Following close on the heels of her contribution to A Fantasy Medley, Canadian author Kelley Armstrong has favored us a novella from her Otherworld. Eve Levine, ghost and part-time avenging angel, is ready for her already overdue annual vacation from her work for the Fates, who have just one small, simple job that she needs to take care of before they’ll let her go. And as all things involving fate, it’s neither small, nor simple.

Angelic will be available as limited and trade hardcovers. Pre-order information coming soon!

In addition, we’ve just bought a few other new titles:

– The Evil at Pemberley House (Philip Jose Farmer and Win Scott Eckert) — a darkly erotic novel that is part of Farmer’s Wold Newton canon. The limited edition will include a chapbook with a whole host of unpublished background material.

– An as yet untitled short story collection by hot new writer Daniel Abraham, whose series, The Long Price Quartet, is must reading for fantasy aficionados. In addition to roughly 70k words of already published stories, Daniel is slated to include a long original tale.

We’ve been overrun with reviews this week. This pair comes straight from Green Man Review.

On A Fantasy Medley (edited by Yanni Kuznia): “A Fantasy Medley is a chapbook that collects four of the major female fantasy authors in publishing today. Although, to be fair, you could remove the female from that previous sentence and, in a book that gathers together C.E Murphy, Kate Elliot, Robin Hobb and Kelley Armstrong, it would not be any less true… If you are already a fan of any of the authors included in the collection it will be a fun extension to the canon and if you’ve never read them before, then this would be an excellent sampler to see if you’d enjoy their other works. On its own merits A Fantasy Medley is definitely worth a read. The narratives and tightly woven and well told, the authors’ familiarity with their worlds gives the setting a concrete feel and the stories are interesting and original.”

On Metamorphosis (James P. Blaylock): “‘Stone Eggs’ with Adriana Campoy, ‘P-38′ with Brittany Cox and ‘Houses’ with Alex Haniford are all well-crafted, engaging stories and I’d be surprised if at least one of them doesn’t make an appearance in a bookshop near you in the future. The stories are all cleverly conceived, well-written and full of the authors’ enthusiasm. ‘Stone Eggs’ is a charming, slightly claustrophobic story that takes both its main character and its reader beyond the horizon. It’s also my personal favourite, if only for the hand-me-down cat. ‘P-38′ is a wistful story of loss and the erosion caused to both places and memory by the passage of time, an impressively mature tale by Brittany Cox. Last, but not least, is ‘Houses’, a quietly eerie story that explores loss and disillusionment through the neighbourhood myths that grow up around any old, abandoned house. It’s a dark little tale, but certainly not without its charm.”

The debut novel in Jim Butcher’s acclaimed–and ultra-popular–Dresden Files series, Storm Front, has hit the top of the shipping queue. Our shippers are spending the first half of this week getting everyone’s copies bubblewrapped, tucked safely into boxes, and en route to Jim’s legion of fans. Many thanks to everyone for their patience.

As soon as Storm Front is out the door, we’ll be shipping Kage Baker’s rollicking, frothy novel of the Red Planet, The Empress of Mars.

Over at the Fall issue of Subterranean Online, we’ve just posted a couple of treats for readers — “Spring Training,” by Mike Resnick, being the latest adventure starring everyone’s favorite scalawag, the Reverend Doctor Lucifer Jones, and “The Seed of Lost Souls“, part of the long sold out chapbook that includes the story that was to become Poppy Z. Brite’s acclaimed first novel.

Three New Reviews, all of them of the positive stripe:

Booklist on Cryptic (Jack McDevitt): McDevitt has a knack for making the familiar mysterious and a fondness for mysteries that bring a frisson of joyful recognition to fans of classic sf. His stories cover the map of sf themes: mad artists, alien worlds, astronauts and explorers, AI, time travel, and so forth…McDevitt’s stories show him a true heir to the legends of the genre’s golden age, writers with a wonder-filled but occasionally cynical regard for the future and the universe.”

Locus on The Empress of Mars (Kage Baker): “Because of Kage Baker’s deft hand, The Empress of Mars is a fun read that expands on the original story in satisfying ways. For those who just want to enjoy a story, it’s a potent sweet.”

Booklist on A is for Alien (Caitiln R. Kiernan): “The grace and subtlety with which Kiernan inverts the roles of us and them, of those who seek to belong and those who watch from the sidelines, makes for unnerving but extraordinary storytelling. Kiernan’s style relies on clarity in prose, the extraordinary related as if it were everyday, and a subtlety that belies her disturbing imagery. The eight stories in this slim volume are, in short, exquisite containers for the strange paths of her imagined futures. In reading these pieces, you become other, and the better for it.”

In addition to glowing praise from the likes of Stephen King (”The story that follows includes murders, false identities, and two supremely satisfying love affairs. Be warned, you have to be a romantic at heart to appreciate this stuff, but if you are, this is one gorgeous read.”), The Washington Post (”I’d like to say more about this superbly entertaining book but don’t dare to hint any more about its plot twists. Suffice it to say that — and here’s yet another critical formula — anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really, you should.”) Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s masterpiece has now caught the attention of Locus magazine, which has just reviewed our signed limited edition of this modern classic, summing it up thus: “Shadow of the Wind’s greatest triumph may be the way it uses an imagined novelist’s dark fantasy to reveal the truths of Barcelona, both on the brink of prewar chaos and later, under a dictator’s rule. One passage invokes the poisons of fear and hatred, deserted streets, faces behind closed shutters, on nights when one ‘can feel the knives being sharpened behind those walls’–a reminder that the 20th century (like ours) bred terrors as insidious and destructive as anything in Lovecraft’s Mythos.”

We’re pleased to announce the exclusive hardcover of Stephen King’s new collection, due early in 2009, in which the #1 bestselling author reflects on the filming of five of his most popular short stories. Those movies are The Shawshank Redemption, 1408, Children of the Corn, The Mangler, and Hearts in Atlantis.

Stephen King Goes to the Movies includes an introduction, his personal commentary, and behind-the-scenes insights by Stephen.

The Subterranean Press edition of Stephen King Goes to the Movies is — so far — the only hardcover edition scheduled, and features full-color movie poster illustrations — one for each story — by Vincent Chong.

Our edition will also be smythe-sewn, printed in two colors throughout on 80# Finch paper, making it a perfect volume for your permanent shelf of favorite books.

Limited: 2000 unsigned hardcover copies: $75

Slowly but surely, Brian Lumley’s The Nonesuch and Others is creeping toward its spring 2009 publication date. The book itself is designed, fully proofed, and ready for the printer. Just this week, Lumley’s favorite illustrator, Bob Eggleton, turned in the wraparound dust jacket image you see part of here. This one’s a clever creeply little collection that’ll be a fine addition to anyone’s bookshelf of haunting tales.

China Mieville’s The City & the City book page has been update with very careful copy, designed not to give away the many surprises and intrigues in his beguiling new novel:

In such novels as King Rat, Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council, China Mieville established himself as one of the most original writers currently working in any genre. In his latest, The City & the City, Mieville has outdone himself, giving us a multi-layered urban fantasy of extraordinary complexity and depth.

The story begins when Tyador Borlu, senior detective in the Extreme Crime Squad of the city of Beszel, is called to the scene of a particularly vicious homicide. When the victim turns out to be a young female student with dubious political connections and a controversial history, the investigation spills over into the neighboring city of Ul Qoma. Once there, Borlu enters a labyrinth of violence and corruption that will alter the course of his career.

The City & the City is a brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed novel whose intricate plot encompasses myth and legend, political and cultural divisions, corporate greed, and the arcane forces that move behind the scenes of a beautifully realized urban landscape. Effortlessly blurring the boundaries between mystery, fantasy, and mainstream fiction, it is the most impressive, fully developed work to date by a writer of vast ambition and seemingly limitless gifts.

We’ve just finished shipping the Sold Out trade hardcover of Barry Hughart’s omnibus, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. (The limited edition is still 4-6 weeks off as we wait for slipcases.)

Next up in the queue, being worked on now, is Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, which is back from our printer after some rework was done. Following that, we’ll be shipping the first of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels, Storm Front. More as it happens.