I AM EVERYWHERE!!!!

by wjw on July 2, 2008


There seems to be a plethora of me available these days. (Except on bookshelves, apparently.)

Locus magazine is offering an interview with me free with a subscription, or for $3 if you’ve got the money to spare.

An elegy for Aristoi is to be found on the Lost and Lonely Books List.

Jeffrey Thomas, author of Punktown, has said a few nice things about Metropolitan over on his blog.

Despite the kinds words, the very mention of these two out-of-print books has me all whiney and mopey. These books are among my very best! Nobody’s been able to read them for ten years or more.

Snivel. Whimper. If the books aren’t available, does the author even exist?

Or, if you’re not into the metaphysics, how about this question?

If you were a publisher, what books would you bring back into print? (And, just to make it clear, you are allowed to mention books not written by me.)



Jvstin Tomorrow July 2, 2008 at 9:37 am

Amazon has told me that my long delayed pre-order of Implied Spaces is now shipping…

This means that, improbably, I will have two copies headed my way. This once happened to me accidentally during Christmas, but it was minidisc players rather than novels…

Lance July 2, 2008 at 12:01 pm

Angel Station.
Armor by John Steakley (with the original cover).

I really like that Baen books is doing collections of long out of print stories.

Cosma July 2, 2008 at 12:20 pm

I would bring back Metropolitan and City on Fire if you promised to finish the seris! But I’ve spent 11 years pressing them on friends and wanting to know how the story ends.

Anonymous July 2, 2008 at 2:35 pm

I have pretty conclusive evidence that the author does, indeed, exist.

If he doesn’t, then who is feeding my cats?

–Kathy

Dave Bishop July 3, 2008 at 2:15 pm

It has always been my opinion, Walter, that ‘Metropolitan’ is one of the finest and most original books that the SF/Fantasy field has ever produced. I was so frustrated that the British SF magazine, ‘Interzone’ failed to review, or even mention it, or its sequel, that I reviewed it myself and sent my review to their ‘Letters’ column. They published my letter in issue 158, Aug 2000 (5 years late – but what the hell!).
In my letter/review I wrote that, “…’Metropolitan’, is not only gritty and convincing but it is also the most remarkable exploration of the abuses of power (political, sexual and geomantic!) that I have ever read.”
It’s a great shame that ‘Metropolitan’ and ‘City on Fire’ are out of print – they are among the great classics of the SF/Fantasy field.

Dave Bishop July 3, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Sorry, that should have read “uses and abuses of power”.

dubjay July 4, 2008 at 5:23 am

That’s okay, Dave, we knew what you meant!

Thank you for the terrific compliment. Wish I’d seen the Interzone at the time, so I could have thanked you earlier.

halojones-fan July 8, 2008 at 6:33 am

…a THIRD book in the series?!

Michael Bernstein July 13, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Much of the stuff I read as a kid is actually still in print 9or already back in print), and most of what isn’t is rather forgettable in any case, but there is one book I’d like to bring back: Clive King’s “The 22 Letters”.

It’s a juvenile faux-historical novel on the invention of the alphabet, and something about it (along with James Burke’s and Carl Sagan’s TV series’) clicked to help create my worldview (I was somewhere around 9 or 11 years old (’79-’81) when I read it.

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