two weeks pass...
From Subterranean Press---of course you'd want these in more affordable editions, but see if they might be worth keeping an eye out for (sometimes even SP ltds turn up Used for nicer prices on Amazon etc.)
We’re happy to let you know that we have on hand copies of Aliette de Bodard’s classic Xuya Universe novel, On a Red Station, Drifting. Our supply is not inexhaustible, so please order soon.
About the Book:
For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station's artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives. But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper's brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disoriented refugees strain the station's resources.
As deprivations cause the station's ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance.
Limited: 500 signed numbered hardcover copies: $45
Aliette de Bodard follows up her award-winning Xuya universe novella, The Tea Master and the Detective with Seven of Infinities, an even longer foray into her singular creation.
We're currently shipping all preordered copies!
About the Book:
Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student.
Sunless Woods is a mindship—and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.
When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship--and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.
Limited: 1500 signed numbered hardcover copies: $40
From Publishers Weekly:
“With this lush, immersive sci-fi tale, de Bodard (The House of Sundering Flames) delves into a world as gritty as it is ethereal… [R]eaders will be swept away by the vivid prose, intrigue, and romance of this intricate tale. This fascinating, unusual story is sure to entrance.”
From Locus:
“De Bodard’s work is marked by precision and delicacy of prose, by a concern with ethics and relationships, and by the presence of uncaring systems that violently resist critique from without—and even from within. Seven of Infinities is deeply concerned with relationships and responsibilities: the relationship between an older friend and her youthful ‘little sisters’; the ties of loyalty between a crew of thieves with their own ethics; the bond between teacher and student—as central to the novella’s resolution as the relationship between lovers, in this case a quasi-familial, affectionate tie that goes a long way beyond duty… Seven of Infinities is a novella concerned with forgiveness, deserved or not, about cages, self-made or otherwise. It concerns itself with growth, with grace, with ruthlessness and its costs and consequences. It’s a tightly written jewel of a story, intense and full of feeling, and I recommend it highly.”
Based on Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series, Jeff VanderMeer's The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod is a longer and very different version of a story published in the Dozois-Martin edited Songs from the Dying Earth.
The Wizard Sarnod has lived in isolation on an island in the middle of a lake for centuries. But one day, the Nose of Memory arrives to destroy his calm by dredging up the past, and he must send three of his familiars to the subterranean Underhinds on a quest to find two other people, long banished: his brother and a former lover. In the Underhinds they will encounter living dirigibles, fire dragons, the Bloat Toad, unimaginable perils, and long-buried secrets...
From Jeff VanderMeer’s Introduction:
“When it came time to write the story for Songs of the Dying Earth, Sarnod and his three familiars leapt into my mind, and Grod was one of them. I wrote a draft, revised it, and sent it to the editors. When I heard back, the feedback indicated they liked the story but Grod wasn’t Vance-an enough, not tied enough in his quest to Vance’s world. So, thinking that eventually I might have a chance to publish my version, I cut Grod out of the story for the version published in the anthology....
“This version is very close to my heart, and I hope you enjoy it as much as you enjoy my friend and master designer John Coulthart’s marvelous approach to book art.”
Limited: 500 signed numbered copies, bound in full cloth, in dust jacket: $40
We've restocked Ken Liu's signed limited edition novella, The Man Who Ended History, which also contains the bonus short story, "Lecture 14: Concerning the Event Cloaking Device and Practical Applications Thereof."
About the Book:
A scientific invention makes it possible to virtually travel back in time and witness historical events. It is only possible to witness it once from the same perspective, because the process eats up the record. The inventor and her husband draw attention to the atrocities of Unit 731 during WWII. They hope that eyewitnesses will shut down denialists. But Chinese versus Japanese, and U.S. politics start their own games.
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary, by Ken Liu, first appeared in Panverse Three, September 2011. The story was a Nebula, Hugo, and Sturgeon finalist.
The WSFA Press edition of The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary will be a signed, limited edition of 500 copies, with cover and four interior illustrations by Galen Dara. This edition also contains the bonus short story: "Lecture 14: Concerning the Event Cloaking Device and Practical Applications Thereof". The book will be signed by both Ken Liu and Galen Dara.
Limited: 500 signed (by author and artist) copies: $45
Also in this newsletter: Joe Hill, Alastair Reynolds. Gotta go now though
― dow, Thursday, 5 November 2020 18:27 (three years ago) link