The latest issue of Cheryl Morgan's wonderful Emerald City is online, and this one includes two very enthusiastic reviews I'd like to call attention to. One is by Karina Meerman and is of Justina Robson's latest, Keeping it Real. The other is by Joe Gordon and is of Adam Roberts' latest, Gradisil.
Both reviews are of the UK editions of these novels, both of which were published by Gollancz and edited by Simon Spanton, the man who first brought you Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon and whose editorial judgement I am coming to greatly admire. In fact, I've yet to read a novel Simon selected that I don't think is positively brilliant. Both these books, certainly, are garnering wonderful reviews in places like Locus, SFX, Starburst, SFFWorld...
Now Keeping it Real and Gradisil will be coming out from Pyr in our Spring/Summer 2007 season. We expect to use a variant of Larry Rostant's fantastic cover for our edition of Keeping it Real, whereas the marvelous Stephan Martiniere has already turned in his artwork for Gradisil, to my and Adam's considerable delight, and I am anxious for the day when I can debut it here.
And speaking of that day...
If you live in the United Kingdom or one of the territories served by Gollancz, then I urge to rush out and buy these books right now. Justina's novel is the most over-the-top fun I've had with a book in long time, crazy Matrix action, cyborg-on-elf sex, blood sugar sex magick and rock'n'roll. I've not gasped for air in sheer delight at anything like this since Michael Swanwick's Darger and Surplus tales, and I've not seen anyone before exhibit the brazen chutzpah in takes to write total Power Rangers-style action sequences with such a straight face. And being Justina Robson, there's also a lot of brilliant speculation amid the fun and genuine troubled-girl angst. Think Robocop asking "Do I look fat in these jeans?" Whereas Adam, who has absolutely astounded me since I first read On, who is one of the smartest individuals it has ever been my priviledge to know, and who writes big concept SF of the Arthur C Clarke variety only filtered through a level of literate prose & multi-layered narrative that would do Theodore Sturgeon or Samuel Delany proud, has written a birth-of-a-nation epic that may be his finest achievement to date. Gradisil succeeds on both the macro and micro level, presenting a very convincing portrait of the decades just passed our current wave of non-NASA space exploration, where every dot com billionaire has his own rocket program, to the end of the 21st century when near-earth-orbit becomes a practical destination for people to go en masse, coupled with a very personal tale of revenge threaded through one family tree. Political satire and Greek tragedy. What's not to love? So yes, if you live in the UK or thereabouts, go pick up the Gollancz versions now with my blessing.
But if you live here in North American, can I ask you a favor, on behalf of myself, Pyr, and both of these authors? Please wait for our edition. I didn't used to think that it mattered. Sometimes I liked the UK cover better than the US, or I wanted a hardcover when the US publisher only brought the book out in trade paperback or mass market. Or I didn't want to wait. So yes, if you went through my own library, you'd see a few UK editions acquired in years past. But now I know better. There are a long list of deserving British and Australian authors that you don't see over here. There are others that you don't see here any more. Science fiction is not such a big market that the few hundred editions that slip through the specialty shops, or get shipped from Amazon.co.uk don't make a difference. Oh, if you collect the UK versions of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, you probably aren't really going to make a dent in his sales, but for a lot of these writers, particularly of hard, literate SF, it does matter. This is Adam's first book in the US - something that many people, not just Yours Truly - think is long overdue, and how our edition of Gradisil does will very substantially effect whether his next work of sheer genius comes out in the US or not, either from Pyr or someone else. We're very fortunate to have Ian McDonald's magnificent River of Gods, which, unless you've been living under a rock, you know is being touted everywhere as being a monumental, landmark work, one of those once-in-a-decade achievements, a "must read," but Ian is an example of a writer who was out of the US market for several years before finding his way back in. He's very glad to be back, and we are priviledged to have facilitated his return. So my long-winded point is, if you admire these writers, and you want to see more of their work over here, please show your support for the US editions. Every person makes a difference. And hey, I'm not just talking about our authors and pimping our own books. This applies across the board. Go buy Bantam's edition of Jon Courtenay Grimwood's masterpiece; go pick up the Night Shade edition of the latest Iain M. Banks; get the Del Rey edition of that Hal Duncan book you've heard so much about. If you're a collector, and you've got to have that UK first edition - if the work means that much to you - consider buying both. Hey, I've got all three of China Miéville's Bas Lag novels in their original UK hardcovers, absolutely, but I've got the Del Rey trade paperbacks too.
I appreciate your indulgence with this post. I've seen enough people posting on blogs lately, asking "Why can't I buy the UK version? Why should I wait?" You can make up your own mind, but I think a lot of people don't actually know the impact of buying outside their territory, and I wanted to set the record straight. And for those of you who've been supporting us when we bring you overseas talent, my deep and sincere thanks. There's a lot more where that came from.
12 comments:
Hi,
I am a big fan of british sf who lives here in the US (Peter Hamilton, Richard Morgan, Neal Asher, JC Grimwood, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, John Meaney, Justina Robson, I.M. Banks, James Lovegrove are on my buy on pub list and I own all of their books, while only 4 "established" US authors David Weber, John Ringo, RC Wilson, John Scalzi are - and also I try new authors like J Abercrombie, T. Ballantyne, G. Gibson; I also like Sean Williams and I bought both Pyr books as well).
I usually buy everything from the UK from Amazon.uk paying the relatively high shipping prices unless the book will appear in the US soon, though it depends on my interest in the book and on my reading pile. Your post is very instructive and since I wish you to succeed, I will try to get the US editions of some of those books too (Gradisil for sure since I really would like Mr. Roberts to get an audience here).
To me what would be really useful would be to try to get the UK books released here closer to the date of UK publication and also get electronic editions (preferably non drm'ed like Baen does) since especially recently I started reading more and more on the go on my Nokia 770 due to time constraints, and I will pay up to 10$ for an e edition or 15$ for an e-arc 4-6 months prepublication like Baen does (got 12 of those and most the corresponding hc's too), which spares me the necessity of scanning for my personal use (the alternative to scanning being not to buy the books and focusing on the books published electronically and there are a lot of those, since these are my time constraints realities...).
Liviu
Hi Liviu,
I really appreciate your post. Also, it sounds like we have very similar tastes in authors. Let me know what you think about the second Williams, too. I'd be interested to hear.
Meanwhile, I agree with you about the timing of US vs UK releases. Sometimes, we are not even offered the book until after its UK appearance. This was the case with River of Gods, for instance, and is why our edition was over a year behind Simon & Schuster UK's. However, now that we are working with Ian, we'll have his next one, Brasyl, out around the same time as the British edition.
Meanwhile, I'm going to pass along your comments about ebooks. My parent company, Prometheus Books, is currently digitizing their entire backlist, though I think they are still unsure of how best to put this into play.
So far we've only put first chapters online, though one of our authors, David Louis Edelman, is podcasting and posting the first seven of his novel, and Chris Roberson has uploaded an entire prequel novel to his lastest book. But making our titles available in audio & ebook formats is something we are going to be dialoguing about in the relative near future. And, having just bought a T-Mobile razor phone (with my David Bowie ringtones), I'm getting increasingly interested in exploring content delivery to mobiles. Ebooks aren't yet a viable source of revenue, but I think we all know that it's coming and fast.
Ditto on the lead time between US and UK publications. I paid for the UK edition of Gradisil before I realized you were going to publish it here. Luckily, the UK cover art is rather bland, whereas Stephan Martiniere's work never is, so I can justify acquiring a second copy.
A correction regarding Adam Roberts: you say Gradisil "is Adam's first book in the US." Actually, it will be his first novel published in the US, but his first book here was Swiftly, a collection of his short fiction from Night Shade Books.
Thanks again for making the work of outstanding British authors like Roberts and Robson more easily available to American readers!
Hi Aaron,
You are correct in your novel/book distinction, and in fact, we should further say that it is his first serious novel published here under his own name, as his parody The Da Vinci Cod is also available in the US. And I really thank you for your support for these authors.
My correction stands corrected. As much as I love Adam Roberts's work, I ignored The Da Vinci Cod, because to appreciate it I would actually have to read The Da Vinci Code.
What about the Malazan books that come out in the US years later? What do you expect to happen when you the UK and US release dates are so far apart?
Hi,
Actually though not Pyr properly, I loved your anthology Futureshocks (bought it originally for the J. Meaney and RC Wilson stories, but really loved most of it), and I am looking forward to the next anthology.
Coming back to Pyr, I just ordered Infoquake yesterday since I liked the excerpts (and that is another important point for me at least, since many times when I do not know an author, reading a page of his/her book usually decides me if I order it or no - unfortunately these days though I visit bookstores quite a lot, gotta spend my time in the children's section, so not that much time to read excerpts there:))
I have Crossover too on my list to order when out since it sounds interesting. Hope that the other 2 books in the series will come out reasonably soon. I checked and they are availble from Australia but the shippping is steep so I am waiting for the US editions for the moment.
I have not yet read Genetopia and The Crooked Letter (bought both when appeared), but they are both on my "sooner than later" reading list, currently I am reading Gradisil, next Keeping It Real or Spin Control or Infoquake, and then I guess Crooked Letter, though it depends on my mood. I am not that much into fantasy per se, but I like Sean Williams style a lot and I read several pages from Crooked Letter and liked them and definitely I am buying the next 2 books from the trilogy when published.
As an aside, one of my favourite non living authors is George Turner and the Ressurected Man reminded me quite a lot of his work, though far more optimistic and with the technology updated, there was something in the tone, setting...
Liviu
Hi Liviu,
I'm thrilled you enjoyed FutureShocks. You'll be happy to know that the Robert Charles Wilson story in Fast Forward is set in the same world of the "Rationalization" as "The Cartesian Theatre" was. Meanwhile, did you happen to read Meaney's novella in my earlier anthology Live without a Net? This was the alternate history with Ian Fleming in a biotech-waged WWII. One of my personal favorites of all Meaney's work, though I'm awfully fond of his contribution to Chris Roberson's Adventure Vol. 1.
I will be excited to see what you think of Crossover. Tobias Buckell told me he thought it was "***king awesome!!!". Joel really has an amazing ability to write about the "politics" of a relationship, whether it's between co-workers on a police force, or between rival intelligence agencies, or between interstellar governments. His stuff is amazingly nuanced & smart, but it's also got enough action and weapon-fetishizing for the Baen crowd. It reminds me of nothing so much as Miyazaki's Ghost in the Shell meets the current Battlestar Galactica.
As to Sean's books - well, he's writing fantasy, but set in a cosmology influenced by Darwin and Quantum theories of multiple worlds. It's really smart stuff, sort of the "platonic ideal" of the afterlife by which all religions are informed. I wish that my slush pile allowed me the freedom to read Sean's non-Pyr books. They are on the stack for "when I retire."
re: George Turner - ha, I think Joel's novel won the George Turner prize!
Hi,
Actually I enjoyed Live Without a Net too, though I did not realize on the moment that it was edited by you, but then I pulled it from a bookshelf and realized it looks very similar to Futureshocks (these are the joys of working mostly in your home office that you can see your books, but you do not have the time to read them...my 30' train commute to NYC was so good for reading, but on the other hand being a work at home dad has its satisfactions too)
Anything that has stories by John Meaney is on my buy list and since that anthology (Adventure) mentioned above has a story by N. Asher, I will order it asap.
Personally I read mostly based on the author's style than on the type of stories, so in general there are authors that I have read everything they wrote, and authors that I do not touch (speaking of mil sf and with all due respect I could not read L Bujold or O. Card for example), very rarely I like only some of an author's books (Ian McDonald is an example since I liked River of Gods and his Asimov's related stories but not anything else until now, Mary Gentle 1610 is another example - both got from the UK).
I will definitely buy Crossover since it sounds very interesting
Liviu
Ha - well, hello from another work at home dad!
The look of all of my anthologies are all very similar because they are all illustrated by the wonderful John Picacio (www.johnpicacio.com) who is doing the cover for Fast Forward as well, and did the cover of Adventure too.
I hear you loud and clear re: style vs story. There are only so many stories in the world, right? - but it's how you tell them that makes all the difference. The only McDonald of novel length that I have read pre-River is Desolation Road which is perhaps the only true Post-Bradbury Mars novel to attain the poetry of the Chronicles. But by all accounts Ian has taken it to a whole new level with River.
With one or two exceptions, it's very hard for me to read flat prose. With Pyr, I'm not trying to stray so far into literary waters that we leave the SF map, but I am trying to pick books of lasting value, if that makes sense.
Hi Lou,
just wanted to say how much I appreciated your post about UK/U$ editions. I'm a German SF/F/H editor working out of Berlin, and believe me, people buying English language books first and not waiting for German editions which may or may not come out and may or may not be decently translated is a big problem, even if I sure cannot blame anyone. I do think you are doing a great job at Pyr (I bought "The Prodical Troll" for Klett-Cotta here and would love to see "River of Gods" translated), so keep this up and I'll keep reading.
Best -- Hannes
Hannes,
thanks so much for the feedback. It's good to know this isn't always falling on deaf ears. So many people have a "why should I care?" attitude, and the best answer I can give is that it's like overfishing. Might be okay when you're talking about the ocean (might not!) but in a small pond, if you want there to be fish there next year too...
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