Daniel Abraham : The Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs

When a private envoy of the queen and member of Lord Carmichael's discreet service goes missing, Balfour and Meriwether are asked to look into the affair.  They will find a labyrinth of dreams, horrors risen from hell, prophecy, sexual perversion, and an abandoned farmhouse on the moors outside Harrowmoor Sanitarium.  The earth itself will bare its secrets and the Empire itself will tremble in the face of the hidden dangers they discover, but the greatest peril is the one they have brought with them.  

Balfour and Meriwether in the Incident of the Harrowmoor Dogs is the first novella length work in the Balfour and Meriwether stories by Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominated author Daniel Abraham.

First edition, first print. 2013

Subterranean Press

Hardcover with Dust Jacket

The book is in very good condition. The dust jacket is very good.

Silent Blade:

Old hatreds die hard. Old love dies harder.

On the planet Rada, Meli Galdes’ family is of minor rank, and were relying on her marriage to Celino, the razor-smart, ruthless leader of the powerful Carvanna empire.  When he abruptly breaks their engagement, he ruins her family and guarantees that Meli will never marry, as no suitor will oppose the rich and influential Carvannas.

But Meli has a rare, secret, lethal—and valuable—talent. As a melder of energy, she’s capable of severing anything in her path. So she ‘leaves’ her family and trains to become one of the best and most lethal of assassins, all the while covertly guarding her family’s interests. Now she’s ready to quit; but she has one more assignment.

To kill the man who ruined her life.  

Silver Shark:

Claire Shannon is a killer…and her weapon is her mind.

Born on a planet torn by war for over 300 years, Claire is a soldier: a psycher, with the ability to read, control, and destroy the minds of enemy psychers  and to infiltrate the biological  network where they battle to death.  

When Claire’s faction loses the war, she barely escapes extermination from both sides, as her talent brands her as too dangerous to society.  By so-deeply burying her ability that she avoids detection, Claire is instead deported to Rada as a refugee, where she must find work to remain.  She finds a job as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, a premiere kinsman; one of Rada’s most wealthy entrepreneurs—and most powerful psychers.  

She thought she had left war behind, but now she must hide her skills and her growing feelings from Venturo…and this battle might just cost her everything…

Andrews, Ilona - The Kinsmen Universe

Family is everything. Talent is power.  And revenge is sweet.

In a distant, future world Kinsmen—small powerful groups of genetically and technologically advanced families—control vast financial empires.  They are their own country, their own rulers, and their only limits are other Kinsmen. The struggle for power is a bloody, full-contact sport:  in business, on the battlefield...and sometimes in the bedroom.  

A Mere Formality:

The leader of the fierce Reigh people expires during an intergalactic summit, putting 30 million colonists' lives and livelihoods in jeopardy. When the new heir to the Reigh throne, Lord Nagrad, demands restitution, the phrase "‘a life for a life" turns the intergalactic calamity into an arranged marriage contract between Lord Nagrad and sharply intelligent diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed... and the negotiation of terms becomes anything but formal!

Dust jacket and full-color interior illustrations by Luisa J. Preißler.

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies, bound in leather            

Joe Abercrombie:

Joe Abercrombie is one of our favourite authors, easy reading with humour and great characters and he definitely delivers on the ‘hard-edge’ to his stories. His books take pride of place in our collection. A must read.

Straight from Joe Abercrombie’s Website…

"Epic fantasy. It’s all the same, no?

There's a grumpy wizard, a deadly barbarian, a jumped-up nobleman and some feisty girl, more than likely. They're all engaged in a mysterious quest to bring that from there, and they're all made out of cardboard. Probably there's a dark lord of some kind involved. They talk like extras from a bad soap opera. They fight like extras from a bad cop show. Probably there's a prophecy, and a farmboy with mysterious parentage, and if not a magic tower, then certainly a strange tall building of some kind. There'll be battles, there'll be intrigue, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if a magic sword came up somewhere along the way.

I don't need to read that again.

I want to read a fantasy with all the grit, and cruelty, and humour of real life. Where good and evil are a matter of where you stand, just like in the real world. I want dialogue that actually sounds like people talking, and action that actually feels like people fighting. I want magic and adventure, sure, but I want it to hurt. I want blood, sweat, and tears, and plenty of them. I want to read about characters as selfish, as flawed, as complicated, and as unpredictable as real people. I want a fantasy that can shock and surprise, amuse and horrify, delight and excite me, all at once.

I spent a long time looking, and I couldn't find a set of books quite like that. So I thought I'd write some.

You like your fantasy with the edges left on?

Try The First Law…"

The beautiful Subterranean Press signed/limited editions of the 'First Law' series:

For the initial trilogy Subterranean went with Alexander Preuss for the artwork, you may recall that Preuss also did the art for the stunning Centipede Press editions of ‘The Book of the New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe. However for the expansion novels, Raymond Swanland has been chosen, and we can’t find fault with either choice frankly.

Abercrombie, Joe - The Blade Itself

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

Abercrombie, Joe - Before They are Hanged

Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It’s enough to make a torturer want to run – if he could even walk without a stick.

Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem – he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn’t hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven – but not before they are hanged.

Abercrombie, Joe - Last Argument of Kings

The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy. It's past time for the Bloody-Nine to come home.

With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no one is safe, and no one can be trusted. His days with a sword are far behind him. It's a good thing blackmail, threats and torture still work well enough.

Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is far too painful, and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too, and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it.

While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No one believes that the shadow of war is falling across the very heart of the Union. The First of the Magi has a plan to save the world, as he always does. But there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, after all, than to break the First Law…

Abercrombie, Joe - Best Served Cold

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.”—Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll, and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular—a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a massmurderer obsessed with numbers and a barbarian who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation.

And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started…

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

Abercrombie, Joe - The Heroes

“Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.” Bertolt Brecht

They say Black Dow’s killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they’ve brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.

Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced master swordsman, has sworn to reclaim his stolen honour on the battlefield. Obsessed with redemption and addicted to violence, he’s far past caring how much blood gets spilled in the attempt. Even if it’s his own.

Prince Calder isn’t interested in honour, and still less in getting himself killed. All he wants is power, and he’ll tell any lie, use any trick, and betray any friend to get it. Just as long as he doesn’t have to fight for it himself.

Curnden Craw, the last honest man in the North, has gained nothing from a life of warfare but swollen knees and frayed nerves. He hardly even cares who wins any more, he just wants to do the right thing. But can he even tell what that is with the world burning down around him?

Over three bloody days of battle, the fate of the North will be decided. But with both sides riddled by intrigues, follies, feuds and petty jealousies, it is unlikely to be the noblest hearts, or even the strongest arms that prevail…

Three men. One battle. No Heroes.

Abercrombie, Joe - Red Country

“Each land in the world produces its own men individually bad – and, in time, other bad men who kill them for the general good.” —Emerson Hough

They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer, Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust…

Abercrombie, Joe - Sharp Ends

Sharp Ends combines previously published, award-winning tales with exclusive new short stories. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue's gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law. For example:

“A Beautiful Bastard: The Union army may be full of bastards, but there’s only one big enough to think he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.

Made a Monster: After years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There’s only one obstacle left – his own lunatic champion.

Small Kindnesses: The hopes of Shevedieh, the best thief in Westport, to turn her back on crime, come crashing down when she finds a huge drunkard sleeping in her doorway. Doing the right thing always comes at a price…

The Fool Jobs: Curnden Craw has been sent with his dozen to recover a thing from beyond the Crinna. One small problem. No one seems to know what the thing is.

Skipping Town: Shevedieh and Javre, ill-matched adventurers, find themselves forced to flee yet another self-made disaster.

Amityville Horrible

“I don't run from ghosts”

His voice, right at my ear. “You will.”

Jaime Vegas—spiritualist, entertainer and, unbeknownst to her audience, real-life necromancer—swore she'd never do another reality ghost show after the last fiasco. But when she's railroaded into a charity gig, she finds herself back on the set, this time with a cast of photogenic college kids, an up-and-coming Russian spiritualist, and a tale of missing girls and murder in New England. It's cheesy, but that's show business. With her werewolf Alpha lover, Jeremy Danvers, along to keep her nights interesting, it's not so bad really. Until the bloody ghosts show up. Jaime has never faced spirits like these, and no matter how hard she tries, they won't be ignored.

Limited: 1500 signed numbered hardcover copies, bound in leather

Forbidden

The team-spirit sign by the side of the highway seems a good omen to loner Morgan Walsh, as he drives to what could be the most important visit of his life—a chance to join the North American Pack. Then he wakes naked in the woods, surrounded by wolf tracks and a ring of suspicious cops. The situation only gets worse when he's bailed out by Alpha-elect Elena Michaels and Clayton Danvers, her terrifying enforcer and mate.

Disappointed that such a promising young werewolf risked exposing them, Elena isn't expecting anything from the pesky retrieval job except some much-needed alone time with Clay. Instead, she finds a different kind of evil stalking the streets and forests of Westwood, New York. Trapped in town by a snowstorm and sabotage, Elena, Clay and Morgan must find the mysterious threat before it sets its sights on them.  

Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies, bound in leather, with a different dust jacket than the trade edition  

EDITION: First edition, first print. 2012, limited

PUBLISHER: Subterranean Press

BINDING: Leather Hardcover with Dust Jacket

Forsaken

Being Alpha of the North American Pack is like being a small-town sheriff — nobody wants the job, but someone’s gotta do it. For the most part, Elena Michaels likes it just fine, even if it means dealing with arrogant misogynists in the werewolf world who are convinced that a woman isn’t up to the job.That she could handle. What she never expected was a deadly threat to her eight-year-old twins.

That her little girl could go missing in the night.The enemy thought he was dealing with a hysterical mother.Mother, yes. Hysterical, no.Elena was Alpha for a reason. And nothing would stop her from getting her child back.

Subterranean Press - First Edition

BINDING: Hardcover with Dust Jacket

Lost Souls

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Xaviere Daumarie.

The disappearing hitchhiker is one of the hoariest urban legends, and no one knows that better than Gabriel Walsh, a lawyer who grew up on folklore and myth. When author of books on the supernatural Patrick brings Gabriel a case of a hitchhiking woman in white who vanished on a country road after accepting a ride from a businessman, Gabriel knows the Cainsville elder is just trying to wheedle into his good graces. But Gabriel is a man in need of a mystery, one that will get him back into someone else’s good graces. His investigator, Olivia Taylor-Jones, has blown town supposedly on a simple vacation. But when she left there was a rift between them and…he misses her.

Gabriel is well aware the only thing Olivia loves more than a good mystery is a weird one, and this hitchhiker case more than fits the bill. As Gabriel digs into the story, he’s forced to face ghosts of his own and admit that the woman in white isn’t the only one who has lost her way.

Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition

First edition hardcover

   First edition hardcover -signed/ ltd

The Windup Girl

Bacigalupi’s stunning debut novel The Windup Girl, published by Night Shade Books in September 2009, won the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards in 2010. The Windup Girl was also named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Books of 2009.

We love the Raphael Lacoste artwork, it totally captures the sense of time in the book.

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution?

This Subterranean Press edition includes the novel proper, as well the two short stories that preceded it, and a new introduction by the author. Limited: 300 signed copies, numbered from 201-500, fully cloth bound

Ship Breaker:

The signed limited edition of Paolo Bacigalupi’s acclaimed second novel, Ship Breaker, printed in two colors throughout, on 80# Finch, with a full-color dust jacket and a pair of full-color interior illustrations by Jon Foster.

On a devastated Gulf Coast, seventeen-year-old Nailer ekes out a bleak existence scavenging copper wire from downed oil tankers. His horizons extend no further than the dangerous community of Bright Sands Beach, where his abusive father is the most brutal threat of all. But when a clipper ship washes ashore with a live—and rich—girl on board, Nailer has a decision to make. Will he profit from his find or gamble on helping her survive? With Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi offers a disturbing yet ultimately hopeful look into the near future.

Bacigalupi’s acclaimed collection, Pump Six and Other Stories, and his multiple-award-winning debut novel, The Windup Girl, established him as one of science fiction’s boldest new writers. Praised by critics and readers alike, now Ship Breaker has made him one of the young adult field’s brightest stars. The novel was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award and the National Book Award in the Young People’s Literature category, and claimed the Michael L. Printz Award, the American Library Association’s top honor for young adult literature.

This special limited edition includes an extensive new interview with the author.

Limited: 300 numbered copies, fully bound in cloth, signed by author

The Drowned Cities:

The signed limited edition of Paolo Bacigalupi's third novel, The Drowned Cities, printed in two colors throughout, on 80# Finch, with a full-color dust jacket and a pair of full-color interior illustrations by Jon Foster.

In Ship Breaker, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi introduced readers to a bleak, dystopian future as convincing and vividly rendered as anything in recent popular fiction. Now, Bacigalupi returns to that world in The Drowned Cities, an independent narrative as memorable and viscerally exciting as its distinguished predecessor.

Two very different characters dominate the novel's war torn landscape. Tool, a figure familiar to Ship Breaker's many admirers, is an "augment," a genetically altered creation--part animal, part human--designed to serve as the perfect killing machine. Mahlia is a "war maggot," a crippled, castoff teenager left behind by the Peacekeepers, who tried--and failed--to impose some sort of order on the fragmented, increasingly violent society known as the Drowned Cities. Mahlia's relationship with her newly acquired "family"--a doctor who teaches her the art of healing and a young boy named Mouse who once saved her life--keeps her connected, however tenuously, to the world of human values. When devastation descends on her village and disrupts those fragile connections, Mahlia finds herself in an unlikely alliance with Tool, who may represent her last, best chance to save a friend--and preserve her own humanity.

The Drowned Cities is a story of love, war, loyalty, and survival. More importantly, it is an unforgettable portrait of a society that has lost its way, in which natural and man-made disasters have combined to leave chaos and destruction in their wake.

Limited: 300 signed numbered copies, fully bound in cloth

Senlin Ascends

While honeymooning in the Tower of Babel, Thomas Senlin loses his wife, Marya.

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel of the Silk Age. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, is drawn to the Tower by scientific curiosity and the grandiose promises of a guidebook. The luxurious Baths of the Tower seem an ideal destination for a honeymoon, but soon after arriving, Senlin loses Marya in the crowd. Senlin’s search for Marya carries him through madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassination, and the long guns of a flying fortress.

But if he hopes to ever find his wife, Thomas Senlin must do more than survive. This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

Arm of the Sphinx

The adventure continues!

Forced by necessity into a life of piracy, Senlin and his crew struggle to survive aboard their stolen airship. Senlin’s search for his lost wife continues, even as her ghost hounds his every step. But the Tower of Babel proves to be as difficult to reenter as it was to escape.

While searching for an unguarded port, Senlin encounters the camp of Luc Marat, who seems equal parts bandit and humanitarian. One thing is for certain: his asylum for the downtrodden hods is not as peaceful as it appears.

In desperation, Senlin turns to the mysterious and dangerous Sphinx, with whom Edith shares a terrible bond. They discover the Sphinx’s help does not come cheaply.

The Books of Babel:

The only hardcovers of these books are these editions, firstly the stunning Subterranean editions with inspired art by Tom Kidd and limited to 400 signed copies :

The Hod King

Fearing an uprising, the Sphinx sends Senlin to investigate a plot that has taken hold in the ringdom of Pelphia. Alone in the city, Senlin infiltrates a bloody arena where hods battle for the public's entertainment. But his investigation is quickly derailed by a gruesome crime and an unexpected reunion.

Posing as a noble lady and her handmaid, Voleta and Iren attempt to reach Marya, who is isolated by her fame. While navigating the court, Voleta attracts the unwanted attention of a powerful prince whose pursuit of her threatens their plan.

Edith, now captain of the Sphinx's fierce flagship, joins forces with a fellow wakeman to investigate the disappearance of a beloved friend. She must decide who to trust as her desperate search brings her nearer to the Black Trail.

As Senlin and his crew become further mired in the conspiracies of the Tower, everything falls to one question: Who is The Hod King?

The Fall of Babel

As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Caught in a charade, Senlin desperately tries to sabotage the rampaging Hod King, even as Marat's objective grows increasingly clear. The leader of the zealots is bound for the Sphinx's lair and the unimaginable power it contains.

In the city under glass at the Tower's summit, Adam discovers a utopia where everyone inexplicably knows the details of his past. As Adam unravels the mystery of his fame, he soon discovers the crowning ringdom conceals a much darker secret.

Aboard the State of Art, Edith and her crew adjust to the reality that Voleta has awoken from death changed. She seems to share more in common with the Red Hand now than her former self. While Edith wars for the soul of the young woman, a greater crisis looms: They will have to face Marat on unequal footing and with Senlin caught in the crossfire.

And when the Bridge of Babel is finally opened, and the Brick Layer's true ambition revealed, neither they nor the Tower will ever be the same again.

In the course of a varied and prolific career, the late Iain M. Banks produced some of the most memorable science fiction of the 20thcentury. The heart of his achievement was a sequence of novels featuring his signature creation: The Culture. First published in 1990, 'Use of Weapons' was the third published novel in the series, but the first written, and it remains one of Banks’s most astonishing – and complex – accomplishments.

The Culture is the designation for a vast conglomerate of advanced races populated by human, humanoid, and artificially intelligent entities. Its purpose: to intervene, often with unintended consequences, in the affairs of less developed civilizations. The protagonist of Use of Weapons is Cheradenine Zakalwe, an “outsider” recruited by the Culture’s Special Circumstances division to serve, wherever needed, as a roving galactic operative. His story, which dominates the novel, proceeds along two narrative paths.

The first of these tells the story of Zakalwe’s latest mission on behalf of the Culture. His job: to travel to a remote star system currently drifting into political instability and make contact with a former colleague named Beychae. Zakalwe’s quest is told in straightforward chronological order.

A second, complementary narrative proceeds in reverse order, moving backward in time to encompass the origin and history of Zakalwe’s involvement with the Culture. Eventually, the two narratives will intersect, culminating in a revelation both surprising and inevitable.

Includes a must read Introduction by Ken MacLeod.

Limited: 400 numbered cloth bound copies signed by Ken MacLeod

With two books in our top twenty list, Iain M. Banks was something special in the modern age, original and gritty at times, his stories were just great.

The Best Of...

Dust jacket illustration by John Harris.

This is a monumental collection of thirty-eight Gregory Benford stories, including some of the best science fiction of the last fifty years, chosen from the more than two hundred he has published to date:

At the end of the 1960s, Benford expanded his novella “Deeper than the Darkness,” to become his first novel of the same title in 1970. He hit his stride in the 1970s, making his reputation with stories such as “Doing Lennon” and “In Alien Flesh.” By the end of that decade he had written In the Ocean of Night, the first of his impressive Galactic Center novels. He entered the 1980s a Nebula Award-winner for his classic novel, Timescape. That decade continued with the impressive stories “Relativistic Effects” and “Exposures,” the novel, Against Infinity, and ended with “Matters End” and “Mozart on Morphine.”

By the middle of the 1980s he had also taken the leadership position of spokesman for hard science fiction, and contended with the rising cyberpunk reformers of hard SF. He has remained the most articulate defender of science’s role in science fiction to this day, and perhaps the most literate and literary of its writers. In the 1990s, by now an acknowledged master of hard science fiction, he became more playful in some works, in particular stories such as “Centigrade 233,” a riff on Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, and “Zoomers,” a dot-com bubble superman fantasia, while still holding to the center with the majority of his writing, completing his long series of Galactic Center novels and even writing in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation universe.

Benford continues building himself challenging structures to write in with two story series in progress that may emerge as major works. He’s not slowing down. But for the record we now have this book, a permanent chronicle of a major career. Six decades so far.

Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, bound in leather

Subterranean Press - Signed/Limited

The Hexologists By Josiah Bancroft

Illustration By Omar Rayyan

Amid a gilded age of convenience and excess, the capital city of Berbiton is still occasionally assailed by old-fashioned ghouls and rustic imps who prey upon the poor and powerful alike. Whenever the constabulary and giants of industry fail to rescue the browbeaten, it falls to the Hexologists, Isolde and Warren Wilby, to answer the fevered call.

Isolde Wilby enjoys a mystery much in the way that a terrier relishes a rat. Unconstrained by social nicety and compelled by a ruthless curiosity, Iz depends upon the tempering presence of her husband to keep her fed, rested, and friendly with persons she might otherwise overrun. Theirs is a partnership fueled by passion and a shared devotion to higher ideals.

Isolde and Warren’s preference for smaller clients is finally trumped by the specter of the greater good. When they are approached by the royal secretary and told that the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Willbys quickly find themselves embroiled in a mystery that imperils a nation and challenges their cherished autonomy.

Limited: 500 signed numbered hardcover copies