I've received several ARCs from Subterranean Press lately that look fantastic and I'm really excited about. Before I start writing about the future though I do want to point out that Cherie Priest's new Daniel Boone/cave dwelling monster story Those Who Went Remain There Still is now available. As some of you will recall from my October column, I adored this book and strongly recommend it.

Now to titles down the line...

Elizabeth Bear's Seven for a Secret is a sequel (of sorts) to her alt history collection (which included a Nikola Tesla guest shot) New Amsterdam. I'll admit I'm more than a bit surprised by the bloodthirsty choice for the book's cover as it really isn't that kind of book. (There is one bloody scene but it's a small one and now how I would primarily describe the story.) The main character is a vampire and werewolves and sorcerery all take front and center positions but mostly it is a story about a teenage girl struggling to decide what is the right thing to do during a time of war and occupation. Oh - and she might be in the process of becoming a werewolf. (Bummer.) As to be expected from Bear, this is a very elegantly told story with great characters and no small attention paid to the world in which they inhabit. My review should appear in the May column on recommended fantasy titles. (It is written for adults but the teen characters this time out make it perfect for YA readers.)

Kage Baker has a novella loosely related to her Company novels due in June, The Women of Nell Gwynne's. Here's the description (I haven't read this one yet):

Lady Beatrice was the proper British daughter of a proper British soldier, until tragedy struck and sent her home to walk the streets of early-Victorian London. But Lady Beatrice is no ordinary whore, and is soon recruited to join an underground establishment known as Nell Gwynne’s. Nell Gwynne’s is far more than simply the finest and most exclusive brothel in Whitehall; it is in fact the sister organization to the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, that 19th-century predecessor to a certain Company...and when a member of the Society goes missing on a peculiar assignment, it’s up to Lady Beatrice and her sister harlots to investigate.

In July James Blaylock has another Langdon St. Ives adventure: The Ebb Tide. (See my post at GLW on the collection of St. Ives stories published late last year. Here's the description on the new book:

A flaming meteor over the Yorkshire Dales, a long-lost map drawn by the lunatic Bill “Cuttle” Kraken, and the discovery of a secret subterranean shipyard beneath the River Thames lead Professor Langdon St. Ives and his intrepid friend Jack Owlesby into the treacherous environs of Morecambe Bay, with its dangerous tides and vast quicksand pits. They descend beneath the sands of the Bay itself, into a dark, unknown ocean littered with human bones and the remnants of human dreams. In this tale of murder, infamy, and Victorian intrigue, the tides of destiny shift relentlessly and rapidly as the stakes grow ever higher and the pursuit more deadly....

Sub Press has some of JK Potter's interior illustrations up as well. (Potter is doing the cover and interior illustrations on Baker's book also.)

There's a new addition to the World Newton cycle from Philip Jose Farmer and Win Scott Eckert due in September, The Evil in Pemberley House. The description:

The Evil in Pemberley House, an addition to the Wold Newton cycle, plays with the Gothic horror tradition. Patricia Wildman, the daughter of the world-renowned adventurer and crimefighter of the 1930s and ’40s, Dr. James Clarke “Doc” Wildman, is all alone in the world when she inherits the family estate in Derbyshire, England—old, dark, and supposedly haunted.

But Farmer, characteristically, turns convention on its ear. Is the ghost real, or a clever sham? In Patricia Wildman, Farmer creates an introspective character who struggles to reconcile the supernatural with her rational scientific upbringing, while also attempting to work through unresolved feelings about her late parents. He sets the action at Pemberley from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and ingrains the various mysteries in the Canon of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

And finally, a real gem, Jack Vance has written an autobiography: This is Me, Jack Vance! I've been reading this for a few days and so far Vance has dealt with an absent father, working all over CA, dropped in and out (and in) of college and got himself out of Pearl Harbor one week before December 7th. The writing bits have barely begun but so far the book has a friendly, engaging style that is hard to resist. Vance is a lovely writer and I'm enjoying learning about his life.