We're pleased to announce that Peter V. Brett turned his hand to Messenger's Legacy, a long new novella that shares the setting of his best-selling novels. Messenger's Legacy is deep in production, with layout complete, proofing underway, and more artwork due soon. Look for it to ship in November.

Special Offer: Everyone who preorders a copy of Messenger's Legacy through us will be sent a FREE copy of the ebook (in .mobi and Epub formats) upon publication. That way, you have one copy to treasure, and one for reading on your chosen device anywhere.

About the Book:

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons—bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.

Briar Damaj is a boy of six in the small village of Bogton. Half Krasian, the village children call him Mudboy for his dark skin. When tragedy strikes, Briar decides the town is better off without him, fleeing into the bog with nothing but his wits and a bit of herb lore to protect him.

After twenty years, Ragen Messenger has agreed to retire and pass on his route to his protégé, Arlen Bales. But for all that he’s earned the rest, he has no idea what to do with the rest of his life. When he learns Briar, the son of an old friend, is missing, Ragen is willing to risk any danger to bring him safely home.

Messenger's Legacy will be amply illustrated, with different dust jackets for the trade and limited editions, nine full-page interior black-and-white illustrations, and a full-color frontispiece exclusive to the limited edition.

Limited: 750 signed numbered copies, bound in leather, with an exclusive dust jacket and frontispiece: $45

Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $25

First, the Special Offer:

Everyone who preorders a copy of Joe R. Lansdale's mythic western novella, Black Hat Jack, will be sent a FREE copy of the ebook (in .mobi and Epub formats) upon publication. That way, you have one copy to treasure, and one for reading on your chosen device anywhere.

Second, the novella was just reviewed in Publishers Weekly. Here's a cutting from the review:

Based on a true story, this novella-length Western from Lansdale (The Thicket) offers a potent concoction of witty repartee and a rousing battle. Black Hat Jack and Nat, who goes by Deadwood Dick, make an unlikely pair. Although the former is white and the latter black, the difference in their skin color matters little to them as they ride into Adobe Walls, Tex., after discovering a man killed by Comanche Indians. Soon violence breaks out as the Indians attack the town. While their ammunition may run low, Nat's keen wit stays fully loaded throughout the skirmish…

Third, Black Hat Jack features Nat Love, the main character from the 147,000 novel, Paradise Sky—by far the longest, and, in my opinion, best novel of Joe's esteemed career—which will be out early next year. I suggest you set aside the reading time now.

About Black Hat Jack:

The story of African-Americans in the West has been confined to the dusty, bottom shelf of recorded history and American literature. But in the vein of the old dime novels containing stories about such heroes as Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James, comes the true story of one of those ten-cent novel heroes, Deadwood Dick, disguised in those novels as a white champion of justice and adventure, but in reality a black cowboy, buffalo soldier, Indian fighter, and general hell raiser.

Here, Nat Love, the one and only Deadwood Dick, writes down his version of certain events, straightening out numerous misconceptions raised in the popular and sanitized dime novels. Though his version varies considerably from the numerous volumes of adventures attributed to him, his true story, with perhaps a bit of exaggeration, is no less fascinating or exciting.

Nat was one of those Old West characters who seemed to be everywhere and met everyone that was anyone at some point in his life. Black Hat Jack details Nat’s version of the events of the now famous Second Battle of Adobe Walls, where he and a handful of buffalo hunters, primarily his good friend, Black Hat Jack, were pitted against hundreds of Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors.

Heroics abound. Curse words fly. Humor flows as free as blood, and there’s even a spot of romance. And with all that real life bravado, there might even be a few lies.

Joe R. Lansdale’s stories about Nat Love are based loosely on the real Nat Love, who may have told a few windies about his time in the West, but at the same time revealed that African-Americans of that era were not all cooks and custodians. In fact, a full third of the cowboys of the Wild West days were African-American, Hispanic, or of mixed blood. This is a tribute to the real deal, as well as to the great mythology of the Old West.

Limited: 350 signed numbered copies, bound in leather, with a different dust jacket than the trade: $45

Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $25

Jon Foster has turned in the color plates for Brandon Sanderson's long new novella, Legion: Skin Deep. We're putting the book through another round of proofing, and then will send it on to Brandon's office so he can give it a final once over. All of this is a lengthy way of saying the book is right on schedule for its November release.

Remember, everyone who preorders a copy of Legion: Skin Deep from us will also receive a free copy of the ebook.

Limited: 2500 signed numbered hardcover copies: $45

K. J. Parker's Academic Exercises—her first collection—is in stock and shipping. It's a 200,000 word plus volume, full of novellas (such as "Let Maps to Others", a  World Fantasy Award-winner), and novelettes (including "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong", a World Fantasy Award-winner) and more acclaimed short fiction (for example, "The Sun and I", a World Fantasy Award finalist this year).

Please note: We're down to our last 50 copies of the collection, which we expect to receive no less acclaim than its individual contents.

About the Book:

Academic Exercises is the first collection of shorter work by master novelist K. J. Parker, and it is a stunner. Weighing in at over 500 pages, this generous volume gathers together thirteen highly distinctive stories, essays, and novellas, including the recent World Fantasy Award-winner, “Let Maps to Others”. The result is a significant publishing event, a book that belongs on the shelf of every serious reader of imaginative fiction.

The collection opens with the World Fantasy Award-winning “A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong,” a story of music and murder set against a complex mentor/pupil relationship, and closes with the superb novella “Blue & Gold,” which features what may be the most beguiling opening lines in recent memory. In between, Parker has assembled a treasure house of narrative pleasures. In “A Rich, Full Week,” an itinerant “wizard” undergoes a transformative encounter with a member of the “restless dead.” “Purple & Black,” the longest story in the book, is an epistolary tale about a man who inherits the most hazardous position imaginable: Emperor. “Amor Vincit Omnia” recounts a confrontation with a mass murderer who may have mastered an impossible form of magic.

Rounding out the volume—and enriching it enormously—are three fascinating and illuminating essays that bear direct relevance to Parker’s unique brand of fiction: “On Sieges,” “Cutting Edge Technology,” and “Rich Men’s Skins.”

Taken singly, each of these thirteen pieces is a lovingly crafted gem. Together, they constitute a major and enduring achievement. Rich, varied, and constantly absorbing, Academic Exercises is, without a doubt, the fantasy collection of the year.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies: $40

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Parker (the Engineer trilogy) collects 10 stories and three essays to deliver all the cynicism, dry wit, and gray morality that fans have come to expect. The World Fantasy Award–winning ‘A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong’ explores the tense relationship between a disillusioned music teacher and his brilliant but murderous student. Amoral scoundrels wreak havoc in ‘The Sun and I’ and ‘Blue and Gold.’  …This meaty compilation will please fans as well as readers who are now discovering this skilled author.”

From Locus:

“‘Let Maps to Others’ is certainly be my favorite piece here. A ironic and blackly humorous account of the rediscovery of a Prester John-style kingdom lost to history involves scholarly rivalry and deceit and royal bull-headedness. It’s comic gold where, as in much comedy, the most vile deeds are the funniest.”

First, a word of thanks to Mark Miller. He's a VP at Clive Barker's production company, and has been many steps beyond helpful in putting together Chiliad, Tortured Souls, and an original Barker project so cool and exclusive we can't even talk about it yet. (Thanks, Mark!)

We've just heard that copies of the inaugeral release from Clive's own publishing imprint, SeraphimINK will be en route to our warehouse in the next few days. We were one of only a trio of outlets (the other being Camelot Books and Clive Barker's own site) chosen to sell Clive Barker's First Tales, which gathers a lengthy novella and short story from Clive's teenage years.

About the Book:

First Tales, the inaugural self-published release from Clive Barker’s Seraphim Ink is a book that contains two original stories of fantastic fiction penned by Clive when he was a young man of seventeen.
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The book begins with “The Wood on the Hill”, a short story about a bourgeois woman who is soon to learn a terrifying lesson concerning her complete disregard for anyone other than herself.

The second tale, “The Candle in the Cloud”, is a dark fantasy novella which follows three children who discover a magical candle that transports them to a world where a plague-cloud is destroying everything in its wake.

These two tales, the first ever written by Clive, are offered here for the very first time. Their production has been lovingly supervised by Clive himself to ensure that these are not mere books, but works of art to be cherished. Complete with original illustrations and appendices in select editions, First Tales is sure to delight everyone from longtime fans to new readers.

Limited: 350 signed numbered copies, in slipcase: $125
Trade: Hardcover Edition: Our Copies Sold Out

Table of Contents:

• The Candle in the Cloud (novella)
• The Wood on the Hill (short story, with illustrations exclusive to the limited edition, by Clive, from 1971)
• Appendix (exclusive to the limited edition)

Please Note: This title is now sold out.

After shipping out the initial wave of copies of Neil Gaiman's The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, we have a few extras left, with no plans to reorder.

About the Book:

Beautifully illustrated by renowned artist Eddie Campbell, this is a four-color edition of Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novelette “The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains”—a haunting story of family, the otherworld, and a search for hidden treasure.

The text of “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains” was first published in the collection Stories: All New Tales. This gorgeous full-color illustrated book version was born of a unique collaboration between writer Neil Gaiman and artist Eddie Campbell, who brought to vivid life the characters and landscape of Gaiman’s story.

In August 2010, The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains was performed in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House to a sell-out crowd—Gaiman read his tale live as Campbell’s magnificent artwork was presented, scene by scene, on large screens. Narrative and art were accompanied by live music composed and performed especially for the story by the FourPlay String Quartet.

Trade: Hardcover with a cloth spine and pictorial boards: $22

As many of you know, we lost Lucius Shepard earlier this year. I've been reading Lucius regularly since 1983, so I'll miss his voice, lush descriptions, depictions of down-at-their-heels characters, and, most especially, his stories of the Dragon Griaule, the mile-long dragon who may live on in a dormant state.

Lucius may be gone, but we have what may be a final gift from him: Beautiful Blood, which, at nearly 70,000 words, is the longest tale about Griaule.

About the Book:

Lucius Shepard’s Beautiful Blood is something both special and long awaited: the first novel-length exploration of the world of the Dragon Griaule. It’s a subject that has preoccupied Shepard since the publication of “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule” in 1984, and he has returned to it repeatedly over the years, though never before in such a mesmerizing, all-encompassing fashion.

Like the initial tale, Beautiful Blood begins in the 1850s in the town of Teocinte, in a world “separated from our own by the thinnest margin of possibility.” It is a landscape whose dominant feature is the massive, long-dormant body of an ancient dragon that has lain there, motionless, for millennia, exerting a powerful but mysterious influence on the surrounding area. The novel tells the story of Richard Rosacher, an ambitious young medical student who becomes fascinated by the properties inherent in the dragon’s blood. His exploitation of those properties launches him on a career that leads him from the shabbiest quarter of Teocinte to a morally ambiguous position of power, wealth, and influence. Beautiful Blood takes us though the entire length of that career, which is marked throughout by the invisible agency of Griaule, who may well be the driving force behind Rosacher’s astonishing ascension.

The novel also encapsulates the events of the initial Griaule story, events that dovetail neatly with the current tale. Meric Cattanay, the eponymous protagonist of “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule,” makes a welcome reappearance here. Meric’s decades-long involvement with the dragon begins at roughly the same time as Rosacher’s. Their stories proceed along parallel but independent lines that occasionally intersect, providing us with a view of familiar events wider and deeper than any we have had before. The result is a colorful, involving narrative with profound metaphysical overtones, one that raises—but does not answer—significant questions. Is the dragon merely a bizarre but entirely natural phenomenon? Or is he/it the manifestation of some divine purpose? And to what extent are the actions of men like Meric and Rosacher the reflections of its implacable but enigmatic will? Questions such as these animate the narrative at every turn, adding an extra level of resonance to one of the most original and important fictional creations of recent years.

Limited: 1000 numbered copies, fully bound in cloth: $40

From Publishers Weekly:

“In 1984, the late Shepard (1943–2014) began telling tales of Teocinte, the city growing in the shadows of the enormous, paralyzed dragon Griaule. Griaule’s 30-year story comes to an end in this novel, which runs parallel to Shepard’s other Griaule stories… The volume brings the Griaule cycle to a very satisfying conclusion, leaving the reader wishing that Shepard had lived to tell more tales.”

We're pleased to announce that the Signed Limited Edition of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's most recent novel, The Prisoner of Heaven, is in stock and shipping. (In fact, in a spasm of extreme efficiency, our warehouse has already sent out all preorders for the numbered edition.)

As is usual with one of Carlos' titles, Prisoner is a highlight of the year, with a number of high end features:

• Printed in two colors on 80# Finch;
• Full color and duotone illustrations by Vincent Chong;
• Deckled Edges;
• A "hidden" image on the reverse side of the dust jacket;

About the Book:

Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “secret history of Barcelona” continues, to mesmerizing effect, in The Prisoner of Heaven, the third installment in his steadily deepening portrait of an endlessly fascinating city, at the heart of which lies the mysterious and seductive Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

The story begins, appropriately enough, in a bookstore, when Daniel Sempere (a figure familiar to readers of The Shadow of the Wind) encounters a mysterious stranger who leaves an enigmatic message for Fermin Romero de Torres, Daniel’s oldest and closest friend. That message leads to a series of revelations regarding Fermin’s previously undisclosed past. Those revelations move the story from its point of departure in 1957 to the darker, more oppressive Barcelona of 1940, when the brutal Fascist regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco assumed undisputed leadership of Spain. What follows is a political horror story that involves Fermin, a corrupt prison administrator, and imprisoned novelist David Martin, whose Faustian bargain formed the central thread of Zafon’s 2009 novel, The Angel’s Game. The story Fermin tells, which encompasses murder, literary fraud, and a hidden cache of stolen money, reaches from the squalor of a subterranean cell into Daniel’s own life, illuminating some previously obscure corners of his troubled family history.

The Prisoner of Heaven is sure to speak directly to admirers of Umberto Eco, Arturo Perez-Reverte, and Alexandre Dumas, whose The Count of Monte Cristo plays a significant role in the narrative. But it should also appeal to anyone with a taste for elegant, suspenseful storytelling filled with color, drama, and unexpected turnings. This is popular fiction at its absolute best, a book that no one but Carlos Ruiz Zafon could have written.

The Prisoner of Heaven, like The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game before it, has become an international phenomenon, a best-seller in dozens of countries. Subterranean Press is proud to publish this deluxe limited edition, which will feature a fine paper (80# Finch), deluxe cloth, a sewn binding, and be printed in two colors throughout.

The Lettered Edition will be hand bound in the finest materials, housed in a handmade clamshell traycase.

Limited: 500 numbered copies, bound in premium cloth, printed in two colors throughout, with both two-color and full-color illustrations, signed by the author: $125

Lettered: 26 copies, handbound in the finest material, signed by the author, housed in a custom traycase: $500