Archive for News

When Will You Rise?

www.theFEEDBOOK.com
FEED has arrived and with it all the zombie noshing, political savvy, and smart-assed badassery you can handle. This isn’t your parent’s zombie story, although we’re pretty sure Mira Grant knows where the bodies are hidden…

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we had created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives– the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

Head on over to www.theFEEDBOOK.com where you can learn the history of The Wall, find out more about the bloggers who saved the world when the mainstream media fell apart, get a glimpse of the web circa 2040, and read the first chapter! Plus keep an eye on our Twitter feed @orbitbooks for chances to win a copy of the book all day.

After the jump, have a look at some zombieriffic ads from 2040! (more…)

Lend your voice to the cast of the Avery Cates series

Ever think you know exactly how a character in a novel should sound? Think you could put on a good performance of playing that character yourself?

Well Jeff Somers has set up a competition in which you have the chance to do just that. For the official website of his next novel, The Terminal State (UK/ US), Jeff is creating four mini video clips to represent four different characters from his series. He’s already provided some superb images to depict the nature of each character, and mini excerpts from the book have been supplied as scripts.

All that’s missing is you – the reading public – to put on your best acting voices and provide voiceovers for the videos. Whichever voice clip that Jeff feels best represents each character will be used on the final site. Visit this site to hear some examples that Jeff has provided himself, such as the one below. There, you’ll also find more information on how you can get creative and start sending in your own voiceover submissions. 

 

Changeless becomes a New York Times Bestseller!

Changeless by Gail Carriger just hit the New York Times best seller list at #20!

Congratulations to Gail!

Whoo hoo!! We’re over the moon over here and hope you share in our excitement! I need to go find a football team so I can practice chest bumping!

You can check out the first chapter here or check out the video on how we made the cover for the upcoming Blameless here.

Environmentally-sound Ebooks!

Orbit is delighted, excited and not a little proud to announce the development of the world’s first 100% biodegradable ebook. As you all know (Bob), the problem with the current crop of ebooks is that the electrons that make up the work have a carbon cost. Certainly, the environmental impact of ebooks is much lower than for traditional publishing, but it is a finite and measurable amount.

Electron
An electron, yesterday

Not anymore!  Orbit’s proprietary new ‘Brigadoon’ e-formatting allows for a 100% carbon-free reading experience. By exposing the ebook file to a short burst of Cherenkov Radiation upon delivery, the electrons composing the file actually decay into lower-energy electrons and tachyons after the first reading. The new, low-powered electrons return to the environment at a net carbon cost of practically zero, while the tachyons, as is their nature, travel backwards in time to replace the ebook file that has just disappeared during the decay of the electrons that formed it.

To explain in layman’s terms: the electrons return to the environment and the ebook effectively travels backwards in time, reinventing itself before each reading causes it to cease to exist. With reference to Clarke’s Third Law, we hope you’ll forgive us a triumphant ‘Hey, presto!’

All of Orbit’s April titles will be available in Brigadoon as well as epub format from all good replicators.

Sony options Jeff Somers!

Fantastic news: Sony have optioned the movie rights to Jeff Somers’ Avery Cates novels. A very wise move in our opinion, as there’s no doubt that these books would make the most awesomely full-throttle, kick-ass movies ever.

Read all about it here, and if you haven’t been lucky enough to experience the explosive, pedal-to-the-metal action-fests that are the Avery Cates novels yet, check out the third instalment, The Eternal Prison (UK/US/ANZ), released in February in the UK and Austalia, and already available in US. And while you’re at it, why not take a peek at our very attractive reissues of The Electric Church (UK/US/ANZ) and The Digital Plague (UK/US/ANZ).

Mike Cobley’s SF news frenzy

To follow on from Darren’s post, Michael Cobley has started his year with a bit of a roar. The mass market of Seeds of Earth was out yesterday. Then book two of this trilogy, The Orphaned Worlds is out in April (see the amazing cover, right) and Michael’s not slowing down any time soon …

He has a short story, Black Fragmentia, out in the latest edition of PS Publishing’s Postscripts Quarterly (PS 20/21). Then The Maker’s Mark (set in the Seeds of Earth universe) is to appear in Newcon Press’s Conflicts short story anthology, due out in February/March 2010. March will also see Michael at  Glasgow’s Aye Write festival as one of their featured authors. Amongst other things, he’ll be participating in a panel entitled ‘The Early Days of a Better Future’, along with other genre authors Ken Macleod, Richard Morgan, Hal Duncan and Debbie Miller. Then, in April, Michael will be at this year’s annual SF/F Eastercon convention where he’ll be chairing a couple of panels.

And lastly, as a treat for his fans, Michael is running a little competition to give away copies of the Seeds of Earth mass market edn. On ruminating his test question, Michael says he swung ‘between absurdly easy (how many letters are there in Greg’s surname and can you chew gum and walk at the same time?) or arcanely obscure (what is the Irish Gaelic translation of the 5th word on the 9th line on page 156?)’ but ultimately he went for something inbetween, and see here for more details. The deadline is 28th Jan … unless he changes it.

Looks like Michael has a busy Spring season ahead, and we’ll be keeping an eye on his rather stellar trajectory. Go Mike!

D is for The Deed of Paksenarrion

And D is for The Deed of Paksenarrion, an omnibus edition of Elizabeth Moon‘s much loved fantasy series. Comprising The Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold, this massive tome is a wonderful read in its own right but also serves to whet the appetite for Elizabeth’s first new fantasy in almost two decades. Oath of Fealty will be published in March, but meanwhile, you can discover for yourself what prompted praise like this:

‘Engrossing’ Anne McCaffrey 

‘A superlative fantasy trilogy’ Booklist

‘Elves, dark sorcery, and high chivalry … thrilling’ blogcritics.org 

and you can read an extract from The Deed of Paksenarrion here.