Subterranean Press Featured Title

Our latest tale in Subterranean, “Three Lilies and Three Leopards“, is a brand new novella by fantasy best-seller Tad Williams. It’s also a tribute to Poul Anderson, and will appear later this year in Multiverse.

Here’s Tad on the origins of his story…

I must have discovered Poul Anderson when I first began haunting used book stores and buying my own books. All I remember is that his fantasy hit me like a sledge hammer, particularly the grit and realism. I also was knocked out—and the best example is Three Hearts and Three Lions—by his idea of taking one of these magical, fairy-tale worlds and trying to figure out how it actually WORKED. This has carried over into my own work, and is one of the reason that I often think of myself as being a “hard fantasy” writer. Because of Anderson’s influence, I try to make even the craziest stuff feel as though it could really happen in a universe with rules. Later on I was hit equally hard by Tau Zero, which convinced me that science (or at least fictional science) could be as exciting as magic any old time. I’m sure that at some subconscious level Anderson’s versatility also convinced me never to get pinned down as a writer, not to keep retreating to familiar territory but to follow an idea wherever it led without concern for genre boundaries.

(I’m sure a few of my long-suffering editors are now cursing Mr. Anderson’s illustrious name for this important contribution to my waywardness.)

In later years I read a great deal more of his work and loved it, and doubtless internalized a great deal of it to the influence of my own work, but I will forever remember my breathless first response to things like the “boiler explosion” in Three Hearts and the way time itself turns widdershins in Tau Zero. More than any other writer, I think he opened me up to how facts make fantasy more believable, and since belief is at the core of what we writers do, that was a gift beyond price. Thank you, Poul.

Our new edition of Dan Simmons’ classic novel, Phases of Gravity, is in the warehouse and being prepared for shipment. We already have orders for a good 600 copies from our wholesale and large retail accounts that we won’t be able to fill, so to guarantee you receive a copy, a direct order is your best bet. (And we appreciate it!)

On the fence? Publishers Weekly gave Phases a starred review, and said:

“Hugo-winner Simmons (Black Hills) shifts away from genre literature in this quiet masterpiece, first published in 1989… Fans of Simmons’s science fiction might be surprised to find him writing a mainstream novel informed by spiritualism and a hint of magic, but the story is still as good as anything Simmons has delivered.”

A few months ago, an unexpected but most welcome project materialized in my inbox. Best-Selling fantasist Brandon Sanderson sent us an original novella, Legion, which we’re only too happy to add to this year’s schedule.

Brandon Sanderson is one of the most significant fantasists to enter the field in a good many years. His ambitious, multi-volume epics (Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive) and his stellar continuation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series have earned both critical acclaim and a substantial popular following. In Legion, a distinctly contemporary novella filled with suspense, humor, and an endless flow of invention, Sanderson reveals a startling new facet of his singular narrative talent.

Stephen Leeds, AKA “Legion,” is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. As the story begins, Leeds and his “aspects” are drawn into the search for the missing Balubal Razon, inventor of a camera whose astonishing properties could alter our understanding of human history and change the very structure of society. The action ranges from the familiar environs of America to the ancient, divided city of Jerusalem. Along the way, Sanderson touches on a formidable assortment of complex questions: the nature of time, the mysteries of the human mind, the potential uses of technology, and the volatile connection between politics and faith. Resonant, intelligent, and thoroughly absorbing, Legion is a provocative entertainment from a writer of great originality and seemingly limitless gifts.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered copies, bound in leather: $45
Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $20

Bruce Sterling’s newest foray into short sf, Gothic High-Tech, should be in our warehouse in the next two weeks, and ship shortly thereafter. We already have enough distributor and wholesale orders to render it out of print, which will no doubt be hastened by the following review from The New York Journal of Books:

“Bruce Sterling has managed to pen a delivery vessel for a futuristic, anarchistic, dystopian idea of human potential. And in the end, Gothic High Tech leaves the reader with the notion that even with all this mess, there are ways out of every quandary—even if those ways are unimaginable now or far different than we’d hoped.”

Here’s a first look at the dust jacket for Jonathan Carroll’s mammoth collection, The Woman Who Married a Cloud.

If the Signed, Limited Edition calls to you, please get your order in soon. Only 40 copies remain available for preorder. The trade edition should be available via the regular outlets, but the only way to guarantee a copy of the Limited Edition is to order direct.

We’ve been lucky enough to secure ten copies of the new Centipede Press limited edition of Richard Matheson’s classic novel, Hell House. It’s an impressive volume, oversize, slipcased, signed by the contributors (with Matheson’s signature being a facsimile). Perhaps best of all, there are only 100 copies of this special edition:

A shining exemplar of the haunted house genre, Hell House is a terrifying classic. Now in a new edition with a a fine front cover image cover gallery and from old editions, a movie poster, and a lengthy, 30-page interview with Matheson by James H. Burns. William F. Nolan has written an insightful introduction to the book wherein he talks about the novel and his long relationship with Matheson.

This edition is oversize at 7 × 10 inches with a printed cloth front panel, and luxurious velvety cloth spine and back panels. The book is enclosed in a cloth-bound slipcase lined with black on the inside. The book also has a top-edge stain and ribbon marker. There are color endpapers and a cover gallery inside, along with a handsome photograph of Matheson. This classic novel has finally received the deluxe treatment it deserves. At only 100 copies for sale, it will sell out quickly.

Each numbered copy is signed by William F. Nolan, Harry O. Morris, and James H. Burns. There is a facsimile signature by Richard Matheson which Mr Matheson and his representative authorized.

We’re pleased to announce Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds, which celebrates the SF Grandmaster’s works with new stories by modern masters of the form.

Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. Named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 1997, he produced an enormous body of standalone novels (Brain Wave, Tau Zero) and series fiction (Time Patrol, the Dominic Flandry books) and was equally at home in the fields of heroic fantasy and hard SF. He was a meticulous craftsman and a gifted storyteller, and the impact of his finest work continues, undiminished, to this day.

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson’s Worlds is a rousing, all-original anthology that stands both as a significant achievement in its own right and a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable writer—and equally remarkable man. A nicely balanced mixture of fiction and reminiscence, Multiverse contains thirteen stories and novellas by some of today’s finest writers, along with moving reflections by, among others, Anderson’s wife, Karen, his daughter, Astrid Anderson Bear, and his son-in-law, novelist and co-editor Greg Bear. (Bear’s introduction, “My Friend Poul,” is particularly illuminating and insightful.).

The fictional contributions comprise a kaleidoscopic array of imaginative responses to Anderson’s many and varied fictional worlds. A few of the highlights include Nancy Kress’s “Outmoded Things” and Terry Brooks’s “The Fey of Cloudmoor,” stories inspired by the Hugo Award-winning “The Queen of Air and Darkness;” a pair of truly wonderful Time Patrol stories (“A Slip in Time” by S. M. Stirling and “Christmas in Gondwanaland” by Robert Silverberg); Raymond A. Feist’s Dominic Flandry adventure, “A Candle;” and a pair of very different homages to the classic fantasy novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions: “The Man Who Came Late” by Harry Turtledove and “Three Lilies and Three Leopards (And A Participation Ribbon in Science)” by Tad Williams. These stories, together with singular contributions by such significant figures as Larry Niven, Gregory Benford, and Eric Flint, add up to a memorable, highly personal anthology that lives up to the standards set by the late—and indisputably great—Poul Anderson.

Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, housed in a custom slipcase
Trade: 1500 fully cloth bound hardcover copies

Each story features a full-page black-and-white illustration by Hugo Award-winning artist, Bob Eggleton, who also contributed the full-color dust jacket. Look for Multiverse late in the Summer or Fall.

Our latest John Scalzi ebook is available. The Tale of the Wicked (Kindle|Nook) is Scalzi’s lone foray into short (6,000 words) space opera.

Captain Michael Obwije of the Confederation Armed Forces has been hunting a Tarin battle cruiser in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse. But when he orders his own ship in for the killing blow, the hot pursuit turns into a potentially more dangerous situation. One with implications for the entire Confederation.

It’s only $.99, so what are you waiting for?

We’re deep into production on Caitlin R. Kiernan’s newest collection, Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. The art is done, the book is designed and being proofread, and Caitlin has turned in the material for the second collection that will accompany the Signed, Limited Edition:

The Yellow Book is a hardcover containing 20,000 words of ultra rare and uncollected fiction: the 10,000 word original, “Ex Libris” a tale of Lovecraftiana in which a box of malevolent books turns up at an estate sale, and “The Yellow Alphabet,” the third and final installement in Kiernan’s The Alphabetos Triptych (which also includes “The Black Alphabet” and “The Crimson Alphabet”).

At long last, we’re shipping the Signed Limited edition of Joe Abercrombie’s Last Argument of Kings. Alexander Preuss once again has provided the cover as well as a number of full-color interiors.

A few quick notes:

• Last Argument won’t be available via large online retailers or wholesalers. Your best bet to secure a copy is to order direct.
• We have a few other Abercrombie limiteds planned (Best Served Cold, The Heroes) and will be happy to match numbers for those titles.