The 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards have officially begun, and we’re happy to announce Orbit has five nominees in the first round!
Want to see your favorite Orbit authors and books make it to the second round? Cast your vote!
Voting for the opening round ends November 8th.
Fantasy – VOTE NOW!
Debut – VOTE NOW!
Science Fiction – VOTE NOW!
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
HARRY DRESDEN IS BACK AND READY FOR ACTION!
Dresden Files fans rejoice! The thrilling sixteenth instalment in Jim Butcher’s no. 1 Sunday Times bestselling series is on its way!
PEACE TALKS (UK | ANZ) is out in July 2020 and available to preorder now.
When the supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago — and all he holds dear?
Praise for the Dresden Files:
‘The Dresden Files is my favourite series ever’ 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
‘The Dresden Files are addictive page-turners’ SciFiNow
Waiting for the next Dresden Files book can be tough! Luckily for fans of this gripping series, Orbit UK are publishing BRIEF CASES (UK|ANZ) in June: a new collection of Dresden Files stories – including an original novella, set between SKIN GAME and PEACE TALKS – from international bestseller Jim Butcher. Preorder it today!
We’re very excited to share our cover, by the talented Chris McGrath:
Return to the world of Harry Dresden (the only wizard in the Chicago phone book) as he and his friends solve supernatural mysteries, protect the helpless, and fight evil. Packed with all the magic, wisecracking and dazzling action that make the Dresden Files so spectacular, this is not a collection to miss.
We’re delighted to launch the cover for MARKED, designed by Ceara Elliot and Emily Courdelle! This is the ninth book in Benedict Jacka’s magic-filled Alex Verus series, publishing in July next year.
MARKED sees probability mage Alex Verus tracking down dangerous magical items unleashed into the world by dark mages. When the Light Council decide they need his help in negotiating with the perpetrators, Alex must use all his cunning and magic to strike a deal…
MARKED continues the bold, colourful new look for the series that we established with BURNED and BOUND. Now – at Alex’s request (and who are we to deny a probability mage’s predictions?) – we’ve given the first six books brand new designs to match. If you think these new covers are vivid and irresistibly eye-catching, well . . . Alex Verus knew you would!
These fabulous new designs – also courtesy of Ceara Elliot and Emily Courdelle – will be appearing in bookstores throughout 2018.
Do you ever feel like there’s something more to your city than meets the eye?
Have you ever sensed a touch of magic simmering beneath the streets?
Do you ever wonder about the myths intertwined in our folklore – and whether there’s any truth to them?
You could just be right. Because this Autumn, something’s about to be let loose…
Today we can reveal the cover for CHASING EMBERS (UK/US/ANZ), a spectacular debut fantasy novel coming in September from author James Bennett.
If you’re a fan of the books of Ben Aaronovitch, Benedict Jacka, Jim Butcher and Kevin Hearne, this contemporary fantasy is about to sweep you off your feet . . .
Get ready to meet Red Ben Garston. He’s a rascal, a rogue and an anti-hero who will stand shoulder to shoulder (and likely end up in a tussle) with the likes of Harry Dresden, Alex Verus, Peter Grant and Atticus O’Sullivan. He’s got a chip on his shoulder and a very big secret hiding under his skin.
Intrigued? See the below info and stay tuned for more soon . . . It’s available for pre-order now.
Behind every myth there is a spark of truth.
There’s nothing special about Ben Garston. He’s just a guy with an attitude in a beaten-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows about his ex in a local bar.
Or so he’d have you believe.
What Ben Garston can’t let you know is that he’s also known as Red Ben. He can’t let you know that the world of myth and legend isn’t as make-believe as you think, and it’s his job to keep that a secret. And there’s no way he can let you know what’s really hiding beneath his skin . . .
But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. Because a centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.
Something’s been hiding in the heart of the city – and it’s about to be unleashed.
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.
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.
We remember when urban fantasy first arrived on our shelves, but the genre has changed significantly since then. Are these stories still popular? If so, why? We asked some of Orbit’s authors for their take on the genre’s past, present and future.
JIM BUTCHER, author of the bestselling Dresden Files, as well as recent adventure fantasy THE AERONAUT’S WINDLASS
‘Urban fantasy is nothing more or less than the resurgence of fairy tales. We’ve changed what our big bad wolves look and act like, and our forests appear somewhat different than they used to, and Little Red Riding Hood is generally much more heavily armed than she has traditionally been, but we’re telling the same stories, in the same ways, with the same emphasis on the fantastic and the terror and delight of its clash with our everyday world.
It’s the everyday reality that so many of us find terrifying – to such a degree that we flee to tales of vampires and werewolves and dark sorcerers just to lighten the mood.’
CHARLIE FLETCHER, author of THE OVERSIGHT and THE PARADOX
‘People have always created stories to try and make sense of stuff they could neither see nor understand. ‘Urban’ fantasy is just a logical step since as society has become less rural and more metropolitan so the old dark woods of the old fairy-stories have been replaced by a sodium-lit concrete jungle. And of course we may have moved to the cities, but we brought our darkness with us.
There’s a lot of product jammed in under the urban fantasy label that doesn’t do it for me, but the books that do mean something to me are the ones that engage creatively with the inevitable transition from the old to the new world and deal with its consequences as a central part of the story (AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman is a particularly fine and definitive example of this).’
LILITH SAINTCROW, author of the Bannon and Clare Affairs and BLOOD CALL, as well as many other urban fantasy series
‘I think the last five years, as with any shiny new trend, have brought a certain amount of reader fatigue. Urban fantasy isn’t going away, but it’s not so much of a Wild West ‘let’s throw a vampire in there and hope it sticks!’ anymore. Which is very good, if sometimes frustrating when paranormal or urban fantasy is what you want to write.
After working in publishing for so long, I see “urban fantasy” as a genre title, nothing less, nothing more. There’s always a market for tales well told, and urban fantasy, like any genre, offers a set of tools and toys for a writer to play with.’
BENEDICT JACKA, author of the Alex Verus novels
‘I’d have trouble pinning down exactly how urban fantasy’s changed over the last five years, but I’m pretty sure that it’ll stay popular for the foreseeable future. The mash-up nature of urban fantasy lets it evolve easily, and the sources it draws on (comic books, games, epic fantasy) still have a lot of resonance for city-dwellers. So while I’d expect the type of urban fantasy stories to shift over time, I think the genre will stick around for a good while yet.’
PATRICIA BRIGGS, author of the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series
‘There isn’t a reader appetite for urban fantasy the way there used to be. Five years ago, any book that was urban fantasy was guaranteed a certain number of readers. I think, and it is not a bad thing, that readers are pickier now. For me as a reader, right now, what I love about urban fantasy is that there are so many good storytellers working in this field. Good stories still work and can still find an audience, though it might take longer to find a readership than before.
One of the things that I actually like about this is that we are seeing more diversity in books that are published again. I love, love, urban fantasy. But I also love space opera, traditional fantasy, and contemporary fantasy – and those genres were getting drowned.’
ELLIOTT JAMES, author of CHARMING
‘I like to read stories where the extra-ordinary and the ordinary mingle. Some people sneer at escapist literature, but “escape” implies relief, release, and freedom, none of which are bad things. Escape also inevitably holds a mirror up to the thing being escaped from.
Urban fantasy often gives ordinary characters a chance to demonstrate extraordinary qualities. It encourages readers to examine what it means to be human through contrast or by eliminating a lot of the obvious assumptions.
There have always been stories that introduced fantastical otherworldly elements into the everyday knockabout world that we humans optimistically call reality, and I expect there always will be.’
Are you as excited about the launch of Jim Butcher’s new series as we are? THE AERONAUT’S WINDLASS (UK|ANZ) comes out 29th September, but you can preorder it today!
Filled with swashbuckling adventure, daring airship chases and thrilling swordfights, plus all the magic, wisecracking and dazzling heroics that make the Dresden Files so spectacular, this is not a series to miss. We’re very excited today to release our cover, by the fantastic Chris McGrath.
Jim Butcher, the no.1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors . . .
Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.
Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the leaders of Albion – to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.
And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake . . .
We’re thrilled that two Orbit books made the shortlist for this year’s Hugo Awards! Both Ann Leckie’s ANCILLARY SWORD (US | UK | ANZ) and Jim Butcher’s SKIN GAME (UK | ANZ) have been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
ANCILLARY SWORD’s nomination follows Ann Leckie’s Hugo Award win last year for her debut ANCILLARY JUSTICE.
Congratulations to Ann, Jim, and the rest of the nominees!
