EDGE and Tesseract are imprints of Hades Publications, Inc.

ORBITAL BURN

---

by K. A. Bedford

PREVIOUS CATALOG PAGE   BOOK LIST   NEXT CATALOG PAGE

Read Chapter One Trade Paperback ISBN 10: 1-894063-10-4 ISBN 13: 978-1-894063-10-4 6" X 9" $14.95 US (free shipping in North America) AMAZON.COM AMAZON.CA Hard Bound ISBN 10: 1-894063-12-0 ISBN 13: 978-1-894063-12-8 6" X 9" $24.95 US (free shipping in North America) 305 pages

Orbital Burn In Orbital Burn, a seriously down on her luck unlicensed Stalktown PI named Louise “Lou” Meagher ekes out a sparse living solving petty crimes. She is chronically broke, clinically dead, and nervous about being evacuated from her home planet, Kestrel, which in nine days time will be hit by an unstoppable doomsday rock, known as the Bloody Bastard. But Lou takes on one last case: helping a cybernetically enhanced canine named Dog, ­locate his former master, a defective biological android boy known only as Kid....     Aurealis Award FINALIST (2005) K. A. Bedford K. A. Bedford was born in Fremantle Australia in 1963. He attended both Curtin and Murdoch University in Perth and studied Writing, Theatre, and Philosophy, before becoming ­actively involved in the Australian SF community. Orbital Burn is his first novel and marks the ­debut of a promising new voice in ­Science Fiction. He lives with his wife, Michelle, near Perth, Australia. Eclipse  Hydrogen Steel  Orbital Burn Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait "... a violent, sardonic SF yarn that harks back to Frederik Pohl's early work ... a wild, transcendental climax. Here's hardboiled SF at its finest." - John Peters, New York Public Library - Media Kit (click to download 1026 KB .pdf file)

---

Reviews and Interviews have appeared in:

Good Reading Magazine - The West Australian newspaper
The New York Review of Science Fiction
Booklist - School Library Journal - Midwest Book Review
VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) - Independently Reviewed magazine
Dead Trees Review

---

Online Reviews and mentions:

rambles.net SFSite.com - sfrevu.com - scribesworld.com Ticonderoga Online - Australian SF Bullsheet #22 - Fast Forward Magazine Yet Another Book Review website amazon.com an online interview appears at Ticonderoga Online

---

Testimonials:

"Orbital Burn is a very entertaining book with one of the best opening lines I've read in a long time: One morning, not long before the end of the world, a dead woman named Lou sat drinking espresso in Sheb's Old Earth Diner, one of the few places still open in the cheap part of Stalktown. It's not one of those sci-fi books that dumps you into the author's invented world and leaves you to flounder in a sea of unpronounceable invented words and concepts. Instead, Lou's life is fairly self-explanatory and what the reader might not be able to figure out is explained."

- Laurie Thayer, rambles.net

"Please pass on my congratulations to Mr. Bedford. I picked up Orbital Burn at Noreascon IV and had the pleasure of speaking to him then. From what he said in our brief conversation, I thought I would like his novel; I didn't just like it, I thought it was among the best books I've read in the last few years. I'm afraid I lost some sleep and annoyed my spouse because I couldn't stop reading it. (Don't worry, though: sheforgave me, and I rested up later). It was one of those books where Iwas disappointed at the end--but not because of the ending. Rather, I knew that as he is a new author without a large "body of work" out there, I now had little choice but to wait impatiently for his next publication. What great news that I won't have to wait too much longer!."

- Pete Thomas

"I have to say I really liked this book, and think K. A. Bedford a writer easily capable of taking his place with better-known contemporary sf authors like Alister Reynolds, Ken McLeod, and Paul McAuley."

- David Mead, New York Review of Science Fiction

"Orbital Burn is a genre hybrid - science fiction/crime - and it manages to dance the line between the two with flair. Feisty Lou and the strangely dignified Dog are appealing protagonists and their dramas are compelling, while never melodramatic. At times, the plot has an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink quality - AIs, time travel, other dimensions, deities, souls - but it manages not to totter too badly. A very enjoyable first novel. Looking forward to Bedford's next offering."

- Wendy Waring , Good Reading Magazine

"As with all literature, it's the questions that matter and in SF they are often the big ones. These are perhaps the biggest questions of all. What is life? What is intelligence? Is there a God? Is there such a thing as soul, or a personality? Are they different? Of what do they consist? Can you manufacture emotions?"

- Dave Luckett, author and reviewer for The West Australian newspaper

"Background, characters, and plot are all so well crafted that the matter of plausibility pops up only after the book is finished."

- Frieda Murray, Booklist review

"ORBITAL BURN is a very complex, very imaginative piece of science fiction. Lou is a very sassy character who does what she needs to do, despite being dead, and is more emotional and caring then the living surrounding her. Her dedication to her case despite all the trouble surrounding it marvels, especially when you consider that her client is a dog - a talking dog, but canine none the less.

K.A. Bedford has put together a very interesting piece of work here, one that was entertaining to the very last page. Give this author and ORBITAL BURN a look."

- Lisa Ramaglia

"This book has a delightfully strange feel to it, even though the setting and plot seem normal enough, as if any science-fictional world can be considered truly 'normal,' in line with a reader's actual experience."

- Lucy Schmeidler, sfrevu.com

"Bedford also raises some serious issues, using the interplay between disposables, synthetic minds, augmented animals, and a woman artificially enabled to live beyond her death to intelligently explore questions of free will, humanity, and the existence or nonexistence of the soul."

- Victoria Strauss, SFsite.com

"Bedford does an admirable job of world building and moving the at-times gory story along."

- Timothy Capehart. VOYA

"Bedford's word-choice in the book is trendy and fun. Additionally, his style in "Orbital Burn" mimics Isaac Asimov's theory of writing, as expressed by Asimov in 1986, "By my writing, I amuse people and make them happy. My writing style is simple, straightforward, and upbeat - nothing nasty or horrid or violent or perverse. In this sad world, I think that anyone who spreads happiness automatically justifies his existence."

- Laura Robinson - amazon.com

"By the half way point, the book really ramps up and brings us to an ending that is as satisfying as any I have read recently."

- Charlie Stuart - amazon.com

"The combination of high tech future world and old fashioned detective story is pretty well done and gets the reader in."

- A reader from Sydney, Australia

"Orbital Burn by Australia's K. A. Bedford is an excellent treat. Not only does he weave a good tale, create excellent compelling characters, and leave you to wonder what does being dead and being alive REALLY means - he captures your imagination on the first page and never lets it go until the last thought provoking sentence."

- amazon.com reviewer, Canada

"It's rare to find a first novel which grips from the outset, but this is one of them.... The author clearly has a love of words, and certainly knows how to use them; the prose displays flashes of a superb lyrical quality which brings scenes vividly to life, and which seems lacking in a lot of modern science-fiction."

- haruman from Warwickshire, United Kingdom

"From the first sentence, you know this book will be different. ... Stalktown and the Orbital inhabit a richly imagined part of the galaxy, with strange things happening according to rules that Bedford creates and sustains in deft narrative and action. ... I couldn't wait to see what would happen, and I was sorry to see it end. Lou and Dog, Jen and Kid, and the ideas of the book, all stayed with me for several days, and are with me still. ..."

- Leslie P. Grohe from San Antonio, TX

"I normally don't have much inclination toward SF and was very worried that I wouldn't like this book just because of the genre. I ended up loving it, because the characters were genuine and engaging..."

- Treena Fenniak, Dept. of Nephrology

"As a scientist, I was thrilled that the science part of the book is believable. As a reader, I was even more pleased that the science adds to the story and doesn't overwhelm what is primarily a story about human interaction (or psuedo-human - dog interaction in this case). It's a highly recommended read for a rainy day and cup of coffee, and don't be suprised if what seems like a light and fluffy novel stays with you in your head for a while afterwards...."

- Trish Amundrud from Vancouver, BC

"Great opening sentence, a depth that gradually opens up underneath you, and an ending that risks seeming a SF cliche - except that it's the only-right-ending to Lou's journey. There's Serious Stuff in there. Plus all the strange, wonderful things that make up SF."

- Alison Sinclair

MORE TESTIMONIALS

---

EDGE and Tesseract Books are distributed in Canada and the United States by Fitzhenry and Whiteside   (more)
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc.
and Tesseract Books, Ltd.
P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2L7
Phone: (403) 254-0160 - Fax: (403) 254-0456
CONTACT US

This page is copyright © 1999-2004. All rights reserved.