Archive for Contents

The wait is over – THE BROKEN EYE is out now!

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

It’s not just another day…It is August 26th and for those of you who are waiting desperately for the next installment of the Lightbringer, today is THE day!

THE BLACK PRISM (US | UK | AUS)  is the first book in the Lightbringer series and it’s the best place to start if you’re new to the world. It is, in a word, EPIC. His second novel in the series was the The Blinding Knife, and if I can steal a quote from Staffer’s Book Review: “It isn’t only the best book he’s written; I consider it one of the best epic fantasies I’ve read.” To paraphrase — THE BLINDING KNIFE (US | UK | AUS) is just AWESOME. The first two novels focus on Gavin Guile, who is the Prism — the most powerful man in the known world. He is high priest and emperor — a man whose power, wit and charm are all that holds the various nations at peace. But Prisms live on limited time and Gavin doesn’t know how long he has left to live. When he discovers that he has a son, Kip, he must decide the lengths he will go to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

So, this now brings us to THE BROKEN EYE (US | UK | AUS). The third novel in the Lightbringer series, and the biggest one yet. So what does THE BROKEN EYE have? Let me see…how about an enormous leviathan in the first chapter —sorry! I meant two leviathans!!!! And that’s only in the first chapter. Did I whet your appetite yet? If not, let me continue: Secrets, betrayals, assassins, ancient gods, warring princes, — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg (literally!). Gavin and Kip are both at sea, with very little hope of escape.

Weeks-BrokenEye-Animated_08-26-14A bit about the novel:

As the old gods awaken and satrapies splinter, the Chromeria races to find the only man who can still end a civil war before it engulfs the known world. But Gavin Guile has been captured by an old enemy and enslaved on a pirate galley. Worse still, Gavin has lost more than his powers as Prism–he can’t use magic at all.

Without the protection of his father, Kip Guile will face a master of shadows as his grandfather moves to choose a new Prism and put himself in power. With Teia and Karris, Kip will have to use all his wits to survive a secret war between noble houses, religious factions, rebels, and an ascendant order of hidden assassins called The Broken Eye.

Enough? Want more? Go buy the book — but only if you’ve read The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife. Start there. THEN read THE BROKEN EYE. It is not just EPIC & AWESOME — it is MIND-BLOWING.

And if I’m not enough — perhaps you’ll believe these three?

“Brent Weeks has a style of immediacy and detail that pulls the reader relentlessly into his story. He doesn’t allow you to look away.”—Robin Hobb

“The Lightbringer series is great fun. Nobody does break-neck pacing and amazingly-executed plot twists like Brent Weeks.”—Brian McClellan

“Weeks creates a rich blend of politics, culture and character in the
Night Angel Trilogy, then throws in magic-using assassins. Brent Weeks is
so good it’s starting to tick me off.”—Peter V. Brett

See Also:

The Official Lightbringer Pronunciation Guide read by Simon Vance, the narrator for The Blinding Knife and The Broken Eye (available in audio now)

THE BROKEN EYE Book Tour: RSVP on Facebook today!

“I, Night Angel” and “Gunner’s Apprentice” are  now available worldwide!

Magic is a drug. It’ll cost more than you can pay. . .

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

When a rare Blue Moon upsets the magical balance in the city, Detective Kate Prospero and her Magic Enforcement colleagues pitch in to help Babylon PD keep the peace. Between potions going haywire and emotions running high, every cop in the city is on edge. But the moon’s impact is especially strong for Kate, who’s wrestling with guilt over her use of illegal magic.

When a rogue wizard steals dangerous potions from a local coven, Kate’s team must find the thief’s hideout before the vengeful coven catches him. But the investigation uncovers the rogue’s dangerous plot to unleash chaotic magic on the city. Once the Blue Moon rises no-one’s secrets will be safe. Not even Kate’s.

CURSED MOON (US | UK | AUS)  by Jaye Wells is out today! I’m very excited as it’s the second book in the Prospero’s War series and when I read it (oh, a year ago?), I was blown away by what a fantastic writer Jaye is. So if you’re not familiar with Jaye Wells, DIRTY MAGIC might be a great place to start. It’s fun, with great pacing, tough characters and I would even go so far as to say that it’s like The Wire crossed with Wizards.  We have a female cop, Kate Prospero, who came from what we would consider a drug family – but this is a world where potions are the new crack.  And using dirty magic is the only way that people can get their hands on them. And whoa, do these potions have side effect.

What I wanted to get into is Jaye’s wickedly, lovely, and VERY twisted imagination.  If  you want more, then Jaye is your girl. I’ve selected a quick highlight from Cursed Moon to whet your appetite:

Aphrodite herself stood at the rear of the courtyard, bathed in a shaft of sunlight. I was pretty sure she’d planned the position for effect. When we entered the courtyard, she looked up and flipped the long side of her hair back over her shoulder. The left half wore a form-fitting red wiggle dress with red stiletto, while the right half wore half a collared shirt, slacks and a single black wingtip. As she moved forward, she led with the left side and a femme fatale smile.

“Kate—Oh, excuse me, I mean, Detective Prospero,” she said, giving me a once-over that left me feeling like I’d come up lacking. Her seductive voice twined through the room like smoke. She sashayed toward us on one high heel and one thick-soled men’s dress shoe. (more…)

Start reading THE BROKEN EYE on Wattpad

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Hey Lightbringer fans, we know you’re eagerly waiting for the next Lightbringer book. Good news, over the next couple of weeks we’ll be releasing the first 50 pages from THE BROKEN EYE (US | UK | AUS). Follow Brent Weeks on Wattpad to receive an update when new chapters are available, and get a head start on the next exciting installment of The Lightbringer series.

Residents of the US, UK, and Australia can still pre-order THE BROKEN EYE and claim a free signed bookplate, plus gain access to two exclusive short stories written by Brent Weeks!  A couple of reminders:

1.) You must provide proof of purchase. This can be a picture or your receipt or copy of the confirmation email you received if you ordered online from your preferred retailer.

2.) You must fill out this form to qualify. Sending us your information by any other means does not qualify you to receive the bonuses.

3.) If you experienced any technological difficulties during the download of the short stories, please contact us so we can help you out.

4.) Supplies are limited. In fact, supplies are nearly gone. If you haven’t pre-ordered yet but want a bookplate, we suggest you pre-order soon. Once they’re gone, they are gone.

Full details and entry form can be found here.

 

The Mechanical – the stunning new Ian Tregillis novel

The book cover for The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, called "A major talent" by George R. R. Martin - fantasy meets science fiction meets alternate historyI’m very proud to present the cover for a phenomenal new novel we have coming from Ian Tregillis next March.

Ian’s novels have been described as:

‘Addictively brilliant’ i09

‘Eloquent and utterly compelling’ Kirkus

‘Exciting and intense’ Publishers Weekly

‘Striking’ Locus

And now, The Mechanical (UK | US | ANZ) – in my humble opinion – is going to blow people’s minds.

Part science fiction, part fantasy and part alternate history, this book shows the incredible imagination of an exceptionally skilled author – or “a major new talent” in the words of George R. R. Martin.

It’s a novel that centers on a character called Jax – a mechanical man, or “Clakker”. His kind were created by the Dutch back in the 17th Century to serve their human masters. And an army of mechanical men like him have managed to make The Netherlands the most powerful nation in the world.

But these Clakkers are no more than slaves to human kind. And soon, Jax is going to make a bid for freedom – an act that will rock the world of the Brasswork Throne to its core . . .

It’s a truly stunning book. Intricately crafted, hauntingly atmospheric, and just gripping. You won’t want to miss this one.

My name is Jax.

That is the name granted to me by my human masters.

I am a slave.

But I shall be free.

 

The Rise of the Dragon and the Fall of Kings – THE WIDOW’S HOUSE

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

“The Dagger and Coin series had this reviewer hooked from day one, but with The Widow’s House, Abraham manages to wiggle the hook and embed it a bit further.” —RT Book Reviews

The fourth book in The Dagger and the Coin series, THE WIDOW’S HOUSE (US | UK | AUS), is available now! This latest novel ratchets up the danger and suspense as our heroes move against the tyrannical Geder Palliako.  Have a look at what’s in store for Clara, Cithrin, Marcus and others:

THE RISE OF THE DRAGON AND THE FALL OF KINGS

Lord Regent Geder Palliako’s war has led his nation and the priests of the spider goddess to victory after victory. No power has withstood him, except for the heart of the one woman he desires. As the violence builds and the cracks in his rule begin to show, he will risk everything to gain her love or else her destruction.

Clara Kalliam, the loyal traitor, is torn between the woman she once was and the woman she has become. With her sons on all sides of the conflict, her house cannot stand, but there is a power in choosing when and how to fall.

And in Porte Oliva, banker Cithrin bel Sarcour and Captain Marcus Wester learn the terrible truth that links this war to the fall of the dragons millennia before, and that to save the world, Cithrin must conquer it.

If you haven’t started this series yet, go and read this excerpt from THE DRAGON’S PATH (US | UK | AUS) immediately. Daniel Abraham has crafted an absolutely fantastic series. If you like epic fantasy, you should be reading The Dagger and the Coin.

Praise for Daniel Abraham:

“[Daniel] Abraham just keeps getting better and better… [He] belongs in the first rank of today’s fantasists.”—George R.R. Martin, New York Times bestselling author of A Game of Thrones

“You have to admire ace storyteller Abraham’s skill at building plausible alternate worlds, a trade much practiced, but not often so well, ever since the days of Tolkien and the Shire…”—Kirkus Reviews

“This smart, absorbing, fascinating military fantasy, exciting and genuinely suspenseful, will keep readers on their toes.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Editor: Why I love Hugo Award-nominated NEPTUNE’S BROOD

Charlie Stross is a genius. If you ever get the chance to talk to him, you’ll find the ideas flying so thick and fast that you have to shift your brain into a higher gear just to keep up. You’ll also come away from the conversation with several new ideas about how you’re going to change the world and an armful of science fiction reading recommendations (for other writers’ work, not his own, because he’s just that kind of guy).

You know those moving walkways you get in airports? Where you’re walking down them, but the ground is also moving underneath your feet so that when you jump off at the end just walking at normal speed is like hitting a wall, smack, bang, and everything is moving at normal speed again, too slow?

Talking to Charlie, or reading his books, is like running down that walkway.

Now his books might not be for everyone – I understand some people (not us) prefer life in the slow lane, that some readers just can’t handle this much raw plot, character and awesome things happening, that they want something a bit more sedate. I imagine these are also the kind of people who prefer to cook without spices, who like bland TV and even blander books, because anything else might be a bit too much excitement.

But that’s why I’m so pleased by Charlie’s continued success at the Hugo awards. You love Charlie’s work, you’ve supported him at these awards again and again. This is an author who has broken records for the number of consecutive times one can be shortlisted for the Hugo Best Novel. His sixth shortlisting broke the record. NEPTUNE’S BROOD, in the 2014 awards, is his seventh.

NEPTUNE’S BROOD has mermaids, communist squid, roving gangs of accountant-privateers, zombies, spacefaring clergymembers, superhuman assassins, murder, backstabbing, family feuds and an incredibly intricate and utterly unprecedented financial con that could only occur in a universe with no faster-than-light travel.

If you’d told me before I edited NEPTUNE’S BROOD that something including all those elements would become one of my favourite novels, I might have laughed. How could one book fit so much in it? Now, I would tell you that ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that every interstellar colony in search of good fortune must be in need of a banker.’

On top of the squid and the mermaids and the banking, NEPTUNE’S BROOD is also a genuinely moving story about a woman searching for her lost sister. The fact that that sister is actually a copy of her grown in a vat, and both characters are metahumans – the race artificially grown to replace humans when we proved too fragile for the trials of space travel – is by the by.

NEPTUNE’S BROOD is, according to io9, ‘the perfect book for our times’.

SFX call it ‘a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi mind-expander from one of the genre’s most reliable imaginations’, and SF legend Alastair Reynolds says ‘NEPTUNE’S BROOD is fast-paced and imaginative, with fascinating ideas about the economics of an interstellar society constrained by real physics. Above all else, though, it’s just terrific fun’.

But don’t listen to them. Read it yourself, and find out how a space opera with no faster-than-light travel can be the fastest, wildest ride of your life.

NEPTUNE’S BROOD, along with our other Hugo nominees, is currently available at a celebratory price of just £1.99 in the UK. Go, read, enjoy.

Epic Fantasy at its Best – VALOR is out today!

Gwynne_Valor_TPBEpic fantasy fans exult! Today we are thrilled to release John Gwynne’s Valor, the sequel to his acclaimed debut Malice, winner of the David Gemmell Morningstar Award.

If you love fantasy teaming with rich characters, riveting battles and a vivid world, this is a series that will enthrall you. If you’re going through Game of Thrones withdrawal there is no better cure.

Here’s a selection of amazing praise for Malice:

“A series that promises the same degree of complexity and depth found in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books and George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series.” – Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Influenced by Gemmell’s Rigante and George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones….Hell of a debut.” – Conn Iggulden

“Middle Earth–ish extravaganza with all the usual thrills, chills, spills and frills….there’s plenty of action.” – Kirkus Reviews

“Three-dimensional characters, a gripping plot, and a world that became real to me….this is the type of fantasy I love to read and I truly can’t wait to read the next volume in The Faith and the Fallen!” – Fantasy Book Critic

“John Gwynne hits all the right spots in his epic tale of good versus evil….there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in is debut novel; Gwynne is definitely one to watch.” – SFX

“Warring clans, sleeping giants, Banished Lands and omens and portents… a strong contender for ‘if you like Game of Thrones, why not try this?’ award.” – Independent (UK)

Orbit at SDCC!

SDCC 2012Going to San Diego Comic-Con next week? Here are some things you should definitely put on your schedule.

THURSDAY, JULY 24
11:00 AM: Mira Grant signing in the Orbit booth (#1116)
3:00 PM: Seanan McGuire (a.k.a. Mira Grant) on the “When Magic & Myth Meet Main Street” panel, Room 25ABC
4:00 PM: Brent Weeks, Joe Abercrombie, and Sam Sykes on the “Putting the Epic in Epic Fantasy” panel, Room 25ABC

SATURDAY, JULY 26
11:00 AM: Joe Abercrombie signing in the Orbit booth (#1116)
2:00 PM: Brent Weeks signing in the Orbit booth (#1116)
2:30 PM: Mira Grant on the “The Art of Fear” panel, Room 8
4:15 PM: Joe Abercrombie on the “Rules of the Realm” panel, Room 6A

We’ll have giveaways and books for sale in the booth (#1116) all weekend! Stop by and say hi.

New Comic Fantasy from Tom Holt: The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice

  • Buy the Book
  • US
  • UK

Tom Holt’s latest comic fantasy, THE OUTSORCERER’S APPRENTICE, is now available in paperback and digital! This new novel – from an author many compare to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams –  tells the story of a wizard who’s seen the profit in ancient prophecies and the investment value in a dragon’s hoard . . .

It’s a novel of overlords, underlings and inhuman resources. It’s THE OUTSORCERER’S APPRENTICE.

A happy workforce, it is said, is a productive workforce.

Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?

Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing revenue and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call “the Wizard.” Until now.

Because now a perfectly good business model – based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe – is about to be disrupted by a young man not entirely aware of what’s going on.

There’s also a slight risk that the fabric of reality will be torn to shreds. You really do have to be awfully careful with these things.

Praise for Tom Holt:

‘Uniquely twisted . . . cracking gags’
Guardian

‘Gratifyingly clever and very amusing’
Mail on Sunday

MTV Acquires Shannara TV Series!

The exciting news broke over the weekend that MTV have ordered 10 episodes of a TV adaptation of Terry Brooks’ Shannara novels. After years of fans worldwide calling for this epic fantasy series to make it to the small screen, it’s fantastic to hear that it’s finally been green-lighted.

The first season will be based on The Elfstones of Shannara (UK | ANZ), which when first released spent 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Directing will be Jonathan Liebesman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and the script is written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. Terry Brooks himself will be taking an executive producer role, along with Jon Favreau and Dan Farah.

The casting is yet to begin – the question is: who would you all like to see starring?

To catch up on the latest in the Shannara world, check out Terry Brooks’ recently released The High Druid’s Blade (UK | ANZ) – a standalone novel which is a great entry-point into the Shannara world.