WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE METROZONE COMING IN
Waterloo – 30/03/2011 – 1100 hours:
Southbank – 30/03/2011 – 1500 hours:
Stockwell – 30/03/2011 – 1700 hours:
REPORT YOUR SIGHTINGS TO THE AUTHORITIES HERE.
READ A SAFETY ADVISORY ABOUT THE METROZONE HERE.
THROUGHOUT THE CAPITAL, THE SIGNS ARE APPEARING
THE APOCALYPSE IS ALMOST HERE
AND WHAT WILL REMAIN IS THE LONDON METROZONE
WE STRONGLY ADVISE THAT YOU MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE INZONE
INDIVIDUALS LEFT IN THE OUTZONE WILL NOT BE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP
BORDERS WILL SOON BE CLOSING
FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO GAIN ENTRY, VISIT THE NEW OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE
We’re thrilled to launch the Orbit podcast, hosted by Jack Womack. The first episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Joe Abercrombie, whose new book, THE HEROES, is out now. Subjects covered include: hand-to-hand combat, warfare and film, gallows humor, death metal, the American Civil War, and more. You can listen to the full episode below, or subscribe on itunes or the RSS feed.
UPDATE: It looks like some people are having problems downloading via itunes. It should be resolved shortly, but if you can’t download directly, try subscribing to the podcast in itunes.
The general public often thinks science fiction writers are supposed to predict the future.
Science fiction writers, of course, know better.
Sometimes, all the same, fiction and reality unexpectedly — and uncannily — overlap.
The narrative of Walter Jon Williams’ new novel DEEP STATE, correlates in any number of ways with the ongoing situation in Egypt. He writes about how he came about he did this, and what he thinks about it, both as the latest Big Idea at John Scalzi’s Whatever, and on io9.com today.
Check out what he has to say — then go read the book, to see for yourself.
We’re delighted to see four Orbit titles on io9’s ’15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010′ list!
The four titles are as follows:
THE WINDUP GIRL by Paolo Bacigalupi
“One of the strengths of The Windup Girl, other than its intriguing characters, is Bacigalupi’s world building. You can practically taste this future Thailand he’s built…It’s rare to find a writer who can create such well-shaded characters while also building a weird new future world.”
SURFACE DETAIL by Iain M. Banks
“This triumphant return to Banks’ beloved Culture series wasn’t just one of the best books we read this year – it’s also one of the best books in a series full of outstanding tales of far-future astropolitics. A character study and a tale of revolutionary change that shakes multiple civilizations, Surface Detail is a smart, satiric look at what happens to the concept of Hell in a posthuman galaxy.”
FEED by Mira Grant
“The action scenes (crossbows!) and setting were what kept me going all the way to its very emotional end, which I think is a testament to how well-written the characters and setting are…The first in the proposed Newsflesh trilogy, Feed is a thought-provoking and entertaining read that makes me eager to see what Grant will serve in her next novel, BLACKOUT.”
THE BROKEN KINGDOMS by N. K. Jemisin
“Someone has found a way to kill gods, and unless Oree discovers the truth, the gods and this new god-slaying serial killer will tear the city apart between them. It’s the set up for a really great mystery, but Jemisin manages to turn it into a thought-provoking, haunting story…that keeps you turning pages long past your bedtime.”
Plenty of other Orbit books made various ‘best of 2010’ lists – see our earlier post for the full details!
We are pleased to announce that Orbit titles are once again plentifully represented in this year’s Best Of lists, including those at Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, the Times of London, NPR and more.
Congratulations to all of our recognized authors as we look forward to having Orbit books appear on even more lists in 2011! This year’s full rundown appears after the jump.
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We are very excited to announce that the print edition of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi hits retailers in the UK today, fabulously garbed in it’s wonderful cover as seen in this spiral of windup-ness here …
We released the book in ebook form prior to the print edition, so those of you teched up with e-devices might already have had the pleasure, but it was very exciting to see the print edition enter the office still cold from the warehouse. Not sure what kind of preservation method they use on them there. You can get a FREE EXTRACT here, and in case this multiple award-winning book needs further introduction, here are just some of the highlights below:
Time Magazine named The Windup Girl as one of its ten best novels of the year
The book has also won five of 2010’s major international SF awards: the Hugo (as covered in the Guardian here), Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook Award and John W. Campbell Memorial Award
‘Bacigalupi is a worthy successor to William Gibson: this is cyberpunk without computers’ Time Magazine
‘Not since William Gibson’s pioneering cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer (1984), has a first novel excited science fiction readers as much’ The Washington Post
‘Heart-thudding action sequences, sordid sex, and enough technical speculation for two lesser novels’ Cory Doctorow
‘One of the finest SF novels of the year’ Publishers Weekly
‘It’s ridiculous how good this book is’ Techland
We’re very pleased to announce that two new Orbiteers will shortly be joining the editorial team in the UK.
Anne Clarke, currently a commissioning editor at Hodder & Stoughton, will be taking up the role of Editorial Director. She will be working with our editors, overseeing the publishing program, acquiring and editing her own authors, asking us to make cups of tea for her . . . no, forget that last one. Anne will be starting in the New Year.
Also joining us, on 6th December, will be James Long – our new Editorial Assistant. James may be known to you for his excellent blog, Speculative Horizons. This will be his first job in publishing, and – sorry though we are that Speculative Horizons won’t be continuing – we’re delighted to welcome him on board.
US readers! From November 23 to December 7, the full text of Greg Bear’s HULL ZERO THREE will be available for free on the just-launched Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! The novel will also be available in hardcover and ebook editions in bookstores.
The Starbucks Digital Network offers customers access to premium, free content on the in-store Wi-Fi network. Customers will be able to access the complete text of HULL ZERO THREE on their laptops, tablets, and many smart phones.
Stop by your local Starbucks, put in your order, have a seat, open your laptop, log on. You’ll find HULL ZERO THREE in the Bookish Reading Club on the network’s Entertainment channel.
WARNING: While reading, maintain a firm grip on your coffee at all times in case of unexpected gravitational anomalies.
HULL ZERO THREE is Science Fiction legend Greg Bear’s highly anticipated return to deep space. Publishers Weekly called it: “a beautifully written tale where nothing is as it seems,” and Locus Magazine says HULL ZERO THREE is “a testament of faith both in human beings and in something beyond them.”
We’re very happy to announce that in a remarkable showing, three of the five books selected by Publishers Weekly as the best science fiction/fantasy titles of 2010 are published by Orbit — THE BONE PALACE by Amanda Downum, FEED by Mira Grant, and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS/THE BROKEN KINGDOMS (a two-for-one deal!) by N.K. Jemisin.
Congratulations to our authors!! And if you haven’t yet gotten around to these books — happy reading!
