The wait is nearly over. We’ve received the first advance copies of Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, and will arrange for pickup of the bulk of the print run and start our shippers on them later next week. (Right now, they’re finishing up the shipping of Jack McDevitt’s mammoth career retrospective, Cryptic.)

Please remember that we’re not making Gardens available to our wholesale or large online retail accounts, so the only way to snag a copy at this point is direct from SubPress.

In fewer than 24 hours since its announcement, we’ve sold out more than half of the print run for the definitive edition of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. It now looks likely that we won’t be offering the book to wholesalers or distributors, and may have to allocate dealer orders.

A quick hit from the Publishers Weekly review of our special Ray Bradbury collection, Marionettes, Inc., “Cherry-picking the marionette-themed pieces from Bradbury’s extensive oeuvre creates a nicely unified tone… The end result is most appealing to Bradbury completists and those who want a good introduction to his work.”

This nifty little (120 pages) collection, with a cover and interior illustrations by Mark A. Nelson, full-color endsheets by Bradbury himself, and two color printing throughout, should be shipping ahead of its announced April publication date. In addition, we’ve just posted the endsheets and a few of the book’s illustrations to its product page.

Elizabeth Bear’s forthcoming novella, Seven for a Secret, already safely at our printer, has garnered another stellar review, this time from Booklist: “Bear again handles the combination of PI caper and vampire yarn with her usual unconventionality. Sebastien is a fascinating character, and the mysteries he becomes embroiled in are magnificent examples of alternate history.”

While you’re at it, you might consider picking up her previous Sebastien and Abby Irene adventure, New Amsterdam, now available in trade paperback.

We’re pleased to announce that, among the many projects on our plate, we’ve been quietly going about getting the Limited Edition of Jim Butcher’s Fool Moon ready to be sent to the printer. As Jim’s fans know, the first Dresden Files novel sold out in advance of publication, and we expect this one to do the same.

Those who bought copies of the first Limited or Lettered Edition have first crack at Fool Moon until February 27, at which time we’ll open up ordering to the general public. If you don’t own Storm Front, please don’t attempt to order Fool Moon until we’ve given the green light. It will only cause quite a bit of chaos on our end.

Finally, customers will want to check out the Fool Moon page for instructions on how to ensure they get the same number copy as the first volume.

Both Peter Crowther (of PS Publishing) and I know that Ray Bradbury’s many fans have been waiting for this volume for years, and we’re happy to announce that we plan to have it out by the end of the year. The files — all but one of the screenplays — are already with our designer, Gail Cross, who should be showing us preliminary designs for the title in the next week.

You can read the particulars at The Martian Chronicles page, but we can tell you we expect this book, with over 50 different stories, introductions, screenplays, and an essay, to push beyond the 800 page mark when fully designed.

We realize that many customers were burned by the publisher who announced this project, so until February 20, 2009, we’re offering the numbered edition at the special price of $225, a full $75 off the regular price.

You can fully expect this to be one of the finest, most comprehensive Bradbury volumes ever released.

As we announced recently, we have acquired the rights to co-publish the limited edition of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, and we said we would do what we could to help those who pre-paid the previous publisher who offered this special edition but never delivered it. We regret to inform you that we will not be taking over the other publisher’s pre-orders.

While we are not required to fulfill the pre-orders taken by this other publisher, when we announce our edition of The Martian Chronicles for pre-sale, we intend to offer a substantial discount on the numbered version for a short period of time. (Please sign up for our newsletter to make certain you don’t miss the announcement.) We’re sorry to report that given our costs involved, we will not be able to offer a discount on the lettered edition.

We certainly wish we could do more; this is what we can do.

More information, including an order page, will be posted to the Subterranean Press and PS Publishing sites within the next few weeks. We intend to have TMC out this year, and are already at work to see that there are no delays.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at subpress@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Bill Schafer and Pete Crowther

Here’s a generous review for Kage Baker’s The Empress of Mars from Green Man Review:

“I’ve read the novella [version of Empress] and loved it, now I’ve read the novel (which is about three times as long) and really appreciated how good Kage was in adding what I can now see was much needed detail to the existing story without losing its tightness.”

If you’re looking for good old-fashioned sf, Jack McDevitt’s mammoth (over 200,000 words) career retrospective, Cryptic, is the short story collection for you. You’ll find tales of first contact, time travel, and technological innovations the world’s not quite prepared for, among others, all filtered through one of contemporary sf’s most consistent storytellers.

Limited Edition:

$60

Trade HC:

$38

It’s been a while since updated you on recent postings to Subterranean Online. The highlight is a truly gonzo science fiction novelette by Ken Scholes, “Grail-Diving in Shangrilla with the World’s Last Mime.”

Ken’s excellent fantasy debut, Lamentation, is due in stores soon. “Grail-Diving” is just another facet of this vastly talented author.

We should also tell you we’re actively buying for future issues of the online mag. Just this week we snagged “Troublesolving,” a crackerjack novelette by Tim Pratt, and “Chain of Stars,” a 20,000 word novella by Jay Lake, set in the world of his popular novels, Mainspring and Escapement.