We’ve just received the first copies of Neal Stephenson’s classic novel, Snow Crash, and sent out a copy to have slipcases made. We should be shipping finished copies in about four weeks. Snow Crash turned out beautifully, from the two color printing on the rich, 80# Finch Opaque paper, to Patrick Arrasmith’s illustration and design. It’s a book we’ve been truly lucky to be involved with.

Think of Altered Carbon as Raymond Chandler meets Bladerunner, and that’ll give you just a hint of the sort of literary and plot pyrotechnics the book has to offer. Add in hot artist Vincent Chong’s ultra-slick cover and full-color interior illustrations, and we think ours is a winning presentation of one of the most stylish and influential sf novels of the past decade.

Limited HC:

$75

Lettered HC:

$250

Good luck for us: the trade journal Booklist has joined the chorus in praising Greg Egan’s new collection, Dark Integers and Other Stories. To wit: “This modest volume demonstrates the very high art of award-winning Australian sf author Egan… This superb story [’Oceanic’] by itself warrants the acquisition of this book by all literary sf collections.”

Mike Mignola has just turned in the full-color cover and a number of b&w interiors for Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novelette, Backup. Here is just one example. Look for the fully designed cover soon.

And speaking of covers, the ever ghoulish Gahan Wilson has graced our upcoming Robert Bloch collection, Skeleton in the Closet and Other Stories, with a nifty cover that captures Bob Bloch’s mix of comedy and horror perfectly.

Green Man Review is the first to weigh in on The Jack Vance Reader, and the word is mostly positive, summed up thusly: “The Jack Vance Reader is a worthwhile read. The three novels contained within give excellent testimony to the scope of Vance’s talent and imagination, and to his unmatched skill at painting gloriously decadent settings of untold power and lushness.”

We’re in the process of putting together the next two issues of Subterranean Online. (You may remember that the current issue is winding down with a 15,000 word serialized novelette by Thomas M. Disch.) Thus far, we have unpublished material by Robert A. Heinlein, an Old Man’s War universe outtake by John Scalzi, short fiction by Elizabeth Bear and C.S.E. Cooney, as well as a novella currently being written for us by SubPress favorite Norman Partridge. To cap all that off, we’ll be serializing a 50k word novel, The Disappeared, by horror master Ray Garton.

Here they are at last, two of the best covers we’ve ever come up with. The artists are J. K. Potter and Michael Komarck. Enjoy.

A discussion about favorite writers who have made large impressions with relatively small bodies of work sprang up over at John Scalzi’s Whatever recently, and it reminded us of some wonderful books, including Emergence by David R. Palmer, and the three novels that make up The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart. As it turns out, two of Mr. Hughart’s novels are still available singly, but the omnibus version will now set you back in excess of $150 — and that’s just for the book club edition.

Later this year, we’re going to rectify that situation, with a gorgeous new edition, featuring a brand new cover by Jon Foster, with the trade print run likely limited to 2000 copies at $38 — not a bad price point for a book we expect will approach 700 pages.

For Mr. Hughart’s most ardent fans, that’s not the biggest news. In addition to the trade hardcover, we’ll be producing a 200-250 copy limited edition that will feature not only a leatherbound edition of The Chronicles. In addition, for the first time, Mr. Hughart has given us permission to publish the first draft of Bridge of Birds, which features Master Li as a nineteen-year-old, and Number Ten Ox as a bit player. This slipcased set will be a true rarity.

Update: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox is now available for ordering via our online store.

Ten years after the publication of Kirinyaga, the most-awarded science fiction book in history, comes this companion novella, Kilimanjaro: a Fable of Utopia, by 5-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick. Look for it to be released later this year. The tale itself will also appear in an upcoming issue of Subterranean Online.

The Kikuyu tribe of East Africa attempted to create a Utopia on the terraformed planetoid Kirinyaga, which was named for the mountain where their god lives. Things went wrong. Now, a century later, the Maasai tribe has studied Kirinyaga’s history, has analyzed their mistakes, and is ready to create a Maasai Utopia on the planetoid Kilimanjaro, named for the mountain where their god lives.

This is the story of that experiment.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered copies — Regularly $35

Special Offer: Order Kilimanjaro before the end of day on Friday, March 14, 2008, and it’s only $17.50! To take advantage of this offer, please mention the special price in the comments field when checking out. Please note that the shopping cart total and automatic email confirmation will NOT reflect the sale price. We’ll catch it when processing your order.

Important note for PayPal users: Do not go through our online store or you will be charged full price. Please drop us a note at subpress@gmail.com and we’ll send you an invoice. Finally, this special may not be combined with any other offers, coupons, savings certificates or discounts. Limit one copy of Kilimanjaro per person, household, or family.

Publishers Weekly has just weighed in on Haggopian and Other Stories, the second of Brian Lumley’s Best Mythos Stories: “British novelist Lumley began his writing career as an H.P. Lovecraft emulator. This nostalgic collection, the second of two volumes (after 2007’s The Taint and Other Novellas) of Lumley’s best Cthulhu Mythos tales, demonstrates that his work improves the more he moves away from his model, as in the simple and unflinching title story.”