fantastic books

Gimme Sanctuary

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Fantastic Books is excited to be publishing three-time Hugo Award-winner Allen Steele’s new novel, Sanctuary, in November.

Imagine a world without plastic.

Imagine a world where something in the environment eats plastic.

Imagine arriving on such a world in a space ship.

The human colonists in Allen Steele’s Sanctuary don’t have to imagine it—they have to survive it.

After traveling light years to the Earth-like planet of Tau Ceti-e, they have only minutes to abandon ship before the native plastic-eating organism turns their space ship into a death trap of orbiting debris.

Now they’ll have to survive an 18th-century way of life with the forbearance of the not-exactly hostile—but definitely not friendly—natives.

Why do the native Cetans keep humanity confined to one poor island? Why do they so hate and mistrust the humans? What is going on?

Private eye Jeremy Crowe finds himself caught up in the underground search for the truth, stuck on a middling rung in the modern caste system, and struggling to not make humanity’s desperate situation any worse. Fighting for his life may turn out to be the easy part.

Fantastic Books will publish three-time Hugo Award-winner Allen Steele’s new novel, Sanctuary, on November 2, 2021. The book will appear in simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback formats.
Hardcover: 308 pages, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-5154-4773-3
Trade Paperback: 308 pages, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-5154-4774-0

Sanctuary—and all Fantastic Books books—are distributed via Ingram. Review copies are available upon request.

A wonderfully horrific day!

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Proof-IanHorrorToday is publication day, and Fantastic Books is horrified to announce the arrival of Horror for the Throne, the third in the popular series of genre-specific anthologies of short fiction.

After an interminable delay brought about by the horror of the pandemic, Fantastic Books is getting back into gear in a big way with this thrilling collection of short stories guaranteed to scare… it right out of you. Editors James D. Macdonald, Tom Easton, and Judith K. Dial have selected forty little gems that’ll get your blood pumping and tickle the tiny hairs on the back of your neck.

You’ll probably want to read it with the lights on.

Amazing Stories said the first volume (Science Fiction for the Throne) is “not a book to try and read in one sitting (as I largely did). It is what I sometimes refer to as ‘a dipping book:’ for maximum effect, you should read a story or two here, a story or two there, a story or two somewhere else.” Hugo-winner Allen Steele said “For the bathroom, for the bedroom, for the bus to work, for that chair in the department store where bored spouses sit while their wives or husbands try on new clothes… this is a perfect way to entertain yourself during idle moments in a way that won’t rot your mind. Read this and have fun.”

Asimov’s Science Fiction said the second volume, Fantasy for the Throne, is “a fun collection, exactly right for those moments when you have just a few minutes to read.” While Analog Science Fiction and Fact called it “a little gem. Or rather, here are 40 little gems by as many authors, all packaged in one sweet volume.”

Horror for the Throne is now available in trade paperback and hardcover formats—and will soon be available as an e-book—through all your major online retailers. It is distributed to all physical book stores through Ingram: just ask!

With an introduction by Bruce Coville, Horror for the Throne features the horrific stylings of: E.C. Ambrose, Colleen Anderson, Kevin David Anderson, Diane Arrelle, Stewart C. Baker, T.L. Barrett, James Blakey, Bruce Boston, Michael Bracken, Tiffany Michelle Brown, Elliot Capon, Jeff C. Carter, Gregg Chamberlain, Brenda Clough, Ian Creasey, Randee Dawn, Steve Dillon, Stephanie Ellis, Kevin M. Folliard, Eric J. Guignard, Liam Hogan, Emma Johnson-Rivard, Daniel M. Kimmel, Chris Kuriata, Geoffrey A. Landis, Sharon Lee, Gordon Linzner, Nicola Lombardi, Linda Silverman McMullen, Gregory Nicoll, Brian Rappatta, Gary L. Robbe, Chuck Rothman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Mark Towse, Mary A. Turzillo, Douglas A. Van Belle, Marie Vibbert, Dawn Vogel, and Marcia Wilson.

Get it now, before it gets you!

Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads
edited by James D. Macdonald, Tom Easton, and Judith K. Dial
introduction by Bruce Coville
Fantastic Books. 176 pages.
trade paperback: $14.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2409-3.
case laminate hardcover: $22.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2410-9.

On Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

A press release from Fantastic Books:

perf6.000x9.000.inddFantastic Books is honored to be publishing On Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren, edited by Bill Wood, put together with a great deal of assistance from Delany himself.

Samuel R. Delany is the winner of two Hugos and four Nebula Awards. He has been honored with lifetime achievement awards, including SFWA’s Grand Master, the Eaton Award, the Lambda Pilgrim Award, and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Dhalgren, his most popular and most controversial novel, was first published in 1975. It was nominated for the Nebula Award, remains in print to this day, and has sold close to two million copies in a variety of editions.

This book—full of reviews, critical essays, and in-depth analyses of Dhalgren as a novel, and as commentary on life and the world—is an excellent companion to the novel itself. There are also discussions of how to read the novel, and clues to unraveling some of the mysteries hidden therein. Dhalgren is a difficult novel to read—playing with the reader’s perception through the use of circular text, interior echoes, multistable perception, and repeated imagery—but it is a worthwhile read. The book includes nine full-color illustrations (and more spot black-and-white illos), as well as an essay on “The Making of Hogg,” Delany’s infamous and nearly unpublishable novel.

Contributing authors include Douglas Barbour, Mary Kay Bray, Rudi Dornemann, Harlan Ellison, Robert Elliot Fox, Jean Marc Gawron, Kenneth R. James, Gerald Jonas, John Nizalowski, Steven Paley, Darrell Schweitzer, Steven Shaviro, K. Leslie Steiner, Theodore Sturgeon, and, of course, Samuel R. Delany himself.

Fantastic Books will publish On Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren on September 9, 2021, in simultaneous trade paperback and case laminate hardcover editions.

Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-1-5154-2419-2
272 pages, $21.99

Case Laminate Hardcover
ISBN 978-1-5154-4772-6
272 pages, $31.99

On Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren—and all Fantastic Books publications—are distributed through Ingram, and available through all major online retailers and specialty sf shops via direct order from the publisher.

Contents:
“Only One Hundred Years Till Death of Harlow!” by Steven Paley
“S. F.” by Gerald Jonas
“Breakdown of a Breakthrough Novel” by Harlan Ellison
“Galaxy Bookshelf” by Theodore Sturgeon
“The Autumnal City” by Douglas Barbour
“Dully Grinning Delany Descends to Disaster” by Darrell Schweitzer
“Words: And Now Tomorrow” by Gerald Jonas
“Now Read This” by John Nizalowski
“Dhalgren” by Rudi Dornemann
“Of Sex, Objects, Signs, Systems, Sales, Sf, And Other Things” by Samuel R. Delany
“Some Remarks Toward A Reading of Dhalgren” by K. Leslie Steiner
“From ‘The Semiology of Silence,’ an interview with Samuel R. Delany”
“Looking Back at the Autumnal City” by Samuel R. Delany
“The Instruction Manual” by John Ashbery
“Amnesia” by Steven Shaviro
“An ‘Introduction’” by Jean Marc Gawron
“Rites of Reversal: Double Consciousness in Delany’s Dhalgren” by Mary Kay Bray
“This You-Shaped Hole of Insight and Fire” by Robert Elliot Fox
“Subverted Equations G. Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form and Samuel R. Delany’s
Analytics of Attention” by Kenneth R. James
“The Making of Hogg”

Restarting Fantastic Books, Seeking Suggestions

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

IMG_0253I haven’t talked about business in a long time (pandemic and such), but now that I’m fully vaccinated, and see lots of people around me are as well, it’s time to look forward to a world where our first thought every day isn’t the pandemic. Toward that end, I’m getting Fantastic Books back into gear (I’ll be announcing a new book in a few days, as soon as the author and I agree on the cover, with another novel following on its heels, as soon as the author finishes going through the copy-edited manuscript). In addition to those, I’m planning our next Kickstarter campaign. I’m setting my sights a little higher this time: we’re going to try to fund two anthologies with one campaign (and trust me, you’ll know ALL about them in the coming days and weeks).

But right now, I’m looking for your input: for each of the last two anthologies we Kickstarted, one of the special rewards we offered was a limited edition cloisonne pin, but that didn’t seem to be the wonderful attractant I’d hoped. So for the new campaign, I’m looking for something else. Of course, the biggest reward we’ll offer are the books themselves, and the usual book-related things, too. But can you think of something else that might attract you to the campaign, might make you want to increase your pledge level a bit? Thanks for your thoughts.

Horror for the Throne will scare… it right out of you

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

A press release from Fantastic Books:

horrorforthethronefrontDelayed for a year due to the pandemic (which is itself a horror), Fantastic Books is now terrified to announce the impending publication of Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads, the third in our highly successful series of anthologies of very short stories. Being released on July 15, (beware the Ides of July), Horror for the Throne once again invites readers to sit down and take notice.

Editors Tom Easton and Judith K. Dial are joined this time by Mythopoeic Award-winner James D. Macdonald, presenting forty short stories guaranteed to scare… it right out of you.

Amazing Stories said the first volume (Science Fiction for the Throne) is “not a book to try and read in one sitting (as I largely did). It is what I sometimes refer to as ‘a dipping book:’ for maximum effect, you should read a story or two here, a story or two there, a story or two somewhere else.” Hugo-winner Allen Steele said “For the bathroom, for the bedroom, for the bus to work, for that chair in the department store where bored spouses sit while their wives or husbands try on new clothes… this is a perfect way to entertain yourself during idle moments in a way that won’t rot your mind. Read this and have fun.”

Asimov’s Science Fiction said the second volume, Fantasy for the Throne, is “a fun collection, exactly right for those moments when you have just a few minutes to read.” While Analog Science Fiction and Fact called it “a little gem. Or rather, here are 40 little gems by as many authors, all packaged in one sweet volume.”

Get your blood pumping with forty bite-sized doses of horror fiction. Horror for the Throne is the third in an ongoing series of One-Sitting Reads. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Horror for the Throne: One-Sitting Reads
edited by James D. Macdonald, Tom Easton, and Judith K. Dial
Fantastic Books. 176 pages. Simultaneous publication date: July 15, 2021
trade paperback: $14.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2409-3.
case laminate hardcover: $22.99. ISBN: 978-1-5154-2410-3.

Review copies are available upon request.

Horror for the Throne—and all Fantastic Books publications—are distributed through Ingram, and available through all major online retailers. Fantastic Books is also happy to accept orders directly from independent book stores.

Horror for the Throne features stories by: E.C. Ambrose, Colleen Anderson, Kevin David Anderson, Diane Arrelle, Stewart C. Baker, T.L. Barrett, James Blakey, Bruce Boston, Michael Bracken, Tiffany Michelle Brown, Elliot Capon, Jeff C. Carter, Gregg Chamberlain, Brenda Clough, Ian Creasey, Steve Dillon, Stephanie Ellis, Kevin M. Folliard, Eric J. Guignard, Liam Hogan, Emma Johnson-Rivard, Randee Dawn Kestenbaum, Daniel M. Kimmel, Chris Kuriata, Geoffrey A. Landis, Sharon Lee, Gordon Linzner, Nicola Lombardi, Linda Silverman McMullen, Gregory Nicoll, Brian Rappatta, Gary L. Robbs, Chuck Rothman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Mark Towse, Mary A. Turzillo, Douglas A. Van Belle, Marie Vibbert, Dawn Vogel, and Marcia Wilson.

Sometimes you don’t want to be chosen

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

A press release from Fantastic Books:

1515424170He is the chosen one.

Chosen for what?

No one will tell him.

Chosen by whom?

No one knows.

Chosen for a good reason?

Even that is open to debate.

When you’re a young bard on the road, and an 847-year-old prophecy hurls these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune at you, life is going to get very uncomfortable very quickly.

1515424189Terin Ostler was living a happily anonymous life when two squires grabbed out of a tavern and brought before the Duke of Ashbury. Told that he was the object of a prophecy—but that no one would tell him what the prophecy says—he is forced onto a quest in which his life will be threatened by the enemies of the Duke, and by the Duke’s allies. His quest is to save the world from an apocalyptic war, which started nine centuries ago, and seems to be on pause. Terin Ostler is a man on the run… if only he could figure out where he’s going.

Author Michael A. Ventrella was one of the creators of live action roleplaying, and after creating the world of Fortannis, started writing stories set within that realm. In 2008, his comic epic fantasy novel Arch Enemies was published. In 2020, he was able to rewrite it, improve it, and turn it into the two books Fantastic Books is now thrilled to be publishing: Terin Ostler and the Arch Enemies, and Terin Ostler and the War of the Words.

Terin Ostler and the Arch Enemies, Book 1 of the Tales of Fortannis
$13.99, trade paperback, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-5154-2417-8
$5.99 ebook

Terin Ostler and the War of the Words, Book 2 of the Tales of Fortannis
$13.99, trade paperback, 186 pages, ISBN 978-1-5154-2418-5
$5.99 ebook

The Tales of Fortannis—and all Fantastic Books publications—are distributed through Ingram, and available through all major online retailers and specialty sf shops via direct order from the publisher.

Science Fictionally Productive

~ ianrandalstrock ~ 3 Comments

In the days of LiveJournal, it was “three things make a blog post.” Well, today it was more than three, but it was very productive science fictionally, and felt quite good.

First, there was a productive session of editing a novel Fantastic Books will soon be publishing.

Then I took a very nice walk in the woods. Found an interesting group of green acorns on a fallen piece of branch, and saw a rabbit on the way back.

Then I looked at my email, and found a contract! It’s a story the editor had told me he was buying three months ago, but it didn’t feel “official.” Now, reading the contract, it feels much better, almost official. My next appearance in Analog will be a short-short story called “On the Rocks”!

Then I checked the other email account, and found two messages. One, telling me the panel I’d recorded for ConTinual way back when will finally be posted tomorrow morning, about 9:30. You can access ConTinual at Facebook.com/groups/ConTinual, and I’ll add in a link to the panel when it’s available. The panel was about the enduring and growing legacy of “The Eye of Argon,” with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Hildy Silverman, and Michael A. Ventrella. [Edited: here’s the link for the Facebook-hosted video: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ConTinual/permalink/690968394849069/ ]

The other message gave me my schedule for virtual Capclave (online on October 17). At 3:00pm Eastern time, I’ll be talking about “Writing Time Travel and Paradoxes” with Iver P. Cooper, A.T. Greenblatt, and James Morrow. And then, at 4:30, it will be “Centennial Superstars” with Walter H. Hunt and Barbara Krasnoff.

So, yes, it was a pretty good day.

P.S. – I still hate this new “blocks” editor for blog posts. I’ve read several articles, but still can’t figure out how to put the image in a paragraph of text and run the text around it (like I used to be able to). Instead (as you can see above), all I’ve been able to figure out is to post the picture as its own paragraph (“block”), which is just ugly.