Archive for Awards

Arthur C Clarke Giveaway

Tonight the winner of the 2008 Arthur C Clarke awards will be announced and, while we know who we’re rooting for, we thought what better way to celebrate than to give away a book by the great man himself! Up for grabs is a special hardback edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey* by Arthur C Clarke, complete with a foreword by Stephen Baxter, one of this year’s shortlisted authors.

To enter, send your name with the title line “Arthur C Clarke” to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk. The winner will be chosen at random two weeks from today (May 14th). Good luck!

* This link doesn’t take you to the edition we’re giving away, but to the paperback copy that’s available to buy now.

‘Halting State’ on 2008 Locus Award shortlist

Halting State UK TPbHere at Orbit Towers we’re all absolutely delighted that Halting State [UK] by Charles Stross has been shortlisted in the ‘SF Novel’ category of this year’s Locus Awards.

In addition, Mr Stross has also been shortlisted in the Novelette category for ‘Trunk and Disorderly’ and Ken MacLeod has been shortlisted in the Best Short Story category for ‘Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?’

The Awards were voted for via online poll and the winners will already be known to the organisers, but won’t be announced until the Locus Awards Ceremony takes place in Seattle on June 12th. We’ll be keeping our fingers very firmly crossed for Charles and Ken until then!

Best of luck, chaps!

Stross and Miller named on Tiptree Award Honor List

This year’s James Tiptree Jr Award – the annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender – was announced this week.

Alongside the winner, the award committee also announced the 2007 Honor List and Orbit authors Charles Stross and Karen Miller were both named, for (respectively) Glasshouse and Empress / The Riven Kingdom (which we’re publishing in October) .

Many congrats to Charles and Karen! Visit sfawardswatch.com for the full details of this year’s award.

2008 Locus Poll open for voting

We’ve been checking out the 2008 Locus Poll & Survey in the office this week. This is the final voting poll, and you don’t actually have to be a Locus subscriber to register your vote.

In each of the categories there are a number of suggested titles, sourced from the 2007 Locus Recommended Reading List, or you can add your own titles via the write-in boxes on the form.

We’re particularly happy to see a number of Orbit’s lead publications for last year included in the recommendation shortlists, including:

Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross also have long-listed pieces in the Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story lists. And what’s that you say? Orbit are long-listed under Best Publisher? Well, yes, but we’re all far too polite to mention it…

Eastercon Action

Back refreshed after some post-Easter holiday, I thought I’d give a little round-up of the weekend’s Eastercon excitements. These didn’t include the weather (a most distracting hail storm during Darren’s Very Important Panel), or getting lost in the hotel’s Shining-esque corridors and missing breakfast, so I’ll spare you that.

So, over the Easter weekend, two key highlights in the science fiction calendar took place. One of these was Orbital, the British national science fiction convention (otherwise known as Eastercon), We were very excited as our Ken MacLeod was on not one, but two shortlists for BSFA awards, up for both best novel with The Execution Channel and best short fiction with Lighting Out, in the anthology disLOCATIONS from Newcon Press. Many congratulations to Ken for winning in the short fiction category, and to Gollancz’s Ian McDonald, who took away the best novel award for the much-admired Brasyl.

I also have to make special mention of Charles Stross, who was guest of honour at Orbital, alongside Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, and China Mieville. Charlie wasn’t just guest of honour but, in an astonishing tribute to the genre, had actually managed to clone himself in order to take part in a myriad of panel discussions. Amongst others, I attended Writing the Near Future, on why it might be harder to predict 50 years in the future than 500. Charlie was as fascinating as ever, and managed to pause briefly for breath before his next panel on the Appeal of Lovecraft. His clones were no doubt equally knowledgeable in an in-depth discussion of Accelerando, and in a panel on how to be a full time novelist to name just a few. On the other side of the fence, Orbit’s Darren Nash told a packed room (yep, people were actually standing at the back) what an editor Actually Does. I found this particularly pertinent, and obviously made copious notes(!). The panel was split between editors of novels and short fiction, so covered some interesting differences in how the two forms might be edited.

But the Eastercon activities didn’t end there … the other highlight of the weekend was Swancon on the other side of the globe – the annual West Australian Science Fiction Convention and forum for the Ditmar awards. We are delighted to say that Sean Williams picked up yet another well-deserved Ditmar for best novel, for the fabulous Saturn Returns. Australia’s Dark Fiction zine HorrorScope has the full listings. Ken MacLeod also attended the convention as a guest of honour so, although much in demand, had to miss out on the British event. Sure, it would have been great to travel to Australia to help Ken and Sean out, but the Orbital invites came through first … Maybe next time!

Hugo Stross!

Halting StateThe shortlist for the 2008 Hugo Awards has just been released, and we are delighted to see that Charles Stross‘s cutting-edge near future heist thriller, Halting State, has made the ballot. This is the fifth consecutive year that a Charles Stross novel has been shortlisted for the Hugo, passing the great Robert Silverberg‘s previous record, which is an amazing achievement. Many congratulations to Charlie on his most recent shortlisting – we’ve all got our fingers crossed that he walks away with the rocket ship, this year!

Oh, and I’ve read his forthcoming space opera, Saturn’s Children – don’t bet against it being six-in-a-row, this time next year . . .

Double Execution

The Execution ChannelYour intarwebs would have to be broken for you not to know that the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award has just been announced.  Shortlists are inevitably the source of much discussion and usually some controversy, and this year’s Clarke Award shortlist is no exception. There has been much written already about whether some books have been unjustly omitted and others undeservedly included. We, of course, couldn’t possibly comment. One thing we can comment on, though, is the completely uncontroversial shortlisting of Ken MacLeod‘s excellent The Execution Channel (also shortlisted for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel – don’t forget to vote!).

Many congratulations to Ken on The Execution Channel‘s double shortlisting.  Ken’s previous book, Learning the World, was in the running for the BSFA, Clarke and Hugo Awards, in 2006. We at Orbit have our collective fingers crossed that he goes one better this year and walks away with a trophy!

Ditmar Shortlist

More award news, with the shortlist for the 2008 Ditmars being announced over the weekend, and we’re delighted to see Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Marianne de Pierres’ Dark Space on the shortlist for best novel. Sean and Marianne were also both shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, and we’ve got our fingers crossed that one of them will win this time. Or perhaps both – is a tie too much to ask for?

Awarded since 1969 in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror, the Ditmar is one of the premier awards for Australian speculative fiction. Previous winners of the Ditmar for Best Novel include Garth Nix, Peter Carey, George Turner, Victor Kelleher, Greg Egan and – on no fewer than five occasions – Sean Williams.

The Ditmars will be presented at Swancon, the 47th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held over the Easter weekend.  Guests of Honour include Orbit’s very own Ken MacLeod and Glenda Larke. Ken’s The Execution Channel is, of course, on the shortlist for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel (also to be presented over Easter), and Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens was shortlisted for last year’s Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

On the whole, we’re rather pleased with the way 2008’s shortlists are developing.

It’s All In The Execution

The shortlist for the 2007 BSFA Awards has recently been announced, and we’re absolutely delighted to see Ken MacLeod‘s wonderful The Execution Channel in the running for the Best Novel. 

The Execution Channel

Fighting has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia to the borders of China. In the US, refugees from climate-change disaster subsist in FEMA camps. Images of official executions circulate on the Internet like al Qaeda videos. State agencies sponsor conspiracy theories as cover-ups. As the troops of the last superpower stand astride the last of the oil, China and Russia aren’t the only states considering their options: certain nations of Old Europe are quietly preparing for the worst.

The war on terror is over. Terror won.

 As with all of Ken MacLeod’s novels, The Execution Channel has garnered great critical acclaim.  The Times calls it ‘Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that’s absolutely mind-blowing’; noted critic Paul Kincaid, writing for Strange Horizons, says ‘A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . an extraordinary novel’; while SFX sums it up as ‘Jaw-droppingly audacious’.

The BSFA Awards will be presented on 22nd March at Orbital, this year’s Eastercon, where a very smartly attired paperback edition will be available for your reading pleasure!

Hmm. . . ‘Orbital’, eh?  Dare we see that as an omen . . . ?

Halting State is #1!

Halting State by Charles Stross

And so is Charles Stross!

The 2007 SciFiNow awards have been announced in the latest issue. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, Charles Stross and Halting State, his latest novel, have been voted the fan favourites in the Best Author and Best Novel categories. Hurrah!

You can check out all the fantastic things Starburst, DeathRay and The Book Swede are saying about it here and pick it up at bookshops near you this month.