Archive for Contents

‘Midnight Never Come’: Guest Blog and Reviews

Marie Brennan - Midnight Never Come (UK)Marie Brennan, author of Midnight Never Come (UK/US) is guest blogging over at miladyinsanity about the perks of being a writer:

Then — cue the world’s smallest violin — the travel stopped. Well, not stopped, precisely; there was a stretch of time in graduate school where I averaged one out-of-state trip every month for a year and a half. But this wasn’t the exciting travel I’d done before, colorful places with fascinating sights. These were weekend jaunts to conventions or academic conferences, where I saw the exciting interiors of one hotel after another….

Last year, I figured out the best scam EVER for getting travel back into my life.

You can also read miladyinsanity’s fantastic, four star review of Midnight Never Come here.

In other great reviews, Fantasy Book Critic says:

Historical fantasies are hit-or-miss for me, so I was a little wary when starting Marie Brennan’s “Midnight Never Come”, but it wasn’t long before the book had me entranced and by the time the ending was in sight, I was doing everything in my power to make the novel last as long as possible. Spectacularly researched, beautifully imagined, and utterly charming, “Midnight Never Come” is as magical and spellbinding as the fae inhabiting Marie Brennan’s Onyx Court…(Read more)

Interested in finding out what all the fuss is about and getting a chance to win £250/$500 in book vouchers? Check out the Midnight Never Come site at www.midnightnevercome.com

Charles Stross talks to The Guardian

Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross UK hbToday The Guardian‘s online edition has posted a rather fascinating interview with Charles Stross, author of many fine Orbit titles, including Singularity Sky, Accelerando, Glasshouse, The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, Halting State, and Saturn’s Children (available from July ’08).

Damien G. Walter is the man asking the questions and they cover a wide range of topics, including: the diversity of Stross’s writing, virtual reality and MMORPGs, the decidedly “old hat” concept of the Singularity, augmented intelligence, the author’s love affair with the novel as art-form, and the Trouble with Literary Fiction.

You can find out more about Charles Stross over at his website and get the pre-publication low-down on Saturn’s Children from www.littlebrown.co.uk.

‘Midnight Never Come’ £250 / $500 voucher competition

Marie Brennan - Midnight Never Come (UK)Midnight Never Come, Marie Brennan‘s novel of suspense, intrigue and fae magic at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, is now available in both the UK and the US. To celebrate we’ve launched a micro-site, packed with background information on the characters and locations in the novel, over at www.midnightnevercome.com.

And as of today, there’s another reason to visit the site: the first phase of our prize competition – in which you could win £250 / $500 (or the local equivalent) of vouchers to spend with your chosen book retailer, with ten runners-up each receiving a signed copy of the UK edition of the book – has now gone live.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next two weeks a new cryptic question will be posed via the Competition Gallery page of the site. Solving each puzzle will result in your being invited to submit your email address to enter the competition (so by answering all six questions correctly, you’ll be able to enter a total of six times). Full entry instructions, rules and regulations are available on the site and the usual entry restrictions (employees of the Hachette Book Group are unable to enter, etc.) apply.

The competition will be open for entries until Midnight (GMT) on June 30 and the overall winner and the ten runners-up will be announced by the end of that week.

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to www.midnightnevercome.com, dust off your thinking cap and by the end of the month, £250 / $500 worth of book vouchers might very well be yours…

And meanwhile, in other Marie Brennan news, Marie has been interviewed by SF CrowsNest and we recently posted excerpts from a couple of great reviews of the book.

‘Blood Ties’ winners!

Congratulations to Stuart M, Karina M, Karen W, Michael G and Eileen B, winners of our competition to win a free signed copy of Pamela Freeman’s Blood Ties, available in all good booksellers this month.

Many thanks to everyone that entered!

‘Saturn Returns’ on Big Dumb Object

Big Dumb Object has a great review of Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns today, calling it:

Space opera with cool (far) future tech. Just up my street. The main plot follows Imre Bergamasc as he tracks down his old crack team of soldiers, along with trying to figure out what in the galaxy is going on. . .

The plot has a good pace, chunks of action, plenty of enigmas and time for the characters to think. There are also some great sensawunda set-pieces.
(Read more)

Saturn Returns is out in UK bookstores this week. Pick up your copy today!

Deals and Deliveries: Robert Buettner, Jaye Wells

Robert Buettner

Fans of military SF will be delighted to hear that Orbit UK will be publishing Robert Buettner’s action-packed Jason Wander series, starting with Orphanage, Orphan’s Destiny and Orphan’s Journey in August 2008.

Jaye Wells

Orbit UK will also be publishing Jaye Wells’ compulsively readable urban fantasy trilogy. The first book, Red-Headed Stepchild, is scheduled for April 2009.

‘Midnight Never Come’: Reviews and More

Marie Brennan - Midnight Never Come (UK)This month’s Locus has a fantastic review of Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come (UK/US), saying:

Brennan ably combines elements of danger, romance, and individual moral choices that could affect the fates of great realms, for a tale that’s rich in plot and character. She interweaves historic and fantastic details with scholarship, inspired acts of imagination, and a keen wit.

And over at The Book Swede there’s another great review:

Of course, in faerie fiction, having an icy queen ruling the faerie throne, while a human queen lives above, is not that unusual. A great light does cast a great shadow. Nor is having a faery story with intrigue and spying…set in Elizabethan England really new. What sets Marie Brennan apart, then, is the quality of her writing, the complexities of her plot, the characterisations, the world-building…everything. (Read more)

You can also read his interview with Marie Brennan here. If you’re interested in learning more about the world of Midnight Never Come you might want to check this site out. . .

Another Set of Great Reviews for ‘Bloodheir’

Rob over at Fantasy Book Critic is adding to the string of great reviews for Brian Ruckley’s Bloodheir (UK/US), saying:

There are battles, assassinations, and the war between the True Bloods and the Black Road becomes as intense as it has ever been…I am really looking forward to the final book in the trilogy and hope it will deliver a rousing and fulfilling finale to cap this remarkable series…( Read more.)

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review is also a fan, saying that Brian Ruckley can be:

Compared to George R. R. Martin… for the sheer grittiness of his work and the fact that he can throw the reader a wicked curve ball that blows your expectations right out of the water… Ruckley puts the ‘epic’ into his work with some particularly brutal affairs where no expense is spared in showing the reader exactly what is going on. More please! (Read more)

Bloodheir goes on sale in the US and the UK this month – so pick up your copy soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Facebook giveaway!