Archive for Contents

What would you put in your apocalypse pack?

The year is 2014.  A virus has been released that is turning the majority of the population into rabid, flesh-eating monsters. NOT COOL. You’re being forced to flee your home and can only take three things with you . . . tough call, but what would you pack?

To celebrate the fact that Feed (UK/US/AUS) is now out in the UK, we asked the author Mira Grant for her top three zombie-apocalpyse essentials. Every gal’s gotta have ’em! They are the following:

1) My house earthquake kit. Yes, it’s cheating a little, but if I have an apocalypse, I’m going to grab my pre-packed backpack full of water purification tablets, protein bars, multi-vitamins, first aid supplies, and knives.  That’s what an earthquake kit is for.

2) A folding stock pump shotgun. Simple, effective, commonly used by law enforcement agencies, which will make ammunition easy to find once the initial looting of the Wal-Marts and gun shops has otherwise exhausted the supply.

3) My easily irritated, extremely clingy Siamese cat. Not even a zombie is going to function very well when hit with a face full of pissed-off clawing white thing with a score to settle.  And trust me, you make her go outside, she’s got a score to settle with you.

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Griffin spotted in Trafalgar Square!

The griffins have landed in the UK! Here’s one of the majestic beasts caught on camera causing havoc in London just today. With the arrival of these ferocious creatures of fire, it may be that half of the city will turn to desert by this evening . . .

We’re wondering if you’ve spotted any griffins in your local vicinity? Send your reports and photos to orbit@littlebrown.co.uk and we’ll reward the five most vigilant (and creative) people with copies of the first two books in the Griffin Mage series: Lord of the Changing Winds (UK/US/AUS) and Land of Burning Sands (UK/ US/ AUS). They’re released this month and next month in the UK, and are already available in the US.

The author, Rachel Neumeier – a long-term griffin observer and specialist – may be able to offer some helpful advice for dealing with any griffin nuisances in your local area. You can read Rachel’s account of what happens when griffins and humans clash on the SFX website. And for further information on the author, see her brand new website, launched just last week: www.rachelneumeier.com

Interview With Tom Holt

BLONDE BOMBSHELL is Tom Holt’s hilarious science-fictional debut and features one of the most fiendishly clever weapons of mass destruction you are likely to encounter. With the future of mankind possibly at stake, we did what any publisher would do. We asked the author some questions and then hid under a table.

10. How smart can a missile really be?

Not that smart, or it wouldn’t allow itself to get blown up to further a socio-political disagreement between partially evolved primates. I wouldn’t want to play chess with one, though.

9. Could the events you describe in the book actually happen?

Actually, they already did (see below; extensive research), though the Orbit guys have done a great job blaming the ash cloud on the Icelanders. As with all my novels, nearly all the non-fiction bits are partially true. (more…)

Orbit/Yen Seeks Junior Designer

Instead of this week’s scheduled cover post (and it’s a good one, as those of you who were at BEA this weekend and got a sneak peak can attest) I have for you some very exciting news. We are looking to hire one fabulously talented junior designer to join our art department. You will be answering directly to yours truly, and working on both Orbit books and Yen Press titles. (A double bonus for all you manga fans out there.) Orbit and Yen have both been taking on fabulous projects, and we need the help giving everything the art attention it deserves. It’s a great entry-level opportunity for someone with the proper design experience and who has interest in our debates over spaceship design, breeds of mythological creatures, and dissecting manga pages. (more…)

Cover Launch: DEEP STATE

Cyberpunk is not really my cup of tea, so I was surprised when I got into This is Not a Game as much as much as I did. It’s all about connectivity, and how fast information and communication flies around the world now. There was of course also a cool thriller plotline along with it. Deep State is the next book by Walter Jon Williams, and picks up with the heroine & story of This is Not a Game. If you like William Gibson and Snow Crash-era Neal Stephenson, then you should check out these books. (more…)

Cover Launch: LIGHTBORN

Tricia Sullivan is the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of an impressive body of work, including Maul, Double Vision and Sound Mind.  Here’s just a sample of the praise that has been heaped upon her work:

‘A challenging, disturbing, often compulsive read’ Time Out

‘Tricia Sullivan returns to science fiction not a second too soon . . . I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long time’ Guardian

‘Painfully gripping throughout – read it if you dare’ The Times

‘Maul confirms an increasingly badly-kept secret – Sullivan is one of the best and most ambitious SF writers around’ Dreamwatch

‘Intelligent, sensitive and engrossing . . . You’ll be thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading’  SFX

‘Tricia Sullivan is why I refuse to give up on science fiction’ Pat Cadigan, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author

 
I think it’s clear from the above that Tricia is almost universally regarded as an audacious and original voice in modern science fiction. And what better way to signal that to the reader than with an audacious and original cover. Ladies and gentlemen (and other forms of life – we’re not speciesist at Orbit!), we give you Lightborn:

Lightborn is a revolutionary new technology that has transformed the modern world.

Better known as ‘shine’, it is the ultimate in education, self-improvement and entertainment – beamed directly into the mind of anyone who can meet the asking price.

But what do you do if the shine in question has a mind of its own . . . ?

 

Lightborn will be published in October. Design by Nathan Burton Design. Art direction by Duncan Spilling – LBBG.

Cover Launch: THE HAMMER

K.J. Parker’s critically acclaimed Engineer trilogy featured  three great covers by Keith Hayes. Since then, Parker has been writing  stand-alone novels, and any one of them is a great place to jump in without any series-long commitment. Of course, I’m sure you’ll be back at the bookstore buying the Engineer books as soon as you finish any of these books, but you can start slow if you don’t believe me…

The Company was really an ensemble story, so we wanted to show the characters on the cover, but for The Folding Knife and The Hammer, I really wanted to continue the “artifact” look of The Engineer Trilogy.

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Cover launch: COLD MAGIC by Kate Elliott

We’ve spent a long time working on this wonderful visual for Cold Magic (US I UK I ANZ), first in a fabulous new trilogy by Kate Elliott. Kate has created something special,  a fantasy advenure with a Victorian-era feel and a dash of steampunk — featuring mages, dragons and two girls who’ll decide the fate of their world. I think the illustrator Larry Rostant and designer Peter Cotton have done a great job in capturing these elements, showing a moment in time where ancient magic and new technologies meet, generating powerful individual dramas.

And here’s a bit more on Cold Magic, book 1 of the Spiritwalker trilogy, out from Orbit in September.

As they approach adulthood, Cat Barahal and her cousin Bee think they understand the society they live in and their place within it. At a select academy they study new airship technologies and the dawning Industrial Revolution, but magical forces still rule. Drawn into a labyrinth of politics involving blood and old feuds, Cat is betrayed by her family and forced to marry a powerful Cold Mage. As she is carried away to live a new life, fresh dangers threaten her every move and secrets form a language she cannot read. At least, not yet.’

Cover Launch: THE ENTERPRISE OF DEATH

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart had one of my all-time favorite Orbit covers, and I was thrilled to work with Keith Hayes from the Little Brown Art dept. and the illustrator Istvan Orosz on the design. So when I saw that a new Jesse Bullington book was on this list I was  really excited at the challenge — and really curious to see where Bullington would go after his violent, revolting, sensibility-offending debut novel (and I mean that all in a good way!)  Well, let’s just say The Enterprise of Death does not disappoint on any count — you’ll either love this book, or you’ll want to burn it at the stake.

Like Brothers Grossbart, the story takes place in a specific historical place and time — this time during the height of the Inquisition and Moorish expulsion from Spain in the late 1400s. Not only are there real-life historical characters in the  story, there’s also real-life art that’s critical to the story. That’s actually a challenge for a cover designer. Sometimes when you use fine art on a cover it can give the design a very quiet, even  static feel. Luckily for me, I don’t think anyone would call Death and the Maiden by Niklaus Manuel Deustch quiet or static.

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