Archive for News

THE BLINDING KNIFE is a Bestseller!

Out now!THE BLINDING KNIFE (UK | US | AUS) by Brent Weeks is a New York Times bestseller,  a USA Today bestseller, and it was the bestselling fantasy hardcover in the US and the UK last week!

Congratulations to Brent from all of us at Orbit!

And remember, you can read a sample here, but be warned: there are spoilers ahead for those of you who may not have read the first book of the Lightbringer series. You can also read the first three chapters of THE BLACK PRISM (UK | US | AUS).

There are also a few more tour stops on the east coast before Brent crosses the Atlantic to visit UK readers. We’ve gotten numerous reports from fans who had a wonderful time. There was laughter. There was merriment and even a reading from book three. Visit the Brent Weeks Facebook page for full details.

*Goes live on Sunday the 23rd!

Iain M. Banks global launch event for The Hydrogen Sonata

Iain Banks

Orbit are excited to announce that Iain M. Banks will be participating in an international Google+ Hangout to celebrate the publication of THE HYDROGEN SONATA.  The event will take place on Thursday 27th September at 6pm BST, and Iain will be hanging out with Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton and a few lucky fans…

For a chance to be part of this amazing panel please post your best questions in the specially created event page and make sure that you have circled +Google Play to find out if you have been successfully shortlisted.  Don’t have a Google+ account but want to take part?  It’s easy, find out here.

For those of you who miss out, never fear, the Hangout will be broadcast, so you will be able to watch the discussion in real time, and your questions may still be asked.

The Hydrogen Sonata UK cover image

And for everyone in the UK, Iain will be touring in October:

Plus, Orbit and SFX are running a competition to interview Iain M. Banks in person!  For full details pick up the current issue of SFX, and to enter submit the ten questions you would ask Iain.

 

Which Tom Holt novel is right for you?

For the first time ever Tom Holt’s entire backlist is available to readers in the US in ebook. That’s 24 charming novels that will entertain and leave you in stitches with their humor and mayhem.

To find out which Tom Holt novel might be right for you, visit the new Tom Holt website where you can click through a fun, interactive survey to arrive at the perfect novel tailored to your heart’s desire. Will it be SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN SAMURAI? Or perhaps ODDS AND GODS where the gods are living out their immortal days in the Sunnyvoyde Residential Home.

It doesn’t matter if you are in the US or UK. Everyone can play along. So head on over to the Tom Holt website and discover which novels will satisfy your cravings. Happy reading!

Tom Holt website

 

FULL BLOODED blog tour

The cover for FULL BLOODED by Amanda Carlson - the start of a new urban fantasy shifter series perfect for fans of Rachel Vincent, Kelley Armstrong, Cassandra Clare and Patricia BriggsThe start of a simply irresistible new urban fantasy series, FULL BLOODED (UK | US | ANZ) by Amanda Carlson, is released today in the UK, and worldwide within a week!

If you’re into shifters, paranormal girls who know how to kick some ass, sexy supernatural men and all the good things that come along with them, then this book is for you. (Check out an extract here to confirm!)

To celebrate the release, Amanda is doing a mega-epic blog tour, visiting every corner of the interwebs. So you’re likely to see her stopping by at a pixel near you . . .

Check out all of the dates she’s already done below, as well as what’s still to come!

August 23: Goldilox and the Three Weres

August 26: Review at Literary Escapism

August 27: Between Dreams and Reality

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FULL BLOODED – urban fantasy doesn’t get much hotter . . .

This year’s hottest new urban fantasy will be released this September, and excitement is already building on the interwebs! It’s from debut author Amanda Carlson, and is called FULL BLOODED (UK | US | ANZ), book one of the Jessica McClain novels.

Jessica’s the only female in an all-male werewolf race – and unlucky for her, it seems her very existence might spell out the doom of the werewolf race. It certainly ain’t easy being a girl sometimes . . .

The urban fantasy/ shifter novel Hot Blooded by the debut author Amanda Carlson, endorsed by Faith HunterThe urban fantasy/ shifter novel Full Blooded by the debut author Amanda Carlson, endorsed by Karen Chance

Shown above are the shiny, shiny covers for FULL BLOODED and HOT BLOODED (out next April). They should give you a glimpse of the sexy excitement and adventure in store.

But if you just can’t wait until September to read book 1, don’t forget that you can get your hands on a piece of shifter Jessica McClain already! There is a novella available called BLOODED which gives an insight into her world, and it in fact acts as a great prequel to FULL BLOODED. (more…)

Cover launch! FADE TO BLACK by Francis Knight

Today we can unveil the cover for one of the most exciting debut fantasy novels you’re going to see next year.

Presenting: FADE TO BLACK by the estimable Francis Knight, to be released worldwide by Orbit in February 2013.

We’d like to welcome you all to the fantasy world of Mahala. It’s a towering city that rises up from the deep, dark depths of a valley.

Mahala is built up in layers, not across – with streets piled upon streets, and buildings balancing precariously upon buildings. It’s a city that the Ministry rules from its lofty perch at the sunlit summit, and where the forsaken lurk in the shadowy depths of the Pit.

This compelling tale follows the story of Rojan Dizon – a bounty hunter who’s grown up in the shadows of Mahala. Everyone knows he’s a rogue, a womaniser, a shirker of all responsibility. But what they don’t know is that he’s also a pain-mage: someone able to draw magic from his own and other people’s pain. Rojan’s not keen on using his abilities, but when his niece is abducted and taken to the dark depths of the Pit, he’ll be forced to unleash his powers to find her.

We jumped at the chance to publish Fade to Black – because the world that Francis has created just blew us away. It’s both awe-inspiring and vertigo-inducing, and Rojan’s tale makes the story just un-damn-put-downable. Think of the murky atmosphere of Sin City, filled with the action and pace of Brent Weeks or Scott Lynch.

I could go on about it for days, but all you have to know is this: FADE TO BLACK is the fantasy debut to look out for next spring. So remember one and all: That season, black is most definitely back!

Cover launch! BLOODFIRE QUEST by Terry Brooks

The fantasy novel The Dark Legacy of Shannara Book Two: Bloodfire Quest by Terry Brooks, endorsed by Brent WeeksThis week, we’re supremely excited to be releasing the first book in a brand new series from the master of fantasy Terry Brooks. It’s The Dark Legacy of Shannara Book One: WARDS OF FAERIE (UK |ANZ).

It’s what all Terry’s fans have been crying out for: a series that returns to Terry’s core world of Shannara, and I can assure you this is what we’ve all been waiting for . . .

But before we release the book later this week, we wanted to unveil the stunning new cover for book 2 in that series: BLOODFIRE QUEST, released in March 2013. It’s from the highly talented illustrator Stephen Youll – thanks Steve for another great cover!

I hope you’ll all agree that with these two books, we’re establishing a stunning new look for Terry – something that really shows off the grandeur, the edge-of-your-seat excitement and, for this series in particular, the truly thrilling darkness of his writing. See both covers for the series below in their full-size splendour . . .

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BITTER SEEDS – a classified report

C L A S S I F I E DThe briliant debut novel BITTER SEEDS from Ian Tregillis - a supernatural alternate history of World War II where British Warlocks combat Nazi superhumans   I N F O R M A T I O N

YEAR: 1939.                 PROJECT: Milkweed

Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence recently seized a damaged reel of film from enemy territory.

It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.

This film, along with other classified reports, confirms our worst fears: that a Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers.

British Intelligence may be forced to resort to our own dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.

– – – End of report – – –

Bitter Seeds (UK | ANZ), the phenomenal debut novel from Ian Tregillis, is released today. Read an extract here.

‘A major talent . . . I can’t wait to see more’ George R. R. Martin 

‘Mad English warlocks battling twisted Nazi psychics? Yes please, thank  you . . . A white-knuckle plot, beautiful  descriptions, and complex  characters’ Cory Doctorow

‘Remarkable . . . A confident and thrilling debut’ SFX Magazine

‘ Just superb’ Fantasy Book Critic

‘Tregillis delivers a dynamite first novel in Bitter Seeds’ SFRevu

‘Nothing short of an awesome read as far as I’m concerned’ Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

‘Easily one of the most impressive debut works I’ve read’ Bookworm Blues

New details emerge about Red Country

We’re super excited to publish RED COUNTRY  this fall. Our new on sale date is October 23, 2012 and we hope you love a sneak peak at this awesome description newly minted by Joe!

They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing.  She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company.  But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own.  And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts.  Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . .

Blue Blooded Vamp is out now!

BLUE-BLOODED VAMP (US |  UK | AUS) is the final novel in the Jaye Wells series. It has everything you would want in a urban fantasy novel: vampires, blood, action – and a bit of romance thrown in.  I can’t believe that I’ve worked on these novels for so long! Insane! But they’re one of the fastest and most fun UF that’s out there right now. A bit about the story:

 Sabina Kane is on the hunt. Her prey: Cain, the father of the vampire race and the one who murdered her family and her friends. Unfortunately, Cain is hunting Sabina too.

The one man who holds the key to defeating Cain is, of course, Abel. A mage with secrets to spare and, hopefully, the power to match it. Unfortunately, for Sabina, he’s in Rome and may not want to be found.

Sabina sets out for Italy with her friends, Giguhl and Adam Lazarus, to track down the only man who can get her the revenge she hungers for. But will he help her or oppose her? And just who is Abel, really? Worst of all, when Sabina figures out the goddess Lilith has a plan for her-she realizes this trip is getting deadlier by the minute. As they say: when in Rome-SURVIVE.

But don’t listen to me:

 “Jaye Wells is the next coming of Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison.”
— Paul Goat Allen, bn.com, on Green-Eyed Demon

But not to worry – even with the publication of the final book, which I know you guys are drooling to read, there is more exciting news! Jaye will be doing a new series – Dirty Magic (imagine The Wire with Wizards), coming soon…. More on that later.