Harlan Ellison's Shatterday: Not Just a Book - an Event

Shatterday, the revolutionary classic from one of science fiction's most highly regarded authors assembles 16 coruscating stories combining science fiction, horror, and fantasy with ironic humor, sardonic social criticism, and intense self-revelation. From "Jeffty is Five," the tragedy of an innocent child wrenched out of an idyllic past, to humanity's encounter with dangerously seductive aliens in "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" and "Shatterday," the dark allegory of an identity-stealing doppelgänger replacing his inferior twin, this incendiary collection alone authenticates its legendary author's claim to Grand Mastery.

On the basis of Shatterday The New York Times Book Review proclaimed, "The spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind," and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction described Ellison as "the quintessential science fiction short story writer of his time." And Science Fiction Review says, "You have to read Shatterday, feel it, experience it. It is an event."

The trade paperback edition is published by Tachyon.

Shatterday is in the vanguard of a fleet of more than thirty Harlan titles that E-Reads' plants to reissue in the coming year.

Happy Birthday, Dave Duncan!

Watch these pages for news of print releases of Dave Duncan's books.

Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison

Of Paingod and Other Delusions, science fiction immortal Robert Heinlein declared, "This book is raw corn liquor. You should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor."

Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary equipment for reading these eight great stories. They not only knock you down, they raise you to the stars. Passion is the keynote as you encounter the Harlequin and his nemesis, the dreaded Tictockman, in one of the most reprinted and widely taught stories in the English language; a pyretic who creates fire merely by willing it; the last surgeon in a world of robot physicians; a spaceship filled with hideous mutants rejected by the world that gave them birth. Touching and gentle and shocking stories from an incomparable master of impossible dreams and troubling truths.

Paingod will be eventually reunited with over thirty Harlan Ellison masterpieces in E-Reads' reissue program. Watch this space for news of new releases in print and downloadable formats.

- Richard Curtis

I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

No one wants to draw up a short list of favorite Harlan Ellison stories, because we hate to exclude dozens that deserve immortality. But two desert island classics are the collection's title story, which one reviewer characterized as "tear your face off" in its raw raging power, and "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes". First published in 1967 and re-issued in 1983, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream contains seven stunning stories plus the original introduction by Theodore Sturgeon.

Reserve your desert island now and bring this collection with you. If you have room in your duffle bag, you can pack it with other Ellison classics from the over 30 titles that E-Reads will be reissuing in print and downloadable formats. Harlan has refreshed a number of his titles to replace earlier editions.

Watch this space for news of new releases in print and downloadable formats.

- Richard Curtis

Ellison Wonderland

Ellison Wonderland was among Harlan Ellison’s first collections but the ferocious creative energy, devastating wit and grand arc of his imagination reflect the mature master emerging from the lava.

Among the gems are “All The Sounds of Fear”, “The Sky is Burning”, “The Very Last Day of a Good Woman” and “In Lonely Lands”. Though they stand tall on their own merits they also point the way to the sublime stories that followed soon after and continue to come even now.

Reviewing Ellison Wonderland, K. C. Locke said,

Pay close attention now. I cannot sufficiently impress upon you my statement, here and now, that Mr. Ellison's work, even at that early stage of his career and experience, is as tough, tight and ready to romp as any example provided for that time-frame; a period, Dear Friends, which includes terrific stories by such household names, tried and true, as Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon, Cordwainer Smith, and Fritz Leiber. It is mature, insightful and aware.

Locke's review is worth reading in its entirety, and so is Ellison Wonderland, which joins more than thirty Harlan Ellison classics being reissued by E-Reads. Harlan has refreshed a number of his titles to replace earlier editions.

Watch this space for news of new releases in print and downloadable formats.

- Richard Curtis

Return of the Tarnsman

Publication of Tarnsman of Gor launched John Norman's fantasy world and its culture of male masters and female subservients. Twenty-five volumes later the series has gone from cult classic to, simply, classic. There is no science fiction universe remotely approaching Gor for action, adventure, an exotic culture, and eroticism. But the second book was in many ways even more critical than the first.

In Volume #2, Outlaw of Gor, Tarl Cabot finds himself transported back to Counter-Earth - another name for Gor - from the sedate life he has known as a history professor on Earth. He is glad to be back in his role as a dominant warrior and back in the arms of his true love. Yet, Tarl finds that his name on Gor has been tainted, his city defiled, and all those he loves have been made into outcasts. He is no longer in the position of a proud warrior, but an outlaw for whom the simplest answers must come at a high price. He wonders why the Priest Kings have called him back to Gor, and whether it is only to render him powerless.

This is the book on which Norman's series pivoted from a single title to an endlessly complex and entertaining skein of adventures. When Tarl Cabot's returns to Gor, his fate is sealed. Once you read it (after Tarnsman of course) it will be very hard to disconnect yourself from the rest of the books.

- Richard Curtis

Ratha Returns with New "Courage"

Ratha, the fire-wielding leader of Clare Bell's prehistoric cat clan, is back after an almost intolerably long wait, and her fans couldn't be happier to greet Ratha's Courage. After introducing her protagonist in 1983 in the now classic hardcover, Ratha's Creature (Atheneum/Margaret McElderry Books) Bell followed up with three sequels: Clan Ground, Ratha and Thistle-chaser, and Ratha's Challenge. The quartet went out of print, but Firebird Books, a division of Penguin, recently brought them out again.

In writing Ratha's Courage, Bell returned to the strength of her award-winning first volume but drew on up-to-date paleontology. She researched a leopard-like paleofelid and a cheetah-like sister species. From the latter she generated her fictional "Named" race.

To learn more about Bell's creative process and the evolution of Ratha, and to find out why there's been such a long gap after Ratha's Creature, click here.

E-Reads is thrilled to launch this long-awaited return of a classic fantasy figure.

- Richard Curtis

Carol Severance's Songs of the Sea

Given the fact that Carol Severance is a Hawaii-based writer, it's no surprise that so much of her fantasy fiction focuses on the sea. After narrowly escaping death in a forest fire, the human heroine of Reefsong is equipped with webbed hands and gills by the company that saved her life. Now all she has to do is learn how to breathe underwater.

But she does it, and her skill liberates her to find a secret that could end starvation on our planet. Her corporate sponsors have ideas of their own about exploiting her discovery, and things turn extremely ugly.

Once you've undergone your sea change with Reefsong you'll be ready for Severance's wildly imaginative Island Warrior Trilogy.

- Richard Curtis

Try Talking Your Way Out of This One, Omar!

It's one thing to be a prophet without honor in one's own country. It's quite another to be a prophet without principles. Omar is the greatest storyteller the world has known - make that the greatest self-proclaimed storyteller the world has ever known. When his glib oracles work, he has the city at his feet. When they don't, the city is at his throat.

Reaver Road and Hunter's Haunt, Dave Duncan's witty duo of novels, featuring the picaresque bard Omar are among my favorites of all his books and a good introduction to the first-rate list of Duncan novels carried by E-Reads.

- Richard Curtis

The Calling of the Three (Californians)

A duke dies and his evil brother usurps his throne. Who do you call?

In master world builder Ru Emerson's spellbinding Night-Threads fantasy series, the rightful heir summons a warrior, a shape-shifter and a sorceress from Earth. But not just anywhere on Earth -- California! And if you don't think this trio has what it takes to harness the power of Night-Threads, you don't know your Marina Del Rey from your Santa Rosa. The problem is, they're afraid to use their powers. Read The Calling of the Three and its sequels, Two in Hiding and One Land, One Duke and discover how they cope with a challenge beyond their formidable powers.

E-Reads carries not only three Night-Threads adventures but three Tales of the Nedao.

- Richard Curtis

A Three-Gem Fantasy Novel

Reviewers keep coming back to the word "gem" in describing The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs. One said, "Bellairs' characters are gem-like, as is the world in which they move." Another described it as, "This splendid little fantasy gem." One reason for that characterization is that it's not not very long - under 200 pages. But what makes the novel - Bellairs's debut and his only one aimed at adults -- is its unique mixture of horror and hilarity. Top Amazon.com reviewer James D. DeWitt encapsulated it this way: "This is fantasy reduced to its purest form. From a laugh our loud first few pages you are plunged into nightmare and horror through to a purely satisfying ending. In decades of reading fantasy I know of no story that better illustrates the form... This is a superb book."

DeWitt didn't call it a gem. But I do. So there's your third gem. Read The Face in the Frost and add one of your own.

- Richard Curtis

A Fantasy Classic by an Olympian Grand Master

"Wonderful, magical Fritz Leiber, before whom Bradbury and Sturgeon and Norton and Goldman and Barth and Vonnegut bow, not to mention Robinson, Busby, Anderson and even yours truly, the maddest egomaniac of them all. Fritz Leiber, very likely the best of all of us, the man who has won more awards than anyone else in the genre, the man whose words have lifted this too often wretched category to Olympian heights more than anyone cares to mention."

That encomium was written by Harlan Ellison, whose stinginess with praise is legendary. But like the great authors he cites, Ellison knows a master when he sees one, and if Fritz Leiber can humble "the maddest egomaniac of them all," it is incumbent on us to bend a knee as well.

Fritz Leiber was not merely a master but, literally a Grand Master, recipient of science fiction's highest honor, the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award bestowed upon a living author for a lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy. Residing with Leiber on this pinnacle are such gods as Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Damon Knight, Anne McCaffery, Andre Norton and Ellison himself.

Leiber created not just a grand, mystic, gothically decadent and corrupt city - Lankhmar, capital of the land of Nehwon - but gave us two adventurers whose dark and often debauched characters were violently antithetical to the sterling personalities of the heroes we yearn to identify with. Or do we? If you see the real world as decadent and believe that in order to combat evil we must not only get our hands dirty but plunge to the elbows in gore -- well then, you are ready for Fafhrd and Gray Mouser. Start with Book One, Swords and Deviltry, and if you can stop short of the last page of Book Seven, you must possess a will stronger than Leiber's swords and sorcery.

In addition to the seven classic Swords novels, E-Reads carries four non-Lankhmar Leiber books, and there are more to come.

Dark Horse is currently reissuing the books in paperback, so check out their site or visit Amazon.com and collect them all.

Harlan Ellison must always have the last word, and here's it is on Fritz Leiber: "For anyone who loves great literature, Fritz Leiber walked on water."

- Richard Curtis

Escape to Byzantium

For most of us the word "Byzantium" evokes images of fabulous opulence in the cities along the trade roads of the Eastern Greco-Roman Empire founded by Constantine.

Me? I think of Susan Shwartz.

That's because Susan, who received a Ph.D. in medieval English at Harvard, produced a marvelous trilogy of fantasy novels set in an alternate Byzantium, this one populated by sorcerers and other practitioners of magic arts. In Byzantium's Crown, the first novel in the Heirs to Byzantium trilogy, a warrior prince and last in a line of kings descended from Alexander the Great, turns to a silver-haired slave girl versed in magic crafts to help him regain his throne from a powerful sorcerer.

In addition to the trilogy, E-Reads carries three other impeccably researched and beautifully narrated fantasies by a brilliant storyteller who has been nominated for both the World Fantasy and Nebula awards. If you want to escape from reading about what is happening today in the bazaars of what was once fabled Byzantium, Susan Shwartz's fantasies will transport you.

- Richard Curtis

(Pictured above, the Imperial emblem of the Byzantine Empire.)

Invitation to Tea with a Black Dragon

Some author careers culminate with a masterpiece but few launch their careers with one. R. A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon was a first novel and a masterpiece, and it gained her the 1983 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Would you say she was in good company if I told you that other winners of the award include Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, Orson Scott Card, Lucius Shepard and Cory Doctorow?

Locus, the leading trade publication of the fantasy and science fiction field, called Tea with the Black Dragon "An astonishing fantasy debut." But there were lots of astonishing novels to follow, and E-Reads has acquired every one of them including Twisting the Rope (the sequel to Tea), The Grey Horse and the "Lens of the World" trilogy consisting of Lens of the World, King of the Dead, and Belly of the Wolf. Coming your way are The Book of Kells and the Damiano Trilogy. All in all, a veritable bumper crop of fantasy masterpieces.

And by the way, her name is pronounced MACK-avoy.

- Richard Curtis

The Castle Perilous Series by John DeChancie

Fashions come and go. That's their nature. It happens with clothing styles, with cars--and with a lot of things that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being subject to the whims of fashion. Like, for instance, books.

In the 1980's and 1990's in the SF/Fantasy publishing business, one of the major flavors of the decades was humorous fantasy. Terry Pratchett may have started the whole thing with his still-very-popular Discworld series but he was not alone in his success. Craig Shaw Gardner wrote a series about a magically-challenged wizard whose spells were apt to produce unexpected, and often painful, results. Another series that was quite popular around about the same time was the Castle Perilous series of novels by John DeChancie. They were quite a bit different from his early novels about truckers in space (more to come on those in another entry sometime soon) but they caught the public imagination and he wrote eight of them before the reading public's taste changed (as it always seem to do eventually) and the books fell out of publishing favor and out of print. Which, of course, provided exactly the sort of opportunity that E-Reads was conceived to exploit. All eight titles in the series are now available once again as ebooks and most are also available as print titles with the last couple just about to become available.

Castle Perilous is a world (or worlds, or possibly universe or universes) out of time. There are 40,000 rooms and each one is an entryway to a different place in space and time. Open a door and step from a stone corridor into a jungle, a desert, an island or, if you're particularly unlucky, as so many of the visitors to the Castle seem to be, into a battlefield or someplace even more hostile and dangerous. Think Marx Brothers with really scary special effects and live ammunition. And sometimes it also resembles the famous Hotel California, where you can check out but you can never leave.

Maybe that last paragraph was a bit too scary itself. The essence of the Castle Perilous series, although it occasionally shows a darker edge, is hilarious contretemps and massive misunderstandings, spiced with wild and unpredictable adventure and, as the stage directions sometimes read, hilarity ensues.

Just because humor isn't the current flavor of the decade, that doesn't mean that we don't all need a laugh now and then (In my opinion, we need laughs as often as possible, to help us deal with the way life keeps surprising us and not always in pleasant ways.) and John DeChancie delivers them consistently, entertainingly and with a style all his own. These books probably aren't quite old enough to be referred to as classics yet but they are destined to be recognized as such as they age. In the meantime, give them a try, then help us figure out why some people didn't find them as witty as anything in the genre. It beats us, since they still make us laugh a lot!

The Seventh Sword Trilogy by Dave Duncan

Just to show his versatility, Dave Duncan varies his fantasy style from writing his many tetralogies to writing trilogies from time to time. As we continue to feature our multiple-award-nominated author, we highlight our trilogy, The Seventh Sword:

The Reluctant Swordsman (The Seventh Sword Trilogy Book 1)

Wallie Smith can feel the pain. He goes to the hospital, remembers the doctors and the commotion, but when he wakes up it all seems like a dream. However, if that was a dream how do you explain waking up in another body and in another world? Little Wallie finds himself in the physique of a barbarian swordsman, accompanied by both an eccentric priest babbling about the Goddess and a voluptuous slave girl. Is this a rude awakening or a dream come true? What in the world will Wallie do now that he's found himself stranded in a strange realm? Well it just so happens that the Goddess is in need of a swordsman. It won't be easy but if he succeeds he will have everything he wants. If he doesn't, things could get ugly. Wallie is reluctant but sees his chance. If only he had the faintest clue as to the adventure he is about to unleash! If only he could imagine the forces that will be out to vanquish him!

The Coming Of Wisdom (The Seventh Sword Trilogy Book 2)

Wallie Smith is staring death in the face; only a miracle can save him. And then one does! The Goddess appears to preserve his soul, but she does much more than that. She promises to bestow upon him a new and powerful body, and, more importantly, to endow him with the fabled Sapphire Sword of Chioxin. But nothing in this world or any other comes without a price. The Goddess demands that, for her services, Wallie become her champion. It will be an honor to serve such a presence, to have the chance to be victorious over all challengers. But Wallie and his sword quickly find themselves outmatched in a world of high-stakes magic. Even the Goddess's priests cannot offer any resistance to the invading sorcerers and their quest to conquer souls for the Fire God. Wallie will need to find in himself and in the world the powers that will save all mortals. He will need to find The Coming of Wisdom.

The Destiny of the Sword (The Seventh Sword Trilogy Book 3)

Wally Smith, having died on Earth, finds himself reincarnated as a swordsman in another world and entrusted by the presiding goddess with a mission that has no appeal for him at all. Can he bring together all the swordsmen to finally defeat the Sorcerors and their terrible technology? Wally isn't quite convinced he should, but Goddesses can be very persuasive... This is the third and final exciting book, after The Reluctant Swordsman and The Coming Of Wisdom in The Seventh Sword Trilogy.

We promise to keep you up-to-date on Dave Duncan's awards results. In the meantime, though, you really should check out some of his books.

A Man of His Word by Dave Duncan

We continue to feature our multiple-award-nominated author, Dave Duncan, and this time around we're covering another one of his many series. It's A Man of His Word and it's actually a precursor to another series we've already featured, A Handful of Men. A princess and a stableboy? It sounds like the worst sort of hackneyed formula romance. Think again, for A Man of His Word may well be the most original fantasy you ever read. The magic is unique and applied in unexpected ways, some of which the late Lester del Rey admitted he had not met in fifty years as writer and editor. The world itself is unique--there are no humans in Pandemia, only imps, elves, gnomes, jotnar, and many more, all of whom you will recognize as "human".

Magic Casement (Book One of A Man of His Word)

In Magic Casement the tale begins gently, even slowly, with Inosolan enjoying an idyllic childhood in a tiny backwater kingdom, too carefree and innocent even to understand that the feelings she shares with her friend Rap are more than friendship. Mystery, menace, and the gods appear in short order, and from then on the story grows in scope and power to straddle the world, and adversity thrusts rapid maturity on Rap and Inos. Populated by unforgettable characters--Aunt Kade, Little Chicken, Doctor Sagorn, and many more--Pandemia is an incredible world of credible people and infinite surprises.

Faery Lands Forlorn (Book Two of A Man of His Word)

When Inos was abducted through the magic casement and Rap tried to follow her, they arrived in places very strange-and very far apart...

Perilous Seas (Book Three of A Man of His Word)

Hunted now by the fearsome warlock wardens who rule the world, Inos is convinced that Rap is dead. But Rap is not, and the tide may be about to turn...

She thought he was dead. Queen Inos feels Rap's presence as if he has risen from the grave to be beside her, but she knows all that is left of him is his voice, which echoed in her mind--well, so she thinks. Her duty is to serve her people, and Queen Inos doesn't know her galley slave, Rap, is alive and, with his magic wand, trying to bring happiness to his beloved Queen. But when the evil Nordland raider, Kalkor, arrives in port, Rap's plans begin to fall apart.

Emperor and Clown (Book Four of A Man of His Word)

With Inos married to the wrong man and Rap dying in a dungeon, obviously the cause is hopeless. Only Aunt Kade refuses to admit defeat...
--
Dave Duncan does fantasy like no one else and this early series shows him working at the top of his form.

The Gorean Saga by John Norman

The entire Gorean Saga of novels by John Norman is now available in all ebook formats and will be available in September in trade paperback at Amazon.com.

When John Norman’s Gor series started appearing in 1967, the books were originally seen as being in the planetary adventure tradition of books like Edgar Rice Burroughs’s legendary John Carter of Mars series combined with alternate historical heroic fantasy series like Robert E. Howard’s Conan. The books developed a wide and enthusiastic readership over the course of original publication of the series, which ended in 1988.

However, one particular aspect of the society on Norman’s invented world both caught the imagination of the readership and, ultimately, provoked a storm of controversy as the popularity of the books grew. In the universe of Gor, women are invariably regarded as slaves and chattel property of men—and the women wholeheartedly believe that this is the way things should be and everyone is happy with the situation.

Given that the publication of the series coincided with the first phases of development of the feminist social movement in America, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a major controversy developed. Nonetheless, the near-disappearance of the entire series from public view was a surprising and baffling result—popular books with an established audience and a successful track record of steady and growing sales became inexplicably unavailable. Norman himself has suggested the possibility of a conspiracy to suppress his work and has, in turn, been accused of paranoia and having a persecution complex. But even those who don’t see conspiracies everywhere are brought to wonder how this series of books defied all publishing expectations and became “lost” to the general public for a period of many years.

In any case, readers no longer have to haunt dusty used bookstores and back alleys to get their full fix of the wonderfulness that is Gor and E-Reads and Fictionwise are proudly making available the entire run of the series in downloadable file formats for all versions of the online reading experience.

A courageous and daring print publisher (Dark Horse) is beginning the process of bringing the earliest books back into availability in mass market omnibus form as well—but why wait when you can have them all on your reading device Right Now? Start at the beginning with Tarnsman of Gor or just buy the whole set right away. You won’t regret the investment and you’ll have a splendid opportunity to learn what the fuss is all about and make up your own mind about Gor. Are you game?