2012)

The competition is open to the UK and US.  Full terms and conditions below.  Complete the following form for your chance to win one of the sets! (more…)

The Kitschies’ Steampunk Night

Big thanks to Anne C. Perry, Jared Shurin and Den Patrick of Pornokitsch for the stellar steampunk night organised at Blackwells, Charing Cross Road, London yesterday! Orbit team members Anna Gregson, James Long and I had a wonderful time chatting to all the talented guests Pornokitsch had invited. Here are a few photos from the event:

a pile of steampunk novels at Blackwells

Gail Carringer’s PARASOL PROTECTORATE novels and Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WIND-UP GIRL sitting proudly among the steampunk titles picked out for the evening.

A photograph: Mark de Jager, James Long and Den Patrick hold up steampunk style gunsThe boys compare gun sizes. Mark de Jager, Orbit’s James Long and Pornokitsch’s Den Patrick.

The poster advertising the Kitschies' steampunk evening, featuring a giant squid logo

The Guardian at the gate! This squid guarded the entrance to the evening…

A photograph of a large crowd watching as Jared gives his opening speech

You can just about see Jared giving his welcome speech, over the heads of the large crowd the event attracted!

‘A Private Letter from Genre to Literature’ at SF Signal

Daniel Abraham, author of The Dragon’s Path (US | UK | ANZ) and the upcoming The King’s Blood (US | UK), among others, has a guest post up at SF Signal today called “A Private Letter from Genre to Literature.”

Please, please, darling let us stop this. This artificial separation between us is painful, it is undignified, and it fools no one. In company, we sneer at each other and make those cold, cutting remarks. And why? You laugh at me for telling the same stories again and again. I call you boring and joyless. Is it wrong, my dear, that I hope the cruel things I say of you cut as deeply as the ones you say of me?

Check it out, and don’t miss all the related letters others are adding in the comments.

The Hedgewitch Experiment

The cover the The Hedgewitch Queen, showing a woman in a white dressI wrote The Hedgewitch Queen, let’s see, ]mumblemumble[ years ago, in a feverish haze. It started, as so many books do, with a character whispering in my ear. If not for a muddy skirt, a clear, cultured, decorous voice said, I would be dead like all the rest.

Dead…or worse, perhaps.

Of course I had to continue writing to find out what was “worse.” Arquitaine opened around me, and several drafts later (I think this was the book that cemented my faith in my long-suffering beta reader’s patience) I had a novel I was happy with. Well, as much as a writer is ever happy with a draft. We’re inveterate pickers. But I digress.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right time to release it. I was hip-deep in other series, and my editor and agent both agreed that dear Hedgie had to wait. I stuck out my lower lip, pouted a bit, and then got over it and cheerfully agreed. Of such moments are a career in publishing made.

Cut to years later, when my editor at Orbit called my agent. “Does Lili still have Hedgewitch? If so, there’s this opportunity. It’s an ebook-only release.” (more…)