Archive for News

Just another day at the office… IN HELL!

Lilith Saintcrow’s third novel in the Dante Valentine series is just out in the US. (It will be available in the UK from Orbit in November)

If you haven’t checked them out – you should – especially since we’re reissuing the first two books with brand new covers, along with #3! I’ve posted the covers below. There’s also a Dante Valentine desktop wallpaper at Lilith’s site (it’s especially appropriate if your boss is demonic)

The Devil’s Right Hand

The final two books will be out in November 07 and January 08.

Saint City Sinners

To Hell And Back

And even more exciting – for those who want a sneak peak — here is the first book in the Jill Kismet series Night Shift, due out July 2008.

Night Shift

Introducing The Electric Church

Electric Church Ad

We’ve told you about Jeff Somers’ compulsory blog (*), now check out the-electric-church.com , a front for the actual Electric Church that purports to be an “official” book site. The site includes a puzzle of such devious design most of the Orbit team is convinced no one will solve it. (Jeff and I have more faith in the amateur codebreakers out there) Visit the site to take a crack at it. Or just poke around and chat with a Monk-bot to learn more about Dennis Squalor. You can also read the first chapter of The Electric Church here.

(*) Jeff Somers’ blog is not actually compulsory (but then we would say that, wouldn’t we.)

Science Fiction Awards Watch

The team behind the late, lamented SF review site Emerald City, Cheryl Morgan and Kevin Standlee, have launched a new online project, Science Fiction Awards Watch. They describe the purpose of the new site:

So what is this all about? Well, there are few things that the science fiction community likes to talk about more than awards, so we thought it might be good to have a central place where these conversations can take place . . . We have a number of fine critics who have offered to participate in discussions here from time to time, and we are looking for more . . . There will also be public debate. After all, the Hugo Award winners will be announced very soon now, and somehow that always results in a storm of controversy around the blogosphere. Which is why we are launching this site now. We are coming up to what we expect to be the busiest time of the year for award controversies.

You can find out more on their site.

Brian Ruckley Interview

Brian Ruckley

Brain Ruckley talks with Aiden Moher at A Dribble of Ink. It’s a wide-ranging discussion, covering Winterbirth, Bloodheir (the second novel in the trilogy, out next spring from Orbit) as well as the trauma of seeing a favorite book adapted to the screen:

“When I saw that trailer it was a bit like someone kicking in the door of your house, making straight for the cupboard where you keep the best-loved toys of your early years and beating on them with a sledgehammer.”

Brian blogs at www.brianruckley.com, and you can read an excerpt of the book here.

Philip Palmer’s Breaking Point

Philip has been pretty busy recently, what with checking the proofs for Debatable Space and finishing the first draft of his next book for Orbit — it’s no wonder the strain is starting to tell . . . But seriously, Philip has been doing a huge amount of work in recent months for his new radio play for Radio 4, and you can catch this tonight from 9-10pm.

The play is entitled Breaking Point and is an insightful and powerful exploration into psychological manipulation, and how to ‘break’ people in interrogation. We see the story from an unusual perspective as we follow Jon Starkey, undergoing training to become a British Army interrogator. As the drama unfolds, we see the effects on him and his family as he joins the ‘war against terror’. Philip talks about the play on his blog and you can also find out more on Radio 4’s site.

If you miss the play on Friday, you can listen for a further week after broadcast, courtesy of Radio 4’s ‘listen again’ facility. Philip has also written an interesting piece on the making and recording of the play, an engaging read.

Radio 4 describes its Friday plays as “strong stories that reflect the world: entertaining, emotionally engaging and challenging” and Breaking Point will certainly be all of these things.

A Cultural Matter

Here’s a question: whose next SF novel features spaceships with the following names?

Now We Try It My Way

Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall

Subtle Shift in Emphasis

Liveware Problem

Don’t Try This At Home

You’ll Clean That Up Before You Leave

Without doubt one of the most highly anticipated SF novels to be published next year, Matter is the new novel from Iain M. Banks, the UK’s bestselling SF author. It’s a Culture novel — the first for 8 years — and Iain has just delivered the final manuscript. And I’ve just read it. And . . . WOW!!! (that’s a technical publishing term). Being a Culture novel, we’ve also got a whole heap of new Culture ship names to look forward to. My favourite today is Don’t Try This At Home. We’re scheduled to publish Matter in the UK and the US in February next year, and here’s a sneak peek of the cover:

Matter Cover

A Devil of a Short List

Mike Carey

Mike Carey
(photo: Charlie Hopkinson)

Much ecstatic piping on the tin whistle (Clarke original, key of D, natch) greeted the news that Mike Carey’s superb debut The Devil You Know, featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor, has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel.

The award will be presented at Fantasycon in Nottingham this September, which Mike will be attending — along with fellow Orbit author Terry Brooks, who is one of the Guests of Honour.

You can read an extract of The Devil You Know here.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, and our best wishes to Mike — everyone at Orbit is hoping for a well-deserved win for Felix Castor’s first outing.

Orbit UK to Distribute Yen Press Manga

We’re delighted to announce that from September 2007, Orbit UK is going to be distributing titles from Yen Press, the new manga line set up by our sister company, Hachette Book Group USA. We’re extremely excited at this development, and are looking forward to the first titles being available next month.

You can find out more about Yen Press, and forthcoming titles, on their website.

You can read the official press release here (you’ll need Acrobat Reader, available free from this link).

A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

No, not the Orbit Christmas Party (although . . . ); we’re talking about virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which seem to be being invaded by a new wave of cyber-crooks. There have been two stories floating about teh Intarwebs recently, involving criminal action in Second Life. Why do we care? Apart from a deeply held concern for our fellow beings, obviously? Because Orbit author Charles Stross anticipated them both. Who says SF can’t predict the future?

In an amazing case of (second) life imitating art, this story circulated a little over a week ago, outlining the theft of $3.2 million Linden Dollars from Second Life. This is scarily close to the central theme of Charlie’s forthcoming Halting State. We don’t publish Halting State until January 2008, but remember Charlie wrote it last year, so it still counts as prophecy! And as if that wasn’t enough Nostradamus-like gazing through the veil of time, we just spotted this on the website of The Australian newspaper. Again, Mr Stross was there first. The advent of virtual terrorism was outlined in this article Charlie wrote for online gaming site Guildcafé last March.

At the risk of taking liberties with Oscar Wilde’s famous wit: to predict one future event can be seen as fortunate, to predict two begins to look like cleverness.

So, if you want to know what the future might look like, read Charles Stross. He can’t do the lottery numbers (we checked) but there are few better authorities on emergent technology and how it might affect our lives.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Charlie Huston

Charlie Huston
(photo: Karin Kohlberg)

I’ve just been looking through the fourth issue of Death Ray, which, it’s pleasing to report, is full of nice things.

First up is a terrific interview with Charlie Huston, talking about his Joe Pitt books, his thrillers and his work for Marvel Comics on Moon Knight. Later in the issue, there’s a fantastic review of the new Joe Pitt book, No Dominion:

Bloody great . . . brilliantly rendered . . . The dialogue is exquisite, pared-down and telling you as much by what’s not said as by what is . . . it’s deceptively simple; there’s actually loads going on here, with relationships deepened, politics furthered, events put into motion and firmer shape given to the overall arc of the series . . . the result is a thrilling read that you’ll want to gulp down in a single draft.

Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks
(photo: Judine Brooks)

Fifty pages later, there’s a flagship feature on Terry Brooks — there’s an extremely expansive interview, touching on all aspects of his work; a selection of eight of his best books with accompanying reviews; and an interview with literary agent John Jarrold, who has published Terry at various stages in his career and outlines Terry’s enduring appeal and the enormous influence his work has had on the genre. The piece concludes:

Whether it’s his affable style, his prodigious capacity to feed his fans with new books, or the simple fact that he can spin a fine yarn is unimportant: Terry Brooks remains one of the most successful fantasy writers ever, and probably will remain so for many years to come.

The first volume in Terry’s new series The Genesis of Shannara, Armageddon’s Children is out now in paperback, and Terry will be touring the UK in September to promote his new title The Elves of Cintra — watch this space for details!