THE ORBIT NEWSLETTER

To: Jenny@
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 18:15:49 +0100
Subject: THE ORBIT NEWSLETTER
Reply-to: Orbit.UK@
Organisation: Orbit

ORBIT NEWSLETTER 37

March 2001

Your definitive, and really rather sexy, monthly
guide to all that's new
and cool on Planet Orbit.
www.orbitbooks.co.uk

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:

New Stuff
Fantastic novels from Berg, Card, Clarke and Bunch.

Result!
Who bagged the loot in the Orson Scott Card
competition?

News
Jones, Card, Furey, McCleod. And then some.

Go Denver!
We interview debut-author Carol Berg to uncover the
secrets of
Transformation ... and a rather surprising
extra-curricular activity...

And ... Competitions (As if we'd forget.)

It's all just a scroll away.

But first, this...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

THANK YOU to everyone who responded to the email vs
Adobe debate. As
you've probably guessed, the results were
overwhelmingly in favour of
switching to this format.
While we'd be Devious Filthy Liars if we didn't
admit to being a
*little* melancholy at seeing the cheerful old
Adobe-style go (sniff,
sniff), the newsletter is nothing if not a
democracy, so we're happy to
follow your wishes (sigh).
And, for those of you who voted to stick with
Adobe, fret not -
there will be loads of direct links to great new
images on the Orbit
website every month. Other than that, the Orbit
newsletter will continue
to bring you all the great new material you've come
to expect - and
more. Much more.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

NEW RELEASES


2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Arthur C. Clarke
Paperback5.99
ISBN 1857236645

As millions of fans will already know, this novel is
one of *the*
genuine classics of Science Fiction, and its film
version ranks amongst
the most influential movies of all time.
With a gold-embossed cover, an absorbing
introduction by Stephen
Baxter, and a new foreward by Sir Arthur himself, we
think this edition
is a more than worthy replacement for those
dog-eared copies so many of
us have. And, if you still haven't read A SPACE
ODYSSEY, 2001 has to be
the perfect time to find out why the New Yorker
calls Clarke 'The
Colossus of Science Fiction'.


ALVIN JOURNEYMAN
Book Four of the Tales of Alvin Maker
Orson Scott Card
Paperback6.99
ISBN 1841490296

e+PH+WORDS+%27alvin%27%26%27journeyman%27&TAG=&CID=
'Card has exceeded his own high standards' - Anne
McCaffrey
Following hot on the heels of last month's reissues
comes the
latest epic volume in Card's classic tale of
American myth-history
and magic.
Alvin is at last growing into his powers, but his
dreams of building

a Crystal City are haunted by the cruel whispers of
his dread foe - The
Unmaker. Even as Alvin enlists new help to realise
his goals, his nemesis
is recruiting dark allies from an unexpected
source...
And you can find out more about Orson's latest work
in our
exclusive interview. Just follow this link:

TRANSFORMATION
Book One of The Rai-Kirah
Carol Berg
Paperback9.99
ISBN 184149075X

e+PH+WORDS+%27transformation%27&TAG=&CID=
'Berg comes up with a humdinger of a plot ... vivid
characters and a
tangible atmostphere of doom' - SFX
'Injecting a much-needed boost of new blood into
the fantasy pool,
Transformation reflects an originality and devotion
to technique that
will delight' - Dreamwatch
The only they *forgot* to mention is
TRANSFORMATION's stunning
fantasy landscape, and the utterly compelling
interaction between its
central characters - the slave, Seyonne, and Prince
Aleksander, his
arrogant young master.
Melanie Rawn has described it as 'luscious work',
and you'll see
why when you read the first chapter. Just click the
link below, and
prepare to be swept away...

And you can find out more about this stunning debut
novel, and its
author, Carol Berg, in our exclusive interview later
in the newsletter.


THE EMPIRE STONE
Chris Bunch
Paperback6.99
ISBN 1841490334

e+PH+WORDS+%27empire%27%26%27stone%27&TAG=&CID=
Fashioned by Gods - or maybe demons - the Empire
Stone was larger than a
fist, and could bring awesome power and untold
riches to anyone who
possessed it. Or so the legends told.
But what the Empire Stone means for one man in
particular is
destiny. Or, put another way - trouble. Peirol is
about to go head to
head with terrifying creatures, ruthless warlords,
great armies and wild
sorcerers - and all because of one tiny little
gambling debt...
THE EMPIRE STONE is a tightly-packed bundle of
'slam-bang
excitement, lusty action and military magic ...
fast-paced and
ferocious' - Julian May. And you can read its
opening chapter now at:

default&TAG=&CID=

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ORBIT NEWS

IS YOUR NAME VICKY O'BRIEN?
If it is, and you live in Fife, you've just won
yourself The Ender Saga,
The Tales of Alvin Maker, and the first two books in
the new Shadow Saga
for correctly identifying XENOCIDE as the third book
in Orson Scott
Card's Ender Saga. Well done you.
And congratulations to Stuart Cursley of Bookham,
Allison
Zwingenberger of Wanstead and Emil Einarsson of
Gothenburg. Your copies of
THE DINOSAUR PLANET OMNIBUS by Anne McCaffrey are in
the post right now.


FORTRESS TO BE RAISED IN AUGUST
If your emails to us are any indication, there have
been some rather
alarming rumours circulating about J.V. Jones and
her superb follow-up to
A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE. The latest news is that Book
Two of Sword of
Shadows, titled A FORTRESS OF GREY ICE, is scheduled
for publication in
hardback this August. Check out its fantastic cover
now at:

G=&CID=


THAT TAD TOUR IN FULL
For those of you who missed the updates on the Orbit
website, here are
the full details of Tad Williams' signing tour:

Thursday 19th April 5pm
Forbidden Planet, New Oxford Street, London

Friday 20th April 7pm
Waterstone's, 91 Deansgate, Manchester

Tuesday 24th April 1pm
Waterstone's, 153 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

Tuesday 24th April 6pm
Waterstone's, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh

Do check with the bookshops concerned if you're
planning to attend any of
the events, as they may only be able to accommodate
limited numbers.

AI HEADING OUR WAY...
The film adaptation of Brian Aldiss' SUPERTOYS LAST
ALL SUMMER LONG
(published by Orbit in January) is set for release
in the US at the end
of June, and will hit the UK before Christmas.
Originally set to be
directed by Stanley Kubrick, it has been taken on by
Stephen Speilberg -
for his first outing as writer/director since CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS. It is
going to be *the* big movie of the year (Harry Who?
Lord of the What?),
and Orbit will be publishing a special tie-in
edition.


...BUT BUNCH WILL GET HERE FIRST
We've great news for all fans of the Sten series,
and of Chris Bunch's
solo fantasy works. The author will be making a
brief visit to the UK at
the start of April.
Chris is over here for interviews with SFX,
STARBURST, STARLOG,
AMAZON, OUTLAND, WATERSTONES ONLINE and LINEONE, but
we are also
going to coax him into signing five copies of the
spectacular new novel
THE EMPIRE STONE. And then we're going to give them
to you. Oh yes. Just
mail us at <mailto:orbit.uk@>, with
BUNCH as the subject
line, and you'll be in with a shout. We are *so*
good to you.


HUNTER GATHERER
Congratulations to new author Kim Hunter whose
KNIGHT'S DAWN is
beginning to recieve the plaudits it so richly
deserves. Starburst
called it 'A vivid tale of sorcery and strife', and
Dreamwatch applauded
it's 'Cool style ... Swift and full of incident'.
Check out the opening
chapter on the website to find out why:

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***STOP PRESS***
The follow-up to Ken McLeod's Arthur-shortlisted
COSMONAUT KEEP is
scheduled for publication in hardback this November
and will be called
DARK LIGHT.

Book Two of the Shadowleague, by Maggie Furey has
just arrived at Orbit
HQ and is zipping through the production process as
you read this. Titled
SPIRIT OF THE STONE, it's scheduled for publication
in June.

Orbit have just acquired the next volume in Orson
Scott Card's Shadow
Saga. The book is scheduled for hardback publication
in February of 2002,
and will be called SHADOW PUPPETS.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

EXCLUSIVE AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Her name's Carol Berg. Her debut novel is
TRANSFORMATION. It's Book One
of the Rai-Kirah. And it's very, very good.
We caught up with Carol when she delivered the
manuscript for its
sequel...

Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

I have always been a reader. I love not only
fantasy and science
fiction, but historicals, mysteries, and classics.
I suppose every
reader runs across some clinkers and thinks, "I
could do better than
that," but I never imagined that I could plan out a
whole story and
make it real. About ten years ago a good friend of
mine, who was very
interested in writing, shared a fantasy book with me
- a series of
letters between two sisters. We decided that it
would be an
entertaining exercise to send each other email
letters "in character".
She was to be the wild younger sister who went off
to magic school,
and I would take the part of the dutiful, shy older
sister who ended
up in a hostile royal court. This was glorious fun.
What it taught
me was that I didn't have to know in advance how the
story was going
to develop. Over the period of a year, we wrote
about 30 letters
each, and when we were done, we had a pretty good
story (albeit with
quite amateurish writing!) But by then, I didn't
want to stop. I had
this idea for a new character . . .


When did you first decide you wanted to write
fantasy?

One might say it was in high school, long before I
ever thought I might
actually write a book. Most of my writing in school
and university was
in the way of essays and literary criticism. As
beneficial as this
formal writing was for me, I disliked it immensely.
I majored in math
and computer science in part to avoid more of the
same! But once, in
tenth grade, my English teacher had assigned us to
write a short story,
and I was having a hard time feeling imaginative.
My "difficulty"
inspired me with an idea about two children whose
father had
purposefully squelched his children's imaginations
because he was
afraid of "elves". It turned out very nicely, so I
suppose I was left
with a good feeling about writing fantasy.


Which SF/fantasy novels have influenced you the
most?

Heinlein was the beginning - his early adventure
stories. Tolkien was
the giant step - an entire world with its own
language and mythology and
wonderful, vivid images. Beyond these have been so
many that have
stayed with me, read over and over again. To name
just a few, I would
say Mary Stewart's Merlin books - The Crystal Cave,
et al - and Mary
Renault's Theseus books and her Alexander the Great
books - The King
Must Die and The Bull from the Sea, and Fire from
Heaven and The Persian
Boy. Both of these women are masters of rich and
marvelous
storytelling. Then there are Roger Zelazny's first
Amber series for
sheer imagination, Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer
and Swordspoint for
emotional impact, excellent characters, and glorious
detail, and Guy
Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry for absolute beauty
and magnificence of
language. I love Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game
for composition of
character, plot, and world, and Raymond Feist's
Magician series
for the "youthful adventure tales". The book I
would like most to have
written is not a fantasy at all, but Edith
Pargeter's Heaven Tree
Trilogy, an historical adventure that takes all of
these elements to
another level. Whew! It's hard to stop.


What kind of preparation went into creating your own
vividly-imagined world?

My world is, in effect, a reflection of my
characters. Though I do enjoy
the traditional Celtic fantasy setting, I believed
that Aleksander was
the product of a harsher, more brutal environment,
albeit one that has
its own beauty and purity as he does. And the
Derzhi Empire had spread
uncomfortably far beyond its desert roots, into
realms such as the
mountains near Capharna, much as Aleksander is
forced to move beyond his
preconceptions. Seyonne's home, on the other hand,
needed to be as
remote from the cruel world in which he was held
captive as he was from
the life he loved. I wanted it to be a place that
nurtured his love of
life and beauty and "home," as well as his
contemplative side. From my
studies of art history in college, years of
miscellaneous reading, and my
travels here in the western United States, I picked
bits and pieces of
cultures and environments that would reflect and
nurture what I wanted in
my characters. Plus I did a bit of extra reading on
desert cultures,
just to make sure the Derzhi were making sense!


Can you tell us a bit about the world and the
mythology you've created in
TRANSFORMATION - where did your inspiration come
from?

In Transformation, the "ordinary" world is that of
the Derzhi Empire, an
absolute monarchy built on warrior traditions,
conquest, and slavery.
But unknown to the general populace there has been
another war going on.
For a thousand years, the Ezzarians, a secretive
race of sorcerers, have
protected the world from soulless demons who creep
into human souls and
feed on the cruelties of life, driving their victims
into madness. The
origin and nature of the demons is unknown. At the
time Transformation
begins, it has been sixteen years since the Derzhi
conquered Ezzaria,
and, as far as anyone knows, killed or enslaved its
entire population.
I suppose the key to the mythology of
Transformation is Seyonne's
statement that demons are not evil in themselves.
The Wardens only kill a
demon that refuses to leave its host, because the
death of a demon seems
to upset some balance in the universe. The problem
for the Ezzarians is
that they don't know why, and they have locked
themselves into traditions
and a world view that do not allow for gray areas.
They literally "don't
see" what they don't want to see.
Though much of fantasy depicts the struggle between
good and evil,
darkness and light, and Transformation certainly
deals with those
fundamental issues, the beauty of life - and fiction
- is its complexity.
I find myself annoyed with those who try to deal
with our own
world-nations, institutions, or people - in
simplistic terms. This leads
to prejudice, bigotry, and cynicism. And of course
this struggle to
understand and deal with complexities is reflected
most of all in
Aleksander's and Seyonne's changing view of each
other and of themselves,
and in the transformations they must undergo.
Seyonne will explore the roots of Ezzarian history
and the nature of
the demons in Revelation, the sequel to
Transformation.


Which do you find more important: character or
story?

To me, both strong characters and well-developed
plot are essential, but
I always start with character. With complex and
interesting characters
placed in a problematic world, the story will begin
to develop of itself
and take on a richness that plot alone can't
provide. Transformation
began with the character of Aleksander - an
arrogant, unlikeable, high-born
man who was going to fall very low before finding
out his true importance
to the world. And then, as proud and arrogant
princes are unlikely to be
introspective, I needed someone to tell his story -
someone who had no
reason to like Aleksander, but who was around him
all the time to report
what happened to him. Thus a slave. I truly didn't
know who Seyonne was
when Aleksander bought him on page one, nor that his
voice would prove to
be so strong, and his background and character so
fundamental to the
story.


Do you have a daily routine when you're writing a
novel?

I don't have a daily routine, as sometimes I have
entire days to devote
to writing and sometimes I have to squeeze it in
before or after work.
But I do have habits. I write every day, even if it
is just a few edits.
In our Colorado summers and fall, I love writing
outdoors on our deck or
on a weekend in the mountains. I've been known to
write by campfire
light. When it's too cold to be out, I work beside
my favorite windows
for lots of light and a good view. I write in a
spiral method, in that I
always review the previous day's work before
beginning to write new
material. It helps me immerse myself in the world
and the action, prime
the pump, so to speak, as well as to do an editing
round. Sometimes I
feel the need to go back through earlier chapters
before I can move
ahead. I am constantly editing and revising as I
go. I have also been
known to read the story aloud to myself. Because I
like to be immersed in
the world and the story, I work best by myself with
minimal distractions.
My husband is a saint.


What do you do to relax?

Writing has been my primary relaxation for a number
of years. Beyond
that, I enjoy reading, of course - though I am quite
behind - watching
films, and hiking and camping in the mountains.
I've been known to
dabble in bicycling and skiing. My secret vice is
watching (American!)
football - but only one team, our Denver pro team.
I love music, but
I'm even farther behind in my piano playing than in
my reading.


How do you think the fantasy genre will change over
the next ten years?

I have absolutely no idea. I'm not sure what it's
done in the last ten
years!


What advice would you give to budding fantasy
authors?

Think characters. (I guess this answers the earlier
question.) What do
they like, what do they dislike, what are they
afraid of, why do they
choose the paths they walk? Avoid all-powerful
heroes, all-evil
villains, and magic that can fix anything. One of
my readers commented
that he appreciated Transformation because the magic
always had a cost.
I thought that was an excellent way of expressing
this idea. Another bit
. . . read your work aloud. This reveals so much
about flow of language
and dialogue, about balance and clarity. Find
compatible peers to read
your work and critique it. Don't change things just
because they say,
but listen to their comments, and let it teach you
to read your story
with new eyes.


Don't forget to check out chapter one of
TRANSFORMATION on the Orbit
website now:

The follow-up, titled REVELATION is scheduled for
publication this
September.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

THIS MONTH'S COMPETITION

In January we published THE ONE KINGDOM. In February
we brought you
KNIGHT'S DAWN. Add to that this month's
TRANSFORMATION, and we think
Orbit have three of the strongest fantasy debuts of
recent years. And now
you can win them! Well, three of you can.
All you have to do is tell us the name of THE ONE
KINGDOM'S author.
(Who sets these questions anyway?!)
Email your answers to
<mailto:orbit.uk@> before
April the eighth, with DEBUT in the subject box. And
don't forget to
include your address so we can send your prize. Good
luck.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

And that's it for this month. Hope you liked the new
format. We'll
continue to develop the newsletter and the Orbit
website over the coming
months, so do keep your suggestions coming. And
don't forget, if you have
any questions about Orbit books, just email us any
time at
<mailto:orbit.uk@>.

Best wishes till next month,

Orbit

Here is the Orbit (SF & Fantasy Imprint) Newsletter
for March. If people think it has enough relevant
info, maybe Nick could subscribe to it in the same way
as the Murder One newsletter.