Posts Tagged ‘Pamela Freeman’

EMBER AND ASH wins Aurealis Award!

the cover for Pamela Freeman's award-winning fantasy novel EMBER AND ASH Big congratulations from the Orbit team to Pamela Freeman, whose epic fantasy novel EMBER AND ASH won the Aurealis Award for the best fantasy novel of the year! The awards were announced in Sydney last Saturday.

The Aurealis Awards represent the best of Australian fantasy, science fiction and horror across thirteen different categories. Trudi Canavan and Trent Jamieson have both been previous winners of the awards.

EMBER AND ASH (UK | US | ANZ) is available as an Orbit ebook or paperback.

Two peoples have been fighting over the same land for a thousand years. Invaders crushed the original inhabitants, and ancient powers have reluctantly given way to newer magics. But Ember was to change all this with a wedding to bind these warring people together – until her future goes up in flames.

Ember’s husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god, who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past.

They must look to the present, as old furies are waking to violence and are eager to reclaim their people.

Ember and Ash – we’re all fired up!

We are burning to tell you (couldn’t resist…) about the launch of Ember and Ash (ANZ | UK | USA) by Aurealis award-winning author Pamela Freeman. This is now available in Australia and New Zealand as well as in the UK and US – and a free extract is available here. You can also read about Freeman’s own reading preferences in fantasy fiction on the Galaxy Bookshop site. Freeman has been credited with writing high quality fantasy that avoids standard fantasy tropes, majoring on clever plotting and genuinely believable characters. And Ember and Ash itself contains rage, thwarted passions and the shadow of dark gods:

Ember’s marriage was to bind two warring people – until her husband-to-be is murdered by a vengeful elemental god who sees peace as a breach of faith. Set on retribution, she enlists the help of Ash, son of a seer. Together they will pit themselves against elementals of fire and ice in a last attempt to end the conflicts that have scarred their past.

Publishers Weekly has already commented that ‘Freeman’s unique setting and compelling characters make for a highly entertaining tale’, we look forward to more reviews in due course! Here is some previous praise for Freeman’s work and although Ember and Ash is a stand alone fantasy, we’ve recently published a fantastic omnibus of her Castings trilogy (ANZ | UK | USA), set in the same world.

Books are for Life, Not Just for Christmas

As we settle in to the New Year, and start looking ahead to some of the fantastic books 2010 is sure to bring us, it behooves us to remember that all of the books cramming the shelves before 25th December are still available. Owing to a warehouse move, our January titles won’t be published until the 21st of the month, so while we wait for the extraordinary array of new releases and exciting new editions of existing favourites, let us remind you of the wonderful titles we published in December 2009.  

In alphabetical order (for who would dare choose among them?!), Orbit’s December stars were:  

Jim Butcher, with Princeps’ Fury, the fifth volume of his bestselling Roman-influenced fantasy, The Codex Alera. (UK / ANZ)
After bitter fighting, Tavi of Calderon has eventually forged an alliance with Alera’s oldest foes, the savage Canim, and he must escort them on their long sea-voyage home. This will strain their fragile accord – but the worst is yet to come . . .  


‘Absorbing fantasy…an abundance of convincing detail’ Publishers Weekly  


Full Circle, the final volume of Pamela Freeman’s wonderful Castings Trilogy. (UK / ANZ / US)
Saker has devoted himself to dark enchantments and desires nothing but vengeance. And vengeance he has in abundance. His ghost army is slaughtering those of the new blood, fuelled by an ancient wrong. But while Saker had thought revenge would be simple, he’s now plagued by voices foreshadowing a calamity beyond his comprehension . . .  

‘An impressively different fantasy novel’ Sydney Morning Herald
 
  
The conclusion to Charlie Huston’s acclaimed Joe Pitt sequence, My Dead Body. (UK / ANZ)
Manhattan’s Vampyre clans have at last abandoned any claims on civility and have finally sprung fully for each others’ throats. The carefully maintained peace is forgotten. When the stakes are this high, there can be no neutrality – only winners and losers. But when the blood stops flowing, what side will Joe Pitt be on . . . ?  

‘One of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century’ Stephen King

 
Ian Irvine’s triumphant conclusion to the climactic Song of the Tears trilogy, Destiny of the Dead. (UK)
Nish and his remaining allies are trapped on the Range of Ruin, surrounded by the relentless army of his father, the God-Emperor. And Nish’s choices seem limited: a humiliating surrender, or a suicidal fight to the death . . .   

 

‘For sheer excitement, there’s just no-one else like Irvine around at the moment’ SFX

  
And finally, Beyond the Wall of Time, the shattering conclusion to Russell Kirkpatrick’s majestic second trilogy, The Broken Man. (UK /US)
The wall of time has fallen, leaving the Gods free to indulge their hunger for violence. Few know of their escape into mortal lands – and these few struggle against the control of the malevolent mage Husk and with their own problems.  

 
‘Not since Tolkien have I been so awed’ Trudi Canavan
  

 A fine way to see out the year, we’re sure you’ll agree. Stay tuned for some first chapter extracts.