Archive for Contents

The Most Awesomely Bad SFF Cover in the Universe!

The votes are in and we have a winner! We’re pleased to present to you the title for your worst cover ever.

(drumroll please)

Across a Trembling Sea the Cyborg Fairies Dance

It was an incredibly tight race, with Rise of the Fallen, Book Seven, The Pre-Antepenultimate Battle in second place, but in the end the Cyborg Faries put down the Fallen.

So there you have it. Our fearless art director is warming up her Photoshop as we speak, but before she can start we need two more key cover elements: the author name and the reading line.

Author names are straightforward enough (if you’re having problems, heed Dr. Ronald Chevalier’s advice).

The reading line is a more delicate matter — for that we need the top-line description of the book that will inform everything. The best reading line will give the reader a hint about what to expect in the book – even if that hint is wholly inaccurate.

Suggestions below.

Karen Miller on Sanity

For the next two weeks Karen Miller will be guest-posting at the Babel Clash blog. She starts her visit with an answer to the age-old question: are writers sane?

Writers – like actors — have a kink in the brain. It’s a kink that means we are at the same time deeply and intimately involved in the process of being human while standing outside that process watching it happen. It means that we can never truly be at one with our own lives because we can’t ever totally lose ourselves in the unconscious moment. A part of us is always conscious, always watching, analysing, pulling the moment apart so we can put it back together again as fiction.

You can join the conversation here.

Terry Brooks Times Two!

Last month was the paperback publication of the concluding volume of Terry Brooks’ fantastic Genesis of Shannara series. You can read the first chapter of the concluding volume, The Gypsy Morph, here.

But the post title says Terry Brooks x 2 and that’s what we have for you! We thought the ending of one series would be the perfect time to give you all a sneak peek of the next. A Princess of Landover is coming out this September and (as you might’ve guessed from the title!) it’s a return to the world of Landover. If you’ve never read a Landover book before, A Princess of Landover is the perfect place to start. It’s got all the great storytelling and excitement you’d expect from Terry Brooks and, of course, we have an extract for you here.

Deals and Deliveries: THE EDINBURGH DEAD by Brian Ruckley

What do you do after “putting the epic back into epic fantasy” (in the words of scifi.com)? If you’re Brian Ruckley, author of the Godless World Trilogy (WINTERBIRTH, BLOODHEIR, FALL OF THANES), you write THE EDINBURGH DEAD. I can’t improve on Brian’s own description “a dark, heroic fantasy set in 19th-century Edinburgh. With swords and gaslamps.” Brian is writing the book now, and we hope to publish it in 2011.

Anybody who reads Brian’s post, please note that we did actually sign this contract on purpose. It wasn’t an administrative error (like the first one).

In Their Own Words: Terry Brooks on The Gypsy Morph

Terry says:

The Gypsy Morph is the third book in the new Genesis of Shannara series and pretty much wraps up the time period covered by the first trilogy.  Lots is happening.  The old world, which is ours some eighty years in the future, is ending.  The survivors of multiple catastrophes are facing a firestorm which threatens to wipe out everyone who’s left.  A small band of Men, Elves, and other species is making its way to a safehold somewhere in the Pacific NW.  Leading them is a boy called Hawk, who was the Gypsy Morph of the Word & Void series.  His little band of street kids, called Ghosts, are linked with two Knights of the Word who have allied themselves with the survivors seeking the safehold refuge.  But dangers lie in wait along the way, and an army of once-men led by demons are in pursuit. (more…)

You Got Served!

Joe Abercrombie’s latest is just out, and we have two new endorsements from true geek royalty. Felicia Day, star of The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog tweeted about the book:

OMG indeed!
OMG indeed!

And over at Time Magazine’s Nerd World Lev Grossman (author of the forthcoming The Magicians ) writes:

Abercrombie writes dark, adult fantasy, by which I mean there’s a lot of stabbing in it, and after people stab each other they sometimes have sex with each other. His tone is morbid and funny and hard-boiled, not wholly dissimilar to that of Iain Banks. … Volumetrically speaking, it’s hard to think of another fantasy novel in which this much blood gets spilled.

[link]

So just in case George R.R. Martin’s endorsement wasn’t enough, you really have no excuse now to miss Joe’s first stand-alone hardcover. [US]

Award Winner – and not even published yet!

 Congrats to Sharon Tancredi, the fabulous illustrator of TEMPEST RISING by Nicole Peeler – She is being honored for her work on the cover by inclusion into the prestigious Communication Arts Illustration Annual. It’s in “unpublished” because the book doesn’t come out until November, but the buzz is already building for our new half-selkie heroine, Jane True. (more…)

Listening In On Iain M. Banks

Orbit is pleased to note that this September, you’ll be able to hear as well as read Iain M. Banks’ forthcoming novel TRANSITION. Little, Brown UK announced today that the audio version will be simultaneously released as a free serialized podcast, starting on publication day, September 3.

After the first installment, there will be 23 further 15-minute episodes released on iTunes in the US and UK, every Thursday and Saturday for 12 weeks, until the entire novel is available.

Maja Thomas, vice president of digital publishing for Hachette Livre said “Hachette Digital is very pleased to participate in this collaborative marketing on an author we’re publishing internationally, and to bring Iain Banks to new listeners through iTunes.”

And, what does Mr. Banks have to say? “I had barely caught up with the later half of the Twentieth Century when here I am being ensnarled by gizmology from the Twenty-First. I am left breathless by the pace of technology.”