Ian R. MacLeod’s RAGGED MAPS Out Now!


RAGGED MAPS, Ian R. MacLeod‘s new, limited edition collection of shorter fiction is out now! Published by Subterranean Press, it clocks it at over 450 pages, and also includes the never-before-published novelette, DOWNTIME!

Dominic Harman created the superb cover for the collection. Here’s the synopsis for the book…

From furthest reaches of deep space in “The Memory Artist” to the jungles of Yucatan in “Lamagica,” and from the strange suburbia of “Stuff” to a Vatican where a dying pope awaits deliverance in “Sin Eater,” the worlds mapped out by these stories range far and wide. 

As, from the mythic ancient city of “The God of Nothing” to the post-human futures of “Ephemera” and “The Fall of the House of Kepler,” via alternate pasts and some very twisted presents in such tales as “Selkie,” “The Mrs Innocents” and “The Chronologist,” do the times. 

What holds all these pieces together, including the gripping long new novelette “Downtime” and its vision of a near-future penal system, are vivid writing, strong characters and a sense of awe and surprise. On travels that will take you from cluttered attics and strange shorelines to star-flung civilisations and beyond, let Ian R. MacLeod be your guide.

Ian R. MacLeod is the author of seven novels and five short story collections spanning the entire spectrum of fantastic fiction which have been critically acclaimed, widely anthologised and translated into many languages. His work has won the Arthur C Clarke award for the Year’s Best Novel, along with the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (twice), the World Fantasy Award (again twice), the John W Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award for the Year’s Best First Novel. He lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England.

New NEOM Limited Edition!


There is a new limited edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed NEOM, available to order from PS Publishing! Limited to just 200 signed copies, the hardcover comes complete with a slipcase with additional artwork (below) by Sarah Anne Langton. Here’s the synopsis…

From the rich, multi-award-winning universe of CENTRAL STATION, the inhabitants of a complex desert-city rediscover passion while at the brink of revolution. Machines roam the desert in search of purpose; works of art can be deadlier than weapons; and improbable love transcends the sands of time.

The city known as Neom is many things to many beings, human or otherwise. Neom is a tech wonderland for the rich and beautiful; an urban sprawl along the Red Sea; and a port of call between Earth and the stars.

In the desert, young orphan Saleh has joined a caravan, hoping to earn his passage off-world from Central Station. But the desert is full of mechanical artefacts, some unexplained and some unexploded. Recently, a wry, unnamed robot has unearthed one of the region’s biggest mysteries: the vestiges of a golden man.

NEOM is also published in paperback and eBook, by Tachyon Publications. The novel is the second book set in the CENTRAL STATION universe (book one is also published by Tachyon Publications).

Here are just a few of the great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar takes readers back to the fascinating far-future world of 2016’s CENTRAL STATION in this gentle narrative about self-fulfillment and one robot’s quest to reunite with a lost love… Tidhar offers a heartfelt exploration of artificially intelligent beings’ struggles to find existential meaning while being restrained by both coding and form. Fans of literary sci-fi are sure to be enchanted by the imaginative worldbuilding and tenderly wrought characters.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Tidhar’s narrative takes on a gentle, ruminative air, and while that helps establish the atmosphere of a convincing, lived-in city, veteran SF readers will also find plenty of playful and affectionate Easter eggs… Neom easily joins the list of SF cities we’d like to visit.’ — Locus

‘[A] delight­ful jour­ney through a fan­ta­sy of out­er space and a future Mid­dle East. Tidhar’s world con­tains lik­able char­ac­ters who work togeth­er (some­times acci­den­tal­ly, some­times begrudg­ing­ly) to tell a sto­ry full of adven­ture, mys­tery, hope, and love… Tid­har writes sci­ence fic­tion with real-world par­al­lels and comedic tim­ing, if also a bit of a ten­den­cy toward hope­ful romanticism… NEOM is a won­der­ful read for any lover of sci­ence fic­tion. For some­one who has not yet vis­it­ed the world of CENTRAL STATION — Tidhar’s nov­el from 2016 — it is easy to catch on to the col­lo­qui­alisms and cus­toms of the sto­ry uni­verse. But after read­ing NEOM, new Tid­har fans will sure­ly want to go back for more.’ — Jewish Book Council

‘Extraordinary and compassionate.’ – Foreword (starred review)

‘… hauntingly beautiful… Written in a straightforward but luminous style… NEOM is a treasure… a compelling chapter in this future history that reflects so much about who we are and the basic things we yearn for.’ — SciFi Mind

NEOM is a thoughtful, beautifully written story about what we have, what we want, how we achieve our desires, and what, and whom, we are willing to risk for our own benefit.’ — Los Angeles Public Library

‘A new novel set in the same universe as the multi-award winning CENTRAL STATION. Tidhar is a superb author, so it really doesn’t matter to me what he writes — I’ll still happily read it.’ — Civilian Reader

‘I have never seen worldbuilding that’s as evocative, imaginative, and extensive as that in NEOM. Anywhere, in any genre… NEOM is stuffed with gut-churning scenarios, compelling worldbuilding, and dark surprises. There’s so much packed into its relatively few pages that I found myself thinking about it over and over since finishing it… Tidhar’s ideas will stick with you for weeks after turning that final page.’ — Strange Horizons

New, Limited Edition of Lavie Tidhar’ THE ESCAPEMENT Available in the UK!


Lavie Tidhar‘s THE ESCAPEMENT was published earlier this year to wide acclaim. Now, PS Publishing has released a limited edition of the novel. Available in two version — a signed hardcover, and a more-limited signed slipcase edition (artwork by Sarah Anne Langton) — here’s the synopsis…

Into the reality called the Escapement rides the Stranger, a lone gunman on a quest to rescue his son from a parallel world. But it is too easy to get lost on a shifting landscape full of dangerous versions of his son’s most beloved things: cowboys gone lawless, giants made of stone, downtrodden clowns, ancient battles, symbol storms, and shadowy forces at play.But the flower the Stranger seeks still lies beyond the Mountains of Darkness. Time is running out, as he journeys deeper and deeper into the secret heart of an unforeseen world. In his most compelling work to date, Lavie Tidhar has delivered a multicolored tapestry of dazzling imagery. The Escapement is an epic, wildly original chronicle of the extraordinary lengths to which one will go for love.

The ‘regular’ edition of the novel (eBook and print) is published in the UK and North America by Tachyon Publications.

Here are just a few of the reviews the novel has received so far…

‘Lavie Tidhar is a voice to be reckoned with. With THE ESCAPEMENT, he fearlessly crests the wave of the New New Weird with a wild, decadent hybrid of The Dark Tower and Carnivale. A vivid beach read, if the beach was made of greasepaint and gunpowder.’Catherynne M. Valente

‘To say THE ESCAPEMENT is unique sells it way short. It’s part weird western and part quest; half dream and half epic adventure tale set in a memorable Daliesque landscape. Tidhar lets his imagination run wild in this vivid book, all told in spare, beautiful prose.’Richard Kadrey, bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series.

THE ESCAPEMENT is absorbing, bizarre, haunting, and compelling. Lavie Tidhar continues to shatter the boundaries of literary and genre fiction with a novel that is equal parts horrifying dreamscape and an affecting meditation on parental love. There are a lot of books out there, but this is an experience.’David Liss, author of The Peculiarities

‘The Man With No Name travels through an impossibly alien world peopled by brutalized clowns, superhuman bounty hunters, and titanic monsters indifferent to human suffering. Tidhar’s brand of surreal pulp continues to be one of the few truly distinctive voices in genre fiction.’Daniel Polansky

‘A delightfully cacophonous novel, teeming with character… Tidhar’s latest offering transports readers to a liminal otherworld of spaghetti Western pastiche… The author draws from an eclectic mix of sources to create a dazzling story that is more than the sum of its parts, and much of the fun of reading it comes from recognizing its homages.’ — Kirkus

‘[F]uriously inventive and wildly eclectic… Among the most visual and even cinematic of Tidhar’s novels… it’s also, in the end, a surprisingly touching reminder of how such quests can begin in heartache.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘Dazzling… Those who enter THE ESCAPEMENT should strap themselves in for horrors and wonders galore. Filled with contorted fairy tales, myths, and familiar stories, Lavie Tidhar’s latest novel is both a fantastical diversion and a moving articulation of deep parental love.’ — Foreword

‘Comic, tragic, and utterly magnificent — a masterpiece of fantasy. Lavie Tidhar has crafted a wonderfully strange and surreal world in THE ESCAPEMENT, setting a liminal stage for both a gripping adventure and a poignant meditation on grief. I can’t wait to read it again.’ — Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of The Orange Tree

New Limited Edition BITTER SEEDS on the way!


You may have seen the news via Twitter already, but there’s a new, limited edition of Ian Tregillis‘s superb debut novel, BITTER SEEDS on the way! Due to be published by Midworld Press, you can see the stunning cover above.

BITTER SEEDS is the first novel in the highly-acclaimed Milkweed Triptych, which also includes THE COLDEST WAR and NECESSARY EVIL. The trilogy is published in the UK by Orbit Books, in North America by Tor Books, and in a number of translated editions.

Milkweed Triptych (UK Covers)

Here’s the synopsis for BITTER SEEDS

The year is 1939. Raybould Marsh and other members of British Intelligence have gathered to watch a damaged reel of film in a darkened room. It appears to show German troops walking through walls, bursting into flames and hurling tanks into the air from afar.

If the British are to believe their eyes, a twisted Nazi scientist has been endowing German troops with unnatural, unstoppable powers. And Raybould will be forced to resort to dark methods to hold the impending invasion at bay.

But dealing with the occult exacts a price. And that price must be paid in blood.

Milkweed Triptych (North American Covers)

Here are just a few of the many great reviews BITTER SEEDS has received since it was first published…

‘Debut novelist Tregillis breathes new life into alternate military history with this fun take on WWII… exciting and intense, and the clash of magic and (mad) science meshes perfectly with the tumultuous setting.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Tregillis… has created a unique, unsettling, and deeply atmospheric setting; populated it with a diversity of grimly fascinating characters; and turned up the heat with the sort of plot that requires those characters to keep shovelling frantically if they are ever to stay in advance of the needs of the firebox… These are the book’s strengths – its atmosphere, its setting, the vividly imagined consequences of immoral and desperate actions… All in all, this is an excellent first book, and I am eagerly awaiting number two.’ — Tor.Com (Elizabeth Bear)

‘Invoking black magic in an alternate history sounds silly, but Tregillis makes the psychic and physical costs to the combatants so painfully high that the supernatural elements become terrifying indeed. This novel is too bleak to be fun, but true horror was never supposed to be humorous.’ — Cleveland Plain Dealer

‘[O]ne of the best novels I’ve read this year. It’s original, inspired and engrossing from the first page until the last… brilliantly written, and filled with so many great passages – from brisk and realistic dialogue to lush, gothic description. The story kept me guessing until the end, and drops plenty of hints for things to come in the future… a superb novel, and a wonderful start to this series… I loved everything about BITTER SEEDS, and I definitely consider it among my best reads this year.’ — Civilian Reader

BITTER SEEDS is a book of questions and is far deeper than you might expect… Aside from the depth of characters and meanings, this book is filled with the kinds of exciting, intelligent and intense scenes that you’ll find in only the best page turners… another huge point regarding BITTER SEEDS and that is that it is just written so damned beautifully. The prose really is some of the most accessible yet academic that I have read in a while. Tregillis writes with authority while displaying a firm understanding of the subtler things that make us human… Whether you are looking for a cool alternate history that questions the core of humanity or just a damned brilliant story with twisted powers and great action, you should check this out and be wowed. It’s one hell of a ride.’ — Fantasy Faction

Ian’s second (and equally acclaimed) trilogy, the Alchemy Wars is also out now, published by Orbit Books in both the UK and North America (it is also available in a growing number of translated editions).

Algis Burdys’s classic ROGUE MOON is available as a Special Edition!


ROGUE MOON by Algis Budrys is a classic, beloved science fiction novel from one of the masters of the genre. Recently, Easton Press release the novel as part of a four-volume set of Moon-based fiction, “The Dark Side of the Moon”. Each of the books in the set is gorgeously produced, bound in genuine leather, and has sumptuous interior design. Here’s just one example from ROGUE MOON

ROGUE MOON is also available as an eBook, published by Gollancz’s SF Gateway in the UK and Open Road Media in the US. Both publishers also publish a number of Budrys’s other classic novels. Here’s the novel’s synopsis…

A Hugo Award Finalist: Humanity struggles to understand a killing labyrinth discovered on the Moon in this science fiction adventure about death and rebirth

A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language has to be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths. The most recent volunteer survived but is now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane even as he feels the end approaching. Al Barker has already stared into the face of death; he can handle it again. But he won’t merely endure the trauma of dying. Barker will die over and over — even as his human qualities are preserved on Earth.

With its cast of fascinating characters — like brilliant scientist Edward Hawks, who is obsessed with rebirth — Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat. It makes you think.

Zeno represents Algis Budrys on behalf of the Budrys Estate.

New limited edition of Lavie Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND available this month!


Last week, PS Publishing announced their new limited edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed UNHOLY LAND! The novel has found its way onto a number of Best Of 2018 lists already (we’ll post a round-up of these in the near future, before the year is out), and we think there will be a lot of interest in this edition. Here’s the synopsis, followed by some photos of the beautiful edition…

Lior Tirosh is a semi-successful author of pulp fiction, an inadvertent time traveler, and an ongoing source of disappointment to his father.

Tirosh has returned to his homeland in East Africa. But Palestina―a Jewish state founded in the early 20th century―has grown dangerous. The government is building a vast border wall to keep out African refugees. Unrest in Ararat City is growing. And Tirosh’s childhood friend, trying to deliver a warning, has turned up dead in his hotel room.

A state security officer has now identified Tirosh as a suspect in a string of murders. A rogue agent is stalking Tirosh through transdimensional rifts―possible futures that can only be prevented by avoiding the mistakes of the past.

From the bestselling author of Central Station comes an extraordinary new novel recalling China Miéville and Michael Chabon, entertaining and subversive in equal measures.

The ‘regular’ edition of UNHOLY LAND is published by Tachyon Publications in the US and UK.

Here are just some of the great reviews UNHOLY LAND has amassed so far…

‘[W]ill leave readers’ heads spinning with this disorienting and gripping alternate history… Readers of all kinds, and particularly fans of detective stories and puzzles, will enjoy grappling with the numerous questions raised by this stellar work.’ — Publishers Weekly (PW Picks: Books of the Week, October 15, 2018)

‘Lavie Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own — places that look and smell and feel real, if just a bit hauntingly alien. UNHOLY LAND develops slowly. It begins with banal strangeness (this Palestinia, so like and unlike modern-day Israel) and leans gently into it… This is a story that gets weirder the deeper you get into it; that cultivates strangeness like something precious. It has three narrators: Investigator Bloom, Tirosh and a woman, Nur, who works as a field agent for the Border Agency. There are echoes of Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union in it, wild strains of P.K. Dick and Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. But UNHOLY LAND is its own thing. Something that no one but Tidhar could’ve written. Gorgeous in its alienness, comfortingly gray in its banality, and disquieting throughout.’ — NPR

‘[O]ne of those lovely books that starts out presenting itself as one thing, and mutates into another almost without you seeing it… a game-player of a writer who uses the spectrum of science fiction canon for his pieces… a grand game of alternate worlds cast like jewels on the sand. The long second act is all dust and blood and madness and glory, and the fast third act comes down on you like a sharpened spade… Lavie Tidhar is a clever bastard, and this book is a box of little miracles.’ — Warren Ellis

UNHOLY LAND starts out hard-boiled and comes at you sideways with the speculative elements. Tidhar has blended alternative history with murder in hotel rooms, missing women, an honest-to-god Fedora and mysterious borders in a tale that evokes Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Cassablanca and Mieville’s The Cty & the City. Political and pulpy, with distinct metafictional elements, Tidhar adroitly pulls off this fantastical tale of an occupied territory.’ — Tade Thompson

‘[A]dventurous readers will appreciate this well-written and ambitious book. It should find a place at any library that offers high-quality literary fiction.’ — Booklist

‘Tidhar has turned a suspenseful adventure tale into a complex meditation on the possible paths of modern Jewish history.’— Chicago Tribune

Tachyon Publications has also published Lavie’s award-winning, critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION — which, incidentally, was also released as a special edition by PS Publishing (since sold out).

CENTRAL STATION Ltd.Ed. available now!


The Violent Century_DJ_final.indd

The gorgeous limited edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION is now available! Published by PS Publishing, here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of Central Station, an interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness — are just the beginning of irrevocable change. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality.

The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper. But at Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

The equally-attractive ‘regular’ edition of the novel is published by Tachyon Publications, and is also out now.

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Here’s a selection from the many glowing reviews the book has received…

‘Magnificently blends literary and speculative elements in this streetwise mosaic novel set under the towering titular spaceport… Tidhar gleefully mixes classic SF concepts with prose styles and concepts that recall the best of world literature. The byways of Central Station ring with dusty life, like the bruising, bustling Cairo streets depicted by Naguib Mahfouz. Characters wrestle with problems of identity forged under systems of oppression, much as displaced Easterners and Westerners do in the novels of Orhan Pamuk. And yet this is unmistakably SF. Readers of all persuasions will be entranced.’ Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘It is just this side of a masterpiece — short, restrained, lush — and the truest joy of it is in the way Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.’ NPR

‘The stories include some of Tidhar’s most beautiful prose, and his future Tel Aviv is among the most evocative settings in recent SF… Somehow, CENTRAL STATION combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.’ Locus

‘Tidhar’s prose draws the reader in, bringing this world to life with ease… Not only intelligent, it’s emotional too, telling of loves lost and those only just begun, of those wishing to escape their past and those hoping to bring it back… Tidhar is reminiscent of an early William Gibson… cement[s] Lavie Tidhar as one of science fiction’s great voices, an author who creates scenarios and characters that feel destined to become classics, ones that readers will be happy to revisit time and time again. It’s a compelling collection that mixes the epic and the intimate, one that succeeds at being profound, incredibly moving and, quite simply, stunning.’ (10/10) Starburst 

CENTRAL STATION is without question the best assemblage of short stories I’ve read in recent memory. Sublimely sensual, emotionally moreish, and composed with crystalline clarity irrespective of its incredible complexity.’ Tor.com

‘[Tidhar] has created a textured and original future that echoes real historical and economic tensions while satisfying veteran readers with deliberate echoes of classic science fiction… Deeply humane.’ Chicago Tribune

‘Powerfully imagined and beautifully rendered… capture[s] profound emotional truths…’ Interzone

UNBOXING Justina Robson’s TRANSFORMERS: COVENANT OF PRIMUS


Justina Robson‘s Transformers tie-in novel, THE COVENANT OF PRIMUS, was published this week by 47 North. And it’s comes in a rather fantastic limited edition packaging. The book is nestled inside an Autobot ‘shield’ (their emblem). Although, we prefer to think of it as in a robot’s head… The hardcover book contains 20 newly-commissioned illustrations, and many never-before-seen images from the Hasbro archive. Not only that, but the ‘three-part interlocking manual opening system’ features ‘three classic Transformers audio effects’! So, being the people we are, here is us unboxing THE COVENANT OF PRIMUS…

The Initial Packaging Stages…

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More bleedin’ Packaging…

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Nestled nicely in the box…

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That’s one big Robot Head… What to do with it?

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Ah. Of course…

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Uncovering the Treasure inside…

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Opened, with the Book unveiled…

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Some interior artwork…

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And, as we mentioned at the top, there are sound effects! Check out this video…

After all that, here’s the synopsis…

THE COVENANT OF PRIMUS delves into the depths of Transformers mythology to reveal the backstory that’s previously only been hinted at.

Encased in an interlocking Autobot emblem that when pulled open emits Transformer sounds, this tome is a gift to humans from Alpha Trion, one of the ancient Thirteen Primes—the first of the Transformers. Little is known about Alpha Trion, and the rest of the Thirteen Primes have been shrouded in mystery—until now. The Covenant of Primus reveals the stories of these ancient heroes for the first time. It chronicles the saga of Optimus Prime and Megatron and covers the full history of the Transformers. Never-before-seen illustrations depict battles, portraits of the Thirteen Primes, and detailed scenes of the Transformers’ world. Offering insight into their origins, the Golden Age of exploration, the great civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons, and much more, this book is the definitive in-world history of the Transformers.

In case you wondered the dimensions of THE COVENANT OF PRIMUS, here it is next to the paperback of Justina’s GOING UNDER

RobsonR-CovenantOfPrimus-vs-GoingUnder