We may not have a cover yet — J. K. Potter promises that soon, but we do have the first review of Kage Baker’s novella, The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, a precursor to her Company series. From Green Man Review: “Suffice it to say that the wenches of Nell Gwynne’s are bright, intelligent women who are more than a match for any male who stands in their way. They will save the day long after the male hero has been captured and left helpless to his fate. If you were to take the tropes of thirties’ sf, where the damsel is the weak one and the male heroes were the strong ones, and reverse them, this is what you’d get — literate, fun pulp fiction in a way that is far too rare these days because too many sf writers take themselves far too seriously.”

Longtime SubPress supporter and sometime Bookslut reviewer Colleen Mondor recently summed up Jack Vance’s autobiography, very generously at her blog: “And finally, a real gem, Jack Vance has written an autobiography: This is Me, Jack Vance! I’ve been reading this for a few days and so far Vance has dealt with an absent father, working all over CA, dropped in and out (and in) of college and got himself out of Pearl Harbor one week before December 7th. The writing bits have barely begun but so far the book has a friendly, engaging style that is hard to resist. Vance is a lovely writer and I’m enjoying learning about his life.”

The signed lettered edition is now sold out.

Tom Canty has set up an art gallery for the images he created for George R. R. Martin’s long sold out limited edition of A Feast for Crows. Head over and have a look at (set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5).

To update everyone, our slipcase manufacturer should be running the job next week, and then sending the cases directly on to us. As soon as they’re in our warehouse, we’ll drop everything to get George’s book out to customers.

We’re picking up the second (unsigned) printing of Alastair Reynolds’s acclaimed space opera novella, The Six Directions of Space today, and will be shipping it next week. As Booklist noted, “Reynolds’ impressive new space opera is a novella about the Mongol Empire 999 years after the death of its founder… Set in a solidly built universe, full of excellent espionage and adventure, Six Directions of Space is a surprisingly small package to contain such a lot of entertainment.”

At this point, the second printing is over 80% sold out, and we don’t expect the remaining copies to last long. Don’t forget, later this year we have a double novella book by Al on our schedule: Thousandth Night and Minla’s Flowers. Tomislav Tikulin is hard at work on the double cover for this one.

As you know, we’re publishing Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles in conjunction with Peter Crowther’s PS Publishing, which has a grand history of publishing Bradbury’s work solo as well. On our TMC page, you’ll find links to their Bradbury offerings, including The Day it Rained Forever, R is for Rocket, S is for Space, and a recent three book set of The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The October Country. I can recommend their books unreservedly as a great way (and excuse) to experience Bradbury’s magic in nifty new editions.

Vincent Chong’s managed it again, another stellar cover, this time for the limited edition of John Scalzi’s The Last Colony. As soon as Vinny manages to finish the interior art, and we’re done proofing, TLC will head to the printer. This one may be John’s best book in his Old Man’s War universe so far, and the culmination of his John and Jane Perry ARC, so don’t miss out.

While we’re speaking of Vinny, you might head over to his newly redesigned website, where you’ll find stellar covers he’s done for SubPress, along with equally good work for other publishers. The site’s a testament to why he’s one of our favorite new artists.

Dan Simmons’s much-lauded space opera novella, Muse of Fire, is headed for a second printing. We should have additional copies to ship in just a few short weeks. If you missed out on the first printing, here’s another chance to pick up this nifty book that Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said “combines his fine prose with a well-developed sense of wonder and love for reworked literary and mythological materials… This finely crafted novella is a perfect example of Simmons’s many strengths.”

Yesterday we approved the interior design sample for Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, which features black text and (naturally) red headers and dingbats. We expect to have our Associate Editor, Cherie Priest, proofreading the book by next week. In other Martian news, Joe Hill will be contributing an introduction to the unpublished/uncollected Mars stories, and signing only the lettered edition. John Scalzi is already onboard to introduce the Chronicles proper, and will also be signing the lettered.

We’re at work on a number of stellar collections that are likely to see print in 2010, including ones by Norman Partridge, Jay Lake, and hot new sf writer Daniel Abraham. Daniel’s collection is already in hand, fully designed, and with a cover artist assigned, while Jay is assembling the contents of his big (150,000 words) book. All that remains for Norm to do is put the finishing touches on one last long story and we’ll be hard at work on his.

We’ll have more details on each as they make progress toward publication, but I should say a word or three about Jay’s book. He’s had a number of collections out from POD presses, and they haven’t been handled or promoted especially well. So unwell, in fact, that I believe there are fewer than 100 copies of at least one of them in existence. We aim to fix that with our big book, which will gather stories from these underpublished gems, add in a bunch of uncollected fiction, and a new tale or two as well.

The first volume of The Malazan Book of the Fallen is in stock and shipping. Gardens of the Moon not only kicks off one of the most ambitious fantasy series currently being written, our edition is illustrated with some glorious full-page color illustrations by Michael Komarck.

Limited Edition:

$125