If all goes according to plan, we’ll have a new, two-color chapbook by John Scalzi to release this fall, at the same time as The God Engines. If you’ve read the description to TGE at all, you’ll know the tale described below could not be further from the novella in tone and effect…

In “Judge Sn Goes Golfing” John Scalzi visits the universe of his bestselling novel The Android’s Dream for this exclusive short story, featuring fan favorite character Judge Nugan Bufan Sn — a brilliant alien jurist whose misanthropy and lack of social graces is matched only by his futile, unrequited love for the game of golf.

We’ll post ordering info soon, and (we hope) sign on a rather prominent illustrator who would be perfect for the story

Back to The God Engines for the moment. Over at his site, Whatever, John is running a “Name That Book Title” contest around the cover art. We’re already way over 500 entries, but there’s still time to set your demented grey cells to work. The prize-winner for best title will receive an Advance Reading Copy of The God Engines, due in just a few weeks.

Over at the PS Publishing site, they’ve posted a huge pdf excerpt of Tim Powers‘ Secret Histories, that captures not only the attention to detail in the bibliography and its gorgeous design, but includes China Mieville’s contribution, as well as an unpublished chapter of Powers’ signature novel, The Anubis Gates.

As a reminder, we still have copies of both the regular volume, which contains a 24,000 word excerpt from the unpublished novel, To Serve in Hell, as well as 75 pages of cut scenes and outlines from The Anubis Gates, while the two volume set also contains an extra volume containing the unfinished, unpublished novel, The Waters, Deep, Deep, Deep.

Robert McCammmon’s latest historical thriller, Mister Slaughter, is proceeding very smoothly toward publication. Vincent Chong has turned in not only what may be the best cover of McCammon’s career, he’s also contributed six interior illustrations to the novel — a pair of which are posted to the book’s page.

Robert McCammon is currently giving Mister Slaughter his final proofing pass, and also has the two-color signature sheets for the limited edition on hand. Meanwhile, back at the [SubPress] ranch… we have a long new interview with McCammon about the Matthew Corbett novels, conducted by long-time McCammon enthusiast Hunter Goatley, and will be pairing it up with an exclusive excerpt from the novel, in a freebie chapbook that we’ll begin including with orders in a month or so.

And here’s the absolutely Gor-tastic cover to John Scalzi’s upcoming fantasy novella, The God Engines. You need this book for the fab ’70s look of the cover alone. (The words inside aren’t half bad, either, though it should be noted there are no Gor-gasms, just blood and guts and religion aplenty.)

We’ve just received the Advance Reading Copies for Charles de Lint’s previously unpublished high fantasy novel, Eyes Like Leaves, and have a few spare copies to toss around. If you run a high-traffic blog, or review somewhere, please feel free to drop us an email at subpress@gmail.com.

Speaking of Eyes, the signature pages are in hand, and we’ve just sent Charles de Lint the final pages to proof, so we’re well on schedule for our fall publication.

Thus speaketh Bookslut:

“Alternate history detective Professor Langdon St. Ives returns in Subterranean Press’s The Ebb Tide, a steampunk adventure that includes one wicked cool submarine, a lost (and recently recovered) map, mysterious bad guys with guns and a final confrontation in Morecambe Bay ‘with its dangerous tides and vast quicksand pits.’ … Author James Blaylock keeps the action moving, the pithy comments flowing and the dire circumstances just this side of believable as St. Ives maneuvers his way around his arch enemy. Accompanied by J.K. Potter’s always stellar illustrations, The Ebb Tide is one of the better fantasy adventure characters I have come across in ages.”

And further, on Seven for a Secret:

“While I enjoyed New Amsterdam immensely (and highly recommend it), Bear surprised me by making this very teen friendly sequel. Ruth and Adele, the teens Sebastien follows, carry their fair share of the story and are strong characters. Bear also does a great job of rewriting history here, with a dark version of 1938 that fits perfectly into might-have-been territory… Bear provides plenty of political intrigue, some tension and enough mythic conversation to make readers long for a mystical library collection of their own. It’s nice to see Abigail and Sebastien still on the side of the good guys here, and even better to find a teenager who is bloody well tough enough to take on the true face of evil.”

We’ve just received a very limited quantity of PS Publishing’s two volume Ray Bradbury set containing A Medicine for Melancholy and The Day it Rained Forever. Given the number of PS books we’ve purchased of late, we’ve been able to secure an amazing discount, which we’re passing along to our customers. These books, limited to only 100 signed numbered sets, in slipcase, usually retail for $375, but we’re selling them for $200, a full $175 off the published price. As mentioned, quantities are limited, and we’re not certain we’ll be able to order additional copies, so please get your order in quickly if you’re interested.

Finally, we’ve sold through 90% of our allotment of The Very Best of Gene Wolfe, a huge career retrospective limited to only 300 signed numbered copies.

Those of you interested in a peak at the world of Kage Baker’s The Women of Nell Gwynne’s will be very interested in her novelette, “Speed, Speed the Cable” (pdf file), which explores the Gentleman’s Speculative Society, the Company Precursor that plays an important role in her new novella, as well as her next novel, Not Less Than Gods. We’re already hard at work on the limited edition of the latter, which should be out late this year.

While we have you, we should also mention that the trade hardcover edition of Kage’s rollicking novel of the Red Planet, The Empress of Mars, is out in trade hardcover, for those who missed our sold out limited edition.

Today’s the release date for the trade hardcover edition of China Mieville’s remarkable novel, The City & the City. Our limited edition, printed in two colors throughout, is at the printer, but really, you can’t go wrong with any version of the book.

Here are a couple of related links you might want to check out:

– The short Time magazine article on China and City.
– The YouTube video of China talking about his novel

The Gardner Dozois-edited issue of Subterranean Online is moving along nicely. This week we’ve posted the fourth and final part of Paul J. McAuley’s long novella, “Crimes and Glory.” In the next few weeks look for novelettes (”Hide and Horns”) by Joe R. Lansdale and an early taste of the Jack Vance tribute anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth, in the form of a novelette (”Sylgarmo’s Proclamation”) by Lucius Shepard.