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|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 29 (June 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
POWER PLAY by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Hardcover. (SS)
This is the third book of the _Power_ series, in which Yana Maddock and her
Petaybean friends finally convince the Intergal Corporation _and_ the
intergalactic government that Petaybee is actually sentient and should be
worked _with_, not ruthlessly exploited. This one has a bit more humor than
the previous volumes (the members of the new "religion" worshiping the
planet are Sister Igneous Rock, Brother Granite, etc.), but it's also got
all the adventure one expects of a true McCaffrey novel.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
POWER LINES by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Hardcover.
(SS)
More developments on the world of Petaybee, as the colonists try to save
their living planet from destruction by proving it is sentient, and the
planet's "self" continues to grow. This is a sequel to POWERS THAT BE,
which first introduced Petaybee and its unusual inhabitants.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
QUEST FOR LOST HEROES by David Gemmell. Paperback. (SWS)
The Drenai military fantasies began with David Gemmell's critically-acclaimed
LEGEND, and QUEST FOR LOST HEROES takes place two centuries later--the third
of four installments we will offer for American audiences. Gemmell is known
for taking a hero who seems past his prime, then placing him in a situation
that demands that he face his greatest challenge. In this adventure, a
peasant boy named Kiall sets out on a dangerous quest against the Nadir
hordes. He is joined by the heroes of Bel-Azar, and one of his companions is
secretly their greatest hope--the Earl of Bronze.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE STOLEN THRONE by Harry Turtledove. Paperback. (VC)
Harry Turtledove first fantasy novel was THE MISPLACED LEGION, the
chronicle of a Roman legion transported into a dangerous world of magic.
That launched _The Videssos Cycle_, a four-book series filled with historical
detail and military strategy. These qualities have informed Turtledove's
later work (including short stories, THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH, and his
_Worldwar_ books) but even as he has struck off in these new directions, he's
continued to explore Videssos and its history. _The Tale of Krispos_ told
the story of a provincial farm boy who (just barely) grew up to be emperor.
Now, in THE STOLEN THRONE, Book I of _The Time of Troubles,_ Turtledove takes
us into pre-_Tale_ Makuran--the evil empire of its day--a world of harems and
armies, scheming bureaucrats and visions that foretell an uncertain future.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
June 1995:
KINGDOMS OF THE NIGHT by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch (F)
Third Volume of _The Anteros_; 345-38731-7
Hardcover, 528 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: THE NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO DRAMATIZATION by Brian
Daley (based on characters and situations created by George Lucas) (SF)
The original scripts from the 10-episode NPR series; 345-39605-7
Trade paperback, 352 pp; cover art from LucasFilm archives; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE WARRIOR'S TALE by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch (F)
Second volume of _The Anteros_, after THE FAR KINGDOMS; mass-market
edition of our 11/94 hardcover; 345-38734-1
Paperback, 480 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
FLATLANDER by Larry Niven (SF)
Short-story collection; 345-39480-1
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Chris Moore; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
REDMAGIC by Crawford Kilian
Sequel to GREENMAGIC; 345-38370-2
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
GREENMAGIC by Crawford Kilian (F)
Reissue; 345-36140-7
Paperback, 311 pp; cover art by Romas; VC, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
July 1995:
POWER PLAY by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF)
Book Three in the _Power_ book series; 345-38826-7
Hardcover, 304 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
POWER LINES by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF)
Sequel to POWER THAT BE; mass-market edition of our 8/94 hardcover;
345-38780-5
Paperback, 336 pp, cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
QUEST FOR LOST HEROES by David Gemmell (F)
345-37904-7
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE STOLEN THRONE by Harry Turtledove (F)
Book I of _The Time of Troubles_; 345-38047-9
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
----------------------------------------------------------------
August 1995:
BELGARATH THE SORCERER by David & Leigh Eddings (F)
Prequel to the Belgariad series; 345-37324-3
Hardcover, 704 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-3915-9
Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
THE BASTARD PRINCE by Katherine Kurtz (F)
Book Three of _The Heirs of Saint Camber_, mass-market edition of our 6/94
hardcover; 345-39177-2
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Edwin Herder; VC, editor
THE GAMESTER WARS: THE ALEXANDRIAN RING, THE ASSASSIN'S GAMBIT, THE
NAPOLEON WAGER by William Forstchen (SF)
Three-in-one volume of _The Gamester Wars_ trilogy; 345-40049-6
Paperback, 792 pp; cover art by Don Dixon and David Mattingly; SHS,
editor
DEL REY DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR --> GENELLAN: PLANETFALL by Scott G. Gier (SF)
345-39509-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SS, editor
AMMONITE by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-37891-1
Repackage, 368 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND, DARK POWERS, DEATH DANCE (SF 3-in-1)
Three-in-one of books 1-3 of the Sentinel series; 345-38901-8
Paperback, 480 pp; cover art from Robotech archives; EKH, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------------
September 1995:
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book One of _The Star Stone_; 345-39242-6
Hardcover, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE by George Lucas (SF)
Repackage of the _Star Wars_ movie novelization; 345-40077-1
(This is the same as our previous book STAR WARS; we've retitled it to
match LucasFilm's current title. This is not a new novelization.)
Hardcover, 272 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut (SF)
Repackage of the _Empire Strikes Back_ movie novelization; 345-40078-X
Hardcover, 224 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI by James Kahn (SF)
Repackage of the _Return of the Jedi_ movie novelization; 345-40079-8
Hardcover, 240 pp; new cover art
THE HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings (F)
Book Three of _The Tamuli_; mass-market edition of our 9/94 hardcover;
345-39040-7
Paperback, 517 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; VC, editor
CATARACT by Tara K. Harper (SF)
345-38052-5
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans (F/SF)
Book Two of _The Three Worlds Trilogy_; mass-market edition of our 3/95
trade paperback; 345-3978-X
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------
October 1995:
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly (F)
345-38102-5
Hardcover, 400 pp; cover art by Wictor Sadowski; VC, editor
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings (F 3-in-1)
PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, MAGICIANS GAMBIT; 345-40004-6
Hardcover, 656 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson (SF)
345-40182-4,
Hardcover, 144 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book Four of _A Wizard in Rhyme_; mass-market edition of our 1/95 hardcover;
345-38854-2
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; SWS, editor
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn (SF)
Sequel to WARRIOR and WANDERER; mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade
paperback; 345-39737-1
Paperback, 640 pp; cover art by Michael Herring; SHS, editor
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings (F)
345-32887-6
Repackage, 340 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; VC, editor
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: Dreams of Terror and Death by H. P.
Lovecraft
345-38421-0
Trade paperback, 416 pp; cover by John Jude Palencar; SWS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels (SF)
345-39535-2
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* or CompuServe's SF Library 5*;
2. send your e-mail address to ekh@panix.com to be added to the
subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
JACK L. CHALKER has turned in Book Two in the _Wonderland Gambit_ series.
The series debuts in November with Book One: THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS in trade
paperback. Chalker's other new Del Rey title is HORRORS OF THE DANCING
GODS, due out in mass-market paperback in December.
DAVID GEMMELL's _Stones of Power_ adventures, set to begin with GHOST KING in
January, will continue with LAST SWORD OF POWER, then WOLF IN SHADOW, and
finally (in 1997) THE LAST GUARDIAN (a Jon Shannow adventure). Since they
feature the legendary Sipstrassi stones, the hard-to-get British editions
originally appeared under the umbrella title _The Sipstrassi Tales._ The Del
Rey US editions are being released (for the first time) in order according to
the sequence in which the stories take place. Gemmell's most recent UK
novel, BLOODSTONE, also features Shannow and is the fifth in the _Stones_
series. H. P. LOVECRAFT has not revived, but his new book--THE DREAM CYCLE
OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH--is a trade paperback slated
for Halloween release. This companion to THE BEST OF H. P. LOVECRAFT:
BLOODCURDLING TALES OF HORROR AND MADNESS was designed to include (for the
first time) the entire Dream Cycle in one volume. (In order to do so, it
will repeat a couple of stories from BLOODCURDLING TALES.) The cover for
DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH features a great wraparound painting by John Jude
Palencar.
ANDY MANGELS has completed STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS.
With 100 comprehensive entries and lots of illustrations, this trade
paperback edition will offer essential data and a basic history of each of
the key players in the Star Wars saga. It is slated for fall 1995.
JACK McKINNEY's next Robotech novel (#21) will receive a title any day now.
It flashes back to the final months of the Second Robotech War and the early
days of the Third, featuring the return of Col. John Wolf (from THE
SENTINELS) and Dana Sterling, with appearances by Rick Hunter and the rest
of the Sentinels. KEN STEACY--whose work has graced _Robotech_ and _Astro
Boy_ comics, as well as the THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE graphic novel--will
be the cover illustrator.
In addition to turning in WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE, the third
installment of the _Worldwar_ alternate history series, HARRY TURTLEDOVE has
completed THE STOLEN THRONE and HAMMER AND ANVIL, the first two books in the
_Time of Troubles_ series that takes place long before, but in the same world
as, the _Videssos Cycle._
THE REIGN OF THE BROWN MAGICIAN has been completed by LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS.
Slated for early 1996, it concludes the _Three Worlds_ trilogy, and features
an unusual and sometimes unsettling combination of science fiction, fantasy,
and reality. The second book in the trilogy, IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW, is set
for September 1995 release in mass-market paperback.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNINGS, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
ROGER ZELAZNY will be Guest of Honor at AD ASTRA 15, Yorkdale, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, June 16-18.
JOHN BRUNNER will be Guest of Honor at the Science Fiction Research
Association Conference, University of North Dakota, June 22-25.
CHRIS BUNCH, NICOLA GRIFFITH, DONALD McQUINN, MARY ROSENBLUM, K. D.
WENTWORTH, ELLEN KEY HARRIS (Editor), and KUO-YU LIANG (Del Rey Sales
Manager) will be at WesterCon 48, Portland, Oregon, June 30-July 3.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS=====================================
PRICE INFORMATION: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We are considering adding price information to the publication-schedule
section of Del Rey Data in the DRIN. We originally didn't use prices because
it felt too sales- rather than information-oriented, and have received few
requests to add them over the years. However, including them would help some
readers (particularly bookstore workers and reviewers), and so if it doesn't
offend anyone at this point, we will put them in. Cast your vote or speak
your piece by e-mailing Del Rey at delrey@randomhouse.com before June 30.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LOVECRAFT DREAM CYCLE CONTEST
In anticipation of the fall release for THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT:
DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH, the DRIN is going to send one lucky (and skilled)
reader a rare pre-publication galley, signed by writer Neil Gaiman (who wrote
the introduction) and editor Steve Saffel (who chose the stories). To
receive this prize, all you have to do is tell us _which_ of HPL's stories
you think the collection will include. The first person to post the correct
list will receive the galley, and to help you along the way, here are couple
of hints: these are all classic stories that have seen print before, all of
them have some connection with Lovecraft's dream universe that is exemplified
by "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" and other such tales, and there are a
total of 25 tales in the collection. Send your entries to
delrey@randomhouse.com before August 1. Include your snail-mail address so
we can send you your galley if you win!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SF/F WEB SITES OFF THE BEATEN TRACK
H. P. Lovecraft:
http://www.primenet.com/dloucks/hplpage.html
A chock-full Lovecraft site with lots of links to other Lovecraft
resources. Works best with Netscape 1.1.
Jack Chalker's Well World:
http://www.netnet.net/users/gbuntin/dawell.html
Covers and descriptions for Chalker's popular Well World series.
Robotech:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/r/rkswamy/www/robotech.html
A large compendium of Robotech information, covering various media, and
including links to other Robotech sites in case you want more.
SF/F award information (Hugos, Nebulas, etc.):
http://www.lm.com:80/lmann/awards/awardweb.html
SF-LOVERS Archive info maintained on the Web by Laurie Mann. Lists
awards by year and decade. Also lists nominees for '95 awards.
Basement Full of Books:
http://worcester.lm.com/basement/basement.html
The Web version of Vonda McIntyre's direct authors-to-readers bookstore
(featuring signed/inscribed copies if you want 'em). E-mail links to the
authors. Another Laurie Mann production.
Internet Directory of Published Writers:
http://www.binc.net/writers/
So far, a smallish list of mostly lesser-known writers; arranged by
category, so you can list the sf and fantasy ones. E-mail links, too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ROBOTECH NEWS
Robotech fans have probably noted that the toys have been rereleased as part
of the _Exo-Squad_ line, and the _Robotech_ comic book series is now being
published by Academy Comics--with four different titles per month picking up
where the Eternity Comics left off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORRECTION
Oops: Harry Turtledove's current series, _The Time of Troubles_, does not
"follow on the heels of" _The Videssos Cycle_, as stated in last month's
DRIN. In fact, it's set about 650 years before the time of _The Videssos
Cycle_, about 150 years before THE TALE OF KRISPOS. Sorry, Harry.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are POWER PLAY and POWER LINES by Anne McCaffrey
and Elizabeth Anne Scarborough; QUEST FOR LOST HEROES by David Gemmell; and
THE STOLEN THRONE by Harry Turtledove. Descriptions above in "What's New in
the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.power_play, sample.power_lines, sample.quest_for_lost_heroes, or
sample.stolen_throne) and they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library 4,
AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, and GEnie's SFRT fiction library, too. (For
a list of all sample chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to
delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH===========================================================
David A. Gemmell was born in London, England, in the summer of 1948.
Expelled from school at sixteen for organizing a gambling syndicate, he
became a laborer by day, working on building sites, digging trenches and
foundations. At night his six-foot four-inch, 230-pound frame allowed him to
earn extra money as a bouncer working nightclubs in Soho. Born with a
silver tongue, Gemmell rarely needed to "bounce" customers, relying on the
what the Irish term "the gift of the gab" to talk his way out of trouble. At
eighteen this gift led to a job as a trainee journalist, and he eventually
worked as a freelancer for the London _Daily Mail_, _Daily Mirror_, and
_Daily Express.
His first novel, LEGEND, was published in 1984, and has remained in print in
the U.K. ever since. He became a full time writer in 1986. He, his wife
Valerie, and their two children live in Hastings, England. Del Rey editor
Steve W. Saffel interviewed Gemmell recently for the DRIN:
SWS: What have been your major influences over the years?
GEMMELL: There have been three basic influences which have shaped the work.
As a child I read _The Lord of the Rings_, and wrote to Tolkien. He sent me
a letter which I treasured for years. Secondly, I became hooked on the works
of Louis L'Amour. I found his storytelling to be compulsive and his
characterizations--especially in the earlier novels-- wholly compelling. He
had a knack of introducing a character with, say, two sentences of
description, which left you feeling you'd known the man all your life. A
friend of mine calls such characters "men from Rick's pub." They walk out of
the bar and on to the page, arriving complete. No real effort is needed by
the author to flesh them out. L'Amour's talent in this area was majestic.
The third major influence was Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. I've never met him
or spoken to him, but I love that man. The growth of Marvel in the sixties
was a revelation. Heroes and villains became interchangeable. Both sets had
faults, both had heroic qualities. The effect was mind-blowing.
SWS: How have your influences affected your approach to the craft of fantasy
novels and to characterization?
GEMMELL: When I began to write my own stories, I realized they were being
fueled by what I had gained from these three sources: Tolkien gave me a love
of fantasy, L'Amour taught me that characterization was vital, and Stan Lee
made me realize that the lines between heroes and villains should always be
blurred.
I based all my characters on people I have known, and I have been lucky in my
life to have met a great many interesting people. I was born in West London,
in a violent area, and many of the people I grew up with were criminals.
Some were merely thieves, others men of violence. I know the breed. But
whatever else, they were also men of contrasts. Life is never simple. We
take a young man and train him for war. We teach him to kill without mercy.
When he comes home he is a hero. But if, once home, he uses the skills he
has been taught, he is considered a villain and a danger to society. There
is a grand nonsense here. I once interviewed a man who ran a protection
racket. I asked him how he justified his occupation. He smiled at me and
said, "I'm no different to the government, son. They tell you to give a
percentage of your earnings to them, otherwise they'll put you in prison.
What's that if it's not a protection racket?"
A hero in a fantasy novel does not have to be nice, or kind, or caring,
or--God forbid--politically correct. What he needs is courage and a
willingness to fight evil regardless of the cost to himself. His own
prejudices are largely irrelevant.
SWS: What are your current projects in the various media?
GEMMELL: Del Rey has acquired twelve of my books, and I am currently
continuing the _Drenai_ and _Stones of Power_ series. I am also involved in
scripting a television drama series, based on a thriller I wrote under the
name Ross Harding. My agents are also negotiating film rights for my first
novel, LEGEND.
SWS: What have you learned about the different media by virtue of working
in more than one?
GEMMELL: Writing for television is a wholly different discipline. Ten pages
of description can be encapsulated in a single scene, and twenty lines of
dialogue can be put over by a good actor, virtually with the raising of an
eyebrow. The other great thing about television work is that it is far more
of a team effort. Writing novels is a solitary business. Television is
about creative tensions merging together to create a dynamic story. It's
much more exciting, though ultimately less rewarding for the ego.
SWS: Given your diverse background, what areas do you still want to
conquer?
GEMMELL: That is the most difficult question. I have always been highly
competitive, and rarely satisfied with any achievement. I am a workaholic
who produces around a quarter of a million words a year. I don't really have
an ultimate goal. I just want to be the best I can be. On the other side of
the coin, I received a letter from a reader who told me that, after reading
one of my stories, he was out walking his dog when he saw two men attacking a
woman. He ran in and fought them off. He told me he was sure he wouldn't
have pitched in so readily if he had not just read a story of heroes. "By
heavens," I thought, "life can't get much better than that."
--copyright 1995 by David Gemmell
Q & A==============================================================
Q: Does Del Rey handle Julian May (whose _Galactic Milieu Trilogy_ is first
published in hardcover by Knopf) only through subsidiary rights, or do
you also have editorial privileges? I am curious if the author (or
author's agent) simply delivers and fine-tunes the manuscript and then the
subsidiary rights take care themselves, or if there is continued
involvement after the hardcover release.
A: Actually, the Julian May situation is unusual. Usually if we publish the
mass-market edition of a hardcover we do no editing--merely buy the
rights from the hardcover publisher. In this case, we and Knopf (which is
another part of Random House, Inc.) decided that the _Galactic Milieu
Trilogy_ deserved a wider audience, and Knopf should publish the hardcovers
with us doing the paperbacks. We still do the editing and consult with them
on the cover copy, etc. In general, authors' involvement after the delivery
and editing of the manuscript varies. Some authors are involved in cover
copy, cover design, approval of copyediting, etc. Others aren't; it depends
on the author and the contract. Subsidiary rights are usually the
responsibility of the agent or the publisher, with the author possibly making
suggestions or giving approval.
Q: I have read the three books written by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee and
am curious as to whether any more will be forthcoming--it has been some
time since the others were written.
A: Ah, the eternal Internet Lee & Miller question. We don't have any more
books under contract from them, and don't know of any other deals they have
with other publishers. Their books just couldn't find a market, and we
couldn't go on publishing them, though we thought those three books were
wonderful.
Q: When will the third novel in Harry Turtledove's _Worldwar_ series be out?
A: WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE will be a February '96 hardcover.
Q: I understand that a sequel to Larry Niven's RINGWORLD and RINGWORLD
ENGINEERS is forthcoming in 1996. Will this be a novel actually written
by Larry Niven, a collaboration, or in fact a novel/anthology written by
other authors in the "Thrilling Universe Created By Larry Niven"?
A: THE RINGWORLD THRONE is a totally-Larry production, with no help from
other authors--not a collaboration, a shared-world anthology, or anything
else but a plain old-fashioned novel.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
===================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 30 (July 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
BELGARATH THE SORCERER by David & Leigh Eddings. Hardcover. (VC)
This is the Eddings' long-awaited return to the world of _The Belgariad_ and
_The Malloreon_. Fans will recall that Eddings wrote, at the end of his
_New York Times_ hardcover bestseller THE SEERESS OF KELL, that "There will
be other days and other stories, but this tale is finished."
But even as he (sly devil) was putting a firm _end_ to the tale of Garion the
Godslayer, Eddings was planning to go back and tell the _beginning_ of the
story. After all, Ancient Belgarath and his daughter Polgara the Sorceress
had spent eons fighting the battle to determine the fate of all creation--
don't try to tell him there wasn't a rip-roaring story in _that_! Now, aided
and abetted (as always) by his previously unindicted co-conspirator and
spouse Leigh, David Eddings gives us the epochal autobiography of Belgarath
himself, the original big bad Old Wolf.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith. Hardcover. (EKH)
Every once in a while, an author pigeonholed into a genre (sf, in this case)
writes a book that bursts the genre's boundaries and brings his or her work
to the attention of a whole new audience, dragging the genre along willy-
nilly. That's what Nicola Griffith, author of the award-winning AMMONITE,
has done with SLOW RIVER, which has a deceptively simple set-up: it's the
story of a young woman from a rich, powerful corporate dynasty who's
separated from everything she thinks defines her: her family, her status,
her money, her career, her identity itself. She has to start over from
scratch, on the underside of a near-future European city, with nothing,
building a new person from the ground up. Few of us ever get that chance
once we've embarked upon our lives, and the central question of SLOW RIVER is
who you are, who you become, when you have nothing left--what core of
yourself remains when you strip everything external away, and how much
control do you have over what crystallizes around it?
Of course there's a lot of thought-provoking skiffy stuff in SLOW RIVER--
information crimes, ID implants, bioremediation of the environment through
genetically tailored bacteria, a future Net with its own mechanisms and its
own scams--but SLOW RIVER is more a novel (type: sf) than science fiction
(form: novel). And we will no doubt get reviews of the "I can't believe it's
from Del Rey" type for publishing it (though _Locus_ and _SF Age_ have so far
loved the book without any such commentary). So if you're looking for a book
that stands up to mainstream novels like Jane Smiley's A THOUSAND ACRES and
Dorothy Allison's BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, plus rings the literary-genre
bells of, say, Ursula K. Le Guin, try SLOW RIVER. Don't take my word for
it--try the sample chapter. That was what grabbed me and refused to let
go when the book was first submitted. (The months until the manuscript was
finished were No Fun!)
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE BASTARD PRINCE by Katherine Kurtz. Paperback. (VC)
This is the concluding volume in the _Heirs of Saint Camber_ trilogy. The
two eldest princes have already reigned and died. Now Rhys Michael, the
soft, wine-loving prince, has become king. The former regents rejoice; power
is in their hands again. But not quite: Rhys Michael is less foolish than
they've thought. And he has Deryni friends... THE BASTARD PRINCE is a bit
more grisly and gruesome than the previous books--definitely the darkest book
of the series--and the royal intrigue and political plotting are even more
diabolical than usual.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
THE GAMESTER WARS by William Forstchen. Paperback 3-in-1. (SHS)
Bill Forstchen has long entwined his love of science fiction and his love of
history in his writing, and the Gamester Wars trilogy is no exception. These
books were published individually in the late 80s and early 90s, and have
been unavailable for a year or so. This three-in-one edition presents all
three books in the trilogy together for the first time. For fans of military
SF or alternate history, Forstchen's use of historical characters in a far-
future setting is a recipe for a galaxy-spanning tale of war, greed, and
interstellar mayhem. We think it's also lots of fun.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
DEL REY DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR:
GENELLAN: PLANETFALL by Scott G. Gier. Paperback. (SS)
This is one of those rare books that I enjoyed reading even the third time
around, and I found that the characters stuck with me way beyond the last
reading. It's about a crew of a crippled Earth ship forced to evacuate to an
alien planet, where they then must learn to survive while they wait for
rescue. On that planet, they meet the sentient natives, low-tech winged
people, and befriend them; they also meet the enemy--the warlike Kon from
the next planet over. It's up to one lieutenant to somehow hold together
command of her mixed group of spacer marines and civilians and to make
some kind of peace between humans and both alien races before war destroys
them all. This is military sf; it's also first-contact sf; it's a story
of survival; and it's got believable, likeable characters.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
----------------------------------------------------------------
AMMONITE by Nicola Griffith. Repackage. (EKH)
Okay, first the credentials: winner of the 1993 Lambda Award for best
lesbian sf novel and the 1993 Tiptree Award for best work of sf dealing with
gender issues. Shortlisted for the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Now for the praise: Ursula K. Le Guin called it "A knock-out first novel."
Kim Stanley Robinson says it's "A marvelous blend of high adventure and mind-
boggling social speculation--it marks the arrival of Nicola Griffith as a new
sf star for the 90s." Vonda N. McIntyre chimes in with: "A noteworthy first
novel...A powerful story of connection, allegiance, and obligation." And Tim
Powers says, "AMMONITE is a wonderful novel...you quickly find yourself
believing it all, living it all." _The New York Times Book Review_ and a lot
of other papers and magazines liked it a lot, too.
And the story itself: AMMONITE is about a rather lonely, standoffish woman
who takes the job of testing a new vaccine on a recently discovered planet,
GP, that harbors a mysterious virus. She has to contend with the military
force sent to the planet by the company that employs her, the indigenous
population of the planet--human, but after 500 years without contact,
disquietingly changed--and finally, her own sense of not belonging...on GP,
or anywhere.
We're reissuing AMMONITE to accompany the publication of SLOW RIVER, Nicola
Griffith's second novel, and this time around we've given it a much more
appropriate cover. Advance orders are very strong, so you shouldn't have any
trouble finding AMMONITE in your bookstore, should you be so moved.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND, DARK POWERS, DEATH DANCE by Jack McKinney.
Paperback. (EKH)
A three-in-one volume containing the first three books of the Sentinels
series, part of the Robotech saga.
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
July 1995:
POWER PLAY by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF)
Book Three in the _Power_ book series; 345-38826-7
Hardcover, 304 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
POWER LINES by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF)
Sequel to POWER THAT BE; mass-market edition of our 8/94 hardcover;
345-38780-5
Paperback, 336 pp, cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
QUEST FOR LOST HEROES by David Gemmell (F)
345-37904-7
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE STOLEN THRONE by Harry Turtledove (F)
Book I of _The Time of Troubles_; 345-38047-9
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
----------------------------------------------------------------
August 1995:
BELGARATH THE SORCERER by David & Leigh Eddings (F)
Prequel to the Belgariad series; 345-37324-3
Hardcover, 704 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-39165-9
Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE BASTARD PRINCE by Katherine Kurtz (F)
Book Three of _The Heirs of Saint Camber_, mass-market edition of our 6/94
hardcover; 345-39177-2
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Edwin Herder; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE GAMESTER WARS: THE ALEXANDRIAN RING, THE ASSASSIN'S GAMBIT, THE
NAPOLEON WAGER by William Forstchen (SF)
Three-in-one volume of _The Gamester Wars_ trilogy; 345-40049-6
Paperback, 792 pp; cover art by Don Dixon and David Mattingly; SHS,
editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
DEL REY DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR --> GENELLAN: PLANETFALL by Scott G. Gier (SF)
345-39509-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
AMMONITE by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-37891-1
Repackage, 368 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND, DARK POWERS, DEATH DANCE (SF 3-in-1)
Three-in-one of books 1-3 of the Sentinel series; 345-38901-8
Paperback, 480 pp; cover art from Robotech archives; EKH, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------------
September 1995:
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book One of _The Star Stone_; 345-39242-6
Hardcover, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE by George Lucas (SF)
Repackage of the _Star Wars_ movie novelization; 345-40077-1
(This is the same as our previous book STAR WARS; we've retitled it to match
LucasFilm's current title. This is not a new novelization.)
Hardcover, 272 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut (SF)
Repackage of the _Empire Strikes Back_ movie novelization; 345-40078-X
Hardcover, 224 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI by James Kahn (SF)
Repackage of the _Return of the Jedi_ movie novelization; 345-40079-8
Hardcover, 240 pp; new cover art
THE HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings (F)
Book Three of _The Tamuli_; mass-market edition of our 9/94 hardcover; 345-
39040-7
Paperback, 517 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; VC, editor
CATARACT by Tara K. Harper (SF)
345-38052-5
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans (F/SF)
Book Two of _The Three Worlds Trilogy_; mass-market edition of our 3/95 trade
paperback; 345-3978-X
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------
October 1995:
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly (F)
345-38102-5
Hardcover, 400 pp; cover art by Wictor Sadowski; VC, editor
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings (F 3-in-1)
PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, MAGICIANS GAMBIT; 345-40004-6
Hardcover, 656 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson (SF)
345-40182-4
Hardcover, 144 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book Four of _A Wizard in Rhyme_; mass-market edition of our 1/95 hardcover;
345-38854-2
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; SWS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn (SF)
Sequel to WARRIOR and WANDERER; mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade
paperback; 345-39737-1
Paperback, 640 pp; cover art by Michael Herring; SHS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings (F)
Mainstream novel; 345-32887-6
Repackage, 340 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; VC, editor
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: Dreams of Terror and Death by H. P.
Lovecraft
345-38421-0
Trade paperback, 416 pp; cover by John Jude Palencar; SWS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels (SF)
345-39535-2
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
November 1995:
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-38374-5
Hardcover, 336 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 10/94 hardcover; 345-36895-9
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-35011-1
Repackage, 218 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; SHS, editor
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell (F)
345-37907-1
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; SWS, editor
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book One of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38690-6
Trade paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
BLADERUNNER by Phillip K. Dick
345-35047-2
Reissue, 216 pp; cover art supplied by The Ladd Co.; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's
SF Library or OmniPurpose Library,* or CompuServe's SF Library 5*;
2. to be added to the DRIN subscriber list, send a message to
majordomo@www.randomhouse.com with the words "subscribe drin-dist
to your mailbox the first or second working day of each month.
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
DAVID GEMMELL's _Stones of Power_ series is slated to begin in February 1996
with GHOST KING, and an interview with Gemmell will appear in the September-
December issue of the Del Rey print newsletter, the DRINK (Del Rey Ink),
which features the best of the DRIN. The DRINK is made available to
bookstores nationwide for the benefit of those readers who aren't online
(yet?).
NICOLA GRIFFITH's second novel, SLOW RIVER, has been printed and will hit the
shelves in mid-July. It has been chosen as a featured alternate by the
Science Fiction Book Club and advance orders are making the sales department
very happy. _Publishers Weekly_ and _Locus_ have just run laudatory reviews,
and an absolutely stellar review is set to run in _Science Fiction Age._ The
brilliant, non-pulp cover that graces SLOW RIVER was done by Del Rey's very
own art director, Dave Stevenson.
BARBARA HAMBLY--who is currently President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America--has a Star Wars book out: CHILDREN OF THE JEDI. October
will bring her new Del Rey hardcover vampire book, the sequel to THOSE WHO
HUNT THE NIGHT. TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD is set in London, Vienna, Paris, and
Constantinople. This November, she'll be giving a workshop at the National
Council of Teachers of English convention in San Diego even as she polishes
up MOTHER OF WINTER, an eagerly anticipated sequel to her first fantasy
trilogy, _The Time of the Dark_.
H. P. LOVECRAFT remains deceased, but work is already beginning on the third
book in Del Rey's three-book trade paperback set. The first volume, with the
understated title THE BEST OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: BLOODCURDLING TALES OF HORROR
AND THE MACABRE, has been picking up new momentum in recent months, leading
to the second book, THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: DREAMS OF TERROR AND
DEATH, set for this fall. Once the third book is released in 1996, all of
Lovecraft's prose works will have been included. These are the versions
Ballantine and Del Rey have made famous for more than two decades.
GEORGE LUCAS has prepared brand-new introductions for the special hardcover
re-issues of STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and RETURN OF
THE JEDI. These collectors' editions of _the_ seminal novels will be
available beginning in September, and will feature dramatic new covers and
interior design, as well. THE STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, written and
featuring technical illustrations by SHANE JOHNSON, is due out in October
1995, and ANDY MANGELS has completed the meticulously-researched STAR WARS:
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS, set for November, featuring dramatic new
pen-and-ink character illustrations by Michael Butkus. Andy is working on a
number of other Star Wars projects, including material for Topps.
JACK McKINNEY's next Robotech novel (#21) will be set between THE FINAL
NIGHTMARE (Robotech #9) and INVID INVASION (#10). The new adventure--BEFORE
THE INVID STORM--reveals the struggle for control of a dreadnought starship
from Tirol, a competition that involves notable Robotech heroes Dana Sterling
and Colonel John Wolf.
We will be merrily publishing more books in CHRISTOPHER STASHEFF's popular _A
Wizard in Rhyme_ series, to follow THE SECULAR WIZARD, which was a Del Rey
hardcover in January. Meanwhile, Stasheff's starting a bold new heroic
fantasy series about _The Star Stone._ Book One, THE SHAMAN, is scheduled
for 11/95, with Book Two, THE SAGE, to come not too much later.
Having completed work on WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE, the third
installment of the _Worldwar_ alternate history series, HARRY TURTLEDOVE has
turned in the fourth and final volume, as well, titled WORLDWAR: FINDING THE
BALANCE. He has also completed HAMMER AND ANVIL, the second of two books in
the _Time of Troubles_ series that takes place long before, but in the same
world as, the _Videssos Cycle._
LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS's THE REIGN OF THE BROWN MAGICIAN is slated for
publication in early 1996. It concludes the _Three Worlds_ trilogy, which
features an unusual and sometimes unsettling combination of science fiction,
fantasy, and reality. The second book in the trilogy, IN THE EMPIRE OF
SHADOW, is set for a September 1995 release in mass-market paperback.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNINGS, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
JAMES P. HOGAN will be at LibertyCon in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 8-10.
TERRY BROOKS, JOHN SAUL, BARBARA HAMBLY, R. A. SALVATORE, K. D. WENTWORTH,
SHELLY SHAPIRO (Executive Editor), STEVE SAFFEL (Editor), and KUO-YU LIANG
(Del Rey Sales Manager) will be at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, July 13-16.
SUSAN DEXTER will be at Confluence 8 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 28-30.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS=====================================
SF BOOK CLUB ACTION
SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith has been chosen by the SF Book Club to be a
featured alternate in the fall. And David Gemmell's famous _Drenai Saga_,
which began with LEGEND, has been picked up as a SFBC three-in-one volume.
The LEGENDS OF THE DRENAI omnibus will include LEGEND, THE KING BEYOND THE
GATE, and QUEST FOR LOST HEROES.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PRICE YOU HAVE TO PAY
The votes are in, and it looks like most people who felt strongly enough to
respond to our call for opinions want price information in the DRIN. Two
respondents out of about 20 were against including price information; many
booksellers who use the DRIN to place orders were eager for us to add prices.
So, starting in August, we will be adding price information to the DRIN--but
only in the Del Rey Data section that lists upcoming books, along with page
length and cover artist and so on. We won't be adding the price information
to the book description or other listings. We'll use US and Canadian prices
and list them as such; other foreign prices will not be included. Thanks for
your input!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WE'RE SLIPPING!
We've been saying our manuscript-consideration time for sf is a few months.
For a while, it was, and we were darn proud of it. Now we've undergone some
editorial changes and our consideration time for sf, as well as fantasy, is
back to a more industry-standard 6-8 months, with manuscripts that deserve a
second reading by another editor taking longer. Not the kind of news we like
to disseminate, but we don't want to mislead those of you who have submitted
lately or plan to submit (manuscripts, that is).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WEB SITES: ONLINE BOOKSTORES
For those of you who want to order books over the Internet, here are a few
venues. Keep in mind that supporting your local independent bookstore is
important, too. If you don't, soon you may not have one to support. Foreign
readers are especially encouraged to use these online bookstores...it's
easier than ordering directly from us, and helps keep the bookstores going!
(Online bookstores are independents, too.)
FUTURE FANTASY
http://futfan.com/home.html
The first and biggest sf/f specialty store on the Internet. Set up an
account and order away...the news is that much of their online business is
from overseas. They link to publishers' resources about the books they sell
(for example, look up Harry Turtledove's books in their catalog and you'll be
able to click right over to our sample chapters).
BOOK STACKS UNLIMITED
http://www.books.com (or telnet to books.com)
Features an easy-to-use interface, credits toward free books, and online
discussion groups. All kinds of books, and you can browse new releases by
subject/genre.
THE ONLINE BOOKSTORE
http://www.obs-us.com/obs/obshome.html
Also has "storefronts" in other languages (which you can access through
the URL above). Books from participating publishers, special features (OBS's
other business is doing joint promotions with publishers--check out the
Nicholas Negroponte/BEING DIGITAL project), and articles about online
commerce, publishing, bookstores, etc. They also have a custom "book-finder"
service that will match you up by e-mail with a bookstore (worldwide) that
can sell you the book you're looking for. Shipping & handling seems a little
steep here; ordering is by e-mail.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE, BOOKSTORE
http://bookweb.cwis.uci.edu:8042/HomeTest.html (or /Books.html)
A college bookstore rather than a general-interest bookstore, but has
some SF (sort of a spotty selection). Orders via e-mail, not Web forms;
indexing of titles using a simple WAIS search engine rather than something
more spiffy and powerful. A search for Harper the author gets you Harper
Collins books as well.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are BELGARATH THE SORCERER by David and Leigh
Eddings; SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith (read this one pleasepleaseplease!);
THE BASTARD PRINCE by Katherine Kurtz; THE GAMESTER WARS by William R.
Forstchen; and GENELLAN: PLANETFALL by Scott G. Gier (Del Rey Discovery of
1995). Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del Rey
Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.belgarath, sample.slow_river, sample.bastard_prince,
sample.gamester_wars, or sample.genellan) and they'll be available in
CompuServe's SF Library 4, AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, eWorld's SF/F
area, and GEnie's SFRT fiction library, too. (For a list of all sample
chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to delrey@tachyon.com
with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH===========================================================
Shawna McCarthy, an agent with Scovil Chichak Galen of New York City, has
written this month's "In Depth," which makes a persuasive (if obviously a
little biased!) argument for acquiring an agent if you are a professional
writer or want to become one. This isn't really a what-I-do-all-day article,
so here's a little background: agents and editors do many of the same things
all day--read submissions from known and unknown authors, suggest revisions
to promising manuscripts, check sales figures, negotiate contracts. Agents
also do a lot of the things writers do themselves: pack up and send off
manuscripts with hopeful cover letters, wait impatiently for a response, call
up to try to shake a response loose, deal with requests for changes. A good
agent is more than the person who sends your manuscript to publishers and
gets it in the door. Shawna McCarthy explains why and how.
Standard disclaimers, just in case: this is just an article for the DRIN,
not an endorsement by Del Rey of a particular agent or agency (though we do
deal with SCG often). As always, you don't need an agent to submit a
manuscript to Del Rey. And now for the pitch!
HOW TO MAKE MONEY STUFFING ENVELOPES
or What does a literary agent do?
A literary agent is sort of like a housekeeper--until you really need one,
you can't figure out why anyone else might have one. After all, what do they
do for you that you can't do for yourself if you just do a little extra work?
And look at all the money you'll save.
True enough--sure, you can negotiate your own contract, just like you can
clean your own kitchen. But a professional housekeeper will know that if you
mix bleach with Ajax you'll create deadly chlorine gas, and a professional
iterary agent will know that if you allow the publisher to keep clause 6-sub-
b-sub-1, you might as well go into your kitchen and create some deadly
chlorine gas.
But negoiating contracts is only a tiny bit of what an agent does. Long
before the negotiating comes into play, the good agent has talked with you
about your work, your feelings, and your future. He or she has asked you what
you want to write, what you will write, and where you want to be in ten
years. A good agent has looked at your work and determined whether Editor
Jones at Mega House would like it more than her sworn enemy Editor Smith
(also at Mega House). He or she has called everyone at every publishing house
who might be interested in your work and excitedly told them about the
terrific new novel that is coming their way. And once the submission has gone
out, your professional literary agent is still on the job, relentlessly
nagging each and every editor on the list until they've responded to your
book.
Under the best of circumstances all of them will love it and wave large sums
of money in the air, allowing your agent to select the best possible deal for
you out of many. Under really pretty good circumstances, two or three will
make offers, and your agent will play them off against each other until the
best possible deal is made. Under normal circumstances, everyone but one will
turn it down, at which point the ability to get rid of clause 6-sub-b-sub-1
becomes really essential. If you're like most writers, especially new ones,
you'll sign just about anything to get your book published. Your agent is
there to keep you from signing something truly unpleasant. He or she knows
that the offer isn't going to go away if you haggle some. Much like at a flea
market, a certain amount of negotiating is expected, and if it's not
forthcoming the writer might as well pin a big Kick Me sign to his or her
back. And your agent is here to tell you that a writer wearing a Kick Me sign
will get kicked. But good.
But there's a level beyond this on which the agent/author relationship really
functions: underneath the wheeling and dealing, there needs to be a
fundamental level of trust and respect between agent and clients. After all,
in a very real sense, we represent you. We stand in your stead in the
publishing world, and a writer who does not trust his or her agent is like a
spouse who doesn't trust his or her mate: always looking for the Big Clue
that will once and for all prove betrayal. The agent/author relationship
cannot function under that sort of cloud, and your writing career will suffer
as a result of it. Thus it often happens that a writer will go through four
or five different agents before finding one where the relationship just
clicks. This is a fact of life, and the agent who takes a client's departure
personally is in for a very unappy career path. (Unless of course said author
has taken with him your bank account, your significant other and your cat.)
So: What do I do for a living? Well, I'm a stern principal, an understanding
friend, a rigid taskmaster, a savvy financial advisor, an eagle-eyed contract
reader, a hard-nosed negotiator, a therapist, a marital advisor, a weatherman
(even though you don't need one to know which way the wind blows), a psychic,
and an editor. But I'm a lousy housekeeper.
--copyright 1995 by Shawna
McCarthy
Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency, Inc.
Q & A==============================================================
Q&A-in-one: We've been getting a lot of requests for information on Robotech
lately. In brief: yes, all 20 Robotech/Sentinels books are still in print,
along with the various three-in-one volumes; sorry, we don't know anything
about the Robotech movie; and Robotech #21 is titled BEFORE THE INVID STORM
and takes place before INVID INVASION. A Sentinels 3-in-1 will be out in
August--volumes 1-3, or 13 to 15 in the whole Robotech saga--but we don't yet
have other three-in-ones scheduled after that; it will depend on the sales
record of the first four.
Q: Is David Gemmell writing a sequel to QUEST FOR LOST HEROES?
A: QUEST FOR LOST HEROES was the fourth book in the Drenai saga that David
Gemmell began with LEGEND (there's also a prequel--WAYLANDER, which we will
release in November). David has written two more Drenai books, DRUSS THE
LEGEND and WAYLANDER 2, which were published in England and for which Del Rey
does not have U.S. rights.
Q: How can I order books directly from you that I can't find in
bookstores?
A: Most bookstores will special-order books for their customers (as long as
the book is in print). Ask your bookseller. If that fails, you can order
directly from us by phone from inside the US by calling 1800-793-2665.
Outside the US, unless you live in Western Europe (where we can't sell you
most books directly because of our international rights agreements), you can
write to our warehouse at the following address: Random House Distribution
Center, 200 Hahn Road, Westminster, Maryland, 21157 USA. List the books you
want and they will (eventually) notify you of the cost and how to pay (money
order or credit card, I believe). You will have to pay shipping and handling
charges on the books, which are sold at list price. But at least you can get
them this way if your bookstore won't special-order them for you. Or be
cool, be hip, be 21st century and try one of the online bookstores listed
above in the "News and Announcements" section.
TURTLEDOVE CORNER...
Q: When is Harry Turtledove's TILTLING THE BALANCE going to be out in
paperback?
A: TILTING THE BALANCE will be out in paperback in February of next year,
along with the hardcover of UPSETTING THE BALANCE.
Q: When will books 2 & 3 of Harry Turtledove's _The Time of Troubles_
be published?
A: The current plan is for Book 2 to come out in the summer of 1996, with
Book 3 to follow less than a year later. There will also be a Book 4 after
that.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
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Subject: DRIN August Edition
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|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 31 (August 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff. Hardcover. (VC)
Christopher Stasheff--a favorite with fantasy readers for his _A Wizard in
Rhyme_ series for Del Rey and his _Warlock_ series for Ace--starts a bold new
hero and a new series, _The Star Stone_. In Book One, THE SHAMAN, he
introduces the Ulin, a race of superbeings so powerful in might and magic
that they seem like gods--and Ohaern, the one man brave enough to free
humanity from their oppression. THE SHAMAN is a rich, full-bodied read, and
Stasheff's fans will find it particularly rewarding to watch this popular
writer as he grows in power.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
------------------------------------------------------------
THE HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings. Paperback. (VC)
THE HIDDEN CITY is the conclusion to _The Tamuli_ --and additionally to _The
Elenium_, the series that began the tale of Sparhawk and Ehlana. This volume
unfolds the long-awaited conclusion to the story of Sparhawk, Knight and
Queen's Champion, in the exotic eastern realms of the Tamul Empire. When the
minions of the foul God Cyrgon kidnap Sparhawk's wife, Queen Ehlana, they
demand that he surrender Bhelliom, the jewel of power, to reclaim his bride.
Sparhawk and his cohorts set out to thwart the evil God and rescue the queen.
Rousing epic adventure in the standard Eddings mold.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
CATARACT by Tara K. Harper. Paperback. (SS)
In CAT SCRATCH FEVER, the guide Tsia became illegally bonded to the
intelligent felines of her world. Now, in CATARACT, Tara K. Harper further
explores that unusual telepathic relationship: what it means to be connected
so intimately to the cats and how that bond affects Tsia's relationships with
human beings, in particular her fellow mercenaries and her estranged sister.
The amazing thing about this book is that so much under the surface is
explored in depth, while the action takes place in a whirlwind drama over
about a day and a half. Tsia and her merc comrades are on a mission that
goes completely awry, breeding intense suspicion and turning everyone against
Tsia and the cat who won't go away. I think the cat is _my_ favorite
character, and it shows again how deftly Harper handles that Pern-like
telepathic bond between human and animal.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Paperback. (SWS)
This second installment of the _Three Worlds Trilogy_ follows the trail of
Pel Brown, an average guy from here and now, caught up--much against his
will--in battling evil in other worlds: one a realm of magic, the other a
technologically advanced empire. Neither science nor magic seems able to
stop the evil known as Shadow. And Pel soon finds that a life of adventure
might sound wonderful, but in practice it's something much less pleasant. He
learns--forgive the expression--that there's no place like home...and now his
home is lost to him forever. Real life, real risks, and real consequences.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE by George Lucas
CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut
CLASSIC STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI by James Kahn
All based on a story created by George Lucas
The original movie novelizations, now all available in hardcover for the
first time. CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE includes a new George Lucas
introduction.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTERS AVAILABLE ONLINE MID-AUGUST
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
August 1995:
BELGARATH THE SORCERER by David & Leigh Eddings (F)
Prequel to the Belgariad series; 345-37324-3
Hardcover, 704 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
SLOW RIVER by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-39165-9
Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE BASTARD PRINCE by Katherine Kurtz (F)
Book Three of _The Heirs of Saint Camber_, mass-market edition of our 6/94
hardcover; 345-39177-2
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Edwin Herder; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE GAMESTER WARS: THE ALEXANDRIAN RING, THE ASSASSIN'S GAMBIT, THE
NAPOLEON WAGER by William Forstchen (SF)
Three-in-one volume of _The Gamester Wars_ trilogy; 345-40049-6
Paperback, 792 pp; cover art by Don Dixon and David Mattingly; SHS,
editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
DEL REY DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR --> GENELLAN: PLANETFALL by Scott G. Gier (SF)
345-39509-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
AMMONITE by Nicola Griffith (SF)
345-37891-1
Repackage, 368 pp; cover art by David Stevenson; EKH, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
SENTINELS: THE DEVIL'S HAND, DARK POWERS, DEATH DANCE (SF 3-in-1)
Three-in-one of books 1-3 of the Sentinel series; 345-38901-8
Paperback, 480 pp; cover art from Robotech archives; EKH, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------------
September 1995:
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book One of _The Star Stone_; 345-39242-6
Hardcover, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE by George Lucas (SF)
Repackage of the _Star Wars_ movie novelization; 345-40077-1
(This is the same as our previous book STAR WARS; we've retitled it to
match LucasFilm's current title. This is not a new novelization.)
Hardcover, 272 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut (SF)
Repackage of the _Empire Strikes Back_ movie novelization; 345-40078-X
Hardcover, 224 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI by James Kahn (SF)
Repackage of the _Return of the Jedi_ movie novelization; 345-40079-8
Hardcover, 240 pp; new cover art
THE HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings (F)
Book Three of _The Tamuli_; mass-market edition of our 9/94 hardcover;
345-39040-7
Paperback, 517 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; VC, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
CATARACT by Tara K. Harper (SF)
345-38052-5
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans (F/SF)
Book Two of _The Three Worlds Trilogy_; mass-market edition of our 3/95
trade paperback; 345-3978-X
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; SWS, editor
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
------------------------------------------------------------
October 1995:
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly (F)
345-38102-5
Hardcover, 400 pp; cover art by Wictor Sadowski; VC, editor
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings (F 3-in-1)
PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, MAGICIANS GAMBIT; 345-40004-6
Hardcover, 656 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson (SF)
345-40182-4,
Hardcover, 144 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book Four of _A Wizard in Rhyme_; mass-market edition of our 1/95 hardcover;
345-38854-2
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; SWS, editor
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn (SF)
Sequel to WARRIOR and WANDERER; mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade
paperback; 345-39737-1
Paperback, 640 pp; cover art by Michael Herring; SHS, editor
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings (F)
Mainstream novel; 345-32887-6
Repackage, 340 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; VC, editor
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: Dreams of Terror and Death by H. P.
Lovecraft
345-38421-0
Trade paperback, 416 pp; cover by John Jude Palencar; SWS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels (SF)
345-39535-2
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
November 1995:
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-38374-5
Hardcover, 336 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 10/94 hardcover; 345-36895-9
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-35011-1
Repackage, 218 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; SHS, editor
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell (F)
345-37907-1
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; SWS, editor
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book One of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38690-6
Trade paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
BLADERUNNER by Phillip K. Dick
345-35047-2
Reissue, 216 pp; cover art supplied by The Ladd Co.; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1995:
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 2/95 hardcover; 345-39787-8
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by John Berkey; EKH, editor
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker (F)
345-37692-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; VC, editor
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien (F)
345-40043-7
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by John Howe; VC, editor
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker (F)
THE RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS and DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS in a 2-in-1
volume; 345-40246-4
Repackage, 320 pp; cover art by Darrell Sweet; VC, editor
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90857-0
Repackage, 251 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
ORPHAN STAR by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90859-7
Repackage, 234 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE END OF THE MATTER by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90861-9
Repackage, 246 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
BLOODHYPE by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90863-5
Repackage, 249 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90865-1
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FLINX IN FLUX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90867-8
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), eWorld's SF/F area,
America Online's SF Library or OmniPurpose Library,* or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month. The body of the message should
read: subscribe drin-dist e-mail address Firstname Lastname;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
No updates this month--see the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) for the
complete report on which author is working on what, and when it might be
done.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNINGS, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
NICOLA GRIFFITH will be a guest on Delphi at 7:00 Pacific time (10:00 East
Coast time) Thursday, August 3. She says: "I'm hoping some people pop in
the conference to chat, because I love talking about what I do."
LARRY NIVEN will be attending GenCon in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, August 11-13.
HARRY TURTLEDOVE will be Guest of Honor at Bubonicon 27 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, August 11-13.
TERRY BROOKS will be attending Intersection/WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland,
August 24-28.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS=====================================
BTW, FYI: MORE SF & F ON THE WWW
Ottowa's House of Speculative Fiction (SF/F bookstore)
http://www.cyberus.ca/~specfic/
A Canadian sf/f specialty store with a useful Web site (no ordering
online at the moment) featuring recommendations (including the beloved-by-me
SLOW RIVER!), summer reading lists, new arrivals with cover images, links to
other sf stores, etc.
SF-Bokhandeln (SF/F bookstore)
http://www.sfbok.se/sfbok/sfbok.html
An independent sf & fantasy specialty bookstore in Stockholm, Sweden,
with an online WWW catalog. From their location in Stockholm, they do mail
orders mainly to Sweden and the Scandinavian countries and accept orders by
e-mail. The store's home page is available in English at the URL above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEYOND SF IN SF
Nicola Griffith's SLOW RIVER has just received a great review in the _San
Francisco Chronicle_--in the fiction section rather than a special sf review.
This is a great coup for a book that appeals to non-sf readers as well as the
cognoscenti, and may be a first for Del Rey! It's certainly a welcome first
for the book's editor (EKH), who feels she has been peering out of the sf
ghetto and desperately waving this book around since it was first turned in.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff; THE
HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings; CATARACT by Tara K. Harper; and IN THE EMPIRE
OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Descriptions are above in "What's New in
the Stores." And we hope to have sample chapters of the three original Star
Wars novelizations (A NEW HOPE, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RETURN OF THE JEDI)
online sometime this month, before the next DRIN comes out.
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.shaman, sample.hidden_city, sample.cataract, or
sample.empire_of_shadow) and they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library
4, AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, and GEnie's SFRT fiction library, too.
Star Wars chapters, when they're available, should be requested with SENDME
sample.new_hope, sample.empire_strikes_back, and sample.return_jedi (For a
list of all sample chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to
delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH===========================================================
Patrick Price, Associate Publicist, handles fiction and nonfiction titles
from the controversial ABDUCTION: HUMAN ENCOUNTERS WITH ALIENS to Douglas
Rushkoff's MEDIA VIRUS and the Ballantine Lesbian Mystery Tour. He is also
the publicist for the current Del Rey hardcover SLOW RIVER by Nicola
Griffith. In addition, he often reads and assesses gay-themed books or
proposals for the Ballantine editors. For this month's DRIN, he tells us
about how a publicist's job fits into the publication process:
My job is to serve as a kind of gateway between our books and the outside
world. Everyday you might read book reviews in newspapers and magazines,
watch an author being interviewed on "The Today Show" or "Oprah," see authors
as experts in the op-ed pages or in a news report, and maybe even anticipate
a reading/signing by your favorite author at the neighborhood bookstore or a
conference. All of these things are easy to take for granted because they
are so evident. But in truth, behind each appearance, review, or sound-
bite, there is a publicist working like mad for the reader's attention.
Publicity can be a grueling affair of long days, endless phone calls, author
hand-holding, meticulous itineraries, and damage control, but there's an air
of excitement, too-- an almost discernible buzz emanating from every
publicity department. When I first considered publishing as a career, the
only thing I imagined doing was what I now know of as the editorial process--
reading, copy-editing, etc. Luckily for me, I went to a two-day seminar
offered at my university where alumni from the publishing world came to speak
about their fields, and there I was first smitten by the allure of publicity.
Publicists can tell great stories. Believe me, the behind-the-scenes is
always more interesting than what the public sees. Publicists have to be
outgoing, engaging, and know how to be charming even when everything is
happening at once.
Most of my work begins after a book is written. If it's an original work
(rather than a reprint) we get galleys or advance reader's copies to send to
the media and reviewers as both a preview and an attempt to meet the long
lead times for most publications. (A finished book is available to us only
very shortly before its available to the public.) Even before publication, I
become a spokesperson or cheerleader for a title-- reading the book, meeting
with the author and establishing a working relationship, collecting editorial
summaries. Then I get busy writing a press release that captures the essence
and merits of the book in a concise, introductory manner for the over-flooded
media. We send the releases off with a prayer and a lot of follow-ups.
Now the process has just begun. It is important to distinguish between two
types of books: tour and non-tour titles. Tour books are those whose
authors we send on the road. Being on tour gives an author the chance to
reach new audiences and local media outlets that would be impossible to reach
otherwise. A tour can be a weekend in the author's hometown and a
neighboring city or an insane, twenty-city-plus East and West Coast blitz.
These decisions are made based on many factors: an author's availability,
our expectations, bookstore requests for an author's appearance, market
factor (are we reaching the book's audience?), and our own budget restraints.
Tours are expensive affairs of cross-country flying and nice hotels, but
they're hardly a holiday-- ask any exhausted author who has been shuttled
back and forth between TV and radio stations, trying to find time for dinner
before the next bookstore reading.
My part of the tour involves reaching the media in each city. I create a
press kit full of vital information: an author bio, a press release, tour
dates, press clippings, and the ever-important pitch letter. Few writers get
in on their name alone; a book has to be presented as newsworthy or of
interest to the venue's audience.
After a mass-mailing to selected media and a little wait for the postal
system, we begin the essential ploy of pitching. Pitching can only be
described as a roller-coaster ride; its highs and lows make for a bumpy time.
We start by printing out call sheets--detailed summaries of where we mailed
our press kits. These give some clues as to who might consider using our
book, but they ultimately just tell us who to call to get a direct response.
Pitching is where we get savvy, because getting a producer's ear is a
privilege and we must win him or her over quickly. A producer's response can
be a simple "no," the teasing "I'm not sure if that idea would work. Any
other approaches?", or the back-to-base-one "Who?" When an appearance is
agreed upon, I am the one who coordinates all the who, what, when, and where
and relays everything to the author. When problems arise later, it is my job
to fix them.
Publicists rarely travel with an author unless the author is in New York.
Otherwise, we have media escorts who specialize in taking authors to all
their appointments in a given city. But in New York, I will go with authors
to their taping of "The Ricki Lake Show" or attend their book signings.
Since a lot of the national media stems from New York, I get to see a lot of
fascinating outlets.
An example of a non-tour book that I'm working on now is Nicola Griffith's
SLOW RIVER (an August Del Rey hardcover). I first read the novel when it was
still only a manuscript and instantly wanted to work with it and Nicola.
Nicola's situation is a bit more complicated than most authors' because she
lives with multiple sclerosis and thus is unable to endure the physical
strain of a tour. Nevertheless, we wanted to reach as many people as
possible, so we decided to concentrate on getting print coverage (both
reviews and interviews) and setting up interviews by phone. SLOW RIVER is
blessed with an especially striking cover that I thought would make a perfect
recurring image to entrance reviewers. With this in mind, I purchased unique
folders to paste the cover art onto and created an "early word" press kit to
help showcase SLOW RIVER as a hot, up-and-coming title. I mailed these kits,
with an advance reader's copy, to various science-fiction, lesbian and gay,
and feminist publications. I also did an unusual press release wherein I had
the cover art (minus text) printed as a full-page, haunting watermark behind
the standard-style press release. The finished effect adds an extra sense of
depth to the release (and hopefully increased notice). I also wrote letters
to the book reviewers, making them aware of SLOW RIVER and anticipating their
reviews. Right now, Nicola and I are busy collecting the fruits of our
work--the quotes. In the near future, I'll have enough critical praise to
merit a new mailing (I also have the finished book now) and I'll work with
the theory that if X and Y sang the book's praises, shouldn't Z take another
peek and not miss out on a great book that readers, viewers, or listeners
will want to know about? Critical blackmail.
All of this is only the peak of the publicity iceberg. Part of what makes
the job enticing is its unpredictable nature--a quiet day can turn instantly
frantic with only one phone call. I never know who I'll be meeting or
talking to next. A publicist's Rolodex becomes both a lifeline and a
treasure chest. To make life even more challenging, a publicist is usually
working on several books at one time, and backlist authors call from time to
time as well. There are many stages to a book's publicity and, in truth, it
never really ends. The good news is that there are unlimited possibilities
out there and they are all undoubtedly just a phone call away.
--copyright 1995 by Patrick Price
Q & A==============================================================
Q: Whatever happened to Lyndon Hardy,and Robert Don Hughes? I liked both
authors--have they stopped publishing?
A: Nice to hear from someone else who misses Lyndon Hardy's unique approach
to fantasy--but Dr. Hardy bowed out of the publishing racket after RIDDLE OF
THE SEVEN REALMS; I think he had plenty of other interesting and rewarding
things to do with his time.
Robert Don Hughes was away for awhile--in Africa, I think--on missionary
work. He has returned and the last I heard, he planned to concentrate on
writing; beyond that, we don't know.
Q: Will MAGNIFICAT, the final book in Julian May's _Galactic Milieu Trilogy_,
be published soon?
A: MAGNIFICAT will be published in early '96 in hardcover by Knopf, then
about a year later in paperback by Del Rey.
Q: I would like to know where I can purchase the rest of the Gundam series. I
also would like to know if there are any new Robotech Books either out now
or to be released.
A: Our three GUNDAM books are currently out of stock, and we don't plan to
reissue them or acquire more. We're publishing one new Robotech book early
next year--BEFORE THE INVID STORM--but don't have any firm plans at the
moment for more original novels after that.
SOME PEDESTRIAN BUT COMMON QUESTIONS FROM OUR MAILBOX:
Q: what is your AOL address so I can cruise through the good stuff?
A: AOL instructions: Use keyword "Science Fiction"; choose menu item "Science
Fiction Fandom"; scroll through folders until you find "Del Rey Books."
However, the "good stuff" is mostly on our gopher site (gopher.panix.com) and
our Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/).
Q: How can I write to/send e-mail to Terry Brooks/David Eddings/Katherine
Kurtz/Anne McCaffrey/other Del Rey authors?
A: Send snail mail to them care of Del Rey Books, 201 East 50th Street, NY NY
10022 USA. We will forward the mail when we receive it. We don't give out
authors' addresses, but if the author is online and you know his or her e-
mail address, you can use it to write directly.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
===================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
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Subj : DRIN September Edition (Number 32)
ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
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Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 17:12:19 -0700
From: Del.Rey.Books@www.randomhouse.com
Subject: DRIN September Edition (Number 32)
Apparently-To: drin-dist-outgoing@www.randomhouse.com
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 32 (September 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly. Hardcover. (VC)
Popular author Barbara Hambly takes her readers back to the England of THOSE
WHO HUNT THE NIGHT, then off on the ride of lifetime (or deathtime, for the
vampires and other unfortunates involved) aboard the fabled Orient Express.
Dr. James Asher pursues undead enemies across the Continent, unaware that the
infamous vampire Don Simon Ysidro is following him...and unaware that his
wife, Lydia Asher, is not staying home where it's safe. A vampire fantasy
for intelligent fantasy readers, focused on character, not erotic/horror
gore.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels. Trade
paperback. (SWS)
Sometimes it helps to have a scorecard, and this illustrated trade paperback
offers the data and background for the key players from the multimedia _Star
Wars_ saga. It features 101 of the major players from the movies, TV
specials, novels, comics, and all the branches of the Star Wars galaxy. New
movies are on their (slow) way, and this book can serve as a study guide to
what's come before for those who don't feel like rereading/reviewing
everything, or who just need to catch up. With lots of illustrations (photos
and art) and detailed entries, it's also interesting to browse.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE BY 10/1
------------------------------------------------------------
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson. Hardcover. (SWS)
From the droids to the Death Star, this special hardcover offers the detailed
specs and official, Lucasfilm-approved schematics of the technology, planets,
and cultures that abound in the Star Wars Universe. (This has a different
cover than the U. K. Boxtree edition, but the same content--the three Starlog
TECHNICAL JOURNALS.)
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE (TEXT ONLY EXCEPT ON WEB SITE)
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH by H. P.
Lovecraft. Trade paperback. (SWS)
Collected for the first time in one trade-paperback edition are Lovecraft's
tales of the horrors that lurk in the dimensions of dream. These 25 works
include the seminal material that led to the definitive nightmare stories
like _Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath_. Introduction by Neil (_Sandman_)
Gaiman; cover by John Jude Palencar.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings. Hardcover. (VC)
Includes PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, and MAGICIAN'S GAMBIT
It would be hard to find a more popular modern fantasy series than David
Eddings' BELGARIAD, and harder yet to find such a series that has not been
available in hardcover. But in the unlikely event that you're on such a
search, look no further: the first three books of Eddings' first series are
now published together in hardcover for the first time in the US--_with the
author's review and revision,_ so this is the way the series should be read.
It makes a perfect companion piece for BELGARATH THE SORCERER; readers are
reporting that they want finish BELGARATH and go straight to THE BELGARIAD to
follow the Old Wolf's story straight through.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff. Paperback. (VC)
Grad student Matt Mantrell--first introduced in HER MAJESTY'S WIZARD and THE
OATHBOUND WIZARD, when he was whisked away to a world where poetry works
magic--is now back on the hot seat in that other world. Reports from sunny
Latruria say trouble's brewing down south. Matt sets off to investigate,
disguised as a wandering minstrel. When Latruria's sinister prime minister
penetrates his disguise, Matt runs afoul of would-be assassins and indignant
music critics alike. Stasheff serves up his patented brand of humor and
humanity, history and histrionics, while his slightly off-center characters
explore some pretty serious philosophy and have fun doing it.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
---------------------------------------------------------------
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn. Paperback. (SHS)
Don McQuinn wraps up his post-apocalyptic trilogy set in the Pacific
Northwest some 500 years in the future. Gan Moodark's fledgling empire is
beset by enemies on all sides. His ace-in-the-hole is the new technology
brought by the odd strangers (cryogenic resurrectees from the 21st century).
But the slow poison of betrayal and deceit is working at the hearts of Gan's
followers, and his people suspect that the strangers are sorcerers practicing
black magic. A rousing end to the series that Dean Koontz called "a first-
rate fantasy [science fiction, please!] adventure, crammed full of action,
wonder, intrigue, vivid characters and rich details. McQuinn's military
background ensures an authenticity and heightened sense of reality."
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings. Paperback. (VC)
Hunting season opens soon, so Del Rey is repackaging David Eddings' guys-
with-guns adventure story--his first published work. No, actually it just
seems to be open season on the Eddings oeuvre this fall at Del Rey, so we're
going all the way and redoing HIGH HUNT. Worlds away from his fantasy
series, it's a raw, explosive read that still exhibits Eddings' familiar
storyteller's touch.
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
September 1995:
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book One of _The Star Stone_; 345-39242-6
Hardcover, 368 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
CLASSIC STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE by George Lucas (SF)
Repackage of the _Star Wars_ movie novelization; 345-40077-1
(This is the same as our previous book STAR WARS; we've retitled it to
match LucasFilm's current title. This is not a new novelization.)
Hardcover, 272 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut (SF)
Repackage of the _Empire Strikes Back_ movie novelization; 345-40078-X
Hardcover, 224 pp; new cover art
CLASSIC STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI by James Kahn (SF)
Repackage of the _Return of the Jedi_ movie novelization; 345-40079-8
Hardcover, 240 pp; new cover art
IN THE EMPIRE OF SHADOW by Lawrence Watt-Evans (F/SF)
Book Two of _The Three Worlds Trilogy_; mass-market edition of our 3/95
trade paperback; 345-3978-X
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; SWS, editor
THE HIDDEN CITY by David Eddings (F)
Book Three of _The Tamuli_; mass-market edition of our 9/94 hardcover;
345-39040-7
Paperback, 517 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; VC, editor
CATARACT by Tara K. Harper (SF)
345-38052-5
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------
October 1995:
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly (F)
Sequel to THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT; 345-38102-5
Hardcover, 400 pp; cover art by Wictor Sadowski; VC, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels (SF)
345-39535-2
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson (SF)
345-40182-4
Hardcover, 144 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: Dreams of Terror and Death by H. P.
Lovecraft
345-38421-0
Trade paperback, 416 pp; cover by John Jude Palencar; SWS, editor
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings (F 3-in-1)
Three-in-one volume: PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, MAGICIAN'S GAMBIT;
345-40004-6
Hardcover, 656 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book Four of _A Wizard in Rhyme_; mass-market edition of our 1/95 hardcover;
345-38854-2
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; VC, editor
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn (SF)
Sequel to WARRIOR and WANDERER; mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade
paperback; 345-39737-1
Paperback, 640 pp; cover art by Michael Herring; SHS, editor
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings (F)
345-32887-6
Repackage, 340 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; VC, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
November 1995:
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-38374-5
Hardcover, 336 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book One of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38690-6
Trade paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 10/94 hardcover; 345-36895-9
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-35011-1
Paperback repackage, 218 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; SHS, editor
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell (F)
345-37907-1
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; SWS, editor
BLADERUNNER, or DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECRIC SHEEP by Phillip K. Dick
345-35047-2
Reissue, 216 pp; cover art supplied by The Ladd Co.; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1995:
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 2/95 hardcover; 345-39787-8
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by John Berkey; EKH, editor
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker (F)
345-37692-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Darell K. Sweet; VC, editor
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien (F)
345-40043-7
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by John Howe; VC, editor
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker (F)
Two-in-one volume: THE RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS, DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS;
345-40246-4
Repackage, 320 pp; cover art by Darrell Sweet; VC, editor
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90857-0
Repackage, 251 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
ORPHAN STAR by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90859-7
Repackage, 234 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE END OF MATTER by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90861-9
Repackage, 246 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
BLOODHYPE by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90863-5
Repackage, 249 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90865-1
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FLINX IN FLUX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90867-8
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 1996:
GHOST KING by David Gemmell (F)
345-37902-0
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter (F)
345-39345-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Givelo Cabral; VC, editor
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-39025-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Three-in-one volume: CRYSTAL SINGER, KILLASHANDRA, CRYSTAL LINE; 345-40292-8
Trade paperback, 672 pp; cover art by Michael Whelan & Rowena; SS, editor
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-38724-4
Reissue, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month. The body of the message should
read: subscribe DRIN-dist e-mail address Firstname Lastname;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
CHRIS BUNCH is hard at work on the second book of the _Shadow Warrior_
trilogy, a science-fiction thriller, having completed book one, THE WIND
AFTER TIME, as well as the first of his solo fantasy trilogy for
Warner/Aspect.
Having wrapped up the Anteros series, ALLAN COLE has just begun a brand-new
solo fantasy trilogy.
The Del Rey editions of DAVID GEMMELL's Drenai saga will conclude in
September with WAYLANDER, but there are three _additional_ Drenai books
available in British editions: DRUSS THE LEGEND, THE LEGEND OF DEATHWALKER,
and WAYLANDER 2. The next series, the "Stones of Power," will begin with Del
Rey's GHOST KING (January), with two book slated for 1996 and two for 1997.
The fifth book in that series, BLOODSTONE, is also only available in the UK
edition.
GEARY GRAVEL is working on Volume Three of the Might and Magic books.
NICOLA GRIFFITH is working on an outline for her next novel, a non-sf
thriller. Meanwhile, SLOW RIVER is out on the shelves in hardcover and
getting great reviews almost everywhere.
ANNE McCAFFREY is working on a brand-new Pern novel, as well as the sequel to
Freedom's Landing (for Berkley).
JACK McKINNEY's next Robotech novel (#21) will be set between THE
FINAL NIGHTMARE (Robotech #9) and INVID INVASION (#10). The new
adventure--BEFORE THE INVID STORM--reveals the struggle for control
of a dreadnought starship from Tirol, a competition that involves
notable Robotech heroes Dana Sterling and Col. John Wolf.
LARRY NIVEN has completed THE RINGWORLD THRONE, the third Ringworld
novel. Look for a preview in the October issue of _Omni Comics_,
which will re-present the Louis Wu story "There is a Tide," along
with pinups by many of the more famous sf and comics artists. That
issue will also present a new eight-page comics story, based on a
portion of THE RINGWORLD THRONE, illustrated by Richard Corben.
HARRY TURTLEDOVE's third book in the Worldwar tetralogy, WORLDWAR:
UPSETTING THE BALANCE, will feature another amazingly realistic
Stan Watts scene of alternate history, as Albert Einstein shows the
workings of an alien spacecraft to General Dwight Eisenhower and
Benito Mussolini. The book is slated for February 1996, with the
final book to follow a year later.
MARK COTTA VAZ will write the ambitious STAR WARS: THE GUIDE TO
SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE, set for May release. The Shadows of the
Empire is a movie-level event without a movie falling between the
storylines of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. The
Lucasfilm folks are working closely with a variety of producers for
the novel, trading cards, role playing games, video game, comic
book series, and even soundtrack. THE GUIDE TO SHADOW OF THE
EMPIRE pulls everthing together, providing the vital statistics on
all the major players, including the Vader-level villain named
Xizor, and reveals the behind-the-scenes efforts that went into
producing each and every element.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNINGS, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
Our calendar compiler is on vacation in the Bahamas this week, so Del Rey's
authors will have to go unremarked to their signings, conventions, and
readings until October.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS=====================================
JOHN BRUNNER
Del Rey Books has been publishing John Brunner since its founding in the late
70s, and we are saddened by his passing last week at WorldCon in Glasgow. I
took over editing Brunner in the late 80s, having loved his books for years.
John was an incredibly talented writer and an exacting author. He wrote
science fiction in a classic style. His view of the future was not a rosy
one; his stories often foretold the dangers of the short-sighted uses to
which technology is put, sounding a warning to us all that while technology
can enhance human life in wonderful ways, there is another, darker side to
technology and a price to be paid for technological advancement.
In recent years, John had often told me that he found it difficult to write
stories set out in the wide reaches of the galaxy because he couldn't see how
humanity could ever get there. But earlier this summer I had lunch with John
and his wife in New York, and John seemed slightly more hopeful than he had
been before as we tossed around ideas for a new Brunner epic. It is a shame
that we'll now never learn what wonderful new worlds John might have
imagined, or have the pleasure of reading about them in John's unique prose.
--Stephen Sterns
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's new books are TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara
Hambly; THE BELGARIAD Vols. 1-3 by David Eddings; THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P.
LOVECRAFT: DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH by H. P. Lovecraft; and THE STAR WARS
TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson. THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher
Stasheff and WITCH by Don McQuinn are also available online. Descriptions
are above in "What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.traveling_dead, sample.belgariad, sample.dream_cycle_terror,
sample.secular_wizard, sample.witch, or sample.sw_technical_journal) and
they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library 4 and AOL's SF and Fantasy
libraries, too. (For a list of all sample chapters available via the
fileserver, send a message to delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the
body of the message.)
IN DEPTH===========================================================
Christopher Stasheff is the author of many fantasy novels for Del Rey and
Ace, including our _A Wizard in Rhyme_ series and the _Star Troupers_ series.
Though his books are often light in tone, the issues that underpin them are
more weighty than you might guess. Here Stasheff tells us about the genesis
of his current series, _The Star Stone,_ and its mythology:
In the mid-Eighties, Tolkien's Silmarillion was published. I was dazzled by
its scope--it was a saga containing outlines for a hundred books--and
staggered to discover that the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy was only a
page and a half toward the end of the book. I was so excited by it that I
sat down and wrote an outline for a heroic fantasy. Then I sat back, looked
at it, and said, "There's a story that came before that." I decided that I
wanted to start writing at the beginning of the series, instead of building
the last book first and following it with prequels. So I sat down and wrote
out the outline for that story, then sat back, looked at it, and said,
"There's a story that came before that." So I sat down and wrote the
outline, and..
Well, I ended up with a story about a stone-age hero dealing with the
building of the first city--I decided that was going back far enough. But
when Lester del Rey didn't buy that first outline, I put the project aside
for a while--about fifteen years. When I finally sent a second outline to
Del Rey, they decided it might sell. So I began _The Star Stone_.
Of course, I'd been thinking the whole series over all that time, and working
out the details. I followed Tolkien's example, working out my own mythology,
then setting the story within the conflicts it contained. I already had
decided, along with many other scholars and authors, that people need a
mythology as a foundation for living, and that Christianity doesn't seem to
provide a broad enough sweep--with the decline of belief in the saints, there
aren't enough archetypes interacting to form myths that cover all the major
aspects of today's life. As a result, Hollywood is busily grinding out
variations on the old pagan archetypes for us, but none of them lasts long
enough to give us a real template for living a full and happy life.
Therefore, I set out to make up a mythology that was compatible with
Christianity, centering around the Ulin, an elder race of magical giants,
whom humankind think of as gods. The Ulin who tries to protect human beings
is Lomallin, the "Green One," aided by the "goddess" Rahani. Against them is
Ulahane, the "Scarlet One," determined to rid the earth of the vermin called
humanity.
Against the background of that mythology, I showed how an ordinary man could
be caught up in this battle of gods, eventually transcending the limits of
his mortality to become a timeless hero, almost a demigod.
The book begins with the sentence, "Ohaern was only a man, then--but that was
then." Right there, we know we're going to be watching a man becoming
something more than human--and he does, avenging his wife's death by rescuing
the sage who could have saved her life, even though he was imprisoned in
Byleo, the fortress of the worshippers of the evil god, Ulahane, the Scarlet
One. In retaliation, Ulahane sends a barbarian horde to wipe out Ohaern's
village. As a result, Ohaern sets the goal of his revenge as the slaying of
the Scarlet One himself. With the help of Rahani, the goddess who loves
humankind and is still determined to save it, Ohaern welds together an
alliance of human beings from the ends of the earth, half-human monsters, and
elementals, and attacks Ulahane's stronghold...
The book is about identity, as all my books are in one way or another, but
also about love healing grief, death and rebirth, and the rebirth of hope and
idealism. These are, I think, ideas that we need to reaffirm today; our age
needs to regain our parents' belief that human beings can be good, and can
become good again even if they have been corrupted.
I identified the evil god with scarlet, the color of blood,and the good god
with green, the color of life, because I suspect that the racism that still
plagues America has its roots in the ancient Zoroastrian mythology of a good
god of light endlessly pitted against an evil god of darkness. Many recent
fantasies have tried to avoid Christianity, but have kept the polarity of
good = light and evil = darkness. If my new dichotomy catches on, maybe
we can begin to escape that bias that, I think, still underlies the way we
look at the world and each other. If we can, we'll begin to form a new
concept of our own identities, and of our neighbors'--as always, the central
point that I believe determines all else about ourselves and our world.
--copyright 1995 by Christopher Stasheff
Q & A==============================================================
Q: I just finished reading BELGARATH THE SORCERER and have read all of
Eddings' works (some multiple times) and am wondering if this concludes
the Belgariad/Malloreon series or if there will be more.
A: Stay tuned for POLGARA THE SORCERESS (you didn't think Pol would let the
Old Wolf have the last word, did you?). When that's published, likely
sometime in 1997, the entire 12-book series will be complete.
Q: I have been a fan of Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels since the early 80s.
I just finished THE BASTARD PRINCE and the ending sounded sort of final.
Will there be any more novels? I thought I had heard once that Ms. Kurtz
would try to connect the two ends of the timeline she had created. What's
up?
A: We'd love it if Katherine Kurtz connected up the two ends of the timeline,
but I don't know if that's in the cards. She is hard at work now on KING
KELSON'S BRIDE, but she doesn't think she can have it in to Del Rey before
spring 1996, though, so publication is planned for sometime in 1997.
Q: I was wondering if there will be any further additions to the Robotech
line of novels.
A: We have at least one more Robotech novel scheduled--it's #21, BEFORE THE
INVID STORM. This adventure is actually set between novels 9 and 10, and
fills in the gap after the point at which the Master's ship fell to Earth (on
Monument City) and before the Invid arrived. The central figures in this
novel are Dana Sterling and Col. Wolf, who returns from Tirol with a warship
that everyone wants, each with their own agenda in mind. The book will have
original cover art by Ken Steacy.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
===================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 33 (October 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster. Hardcover. (SHS)
Alan Dean Foster's most popular characters are probably the red-haired kid
known as Flinx and his unusual pet, the "mini-drag" Pip. The last Flinx and
Pip novel was FLINX IN FLUX, published back in the late '80s. At long last,
Foster is picking up the threads of the Flinx saga and taking Pip and Flinx
on a wild adventure in one of Foster's more interesting locales, Midworld, a
planet with a huge, globe-covering rainforest and some very unusual denizens.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
THE WONDERLAND GAMBIT: BOOK ONE, THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker.
Trade. (SHS).
Jack Chalker's fertile imagination has taken SF readers to the outer reaches
of the universe and beyond. Now, _The Wonderland Gambit_ takes Chalker fans
into far stranger places and worlds, where the line between virtual reality
and actual reality is blurred beyond recognition. THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS is
the first of three novels in the _Wonderland Gambit_ story. But this
Wonderland will make Alice look like a mere babe in the woods.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey. Paperback. (SS)
Throughout the _Dragonriders of Pern_ series, references have been made to
the "shipfish" of Pern, legendary sea creatures who occasionally rescue
sailors and fishermen from peril at sea. Over the generations, fewer and
fewer Pernese have even seen a shipfish...until now, the time of ALL THE
WEYRS OF PERN. While most of the dragonriders are busy with the last stages
of the final assault on Thread, one young dragonrider and a holder boy join
forces in renewing humankind's relationship with the dolphins of Pern. I
enjoyed this more than some of the recent Pern novels, as the dolphins bring
to the series a refreshing sense of the new and fun.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
------------------------------------------------------------
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell. Paperback. (SWS)
The prequel to the international bestselling fantasy LEGEND, and the fourth
and final (for now) installment in Del Rey's offering of Gemmell's Drenai
saga. This is the tale of the warrior known as Waylander in his quest
through the haunted lands of the Nadir in search of the lost Armor of Bronze.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster. Paperback. (SHS)
The human inhabitants of the vast jungle planet lived in the middle levels of
the huge rainforest. Above, in the open sky, strange creatures would bring
instant death, and below, in the depths of the forest floor, lay other
dangers. But these abandoned colonists had adapted well to their home, until
the real dangers appeared--humans from the Humanx Commonwealth intent on
stripping the planet of its riches. MIDWORLD is set in one of Alan Dean
Foster's most inventive locales and is a novel of environmental caution.
-------------------------------------------------------------
BLADERUNNER, or DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP by Philip K. Dick.
Reissue. (SWS)
Deckard is a latter-day private detective who reluctantly agrees to cooperate
with a large but ineffective police department to find six desperate
"offworlders" before they break the security of a major industrial
organization and disrupt the delicate balance between humans and
"replicants"--third generation androids. These creatures, half human and half
machine, look, think, and feel so much like humans that it is almost
impossible to identify them. But there are two important differences between
the androids and their human creators: androids possess incredible strength
and are programmed to live only a few years.
As Deckard's search takes him through the treacherous streets of a
fantastic future metropolis, he is met at every turn with new and greater
challenges. The climactic confrontation with the renegade replicant leader
is the most terrifying--and the most haunting--of his career.
This is not a novelization of the movie--it's the retitled original novel
(DO ANDROID DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP).
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
October 1995:
TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD by Barbara Hambly (F)
Sequel to THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT; 345-38102-5
Hardcover, 400 pp; cover art by Wictor Sadowski; VC, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Andy Mangels (SF)
345-39535-2
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL by Shane Johnson (SF)
345-40182-4
Hardcover, 144 pp; cover art by Sylvan; SWS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: Dreams of Terror and Death by H. P.
Lovecraft
345-38421-0
Trade paperback, 416 pp; cover by John Jude Palencar; SWS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE BELGARIAD: Part One by David Eddings (F 3-in-1)
Three-in-one volume: PAWN OF PROPHECY, QUEEN OF SORCERY, MAGICIAN'S GAMBIT;
345-40004-6
Hardcover, 656 pp; cover art by Laurence Schwinger; VC, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE SECULAR WIZARD by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book Four of _A Wizard in Rhyme_; mass-market edition of our 1/95 hardcover;
345-38854-2
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Darrell K. Sweet; SWS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
WITCH by Donald E. McQuinn (SF)
Sequel to WARRIOR and WANDERER; mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade
paperback; 345-39737-1
Paperback, 640 pp; cover art by Michael Herring; SHS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
HIGH HUNT by David Eddings (F)
345-32887-6
Repackage, 340 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; VC, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
November 1995:
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-38374-5
Hardcover, 336 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book One of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38690-6
Trade paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 10/94 hardcover; 345-36895-9
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell (F)
345-37907-1
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; SWS, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-35011-1
Paperback repackage, 218 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; SHS, editor
BLADERUNNER, or DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECRIC SHEEP by Phillip K. Dick
345-35047-2
Reissue, 216 pp; cover art supplied by The Ladd Co.; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1995:
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 2/95 hardcover; 345-39787-8
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by John Berkey; EKH, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker (F)
345-37692-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Darell K. Sweet; VC, editor
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien (F)
345-40043-7
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by John Howe; VC, editor
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker (F)
Two-in-one volume: THE RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS, DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS;
345-40246-4
Repackage, 320 pp; cover art by Darrell Sweet; VC, editor
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90857-0
Repackage, 251 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
ORPHAN STAR by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90859-7
Repackage, 234 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE END OF MATTER by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90861-9
Repackage, 246 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
BLOODHYPE by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90863-5
Repackage, 249 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90865-1
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FLINX IN FLUX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90867-8
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 1996:
GHOST KING by David Gemmell (F)
345-37902-0
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter (F)
345-39345-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Givelo Cabral; VC, editor
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-39025-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Three-in-one volume: CRYSTAL SINGER, KILLASHANDRA, CRYSTAL LINE; 345-40292-8
Trade paperback, 672 pp; cover art by Michael Whelan & Rowena; SS, editor
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-38724-4
Reissue, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY 1996:
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
Volume III of the _Worldwar_ series; 345-40221-9
Hardcover, 496 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
Volume III of the _Worldwar_ series; mass-market edition of our 3/95
hardcover; 345-38998-0
Paperback, 608 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan (F)
Mass-market edition of our 5/95 hardcover; 345-38952-2
Paperback, 432 pp; cover art by David A. Cherry; VC, editor
>>SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James (SF)
345-40038-0
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Bruce Jensen; EKH, editor
GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-38468-7
Reissue, 561 pp; cover art by Tom Stimpson; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month. The body of the message should
read: subscribe DRIN-dist e-mail address Firstname Lastname;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
CHRIS BUNCH has just completed the second book of the _Shadow Warrior_
trilogy, a science-fiction thriller, and will begin work on the final volume
right after a well-deserved vacation. When he has completed the trilogy, he
will return to work on his solo fantasy trilogy for Warner/Aspect.
DAVID GEMMELL's next series from Del Rey is the four-book _Stones of Power,_
begining in January with GHOST KING. This book and LAST SWORD OF POWER are
slated for 1996 and two more are on the schedule for 1997. The fifth book in
the series, BLOODSTONE, is available in the UK edition.
NICOLA GRIFFITH is working on her next novel, a non-sf thriller.
STEVE SANSWEET has turned in the outline for the 1997 STAR WARS
ENCYCLOPEDIA--the most comprehensive overview ever published of
people, places, and things from every corner of the Star Wars
Universe.
Award-winning games author/editor BILL SMITH has written March's STAR WARS:
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS, the companion volume for STAR
WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS. This new volume details the history
and capabilities of the 100 most famous craft that populate the Star Wars
universe, and features a plethora of illustrations and technical drawings by
Doug Chiang and Troy Vigil. It also offers a sneak peek at some of the
technical elements of the SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE.
HARRY TURTLEDOVE has handed in the fourth and final volume of the _Worldwar_
tetralogy, scheduled for February 1997. He is already hard at work on
another new alternate-history saga, and has also completed HAMMER AND ANVIL,
the second of two books in the _Time of Troubles_ series that takes place
long before, but in the same world as, the _Videssos Cycle_.
THE REIGN OF THE BROWN MAGICIAN by LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS, the conclusion of his
_Three Worlds Trilogy_, is now set for mass-market paperback release in May
1996.
MARK COTTA VAZ has turned in the re-named STAR WARS: THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS
OF THE EMPIRE, set for May release. The Shadows of the Empire is a
movie-level event without a movie, set in the period between THE EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. STAR WARS: THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS OF
THE EMPIRE pulls together the upcoming novel, trading cards, role-playing
games, Nintendo video game, comic book series, and even the original
soundtrack, providing the background on the creative process for each and
vital statistics on all the major players, including the villain named Xizor
who matches Vader's bad-guy score.
---------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
BARBARA HAMBLY will be signing TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD at the following
stores this month:
October 10: Dark Carnival, Berkeley, California, 6PM-8PM.
October 11: Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books, Cupertino, California,
7:30PM-9PM.
October 12: Page One, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 7PM-8:30PM.
October 13: Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, California, 6:30PM-8PM.
October 14: Dangerous Visions, Sherman Oaks, California, 2PM-4PM.
October 15: Book Carnival, Orange, California, 1PM-3PM.
October 25: Borders, Los Angeles, California, 7:30PM-9PM.
JIM LUCENO, aka half of JACK McKINNEY, will be Guest of Honor at Robocon 10
in Anaheim, California, October 6-9.
K. D. WENTWORTH Will be at Armadillocon in Austin, Texas, October 6-8.
ANNE McCAFFREY will be at Octocon '95 in Dublin, Ireland, October 14-15.
J. GREGORY KEYES, K. D. WENTWORTH, SUSAN DEXTER, LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS, DAVID
GEMMELL, SHELLY SHAPIRO (Del Rey Executive Editor), and STEVE SAFFEL (Del Rey
Senior Editor) will be at 1995 World Fantasy Con, Baltimore, Maryland,
October 26-30.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS===================================
ONLINE OUTPOST UPDATE
The Ballantine Publishing Group Web site, of which Del Rey is a major piece,
now has a searchable electronic catalog of all books in print. We're still
working on it, so though all titles are in the database, not all have covers
or descriptions yet. Many do, though, and it's pretty neat to play around
with. The rest of the Ballantine site offers some other fun stuff, and we've
been adding things to the Del Rey site here and there over the months, with
more to come. The address is http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MORE ALTERNATE TAKES ON THE CIVIL WAR
WARD MOORE wrote one of the most famous and critically acclaimed alternate
history works--BRING THE JUBILEE. In a recent _New York Times_ book review,
author/reviewer Donald Westlake noted, "The Civil War has been often
rethought in this genre, most effectively in Ward Moore's BRING THE JUBILEE."
Impressed that this book would win out, in Westlake's mind at least, over our
very own popular GUNS OF THE SOUTH, Del Rey is now preparing to publish a new
mass-market edition of this pivotal novel to make it available for a new
generation of readers.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's new samples are MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster, THE
WONDERLAND GAMBIT: BOOK ONE, THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker, and
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell. THE DOLPHINS OF PERN is also available online.
Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del Rey
Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.mid-flinx, sample.cybernetic_walrus, sample.dolphins_of_pern, or
sample.waylander) and they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library 4 and
AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries too. (For a list of all sample chapters
available via the fileserver, send a message to delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST
sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH========================================================
Crawford Kilian's latest novel for Del Rey is REDMAGIC. Among his other
novels: GREENMAGIC, GRYPHON, EYAS, and the _Chronoplane Wars_ series (THE
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC, ROGUE EMPEROR, and THE EMPIRE OF TIME). One of the Del
Rey authors most active on the Internet, he makes some keen Net-derived
observations here about sf/fantasy readers, the current genre market, and the
quality of recent sf/fantasy:
For many readers of my generation, growing up just after World War II,
science fiction wasn't something we found in our school libraries, still less
in the curriculum. It was a misfit genre: it baffled most people, and its
publication in lurid pulp magazines (those Art Deco robots! those shrieking
maidens in bronze brassieres!) made it distinctly unacceptable to parents and
other authorities.
Well, we were misfits too, usually too few in a given neighborhood to find
many kindred souls. For us, community most often expressed itself in print,
in the letter columns and editorials of the SF magazines. There we'd find
views that echoed or challenged our own, a culture that dealt seriously with
issues our parents and classmates didn't even recognize. And we read about
the fortunates in the SF community who could actually meet face to face at
conventions and club events.
Far away in Mexico City, I read about conventions in New York that seemed
impossibly glamorous; I read about fanzines produced by other SF readers; I
read the lively, opinionated correspondence in magazines like Astounding--not
yet Analog--and dreamed of sending in my own views. (When I finally did, it
was to pan Robert Heinlein's DOUBLE STAR, which had just appeared in
Astounding as a serial. John W. Campbell, the editor, didn't print my
letter.)
Those letters and fanzines were a prototype of today's Internet newsgroups:
steady exchanges of opinion, news and gossip springing from a shared love of
the genre. Access to that early community, however, was difficult; if you
didn't actually live in a town holding a convention, how could you hope to
attend? And if you lived in another country altogether, you could only
eavesdrop.
So I grew up aware of the SF fan community, but not at all part of it. I
didn't attend a convention until I was over thirty; when I did, it was only
to glimpse Ursula Le Guin, the guest of honor, and then to leave out of sheer
shyness.
That sense of separation has persisted, though I've attended some very
enjoyable conventions and met some wonderful people since. With the advent of
the Internet, however, a new community has arisen--one which seems to me both
more sophisticated and less informed than that of forty years ago.
For an SF author, the presence of so many readers on the Net can be an
enormous advantage. We have very little sense of our audience without it. We
get an idea for a book; we write it over a period of months or even years; we
wait still longer for publication and then for royalty statements. Some of us
may enjoy hundreds of letters from fans, but many of us don't get more than a
letter or two for every 20,000 copies sold.
So authors don't know our own culture as well as we should. We know the books
and authors who inspired us to try writing; our own books are really extended
fan letters themselves, responses to the challenging ideas thrown out to us
by the likes of Heinlein, Asimov, and Le Guin. And we recognize that their
novels are a response to the authors they read in their youth. What we don't
know is how our readers respond to our own work.
And here is where the Internet shows us something about our readers.
Heinlein, Asimov, Le Guin and other writers who began publishing in the
1940s, '50s, and '60s had few role models within SF. They wrote SF but read
in many genres, and they expected their readers to be widely read as
well--even if we were kids.
Consider Arthur C. Clarke's AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT, later revised as THE
CITY AND THE STARS. It's rich with literary allusions to the Bible, to
Jonathan Swift, and to other classic sources. His novel CHILDHOOD'S END is
almost unintelligible without a solid grounding in Christianity, and a couple
of courses in John Milton would help as well. Those of us who read these
authors as children hadn't read Milton, of course--but when we did, we
recognized that the "escapist" novels our parents had fretted over were
actually literature.
The authors of that Golden Age were almost too successful. They created
genres and subgenres so popular that many readers (like me) sought to imitate
them...without necessarily sharing the literary background that made their
books so poweful. Some of us got published anyway, and attracted readers who
then sought to imitate us. But they were still farther from the source.
When I follow the discussions in SF newsgroups, I see the results. The genre
is over a century old (if we date it from Jules Verne and H. G. Wells). But
for many younger readers, Clarke is only the author of the Rama series and of
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Other postwar writers like Philip K. Dick are of
interest only to experts or "Blade Runner" fans. So discussions tend to focus
on very current authors, or on a handful of the old masters. (Heinlein's
STARSHIP TROOPERS still provokes lively debate--and who ever talks about
books from the mainstream bestseller lists of 1959?) The commentary, however,
reflects the changes in the genre.
The impression I gain from many postings on the Net is that a generation gap
has developed within the SF/fantasy community. Older readers (and writers)
have a pretty good perspective on the development of the genre, and they can
judge new work in the light of what came before it. Younger readers, lacking
this perspective, are missing a great deal. Just as my generation didn't
always "get" the literary allusions in Arthur C. Clarke or J. R. R. Tolkien,
many of today's young readers are ignorant of even the recent influences on
the new books they're reading.
This is not to condemn young readers (least of all for being young), but to
regret what they're missing. A genre-creating book like STARSHIP TROOPERS
creates an excitement that its imitators lack; they are, after all,
imitators, lacking the new ideas and visions of their founder. For my
generation, SF was by definition a literature of new ideas and visions; today
it too often resembles a mass-production industry for a readership that wants
familiar material, not something new and surprising. Discussions of SF on the
Net therefore resemble debates on the comparative merits of Pizza Hut versus
Boston Pizza without reference to Italian cuisine.
If this discovery through the Net hasn't been entirely welcome, it is still
useful information. As a teacher, I have to determine my students' areas of
ignorance before I can deal with them. As a writer, I need to know what my
readers know, and to work from there. Every novel is a kind of collaboration
between writer and reader, an interactive education for both. Heinlein (to
name just one of my literary mentors) taught me a great deal; his greatest
lesson, I think, was that the student eventually must revolt from the mentor
rather than slavishly imitate.
Out of the growing community on the Net, new genres will arise as the readers
of SF and fantasy test their responses against those of others. Some of the
genre-creating books will generate only a host of clones; but an increasingly
sophisticated SF/fantasy community will prefer new visions. As a novelist I
will be truly happy if my readers say: "Great! But I can top that!"--and then
do so with books that in turn inspire still newer rebellions.
--copyright 1995 by Crawford Kilian (ckilian@hubcap.mlnet.com)
Q & A=======================================================================
Q: I read your submission guidelines on the Web, but no mention was made on
how to submit a Star Wars novelization. Are there different criteria or
procedures since all of the characters are copyrighted?
A: Ballantine's nonfiction _Star Wars_ projects are often initiated in close
collaboration with Lucasfilm, occasionally on the basis of a proposal, and
often on a perceived need to fill an existing niche. They can be proposed by
Del Rey or by Lucasfilm. The novels are currently being produced by Bantam,
who works with Lucasfilm to pick out authors and develop the plots.
Perennial Q: The back of Harry Turtledove's IN THE BALANCE mentions a sequel,
TILTING THE BALANCE. My questions are, has the book been published yet?
If so, is it available in paperback?
A: WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE is currently out in hardcover. The paperback
edition is due in February of '96, at the same time as the hardcover edition
of
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE (volume three of four).
Q: I am interested in finding out some information on when Julian May's
book MAGNIFICAT would be available and if you guys published any sample
chapters on the Internet.
A: MAGNIFICAT will be a mid-1996 hardcover from Knopf, with the paperback to
follow 10 months or so later from Del Rey. We will put up a sample chapter
near the beginning of the year on our Web site
(http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and gopher space (gopher.panix.com, Del
Rey Books directory).
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
======================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books, except
for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author. The DRIN may be
reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 34 (November 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan. Hardcover. (EKH)
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION is the sequel to James P. Hogan's CODE OF THE
LIFEMAKER, one of his most popular books. It's hard sf that's easy to read,
with a drily witty tone. A race of robots has accidentally evolved into
consciousness on Titan, and spacefaring humans, the robots, and a mysterious
third party inhabiting Titan's eons-old computer banks struggle for control
of the planet and its valuable robotic factories. Meanwhile "psychic"
charlatan Karl Zambendorf, accompanying the official mission to Titan, pits
confidence tricks against science and robotic credulity to make himself look
good and possibly save the day.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker. Paperback. (VCh)
Jack L. Chalker finally returns to the realm of the Dancing Gods with a fifth
installment in the adventures of Joe the truck driver-turned-barbarian hero-
turned-wood nymph. This time, Joe's son Irving gets involved in the action--
really involved!--as the powers of God _and_ the Adversary mobilize to halt
an invasion from the Dark Beyond.
It takes a writer of singular imagination to put a spin on the scary
stuff, and who better than the author of the _Well World_ saga, _The Four
Lords of the Diamond_, and _The Rings of the Master_?
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien. Paperback. (VCh)
This is geography 101 for Tolkien fans, and the fourth book in Christopher
Tolkien's _History of Middle-earth_ series. He presents writings--some
hitherto unknown--that display the advances in the chronological and
geographical structure of the legends of Middle-earth and Valinor, and
provides diagrams and maps of this most famous of fantasy worlds. A great
way to get your bearings.
------------------------------------------------------------
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker. Paperback. (VCh)
For anyone who wasn't around for the adventures of the aforementioned truck-
drivin' Joe and Marge the waitress in the magical realm of Husaquahr, Del Rey
offers this 2-for-the-price-of-1 value pack: THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS and
DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS, available together for the first time. It's
frugal fantasy fun.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG
ORPHAN STAR
THE END OF THE MATTER
BLOODHYPE
FLINX IN FLUX
All by Alan Dean Foster. Repackages. (SHS)
Alan Foster's _Pip and Flinx_ adventures are considered classics of science
fiction by some, and certainly Flinx and the mighty minidrag Pip are among
Foster's most popular characters. Now all five of the previously published
Flinx and Pip books are available again, all with bright new cover art, to
tie-in with the hardcover publication of the latest Flinx book, MID-FLINX.
Follow Flinx and Pip as they avert galactic disaster, discover the origins of
Flinx's unusual talents, explore the ever-growing Commonwealth Universe, and
meet some very interesting aliens and allies along the way.
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
November 1995:
MID-FLINX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-38374-5
Hardcover, 336 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book One of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38690-6
Trade paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
THE DOLPHINS OF PERN by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 10/94 hardcover; 345-36895-9
Paperback, 384 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
MIDWORLD by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-35011-1
Paperback repackage, 218 pp; cover art by Mark Garro; SHS, editor
WAYLANDER by David Gemmell (F)
345-37907-1
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Mark Harrison; SWS, editor
BLADERUNNER, or DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECRIC SHEEP by Phillip K. Dick
345-35047-2
Reissue, 216 pp; cover art supplied by The Ladd Co.; SWS, editor
------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1995:
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 2/95 hardcover; 345-39787-8
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by John Berkey; EKH, editor
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker (F)
345-37692-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Darell K. Sweet; VC, editor
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien (F)
345-40043-7
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by John Howe; VC, editor
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker (F)
Two-in-one volume: THE RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS, DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS;
345-40246-4
Repackage, 320 pp; cover art by Darrell Sweet; VC, editor
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90857-0
Repackage, 251 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
ORPHAN STAR by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90859-7
Repackage, 234 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE END OF MATTER by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90861-9
Repackage, 246 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
BLOODHYPE by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90863-5
Repackage, 249 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90865-1
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FLINX IN FLUX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90867-8
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
January 1996:
GHOST KING by David Gemmell (F)
345-37902-0
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter (F)
345-39345-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Givelo Cabral; VC, editor
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-39025-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Three-in-one volume: CRYSTAL SINGER, KILLASHANDRA, CRYSTAL LINE;
345-40292-8
Trade paperback, 672 pp; cover art by Michael Whelan & Rowena; SS, editor
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-38724-4
Reissue, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
February 1996:
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-40221-9
Hardcover, 496 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 3/95 hardcover; 345-38998-0
Paperback, 608 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan (F)
Mass-market edition of our 5/95 hardcover; 345-38952-2
Paperback, 432 pp; cover art by David A. Cherry; VC, editor
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James (SF)
345-40038-0
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Bruce Jensen; EKH, editor
GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-38468-7
Reissue, 561 pp; cover art by Tom Stimpson; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------
March 1996:
FIRST KING OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks (F)
Prequel to _The Sword of Shannara_; 345-39652-9
Hardcover, 480 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; OL, editor
THE WIND AFTER TIME by Chris Bunch (SF)
Book One of the _Shadow Warrior_ trilogy; 345-38735-X
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Nicholas Jainschigg; SS, editor
MAD AMOS by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-39362-7
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Bollinger; SHS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS by Bill Smith (text),
Doug Chiang (original illustrations), Troy Vigil (schematics) (SF)
345-39299-X
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Doug Chiang; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month. The body of the message should
read: subscribe DRIN-dist e-mail address Firstname Lastname;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
NATHAN ARCHER, whose credits include two _Star Trek_ novels and two
_Predator_ novels, will write the first of Del Rey's MARS ATTACKS novels--
MARTIAN DEATHTRAP, slated for June 1996 release. The MARS ATTACKS series
will be based on the famous trading cards that were banned in the 1960s, as
well as the 1990s comic book series. These trading cards will also lead to a
Tim Burton movie, currently slated for 1997.
JACK L. CHALKER has turned in book two in the _Wonderland Gambit_ series,
titled THE MARCH HARE NETWORK. The first book in the series, _The Wonderland
Gambit_, Book One: THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS is in stores this month in trade
paperback, and will be published in mass-market in May '96. Chalker's other
new Del Rey title is HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS, due out in mass-market
paperback in December.
ALAN DEAN FOSTER'S new Pip and Flinx novel, MID-FLINX, will be available this
month. He is currently working on a new Commonwealth Universe novel. Also,
look for new covers on the reissues of MIDWORLD and the entire Pip and Flinx
saga, in stores now.
Del Rey will present DAVID GEMMELL's _Stones of Power_ series in
chronological order for the first time beginning in January with GHOST KING.
LAST SWORD OF POWER is also slated for 1996 and two more--WOLF IN SHADOW and
THE LAST GUARDIAN--are on the schedule for 1997. The fifth book in the
series, BLOODSTONE, is available in the UK edition, as are additional books
in Gemmell's famous Drenai series (which began with LEGEND).
Work has begun on the third and final book in the complete library of H. P.
LOVECRAFT Ballantine works. Titled THE TRANSITION OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: THE
ROAD TO MADNESS, it will include one of HPL's most famous Cthulhu works, AT
THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. It will complete the set that was begun a decade
ago with THE BEST OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: BLOODCURDLING TALES OF HORROR AND THE
MACABRE, and continued with the recent release of THE DREAM CYCLE OF H.P.
LOVECRAFT: DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH.
RAY W. MURILL is on board to write the second MARS ATTACKS novel for Del Rey.
MARS ATTACKS: WAR DOGS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE will feature the Martian invaders
(from the cult favorite trading cards that were banned in the '60s) facing
the descendants of Ghengis Khan. MARS ATTACKS is also slated to become a Tim
Burton movie in 1997.
Having received the go-ahead based on his outline, STEVE SANSWEET has begun
work on the STAR WARS ENCYCLOPEDIA--the most painstaking overview ever
prepared of people, places, and things from every corner of the Star Wars
Universe, including data on the Star Wars phenomenon and its impact on our
culture.
BILL SMITH's new STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS, the
companion volume for STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS,
illustrated by Troy Vigil and Doug Chiang, will offer some of the first
glimpses of the multi-media "Shadows of the Empire" storyline when it
features the ships piloted by some of the key villains from the Shadows
underworld. Smith is an award-winning writer/editor for the West End Games
Star Wars role playing game materials.
HARRY TURTLEDOVE's fourth and final volume in the _Worldwar_ tetralogy is
scheduled for hardcover release February 1997, concurrent with the mass
market release of Book Three. He is already hard at work on another stand-
alone alternate history novel in the vein of GUNS OF THE SOUTH, and on
another epic series, this one about an alternate World War One. He has also
completed HAMMER AND ANVIL, the second of two books in the _Time of Troubles_
series that takes place long before, but in the same world as, the _Videssos
Cycle_.
MARK COTTA VAZ has completed all additions, revisions, and updates for STAR
WARS: THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE, set for May release to tie in
with the Shadows epic. Chronicling events that take place between _The
Empire Strikes Back_ and _Return of the Jedi_ movies, STAR WARS: THE SECRETS
OF SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE pulls together actions that take place in the Bantam
novel, Topps trading cards, West End role playing games, state-of-the-art
Nintendo video game, and Dark Horse comic book series. This book reveals how
the many media joined together in one massive storyline, and offers a guide
to the saga's major elements.
---------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
DONALD E. McQUINN will be signing WITCH at the following stores this month:
November 2: Barnes and Noble, Bellevue, Seattle, Washington
November 15: University Bookstore, Seattle, Washington, 7PM
ANDY MANGELS will by signing STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS at
the following stores this month:
November 4: Tower Books, Tacoma, Washington
November 5: Tower Books, Seattle, Washington
BARBARA HAMBLY will be guest of honor at ANTARES '95 in Atlanta, Georgia,
November 10-12.
SHELLY SHAPIRO (Del Rey Executive Editor), STEVE SAFFEL (Senior Editor),
CHRISTINE LEVIS (Editorial Assistant), and DAVE STEVENSON (Assistant Art
Director) will be at PHILCON '95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 17-
19.
LARRY NIVEN will be at LOSCON 22 in Burbank, California, November 24-26.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS===================================
THE MARS ATTACKS INVASION HAS REACHED DEL REY!
Two new hardcover novels are scheduled for May and July, 1996, from authors
Nathan Archer and Ray W. Murill. The first will even sport a cover by Ken
Steacy, whose art has graced the _Mars Attacks_ trading cards and comic
books. The MARS ATTACKS novels are based on the famous trading cards which
achieved cult status after being banned in the 1960s due to their graphic
nature. Tim Burton is reported to be working on a _Mars Attacks_ movie for
1997, as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LEGEND ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY WILL RELEASE SHANNARA, A CD-ROM ADVENTURE GAME
BASED ON TERRY BROOKS' SHANNARA WORLD
The PC CD-ROM fantasy adventure game _Shannara_, will be available throughout
the United States in November 1995. The game is based on the novels by _New
York Times_ best-selling author Terry Brooks. With Legend Entertainment
Company's CD-ROM adventure, _Shannara_ fans will enjoy an original story set
in the time period between the first two _Shannara_ novels, THE SWORD OF
SHANNARA and THE ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA. Developed in close consultation with
Terry Brooks himself, the game features many of the popular characters and
places from the two novels.
Written by Corey and Lori Cole, the award-winning designers of the _Quest for
Glory_ series, _Shannara_ features 3-D animated sequences and over 30
speaking characters. An innovative adventurer's journal automatically
records events of interest during the game, and also allows players to add
their own notes. _Shannara_ also boasts an original musical score by George
"The Fat Man" Sanger (_Wing Commander_ and _The 7th Guest_).
Look for _Shannara_ in your software store this month. _Shannara_ will be
distributed to stores throughout North America by RandomSoft, a division of
Random House. European distribution will be arranged by Virgin Interactive
Entertainment (Europe) Ltd., and Australian distribution will be through
Directsoft Australia.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan,
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker, and DANCING GODS: PART ONE by
Jack L. Chalker. Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.immortality_option, sample.horrors_dancing_gods, or
sample.dancing_gods_one) and they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library
4 and AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, too. (For a list of all sample
chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to delrey@tachyon.com
with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH========================================================
Alan Dean Foster's first published novel, THE TAR-AIYM KRANG, introduced the
world to the unusual duo of Flinx and his companion, the flying snake Pip.
Since that auspicious beginning, Alan has gone on to write further adventures
with these two characters as well as a host of stand-alone novels set in the
same universe. One of the most fascinating worlds he's created is the
jungle-covered planet of Midworld. In this month's In Depth, Alan talks
about his love of travel, the genesis of Midworld, and the connections
between that wonderful planet and his latest Flinx and Pip adventure, MID-
FLINX:
I've always loved the empty places, and I'm spending a good part of my life
trying to visit as many of them as I can. For example, in two days I'm off
to Papua New Guinea. That's one of the places I _can_ visit. I've dived
with great white sharks and ridden whale sharks, driven solo across the Namib
desert, explored the outer reaches of northwest Australia, camped out in the
Manu of southeastern Peru, and so on.
But doggone it, there are so many more unexplored places I'd like to see.
Fortunately, I can conjure them up whenever I want--because they happen to
exist primarily in the recesses and byways of my mind.
I love to travel, and I love to tell stories, and I've been combining the two
for nearly a quarter of a century. One of the first places I always wanted
to go was a rainforest. But as I had no money, and no time, instead of
journeying there I had to invent one I could visit via my imagination. And
since there are few budget constraints on the imagination, I figured that as
long as I was imagining, I might as well conjure up a world that was _all_
rainforest. That was MIDWORLD, which came about before I ever had the
opportunity to travel outside the U.S., and before zoos and aquariums started
building their own rainforests ("first door on your left, no waiting, no
mosquitoes").
Since 1973, when MIDWORLD was written, I've been fortunate enough to marvel
and sweat at the real thing: in South America, in Southeast Asia, in
Australia--even in Hawaii. Actual rainforests turned out to be much as I'd
imagined them, only moreso. Yet depending on location there were pronounced
differences.
For example, in northeast Australia the bugs are relatively benign, whereas
in the Peruvian Amazon they will suck you dry. While traversing the Upper
Madre de Dios and the Manu rivers I expected to be bitten. I did not expect
to be bitten through two shirts (one long-sleeved) or through denim jeans.
For these hungry arthropods, 100% DEET is a pre-supper cocktail. As for
citronella repellents, room scent would have been as effective. When I
returned home, I most nearly resembled a fugitive from a leper colony.
Nature can be more aggressive than you ever imagined. She can also be more
entertaining, and I learned lessons in my travels that I wanted to share.
I'd written about a giant otter long before I ever saw one, but the reality
turned out to be more endearing than my imagination.
Fast forward. Years slip-slide away. View montage of author dutifully
scribing. Readers speak fondly of MIDWORLD and inquire about a sequel. It's
always flattering for a writer to be asked for a sequel because it says that
the original work is still well remembered. But sequels are difficult, and I
frankly never thought of doing one to MIDWORLD.
Readers also kept asking about the further adventures of Flinx and Pip. I'd
left that slightly disreputable pair to go their own way for a while and
reckoned it was getting near time to see what they were up to. Trouble was,
I couldn't think that they were up to anything. Which is when, as sometime
happens, the Prince of Serendip ups and boots el mio in the butt and ventures
his own suggestion.
Which is how the requested sequel to not one book but several came about, and
how it continues the tale not only of Midworld and of Flinx and Pip, but of
the eventual resolution of the entire interconnected Commonwealth sequence.
None of which I had in any way in mind when I wrote the very first book of
the series, THE TAR-AIYM KRANG, back in 1971. The Commonwealth was not
planned and neatly laid out from the beginning. There never was a
Heinleineseque Future History chart. The series has grown along with me and
frequently in spite of me. People keep asking about the darndest things,
bits and pieces of story I've completely forgotten about or put aside, and
guilt-ridden soul that I am, I feel compelled to answer their questions.
Besides, it's fun. Just don't ask Flinx, or Pip, or Ethan Fortune, or Skua
September, or the whales, or Truzenzuzex, or Maxim Malaika, or the AAnn, or
anyone else what's it all about or where it's all going, because they don't
know and neither do I. At least, not quite yet. It's all going _somewhere_,
though. That much I'm sure of.
I suspect the Ulru-Ujurrians know--but they're not telling. . .
--copyright 1995 by Alan Dean Foster
Q & A=======================================================================
Q: Can you tell me when MAGNIFICAT is due for publication? Does Julian May
plan any other books after MAGNIFICAT? (A Milieu companion? Other
stories set in her universe?)
A: Julian May has turned in MAGNIFICAT, the third and final book in _The
Galactic Milieu Trilogy._ Alfred A. Knopf expects to publish it in
hardcover in Spring 1995. Julian's next project will be SKY TRILLIUM, her
solo sequel to the three TRILLIUM books. After that, she's starting on the
new _Rampart Worlds_ trilogy.
Q: Will there be any more books by Donald E. McQuinn in the WARRIOR,
WANDERER, WITCH series?
A: Currently, Donald E. McQuinn doesn't have any novels planned in the
_Warrior_ series, but there's always the possibility that he may go back to
check on Tate's adventures sometime in the future.
Donald McQuinn's next book (first of a two-part series) will be a far-
future, military SF novel set in another star system. It will be published
in the fall of 1996 in mass-market paperback. We don't have a title yet to
give, but Donald McQuinn expects to have the manuscript completed next month,
and once we have the manuscript in, we'll be able to start providing more
info. Donald McQuinn also is in the planning stages of a fantasy trilogy.
Q: I would like more information about _Robotech._ Are there any books
coming out?
A: There have been twenty Robotech books so far, with the 21st set for
April. The books are:
Genesis Metamorphosis
Battle Cry Symphony of Light
Homecoming Sentinels: The Devil's Hand
Battlehymn Sentinels: Dark Powers
Force of Arms Sentinels: Death Dance
Doomsday Sentinels: World Killers
Southern Cross Sentinels: Rubicon
Metal Fire The End of the Circle
The Final Nightmare The Zentraedi Rebellion
Invid Invasion The Masters' Gambit
The first 12 Robotech novels have been collected in 3-in-1 volumes, as have
the first three Sentinels books, and we expect to continue the collections.
Robotech 21 will be set between books 9 and 10, and will be called BEFORE THE
INVID STORM. If you are a long-time Robotech fan, you'll recognize the cover
artist for #21--Ken Steacy. Ken is also dong the first cover for our new
MARS ATTACKS series.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
===================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books, except
for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 35 (December 1995)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
GHOST KING by David Gemmell. Paperback. (SWS)
The King of Brittania has been assassinated, the great Sword of Power has
vanished, and chaos and terror rule the day. The enemies of the realm amass
their forces, bent on spreading destruction, and they are aided by the powers
of the Witch Queen and the Lord of the Undead. The unlikely heroes are a
frail boy and an aging mountain warrior. But the boy has the blood of kings,
and the warrior is the legendary Lord of the Lance, Culain. They must
overcome incredible odds if they hope to prevail. And they just may succeed,
for they have a secret weapon--Culain knows the secret of the Witch Queen.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter. Paperback. (VC)
Susan Dexter shows flair and style in this romantic sequel to THE WIND-WITCH.
She tells the classic tale of a boy who wants to be a knight, a girl who
wants to be a magician, and an ensorcelled swan who wants to _stay_ a swan.
This is the third, heartwarming installment in _The Warhorse of Esdragon._
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza. Paperback. (OL)
After leading the second rebellion against the Japanese corporation that
colonized the planet Suid Afrika and then attacking Tokyo itself, the
Imperial Army's own Colonel Anton Vereshchagin has retired, leaving Suid
Afrika in the control of the people he was sent to suppress. In Cain's Land,
Vereshchagin is asked to come out of retirement by a very unlikely source--
the Japanese Ambassador to Suid Afrika--to lead an expedition to the newly
discovered planet Go-Nihon (nicknamed Neighbor) on behalf of the Japanese
empire he betrayed. First, he must convince the Suid Afrikans that the
Empire's expedition is not a ploy by the Japanese to regain control of their
former colony by diverting its military. Then, he must learn what threat the
Neighbors pose.
Unfortunately, the men he dispatches to Go-Nihon soon learn that the aliens--
bipedal humanoids nearing the ability to travel between planets--are a
militant, distrustful lot more intent on learning how human technology works
than in seriously negotiating a treaty of friendship. When, having learned
all they think they can, the aliens kidnap the negotiators and attack those
humans not in orbit, the negotiations become all-out war. Once again, the
men and women of Col. Vereshchagin's 35th Infantry must overcome tremendous
odds merely to survive.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
------------------------------------------------------------
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza. Reissue. (OL)
Several years after the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 35th Imperial Rifle
Regiment quelled the revolt that marooned them on the planet Suid Afrika in
Frezza's first novel, A SMALL COLONIAL WAR, another fleet appears in the
skies above the planet: Earth has not forgotten them, nor has the ruthless
Japanese company that once ran Suid Afrika. Despite his well-intentioned
efforts to prevent bloodshed, Lt.-Col. Anton Vereshchagin and his battalion
of very well-trained and well motivated troops eventually must protect an
entire planet against imperial aggression from an Earth dominated by the
Japanese. The editor of this one bought it because he found it to be well-
drawn, meticulously detailed military sf--a cut above the usual "small group
takes on state/empire/world and wins" scenario. Frezza, a former Army
officer, is also the author of the wacky McLENDON'S SYNDROME.
-------------------------------------------------------------
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey. Trade. (SS)
Outside of Pern, the amazing world of Ballybran--whose fascinating varieties
of crystal are mined by singing them out of the rock--has been one of Anne
McCaffrey's most popular creations. Here, for the first time, we've brought
together all three of Killashandra Ree's crystal-singing adventures in one
book...about a musically talented woman and her amazing career singing
valuable, almost magical, crystal out of the rock of an alien planet. But as
much as this job brings her wealth and a place to belong, it also brings
heartache and memory loss--until Killashandra at last comes to grips with her
past and her future.
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
December 1995:
THE IMMORTALITY OPTION by James P. Hogan (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 2/95 hardcover; 345-39787-8
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by John Berkey; EKH, editor
HORRORS OF THE DANCING GODS by Jack L. Chalker (F)
345-37692-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Darell K. Sweet; VC, editor
THE SHAPING OF MIDDLE-EARTH by J.R.R. Tolkien (F)
345-40043-7
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by John Howe; VC, editor
DANCING GODS: PART ONE by Jack L. Chalker (F)
Two-in-one volume: THE RIVER OF THE DANCING GODS, DEMONS OF THE DANCING GODS;
345-40246-4
Repackage, 320 pp; cover art by Darrell Sweet; VC, editor
THE TAR-AIYM KRANG by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90857-0
Repackage, 251 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
ORPHAN STAR by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90859-7
Repackage, 234 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
THE END OF MATTER by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90861-9
Repackage, 246 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
BLOODHYPE by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90863-5
Repackage, 249 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER-NOT by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90865-1
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
FLINX IN FLUX by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-90867-8
Repackage, 247 pp; cover art by Bob Eggleton; SHS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
JANUARY 1996:
GHOST KING by David Gemmell (F)
345-37902-0
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter (F)
345-39345-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Givelo Cabral; VC, editor
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-39025-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Three-in-one volume: CRYSTAL SINGER, KILLASHANDRA, CRYSTAL LINE;
345-40292-8
Trade paperback, 672 pp; cover art by Michael Whelan & Rowena; SS, editor
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-38724-4
Reissue, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
-----------------------------------------------------------
FEBRUARY 1996:
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-40221-9
Hardcover, 496 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 3/95 hardcover; 345-38998-0
Paperback, 608 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan (F)
Mass-market edition of our 5/95 hardcover; 345-38952-2
Paperback, 432 pp; cover art by David A. Cherry; VC, editor
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James (SF)
345-40038-0
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Bruce Jensen; EKH, editor
GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-38468-7
Reissue, 561 pp; cover art by Tom Stimpson; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------
MARCH 1996:
FIRST KING OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks (F)
Prequel to _The Sword of Shannara_; 345-39652-9
Hardcover, 480 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; OL, editor
THE WIND AFTER TIME by Chris Bunch (SF)
Book One of the _Shadow Warrior_ trilogy; 345-38735-X
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Nicholas Jainschigg; SS, editor
MAD AMOS by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-39362-7
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Bollinger; SHS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENCIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS by Bill Smith (text),
Doug Chiang (original illustrations), Troy Vigil (schematics) (SF)
345-39299-X
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Doug Chiang; SWS, editor
----------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL 1996:
THE WARRIOR RETURNS by Allan Cole (F)
Book Four of the _Anteros_ series; 345-3945-3
Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
KINGDOMS OF THE NIGHT by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch (F)
Book Three of the _Anteros_ series; 345-38732-5
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
BEFORE THE INVID STORM by Jack McKinney (SF)
345-38776-7
Paperback, 228 pp; cover art by Ken Steacy; SWS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book Two: THE SHADOWSMITH by Geary Gravel (SF)
345-38293-5
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Donald Clavette; SS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book One: THE DREAMWRIGHT by Geary Gravel (SF)
345-90930-5
Reissue, 256 pp; cover art by Kevin Murphy; SS, editor
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
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4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. read the current issue in the science-fiction area on BIX;
8. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at
gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
--------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in
the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
CHRIS BUNCH has just completed the second book of the _Shadow Warrior_
trilogy, a science-fiction thriller, and will take a break between writing
books two and three to continue work on his solo fantasy trilogy for
Warner/Aspect. After he feels he's had enough of a breather to keep the
Shadow Warrior series fresh, he will begin work on the final volume.
Having wrapped up the Antero series with _The Warrior Returns_, ALLAN COLE is
hard at work on the first volume of a brand-new solo fantasy epic for Del
Rey.
---------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
TERRY BROOKS will be signing WITCHES' BREW at Ricketts Auditorium, Bothell,
Washington, December 6.
HARRY TURTLEDOVE will be signing WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE at the
following store this month:
December 9: Super Crown, Simi Valley, California, 7-9PM.
ALAN DEAN FOSTER will be signing MID-FLINX at the following stores this
month:
December 1: Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada, 11AM-1PM.
December 2: Las Vegas Book Fair, Las Vegas, Nevada, 10AM-1PM.
December 4: Page One, Albuquergue, New Mexico, 7PM-8:30PM.
December 5: Deseret Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 12PM-2PM.
December 7: Bookmark, Tuscon, Arizona, 7PM-8:30PM.
December 8: Barnes and Noble, Phoenix, Arizona, 7PM-8PM.
December 9: Hastings, Prescott, Arizona, 2PM-4PM.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS===================================
NEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES!
Due to time constraints we regret that Del Rey Books will no longer accept
unsolicited manuscripts. We do, however, encourage query letters for
submitting a manuscript. The query letter should include a brief description
of the manuscript and a detailed outline of the story from beginning to end.
You'll receive a response only if we wish to see your manuscript and you've
enclosed a SASE. Please send all query letters to the attention of Jill
Benjamin.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are GHOST KING by David Gemmell, THE TRUE KNIGHT
by Susan Dexter, and CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza. Descriptions above in
"What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.ghost_king, sample.true_knight, or sample.cains_land) and they'll be
available in CompuServe's SF Library 4 and AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries,
too. (For a list of all sample chapters available via the fileserver, send a
message to delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH========================================================
Name: George D. Bick
What my business card says: Vice President, Wholesale Sales, The Ballantine
Publishing Group
Diversions: cycling, cybersurfing, screenwriting
Authors with the most space on my bookshelf: Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut,
Jr.
Book I recommend most: A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole
Net address: gbick@randomhouse.com
The Pavlovian response to the word "publishing" is "editor." At least that's
the first thing that popped into my head when I heard the publishing bell
ring. That must have been sometime between reading HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL
TRAVEL by Robert Heinlein and declaring Psychology as my college major. The
thought of sitting in a big, comfy chair with a banker's lamp by my side, a
pen cup filled with red felt-tips, and a stack of unsolicited manuscripts
seemed like the dream career. Until I actually went publishing job hunting
and all sorts of bells went off.
You're probably wondering what "ID" sales are. And what it is I do to manage
them nationally. And why I'm not an editor. Well, first things first. "ID"
is an acronym for Independent Distributors. There are roughly 300
Independent Distributors in the US and Canada, selling and distributing books
and magazines (and POGs, trading cards, sunglasses, etc.) to a variety of
retail outlets in their service areas: airports, rail stations, military
bases, schools, supermarkets, drugstores, and national chain stores like
Walmart, Target, K-mart, Walgreens, Albertson's, Safeway and so on--basically
any non-traditional book outlet, though many wholesalers own and service
bookstores and newsstands. A service area can range from a few square miles
to hundreds of square miles, but the ID's function is essentially the same
and can be broken down to three basic elements:
1) Having intimate knowledge of the demographics of the service area so that
products can be matched to consumer demand
Example: Carry a higher proportion of science fiction and fantasy titles if
the wholesaler services military bases (high sf/fantasy readership in our
armed forces)
2) Ability to deliver and merchandise dated material (especially books and
magazines) to a huge number of retailers within a tiny window of time,
typically within one to three working days
Example: The new edition of "TV Guide" is lovingly merchandised in every
grocery check-out lane each and every week
3) Performing warehousing functions so that retailers can instantly
capitalize on "hot" mass-media events (movie tie-in books, celebrity tell-
alls, etc.) Retailers can also rely on on-demand fulfillment of orders and
reorders. An empty rack pocket is a lost sale.
Example: Safeway can call their local wholesaler to instantly replenish
movie tie-in copies of, say, HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT, rather than
ordering directly, but not quite as quickly, from us.
And this is just the bare bones of what wholesalers do. They also solicit
and penetrate new markets, do chain marketing, place ads, host author
functions, and so on.
Now that you have an idea of what wholesalers are, let me discuss briefly
what it is I do (instead of edit). We have twenty-five sales representatives
in the US, eight reps in Canada, and one telemarketing rep calling on all 300
wholesalers. The reps in turn report to six regional sales managers, who
report to my superior commanding officer, the Director of ID Sales. He quips
that I do all the work and let me tell you, he is a very smart cookie.
There are three very basic stages to publishing for profit:
1) Acquire books
2) Reps sell them to accounts (both wholesalers and bookstores)
3) Consumers respond (i.e., buy) at the retail level
The major focus of my position falls in between #1 and #2. To borrow an
Orwellian term, I could be called the Minister of Information, for it is my
responsibility to distill the prodigious amounts of information gleaned in
meetings--both virtual and physical--about our upcoming books into easy-to-
digest sales bits that the reps can use most effectively. Since the
Ballantine Publishing Group publishes roughly forty titles each and every
month and each rep has ten to fifteen accounts to call on, you can see how
crucial time-management becomes.
Not only do I distill, but I also devise and effect sales strategies and
marketing tactics aimed at increasing volume, efficiency, and market share.
These elements also serve to affect #3 above. To spread the information and
inspiration to the field force, I use various media--Lotus Notes, Powerpoint,
the Web, good old-fashioned conversation, and face-to-face confabs. (How does
that adage go? You can't fax a handshake.)
Learning from mistakes and successes is the final component in this process,
and the most valuable. Since we sell each month's list of books five months
in advance--we're selling March 1996 new releases in November 1995--we won't
know the results of the best-laid plans until a year later. Building a
database of what works and what doesn't is crucial to maintaining major-
player status in an extremely competitive marketplace.
Lastly, I work with every department from art to warehousing (wish there was
a department that began with Z) to keep the whole machine humming.
So why am I not an editor? Well, when I first started hunting for publishing
gigs, I answered an ad at Warner Books for an editorial position. I was
asked to take a typing test, which I failed miserably. Thought I'd be
reading _other_ people's typing. "Anything available that doesn't require a
typing test?" I asked. Much riffling through papers. "We do have a sales
position open. Interested?" Sales, hmm. "The base salary is also $500
more." Ding ding!!
That was eight years ago, and I'm still amazed that they actually pay me to
do this. I'm also still amazed at how few editors there really are in
publishing. Maybe it's that darn typing test.
---copyright 1995 by George Bick (gbick@randomhouse.com)
Q & A=======================================================================
Q: Are David and Leigh Eddings going to come out with any additional books
like BELGARATH THE SORCERER?
A: Absolutely! The next will be POLGARA THE SORCERESS. The book is well
underway now; and we expect that the manuscript will be completed late 1996--
which means a 1997 publication date.
Q: Is Katherine Kurtz coming out with a new Deryni novel, and if she is, what
will it be called?
A: Katherine Kurtz is hard at work on a big stand-alone fantasy to be titled
KING KELSON'S BRIDE. Don't go looking for it soon, though; she won't be
delivering the first draft to Del Rey until spring of 1996. So publication
will be sometime in 1997.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com |DEL|
===================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 36 (January 1996)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove. Hardcover. (SWS)
Now that the alien invaders are aware that mankind has the ability to produce
multiple atomic weapons, human scientists must continue their work in the face
of even more aggressive retaliation. This is the third book in Turtledove's
popular alternate-World War II series that began with IN THE BALANCE and
continued with TILTING THE BALANCE.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove. Paperback. (SWS)
Book Two of the alternate-history _Worldwar_ series. As the lizardlike male
warriors of the Race attempt to consolidate the various beachheads they have
seized on the Earth of World War II, Americans, Germans, Russians, and the
Japanese each attempt to develop atomic weapons. Told in thriller style, the
same way LUCIFER'S HAMMER was--lots of major characters,
all experiencing the alternate WWII from vastly varying positions and viewpoints.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan. Paperback. (VCh)
Dave Duncan, author of many fantasy and science fiction novels for Del Rey,
explores a whole new direction in his new, single-volume, stand-alonenovel THE
CURSED. It's the story of Gwin, a widowed innkeeper who offers shelter to a
young girl "cursed" with the magic power of healing. Gwin's accidental
involvement with magic changes her life in ways neither she nor
the reader could ever have anticipated, bringing her love and tragedy, adventure
and magic as she serves as midwife at the birth of a new empire.
Duncan's a master of upending the established conventions of the fantasy genre,
and he says he believes THE CURSED is the strongest book he has ever written.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James. Paperback. (EKH)
Two reasons I knew this was a good one: the day I started this book, I spent a
whole day at home devouring page after page and then cursed myself for not
bringing the whole manuscript home. Then came Christmas. I left town, and
didn't get back to the second half of the book until January--but when I picked
it up again my first day back, it was just as vivid as before, and I was dumped
right back into the story.
Ronica McBride is the only Class-A talent-in-training in the galactic federation
called the Com. But on the night of her graduation into service to the Com, she
finds herself instead on a wilderworld, a planet outside the Com--without her
talent. In the course of the book, she grows out of being the self-centered
young woman she had once been, and then, much to her surprise, learns that
everything she believed about her world, her place in it, and the people she
loves is a lie.
This book has the two things I enjoy most about good sf: extreme otherness of
situation, and extreme realism of character and character interaction.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove. Reissue. (SWS)
Turtledove's alternate history asks two good questions: who would have won the
Civil War if the South had had better weapons--specifically, the AK-47? And what
would have happened afterwards? James MacPherson, a Civil War historian, calls
THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH "without question the most fascinating Civil War novel I
have ever read..._must_ reading for every Civil War student." The Chicago
_Sun-Times_ says it's "an expert exercise in speculative history," and Orson
Scott Card call Turtledove "a damn fine storyteller" and says he "plays the game
of alternate histories better than anybody else, and THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH is
Turtledove at his best." Lest this description begin to sound like a mere
self-congratulatory quote-fest, I will stop now. But if you like
well-thought-out alternate histories or the Civil War, you'll probably like this
book a lot.
DEL REY DATA==========================================================
JANUARY 1996:
GHOST KING by David Gemmell (F)
345-37902-0
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Royo; SWS, editor
THE TRUE KNIGHT by Susan Dexter (F)
345-39345-7
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Givelo Cabral; VC, editor
CAIN'S LAND by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-39025-3
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
THE CRYSTAL SINGER TRILOGY by Anne McCaffrey (SF)
Three-in-one volume: CRYSTAL SINGER, KILLASHANDRA, CRYSTAL LINE;
345-40292-8
Trade paperback, 672 pp; cover art by Michael Whelan & Rowena; SS, editor
FIRE IN A FARAWAY PLACE by Robert Frezza (SF)
345-38724-4
Reissue, 320 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; OL, editor
FEBRUARY 1996:
WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-40221-9
Hardcover, 496 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
Mass-market edition of our 3/95 hardcover; 345-38998-0
Paperback, 608 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan (F)
Mass-market edition of our 5/95 hardcover; 345-38952-2
Paperback, 432 pp; cover art by David A. Cherry; VC, editor
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James (SF)
345-40038-0
Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Bruce Jensen; EKH, editor
GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-38468-7
Reissue, 561 pp; cover art by Tom Stimpson; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MARCH 1996:
FIRST KING OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks (F)
Prequel to THE SWORD OF SHANNARA; 345-39652-9
Hardcover, 480 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; OL, editor
THE WIND AFTER TIME by Chris Bunch (SF)
Book One of the _Shadow Warrior_ trilogy; 345-38735-X
Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Nicholas Jainschigg; SS, editor
MAD AMOS by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
345-39362-7
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Bollinger; SHS, editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS by Bill
Smith (text), Doug Chiang (original illustrations), Troy Vigil
(schematics) (SF)
345-39299-X
Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Doug Chiang; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL 1996:
THE WARRIOR RETURNS by Allan Cole (F)
Book Four of the _Anteros_ series; 345-3945-3
Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
KINGDOMS OF THE NIGHT by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch (F)
Book Three of the _Anteros_ series; 345-38732-5
Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
BEFORE THE INVID STORM by Jack McKinney (SF)
345-38776-7
Paperback, 228 pp; cover art by Ken Steacy; SWS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book Two: THE SHADOWSMITH by Geary Gravel (SF)
345-38293-5
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Donald Clavette; SS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book One: THE DREAMWRIGHT by Geary Gravel (SF)
345-90930-5
Reissue, 256 pp; cover art by Kevin Murphy; SS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 1996:
MARS ATTACKS #1: MARTIAN DEATHTRAP by Nathan Archer (SF)
345-40495-5
Hardcover, 224 pp; cover art by Ken Steacy; SWS, editor
POWER PLAY by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF)
Book Three of the _Powers_ series; 345-38781-3
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena; SS, editor
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F)
Book One of _The Star Stone_; mass-market edition of our 9/95 hardcover;
345-39247-7
Paperback, 320 pp; cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
IN THE REIGN OF THE BROWN MAGICIAN by Lawrence Watt-Evans (SF)
Book Three of the _Three Worlds Trilogy_; 345-38781-3
Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Peter Peebles; SWS, editor
THE MARCH HARE NETWORK by Jack L. Chalker (SF)
Book Two of _The Wonderland Gambit_; 345-38691-4
Trade paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS, editor
THE SECRETS OF STAR WARS: SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE by Mark Cotta Vaz (SF)
345-40236-7
Trade paperback, 312 pp; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY: WAYS TO GET THE DRIN ONLINE
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written,
GEnie's Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and
Fantasy SIG (Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF
Library or OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF
Library 5*;
2. send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to
the subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the
first or second working day of the month. The body of the message should
read: subscribe DRIN-dist e-mail address Firstname Lastname;
3. read it and more on our World Wide Web site*,
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/
4. get a copy from the Del Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by
sending e-mail with "SENDME newsletter.current" as the body of
the message (or send "HELP" for full instructions);
5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose the Del Rey
Books directory);
6. read it at the Internet Book Information Center (WWW address:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html);*
7. retrieve the current issue from the SF archives at gandalf.rutgers.edu
*Back issues also available
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The entire
current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com) in the Del
Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
NATHAN ARCHER, of _Star Trek_ and _Predator_ fame, has completed the first of Del
Rey's MARS ATTACKS novels--MARTIAN DEATHTRAP, based on the infamous/ famous
trading cards that were banned in the 1960s. In this first installment, a
Martian Death Squad corners a group of humans in a gigantic tourist trap of a
mansion. In true, grisly tradition, not everyone will come out alive. (The
cards inspired filmmaker Tim Burton in a similar fashion--the _Mars Attacks_
movie is currently slated for 1997.)
PHILIP K. DICK's famous anti-utopian DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, which
inspired the motion picture _Bladerunner_, will feature a Roger Zelazny
introduction when it is re-released as a deluxe trade paperback next June.
THE TRANSITION OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: THE ROAD TO MADNESS will include one of HPL's
most famous Cthulhu works, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS--which, as many fans are
aware, inspired John Carpenter as he produced _In the Mouth of Madness_. This
volume will also contain the story "Herbert West, Reanimator," which made the
transition to celluloid when it was made into a motion picture by Stuart Gordon.
This trade-paperback collection completes the set that was begun a decade ago
with THE BEST OF H. P. LOVECRAFT: BLOODCURDLING TALES OF HORROR AND THE MACABRE
and continued with the recent release of THE DREAM CYCLE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT:
DREAMS OF TERROR AND DEATH.
RAY W. MURILL has turned in the second MARS ATTACKS novel for Del Rey. MARS
ATTACKS: WAR DOGS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE will feature the Martian invaders fighting
the savage descendants of Ghengis Khan. While creating this novel, Murill did
extensive research in the interest of authenticity, and had to learn the Mongol
word for "Mars."
STEVE SANSWEET continues work on the STAR WARS ENCYCLOPEDIA--perhaps the most
painstaking overview every prepared of the Star Wars universe. This ambitious
hardcover will feature a thorough accounting of Star Wars characters, locales,
and technology. As a bonus, it will also review the people, places, and things
that went into the _creation_ of George Lucas's fantastic milieu.
BILL SMITH's new STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS, the
companion volume for STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS, will feature
detailed schematics of each spacecraft, prepared by Troy Vigil, and dynamic new
illustrations of the ships, rendered by Doug Chiang.
MARK COTTA VAZ has completed all additions, revisions, and updates for STAR WARS:
THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE, set for May release to tie in with the
Shadows epic. Tracing events that take place between _The Empire Strikes Back_
and _Return of the Jedi_ movies, STAR WARS: THE SECRETS OF SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE
will be profusely illustrated with original video game illustrations and
storyboards, photos of all of the key creative talents, and seminal artwork for
the comic book series and Bantam novel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
JAMES P. HOGAN will be Guest of Honor at TROPICON 14 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
January 12-14.
DEL REY NEWS AND
ANNOUNCEMENTS========================================================== ====
DEL REY AUTHOR ALLAN COLE HAS A WEB SITE
Science fiction and fantasy author Allan Cole invites his friends and readers to
visit him at his new home page. The address is http://www.acole.com. Cole, best
known for the _Sten_ and _Antero_ series, says the new home page features
chapters and cover illustrations of his upcoming THE WARRIOR RETURNS, as well as
a "works in progress" sample of WHEN THE GODS SLEPT, the first in a new fantasy
trilogy for Del Rey Books.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR INFORMATION ON OTHER AUTHOR WEB & GOPHER SITES
We're always looking for online resources about our authors. If you know of one,
please send it in--checking first the large list we maintain on OUR web site
(http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) to make sure we don't already know about it.
We're especially interested in adding new authors to our online resources list,
rather than adding a second or third site for an author who's already
represented.
LATEST EXCERPTS
ONLINE================================================================== ====
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our favorite,
neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for free, of
course). This month's books are WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE and WORLDWAR:
TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove, THE CURSED by Dave Duncan, and
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James. Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del Rey Web
site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e-mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.upsetting_the_balance, sample.tilting_the_balance, sample.cursed, or
sample.commencement) and they'll be available in CompuServe's SF Library 4 and
AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, too. (For a list of all sample chapters
available via the fileserver, send a message to delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST
sample" as the body of the message.)
IN
DEPTH================================================================================
==
(Editor's Note: In the interest of up-to-the-minute reporting, war correspondent
Harry Turtledove has prepared a detailed account of Worldwar action on all
fronts, foreign and domestic. Turtledove has produced an even more complete
status report in the February hardcover volume WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE.)
NEW YORK: The Soviet atomic bomb that detonated south of Moscow has rocked
those invaders back on their heels. They plainly fear that any further
concentration of their forces against the Red Army will lead to another such
blast, and to losses they cannot afford." Captain Eric G. Iverson, U.S. Army
spokesman, described the taut situation that has lent impetus to armies
worldwide in the battle to repel the reptilian invaders known as The Race. There
can be no doubt that the United States, Germany, and perhaps Japan are working
feverishly on atomic weapons programs; these offer the best hope of challenging
the invaders on their own terms. And the invaders will do everything in their
power to squelch these programs; their ruthless destruction of Berlin and
Washington, D.C., shows the lengths to which they will go to terrorize mankind
into submission.
Soviet representatives have met with American officials to discuss a joint effort
against the common foe, but even the persuasive words of Foreign Commissar
Vyacheslav Molotov have received tremendous suspicion. On the battlefields, new
field weapons have given soldiers hope in the struggle against the
technologically superior foe, yet these are often in short supply.
The invaders, driven back from Chicago last winter, are on the outskirts of the
city once more. With control of the Mississippi valley, they have virtually cut
the United States in half, and their tanks push westward across the Great
Plains. In some instances, they have been opposed by horse cavalry, an
institution once thought obsolete.
Germany has stabilized fronts in France and Poland, and has driven the invaders
out of their foothold in Croatia. The Germans have also introduced guided
rockets like those the enemy employs. Soviet-German cooperation is said to be
shaky in many areas of the USSR that had been occupied by the Nazis, but, on the
whole, cooperation continues.
Despite the veil of secrecy, correspondents report that the British have made
great progress in harnessing the invaders' advanced engineering. As when Hitler
was the foe, Great Britain's island status has protected it from the worst of
the onslaught, though air defenses have taken a severe pounding.
Ambiguous reports still continue to emerge from Poland, most revolving around the
role played by Jewish partisans. Oppressed by the Nazis, they once welcomed the
invaders as liberators. Some still do, while others, fearing worse enslavement,
are working with human resistance movements of all ideological stripes, from
fascist to Communist.
On a vastly larger scale, China is occupied by the enemy, but the Chinese remain
unsubdued, continuing resistance under the very snouts of their oppressors.
Resistance movements find themselves divided along ideological lines, and the
situation in that land can be described only as "fluid."
And what of the invaders themselves? Interrogation of captured members of the
Race reveals how shocked they are at mankind's ability to resist their
onslaught. US military leaders have expressed the hope that recent events,
especially mankind's use of atomic weapons, may create a crisis of leadership
among the enemy. This, coupled with the fact that many invaders have found
themselves disastrously addicted to certain Earthly herbs, may give the human
race a fighting chance.
But few could have foreseen the astonishing developments of the past year,
developments that, before the invasion, would have been dismissed as science
fiction. Military and civilian leaders alike ask, what lies ahead? Only time
will tell.
--copyright 1996 by Harry Turtledove
Q &
A===================================================================================
=
Q: I have just finished Jack L. Chalker's _The Wonderland Gambit_, Book One: THE
CYBERNETIC
WALRUS. In my humble opinion it was his best effort to date. I am sitting on
the edge of
my chair waiting for the rest of the story. Could you possibly tell me when
the rest of
the story will be available?
A: THE MARCH HARE NETWORK, Book Two of _The Wonderland Gambit_, will be available
May 1996, in trade paperback.
Q: The latest book I have by Katherine Kurtz is THE BASTARD PRINCE. Does she
have a new book
out since that one? Is she planning on writing more?
A: Katherine Kurtz is hard at work on a big fantasy to be titled KING KELSON'S
BRIDE. She doesn't think she can deliver it to Del Rey before spring 1996,
though, so publication will be sometime in 1997--we hope.
Ellen Key Harris
Editor, Del Rey Books
Director of Online Projects, Ballantine Books
delrey@randomhouse.com
|DEL|
================================================================================|REY|
[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books,
except for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author.
The DRIN may be reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Drin37.Txt =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<
|DEL|
|REY| The DEL REY BOOKS Internet Newsletter
Number 37 (February 1996)
WHAT'S NEW IN THE STORES===========================================
FIRST KING OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks. Hardcover. (OL)
Each of the seven _Shannara_ novels has been a _New York Times_ bestseller,
selling in all over 10 million copies. And over the years Terry Brooks has
been asked thousands of questions about characters and situations in the
series. In FIRST KING OF SHANNARA, which is set 500 years before THE SWORD
OF SHANNARA, Terry answers in great detail the most important of those
questions: How were the Druids destroyed? What happened to Paranor? What
is the early history of the Shannara family? How did the Sword of Shannara
come to be? Anyone who enjoyed the previous _Shannara_ titles, or likes
epic fantasy, will enjoy visiting the beginnings of the _Shannara_ epic in
the latest--and possibly the last--_Shannara_ book..
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS by Bill Smith. Art by
Doug Chiang, technical illustrations by Troy Vigil. Trade Paperback. (SWS)
Companion to THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS, this volume details the 100
key spaceships from the _Star Wars_ movies, books, comics, and even the
upcoming SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE multimedia saga. As a bonus, there is a
brief Star Wars timeline, a Layman's Guide to Technology, and a listing of
the key starship manufacturers in the Star Wars Universe. Each entry
features various illustrations and schematics prepares especially for this
volume.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
--------------------------------------------------------------
THE SWORD OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks. Paperback. (OL)
This is the book that was the first fantasy novel to hit the _New York
Times_ bestseller list in trade paperback, forcing the _Times_ to change
the way it organized its lists: before THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, the
Paperback Bestseller list was called "Nonfiction." As one of Del Rey's
first titles ever, THE SWORD OF SHANNARA had a major impact even beyond the
bestseller list. It proved that fantasy could be a reality in the
marketplace, and established Del Rey as a major player in the field. (It
didn't hurt that the fledging imprint's other title was a book called STAR
WARS!) An epic fantasy adventure.
In a world of elves, dwarfs, gnomes, and humans--the descendants of races
all but destroyed in a terrible war in the distant past--a new and even
more devastating war threatens. Shea, a half-human half-elf who lives in
Shady Vale, is told that he--and only he--can save Mankind from the Warlock
Lord, the very essense of Evil. As the only living descendant of the Elf
House of Shannara, Shea is the one person who can wield the fabled magic
Sword, the only weapon capable of stopping the Warlock Lord. So, Shea must
find the Sword before his enemy can destroy it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WIND AFTER TIME by Chris Bunch. Paperback. (SS)
Joshua Wolfe, loner, fighter, and almost-alien, finds evidence that the
long-gone Al'ar aliens--or some of them, anyway--may not be gone at all.
But as his search brings him closer and closer to the truth, it also brings
him closer and closer to whoever it is who wants him stopped...forever.
This first volume of a science-fiction thriller trilogy titled SHADOW
WARRIOR shows fans of the Sten novels that, although he has gone on to
write epic fantasy, Chris Bunch has not forgotten his roots in--and love
of--science fiction..
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAD AMOS by Alan Dean Foster. Paperback. (SS)
A collection of fantasy short stories about Mad Amos, craziest wizard in
the wild west. Fantasy of a different--and fun!--sort, from the author of
the Pip and Flinx and _Damned_ series.
>> SAMPLE CHAPTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
DEL REY DATA=======================================================
FEBRUARY 1996: WORLDWAR: UPSETTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF)
345-40221-9 Hardcover, 496 pp; cover art by Stan Watts; SWS, editor
WORLDWAR: TILTING THE BALANCE by Harry Turtledove (SF) Mass-market edition
of our 3/95 hardcover; 345-38998-0 Paperback, 608 pp; cover art by Stan
Watts; SWS, editor
THE CURSED by Dave Duncan (F) Mass-market edition of our 5/95 hardcover;
345-38952-2 Paperback, 432 pp; cover art by David A. Cherry; VC, editor
COMMENCEMENT by Roby James (SF) Del Rey Discovery; 345-40038-0 Paperback,
368 pp; cover art by Bruce Jensen; EKH, editor
GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove (SF) 345-38468-7 Reissue, 561 pp;
cover art by Tom Stimpson; SWS, editor
---------------------------------------------------------
MARCH 1996: FIRST KING OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks (F) Prequel to _The Sword of
Shannara_; 345-39652-9 Hardcover, 480 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; OL,
editor
STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS by Bill Smith
(text), Doug Chiang (original illustrations), Troy Vigil (schematics) (SF)
345-39299-X Trade paperback, 224 pp; cover art by Doug Chiang; SWS, editor
THE SWORD OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks. (SF) First book of the _Shannara_
series; 345-31425-5 Paperback, 726 pp; cover art by the Brothers
Hildebrandt; OL, editor
THE WIND AFTER TIME by Chris Bunch (SF) Book One of the _Shadow Warrior_
trilogy; 345-38735-X Paperback, 304 pp; cover art by Nicholas Jainschigg;
SS, editor
MAD AMOS by Alan Dean Foster (SF) Short-story collection; 345-39362-7
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Peter Bollinger; SHS, editor
----------------------------------------------------------------
APRIL 1996: THE WARRIOR RETURNS by Allan Cole (F) Book Four of the _Anteros_
series; 345-3945-3 Hardcover, 352 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS, editor
KINGDOMS OF THE NIGHT by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch (F) Book Three of the
_Anteros_ series; 345-38732-5 Paperback, 448 pp; cover art by Gnemo; SS,
editor
BEFORE THE INVID STORM by Jack McKinney (SF) Latest Robotech original;
345-38776-7 Paperback, 228 pp; cover art by Ken Steacy; SWS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book Two: THE SHADOWSMITH by Geary Gravel (SF) 345-38293-5
Paperback, 288 pp; cover art by Donald Clavette; SS, editor
MIGHT & MAGIC, Book One: THE DREAMWRIGHT by Geary Gravel (SF) 345-90930-5
Reissue, 256 pp; cover art by Kevin Murphy; SS, editor
-------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 1996: MARS ATTACKS #1: MARTIAN DEATHTRAP (SF) 345-40495-5 Hardcover, 224 pp;
cover art by Ken Steacy; SWS, editor
POWER PLAY by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF) Book Three of
the _Powers_ series; 345-38781-3 Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Rowena;
SS, editor
THE SHAMAN by Christopher Stasheff (F) Book One of _The Star Stone_;
mass-market edition of our 9/95 hardcover; 345-39247-7 Paperback, 320 pp;
cover art by Stephen Youll; VC, editor
THE REIGN OF THE BROWN MAGICIAN by Lawrence Watt-Evans (SF) Book Three of
the _Three Worlds Trilogy_; 345-38781-3 Paperback, 352 pp; cover art by
Nicholas Jainschigg; SWS, editor
THE MARCH HARE NETWORK by Jack L. Chalker (SF) Book Two of _The Wonderland
Gambit_; 345-38691-4 Trade paperback, 352 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SHS,
editor
THE SECRETS OF STAR WARS: SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE by Mark Cotta Vaz (SF)
345-40236-7 Trade paperback, 312 pp; SWS, editor
-------------------------------------------------------------
JUNE 1996: THE WATERBORN by J. Gregory Keyes (F) 345-40393-2 Hardcover, 448 pp;
cover art by David Cherry; VC, editor
WITCHES' BREW by Terry Brooks (F) Mass-market edition of our 4/95
hardcover; 345-38702-3 Paperback, 368 pp; cover art by Keith Parkinson; OL,
editor
THE CYBERNETIC WALRUS by Jack L. Chalker (SF) Book One of _The Wonderland
Gambit_; Mass-market edition of our 11/95 trade paperback; 345-38847-X
Paperback, 336 pp; cover art by Paul Youll; SWS, editor
SHADE AND SHADOW by Francine Woodbury (F) 345-39428-3 Paperback, 320 pp;
cover art by Paul Youll; VC, editor
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP by Philip K. Dick (SF) a.k.a.
BLADERUNNER; 345-40447-5 Trade paperback, 256 pp; cover art by Bruce
Jensen; SWS, editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
DRIN AVAILABILITY (Lots of ways to get the DRIN online)
1. read it the first few days of the month on rec.arts.sf.written, GEnie's
Del Rey topic on the SFRT, Delphi's Science Fiction and Fantasy SIG
(Upcoming Books and Magazines topic), America Online's SF Library or
OmniPurpose Library,* eWorld's SF/F area, or CompuServe's SF Library 5*; 2.
send a message to majordomo@www.randomhouse.com to be added to the
subscriber list and have the DRIN delivered to your mailbox the first or
second working day of the month. The body of the message should read:
subscribe DRIN-dist e-mail address; 3. read it and more on our World Wide
Web site*, http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/ 4. get a copy from the Del
Rey fileserver* (delrey@tachyon.com) by sending e-mail with "SENDME
newsletter.current" as the body of the message (or send "HELP" for full
instructions); 5. read it on the Panix gopher* (gopher.panix.com; choose
the Del Rey Books directory); 6. read it at the Internet Book Information
Center (WWW address: http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC.homepage.html);* 7.
read the current issue in the science.fiction area on BIX; 8. retrieve the
current issue from the SF archives at gandalf.rutgers.edu *Back issues also
available
-------------------------------------------------------------
WORKS IN PROGRESS: Changes, Additions, Updates
(The DRIN lists only the changes to the Works in Progress report. The
entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com)
in the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
No updates this month, except the happy news that Julian May's MAGNIFICAT
is finally out from Knopf in hardcover! A sample chapter is available on
our Web site, gopherspace, and fileserver (see below for addresses).
---------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS will be Guest of Honor at CREMECON in Glendale,
Wisconsin, February 2-4.
ROBY JAMES will be signing COMMENCEMENT at the following stores: February
17: B. Dalton, Northridge Fashion Mall, Northridge, California 12-1PM.
February 21: Barnes & Noble Superstore, Encino, California, 7:30PM.
February 24: Super Crown, Encino, California, 1PM. February 26: Barnes &
Noble, Northridge, California, 7PM.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS===================================
BIG CHANGES IN WHO RUNS DEL REY
Owen Lock, formerly Del Rey editor-in-chief, has been appointed to the
newly created position of Vice President, Editor at Large for the
Ballantine Publishing Group. In his new position, Mr. Lock will be
acquiring properties for the company's expanding military nonfiction line
as well as in the areas of new media and science fiction. He will continue
to work with bestselling fantasy author Terry Brooks.
Meanwhile, Kuo-Yu Liang, formerly Del Rey Sales Manager, has been named
Associate Publisher of Del Rey Books. In his newly created position,
Kuo-Yu will be responsible for editorial direction as well as sales and
marketing for all Del Rey books. Shelly Shapiro, Executive Editor of Del
Rey, will continue to supervise the Del Rey staff.
Tim Kochuba, General Manager of Ballantine's House of Collectibles imprint,
has been named Vice President and General Manager of Del Rey Books, a new
position with overall responsibility for Del Rey's publishing program. He
will work closely with Kuo-Yu Liang. Prior to joining the Ballantine
Publishing Group, Mr. Kochuba was Products Manager at MBI, Inc. (the
Danbury Mint). In that capacity, he published signed first editions of
works by such major science fiction authors as Anne McCaffrey, Frederik
Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Harlan
Ellison.
---------------------------------------------------------------
WEIS AND HICKMAN SIGN WITH DEL REY FOR TWO ALL-NEW FANTASY SERIES
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, bestselling fantasy authors, have signed
with Del Rey for six books in two brand-new series: a science-fiction
series tentatively titled _Starshield_ and an as-yet-unnamed epic fantasy
series. We hope to publish the first of these new acquisitions--the first
_Starshield_ novel--in November of this year.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our
favorite, neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for
free, of course). This month's books are FIRST KING OF SHANNARA, MAD AMOS,
THE WIND AFTER TIME, and STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND
VESSELS by Bill Smith. Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
And we also have a sample chapter of Julian May's MAGNIFICAT, third book in
the _Galactic Milieu Trilogy,_ which is out this month from Knopf in
hardcover.
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e.mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.first_king_shannara, sample.mad_amos, sample.wind_after_time,
sample.sw_guide_vessels, or sample.magnificat) and they'll be available in
CompuServe's SF Library 4 and AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, too. (For a
list of all sample chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to
delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH========================================================
Terry Brooks, bestselling author of the Shannara series, is at it again
with FIRST KING OF SHANNARA, a prequel. Here Mr. Brooks tells us why he
wrote another book in the series, why it's a prequel and not a sequel, and
what he might be working on next.
ORIGINS OF SHANNARA
I wasn't going to write FIRST KING OF SHANNARA. Really I wasn't. I was
going to begin work on a new fantasy series, one that I had been mulling
over for almost five years, one that takes place in this world in present
time. With the completion of WITCHES' BREW in the Magic Kingdom series, I
was more than ready to tackle this newest project. But then my editor
intervened, as editors sometimes will, albeit in a kindly way, suggesting
that perhaps I should do another Shannara book first. What? Another
Shannara book? Already? I was flummoxed! Besides, I didn't have another
Shannara book to give him. The story after THE TALISMANS OF SHANNARA
requires a two book set, and I definitely wasn't about to do two.
Then I remembered my often considered, but still unrealized plan for a
prequel to the series. It was you, the readers, who kept asking for it.
Tell us about the time before coming of the Ohmsfords. Where were
Allanon's origins? How did he become a Druid? How was the Sword of
Shannara forged? How were the Druids destroyed at Paranor so that Bremen
became the last? Where did Jerle Shannara come from and how did he end up
with the Sword? Those were the kinds of questions I would receive on a
regular basis. But I steadfastly refused to answer them, saying that it
was better if the readers imagined it for themselves, thinking slyly that
I would someday write that story myself. Well, here was my chance.
But this seemed to me a hard story to write. The ending was already known
to every reader of the series. So how could I make it exciting and
suspenseful? I didn't want to give a bland recitation of the events
surrounding the battle between the rebel Druid Brona and Jerle Shannara,
and let it go at that. Then after some thought and some casting about for
a solid plotline, I came up with what I thought was a good story.
There were some new characters, including the Borderman Kinson Ravenlock,
the Druids Risoa and Tay Trefendwyd, the apprentice Druid Mareth, and Jerle
Shannara's great love Prela Starle. There were old friends like the
once-Druid Cogline. There were more than a few new tales to be told about
some familiar people, and a few revelations about how things came to be.
To my surprise, the outline came together in about three weeks. I knew it
was going to be a big book, because the story was sprawling and covered a
large period of time. Don't worry, said my editor. Don't worry, said my
wife. I immediately began to worry. But the ease with which the story
unfolded once I began to write it was a pleasant surprise.
Even Keke the cat got in on the action. Early in the writing of the book,
I left the computer on and walked downstairs for a short break. While I
was gone, Keke must have walked across the keyboard, because when I came
back, the sentence I had left unfinished now read:
"There is time yet before it reaches us," Bremen whispered. "I think we
should aaaaeeaeaeaeeeeiiiiii. . ." Of course, maybe it wasn't the cat.
Maybe it was the things that live under the house. Maybe they're getting
impatient. The book I put off doing, after all, is about them.
--copyright 1995 by Terry Brooks
IN DEPTH II--------------------------------------------------------------
(Didn't like the previous In Depth, perchance? In honor of the DRIN's
third anniversary, this month we have two.)
Bill Smith is the _Star Wars_ roleplaying game line editor for West End
Games. Since joining West End in 1991, he has edited or written over 30
_Star Wars_ game books and he has entirely too much fun doing his job. He
lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with Amy (his understanding girlfriend)
and a mountain of _Star Wars_ "stuff." Here he tells us a little about his
latest project:
George Lucas captured my imagination when an Imperial Star Destroyer first
rumbled overhead. What can I say? I was only a kid. Now that I'm
twenty-seven--an adult by some standards--I guess you're expecting me to
say I've outgrown such things. Guess again. _Star Wars_ is my favorite
fictional playground. It has heroes and villains, aliens and droids, and,
of course, starships and vehicles.
Which brings me to THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS. Soon after
getting the chance to write this guide, I realized that my biggest
challenge would be making a book of technological gadgets as much fun as
the movies from which they were drawn.
So, I went back to the basics. For example, the Rebel Alliance's X-wing
fighter has always fascinated me. From the first time I saw this sleek
ship, I wanted to know more. Who built the X-wings? How did the Rebels
get them? How do they stack up against ships like Y-wings and TIE
fighters? I didn't much care about the theoretical physics of hyperdrives;
I cared more about understanding Star Wars technology in a practical,
useful way. I wanted to understand this universe and the ships that
belonged to it.
After choosing one hundred vehicles and vessels, graphic artist Troy Vigil
(known for his popular Star Wars Blueprints), illustrator Doug Chiang (from
Industrial Light and Magic), and I went to work. The resulting guide covers
the ships and vehicles from the movies, as well as many from the novels,
comics, and role-playing and computer games. Each ship or vehicle entry
includes a technical diagram, an illustration, and an essay discussing its
history, uses, and capabilities. Ever wonder why Darth Vader's TIE fighter
is special? Or how AT-AT walkers unload troops? Or how the Jawas got
their greedy little hands on sandcrawlers? The GUIDE answers these
questions and many others.
And the GUIDE details ships you've never seen on-screen. You'll learn
about the Katana Fleet Dreadnaughts used in Timothy Zahn's three-book cycle
and the infamous Sun Crusher from Kevin J. Anderson's _Jedi Academy_
Trilogy. There's even a sneak peek at the upcoming _Shadows of the Empire_
saga. We put together THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS to be
your handbook to these wonders of the _Star Wars_ galaxy. I hope you enjoy
reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
--Copyright 1996 by Bill Smith
Q & A ====================================================================
Q: I am writing to find out about Christopher Stasheff's fantasy series, _A
Wizard in Rhyme._ I was wondering if there is another book in the series
and what is it called? A: Mr. Stasheff is working on a _Wizard in Rhyme_
book right now. In the meantime, he's taken a 2-book detour, starting a
new series called _The Star Stone._ Book One, THE SHAMAN, is already
available in hardcover, and Book Two, THE SAGE, will be out in July.
Q: Will there be any more books by Donald E. McQuinn in the WARRIOR,
WANDERER, WITCH series? A: Currently, Mr. McQuinn doesn't have any novels
planned in the _Warrior_ series, but there's always the possibility that he
may go back to check on Tate's adventures sometime in the future. Don's
next book (first of a two-part series) will be a far-future, military SF
novel set in another star system. It will be published in early 1997 in
mass-market paperback.
Q: What determines whether a "compilation novel" (two-in-one or
three-in-one volume) gets released? A: A bunch of interrelating factors: a
new book in a popular series often puts us in mind of a two-in-one or
three-in-one edition of earlier books in the series. We republish backlist
classics in this combined format (called "omnibus" in the trade) to give
them another shot at the shelves with an attractive price--omnibus editions
always cost less than two or three separate books. And sometimes an
unrelated new book by a popular author, or renewed interest in a series, is
reason enough to publish an omnibus. However, omnibus editions are
expensive to produce, especially when--like now--paper prices are very
high. Therefore, the profit margin on them is very low, so we can't do
them for all our authors and series.
Ellen Key Harris Editor, Del Rey Books Director of Online Projects,
Ballantine Books delrey@randomhouse.com
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[The Del Rey Internet Newsletter is copyright 1995 by Del Rey Books, except
for the IN DEPTH section, which is copyright by the author. The DRIN may be
reproduced only in its entirety, and not for profit.]
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