Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

Cover Launch: THE LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS by Rachel Aaron

One of the best parts of my job is getting to collaborate with fantastic artists on covers. And one of Orbit’s favorites is the stellar Sam Weber. When I heard we were going to collect the first three Spirit Thief books into an omnibus edition I knew I wanted to give Sam a crack at creating his version of the incorrigible rogue & sorcerer Eli Monpress. So here it is, The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron. It’s out in February in satisfying tome-size trade paperback. This edition collects The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, and The Spirit Eater, and set’s the scene for the next story, The Spirit’s War, out in June 2012.

And speaking of The Spirit’s War, we know you guys are going to love this cover so much that we already have Sam working on the cover for the new book. And Art Director Kirk & I snuck out of the office for a few hours and went to visit Sam at his studio and see the cover-in-progress! We also took along our trusty cameraman Eric Westpheling to tape a studio tour and chat with Sam about his process. That video will debut with the cover launch of The Spirit’s War in a few months, but for now, here are some images of our visit and a SNEAK PEAK at the next cover!

I don’t remember the first time I saw Sam’s art but here at Orbit we love that he can capture such a strong feeling of fantasy and adventure, yet in a fresh way and in his unique style. Our first project together was The Gaslight Dogs, which was a stunning cover, but I have of course also been jealous of all the lovely work he’s been doing for other clients as well. Especially that drop-dead-gorgeous Ender’s Game ebook. And I have to say I was curious to see exactly what his process was…the transparency & textures he gets in his illustrations just blows my mind. I definitely learned a lot. I guess you’ll just have to wait for the cover launch of The Spirit’s War to hear him explain it himself…

Meanwhile, after the jump you can see a few more still shots of Sam in action, as well as this cover BIG, and a better shot of the art-in-progress…and if you haven’t had the chance to “meet” Eli Monpress yet, do yourself a favor and download the first two chapters as a free pdf here. I know I’m not supposed to have favorites and all, but this series is definitely on my list of manuscripts that I bug the editors about when I know it might be coming in…My early comparisons to The Princess Bride and Locke Lamora are completely on-target with everyone I’ve recommended this book to. Eli is a fantastic antihero, and, guy or girl, you can’t help fall in love with him a bit. (more…)

Cover Launch: THE GRIFFIN MAGE Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier

It’s omnibus week here in the Orbit Art Department, and the fangirl in me loves an omnibus. Get a whole story arc or series all in one giant go? Yes please! Today we have the cover launch for The Griffin Mage Trilogy by Rachel Neumeier, which collects Lord of the Changing Winds, Land of the Burning Sands, and Law of the Broken Earth.

I really enjoyed this series, it gave me a very Robin McKinley/Anne McCaffrey feeling and that’s a very good thing in my book. Classic heroine coming of age story, with a novel take on griffins, bringing them back to more wild animal (and wild magic) roots. I make no secret of my lack of griffin respect in their past fantasy incarnations, but I love that these griffins feel legitimately dangerous rather than cartoonish. That was the angle we took with the original covers, but I always love a chance to reinvent a cover for a new format, and here I think the cover gives the right feeling of menace, while still keeping Kes the center of the story.

After the jump, a teaser! (more…)

Cover Launch: THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan

Bam! Can you say “EPIC”, people? The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan are coming this November, December, and January, with more adventure and world-building than you epic fantasy fans will be able to handle. We wanted to give this series a cover style that spoke to fans of empire-building and political intrigue and armies clashing, but I really wanted to highlight the central axis of the books — the team of Royce and Hadrian, a thief and mercenary who get pulled into the plots and machinations of the empire despite their best (or worst) intentions. I think the marriage of the type and icons with the great illustrations by Larry Rostant give you the feel that it’s these two friends back to back against the world, and that is the engine that takes you through these books and across the world of Riyria.

After the jump, a small teaser from Book One: Theft of Swords to get you all excited…..

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The Enterprise of Art

Niklaus Manuel Deutsch is an artist all but forgotten in the modern age. I’m not claiming this is some great travesty, for his work, while quite good, is not necessarily outstanding, nor was he particularly prolific. In fact, Manuel abandoned painting and etching in the last decade of his life to focus on poetry, play writing, and one of the trickiest arts of all, politics. Had he stuck with one or two disciplines perhaps he might have produced a single work that endured through the ages, as opposed to creating many worthy but unexceptional pieces that have been swept away in the great flood of history, occasionally bobbing to the surface in this coffee table book or that academic tome on plays of the Swiss Renaissance.  Of course, that’s simple conjecture–it’s entirely possible that had Manuel lived an extra thirty years and painted every single day of every single one of them he may never have produced anything more memorable than what we already have of his work. It is possible, uncharitable an observation as it is to make about any artist, that the man was simply not a genius, not a savant, that he was as good an artist as he ever could have been. (more…)

The Enterprise of Alchemy

Alchemy is a knot downright Gordian when it comes to finding an entry point for the young scribe trying to introduce his readers to the subject. One solution is to tackle the problem as Alexander would, but this in turn leaves us with a conundrum every bit as frustrating as the one we began with—instead of a compact but impenetrable knot of information, we now have countless loose, frayed ends that are just as likely to take us nowhere as they are to reveal how the intricately assembled whole came to be.

Perhaps the best approach, then, is to do as I have done and open with an overly convoluted and essentially imperfect metaphor for the problem—the encryption of meaning in complex symbolism that references the historical, the mythological, or the biblical is, after all, an essential part of the European alchemical tradition. How else to accurately pass along your wisdom without it being exploited by the unworthy? (more…)

Orbit acquires self-published ebook bestseller

Orbit is pleased to announce that it has acquired rights to publish the Riyria Revelations series by self-published author Michael J. Sullivan.  Orbit will be publishing the complete series in three volumes in consecutive months in Fall/Winter 2011-2012. The first volume, Theft of Swords, will be published in November 2011; the second volume, Rise of Empire, in December 2011, and the final volume, Heir of Novron, in January 2012.

Michael J. Sullivan has already self-published the series in ebook and print-on-demand editions, and each volume has been prominent on the ebook fantasy bestseller charts. (more…)

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

When Harlan Ellison was asked “Where do you get your ideas from?” he famously answered “Schenectady.” Ellison was commenting on the absurdity of pinning down a process as ephemeral, multi-dimensional and just plain murky as the origin of an idea. However, if the question had been modified to exclude the final word from the sentence then Ellison’s answer would work for me.

Author by Mohawk River in Schenectady

I’ve lived in Schenectady. It’s an industrial city on the Mohawk River in Upstate New York. It’s famous for being the site of the Schenectady Massacre of 1690, where French and Native American forces attacked the fledgling settlement at midnight, burning it to the ground and slaying sixty men, women and children who were still in their bedclothes, and also for being the place where Thomas Edison chose to headquarter his fledgling General Electric Company. Schenectady is built on land that was once the territory of the Mohawk nation, and its name comes from the Mohawk phrase, “over the pine plains.”

I wrote a great chunk of Watcher of the Dead within the city’s limits.  And as the answer to the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” is always “Where I was physically located at that moment the idea occurred to me,” then my ideas are officially from Schenectady. (more…)

Two Trick Pony

One of the worst things that happens to writers (or actors, painters, composers) is getting stuck in a rut…to feel like, or be seen as, a one-trick pony.  One trick is never enough–not for the audience, and not for the writer.  More tricks are more fun. (more…)

THE horror debut of 2010

Robert Jackson Bennett has had such incredible reviews that we just had to share…

‘Mr Shivers is a startling debut, a deft amalgam of thriller, cerebral horror and American gothic, written with a stark and artful simplicity that complements the examination of struggling humanity pushed to its limits.’
The Guardian

‘Bennett’s novel is as riveting in its slow-burning accumulation of tension as it is atmospheric in its period evocation … The economical, persuasive characterisation and the sudden shocking outbursts of horror owe something to [Stephen] King, the master of contemporary horror, but the brilliantly realised picture of dustbowl America is firmly in the [John] Steinbeck tradition.  It’s not stretching a point to say that, at times, Bennett’s stinging but hauntingly poetic prose aspires to the quality of that author’s best work … This terrifying odyssey through a blighted period in American history will stick in readers’ minds for a long time.’
Daily Express

‘A ravishing debut … Supremely chilling, it never loses its grip in its journey to the edge of the apocalypse.’
Daily Mail

‘Bennett is clearly a writer to watch’
The Times

‘From start to bloody conclusion, the tension slowly crescendos to a climax of high violence.  This bloody, uncomfortable read will be relished by any fan of early Stephen King or Peter Straub.’
Waterstone’s Books Quarterly (more…)

The Day After Tomorrow

One of the things that intrigues me as a writer is the question: “And then what happened?”

That’s one reason why I’m so excited to be writing The Fallen Kings Cycle for Orbit, carrying my characters and world from The Chronicles of the Necromancer into all-new adventures. It gives me the chance to ask, and answer, my favorite question and to share that answer with readers.
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