Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Abraham’

Orbit at San Diego Comic-Con

Yes, Orbit is going to SDCC next week — and so are some of our authors! Our schedule of signings and panels is below.

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Thursday, July 18
2 PM: Daniel Abraham signing in our booth

Friday, July 19
2:30 PM: Daniel Abraham on the Epic Fantasy Panel, Room 24ABC
4:30 PM: Mira Grant signing in our booth
6:30 PM: Our colleagues at Yen Press will have their Industry Panel, Room 28DE.

Saturday, July 20
10:00 AM: Marlene Perez on the Urban Fantasy Panel, Room 7AB

Sunday, July 21
12:00 PM: James S.A. Corey and Mira Grant on the Science Fiction and the Future Panel, Room 24ABC
3:00 PM: James S.A. Corey signing in our booth

We’ll be in booth #1116, and we’ll have some neat swag to give away even when nothing else is going on. Stop by and say hi!

June Events

In June, we have bookstore events for two great new books! If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by.

Abraham_TyrantsLaw_TP Elliot-Cold Steel-TP
(US | UK | ANZ)                                      (US | UK | ANZ)

Saturday, June 8
Daniel Abraham @ Alamosa Books, Albuquerque, NM, 3 PM

Thursday, June 27
Kate Elliott (with Katherine Kerr) @ Borderlands, San Francisco, CA, 7 PM

Saturday, June 29
Kate Elliott (with Andy Duncan) @ Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA, 2 PM

Check back next month for more of Kate Elliott’s events for COLD STEEL!

THE TYRANT’S LAW is available now!

THE TYRANT'S LAW The Dagger and Coin series continues in the third installment, THE TYRANT’S LAW (US |UK | AUS) — available now. Familiar characters will face new challenges, alone, and nothing can stop the great war now. Read an excerpt here or start from the beginning of the series with THE DRAGON’S PATH (US | UK | AUS).

There have been a lot of great things said about the latest novel so far. Here are a few highlights.

Praise for THE TYRANT’S LAW

“The third novel in the Dagger and the Coin quintet (after The King’s Blood) undermines expectations in the most satisfying ways. This smart, absorbing, fascinating military fantasy, exciting and genuinely suspenseful, will keep readers on their toes.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The time taken has worked to perfect effect in this third book, wherein each character is crafted to perfection and the story comes to its own monumental, glorious peak….Easily the best of the series, and perhaps the best book this reviewer has read in the last 12 months.” – RT Book Reviews (4.5 Stars)

“Daniel Abraham continues to write quality novels that feel familiar and yet entirely unique at the same time, and The Tyrant’s Law is a fine addition to one of fantasy’s strongest series.” – A Dribble of Ink

“For folks who have to discover him, kindly do so at the earliest as the Dagger and the Coin quintet is epic fantasy handled by an exquisite writer who is at the top of his writing game.” – Fantasy Book Critic

“…it is difficult to distill into one review the pure enjoyment the settles into me when I read these books (or as I’m coming to realize, anything Daniel Abraham writes).” – Robert H. Bedford

Read a sample from THE TYRANT’S LAW

THE TYRANT'S LAWHot on the heels of an exciting April which included some gut-wrenching moments in Game of Thrones and several great new fantasy novels to read, this May gives us every reason to continue celebrating. THE TYRANT’S LAW (US | UK | AUS), Daniel Abraham’s latest novel in the Dagger and Coin series, will be available for purchase next week!

Here’s an excerpt from the third novel in the series which RT Book Reviews called “easily the best of the series, and perhaps the best book this reviewer has read in the last 12 months!”

Read an excerpt from the novel or start from the beginning of the series with THE DRAGON’S PATH (US | UK | AUS).

Prologue

Milo of Order Murro

Milo slipped in the darkness, falling to one knee. The stones of the beach cut his skin, and the blood darkened the oiled wool of his leggings. The old fisherman, Kirot his name was, paused and looked back at him, lifting his lantern and one white eyebrow in query. Are you coming, or staying here? To the north, the waves cracked with ice. To the south, the deep darkness of the village waited for their return. Milo forced himself to stand. A little more blood would do him no harm. He’d lost enough, God knew. Kirot nodded and turned back to the long, slow trudge along the shore.

The rhythm of their steps sounded against the waves like the complex patterns of a marriage dance. Milo could almost conjure up the thrill of the violins and the tapping of the shell drums. He had heard it said that of all the thirteen races of mankind, the Haaverkin had the most exquisite sense of music. In fairness, he’d only heard this said by other Haaverkin. A woman’s voice rose in the music, ululating in a sensual harmony with the strings, and Milo recognized that he was hallucinating. The voice of the water, his father called it. He’d heard it before sometimes when he’d been out on the boats in the dim light before dawn or limping back in to shore after a long day on the cold northern waters. Sometimes it was music, other times voices in conversation or argument. Some of the very old or very young claimed that the sounds were real, that they were the Drowned calling out to their brother race. Milo’s father said that was rot and piss. It was only a man’s mind playing tricks on itself, and the roar of ice and water to give it ground to play on. And so that was what Milo believed.

The coast nearest his village was ragged. Cliffs and stony beach, fat green crabs and snow-grey gulls. Some nights the aurora danced green and gold in the sky, but tonight it was low dark cloud and the smell of snow coming. The moon struggled now and again through the cover, peeping down at the two men and then looking shyly away. No, not two men. Not yet. One man and one nearly so. Milo had been a boy that morning, and would be a man before he slept, but he was still in the dangerous place between places, neither one thing nor another. It was why. he was here.

Read more. 

New Short Fiction: GODS OF RISK

One of the unexpected and, I think, very good things that the rise of ebooks has done is haul the novella back out of the shadows.  When I started writing, the common wisdom went that novella-length work, that is stories between 17,500 and 40,000 words, was the sweet spot to write if you wanted awards because so few got published.  If there are only fifteen stories written in your category in a single year, it’s not that hard to get in the top five.  Or at least that was the theory.

That day, I’m pleased to report, has passed.

It was never the novella’s fault.  It’s actually the length that is best suited to the modern reader and to science fiction.  It’s got about as much room for plot as a two-hour movie.  There’s enough room to really go into an idea or set of ideas, and not so much room that it threatens to get dull.  I love novellas.  But once the golden age of the Ace double passed, they were a pain in the ass to publish.

For a magazine, printing a novella meant there wasn’t room for much else in a given month.  And that meant there were fewer authors’ names to put on the cover.  And that meant there were fewer sales of the magazine, so novellas were pretty much a non-starter.  For a book publisher, a novella is too small to charge full price for, even though the costs of setting up a production run aren’t that much less.  The wise choice, especially among the mass-market publishers, was to print something a little bit longer that you could charge full price for.

But then ebooks came and when we signed the contracts for the second run of Expanse books, part of it was a call for five novellas set in the same world.  I was delighted.  We’d written a short story before – The Butcher of Anderson Station – but it was done with print markets in mind.  To have the luxury of a full novella’s length was great.  We got to tell the stories that didn’t quite fit in the big epic-sized books, we didn’t have to try to compress the stories into the constraints of magazine wordcounts, and there would be a new James SA Corey story out that was big enough to satisfy folks between the major novels.

The only down side is that there’s not an easy category for awards anymore.

Small price to pay, I think.

…

GODS OF RISK , a new story of The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey is available now in the US. Corey’s space operas have traveled the far reaches of our solar system, and now turns their attention to our neighbor, Mars. Visit the Orbit Short Fiction today to find out where you can pick up this new fantastic novella.

James S. A. Corey’s CALIBAN’S WAR is out!

Please stand by for a tightbeam from Orbit Books:

For anyone who enjoyed last year’s Hugo-nominated barnburner LEVIATHAN WAKES  (US | UK | AUS) the next book in the Expanse series is a must-read.

Earth and Mars are rattling sabers following a grisly attack on the asteroid colony Ganymede, and heroes familiar and new are drawn into the fray. This reader would happily follow Captain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante to the ends of the solar system, and may yet. But some new faces have joined the cast, including Bobbie Draper, gunnery sergeant in the Martian Marines (and her beyond-deadly combat suit), and Chrisjen Aravasala, an Earth politician as grandmotherly as she is shrewd, sharp-tongued, and determined to keep UN forces and Mars from all-out war.

CALIBAN’S WAR (US | UK | AUS) keeps up the faster-than-light pace set by LEVIATHAN WAKES, and raises the stakes, putting the fate of the entire solar system (and one missing little girl) in the balance. Says Kirkus Reviews: “Topnotch space opera … The characters, many familiar from before, grow as the story expands; tension mounts, action explodes and pages turn relentlessly.”

More Stories:

Wallpapers for THE KING’S BLOOD by Daniel Abraham

You got to see the behind the scenes of creating this cover. Now you can beautify your computation devices with the art from the newly released THE KING’S BLOOD by Daniel Abraham (US | UK | AUS). Tell your friends. Scare your neighbors. All in the name of DRAGONS.

Here’s all the wallpaper download links…if anyone needs a specific dimension made, let us know!

 

 

 

1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 |1920 x 1200 | iPhone | iPad | Facebook

Epic Fantasy Revitalised: The King’s Blood by Daniel Abraham

An axe against a blood-red sky‘I’m trying to write a series that does what epic fantasy does best,’ Daniel Abraham explained in January 2011. ‘I want to play to the genre’s strengths. And that means I want that sense of fantasy. I want the reader to come into this magical goblin market full of grotesques and exotics.’

The result of Daniel’s endeavours was THE DRAGON’S PATH [UK | US | ANZ] – the first book in The Dagger and the Coin series. It’s a novel that veers away from many of the stale tropes of the genre – there are no farmboys destined for greatness, no dark lords or flashy magic. Yet at the same time it’s an epic fantasy in every sense of the term, full of deadly politics, battles and ancient secrets – all delivered with Daniel’s accomplished characterisation and subtle worldbuilding.

The critics more than agreed; there were many glowing reviews, but perhaps the one that offers the best summary is Aidan’s from A Dribble of Ink.  ‘A tremendous novel,’ Aidan announced, going on to say, ‘Abraham deftly mixes the classic foundations of the genre with a sophistication expected of him and rarely found in the work of his compatriots.’

The story that began in THE DRAGON’S PATH is now continued in THE KING’S BLOOD [UK | US | ANZ], out now in trade paperback – and the great news for fans is that you’ve seen nothing yet. In this second book of The Dagger and the Coin series, Daniel wastes no time in cranking up the tension and suspense. The result is an exciting, unpredictable tale of a kingdom in crisis. The power games still continue, but players who thought they were safe now find themselves in trouble. Enemies become friends and friends become enemies. Battles are fought, blood is spilled, and heads roll.

Yet at the same time we’re allowed a deeper look at this fascinating world that Daniel has created: a world where the jade roads of the long-gone Dragon Empire still crisscross the land, where the thirteen races of humanity share a common history but remain divided, and where economics can be just as effective as warfare. A world where something that has been forgotten won’t remain hidden for much longer.

As before, the critical reaction has been hugely positive.

The King’s Blood is the real deal, and cements The Dagger and the Coin as one of the best new Fantasy series in recent years. If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for the next George R. R. Martin book, Abraham’s series is sure to satisfy” – A Dribble of Ink

A very fine epic fantasy novel . . . a fast, addictive read that elevates The Dagger and the Coin into the position of one of the finest in-progress fantasy series around at the moment” – The Wertzone (5* review)

I would happily read a couple of dozen volumes of this one if Abraham keeps the quality as phenomenally high as he has done so far. Absolutely massive recommendation as my favourite adult book of the year so far, my favourite fantasy book for many years, and the best adult series I’m currently reading by a long way” – The Bookbag (5* review)

You can find an excerpt of THE KING’S BLOOD here. For a look behind the scenes at the cover design process – warning: involves an exciting amount of weaponry – check out our recent video.

Daniel Abraham is the author of the critically-acclaimed Long Price Quartet. He also writes urban fantasy under the guise of M. L. N. Hanover, and is the James half of James S. A. Corey, author of the Hugo-nominated LEVIATHAN WAKES [UK | US | ANZ]. He can be found online both at his website and on Twitter.

Cover Story: THE KING’S BLOOD by DANIEL ABRAHAM

WEAPONS! Where might one go to procure something if  …  say… you wanted to reenact the Knights of the Round Table, or Edward James Olmos in Miami Vice*, or find an axe for the cover of Daniel Abrahan’s THE KING’S BLOOD? You go to Weapons Specialists in downtown (or downton if you want to be chi chi) Manhattan. Which is what I did one blistering hot day last summer. Check out the video of my visit and revel in the fact that the folks who work there have THE BEST JOB in the world. I would like to apologize in advance for the rather large sweat stains I’m sporting in the video. It’s like my armpits had a pool party the rest of the body wasn’t invited to. So… yea.

I had very specific details for the axe and the final weapon needed to scream warrior. In other words, the axe needed to look used. Obviously this combination of elements isn’t something that you just find off the interwebs, so I needed to create the final image from composites of multiple weapons.

After leaving Weapon’s Specialists with a rifle case full of medieval cutlery, which by the way is really surreal carrying through Grand Central, I needed to photograph everything and start working on what you see on the final book. Here are the weapons I got to play with.

 
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