This competition is now closed. Winners will be notified by email.
To celebrate this week’s release of the majestic epic fantasy adventure that is Seven Princes (UK | US | ANZ) by John R. Fultz, we’re giving 7 copies of this title away absolutely free. To enter, all you need to do is fill in the form for your relevant territory, and 7 winners will be picked at random worldwide next week. Good luck!
“As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life.” — Baudelaire
In today’s world Fantasy fiction is split into many genres: Epic, High, Low, Heroic Urban, Suburban, Historical, Science, Weird, Dark…you’re likely to find any of these words in front of “Fantasy” these days. Many authors enjoy blending and “splicing” genres together, which can often lead to new sub-genres and even anti-genre approaches. There are two enduring genres that have always gone well together, seamlessly blending one into the other, and their combination continues to be a popular pairing.
Often Horror and Fantasy are lumped together like fraternal twins forced to wear the same plaid sweater. Many are the theories defining exactly what each one of the genres actually IS, and the closer you look at either, the more splintering you find, the more sub-genres, the more distinctions being made on the “microcosmic” level. Yet examples of Horror/Fantasy blends continue to amaze and terrify readers. (more…)
As part of our 7-day celebration of the epic fantasy Seven Princes (UK | US | ANZ) by John R. Fultz we’re giving away wallpapers of the awesome cover artwork to spruce up all your fancy devices. And I know we’ve had some gorgeous wallpapers, but I think the illustration for these is so much sexier BIG that trust me, you’re going to want it on every screen you have. The art is by the fantastic Richard Anderson and he really just knocked it out of the park. It’s like epic fantasy impressionistic, such a fresh style. (You can read an interview with him and John R. Fultz over at Black Gate.) Enjoy!
1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 |1920 x 1200 | iPhone | iPad
(and yes I think we’ve finally mastered the iPad flippable art thing. ha!)
I’m proud to tell anyone who asks me about it that I write fantasy novels. The publication of SEVEN PRINCES represents many years of hard work, commitment and stubborn dedication to one man’s mad vision. Writers are obsessed with their ideas. They have to be.
I also write in the horror and sci-fi genres. Yet fantasy has always been my first love — specifically high fantasy, or epic fantasy, as some folks like to call it. Although the term dark fantasy is also one of which I’m rather fond. A lot of my favorite fantasies are indeed “dark,” and you will find some darkness in every fantasy — if only to provide contrast to the sweetness and light. The murkier the darkness, the brighter the light. (more…)
We’ve drawn up a quiz based around the number 7 – lucky for some – to celebrate the release of the epic fantasy Seven Princes (UK | US | ANZ) by John R. Fultz.
Find out if the number 7 is lucky for you by taking the quiz below.
There’s something strange about the number 7.
Something mystical. Something downright magical.
Looking back through history, literature, religion, and philosophy, one can see this number coming up again and again – usually with a significant aspect invoking holiness, mystery, power or prosperity.
A few examples:
– In Buddhist mythology the newborn Buddha took seven steps right after he was born, declaring “I alone am the World-Honored One.”
– In Christian mythology the Walls of Jericho fell seven days after seven priests marched around the city seven times with seven trumpets.
– In Islamic mythology there are seven heavens and seven hells. (more…)
Today is a momentous day. It is not only the first day of 2012, but it also marks the beginning of our Seven Days for SEVEN PRINCES feature. To celebrate the release of this fantasy adventure of epic proportions we’re going to be going 7-crazy on all of our Orbit channels for a whole seven days. Look out for the number 7 to find competitions, quizzes, giveaways and behind-the-scenes insights from the author. It’s one hell of a week for one hell of a book.
From author John R. Fultz, this debut fantasy novel wowed us here at Orbit and we’re just itching to bring it to the world. A tale where men and giants walk side-by-side, where ancient necromancers make a bid for power with chilling sorcery, where ordinary men do battle with monstrous creatures.
It’s a breakneck-paced, breathtaking adventure that’s unashamedly enjoyable and impossible to put down. With an entrancing fairy tale feel, this book really made us sit up and take notice – and it also showed us that John has a very exciting future ahead of him.
To see what we’re getting excited about, have an exclusive read of the prologue right here, and keep an eye out for all things 7 . . .
So what’s your book about?
Is there any more difficult question for an author to answer? I know I have a hard time with this one. After spending so much time (often years) crafting a novel, living inside the souls of your characters, building the intricate world in which they live, overseeing the progress of an invented history and chronicling the fictional exploits of your literary “children”, it’s hard to encapsulate all the diverse threads of a novel into a single statement.
Yet the market demands a “hook” or “premise” on which any novel can hang its metaphorical hat. After all, if readers don’t know what to expect, why should they even buy the book? Blind faith? Hardly. Word of mouth? Well, that’s the best advertising you can get . . . but consider the irony. If you as the author don’t come up with a satisfying answer to “What’s your book about?” then your early readers and reviewers are going to do it FOR YOU. They’re going to summarize, encapsulate and foreshorten your Massive Undertaking of Artistic Purity to a description worthy of a sound-byte (or at least a Facebook update). So authors are better-off coming up with their own answer to this big question, rather than leaving it up to somebody else to explain.
All of this begs the question: “What is SEVEN PRINCES about?”
If you look at the cover text, SEVEN PRINCES is about war. “An age of legends. An age of heroes. An age of war.” Now that’s a great tag line. It’s engaging, evocative, and it rings with mythic resonance. Ready for more irony?
Here’s the thing: I never considered this book a “war novel” when I was writing it. Yet war itself is definitely one of the themes that drives the characters and the plot. Some characters want to prevent war—they know the red tragedy and the pointless slaughter that it brings—while others actively seek war to prove themselves, to avenge wrongs, or simply as a means of grabbing power. So the concept of war itself is definitely buried in there. There’s even a conversation at one point between two characters who argue about the essential nature of Man as a war-like being. Is Mankind capable of living in peace—true peace—for long? That’s a question that also lies at the heart of SEVEN PRINCES. So yeah, it’s about war. But it’s also about a lot more . . . (more…)
Wallpaper time again, guys and gals, and more epic fantasy for all your fancy devices. This fine art is for THEFT OF SWORDS by Michael J. Sullivan, which is the first book in the Riyria Revelations. The art is by Larry Rostant, and depicts the duo at the heart of the books. I don’t want to give too much away, but these books were so good, we just had to give them the special Orbit 3-in-3-months treatment so you could get the whole epic in your hands right away.
There’s a bit of a difference in the US/UK versions of the cover – we like to do that sometimes just to keep you all on your toes – but the illustration is the same, so both sides of the pond can enjoy. Check out both covers and read an excerpt here.
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
I loved working on these epic covers of badassery (technical term) with Gene Mollica & Michael Frost…so now that The Heroes is out, it’s totally time for wallpapers! I think these covers are set to volume 11, just like Joe Abercrombie’s writing, so if you like gritty, brutal, real-life epic fantasy with fabulous characters and a helping of political backstabbing, then you really should pick up The Heroes, out now in Trade Paperback.
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
