Posts Tagged ‘Covers’

Cover Launch: QUANTUM OF NIGHTMARES by Charles Stross

A new adventure begins, set in the bestselling world of the Laundry Files . . .

We’re thrilled to reveal the cover for QUANTUM OF NIGHTMARES, the second book in the New Management series by Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross:

Cover for Quantum of Nightmares by Charles Stross. Depicts black shadowed figures walking up staircases towards bright green doors. Large tentacles are reaching out from the background.

Design by Crush Creative

Publishing in hardback in January 2022, QUANTUM OF NIGHTMARES is available for pre-order now.

Read on for a preview of what’s to come:

It’s a brave new Britain under the New Management. The Prime Minister is an eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyper-organised and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she’s in charge of the Bigge Corporation, just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago . . .

Wendy Deere is investigating unauthorised supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn’t again get entangled with Eve Starkey’s bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.

Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she’s pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorised adepts. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.

All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results . . .

Praise for the Laundry Files:

‘Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time’ Ben Aaronovitch

‘Stross at the top of his game – which is to say, few do it better’ Kirkus

‘Alternately chilling and hilarious’ Publishers Weekly

‘Ferociously enjoyable’ SFX

Cover Launch: SOUL TAKEN by Patricia Briggs

MECHANIC. SHAPESHIFTER. FIGHTER.

Mercy Thompson returns in another thrilling instalment of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series from author Patricia Briggs.

We are thrilled to reveal the gorgeous cover for SOUL TAKEN, releasing in hardback in March 2022:

Design by Ellen Rockell at L,BBG

Read on to see what’s in store as Mercy faces her biggest threat yet:

The vampire Wulfe is missing. Since he’s deadly, possibly insane, and his current idea of ‘fun’ is stalking Mercy, some may see it as no great loss. But when he disappears, the Tri-Cities pack is blamed. The mistress of the vampire seethe informs Mercy that the pack must produce Wulfe to prove their innocence, or the loose alliance between the local vampires and werewolves is over.

So Mercy goes out to find her stalker – and discovers more than just Wulfe have disappeared. Someone is taking people from locked rooms, from the aisles of stores and even from crowded parties. And these are not just ordinary people but supernatural beings. Until Wulfe vanished, all of them were powerless loners, many of whom quietly moved to the Tri-Cities in the hope that the safety promised by Mercy and Adam’s pack would extend to them as well.

Who is taking them? As Mercy investigates, she learns of the legend of the Harvester, who travels by less-trodden paths and reaps the souls that are ripe with a great black scythe . . .

Praise for Patricia Briggs:

‘Patricia Briggs is an incredible writer . . . I love hanging out with the amazing characters in this series!’ Nalini Singh, New York Times bestselling author

‘It is always a joy to pick up a new Briggs novel’ RT Book Reviews

‘Patricia Briggs never fails to deliver an exciting, magic and fable filled suspense story’ Erin Watt, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Royals series.

‘I love these books’ Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author

Available for pre-order now!

Cover Launch: SWEET HARMONY by Claire North

We’re excited to present the cover for a new novella from the multi-award winning Claire North, designed by Bekki Guyatt at Little, Brown Book Group.

SWEET HARMONY (UK | US| ANZ) is a clever and unnervingly plausible stand-alone story set five minutes into the future – in a world where it’s possible to upgrade your mind or body however you choose through an app on your phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a beautifully-crafted, thought-provoking tale that asks questions about identity, body image, and how far we’d all go to live up to the pressures of society. It shows just why Claire North is hailed as one of the most innovative writers of her generation.

SWEET HARMONY (UK | US| ANZ) releases digitally on 22nd September and is available for pre-order now. Read on for the blurb below, and follow Claire on Twitter here.

Harmony is tired. Tired of working so hard, tired of the way she looks, tired of being average.  

But all that changes when she decides to splash out and upgrade her nanos. And why not? Everyone’s doing it now. With a simple in-app purchase, you can update the tech in your bloodstream to transform yourself – get enhanced brain power, the perfect body or a dazzling smile.

Suddenly, everything starts going right for Harmony. She’s finally becoming the person she always wanted to be. But when she ends up running too many upgrades on her body all at once, the effects will be more catastrophic than she could have imagined.

 

Praise for Claire North:

‘North’s talent shines out’ Sunday Times

‘North goes from strength to strength’ Guardian

‘Terrific, smart and entertaining’ Patrick Ness

‘North is an original and even dazzling writer’ Kirkus

‘A master of ingenious plotting and feats of imagination’ Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls

 

Also by Claire North:

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Touch
The Sudden Appearance of Hope
The End of the Day
84K
The Gameshouse
The Pursuit of William Abbey

 

Cover Launch: BATTLE GROUND by Jim Butcher

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS FOR HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO’S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, in the next entry in the No. 1 New York Times and No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Dresden Files. 

Orbit UK are thrilled to announce that BATTLE GROUND, book seventeen in the Dresden Files, hits shelves in September 2020 (UK|ANZ) and is available to preorder now. We’re sure you’re as excited as we are to read not one, but TWO Dresden Files novels in one year, but if you can’t wait that long, take a look at the awesome cover design for BATTLE GROUND and read on for a hint of what’s in store for Harry Dresden . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.

Praise for the Dresden Files:

‘The Dresden Files is my favourite series ever. I say that both as a writer and a reader . . . I don’t make statements like that casually’ Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind

‘Butcher’s storytelling is satisfying on a level that’s bone-deep’ io9

‘Harry Dresden has a vitality that few urban fantasy heroes can match’ SFX

 

Cover Launch: DEAD LIES DREAMING by Charles Stross

A new adventure begins in the world of the Laundry Files . . . 

DEAD LIES DREAMING (UK|ANZ), a brand new novel from Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross, is out in October 2020. But if you can’t wait that long take a look at the spectacular – or perhaps tentacular – cover design below and read on for a taste of what’s in store.

The cover for Dead Lies Dreaming

In a world where magic has gone mainstream, a policewoman and a group of petty criminals are pulled into a heist to find a forbidden book of spells that should never have been opened. 

Praise for the Laundry Files:

‘Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time’ Ben Aaronovitch

‘Stross at the top of his game – which is to say, few do it better’ Kirkus

‘Alternately chilling and hilarious’ Publishers Weekly

‘Ferociously enjoyable’ SFX

Cover design by Crush Creative.

Cover Launch: MAKER’S CURSE by Trudi Canavan

Fantasy fans: the wait is nearly over . . .  the final installment in Trudi Canavan‘s Millennium’s Rule series is on its way!

MAKER’S CURSE (UK|US|ANZ) will publish in May 2020, and today we’re delighted to unveil the stunning cover. And if you can’t wait until May, read on for a taste of what’s in store!

Rielle is now the Maker, restorer of worlds. She has lost count of the number of worlds she has been sent to save. 

Tyen has cast off his old identity. No longer a spy, he now attempts to teach new sorcerers and find ways to counteract the war machines that are spreading throughout the worlds.

But when an old enemy brings news of something worse than magically dead worlds and dangerous sorcerers – a threat unlike anything the worlds have faced before – Rielle and Tyen must reunite if they are to have any chance at saving humanity.

Praise for Millennium’s Rule:

‘Epic, vivid and believable’ Guardian

‘It’s easy to see why Trudi Canavan’s novels so often make the bestseller lists’ SFX

‘A must for fans of Canavan’s previous work and for fantasy fans in general’ Press Association

‘The world-building is tremendous. The magical system is sophisticated and fascinating’ Striking Keys

MAKER’S CURSE (UK|US|ANZ) is available for pre-order now.

 

 

 

 

 

Cover Launch: INTO THE FIRE by Elizabeth Moon

We’re delighted to reveal the stunning cover for INTO THE FIRE (UK|ANZ), the thrilling second book in the Vatta’s Peace series by Nebula-Award-winning author Elizabeth Moon.

Into the Fire

Cover design by Sean Garrehy
Illustration by Steve Stone @ Artist partners

INTO THE FIRE will be hitting shops in February 2018 and is available for pre-order now! Read on for a taste of what’s in store:

When Admiral Kylara Vatta and a ship full of strangers were marooned on an inhospitable arctic island, they uncovered secrets that someone on Ky’s planet was ready to kill to keep hidden. Now, the existence of the mysterious arctic base has been revealed, but the organisation behind it still lurks in the shadows, doing all it can to silence her.

It is up to the intrepid Ky to force the perpetrators into the light, and uncover decades’ worth of secrets – some of which lie at the very heart of her family’s greatest tragedy.

Praise for Elizabeth Moon:

‘Sheer delight’ – Anne McCaffrey
‘Absolutely compelling’ – Greg Bear
‘Full of thrills’ – Locus
‘Unforgettable’ – Jack McDevitt
‘Hard to put down’ – SFSite.com
‘Continues to get better with every volume’ – Guardian
‘Superlative’ – Booklist
‘She deserves all her success – and more’ – SciFi.com

Cover launch: ROMEO AND/OR JULIET, by RYAN NORTH

We’re very excited to present the UK cover for ROMEO AND/OR JULIET, a ludicrously funny and irreverent take on Romeo and Juliet from the creator of Dinosaur Comics.

What if Romeo never met Juliet? What if Juliet got really buff instead of moping around the castle all day? What if they teamed up to take over Verona with robot suits?

Ryan North

In this New York Times bestselling version of Romeo and Juliet, you get to choose where the story goes. Packed with exciting choices, fun puzzles, secret surprises, terrible puns and more than a billion possible storylines, ROMEO AND/OR JULIET offers a new experience every time you read it. And, as an added bonus, all the different endings feature beautiful and quirky illustrations by some of the best artists working today, including New York Times bestsellers Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson, Randall Munroe and Jon Klassen.

‘Ryan North is the only writer I know who’s smart enough and funny enough to pull this off’  Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians trilogy

‘[A] ridiculously fun book . . . It is as hilarious and funny and strange as you would imagine . . . fantastic’  BookRiot

‘Written with the finest distilled charm and genuine enthusiasm. Entertaining and extremely satisfying’  Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling author of HARK! A VAGRANT

 

Illustrations by Noelle Stevenson
Design by Ryan North

Orbit’s Urban Fantasy Covergram

Looking to recommend or discover the perfect urban fantasy book to keep you warm through the long winter months? Orbit has you covered with our covergram. Featuring a range of bestselling authors alongside newcomers to the genre, we’ve dissected the world of urban fantasy and re-assembled it so every reader can find their next book.

Click on the image below to see a full size version.

Urban Fantasy Covergram

 

If you can’t decide and would like a little bit of everything, try Charlie Fletcher’s delightfully dark adventure set in Victorian London, THE OVERSIGHT (US|UK |ANZ), which has garnered the praise ‘exciting, exhilarating, scary and moving in equal measure . .  . this feels like the start of something amazing’ from Mike Carey, and Cory Doctorow called ‘a dark and glinting book . . . told in a kind of compelling and hypnotic poesie that I just lapped up’.  The second book in the series, THE PARADOX (US|UK|ANZ) is out in paperback this month.

The Making of a Cover: Final Books (and video!)

Welcome to the most in-depth, behind-the-scenes, play-by-play account of how a cover is born, from the point of view of the Art Department. We’re charting the conception and birth of the Shadowdance series by David Dalglish.

So far we have talked about the first real step of a book, Acquisition, and then what goes into Cover Briefing. Then we let our minds wander and collect inspiration and form Directions for the cover. Then we agreed on a Photographer and Illustrator. We’ve even found our hero, the Cover Model. And we found a Trampoline for him to do stunt work on safely. We decked him out in book-specific Costume & Props. We spent all day at our Photo Shoot. We received the Rough Cuts, and while the illustrator was working, Kirk was developing the Design Roughs. Then we got the Final Retouched Illustrations in and got to the design on the Final Covers. And now, believe it or not, we’re at the end of our little cover art journey, and even though you’ve seen the final book designs in the last post, I give you a treat:

It’s been a pleasure taking you through the cover process for such a fun series. We really put a ton of work into all our covers here at Orbit, and I hope you’ve enjoyed peeking behind the curtain. I don’t think people realize quite how many moving parts, how many stages of work, and how many people make up the cover process. And remember, we’re doing a whole season’s worth of covers at once. Whew.

Thank you to amazing ninja Bryce Bermingham, Photographer Michael Frost and his team, Illustrator Gene Mollica, the team at Hollywood Stunts, our video guys Eric Westpheling and Louis Rebecchi, our prop makers and costume builders and everyone who had a hand in bringing these covers to life. Thanks also to Kirk Benshoff, my co-conspirator in Art Direction & Design. And of course, thanks to David Dalglish, who thought up such a cool concept for us to make a reality.