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December |
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Transformation Space: Sentients of Orion Book 4
Marianne de Pierres
9781841497594
Orbit
$19.99/December
Science Fiction
The dazzling conclusion to Marianne de Pierres' critically accaimed space opera sequence.
For Mira Fedor, everything is in flux and nothing is as it appears to be. Mira's pregnancy seems to be proceeding at an inhuman pace, and Insigna’s sedate acceptance of this is as much an irritation as it is comfort. The extropists' procedures have had an unforeseen effect - but will her child be more than human, or less?
Meanwhile, the galaxy-wide conspiracy that has plagued the Orion League is blown wide open. The conspirators stand unmasked, but is there time to prevent their plans coming to fruition?
Author Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Managing Death: Death Works Book 2
Trent Jamieson
9780733624841
Orbit
$19.99/December
Urban Fantasy
Darkly humorous and dangerously hip, this novel breathes new life into the business of death.
Steven has a new job, with an important-sounding job title: Australia’s Regional Death. On a good day he thinks it has quite a ring to it, but on a bad day (that’s most of them) it’s more of a toll.
People are dying in the unusually brutal summer heat. Monstrous Stirrers are on the rise as their dark god draws near. Someone is trying to kill him. And he has a conference to organise. Steven must start managing Death, before it starts managing him.
Author Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Shadowheart: Shadowmarch Book 4
Tad Williams
9781841499222
Orbit
$32.99/December
Fantasy
The concluding volume of master storyteller Tad Williams' long-awaited return to epic fantasy.
Barrick Eddon, prince of Southmarch, is no longer entirely human. He has vowed to safeguard the legacy of the dark Qar race, and must now decide where his loyalties lie.
His twin sister Briony has a difficult choice of her own. Her father, King Olin, is held captive by the Autarch, a mad god-king. And the castle of Southmarch still remains in the possession of Hendon Tolly, Briony’s murderous relative. As time runs out, will Briony decide to save her father's kingdom . . . or her father?
Author Location: San Francisco, USA
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A Legacy of Honour
Elizabeth Moon
9781841498539
Orbit
$32.99/December
Fantasy
In a future age, Gird will be known as the patron saint of warriors. And although he inspired legend, he was once just a man with a cause.
Gird’s innate hunger for justice for his people has taken him from humble beginnings to leadership of a peasant army. It seems the only way to end tyranny is rebellion, with perhaps some help from the gods. But in his passion to achieve his goals, Gird has also overlooked a great danger in his own camp. He knows his follower Luap is the bastard son of a king. But in spite of Luap's oath to seek no throne and to renounce his mage heritage, he cannot forget his past.
Author Location: Texas, USA
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Law of the Broken Earth:
Griffin Mage Trilogy Book Three
Rachel Neumeier
9781841499024
Orbit
$19.99/December
Fantasy
Griffins and humans will meet for their final battle in the epic conclusion to the Griffin Mage Trilogy.
Six years ago, the king of Casmantium’s schemes shattered the balance between griffins and humans, and nearly led to disaster for both. Now the balance may be tipping once more - and this time neither courage nor sacrifice may be enough to repair what should never have been broken.
But when a spy brings a deadly secret from a neighboring country, Mienthe, the Lord of the Delta’s young ward, sees three kingdoms move towards war and two species toward destruction.
Author Location: UK
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The Bone Palace: Necromancer Book 2
Amanda Downum
9781841498157
Orbit
$19.99/December
Fantasy
A powerful adventure set in a mesmerising world of political intrigue, espionage and assassins.
Death is no stranger in the city of Erisín, but some deaths attract more attention than others.
When a prostitute dies carrying a royal signet, Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and agent of the Crown, must investigate. Her search leads to desecrated tombs below the palace, and the lightless vaults of the vampiric vrykoloi. But worse things than vampires are plotting in Erisín - a long-dead sorceress is making a bid not only for renewed life but for the throne as well, and Isyllt's former lover is caught in her schemes.
Author Location: Texas, USA
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Last Rites
Shaun Hutson
9781841497662
Orbit
$19.99/December
Horror
A compelling blend of visceral horror and thriller set in a boarding school where all is not as it seems...
Almost beaten to death by a gang of violent teenagers, schoolmaster Peter Mason wants nothing more than to escape the simmering violence of London, his broken marriage and the memories of his daughter’s death. The perfect chance comes in the form of a position at a prestigious boarding school. But Mason becomes obsessed with discovering what became of his predecessor - the man’s mysterious disappearance remains unexplained, leaving a chilling legacy behind.
Author Location: Buckinghamshire, England
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Lightborn
Tricia Sullivan
9781841494074
Orbit
$22.99/December
Science Fiction
Cutting-edge science fiction from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of MAUL.
Lightborn, better known as 'shine', is a mind-altering technology that has revolutionised the modern world. It is the ultimate in education, self-improvement and entertainment - beamed directly into the brain of anyone who can meet the asking price. But in the city of Los Sombres, renegade shine has attacked the adult population, resulting in social chaos and widespread insanity in everyone past the age of puberty. Severe quarantine is the only option.
Author Location: UK
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Gears of War: Anvil Gate
Karen Traviss
9781841497396
Orbit
$19.99/December
Science Fiction
The third official novel set in the world of the blockbuster video game GEARS OF WAR, one of the fastest selling Xbox 360 games of all time.
With the Locust Horde apparently destroyed, Jacinto's survivors have begun to rebuild human society on their island stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll - but it's nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can't handle. Then the terrifying life-forms they thought they'd left behind - the Lambent, creatures even the Locust feared - begin to advance across the planet.
Gears and gangs must fight side by side to stop their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege: Anvil Gate.
Author Location: Devizes, England
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Winter’s Knight
Richard Argent
9781905654543
Atom
$18.99/December
Young Adult Fiction
An atmospheric rollercoaster of an historical epic filled with colour, action and drama.
As a boy, Andrew was touched by the otherworld when the ghost of a dead murderer sought out his village, showing him his fate. And though his father is just a blacksmith, nothing will keep Andrew from riding to the Crusades to seek the honours he has been promised.
But dead men keep secrets, and much of the future has been kept from him. Andrew may find the glory of the Crusades. Or he may become entangled in Templar politics and wander in the desert haunted by jinn and demons.
Author Location: England, UK
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Goddess of Legend: Goddess Summoning Book 7
P.C. Cast
9780749953898
Piatkus
$22.99/December
Paranormal romance
International bestselling author P.C. Cast (co-author of the HOUSE OF NIGHT series) brings us the magical, sensual Goddess Summoning series
Isabel, a world-weary photojournalist, is grounded back home in Oklahoma, when her car plummets off a bridge into a lake. Struggling on the edge between life and death, she’s miraculously saved by the Water Goddess, but with one tiny caveat: Isabel must travel to another time to seduce the legendary Lancelot du Lac away from Queen Guinevere.
Author location: Oklahoma, US
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This month’s Orbit Australia update is guest edited by Australian authors Marianne de Pierres and Trent Jamieson, both of them living it up in sunny Brisbane...
Marianne de Pierres on Transformation Space
The end of the 2010 year Orbit newsletter marks the end of a series for me.
Sentients of Orion has been written over seven years, in which time I learned more about philosophy, particle physics, chaos theory and dark matter than I ever expected to.
I’ve also been on a long, long journey with the characters; from one end of the Orion constellation to the other, darting in and out of imperfect shift space, and back, eventually, to where it all started on Araldis. As they’ve been driven by a welter of desires; revenge, knowledge, self-understanding, greed, so have I been dragged through their emotional turmoil. My heart and soul and much of my functioning grey matter went into these books and its been a helluva ride. For those of you who’ve been with me (especially Darren Nash and Nicola Pitt), I salute and thank you. Enjoy the final chapter.
Trent Jamieson on Managing Death
Managing Death is out, hot on the heels of Death Most Definite (I can’t believe that I was a debut novelist just four months ago) and I really hope you enjoy it. I know Steven de Selby didn’t, he had a bit of a rough ride. But what can I say, I can’t help being cruel to my characters.
I’m just finishing up book 3, The Business of Death, now, and it doesn’t get any easier for Steve there either. Makes you glad no one is writing your life.
Second books are always a bit scary, and if I’d known Death Most Definite was going to receive so much love, it would have been even scarier, fortunately I’d finished Managing Death before it came out, and even written a couple of drafts of book 3. I wanted the second book to be just as entertaining as the first (if not more!) but I also want it to be different.
One of the things I was aiming to do with book 2 was take it to some really dark places, without losing the humour at the heart of the book, or neglecting the relationship that drives everything that Steven does.
Steve and Lissa fought hard to be together in Death Most Definite, but now they are it doesn’t make it any easier to be a couple. There’s still a company to run, a world to save and a Death Moot (a gathering of all the world’s Deaths) to organise.
Oh, and Steve’s just as likely to put his foot in it as ever, because he’s Steven de Selby and that’s what he does.
I can’t wait to see what you all think!
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