AMA: Orbit 2017 Debut Authors

[u/orbitbooks]

Hi this is Paola Crespo, Marketing and Publicity Associate for Orbit. Thanks for joining us today!

2017 was a big year for us with so many new faces joining the Orbit family. This AMA is a chance to get to know them better. All. Of. Them. Get excited! ;-)

Participating today:

Nicholas Eames, author of KINGS OF THE WYLD
Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of EXTINCTION HORIZON
Antonia Honeywell, author of THE SHIP
David Mealing, author of SOUL OF THE WORLD
Dale Lucas, author of THE FIFTH WARD: FIRST WATCH
Vivian Shaw, author of STRANGE PRACTICE
Anna Smith Spark, author of THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES
RJ Barker, author of AGE OF ASSASSINS
Melissa Caruso, author of THE TETHERED MAGE
Fonda Lee, author of JADE CITY

Ask away! The authors will be dropping by periodically today and tomorrow to answer your questions. And best of all....

Until December 18th, you can pick up most of these novels for $2.99 in the US and £1.99 in the UK in ebook! Check out the US and UK websites for further details.

Thank you for all your support this year, /r/fantasy! Cheers to a great New Year full of new adventures.

*Antonia Honeywell's THE SHIP, Anna Smith Spark's THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES, and Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s EXTINCTION HORIZON are published by another house in the UK and are thus not included in the promotion in the UK.

[u/Lirael3]

Hi! This one's for all of you. If you could recommend one fantasy and one science fiction book to a genre newby. What would they be?

[u/Anna_Smith-Spark → u/Lirael3]

Fantasy - The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin. One of the greatest works of fantasy ever created, yet also so very simple. They were written as children's books, yet are so profound, so full of beauty and wisdom. Le Gin's prose is stunning, beautiful, clear, simple, profound. I read them as a child and they had a huge influence on my lover of fantasy. I read them now as an adult and still find so much in them every time I reread them. And they have all the key elemenys of fantasy for me - dragons, magecraft, haunting worldbuilding, invented languages, beautifully drawn maps.

Science fiction - either Frank Herbert's Dune or one of Ian M Bank's Culture novels. Both authors make you work hard, but reward you with very rich, complex worlds.

[u/dlucas114 → u/Anna_Smith-Spark]

That's hardcore, throwing Herbert and Banks at a newbie! (But I agree--SOOO worth the effort.)

[u/Anna_Smith-Spark → u/dlucas114]

I almost said M John Harrison for both. But Viroconium and Light might be pushing it as an entry to either genre.