And here is an extended quote from the glowing review…

“Veteran British horror writer Gallagher (The Kingdom of Bones) shows off his versatility in this collection of 11 stories and a review of Joseph Payne Brennan’s Nine Horrors and a Dream. Among the best are ‘The Back of His Hand,’ a shocking description of the unexpected dangers involved in tattoo removal; ‘Doctor Hood,’ a touching ghost story concerning a world-famous physicist, his daughter and the recently deceased loved one haunting their family home; and ‘My Repeater,’ a grim science fiction story about the fruitlessness of using time travel to correct one’s past errors. Capable of being either subtle or blunt depending upon the needs of his plot, Gallagher has assembled a fine and varied collection of weird fiction that should find many admirers.”

Given the success of the mammoth short story collection (250k words) The Jack Vance Treasury — both the lettered and trade editions are sold out, and we’re down to fewer than 25 copies of the signed limited edition — we’re proud to announce a companion volume, The Jack Vance Reader, which will consist of three of the science-fantasy master’s exemplary novels, including Emphyrio (introduced by Robert Silverberg),The Languages of Pao (introduced by Ursula K. LeGuin); and The Domains of Koryphon (aka The Grey Prince; introducer to be announced). The limited edition will be signed by Mr. Vance, and the lettered edition by Mr. Vance and the introducers. Collectors note: there are 100 fewer copies of the limited edition of the Reader than of the Treasury.

That’s not all. One of our favorite hard science fiction writers, Greg Egan, has just turned in an 80,000 word gathering of previously uncollected stories that features such instant classic novellas as “Oceanic” and “Riding the Crocodile”, as well as several shorter works. We’ll release Dark Integers and Other Stories in the new year in an edition strictly limited to 1500 copies. Given Mr. Egan’s popularity, and his importance in the field, we expect copies of this book to sell quickly.

Finally, in the new book announcements, we have The Last Science Fiction Writer from ultra-popular novelist Allen Steele. This volume is a catchall of uncollected tales from throughout his career, including a barely-published Coyote short story, plus a couple of recent ventures into the “Near Space” stories with which he began his career. If that’s not enough, the collection is anchored by “Escape from the Earth” a lengthy novella making its first general appearance. The Last Science Fiction Writer will be out next year, limited to only 1500 signed hardcover copies.

The Limited and Trade Editions of Charles de Lint’s 175 page novel, Promises to Keep, that chronicles some of Jilly Coppercorn’s early days, are now sold out. Only six copies of the Lettered Edition remain unreserved. (The site does not list the trade and limited editions as sold out yet. It will be later today before our webguy can remove them, but please refrain from ordering either of those versions.)

Promises had a smaller print run than Charles’s Seven Wild Sisters, and seems destined to bring the same premium prices on the secondary market.

One of our favorite artists, Bob Eggleton, has just turned in the creepy, crawly cover to Mike Resnick’s The Other Teddy Roosevelts, a collection that puts the esteemed president in some situations that are definitely outre — tracking Jack the Ripper, hunting vampires, and acting as a World War I doughboy. The book itself’s due in January, but now’s definitely a good time to get your order in.

Speaking of getting your orders in, Do Not Wait if you’re planning to snag the trade hardcover edition of The Winds of Marble Arch (Connie Willis). Due to some miscommunication with my business partner, we underprinted this book rather severely, meaning the $40 edition will either be out of print on publication, or within a week of that. At 700 pages and $40, it’s a bargain filled with sf hijinks and comedy by one of our wittiest writers.

In other news, we’ve just bought a few more books for next year’s schedule, including the screenplay to Moby Dick by Ray Bradbury, which will contain the esteemed Mr. B’s original version of the script, before any input by the director and studio. Also just signed up is Greg Egan, who will grace us with his first full length collection in roughly a decade. Hard sf doesn’t come much better than Dark Integers and Other Stories. Look for ordering info on these and other new titles soon.

We’ve in the process of shipping the Lettered edition of M is for Magic, Neil Gaiman’s collection for readers of all ages. Not only does our edition feature a two-color illustration by Gahan Wilson for each story, Gahan has done a small remarque on the signature page of each copy of the lettered edition. We’re down to our last 3 copies of this version, so don’t hesitate if you’re interested in snagging one. In addition, each lettered copy is housed in a custom traycase.

As to Joe Hill, we’re in the process of shipping out the hardcover lettered edition of his recent chapbook, Pop Art, which we consider one of the finest short stories of the past decade. It’s too late to snag a hardcover, but softcovers of Joe’s chapbook are available as a bonus item when you purchase the hardcover of Issue Six of Subterranean Magazine.

Twenty years on, and it appears that Joe R. Lansdale’s novel The Nightrunners, still carries some kick to it. Here’s what Publishers Weekly just said in its starred review: “Lansdale’s The Nightrunners (1987), the centerpiece of this chilling collection, set new standards for the depiction of graphic violence and is probably the best novel of its type between Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs… This upsetting look at the human capacity for evil breaks with crime novel conventions when a supernatural element enters the story in the form of the grotesque deity known as the God of All Things Sharp. Twenty years later, The Nightrunners retains its ability to awe and to horrify. Six short stories that grew out of the novel, one previously unpublished, round out the volume.”

Connie Willis’s mammoth (700 pages, 270k words) collection, The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories, continues to gather accolades, this time from Green Man Review: “Willis is an edgy writer, a quality that shows up here in the twists on otherwise hackneyed plots and otherwise stereotyped characters. And
these are stories with attitude, mostly reflected in the raucous satire with which Willis pillories our contemporary foibles. She is not, however, afraid to tackle ’serious’ and does it with consummate skill…If Connie Willis is not on your list of ‘must read’ authors — well, you need to do something about that. The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories is a great way to start.

The trade edition of The Winds of Marble Arch is tentatively slated to begin shipping September 25. Given the reviews it’s receiving, we expect a quick sell out.

Just a couple of days later, and we have another glowing review to add, this one from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Along with her writing skills, the breadth of knowledge—scientific as well as religious and literary—packed into each of Willis’ stories will awe readers. Her stories are both pompous and populist, touching upon everything from Shakespeare, Christmas, 1940s movies, love and death, marriage and divorce, and popular music and television to the latest developments in physics and how to properly cook a goose.

“In The Winds of Marble Arch, Willis’ love for her craft and for the vagaries of the human heart—of which she so writes so ably—is on ample display.”

The first novel in John Scalzi’s future history, Old Man’s War, is in stock and shipping. In addition to the novel, which we think is a future classic, our edition features a full color cover and four full color interior illustrations by Vincent Chong. Give it a look, and snag a copy of the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, when it’s out in just a few short months. For those looking to collect the series, we’ve just reached agreement with Tor to publish the third volume, The Last Colony, early in the new year. We’re just waiting for the contract dust to settle before announcing it.

Signed Limited:

$60

This nifty, nasty bit of work is for a truly hellish weird western we have scheduled for next year, a collaboration called Hells Bounty by none other than hisownself, Joe R. Lansdale, collaborating for the first time with his brother, John L. Lansdale. Look for ordering info in the new year, but in the meantime, we wanted to share Timothy Truman’s spot on, pulpy cover.

Speaking of cover images, Siege has just turned in the dust jacket image to Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein. As soon as it’s fully designed, and we have the sig pages in hand, the book will go to the printer, likely in the next 2-3 weeks. The image, disturbing as it its, captures the spirit of Warren’s novel perfectly.

We’ve just returned contracts for trade paperback editions of Cherie Priest’s Dreadful Skin, Elizabeth Bear’s New Amsterdam, Brian Lumley’s A Coven of Vampires, and are awaiting the signed contract for a trade paperback of Tad Williams’s Rite. All of these will be part of our new imprint, Far Territories.

As if that’s not enough good fortune, we just inked a deal with Jim Butcher for a Dresden Files novelette to be published as a hardcover chapbook, and reached agreement with hot new supernatural detective writer (and comic legend) Mike Carey to publish an original hardcover chapbook featuring his exorcist, Felix Castor. (We can’t recommend the Castor novels highly enough. Only one is available in the U.S. thus far — The Devil You Know — but a pair of others are available as UK paperbacks. They’re great, tightly plotted, witty fun. Perfect summer/fall reading.)

An Interview with William Ashbless — an excerpt from the exclusive interview to appear in the limited edition of Pilot Light:

Publisher’s Note:
What follows is a fragmentary interview of William Ashbless conducted recently by cub reporter Bill Wylie in Long Beach, California. The interview was never completed—our present text was mostly transcribed from a digital recording, and we’ve made every effort to reproduce meaningful vocalizations and nuances even when the recording was slightly unclear. (We note this because, in his annotations to the text of “Pilot Light” and in his comments afterward, Mr. Ashbless was slightly critical of the transcription of the manuscript, which, frankly, was stained with years of spilled liquids and foodstuffs, not to mention the problem of the poet’s notoriously quirky handwriting, which can appear downright schizophrenic at times.) Suffice it to say that what you read here is our best attempt at a verbatim reproduction.
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