Check out the wonderful covers for The Best of Lucius Shepard — over 270,000 words of Lucius’ finest short fiction, ranging from very short tales to multiple novellas in the twenty to thirty thousand word range.

Also newly posted is the cover to After the War by Tim Lebbon, which collects two novellas — “Vale of Blood Roses” and “The Bajuman” — set in his signature world of Noreela. The finished book will run about 200 pages.

That’s not all for art updates this week. We’ve also posted a couple of the just completed interior illustrations (by the estimable Edward Miller) for Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch’s thrill a minute sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora. This one is on the fast track to publication, being proofed right now, then it’s straight to the printer.

The good folk of Publishers Weekly have just weighed in with reviews of two upcoming SubPress titles.

Promises to Keep (Charles de Lint): “While much of this will resonate more with longtime fans of de Lint’s Newford series, the lucid writing and well-realized characters make this short novel accessible even to new readers.”

The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (Connie Willis, Starred Review): Willis makes brilliant short fiction look easy in this collection of 23 novellas and short stories, which display a powerful range of sensibility, from poignant tenderness (“Inn”) and heartbreak (“Samaritan”) to close-to-the-bone satire (“Even the Queen”) and blackest savagery (“All My Darling Daughters”)… Willis’s gift promises that signs are everywhere; we just have to learn to recognize them.”

We’re happy to report that we have more orders than we can fill for Orson Scott Card’s sf novella, Space Boy, due to start shipping late this week or early next. If you hurry, you might catch it and get an order in before we pull the $35 hardcover from the site.

In medieval Baghdad, a penniless man is brought before the most powerful man in the world, the caliph himself, to tell his story. It begins with a walk in the bazaar, but soon grows into a tale unlike any other told in the caliph’s empire. It’s a story that includes not just buried treasure and a band of thieves, but also men haunted by their past and others trapped by their future; it includes not just a beloved wife and a veiled seductress, but also long journeys taken by caravan and even longer ones taken with a single step. Above all, it’s a story about recognizing the will of Allah and accepting it, no matter what form it takes.

The trade hardcover of this is out of print on publication.

Signed Edition:

$45

Just a quick head’s up that the trade hardcover edition of Ted Chiang’s masterful short tales within a tale, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, will be out of print on publication. Printed in two colors throughout, and illustrated, Merchant is one of the niftiest hardcovers we’ve ever done. If you’re interested in a trade copy, snag one before we pull it from the site. The limited is still in decent supply.

Over at the current issue of Subterranean Online, we’ve just posted the last few installments of One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King, a 20k length excerpt from an unpublished novel by this issue’s feature author, Elizabeth Bear. In addition, you’ll also find Anne KG Murphy’s opinionated take on this year’s Hugo nominees in the novel category. Me, I’m moving Eifelheim by Michael Flynn to the top of my reading list, after hearing what Anne has to say.

Coming soon in the next few weeks will be a new Lucifer Jones adventure by Mike Resnick, in which an old “friend’ of LJ’s makes an all-too-rare appearance, and a rare sf tale by Charles Stross. We also have great new stories by Lewis Shiner, David Prill and Livia Llewellyn in inventory for our fall issue already.

We’ve just received very tentative ship dates from our printer for a number of titles.

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang — July 9
Space Boy by Orson Scott Card — July 11
M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman — July 17
Sky Horizon by David Brin — July 25
Ascencancies: the Best of Bruce Sterling — July 26

In addition, we’re due to have the slipcases in the next week for I Sing the Body Electric (Ray Bradbury) and Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories (Philip Jose Farmer) and will begin shipping those immediately.

We’ve just finalized the proofing corrections for the Subterranean #7, guest-edited this time by Ellen Datlow, and featuring the following contents:

– “Old Mr. Boudreaux” by Lisa Tuttle
– “The King of the Big Night Hours” by Rick Bowes
– “Under the Bottom of the Lake” by Jeffrey Ford
– “City of Night” by Joel Lane and John Pelan
– “Holiday” by M. Rickert
– “The Jeweller of Second-Hand Roe” by Anna Tambour
– “Pirates of the Somali Coast” by Terry Bisson
– “Vacancy” by Lucius Shepard — a 27,000 word novella!

Look for the finished issue to be shipping to subscribers in about four weeks.

Enjoy the second volume, To the Dark Star, in The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg. The series is expected to run to nine or ten volumes when complete. We’re already hard at work on volume three, due next spring.

From Publishers Weekly:
“The illuminating second volume of collected short stories by one of the field’s masters makes time travel easy for SF readers… Older SF readers will relish these 21 stories, Silverberg’s first notable work, while younger readers may finally learn what all the completely justifiable fuss was about.”

Signed Edition:

$65

Trade hc:

$35

We have a number of lettered editions in stock and shipping this week, including:

– Rude Mechanicals by Kage Baker
– Old Man Crow by Charles de Lint
– Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
– Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (sold out)
– Lost Echoes by Joe R. Lansdale
– The Shadows Kith and Kin by Joe R. Lansdale
– The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (sold out)