Two New Books Up For Preorder!
First off we have Prototype by Brian Hodge. It’s the third book in the Dark Essentials Series (Vol. 4). Check out what Edward Lee had to say about this novel:
“The most powerful novel from one of the genre’s most powerful artisans: in PROTOTYPE, Brian Hodge unleashes psychological and philosophical havoc in a Post-modernesque excursion of the worst kind of self-revelation. Can personal despair be progressive? Can it be a TRANSITIVE event? Can darkness be utterly illuminating? Yes. This book is fiction’s equivalent of a canvas by de Kooning or Munch, or a thesis by Nietzsche or Sartre. Great fiction is always provocative, in which case PROTOTYPE might actually be TOO challenging by what it makes the reader consider. There’s something suspiciously cryptic here–a cruel and very premeditated secret that Hodge hides within the layers of an ultimately entertaining story. It’s the most depressing book I’ve ever read and, conversely, one of the most enlightening.
The hardest thing to do in the horror field is produce a story that entertains an anticipatory readership and delivers an intellectual package at the same time. Hodge has always done this well but in PROTOTYPE he threatens to blow some of the field’s smartest work out of the water. He fuels an accessible story framework with cool characterizations and a realistic setting which at first make the reader comfortable, then integrates a plot of secret genetics and mounting discovery–and hyper-violence–to produce a character study that I really don’t think has ever been done so effectively. The standard cliched buzz-terms like “nail-biting,” “un-put-downable,” “gripping to the last page” all apply here…but that’s just the icing. Wail till you get to the cake beneath, much in the same way as the harrowing main-character gets to his soul. On the other hand, it’s a hard book to read if one lacks the mental guts. Certain psyches–like mine–can be indelibly tarnished by the implications. PROTOTYPE needs to be celebrated for its overall importance within this entity we call the modern horror genre. Personally, it’s left a decade-old impact on me, a stain on my spirit that won’t wear off; it’s a psyche-wrecking work of art. I read it once, but I’ll never read it again because I’m too afraid to.”
—Edward Lee, author of FLESH GOTHIC and CITY INFERNAL
For more information or to order, go HERE. (If you have yet to register for the new catalog, you must do so before ordering. See previous posts in this blog for more info.)
Next, we have book #4 in the extremely popular hardcover chapbook series. These little books have been all the rage with collectors as of late and we’re down to our last few copies of the first two (Failure by John Everson & Imprint by Patrick Lestewka). When the market finds out what they’ve been missing (what a unique item these minature hardcovers are), expect there to be a BIG rush to get OOP titles.
Book #4 in this series is Michael McBide’s Blood Wish…
Eight-year-old Evan Murphy has just lost his father to cancer. His grief-stricken mother has uprooted him from the only life he’s ever known to move him to the small mountain town where she grew up. All he knows of the dark forest surrounding his new home are the fanciful stories from his mother’s youth about a hidden well that grants any wish.
I wish I might.
There are other children in the woods, children who stalk him from the shadows and stand beneath his window at night. Children with severed arms tied off with bloody burlap, their mouths wired shut by rusted lengths of wire to forever hold the secrets they would share.
Live to see another night.
Something even more evil hides in the darkest reaches of the forest, wishing for Evan.
Wishing for blood.
For more information / to order, go HERE. (If you have yet to register for the new catalog, you must do so before ordering. See previous posts in this blog for more info.)
Comment by kresby on 15 March 2007:
Love it. Keep ‘em coming Shane. I look forward to both of these.
Comment by John on 15 March 2007:
I always look forward to Michael McBride. Just thinking out loud a slipcase would be nice for these Chap Books.
Comment by kresby on 15 March 2007:
John - there will be a slipcase.
Comment by earthtotim on 15 March 2007:
UUUUUMMMMMM more books!
Comment by Youngman on 15 March 2007:
I am so glad I signed up for these HC Chaps from the start. Now Michael McBride. Very nice.
Comment by diego on 15 March 2007:
Great to hear!
Shane, I tried to reach back to my previous orders to check how much credit we have on the chapbook sub. Your new system does not seem to reach back to the old one. So, I believe we paid $XX, and we are paid up for 6 books, correct?
Comment by griglak on 15 March 2007:
I’ve also got the chapbook sub and the DE v.4 sub so I’m happy to be covered.
Comment by Tree705 on 15 March 2007:
I got the HC chapbook sun too! I’m sure Shane will let us know when we need to give him more money
Comment by jpokela on 15 March 2007:
Edward Lee says Brian Hodge’s book left a stain on his soul. I have held off reading Prototype waiting for this hardcover. Hyperbole comes easily to Edward but this rings true. I know I have something to look forward to.
Comment by Scott Berke on 15 March 2007:
Thank the Big Lizard for subs.
Comment by Shane Staley on 15 March 2007:
Diego: I don’t charge up front. Instead, subscribers get charged $15 per book when they ship.
Comment by crimsongremlin on 15 March 2007:
Keep em comin, Shane.
Comment by diego on 19 March 2007:
My mistake, I print out those receipts, but never ask Laura if they were charges, had just assumed they were. At least I’m set. Put me on the list for the new super secret chinese double lettered chapbooks, ok?
Comment by meking on 19 March 2007:
Gosh Diego..you didn’t get the super secret email?? That list is already full…