Posts Tagged ‘Marianne de Pierres’

Marianne de Pierres: ‘Space opera supreme’

That’s how the Sydney Morning Herald has described Marianne De Pierres’ phenomenal Sentients of Orion series. Out this week is the fantastic third instalment of the series, Mirror Space (UK/ AUS), and readers are in for a treat.

We continue to follow Mira Fedor, a young baroness with the ability to pilot sentient spaceships, in her attempt to liberate her home planet Araldis from hostile forces. As the Orion League of Sentient Species seems unable or unwilling to help, she’s forced to enlist the help of ruthless mercenary captain Rast Randall. But Rast’s contacts may have their own, more sinister agenda in mind . . .

With previous books in the series being lauded as:  ‘Brilliant in all sense of the word’ (Sean Williams),  and ‘A beautifully plotted, full-on action ride with gorgeous twists’(Aurealis), we suggest you take the advice that Hub Magazine gave about the series:

‘Readers who hunger for perceptive, intelligent and unflinching literary science fiction should seek this book out as soon as possible’

You can read an extract here.

Marianne de Pierres’ update: The News From Oz

The news of Trent Jamieson’s sale to Orbit has been on everyone’s lips here. Trent says he’s deep in the draft of Death Works book two, Managing Death, and is discovering all sorts of interesting things concerning the machinations of regional managers, and the truth behind Death Moots. ‘Dreadful things await my characters and I’m rushing towards them, eyes half closed, wishing they didn’t have to happen – I’m such a nasty writer, even when I don’t want to be. Gotye’s Heart’s a Mess and Spoon’s The Ghost of you Lingers were the theme tunes to Book One. This book’s playlist repeats are turning out be Killswitch Engaged’s Reckoning and Amanda Palmer’s Another Year – go figure.’

Karen Miller’s The Prodigal Mage has just been released in hardcover in the US and UK. Its sequel, The Reluctant Mage, comes out next year and she’ll be starting work on that in a couple of weeks. She’s currently doing a down and dirty rewrite on the 3rd Rogue Agent novel, Wizard Squared, before it goes off to copy it. That’s due out next year too.

Pamela Freeman is ecstatic to receive an advance copy of Full Circle. The fans who have started a Castings Trilogy page on Facebook can hardly wait until it hits the bookstores.

Glenda Larke reports that the UK cover of The Last Stormlord by has been finalized, and Book Two, Stormlord Rising, is now with the copy editor. When her main Orbit editor, Samantha, remarked that she was on tenterhooks for Book Three, Glenda checked hurriedly checked the due date for submission… Luckily it seems that Sam just meant that Book Two was such a cracking story she’s finding it hard to wait for the conclusion! You can follow Glenda’s musings over at Tropic Temper.

Meanwhile, Sean Williams has been absolutely accruing stellar reviews for The Grand Conjunction. You can drop over to his LJ to read them in full, but here’s a taster. Terra Incognita says: “This is a tale of unimaginable span. … It doesn’t seem possible that a series of books could do or contain more. The Grand Conjunction concludes a grand achievement. Five stars.” Bookgeek says: “breathless space combat and desperate gambits…a truly jaw-dropping piece of SF extrapolation and large-scale thinking”. Sean’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the first ever computer game tie-in novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times hardback list, and is being reissued in mmpb very soon (through Titan). Sean has also written an article over at Death Ray about the joys of juggling original work against the greatest franchise in the world to promote it. Sean recently launched the South Australian Writers’ Festival and will be off to present an award at the 25th Writers of the Future bash later this month. You can also catch him at the WFC in San Jose later this year. And no, he doesn’t sleep!

Though it’s still winter in Queensland, the days are bright, blue and around 27 degrees Celsius. Hard to stay inside when it’s so glorious, but I’m a disciplined writer on a mission (I am!) to finish Transformation Space. September brings a few (work) outings for me though, including The Brisbane Writers Festival and Gen Con Oz. By the time they’re over, I should have a copy of Mirror Space in my hands.

Talk soon!

MDP

Marianne de Pierres’ update: The News From Oz

It’s winter down here and most of the Orbit Antipodean’s are in writing hibernation.

Sean Williams , however, stepped out of his cave to accept the Peter McNamara Award for Excellence at The Australian National Convention in Adelaide. The Peter Mac is awarded at the discretion of the convenors for a particular achievement in speculative fiction or related areas. This award may take into account a body of work or achievements over a number of years; it can also be for a work of non-fiction, artwork, electronic or multimedia work, film or TV, or that which brings credit or attention to the speculative fiction genres. The award was originally known as the Convenors’ Award for Excellence and was renamed in 2002 after Peter McNamara (d 2004), publisher, editor and the original Aurealis Awards convenor, shortly after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Ian Irvine  is working furiously on the first book of his new fantasy trilogy for Orbit, which he will be delivering later this year. The first book of his Well of Echoes quartet, Die Geomantin, is now out in Germany with the others to appear at four-month intervals. And The Destiny of the Dead, the final in Ian’s Song of the Tears trilogy and in his 11-book Three Worlds sequence (for now) has been well received. This from SFX: “Unbelievably, Ian Irvine has managed to increase the pace in this final volume in the Song of the Tears series… For sheer excitement, there’s just no one else like Ian Irvine around at the moment.” (more…)

Marianne de Pierres’ June update: The News From Oz

The Australasian installment kicks off this time with the news that Russell Kirkpatrick pulled off a neat coup d’etat at the New Zealand National Convention this month by hijacking his GoH speech by presenting Speculative Fiction in Popular Music. Russell then packed his bags and is headed to Conjecture where he’ll be hobnobbing with other Orbit authors Sean Williams, Trudi Canavan and Karen Miller. Of course Sean Williams in his role as Convention DJ and Ditmar nominee for Best Novel (Earth Ascendant) will not allow Russell to choose the music.

According to Ms Canavan, all work and no conventions makes for a dull Trudi, so after Conjecture she’ll be making plans to attend WorldCon in Montreal. Karen Miller will be back at home though, to put on her K E Mills hat, and start the 3rd Rogue Agent novel, in which events of the past come back to haunt our intrepid heroes in ways they certainly weren’t expecting!

While half the Orbit Antips are swanning at NatCon, the rest of us are at home working, including Glenda Larke has just handed in Book Two of The Stormlords: Stormlord Rising and is now taking a break from writing to catch up on housework (yuk!, says Glenda) before starting book 3. Pamela Freeman has finished Full Circle and has just put Otlee’s Story, a new short story set in the Domains, up on her website for those who can’t wait until the next book. Pamela says that the French edition of Blood Ties now available, s’il vous plait.

Here’s news from Joel Shepherd, author of The Trial of Blood & Steel Quartet: Well Sasha (book one) is being reprinted here with Orbit in Australia, and Petrodor (book two) comes out in mass market next month, Tracato (book three) will be released in trade paperback in August.

I’d like to introduce new Orbit Oz author Sam Bowring. Sam has more than a few strings to his bow. When he’s not scribing, he’s a writer for the Logie Award winning Rove writing team, and a stand up comedian. His first book in The Broken Well Trilogy, Prophecy’s Ruin, will be released in October this year, with the next two coming out during 2010.

You can catch my news at my website but the short version of the last month is that when I’m not working on Transformation Space, I’m deeply, deeply hooked by Battlestar Galactica season 3 (better late than never!). Oh, and there’s that film option for Nylon Angel that I have hanging around on my desk. Must get around to signing it…

So that’s about it.

‘Later

MDP

Three Orbit authors shortlisted for 2008 Aurealis Awards

Many congratulations to three of our Australian authors whose novels have been named on the shortlists for the 2008 Aurealis Awards – recognising the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers – as follows:

Chaos Space by Marianne de Pierres, UK paperback Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams, UK paperback The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller - UK paperback
  • Chaos Space by Marianne de Pierres for Best Science Fiction Novel
  • Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams for Best Science Fiction Novel
  • The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller for Best Fantasy Novel

Sean Williams has also been shortlisted in three other categories: Best Collection (for Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams from Ticonderoga Publications), Best Young Adult Novel (for The Changeling from Angus & Robertson) and Best Children’s 8-12 Years (for The Changeling sequel volume Dust Devils).

The Winners will be announced at the Aurealis Awards ceremony in Brisbane on Saturday the 24th January 2009. For more information on the 13th annual awards, visit www.aurealisawards.com.

In Their Own Words: Marianne de Pierres on CHAOS SPACE

Marianne says:

Chaos Space by Marianne de PierresWith Dark Space (Book One of the Sentients of Orion series), I began small. Most of the narrative focused on one planet with tantalizing glimpses (I hoped!) of a much grander storyline. In Chaos Space I step firmly into that wider landscape, delving deeper into the psyches of the less-developed characters and increasing the stakes for the heroine.

It was a planned seduction of the reader; become intimate with a couple of the players and perhaps, maybe … a little intrigued by the lesser known ones. For me then, the most satisfying and challenging thing about Chaos Space was bringing all those disparate strands together. Kind of like a dance.

Not so much a space opera as an interplanetary mambo…

Sentients of Orions book two: Chaos Space is out now from Orbit in the UK and Australia, as is the first part of the series, Dark Space [UK | AUS].

Marianne de Pierres is also the author of the Parrish Plessis novels, and you can find out all about her work at her official website, www.mariannedepierres.com as well as catching up with all her latest developments via her regularly updated blog.

Patricia Briggs series, Marianne de Pierres script optioned for film

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, UK paperbackWe’re delighted to be able to pass on a couple of items of film-related news from two of our urban fantasy authors: Patricia Briggs and Marianne de Pierres.

Firstly – as detailed in full in a press release posted over at PublishersWeekly.com – Patricia Briggs’ agent has sold option rights for the Mercy Thompson series (Moon Called, Blood Bound and Iron Kissed) to Mike Newell’s production company 50 Cannon Entertainment [IMDB] who are also behind a forthcoming adaptation of Terry Brooks’ The Elfstones of Shannara [IMDB].

Patricia is understandably delighted by the news, saying on her website: “Now, Hollywood options far more works than they ever make into movies, so there’s no guarantee that an actual movie will ever be made, but it’s still pretty exciting news. If we ever do hear that they’re going ahead with production we promise to pass the news on (just as soon as we quit squeeing and dancing around like crazy people!).”

Our second item of news is that Marianne de Pierres (author of the Parrish Plessis and Sentients of Orion series) and Lynne Jamneck’s SF movie script Stalking Daylight has been optioned by production company Enchanter, as per this press release on Marianne’s site.

Here’s what the release has to say about the concept: “Stalking Daylight tells the story of Dresher, a bright young gaming talent who is faced with some tough choices when her father contracts neuro-transmitter disease. The Earth has changed, and those inhabitants who worship technology are at odds with those who choose to live without it. Dresher must venture into Luddite territory to find the medication that her father needs to survive. But the cure comes at a terrible price.”

We’ll bring you more information on these two projects as we get to hear of it.

Ditmar Shortlist

More award news, with the shortlist for the 2008 Ditmars being announced over the weekend, and we’re delighted to see Sean Williams’ Saturn Returns and Marianne de Pierres’ Dark Space on the shortlist for best novel. Sean and Marianne were also both shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, and we’ve got our fingers crossed that one of them will win this time. Or perhaps both – is a tie too much to ask for?

Awarded since 1969 in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror, the Ditmar is one of the premier awards for Australian speculative fiction. Previous winners of the Ditmar for Best Novel include Garth Nix, Peter Carey, George Turner, Victor Kelleher, Greg Egan and – on no fewer than five occasions – Sean Williams.

The Ditmars will be presented at Swancon, the 47th Australian National Science Fiction Convention, to be held over the Easter weekend.  Guests of Honour include Orbit’s very own Ken MacLeod and Glenda Larke. Ken’s The Execution Channel is, of course, on the shortlist for this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel (also to be presented over Easter), and Glenda’s Song of the Shiver Barrens was shortlisted for last year’s Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

On the whole, we’re rather pleased with the way 2008’s shortlists are developing.