Archive for News

Andy Remic unleashed in ebook!

Ever feel like you need more adrenaline-fuelled adventure in your life, where technological gadgetry and big explosions come as standard? If so, then you’re in luck: today sees the ebook releases of Andy Remic’s turbo-charged techo-thrillers, SPIRAL, QUAKE and WARHEAD.

In Remic’s future vision of Earth, nuclear warheads can be hidden in a suitcase, bio-plagues can be held in a teardrop . . . and the elite organisation known as Spiral is humanity’s last line of defence against global armageddon. Operating in secret, Spiral fights a constant war against rogue states, deadly assassins and ruthless dictators that will not stop at anything to get what they want – even if it means the Earth’s destruction.

Praise for Andy Remic’s Spiral trilogy:

Hugely entertaining and packed with more explosive action scenes than is probably decent, SPIRAL starts off loud and ends in a bang” WATERSTONE’S BOOKS QUARTERLY

“Spiral is certainly chock full of action … ideal summer reading if you’re looking for something filmic” SFRevu

“A new writer who knows what a regular reader sitting on the bus wants – action . . . Pure Die Hard, pure Rambo. This has got to be a film, surely!” LADSMAG 

“Fans of the action adventure genre will not be disappointed by SPIRAL . . .  A light, fast read with quick action” THE REVIEWS PAGE

About the author:

ANDY REMIC is a larger-than-life action man, chainsaw warrior and chef. He has written a variety of thriller, SF and fantasy novels, and sometimes delves into the murky underworld of teaching. If pushed to describe himself, Remic claims to have a love of extreme sports, violent computer games and kickass bikes. Andy is also married and has sired two strapping young boy cubs. Remic is now working on various new SF and fantasy projects, and threatens he will never stop writing.

Andy can be found on the web at his personal website.

Keep your eyes peeled for a couple of articles from Andy in the near future!

Kelley Armstrong’s SPELL BOUND is a Sunday Times bestseller!

We’re delighted to confirm that Kelley Armstrong’s latest novel,  SPELL BOUND (UK | ANZ), will be at #9 on the Sunday Times hardback fiction bestseller list this weekend!

Everyone at Orbit extends their congratulations to Kelley for this much-deserved success.

SPELL BOUND is the penultimate title in Kelley’s hugely popular Women of the Otherworld series. The final book will be called 13 and is due to be released in summer 2012.

Kelley recently spoke more about the series here.

Orbit acquires IRON DRUID trilogy by Kevin Hearne

Current US covers for Iron Druid series

I’m very pleased to announce that Orbit UK has acquired an imaginative, witty and action-packed new urban fantasy trilogy which is currently getting a huge buzz in the US.

The Iron Druid trilogy by Kevin Hearne is set in Arizona and introduces us to Atticus O’Sullivan. He’s a rare book salesman, herb peddler, and 2,000 year old druid – the last of his kind – who has been on the run for over two millennia from a very angry ancient Celtic god. The books are set in the modern day world, where gods, myths, and magic are very much alive.  The first book HOUNDED primarily features the many Celtic gods; HEXED will focus on Coyote and the Bacchants; HAMMERED will be about a plot against Thor. (Everybody hates Thor.)

Kevin Hearne was also excited about the deal, saying: ‘I’m thrilled to be with Orbit UK and hope people will enjoy this blend of history and legend dropped into the modern world. The rich mythology of the Irish is endlessly fascinating to me, and an allusion to British lore in HOUNDED will eventually become important later in the series as Atticus finds himself in trouble near Windsor Castle.’

I first read the manuscript for HOUNDED in 2009 but it was before I moved to Orbit, and although I loved the story, I couldn’t see a way to make it work on my list back then (I was mainly publishing crime thrillers). When I heard the Iron Druid series was still looking for a UK home I couldn’t believe my luck, and I’m delighted to be bringing Atticus to the UK after all. And since we’re publishing these books this September, October and November, I don’t have long to wait to share them with everyone else here too. You’re in for a treat!

The Man, the Plan, the Challenge – this weekend

THE MAN
Tim Lebbon is an award-winning, New York Times-bestselling writer from South Wales — and he’s looking forward to two big events over the next two months. One, dare I say it, is Orbit’s publication of his amazing gritty fantasy Echo City (UK | ANZ) in July. But the other will be rather more dangerous …

THE PLAN
You might wonder how fantasy writers do their worldbuilding, and Tim Lebbon will be gathering a LOT of new material this weekend. Today, Tim and four of his friends are driving to Fort William in Scotland, ready to begin the Three Peaks Challenge – the challenge being to scale all three peaks in three days. OMG.

The adventure will commence with the ascent of Ben Nevis tomorrow at 5pm, with the team hoping to descend before 11pm. This sounds dangerous enough already to me – mountaineering, in the dark?! But this is only the start. They next drive to Scafell Pike in Cumbria and start that climb early on Sunday morning, head-torches on full-beam. Then it’s on to Snowdon where, if everything goes to plan (…) they’ll finish their descent by 5pm, thus completing the challenge in 24 hours. Tim seemed very sure that no part of the climb would take place on the train either, definitely not. So, the group are aiming to collect some foot-miles of almost 10,000 feet of ascent and descent, with 27 miles walked, as well as about 500 miles in a mini-bus. As I write this, it’s thundering here in London, so fingers crossed for him up north.

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THE HEIR OF NIGHT triumphs at the Vogel awards!

I am absolutely delighted to report that Helen Lowe won New Zealand’s premier genre award for Best Novel over the  weekend, with her wonderful epic fantasy adventure The Heir of Night. The award was actually shared this year, as Lyn McConchie’s  The Questing Road also took the top spot, showing the strength of the shortlist. The Sir Julius Vogel awards were announced at the ConText convention and  Helen talks more about the award on her blog — and we couldn’t be more excited for her.

Robin Hobb called this wonderful epic fantasy adventure ‘a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world’. I can’t recommend it highly enough myself and suggest that you get right out and discover all the dark treachery-ness of it for yourselves! Happy reading.

Awards news

We are very happy to have not just one, but several pieces of good news on the awards front, in no particular order:

First of all, Helen Lowe’s The Heir of Night has been nominated in two categories for the prestigious Sir Julius Vogel New Zealand genre awards. She’s up for Best Novel for the book itself and Peter Fitzpatrick has been nominated for Best Professional Artwork for his wonderful map. We’ll be crossing our fingers in the lead up to the awards, to be announced at New Zealand’s ConText convention on 3rd – 6th June in just a few weeks.

Congratulations also go to Marianne de Pierres who has won the award for best Science Fiction Novel at the Aurealis Awards for her novel Transformation Space.

Finally, don’t forget to vote for your favourite book for this year’s Gemmell Awards. We’re strongly represented across all three categories, firstly with three titles in the running for the Legend Award for best fantasy novel: The War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz, Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson, and The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. We also have The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin nominated for the Morningstar award for best fantasy debut. And lastly, this book is nominated yet again in the Gemmell’s Ravenheart category for best fantasy book cover, with Cliff Neilson as illustrator and our Lauren Panepinto as designer.

Good luck to the shortlisted nominees and congratulations again to Marianne de Pierres!

USE OF WEAPONS voted The Best Sci-Fi Film Never Made

Tech news site The Register recently held a poll to ask readers which SF book most deserves to make it to the big screen, but has up until now been shamefully overlooked by the Hollywood bigwigs. An impressive 27,088 people voted, and the winner – with a stunning 10,032 votes – was Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.

It seems Iain is a popular choice, with Consider Phlebas, Excession, The Player of Games and The Algebraist all also making it into the top 50. But Use of Weapons was the clear favourite.

So what more evidence does Hollywood need? It’ll be a sure fire hit – get it into production straight away!

You can see the results of ‘The Best Sci-Fi Film Never Made’ poll right here. But the question is: who should play the leading man Zakalwe…?

Coming Soon: Perfect Shadow, by Brent Weeks

Brent Weeks burst onto the fantasy scene in 2008 with the launch of his internationally bestselling Night Angel Trilogy, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.  Now, he’s returning to the world of The Night Angel Trilogy with Perfect Shadow, a novella that tells the origin story of the legendary assassin Durzo Blint.

The ebook edition of Perfect Shadow will be available in the US and the UK in June, 2011. It will be simultaneously released as an unabridged audiobook for digital download, online where books and music are sold.

In the official press release, Brent explains: “When I wrote Perfect Shadow, I was afraid it was going to fall into a publishing no-man’s land: too short to be distributed as a novel, too long to be sold as a short story. Orbit’s digital publishing has given me a way to get this story out. More than that, it’s given me the artistic freedom to write a story exactly as long as it needs to be.”
We’re glad he did! You can find the novella’s description after the jump. (more…)