If you’ve ever wondered what the Orbit UK team looks like in real life, here we are. You’ll notice that we’re looking particularly happy. That’s because we’ve just been shortlisted for Imprint of the Year in this year’s Bookseller Industry Awards.
Felice Howden, our Digital Marketing Manager, is looking particularly happy because her campaign for The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey has been shortlisted for Marketing Campaign of the Year.
Were you a Percy Jackson fan when you were growing up? Read American Gods and loved it? A huge fan of contemporary fantasy like The Night Circus? A Discovery of Witches? The Golem and the Jinni? Well, look no further!
We’ve acquired three books by Jordanna Max Brodsky – a debut author who is writing an amazing contemporary fantasy about history, myth, Greek Gods, & Manhattan. To whet your appetite, here is a bit about THE IMMORTALS:
The Relentless One, the Bearer of the Bow, the Untamed…
…those are only a few of the names Selene DiSilva’s answered to over the years. But these days she’s content to work in secret, defending the women of Manhattan from the evils of men. She’s reclusive, stubborn, and deeply unfriendly to everyone but her dog. But when a woman’s mutilated body washes up in Riverside Park wearing a laurel wreath, Selene finds that she can no longer hide in the shadows. As more women are threatened, Selene is forced to embrace the one name she’s tried hardest to forget — Artemis. For who better to follow the killer’s tangled trail than the Goddess of the Hunt herself?
Jordanna Max Brodsky graduated from Harvard with a degree in History and Literature. She has long been fascinated with Greek mythology, in particular the ways in which the Olympians have come to life for so many, for so long. Here she imagines their inner lives as they lose their omnipotence and must find their way in our own modern world. Her Artemis is like a female Dexter with 3,000 years of baggage to unpack. THE IMMORTALS reimagines the milieu explored by Percy Jackson in much the same way The Magicians has for Harry Potter.
We’ll be publishing next February in both Orbit US & Orbit UK.
We are over the moon to announce a new novel called WAKE OF VULTURES. At its surface, it is a novel of a young girl who is awakened to the supernatural in the world around her and must start hunting monsters. But this novel is much more than that — and in a league of its own. WAKE OF VULTURES challenges conceptions of race, gender and humanity, yet remains completely engrossing and fast-paced. You will fall instantly in love with Nettie and will get lost in her world. WAKE OF VULTURES is a thought- and discussion-provoking novel — and one I hope you enjoy! We’ll be publishing in the UK and the US this October.
In case you wanted to know a bit more about the novel:
A rich, dark fantasy of destiny, death, and the supernatural world hiding beneath the surface.
Nettie Lonesome lives in a land of hard people and hard ground dusted with sand. She’s a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don’t call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood, and he turns into black sand. And just like that, Nettie can see. But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn’t understand what’s under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding—at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead her to her true kin… if the monsters along the way don’t kill her first.
So I’ll let you in on a secret — the author is Lila Bowen, but you might be more familiar with her real name, Delilah Dawson. And I think she’s at the top of her game with this one.
But want more? Don’t trust the editor (I know! I wouldn’t either!) How about these guys? Some early reviews are in for this awesome new hardcover:
“I don’t care what else you’ve seen in the bookstore today. Buy this book because it’s the thrilling, delightfully written, and important one you’ve always wanted to read.”
— Kevin Hearne
“Sharp as a silver Bowie and unsentimental as a stray bullet, Lila Bowen’s Nettie Lonesome earns a place among the legends of the Weird West.”
— Matthew Stover
“WAKE OF VULTURES doesn’t just fly — it soars. Delilah S. Dawson brings in a wild fantasy quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, with a voice that’s weird and wonderful. Dawson is truly a talent to watch. Hot damn, is this book good.”
— Chuck Wendig
Do you like cool SF adventures in space?
Do you like colossal starships and elite military teams?
Do you like just general awesomeness?!
Then we have something here that will be right up your street. We’re excited to present THE LAZARUS WAR: ARTEFACT (UK | US | ANZ) – the start of an explosive new space adventure series publishing digitally this March.
It’s from a talented new science fiction author called Jamie Sawyer. My excitement dial got turned up to 11 – hell, maybe even 12 – when I first read this book on submission.
It features Captain Conrad Harris, a man who has died hundreds of times. How so? Well . . . he’s the head of the Simulant Operations Program – an elite military team who remotely operate avatars in a war against an alien race. He runs suicide missions in deep-space battles where no real human could survive. But what happens when Harris finds himself stranded on a hostile alien planet without the use of his simulant bodies? For once, he may have to fight this war for real . . .
If you’re a fan of space opera and military science fiction like James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series and Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet books, or films like The Edge of Tomorrow, Avatar and Alien, then this is for you. The legend Jack Campbell himself describes this as “A gripping read that moves as warp speed.” Couldn’t say it better myself.
We’re releasing this on the 24th March as a low-price digital edition for a limited time. You can read a little snippet below for a taster . . . In the meantime, please welcome Jamie to Orbit list! You can find him on Twitter as @JSawyerAuthor.
“Do you wish you’d brought along a gun now, Mr Olsen?” asked Blake.
“I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” Olsen said, defensively. “I wouldn’t know how to.”
“I can’t think of a better time to learn,” Kaminski replied. “You know – ”
The overhead lights went out, corridor section by corridor section, until we were plunged into total darkness. Simultaneously, the humming generated by the life support module died. The sudden silence was thunderous, stretching out for long seconds.
“How did they do that?” Olsen started. His voice echoed off through the empty corridor like a gunshot, making me flinch. On a dead ship like the Haven, noise travelled. “Surely that wasn’t caused by the Krell – ?”
I held up a hand for silence.
Something creaked elsewhere in the ship –
“Scanners!” I whispered.
That slow, pitched beeping: a lone signal somewhere nearby…
“Contact!” Blake yelled.
In the jittery pool of light created by my shoulder-lamp, I saw something spring above us: just a flash of light, wet, fast . . .
Today, Orbit US & UK are very excited to announce the international acquisition of a new trilogy called the Seraphim by David Dalglish, author of the Shadowdance novels. We’ll be publishing the first, Skyborn, this November. I asked David to tell me about about why he is so excited about.
“With, I get to start from scratch in a brand new world, and try out ideas that wouldn’t work in a more traditional fantasy setting. But not everything’s changing. I love throwing fireballs around, and I love intricate sword fights. It’s what I do. It’s what I’m good at. In the Seraphim books, you’ll experience aerial battles at break-neck speed between elite soldiers flinging ice and fire and lightning at one another before clashing with their blades. How can you not have fun with that?”
Sounds good? I know! You can’t wait till November? Don’t worry. I’m reading it now and I’m telling you — its worth the wait!
Congratulations to two Orbit authors who have had their titles shortlisted for this year’s BSFA Awards!
Claire North’s THE FIRST FIFTEEN LIVES OF HARRY AUGUST (UK | US | ANZ) and Ann Leckie’s ANCILLARY SWORD (UK | US | ANZ) have both been nominated in the Best Novel category.
You can see the full list of nominees here.
Voting will now be opened to BSFA members and attending members of Eastercon. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the 66th Eastercon, aka Dysprosium, taking place from 3-6 April 2015.
We have two Butcher-tastic* announcements to share with you today!
The first is that Jim Butcher will be coming to the UK – he will be a Guest of Honour at Eastercon, Dysprosium, which is taking place in London from 3rd-6th April. In the days following he will be touring the country with exact dates yet to be announced. Watch this space!
We can also announce the publication date for THE CINDER SPIRES: THE AERONAUT’S WINDLASS, the first book in Jim’s brand new series of airborne adventure and mad sorcery. The book will be released in hardback and ebook on the 29th of September 2015 and it’s available to preorder now from major retailers.
In Jim’s own words, it’s “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Sherlock meets Hornblower. There are goggles and airships and steam power and bizarre crystal technology and talking cats, who are horrid little bullies.”
For all the latest updates on the new series and the UK tour, become a fan of Orbit UK on Facebook, and sign up to our newsletter.
We’re delighted to introduce Rob Boffard, author of the upcoming TRACER, a heart-stopping SF novel set in space which will be released next summer.
As a newbie to the Orbit list, we asked Rob a few questions about what we can expect from him in 2015 . . .
– Tell us a bit about yourself!
I come from Johannesburg, and can speak enough Zulu to prove it. I have glasses, terrible hair, and exceptionally long arms. I’m 29, obsessed with hip-hop, tattoos, plane tickets, snowboarding, and the Chicago Bulls. And good stories. Both telling them, and reading them.
For the majority of my adult life, I’ve worked as a journalist, being paid specifically to not make stuff up. The fact that I can now do the exact opposite at a place like Orbit is both weird and amazing.
– What can readers expect from your new book TRACER?
I wanted to make this the baddest, fastest, craziest, most intense scifi thriller you’re going to read next year, or any year after it. It’s set on a massive space station, Outer Earth, which holds the last humans in the universe. The station’s been there for a while – everything is broken, rusted, falling apart. Nothing works anymore. (more…)
As first lines go, this one’s a killer.
If you’re wondering what the next big thing in epic fantasy might be, then 14th April 2015 is a date you’re going to want to add to your calendar. Just saying.
