We've finished our inventory of the collectors room. For the next few newsletters, we'll be listing our finds, including a number of books we thought long out of print. There is a limit of one copy per title. In fact, for many of thse books, we're down to single copies.

• The Drowned Cities (Paolo Bacigalupi, lettered edition);
• The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi, lettered and numbered editions);
• The Golden Apples of the Sun (Ray Bradbury, lettered edition, with exclusive material);
• Death Masks (Jim Butcher, lettered and numbered editions);
• Baal (Robert McCammon, lettered and numbered editions);
• The Hunter from the Woods (Robert McCammon, lettered edition)
• The Providence Rider (Robert McCammon, lettered edition)
• Hide Me Among the Graves (Tim Powers, Charnel Houe limited edition);
• Drood (Dan Simmons, limited edition)

Our friends at Centipede Press have just announced a pair of William Peter Blatty projects, both with low limitations—only 250 copies.

About the Books:

Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing

A scathing modern fable that chronicles the descent of an acclaimed auteur and a Hollywood screenwriter caught in his own private hell. This novel draws on Blatty’s own experiences in Hollywood during the writing and filming of such acclaimed movies as The Exorcist. Blatty takes no prisoners in this fable of towering ambition, cross and doublecross.

Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing is here published with the preferred text by Blatty, incorporating dozens of revisions and amendments. Jacob McMurray designed the dustjacket.

Limited: 250 signed numbered hardcover copies: $60

Dimiter

William Peter Blatty has thrilled generations of readers with his iconic international bestseller The Exorcist. Now Blatty gives us Dimiter, a riveting story of murder, revenge, and suspense. Laced with themes of faith and love, sin and forgiveness, vengeance and compassion, it is a novel in the grand tradition of Morris West’s The Devil’s Advocate, and the Catholic novels of Graham Greene.

Dimiter opens in the world’s most oppressive and isolated totalitarian state: Albania in the 1970s. A prisoner suspected of being an enemy agent is held by state security. An unsettling presence, he maintains an eerie silence though subjected to unimaginable torture. He escapes, and, on the way to freedom, completes a mysterious mission. The prisoner is Dimiter, the American “agent from hell.” The scene shifts to Jerusalem, focusing on Hadassah Hospital and a cast of unusual characters. All become enmeshed in a series of baffling, inexplicable deaths, until events explode in a surprising climax.

Told with unrelenting pace, Dimiter’s compelling, page-turning narrative is haunted by the search for faith and the truths of the human condition.

William Peter Blatty, the writer of numerous novels and screenplays, is best known for his internationally bestselling novel The Exorcist, deemed by the New York Times Book Review to be “as superior to most books of its kind as an Einstein equation is to an accountant’s column of figures.” An Academy Award winner for his screenplay for The Exorcist, Blatty is not only the author of one of the most terrifying novels ever written, but, paradoxically, also co-wrote the screenplay for the hilarious Inspector Clouseau film, A Shot in the Dark. New York Times reviewers of his early comic novels noted, “Nobody can write funnier lines than William Peter Blatty”, describing him as “a gifted virtuoso who writes like S. J. Perelman.” Blatty lives with his wife and a son in Maryland.

Limited: 250 signed numbered hardcover copies: $75

We've finally had a slot in our schedule to do a proper inventory of the Collectors Room her at SubPress. Here are the first fruits. (Reminder: In most cases, there are only one or two copies of a given title, so act quickly.)

• The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury);
• Moby Dick (Ray Bradbury);
• The Other in the Mirror (Philip Jose Farmer);
• The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (Robert E. Howard);
• Brighton Shock (edited by Stephen Jones);
• The Five (Robert McCammon);
• Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik);
• Black Hills (Dan Simmons);
• Worlds of Weber (David Weber);

The trade hardcovers of two new Harlan Ellison titles hit our warehouse today, and will begin shipping tomorrow. Gentleman Junkie and The Deadly Streets are among the classics of Ellison's canon, the former the only title reviewed by Dorothy Parker in Esquire.

If you're in the market for even more early Ellison, please consider heading over to harlanbooks.com, where you can pick up Rough Beasts, which contains 17 tales from very early in Harlan's career. They aren't his strongest work, natch, but remain a treasure trove for his most ardent fans.

Progress. Progress, and some more progress. Here's one of Gabriel Rodriguez's interior illustrations for Joe Hill's epic road vampire novel, NOS4A2. We've seen the other interiors as works in progress, and should have finished version in house within the next two weeks. At the same time, Joe is putting the finishing touches on "Wraith", the bonus novella that's exclusive to our limited edition. With luck, the whole package should be headed to the printer in the next month, a bit later than we originally anticpated, but not too much so.

In other Hill news, the Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows books are done. We're just waiting on the slipcases and traycases before that hefty volume filled with dark wonders can ship.

From SF Revu:

Five Autobiographies and a Fiction collects six original novellas by Lucius Shepherd. It's rare to see a collection of novellas, never mind by a single author. It is a length that Shepherd excels at, and we are lucky that Subterranean Press has made this collection possible. Shepherd opens the collection with a frank introduction that shows how the protagonists of five of the novellas represent paths that Shepherd could have seen his own life taking, showing how they are in a sense alternate history autobiographies, which probably explains the sensitivity and compassion Shepherd's writing displays for even his most flawed protagonists… This collection is amazingly rewarding. These are clearly deeply personal stories for the author, and it pays off in the depth and richness of his writing. I highly recommend this collection to one and all.

From SFRevu:

McCammon creates a fast paced and entertaining tale with this novella, constructing the world Lawson inhabits with an admirable specificity. The feel of being in 19th century New Orleans is palpable. With his credo and calling card, which reads simply ‘I travel by night’, Lawson is a worthy protagonist who evokes the old television series Have Gun Will Travel with his forthright manner and direct approach to solving problems. He is less a detective than a force of justice and vengeance, going after a singular target.

From SFRevu:

…the gist of The Gist survives the difficulties generated by the two consecutive translations, providing the reader with an enticing piece of dark fiction and with the captivating results of an unusual linguistic experiment.

From SFSite:

Virtually all of the stories included in this volume were amongst the best science fiction written in the mid-1980s, and many were indeed nominated and/or won various awards. Robert Silverberg has created here tales of emotional impact and intellectual depth that should be avidly perused by every serious science fiction reader. I look forward to future volumes in the series.

We're sold out of The Best of Joe Haldeman, but you can still find copies out in the wild. Here's just one more reason to, from SFSite:

The Best of Joe Haldeman also ventures into horror, political conspiracies, anthropological science fiction, even a young adult adventure story set on Mars. These are the topics of a writer whose work has stretched across most of the themes and styles of modern SF, whose work has been an integral part of the on-going conversation that is science fiction. To read The Best of Joe Haldeman is to partake in that conversation at the highest level, fueled by a collection of stories whose ideas, characters, and themes will be talked about for as long as that conversation goes on.

Our upcoming Lawrence Block offering, Catch and Release, just drew a coveted starred review from Booklist. You may safely assume that both author and publisher are pleased. To wit:

Block’s short stories are intelligent and respectful of the reader yet often take an unexpected turn. He plays fair. If you reread the story, you’ll find that he left you little clues about the final destination but didn’t connect the dots. Block is a master of the long-form mystery, and this collection proves he’s got the short form locked down as well.

Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $30

Very long story short. We have 100 copies of a new printing of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: the Thing Beneath the Bed, the original adventure by Patrick Rothfuss. These copies, fourth printings, are signed by Pat. We don't expect to get any more in, so now's the golden chance to pick up one of the most ghoulish non-children's books this side of Edward Gorey.

Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition (signed): $25

We've a new Peter Crowther collection slated for late this summer. When thinking of Jewels in the Dust, the operaterive term is Bradburyesque.

About the Book.

In the pages of this latest collection of downright delicate, often enchanting and occasionally distressing stories from the pen of award-winning Peter Crowther you will encounter:

• two boys who discover an elaborate trap to capture fairies;
• a young musician haunted by the song 'Moonlight In Vermont';
• a small-time crook about to fall under the spell of London while, at the same time, rediscovering his wife;
• a family who happen across a store with a back door that takes you back to your favorite past;
• a Runyon-esque gambler with the strangest set of dice you ever saw;
• a couple jaded with their life together who are re-visited by their collective histories;
• an unusual visitor who rolls in one fall day under cover of a mighty thick fog just to touch base with someone he maybe once knew;
• a dying man who learns that most important of all lessons: his life has been more worthwhile than he realized; and
• a carnival come to visit the small turn-of-the-century Texas town of Gault, there to make a big impression on two young women on the cusp of…well, on the cusp of so many things.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and, by golly, you’ll want to sleep with the light on. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Limited: 750 signed numbered hardcover copies: $45

We're inordinately pleased to have Balfour and Meriwether in the Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs on this fall's schedule. You may remember the intrepid due from their appearance in Subterranean in "The Vampire of Kabul".

About the Book:

When a private envoy of the queen and member of Lord Carmichael's discreet service goes missing, Balfour and Meriwether are asked to look into the affair.  They will find a labyrinth of dreams, horrors risen from hell, prophecy, sexual perversion, and an abandoned farmhouse on the moors outside Harrowmoor Sanitarium.  The earth itself will bare its secrets and the Empire itself will tremble in the face of the hidden dangers they discover, but the greatest peril is the one they have brought with them.

Balfour and Meriwether in the Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs is the first novella length work in the Balfour and Meriwether stories by Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominated author Daniel Abraham.

Limited: 250 signed numbered leatherbound copies: $40
Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $20