Venus on the Half-Shell and Others collects for the first time the best of the best from Philip José Farmer’s scintillating “fictional-author period.”

In the mid-1970s a fever-pitched furor was created when an actual novel purported to be by Kilgore Trout — the sadsack science fiction writer who appears as a character in the works of Kurt Vonnegut — materialized on the bookracks, complete with a mysterious back cover photo of the author looking like a bearded vagabond sage. Debate raged as to who had truly written Venus on the Half-Shell. Was it Vonnegut himself, or perhaps Theodore Sturgeon, rumored to have been the inspiration for Trout? Or did Kilgore Trout really exist? Just as one respected newspaper published an article “proving” that Vonnegut had written the book, the Hugo Award-winning science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer announced he was the true author.

The controversial Kilgore Trout episode was neither the first nor the last time Farmer would impishly slip out of his own skin and assume the persona of another author. In Venus on the Half-Shell and Others, Philip Jose Farmer transforms himself into fictional personalities as compelling as they are diverse: Cordwainer Bird, Paul Chapin, Rod Keen, Harry “Bunny” Manders, Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, John H. Watson, M.D. and even the real-life author William S. Burroughs (writing his own version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Jungle Lord!). Also included is the original version of Farmer’s classic Sherlock Holmes/Lord Greystoke pastiche The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, back in print for the first time in over thirty years.

A unique collection, Venus on the Half-Shell and Others showcases the grand imagination of one of science fiction’s most resourceful and creative minds.

Lettered: $300
Limited: $125
Trade: $38

Connie Willis’ potent mix of her hallmark, screwball comedy, with Robert A. Heinlein’s beloved juveniles is in stock and shipping. Follow plucky heroine Theodora Baumgarten as she attempts to stop herself from being shanghaied in a novella Publishers Weekly says “turns a cherished SF theme completely inside out.”

Signed Edition:

$45

Trade hc:

$20

Over at the current issue of Subterranean Online, you’ll understand we’re more than a little pleased to be featuring part two of Elizabeth Bear’s Suicide Jack and the One-Eyed King, and “Unrequited Love”, a short but sharp new tale by none other than Gene Wolfe.

We’ve just finished shipping over 90% of the orders for the second signed printing of Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box. If you’ve got one on order, you don’t have much longer to wait.

We’re happy to say that Brian Lumley’s A Coven of Vampires has also shipped. The book sports some really chill inducing endsheets and vignette illustrations by Bob Eggleton. We still have copies of the bonus chapbook that ships direct with Coven — you can’t get this from a brick and mortar store, or any of the large online retailers — so get your order in soon.

Here’s a first glance at the fully designed cover for Scott Lynch’s nautical adventure, Red Seas Under Red Skies. Join landlubbers Jean and Locke Lamora as they take to sea, forced ineptly, ingeniously, into pirate’s garb. Book two of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence is at least as much fun as The Lies of Locke Lamora, and twice as dangerous.

Also just turned in, but not yet designed, is Tomislav Tikulin’s epic cover for Tim Lebbon’s two novella collection set in the dark, magic land of Noreela. After the War is 40,000 words of Lebbon’s potent mix of the grotesque and fantastic, and not to be missed by his grown legion of fans. (The first Noreela novel, Dusk, has just gone into its fifth printing!)

Finally, in the new art department, we’ve posted a couple of full-color illustrations (and a couple of black-and-whites, to even things out) to George R. R. Martin’s vampire epic, Fevre Dream. Now that all the art is in, the book is being designed, then will head immediately to one of our proofreaders. Thanks to everyone who’s been so patient while we waited on the art for this book. We hope you’ll think it worth the wait, as George and we do.

Just when we’d thought all the good press for Philip Jose Farmer’s mammoth (over 700 pages) collection, Pearls from Peoria, had come in… this laudatory note, from MagillOnLiterature, arrives: “For fifty years or more, Philip Jose Farmer has been known as a major science fiction writer, one unafraid of sex, religion, and politics; in 2001 the Science Fiction Writers of America selected him as a Grand Master. Pearls from Peoria showcases the full range of his interests… it is a rich and varied look into one of the strangest and most fascinating minds in the science fiction community.”

Hi all.

Figured you might like the early word that we’ll be producing a limited edition of Hunter’s Run by George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham. This is a serious expansion of their 25,000 word novella, Shadow Twin, clocking in at nearly four times the length of that earlier tale. Bob Eggleton will be providing a full color cover, a couple of color interior plates, and a black and white chapter head. We’re shooting for an ultra-affordable $50 price point with this title.

We’ve also reached agreement to produce illustrated limited editions of one of our favorite fantasy series, the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik. We’re currently negotiating with an artist to provide black and white and full-color illustrations for each book. Look for volume one very early next year, and subsequent volumes at six month intervals.

We’ll post ordering info for both titles just as soon as all of the paperwork is complete, but we’re excited, and wanted to share the good news with everyone.

The International Horror Guild Awards were more than kind to SubPress this year, with no fewer than ten nominations, including three (of four titles nominated) in the Best Anthology category.

Best Long Fiction:
– “Blackburn and the Blade” by Bradley Denton (from Lords of the Razor)
– “Forced Perspective” by P.D. Cacek (from Night Visions 12)

Best Mid-Length Fiction:
– “Bainbridge” by Caitlin R. Kiernan (from Alabaster)
– “Obsequey” by David J. Schow (from Havoc Swims Jaded)

Best Short Fiction:
– “The Box” by Stephen Gallagher (from Retro Pulp Tales)

Best Anthology:
– Night Visions 12 edited by Kealan Patrick Burke
– Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe R. Lansdale
– Lords of the Razor edited by Bill Sheehan and William Schafer

Best Magazine:
– Subterranean

Best Illustrations:
– J.K. Potter for A Soul in a Bottle by Tim Powers

Congratulations to Charles Stross, whose novella Missile Gap, just won the Locus Award for Best Novella. Among the many glowing reviews, Booklist had this to say: “Here he takes a breather from weightier fare with a bizarre, nevertheless brilliant alternate-history novella featuring a protracted U.S.-Soviet cold war… Once again, Stross sets the bar high for his colleagues, should they be feeling competitive, in this mind-bending, intriguing yarn.”

Best of all, you can read Missile Gap for Free over at Subterranean Online.

Head over to Subterranean Online, where we’ve just posted the first installment of a long (20,000 word) excerpt from One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide Kings, a novel not slated to be published until 2009 or so. If dead Elvis, U.S. and Soviet spies circa 1964, and genii are your things, One-Eyed Jack be right up your alley.

Also in Online news, we’re more than a little pleased that we’ve just bought “Ceremony,” a 4000 word excerpt from an upcoming novel by one of our favorite writers, Lewis Shiner. Look for it in the coming months.