The trade paperback of Cherie Priest’s elusive Clockwork Century novel, Clementine, is in stock and shipping. We’ve seen copies of the hardcover going for over $100 on the secondary market. The ebook (Kindle|Nook) has been available for some time, but we’re happy to make it available in an ultra-affordable print edition.

As a reminder, Clementine was much-lauded when it first appeared:

“Explosive battle scenes, riveting action, and a sharp-eyed examination of the mistrust between Croggon’s all-black crew and very white, very Southern Maria play out in a desperate race against the clock.” (Publishers Weekly)

“This book is a straight-up spy thriller, and it’s a blast to read… The characters, the actions, the settings, feel so real and tangible that at times I wanted to do some research about Civil War era airships.” (Tor.com)

“…the moral complexity of the novel elevates it above pure escapism, and adds depth to the chase adventure. The stakes are high for everyone, and this tension is continually tightened all the way to the end. Priest has once again constructed a fascinating and fun-as-hell narrative, a worthy addition to her Clockwork Century.” (SF Site)

For a very limited time, we’re offering FREE US SHIPPING on this title.

We’ve locked in a very few copies of the latest Charnel House limited edition — 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz.

If haunted house novels are your thing, this gorgeous edition, limited to only 150 copies signed by the author, is sure to please. Check out the book’s page for the full production details.

Second, we’ve just started shipping Connie Willis’ new screwball sf novella, All About Emily. Those familiar with her recent novellas, Inside Job, and All Seated on the Ground, know the joy that awaits them in Emily’s pages. The rest of you? Please get your order in so you don’t miss out. We’re down to a 100 or so copies of the limited edition, and far fewer copies of the trade hardcover. The latter will likely be out of print in the next few weeks, if not sooner.

As PW noted of All About Emily, “Willis (Blackout/All Clear) works sweet, sentimental magic in this charming novella… This low-key paean to intergenerational collaboration and passionate ambition, stuffed with film and theater references, will appeal to Willis fans, drama buffs, and anyone who likes having their heartstrings tugged.”

Here’s a first look at Vincent Chong’s cover for our upcoming edition of Jim Butcher’s Side Jobs, which collects short stories and novellas set in the world of the Dresden Files. Vinny is at work on the interior illustrations, and Jim has the signature pages. As soon as those elements are in house, it’s off to the printer for this long-awaited title.

Speaking of Jim, we’re also working on a couple of other books by him: a very small limited edition of his epic fantasy, Furies of Calderon, and the next Dresden Files novel, Death Mask. More on those as they progress.

While we were assembling it, The Best of Kage Baker quickly became a favorite around here at the office, so we’re in full agreement with Locus feelings about the collection: “Plus, there are stories that are outliers, like ‘Plotters and Shooters’, which is about adolescent power dynamics and meteors. The last few stories, ‘The Ruby Incomparable’, ‘Bad Machine’, and the heartbreaking ‘The Carpet Beds of Sutro Park’ show the writer that Baker was becoming, one full of both melancholy and wit.”

Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale’s 400+ page gathering of weird western screenplays, Shadows West, is done and will be shipping soon. You can add Locus magazine to those praising the trio of scripts: “In Lansdale’s weird westerns, extravagant gore leavened by raunchy humor is a virtual trademark… If the Wild West had grindhouse theaters or drive-in movie screens, cinematic realizations of these three screenplays would be a perfect triple-feature.”

We’re deep in production on Robert McCammon’s upcoming historical thriller, The Providence Rider, which means that praise is starting to roll in. We’re only too happy to share the good words with you.

From Joe R. Lansdale:
“Wow, McCammon is back with a vengeance, and he’s riding high with The Providence Rider. Historical, strange, creepy, and engaging as all of McCammon’s work is. I highly recommend it.”

From William Browning Spencer:
“I just finished reading The Providence Rider. It may be the best of the series so far. Beginning with Speaks the Nightbird, Robert McCammon’s only credible competition is Robert McCammon. As is the case, I suspect, with most lifetime readers, I’m somewhat jaded, less likely to be bowled over by a book. But reading The Providence Rider created a feeling akin to what I experienced reading Kidnapped or A Princess of Mars when I was a kid.”

From Famous Monsters of Filmland:
“The Providence Rider is an absolutely brilliant historical thriller that will keep you turning the pages at a feverish pace as Mr. McCammon takes you along on a grand adventure full of action, intrigue, violence, love and friendship… [The Providence Rider] contains the best of what I liked about the first three books, while adding substance and depth to Matthew, and introducing us to some new and interesting characters that I will be looking forward to getting to know better in future tales.”

From Horror Drive-In:
“In The Providence Rider, Corbett is launched quite literally into his most exotic adventure yet. Already targeted by the nefarious ‘Emperor of Crime’, Professor Fell, Corbett is taken against his wishes to an island where the Doctor reigns supreme. Though Fell has previously marked Corbett for death, he now needs the young problem solver to help him with some of his own troubles… What makes this series work so, other than McCammon’s flawless depiction of the past and the exquisite language he conjures it up with, is the basic decency of Matthew Corbett. The young detective is intelligent, tenacious, honorable, and simply a good human being. Yet no man can face the evils Corbett faces in these books and remain wholly innocent.”

On the production end of things, we’re doing quite well. The signature pages are in hand, while Vincent Chong maintained the high marks he set with the art from Mister Slaughter. (You can see full color and black-and-white examples at The Providence Rider page). Rick McCammon is taking his final proofing pass through the book. We set to publish, right on time, in May.

We recently received a few returns of Paolo Bacigalupi’s much acclaimed novella, The Alchemist, and have put new dust jackets on them to bring them up to snuff.

From Publishers Weekly:
“This bite-sized tale is charming, lyrically written, and thematically rich.”

From Locus:
“For Bacigalupi, though, the bramble is clearly an environmental threat exacerbated by human action, and his protagonist Jeoz is an alchemist who approaches the problem through non-magical scientific strategies…”

From SFCrowsnest:
“This moves along well and ends in a satisfying manner.”

From Sacramento Book Review:
“The detailed world of Bacigaulpi’s imagining is a pleasing mix of apocalyptic fiction and epic fantasy. Drink deeply of the medicine The Alchemist gives and be filled with vigor and vitality.”

For those interested, we have fewer than twenty copies of the signed limited edition of Tobias S. Buckell’s related novella, The Executioness, left in stock.

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.