Latest Subterranean Press News

It’s a bit like flights lining up for runways around here the past few weeks, with titles already in hand and ready to ship, and en route to our offices. Here’s a brief recap of the flight plan:

Kull: Exile of Atlantis (Robert E. Howard): We’ve just finished shipping roughly 90% of the indiviudal orders (regular limited and deluxe) for our first Howard volume, and are plugging away at the bookstore and distributor orders. We’ve also started proofing the designed version of The Best of Robert E. Howard, volume one: Crimson Shadows, and should be releasing it late this year or early next. Look for it to go up for preorder soon.

The Jack Vance Reader (Jack Vance): The slipcases for the limited edition have arrived. This one’s next up in our shipping queue.

His Majesty’s Dragon (Naomi Novik): We’e just received the traycases for the lettered edition. HMD will ship as soon as The Jack Vance Reader is out the door.

Yellow Dog (Charles de Lint): The deluxe hardcovers have just arrived in our offices. Look for them to ship sometime next week.

Finally, next week, we should also be picking up the three Tim Powers novels that make up his Fisher King trilogy (Last Call, Expiration Date, Earthquake Weather).

We’ll post more as the shipping progresses.

The first of our Dresden Files limited editions took a huge step closer to publication this week, as Vincent Chong turned in the cover for Jim Butcher’s Storm Front. Vinny is hard at work on the interior illos. As soon as he completes those, we’ll be sending the book to the printer. As we’ve mentioned before, we don’t expect to have copies of Storm Front for wholesalers or large online retailers, so your only option on this one is ordering direct from SubPress.

We’re also pleased to show off the cover for Caitlin R. Kiernan’s first ever sf collection, A is for Alien, with a cover by the unmistakable, remarkable Jacek Yerka. To the best of our knowledge, this is only third time Yerka art has graced a US cover for a non-art book. Enjoy the cover, for now, and wait for A is for Alien to appear in the new year.

Green Man Review just weighed in — quite generously, thanks! — on a couple of our titles.

Summer Morning, Summer Night (Ray Bradbury): “It is best not to come to Summer Morning, Summer Night expecting miracles. They’re here, of course, but tucked inside small pleasures and gossamer wisps of story, barely noticed until you’ve already read past them. Instead, it’s best read like an afternoon’s conversation over drinks with a long-lost friend, reveling in the individual moments and memories for their own sake.”

Ubik: the Screenplay (Philip K. Dick): “The chance to watch a master trim down his work to what he considers the essentials for translation to another medium is not one to be dismissed lightly. By bringing the script back into publication after a more than twenty year hiatus, Subterranean is giving readers a rare and fascinating treasure.”

Our edition of Neil Gaiman’s new novel, The Graveyard Book, is working its way toward publication. We’ve finished the design and proofreading of the book, and are busy finalizing our choices for the cloth on the limited edition and slipcase, while Neil and Dave fit the signature pages into their ultra-busy schedules. As soon as those items are taken care of, we’ll be ready to send the book straight to the printer.

Just a reminder: we don’t expect to have copies of The Graveyard Book to send to wholesalers or large online retailers.

Our omnibus edition of the three novels that make up Barry Hughart’s The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox has just receive a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly. Here’s a taste:

“Reading Hughart’s endearing historical fantasy trilogy, first published almost 20 years ago, is much like ‘wandering blindfolded through a myth devised by a maniac,’ in the words of Master Li, the greatest and most frequently intoxicated wise man in a colorful seventh century ‘China that never was.’ Their rollicking adventures pit them against everyone from murderers and thieves to emperors and gods. Numerous Chinese legends, filtered through Ox’s simple perspective, blend seamlessly into both lighthearted and heartrending.”

We’ve just begun the design work on another Brian Lumley project, this one a short story collection featuring a new, just completed novella. Here’s the info on The Nonesuch and Others:

Normally, when readers seen Brian Lumley’s byline on a book–especially one with the amazing jacket art of Bob Eggleton–the names of several colourful fictional characters spring to mind: heroes such as Harry Keogh, the eponymous Necroscope, or perhaps the occult investigator Titus Crow. While these may be the author’s best-known heroes; however, they are only two of a large handful, which is why it may come as something of a surprise this time around to discover that the so-called “hero” of this current trilogy of tales…isn’t!

No, for this lesser-known character isn’t so much a typical Lumley hero as an innocent bystander who all too often seems to be standing by in the wrong place at the wrong time–a man in collision with various weird horrors who can never state definitely that the things he experiences are real. After all, someone who sees a few too many pink elephants may question almost anything he experiences, right?

So here he is–the neither hero nor anti-hero narrator of these stories–though in The Nonesuch he’s at least seen to be brave if not actually heroic. However, when you’ve done reading this small trilogy, you might like to ask yourself this: pitted against horrors like those in these stories, just how much of a hero would you be?

Copied directly from Joe Hill’s website:

Sorry to have to post on this subject again. Over the last year, a couple untrustworthy dealers have been selling copies of my stuff with really badly forged signatures on them. I have, in the past, declined to identify them by name, but really, enough is enough. Kick Butt Books - an outfit that operates an eBay store, as well as a private website, dealing in signed editions - recently sent around an e-mail announcing that they’ll have copies of the Locke & Key hardcover, signed and numbered by yours truly. This is a lie and a scam. They also claim a personal relationship with me (”We just spoke with Joe today…”): utter nonsense. I don’t have anything to do with them. Hysterically, Kick Butt Books has even been known to include “certificates of authenticity,” also forged, with their offerings.

Watch this website and my MySpace page for information about appearances. I’m always glad to sign books at such events - that’s why I’m there - and if you can’t make a reading, you can usually call in an order; the bookstore will usually be glad to ship you a signed book. If you want something fancier - say the obscenely handsome version of Locke & Key being produced by Subterranean Press - the smart thing to do is to go through them directly, or work with a bookseller that has an established relationship with Subterranean and PS and the other small presses. If you ever catch wind of an offer that feels even faintly fishy, head to the message board and leave a post about it. Shane or I will probably respond directly, but if you don’t hear from us, you can usually count on getting good info from one of the board regulars.

Thanks guys.

And so begins our serial of Mike Resnick’s major new novella, his first foray into the “Kirinyaga” universe in nearly two decades.
“Kilimanjaro” — also to be published as a signed limited edition later this year — is a companion piece, and a reaction to, that earlier award-winning series of novelettes and novellas. We’re publishing the prologue and first chapter this week, to be followed each week by a couple of new chapters, until the tale is complete. Enjoy.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that last week’s short story was a delightful fantasy, “Them Shoes,” by C.E. Murphy, who also contributed to Yanni Kuznia’s upcoming anthology, A Fantasy Medley. Do give the story a look if you have a spare moment.

Speaking further of the magazine, we have stories upcoming by recent Campbell award winner Mary Robinette Kowal, Poppy Z. Brite, Ken Scholes, Cherie Priest, John Scalzi, and a whole host of other fine writers.

We’ve just received word from our supplier that the slipcases for Robert E. Howard’s Kull: Exile of Atlantis and The Jack Vance Reader have shipped and are en route to our offices. With a little luck, we’ll begin shipping books by the end of next week. We will, of course, keep everyone posted on our site, and via our newsletter.

We’re sending six new books to the printer in the next two weeks. With luck, all will be shipping in September. They include:

– The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives (James P. Blaylock)

– Skeleton in the Closet (Robert Bloch)

– Summer Morning, Summer Night (Ray Bradbury)

– Backup (Jim Butcher)

– Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded (John Scalzi)

– The Best of Michael Swanwick (Michael Swanwick)

The UK based small press Wandering Star issued glorious editions of Robert E. Howard’s work, including The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, The Ultimate Triumph, as well as two volumes of Howard’s Conan tales.

Subterranean Press is proud to continue this series of limited editions, beginning with Kull: Exile of Atlantis, exquisitely illustrated with color plates and black and white illustrations illuminating the text. We plan to match or better the quality of materials used in the Wandering Star editions, and will be doing a number of other books in the series, including The Best of Robert E. Howard, volumes one and two, and much more.

Deluxe:

$400

Limited:

$150

With wit, elegance, and abiding compassion, Conversation Hearts celebrates what is both unique and universal in each and every one of us. In the process, it reaffirms Crowley’s position as a modern master, and does what only the finest fiction can do: shows us our world from a fresh, wholly original perspective.

Limited:

$45

Trade:

$20

We’ll let Publishers Weekly (in a starred review) describe the over 250,000 gathering of David Weber’s best stories in Worlds of Weber: “This hefty and moving reprint collection of nine novellas written between 1995 and 2007 fills in the corners of Weber’s celebrated Honor Harrington series (most recently 2005’s At All Costs) and offers several other variations on political and military themes… With restraint and good taste, Weber tempers his mourning for war’s destruction with heartfelt celebrations of the honorable men, women, creatures and machines of the armed forces.”

Remember, copies ordered direct from SubPress are signed by the author.

Trade:

$45

With Starred Reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist, The Best of Lucius Shepard may well turn out to be the collection of the year. At over 250,000 words, it covers Lucius from his early classics such as “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule” up to his most recent tales “Dead Money” and “Stars Seen Through Stone.”

Limited:

Sold Out

Trade:

$40

Our latest original anthology, Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, with stories by Poppy Z. Brite, Joe R. Lansdale, Mike Resnick, Patrick Rothfuss, and a host of others, is drawing uniform praise. Here’s what Booklist had to say: “In Subterranean Press’ latest collection of speculative fiction, the only common thread tying the tortured protagonists together is their origin in the darkest recesses of their creators’ imaginations. With dark fantasy as the sole prerequisite, editor Schafer has gathered 11 previously unpublished tales containing a wide spectrum of nightmarish ideas… Aside from a predilection for ghoulish visions, all the contributors share a gift for sharp-edged prose that keeps the reader pleasantly perturbed for hours.”

Lettered:

$500

Limited:

Sold Out

Trade:

$40

Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick comes to life in this legendary screenplay by Ray Bradbury. In 1953, the young Bradbury was approached by director John Huston, and their efforts produced the definitive film adaptation of Melville’s novel, starring Gregory Peck. Here is the author’s original version of the Moby Dick screenplay, published for the first time anywhere.

Lettered:

$400

Trade:

$35

Jack Vance is science fiction’s world-builder par excellence, a multi-award-winning Grand Master and much-loved doyen of the art of the planetary adventure. In a career spanning 59 years, Vance has been responsible — more than any other writer in the field — for creating exotic alien cultures and living, breathing worlds, among them Tschai, Durdane and Big Planet, Trullion, Cadwal and Wyst, Aerlith, Fader and Dar Sai.

Now, in a single impressive volume, The Jack Vance Reader brings together three of the master’s very best planetary adventures: the internationally acclaimed Emphyrio, the classic interplanetary whodunnit, The Domains of Koryphon, and the provocative and unforgettable The Languages of Pao.

Lettered:

$300

Limited:

$125

Trade:

$38

Subterranean Press is proud to announce a two volume set that will contain virtually the last unpublished material by Robert A. Heinlein.

Project Moonbase and Others contains the screenplay for the now classic sf film, plus eleven finished teleplays and two story outlines for a projected television show, The World Beyond. In addition to original tales (the story outlines “Home Sweet Home” and “The Tourist”) Project Moonbase also contains teleplay adaptations of such RAH classics as “Delilah and the Space Rigger,” “And He Built a Crooked House” and much more.

Limited:

$75