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Only days left to vote on both Gemmell and Locus Awards …

There seems to be plenty of award talk going around at the moment, with the Clarke Award lists of nominees out, British Fantasy Society Awards longlists released and the BSFA only a few weeks away from its own Awards announcements. Perhaps these represent the first signs of Spring for the genre community…

But currently more pressing than all of the above are the imminent voting deadlines for the David Gemmell Awards (a few days away, with voting closing at the end of March) and the annual Locus Awards ballot (closing 1st April). The David Gemmell Awards are designed to honour the memory of David Gemmell and also to raise the profile of fantasy fiction in the UK, and this will be their second year. The whole team is crossing fingers for all our authors on the Gemmell longlists, including those down for the Legend Award for best fantasy novel here. You can also vote by following that link – and see above for the cute mini-Snaga that Brent Weeks was awarded last year for his shortlisted The Way of Shadows (UK I US). Also included within ‘the Gemmells’ are the Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut and the Ravenheart Award for best fantasy cover art.

The Locus Awards are in their 40th year and their longlist is the prestigious Locus Recommended Reading List of works published in 2009. So as well as crossing fingers for the Gemmells, we are also holding our collective breaths for Orbit authors in various Locus categories (this could get complicated!). Orbit nominees are  Iain M. Banks, Walter Jon Williams, Daniel Abraham, Gail Carriger and Charles Stross.  You can vote for the Locus Awards here.

Cover Launch: THE COMPANY MAN

Mr. Shivers, the debut novel by Robert Jackson Bennett, has been getting some fantastic praise around the review circuit, with a lot of comparisons to Stephen King + John Steinbeck, which is pretty awesome in my book. The Company Man is not a sequel, but if you liked Mr. Shivers, you will definitely like this one. It also takes place in an alternate history of America, and I would say this one, to me, feels like H.P. Lovecraft + Chinatown (the movie) happening in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. If that doesn’t sound cool to you, well, then, I don’t know what else to say. Haha.

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Book Cover “Mind Meld”

I know you guys are big fans of hearing about covers and design from the artists/publishers side, so I thought I’d send you guys over to SciFi Signal, where they just posted a “Mind Meld” (dorks) on recent scifi/fantasy bookcovers.  I was asked to post, and in fairness I excluded all our books, but it was great to see so many Orbit books getting a mention! Here was the question:

Q: It’s generally well accepted that a book cover’s primary responsibility is to sell the book. But artistically speaking, what makes a successful sf/f/h book cover? Which recent sf/f/h books had a cover that blew you away?

Which makes me ask you guys….what’s your favorite ORBIT cover? Let me know in the comments, I’m curious.

The Midnight Mayor is here!

Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels wowed us all last year with its imagination, magic, and inventiveness.

We got exclusive CCTV footage of Matthew Swift himself in London back in 2009– check it out on the youtubes!

Now, Matthew Swift is back in this stunning sequel– say hello to The Midnight Mayor.

It’s said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall.   Resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to discover that this isn’t so far from the truth. . .

One by one, the protective magical wards that guard the city are falling: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news.  This array of supernatural defenses – a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends – formed a formidable magical shield, one that could protect London from the greatest threat it hasever known.  But what could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?

Against his better judgment, Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he’s lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it . . .

Oath of Fealty

Elizabeth Moon’s writing has enriched the genre for many years and in her latest book, Oath of Fealty, her magic is clearly alive and well. I’ve read many of her books, and amongst them I’ve particularly enjoyed her Vatta’s War military SF adventures, as did the Guardian). And I still recommend the extraordinary and thought-provoking Speed of Dark  to anyone who thinks SF isn’t for them (Nebular Award winner, critially lauded plus shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award: think Flowers for Algernon or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time).

But with Oath of Fealty we also have something very special. A return to the world of the classic Paksenarrion books, as Elizabeth writes fantasy for the first time in ten years. And so no one misses out on the earlier books, we’ve also reissued the original backlist trilogy in super-giant omnibus form as The Deed of Paksenarrion. Elizabeth recently posted for us on how she found out what subgenres suited her (and which didn’t!) but she is rare in her ability to easily swing from SF to fantasy and back again.

Please see here for a bit of background on how Elizabeth made her way back to fantasy, with an extract from Oath of Fealty. And here’s what others have thought of this return so far, with some early praise for Oath of Fealty, book 1 of Paladin’s Legacy:

‘What sheer delight! Oath of Fealty is an engrossing new adventure returning old friends to us in the first of three more books in the Paksenarrion universe. It’s quite simply a smashing story, and I am panting to read the next instalment from this consummate storyteller. Hurry up, Elizabeth!’ Anne McCaffrey

‘I found the book hard to put down because of Elizabeth Moon’s ability to make the story flow’
SFSite.com

‘A must-read … thoroughly entertaining’
Romantic Times (4 1/2* Top Pick)

‘A stirring start to a new story arc … I can’t wait for more episodes’
BookLoons

Cover Launch: THE NEON COURT

I know I maybe say a lot of Orbit books are “favorites” of mine, and considering I was a geek way before I was a cover designer, I think I can be forgiven for this. I’m really lucky, as I have to read books for work that I would have read anyway, so I’m understandably a little overenthusiastic. And luckily, I’m a fast reader. It’s a point of pride with me that I read almost every manuscript before I start designing – the only time I don’t is when for scheduling reasons the full manuscript isn’t available by the time I have to start work. (In that case I resort to mercilessly pumping the editor for as much info as I can get.) A pet peeve of mine as a fan is to have a cover misrepresent a book, and I work really hard to make sure that doesn’t happen on any Orbit books. So, all that said, I read a TON of books. And I have a lot of favorites in Orbit authors. And then above those Orbit favorites, there’s Orbit books I would have preordered, waited on line, had to buy on opening day, if I didn’t work here.

The Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin is absolutely that series. And this is not just a cover post, it is a love letter. (more…)

One of the most captivating new voices in fantasy…

Not only is N. K. Jemisin‘s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms one of the most beautiful books I’ve seen for a while, it’s had some of the most stunning reviews too:

‘Jemisin’s first novel has a wistful, lyrical tone, and the intrigue – both romantic and political – is skilfully handled. Book one in the Inheritance Trilogy is sensitive, restrained high fantasy.’ – The Guardian, Eric Brown

‘…a story that manages to be both fantastically grand and very personal. Definitely recommended.’ – Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

‘More than the sum of its parts… Jemisin is well worth keeping an eye on.’ – SFX, Guy Haley [also included in the SFX books of 2010 round-up]

‘Extremely well-written, imaginative, emotionally gripping, and featuring a compelling narrator, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an almost perfect debut… and could end up being one of the best fantasy releases of the year.’ – Fantasy Book Critic, Robert Thompson

‘Convoluted without being dense, Jemisin’s engaging debut grabs readers right from the start… a complex, edge-of-your-seat story with plenty of funny, scary, and bittersweet twists.’ – Publishers Weekly

‘Debut author Jemisin creates a mesmerizingly exotic world where fallen gods serve as slaves to the ruling class and murder and ambition go hand in hand… an engaging heroine and a fresh take on traditional dynastic fantasy make this trilogy opener a delight for the fantasy reader and introduce a strong new voice to the genre.’ – Library Journal

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Excuse Me While I Drool.

Oh, I am a very happy camper. Would you like to know why? Shall I tell you? Indeed I shall. This is why: my amazing, fantabulous wonderful designers at Orbit have sent me the cover art for The Rebel Prince: Book Three of the Moorehawke Trilogy. So, I now have all three covers to smile over and stroke fondly, and call my very own.

I must say I. LOVE. THESE. COVERS. I love everything about them. I love Steve Stone’s wonderful art work – in particular that fact that he didn’t just pick a generic fantasy boy and girl for the first and last covers but actually made them look like Wynter and Alberon ( Not having read The Rebel Prince, he even went to the trouble of contacting me to ask what Alberon looked like!) Steve’s artwork rocks. Go! Now! Run to his website and check out all the great covers he’s done. (more…)