Available at last in an affordable hardcover — a first edition goes for as high as $600 — Peter F. Hamilton’s The Reality Dysfunction is one of the classics of the new space opera. At more than 900 pages, it’s a grand tale, with oversized themes, characters, and battles. As Publishers Weekly noted, “Elements of space opera, Straubesque horror and adrenaline laced action make this a demanding, rewarding read.”

Limited HC:

$60

Lettered HC:

$250

Wild, wooly, and more than a little bit weird. If that’s your sort of reading, then Son of Retro Pulp Tales has more than a few stories sure to hit the mark. If you need more convincing, check out this partial list of contributors: Harlan Ellison, Joe R. Lansdale (hisownself), David J. Schow, and Christopher Golden. As it says on the book’s flap copy, “come on in, the pulp is fine.”

Limited HC:

$65

Trade HC:

$40

We’re pleased to publish Campbell Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal’s first hardcover — and first book of any kind. Scenting the Dark and Other Stories contains eight tales in a package as elegant as its author. As SF Site just noted, “Mary Robinette Kowal’s early writing career shows tremendous promise, and this short book serves a fine introduction to her work to date…”

Limited HC:

$25

The Deluxe Edition of one of Charles de Lint’s most popular novels, The Onion Girl, is in stock and shipping. In addition to Jilly’s at times harrowing tale, one of the most heartfelt Charles has written, our edition of the novel features a stunning wraparound dust jacket and endsheets by Mike Dringenberg, who also handled the cover for our short novel about Jilly, Promises to Keep.

Limited HC:

$75

Lettered HC:

$500

Mary Robinette Kowal’s debut collection, Scenting the Dark, just received a lengthy, glowing review from Rich Horton over at SF Site, one in which he touches upon a number of stories in depth. We’ll leave it to you to head over and read the full review, but here’s the welcome summation: “Mary Robinette Kowal’s early writing career shows tremendous promise, and this short book serves a fine introduction to her work to date — all the more impressive in that she has published plenty of other fine stories not reprinted here.”

First off, The Library Journal review for Robert McCammon’s Mister Slaughter is just in, and we couldn’t be happier. As they note, “Fans of dark historicals will enjoy this thrill ride, but they should be ready for some heavy-handed violence with a balance of historical context and intrigue.” Yes, Mister Slaughter is one bloody, suspenseful ride, but you shouldn’t expect less from the tale of a pre-Colonial era serial killer, and the heavy moral choices he presents to his pursuer.

The second bit of good news is that we’ve received enough orders to put the trade hardcover out of print on publication. We’ll allow the first printing copies to make their way into bookstores, libraries, and large online retailers, but chances are very good that we’ll be headed to a second printing very shortly. So if it’s important to you to be assured of getting a first printing, the only way to be absolutely guaranteed of one is by ordering direct. Whatever printing you end up with — or the limited edition for that matter — we’re sure you’ll enjoy this thrill-a-minute historical excursion. Just be sure to wear your bloody apron.

We’ve been busy of late, acquiring projects for late in our 2010 schedule. Collectors will rejoice at Strange Wonder, a collection of uncollected and unpublished Fritz Leiber material, some dating from the 1930s and 1940s, over 70,000 words worth of fiction, fragments and poetry, including a lengthy Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser rarity, as well as two poems about the latter half the duo.

In addition, we’re at work on the limited edition of John Scalzi’s charming pseudo-YA novel, Zoe’s Tale, and have recently reached agreement to publish my favorite among his novels, the high action and higher octane comedy novel, The Android’s Dream. At this point, his major publishers willing, it looks as though we’re going to follow John through his career, releasing limited editions of all of his works.

On the anthology front, Peter V. Brett just turned in the final version of his novella for Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2, while hot new writer Livia Llewellyn just graced us with a novelette. This book is shaping up very nicely, with, among other things, a Black Company novelette by Glen Cook in hand, and a new tale by Norman Partridge promised. You can expect a few further surprises in the table of contents.

While we have you, we might as well mention that in addition to this year’s Dragon Griaule novella, The Taborin Scale, Lucius Shepard has completed the first draft of a roughly 50k word Griaule novel for us. As Lucius has been one of my three or four favorite short fiction writers for better than twenty years, you may reliably insert pleased publisher noises here.

Finally, for this update at least, Cherie Priest turned in the final version of her direct short novel sequel to Boneshaker. Clementine is fully designed, ready for a final proofing, the cover in the process of being painted, and ARCs ordered.

We’ve just sent another large batch of titles to the printer, including:

– Not Less Than Gods (Kage Baker);
– Where Everything Ends (Ray Bradbury);
– The Great Bazaar and Other Stories (Peter V. Brett);
– The Book of Dreams (Nick Gevers, ed.);

Patrick Rothfuss’ fans are absolutely rabid. The limited edition of his upcoming “not a kid’s” book, The Adventure of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle sold out in two days, and the trade hardcover’s 2000 copy print run is going amazingly fast as well. We now have preorders for over 50% of the print run, more than six months before the book is due to be published. This means there’s a very good chance that unless we increase the print run we won’t have any copies for Amazon or our wholesale accounts. Please get your order in early to make sure of securing a copy.

We were recently able to purchase copies of Tim Powers’ novella, A Time to Cast Away Stones (related to his historical fantasy, The Stress of Her Regard) at a much better than usual discount, and we’re passing the savings along to our customers. While we have this batch of copies, we’re offering them for $150 each, a savings of $50 off the originally published price. Long-time Powers fans will really want a copy of this, as we’ve heard rumors that his next novel will be related to the novella and Stress.