Fantastic Reviews has just posted their thoughts on John Meaney’s To Hold Infinity,
with some nice words for the Pyr imprint itself. Aaron Hughes calls the novel, “an example of everything Pyr Books is getting right. In only two years, Pyr has become one of the most reliable publishers of high-quality science fiction in the market. Editor Lou Anders consistently produces well-packaged books of real literary merit that are also very entertaining. While it has published plenty of excellent original work, a key to Pyr’s success has been obtaining reprint rights to outstanding British and Australian authors who have been neglected in the U.S.”
They give a little background on the novel – which is a completely stand-alone tale set in the same universe as Meaney’s Nulapeiron Sequence but earlier in the history of that universe, and which was a 1998 British Science Fiction Association Award nominee for Best Novel. Aaron nails the future era of To Hold Infinity as being “not quite post-singularity science fiction, but at least near-singularity,” before concluding that the novel is “an absorbing story peopled with well-developed characters and loaded with interesting speculation about the future. Fans of the Nulapeiron books should not miss it, and I strongly recommend it to new readers as a great introduction to John Meaney.”
This comment has nothing to do with the post, but I was just wondering if there was any way to get ahold of Sean Williams’ final two books in his “Books of the Cataclysm” series here in the states. I know the third will be published here in June. Amazon UK?
Hi Brian,
I’ve written a lot about this elsewhere. First, I’m glad you are enjoying the books enough to be impatient about the subsequent volumes, and second, I realize it’s your money and I can’t ultimately tell you what to do with it, but it’s my personal opinion that buying outside of your territory really hurts the author – particularly Australian and UK authors who aren’t very well known in the states and who are trying to raise their awareness here. I used to buy the UK hardcovers when I liked the cover better, or when the US edition was only a paperback, before I realized this. Now that I know the impact it can have – if I absolutely have to have the foreign edition I buy both. I feel strongly enough about this that – for instance, when the BBC announced they was no foreign edition of the Doctor Who DVD boxed set, I bought from Amazon.co.uk, but – coincidentally – when they reversed their opinion and announced a US edition the week before mine arrived – I sent the UK edition BACK, taking a loss on the shipping, and waiting 6 months for the US edition. In the case of something like China Mieiville’s books, where I really want the UK, I just get both editions. And I’m aware that a writer of China’s status is already firmly established here and so maybe this is more principle than necessity (and maybe not), but for someone like Sean, who is just getting noticed here, lost sales to Amazon.co.uk can really make a difference. It’s very hard to get US readers to notice UK/Ozzie writers in mass – I just had a book dealer fuss at me for publishing so many of them over here – and I very much want to be able to continue publishing such great and deserving people in the states. So, up to you what you do, but we appreciate the support like you can’t believe.
And hey – if it’s any consolation, I’m going crazy waiting on Night Shade to hurry up and publish Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s brilliant 9TailFox over here so I can buy a copy. I read a manuscript version of the book, which has been out for a while in the UK, and I really want a copy for my collection!er
Thanks for the quick response. I will definetly pick up the remaining volumes when they are published by Pyr (excellent artwork) but I just wanted to know if I could find a copy to feed my need for closure. Any idea when the final volume will be released here?
I know what you mean about exposure. I had to search high and low to find copies of Sean’s work at area bookstores. Amazon has them, but I just didn’t want to give them my money as I do believe in helping out my local economy any way I can.
Hi Brian,
Thank you very much for the show of support. As you probably know, Sean has a YA series – the Books of Change – that features younger versions of the characters from the latter three Books of the Cataclysm books. I’d love to be able to bring those out here too, but it will depend direclty on how well the Cataclysm books due.
Book four isn’t scheduled yet, but won’t be too long a wait!
Re: independant bookstores – yay! We don’t have a good genre bookstore in my home town – we don’t even have a bad one. The big independant bookstore brags they don’t stock genre. I dearly miss going to Borderlands when I lived in San Francisco. When I live in a town with a good independant, they get all my $.