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Cover Launch: THE LIAR’S KNOT by M. A. Carrick

Welcome, readers, to the cover launch of THE LIAR’S KNOT, the second book in the dark and dazzling Rook & Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick!

Take a deep breath and prepare for your return to Nadežra, the city where magic dwells in both dreams and nightmares, where thieves and noblemen both are liars, and everyone hides behind a mask. Nadežra, where a stubborn and quick-witted con artist, a charmingly ruthless criminal, and a legendary vigilante will risk everything in order to protect a world that is determined to fall apart. Nadežra, where nothing is quite as it seems…

Check out the stunning cover of THE LIAR’S KNOT below, and make sure to pre-order (US | UK)! And if THE MASK OF MIRRORS (book one of the trilogy) is still on your TBR pile, good news: THE LIAR’S KNOT is hitting shelves in December, giving you plenty of time to catch up! This is an epic fantasy series you don’t want to miss. But don’t take our word for it—read on for a taste of all the fantastic praise it’s received.

Illustrated by Nekro. Designed by Lauren Panepinto

Trust is the thread that binds. And the rope that hangs.

In Nadežra, peace is tenuous as a thread. Corrupt House Indestor has been destroyed, but darkness still weaves through the city’s filthy back alleys and jewel-bright gardens, visible to those who know where to look.

Derossi Vargo, Grey Serrado, and Ren, daughter of no clan, all know. Caught in a knot of secrets and lies, they struggle to decide who to trust and who to turn from—a precarious position indeed, even for a ruthless criminal, a notorious vigilante, and a brilliant con artist.

Because the power they are fighting is more ancient than they can fathom, and they have yet to discover just how deeply rooted its poison is. And in the end, it will take more than wits and knives to cut themselves and their city free.

Praise for The Mask of Mirrors

“Lush, engrossing, and full of mystery and dark magic.” —BookPage

“Immersive…a feast to savor slowly.” —BuzzFeed News

“Utterly captivating.” —S. A. Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass

“This novel will catch hold of your dreams and keep you from sleeping.” —Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Calculating Stars

“Wonderfully immersive—I was unable to put it down.” —Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

“Exactly the fantasy adventure novel you’re craving.” —Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne

“A fantastically twisty read.” —Fran Wilde, author of the Bone Universe trilogy

“A tightly laced plot dripping with political intrigue. Carrick has built a strong foundation for things to come.” —Publishers Weekly

“An excellent fantasy novel.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“An intricate, compelling dream of a book.” —Melissa Caruso, author of The Tethered Mage

“A sheer delight!” —Katy Rose Pool, author of There Will Come A Darkness

“For those who like their revenge plots served with the intrigue of The Goblin Emperor, the colonial conflict of The City of Brass, the panache of Swordspoint, and the richly detailed settings of Guy Gavriel Kay.” —Booklist (starred review)

The Kitschies Awards: Orbit Books on the Shortlist

We’re thrilled to have two books on this year’s Kitschies Awards Shortlist! The City We Became (UK | US) by N. K. Jemisin has been nominated for a Red Tentacle (Novel) Award and an Inky Tentacle (Cover Art) Award.

The Ministry for the Future (UK | US) by Kim Stanley Robinson has been nominated for a Red Tentacle (Novel) Award.

The City We Became is the latest novel from the four-time Hugo award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N. K. Jemisin, featuring five New Yorkers who must band together to defend their city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Told entirely through fictional eye-witness accounts, The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is a masterpiece of the imagination, the story of how climate change will affect us all over the decades to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find out more about the other titles on the Kitschies Shortlist by clicking here.

 

 

Cover Launch: THE BONE SHARD EMPEROR by Andrea Stewart

Andrea Stewart’s THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER (US | UK) was one of the biggest fantasy debuts of 2020, and her next novel is looking to be another smash hit. With her brilliantly realized magic systems, inventive world-building, and captivating characters Stewart has made the stakes in Bone Shard Emperor higher and the adventure even more exciting. So of course we needed another incredible cover designed by Lauren Panepinto and illustrated by Sasha Vinogradova to match! Check it out below and in the meantime, make sure to pre-order THE BONE SHARD EMPEROR (US | UK)!

The Emperor is Dead. Long live the Emperor.

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the north-east of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force.

Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga – the powerful magicians of legend – have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace.

But can she trust them?

Cover Launch: KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel

Earlier this year, Redhook announced the acquisition of a very special debut: KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel. Today, we are so excited to reveal its gorgeous cover!

This stunning novel reimagines the life of Kaikeyi, the vilified queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana. It is a tale of fate and family, of courage and heartbreak, centering Indian mythology and giving voice to a woman determined to leave her mark in a world where gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. If you love books like Circe, Ariadne, and The Witch’s Heart, add this to your TBR right now!

We knew such an extraordinary debut deserved a show-stopping cover to match, and Orbit designer Lisa Marie Pompilio delivered. KAIKEYI won’t hit shelves until April 2022, but you can find the book on Goodreads here! And say hi to author Vaishnavi Patel on Twitter and Instagram at @vaishnawrites.

 Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio

 

In the kingdom of Kekaya, Kaikeyi is raised on grand stories about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned vast oceans to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they offer the devoted and the wise magnificent boons, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land prospers. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, her own worth measured by how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.

Desperate for independence, she turns to the ancient texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. She uses it to transform herself from overlooked princess into warrior, diplomat, and most-favorite queen, determined to forge a better world for herself  than the one that gods and men have granted.

But when darkness threatens the cosmic order, the path the gods have chosen for Kaikeyi’s family—especially that of her beloved son, Rama—challenges all she has built. She must decide if her resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak…and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

Cover Launch: WILD AND WICKED THINGS by Francesca May

Welcome to Crow Island. You’re invited to enter a world of dangerous witchcraft and glamorous parties in Francesca May’s lush debut, WILD AND WICKED THINGS. Get swept into a vision of 1920s England where magic is real but illegal, where young women have dark powers bubbling inside of them, and where the boundaries of wickedness are tested with dire consequences. If you loved The Year of the Witching and Mexican Gothic, you’ll want to read this deliciously gothic fantasy next!

 

Landing in bookstores March 2022, WILD AND WICKED THINGS is available for preorder now (US | UK) and, while you anxiously wait, feast your eyes on its gorgeous cover below.

Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio.

On Crow Island, people whispered real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbor to be a witch.

 

When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline’s extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.

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Francesca May grew up in the middle of England, where she spent her childhood devouring fantasy books and brewing potions in her back garden. She currently lives in Derby with her family, three giant dogs, and two black cats. By day, Fran works as a bookseller at Waterstones. By night, she accidentally kills every house plant she touches and writes novels about gothic mansions, witchcraft, and queer love. You can find her on Twitter @franwritesstuff or her website.

Cover Launch: ONE DARK WINDOW by Rachel Gillig

We couldn’t be more thrilled to reveal the gorgeously eerie cover for Rachel Gillig’s debut gothic fantasy, ONE DARK WINDOW, now available for preorder! A darkly fantastical story perfect for fans of FOR THE WOLF (US | UK) and The Year of the Witching, this folk-inspired tale now has an equally bewitching cover—scroll on for the reveal and more about the book!

Design by Lisa Marie Pompilio; Cover Art by Trevillion and Shutterstock

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.

You can preorder ONE DARK WINDOW now, coming your way in 2022! In the meantime come celebrate with us and author Rachel Gillig on Instagram @rmgillig and Twitter @rachelgillig!

Acquisition Announcement: THE MAGICIAN’S DAUGHTER by H. G. Parry

Redhook is thrilled to announce the acquisition of H. G. Parry’s charming new historical fantasy novel, THE MAGICIAN’S DAUGHTER. Perfect for fans of Alix E. Harrow and Naomi Novik, The Magician’s Daughter follows a young woman raised on an isolated island who discovers things aren’t as they seem as she ventures into early 1900s England to help return magic to the world. Do you want to know more? I bet you do!

You can read more about the book below, and while you wait for it to arrive at your nearest bookstore in fall 2022, follow Hannah on Twitter @hg_parry and check out her previous novels, THE UNLIKELY ESCAPE OF URIAH HEEP (US | UK)  and The Shadow Histories duology!

 

It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known.

Orphaned in a shipwreck as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. He himself leaves almost every night, transforming into a raven and flying to the mainland, and never tells her where or why he goes.

One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. When Biddy ventures into his nightmares to rescue him, she learns not only where he goes every night, but the terrible things that happened in the last days of magic that caused Rowan to flee to Hy-Brasil. Rowan has powerful enemies who threaten the safety of the island. Biddy’s determination to protect her home and her guardian takes her away from the safety of the island, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world.

Orbit US editor Nivia Evans acquired World English rights from Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson Associates.

An update regarding THE CULTURE: NOTES AND DRAWINGS by Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod

We are pleased to share an exciting publication update with everyone who has been looking forward to the release of The Culture: Notes and Drawings by Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod.

As fans of Iain M. Banks’ vastly popular Culture series will be aware, Iain painstakingly designed every element of the Culture’s universe long before the novels were first published. From ships to weapons, language to nomenclature, flora to fauna, the whole of the Culture existed in the form of intricate sketches, notes, tables and charts, many years ahead of its appearance in fiction.

This archival material provides a fascinating insight into Iain’s extraordinary mind. It was originally due to be published as a single volume, accompanied by text from the award-winning Ken MacLeod, who was a close friend of Iain’s. However, to ensure that Iain’s exceptionally detailed drawings can be appreciated in their original format and scale, we are delighted to announce that the material will now be published as two separate editions.

The first release will be a beautiful, full-colour, large-format landscape artbook called The Culture: The Drawings, which will present Iain’s drawings exactly as he intended them to be seen.

Following this, we will publish a Culture companion book that celebrates the world of the Culture through Iain’s own writing. With accompanying text from Ken MacLeod, it will include an extensive selection of Iain’s notes, tables and charts relating to the Culture universe, as well as extracts from the novels.

Given these changes in our publication plans, we are now cancelling the single edition entitled The Culture: Notes and Drawings that was scheduled for 14th October 2021. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who had pre-ordered this single edition, and we’ll soon be announcing the release dates for the two new publications mentioned above, so please follow @orbitbooks on Twitter for updates.

Cover Launch: AGE OF ASH by Daniel Abraham

We couldn’t be more excited to reveal the cover for AGE OF ASH, the start to a new epic fantasy series from New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse. George R. R. Martin described Daniel’s previous series, The Dagger and the Coin, as “everything I look for in a fantasy.” Brandon Sanderson said the second book in Daniel’s The Long Price Quartet series, A Betrayal in Winter, was “exactly the kind of book I love.”

So you can understand why we’re thrilled to launch Daniel’s monumental new trilogy. Each book in the trilogy unfolds within the walls of a single great city, over the course of one tumultuous year, where every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all. AGE OF ASH is coming to shelves near you in February 2022.

Design by Lauren Panepinto. Illustration by Daniel Dociu.

Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.

This is Alys’s.

Alys is simply a petty thief from the slums of Longhill, but when her brother is murdered, she sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.

Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.

Cover Launch: THE GREAT WITCH OF BRITTANY by Louisa Morgan

A new Louisa Morgan novel is on the way! Transporting readers to the 18th century, THE GREAT WITCH OF BRITTANY is the charming tale of Ursule Orchiere and how the discovery of her magical abilities will not only change the course of her life, but every generation that comes after her.

Landing at your nearest bookstore in February 2022, check out the stunning cover below and make sure to say hi to Louisa on Twitter at @WriterLouisa.

Cover design by Lisa Marie Pompilio; Cover images by Trevillion

Brittany, 1741

There hasn’t been a witch born in the Orchière clan for generations. According to the elders, that line is dead, leaving the clan vulnerable to the whims of superstitious villagers and the prejudices of fearmongering bishops.

Ursule Orchière has been raised on stories of the great witches of the past. But the only magic she knows is the false spells her mother weaves over the gullible women who visit their fortune-telling caravan. Everything changes when Ursule comes of age and a spark of power flares to life. Thrilled to be chosen, she has no idea how magic will twist and shape her future.

Guided by the whispers of her ancestors and an ancient grimoire, Ursule is destined to walk the same path as the great witches of old. But first, the Orchière magical lineage must survive. And danger hovers over her, whether it’s the bloodlust of the mob or the flames of the pyre.