Locus magazine has just graced Jack Vance’s memoir, This is Me, Jack Vance! with a lengthy, complimentary review: “For all his desire to fade more into his work, Jack Vance is anything but an invisible man. This book tells more than was told before, but reveals less than some would like. All the more reason to look to the fiction. That is where the inward Jack Vance lives.”

As a reminder, we’re reprinting both This is Me, Jack Vance! and his ultra-rare novella, The Kragen. Each is available for the special price of $20, a full $15 off the regular retail price. This special offer will be ending quite soon, so interested readers shouldn’t delay in placing their orders.

Speaking of Locus reviews, the newest issue of that esteemed mag includes a lengthy look at Alastair Reynolds’ Thousandth Night and Minla’s Flowers: “Part of what makes Reynolds so effective–what makes his version of space opera New–is his ability to work at both ends of the scale, from the intimate to the very very large.”

We’ve had to reschedule our upcoming Peter Straub novel, The Skylark, until next spring. We apologize to everyone for this change in plans, but some non-contractual obligations reared their ugly heads, and we need to accommodate the release of the trimmed New York release of the book.

We’ve just approved the final elements for Alastair Reynolds’ double novella collection, Thousandth Night and Minla’s Flowers. We should be seeing finished copies in a week or ten days, at which point it’ll be in our shipping queue.

Speaking of the queue, the following titles are done and ready to be sent out, as soon as our shippers can get to them:

– The Onion Girl (Charles de Lint);
– Nick and the Glimmung (Philip K. Dick);
– Crimson Shadows (Robert E. Howard);
– Unchained and Unhinged (Joe R. Lansdale);
– In Between (R. A. MacAvoy — shipping now);
– The Kragen (Jack Vance — second printing);
– This is Me, Jack Vance (Jack Vance — second printing).

We’ll post regular shipping update as things progress.

We’ve just finished shipping all customer, retail, an wholesale orders for the limited edition of the third novel in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. We hope everyone enjoys The Last Colony as they wait for his next two projects, fantasy novella The God Engines and comic sf chapbook Judge Sn Goes Golfing to hit the streets.

Soon we’ll begin work on Zoe’s Tale, the next novel in the OMW series.

We’ve just posted “The Premature Burial“, an atmospheric new tale by Caitlin R. Kiernan over at Subterranean Magazine. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out Jay Lake’s steampunk space novella, “Chain of Stars” which is now complete.

While we have your attention, we should also mention we’ve just bought an interview and new novelette by K. J. Parker for a future issue of the magazine.

We just wanted to make a quick posting to let everyone know where our various Ray Bradbury projects stand, especially as a couple have slipped, albeit slightly, in our schedule.

– The Martian Chronicles: The interior of the book has been completely proofread and is ready to be sent the the printer. The sig sheets are in house, as is the finished artwork. Our regular printer rep had to take a short leave from work, so we’re just now sourcing the hand-marbled paper we intend to bind TMC in. We want everything with this book to go smoothly, and weren’t comfortable finalizing all the details without her guiding eyes on everything that passes through. This shouldn’t delay the book past February, but we’ll let everyone know if it’s going to take longer than that.

– Where Everything Ends: Our final proofreading pass took a little longer than expected, so we missed our October ship date. Look for this mammoth (784 page) gathering of Mr. B’s detective novels — and the previously unpublished short story that inspired them — to ship in December.

– A Pleasure to Burn: This gathering of stories that grew into the classic novel Fahrenheit 451 is in line for final proofing and cover illustration. It’s right on schedule for release next March.

Booklist agrees with other early reviews that John Scalzi’s fantasy novella, The God Engines, is a strikingly good tale, and a new direction, for him. “Scalzi’s rapid ascent to the ranks of speculative fiction’s leading authors owes much to his award nominated Old Man’s War series. All four installments are masterpieces of pure sf. His latest novel, however, veers into a previously unexplored fantasy realm of magical starships and soul-devouring gods. [Scalzi’s] writing has never been crisper, and his ideas carry a freshness and energy most other fantasy authors will envy.”

Campbell Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal’s first collection, Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, is drawing more praise. In addition to an excellent Publishers Weekly review, Booklist just covered it as well: “Kowal is primarily a puppeteer, and the sweetness so much puppetry conjures flavors her writing…. Lucid and engaging work from a probable rising star.”

If that weren’t enough good news for one update, Cory Doctorow rates the collection highly too, “Scenting the Dark, Mary Robinette Kowal’s debut short story collection is slim and spare and eminently satisfying. Kowal writes science fiction that uses our relationship to technology to expose our relationships to one another. Kowal is one of science fiction’s most celebrated new writers, a winner of the Campbell Award for best new writer and a current Hugo nominee, all on the strength of her short fiction (she has two novels forthcoming from Tor), and it’s easy to see why.”