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Death Ray Issue 3 Out

A Dirty Job by Christopher MooreI’ve just received my copy of issue 3 of Death Ray, a startup glossy SF magazine. It’s good to report that there are some nice reviews of Orbit UK titles, especially Allen Steele’s Spindrift — “an interesting, entertaining, well-told tale” — and Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job, described as “an insightful piece on the nature of death, and grief, how we deal with such things and find the strength to go on. Christopher Moore is adept at making such points even while making the reader laugh out loud at the absurdity of life in general. And that’s his greatest strength.”

There’s also an interesting feature on the young adult/SF crossover, with contributions from Orbit’s Publishing Director Tim Holman and Editorial Director Darren Nash. And though we don’t publish either of these authors, I really enjoyed the extended piece on Neil Gaiman and a shorter article on Samuel R. Delaney’s Babel-17. Death Ray is available through newsagents in the UK, and readers in the US can find it at branches of Barnes & Noble and Borders.

Mike Carey interview

There’s a terrific interview on Fantasy Book Critic with Mike Carey, whose series of novels featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor is published by Orbit in the UK: The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle were published to massive acclaim last year, and the third book, Dead Men’s Boots, is due in September. Readers in America can discover just how dark and irresistible Castor’s world is in July, when our sister company Grand Central Publishing releases The Devil You Know in the US.

Orbit Author on Radio 4

Philip Palmer is the author of the fabulous debut Debatable Space, to be published by Orbit in January. He is also a dramatist of some note, and his short play Gaza is being recorded today to be broadcast on Radio 4 tomorrow at 7pm. Philip imagines what it’s like for ordinary people caught up in the violence and in-fighting in Gaza City, as well as portraying the reactions of British nationals working in the region.

The play will be repeated on Sunday, and you can catch it for a further week on the Listen Again section of the BBC website.

Do have a listen if you get the chance!

Orbit in Australia

The launch of Orbit in the US is only a few months away, but it was off to Australia last week, with Orbit UK Editorial Director Darren Nash, for Convergence — the 46th Australian National SF Convention in Melbourne — and a week with our sister company Hachette Livre Australia in Sydney.

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The Top Ten SF Authors of the 00s

Marc Andreessen is one of the major figures of the Internet age — a founder of Netscape, he was a co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser. Andreessen recently published his selection of the top ten SF authors this decade on his blog, and I was really pleased to see two of Orbit UK’s authors on the list.

Andreessen describes Charles Stross as ‘first among equals — the single best emerging talent’. Stross is a prolific writer: we published his acclaimed novel Glasshouse in March, and we’re due to publish his supernatural spy thriller The Atrocity Archives next month.

The other Orbit UK author picked is Ken MacLeod, of whom Andreessen writes: ‘MacLeod is incredibly creative — his imagination is second to none — and he’s a superb writer. [H]is novels certainly qualify as dizzyingly inventive and frequently rewarding.’ His most recent book, The Execution Channel, was published by us in April.

Orbit at BEA

orbit_team
Alex Lencicki, Jennifer Flax, Tim Holman, and Devi Pillai at BEA

Orbit launched in the US at Book Expo America in New York. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello. We still have ten messenger bags left, so we’re giving one to the first ten people to email us at orbit at hbgusa.com with the words “gimme one of those bags!” in the subject line. (This offer is only available to US residents.)

Jae Lee’s covers for The Electric Church

I’m Devi and I’m an Editor at Orbit and I’ll be chatting about the upcoming books, authors, reviews, etc.

I’ve just gotten early sketches for THE DIGITAL PLAGUE by Jeff Somers! That is his second book starring Avery Cates, criminal-for-hire.

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Dark Space review and YouTube trailer

Dark Space book jacket

This month, Orbit UK is extremely excited to be publishing Dark Space, the new start of a new series from Marianne de Pierres.

As a sharply written space opera, it’s something of a departure for Marianne, who until now has been best known for her near future thrillers. It’s great to be able to report that reviewers seem to agree: in particular, there’s a great review of the book in Hub Magazine:

“This is serious modern space opera, grappling with big themes and painting on a broad canvas with a great eye for detail, and readers of simple spaceship adventure stories may wish to pass this title by. On the other hand, readers who hunger for perceptive, intelligent and unflinching literary science fiction should seek this book out as soon as possible.”

Here’s the trailer, and there’s more on Marianne’s official website.