David Ebenbach discusses HOW TO MARS with the incomparable K. E. Flann on FACEBOOK LIVE, Tuesday May 25 at 8:00 ET.
ISBN: Print ISBN: 978-1-61696-327-9; Digital ISBN: 978-1-61696-328-6
Published: September 2021
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital Books
In this dazzling new novel evoking Westerns, surrealism, epic fantasy, and circus extravaganzas, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) has created an evocative dreamscape of dark comedy, heartbreak, hope, and adventure. Chronicling a lone man’s quest in parallel worlds, THE ESCAPEMENT recalls the epic darkness of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger via the unpredictable whimsy of The Phantom Tollbooth.
Lavie Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own.
—NPR Books
Into the reality called the Escapement rides the Stranger, a lone gunman on a quest to rescue his son. But it is too easy to get lost on a shifting landscape full of dangerous versions of favorite things: lawless cowboys, giants made of stone, oppressed clowns, and even more sinister forces at play.
The Stranger always finds new enemies in every godforsaken town. He reluctantly defends the not-always-helpless, while avoiding the deadly symbol storms of petulant gods. As the Stranger has learned, the Escapement is a dreamscape of deep mysteries, unpredictable geography, unlikely allies, and unwinnable battles.
But the flower the Stranger seeks still lies beyond the Mountains of Darkness. Time is running out, as he journeys deeper and deeper into the secret heart of an unknown world.
Lavie Tidhar (The Bookman; Unholy Land; A Man Lies Dreaming) is the author of the breakout Campbell and Neukom award-winning novel Central Station, which has been translated into ten languages. He has also received the British Science Fiction, Neukom Literary, and World Fantasy awards. Tidhar was born in Israel, grew up on a kibbutz, has lived in south Africa, Laos, and Vanuatu, and currently resides in London.
Six Marsonauts must survive on the red planet after their reality TV show is canceled in this delightfully unconventional novel.
—Kirkus
What happens when your dream mission to Mars is a reality television nightmare? This debut science-fiction romp with heart that follows the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, with a dash of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Mythbusters.
[F]unny, fresh, and winsome.
—Publishers Weekly
For the six lucky scientists selected by the Destination Mars! corporation, a one-way ticket to Mars—in exchange for a lifetime of research—was an absolute no-brainer. The incredible opportunity was clearly worth even the most absurdly tedious screening process. Perhaps worth following the strange protocols in a nonsensical handbook written by an eccentric billionaire. Possibly even worth their constant surveillance, the video of which is carefully edited into a ratings-bonanza back on Earth.
But it turns out that after a while even scientists can get bored of science. Tempers begin to fray; unsanctioned affairs blossom. When perfectly good equipment begins to fail, the Marsonauts are faced with a possibility that their training just cannot explain.
Irreverent, poignant, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach’s debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible trip you will never forget.
5/5 Stars. Strap in and get ready to blast off on one wild ride. Very much recommended.
—BookAnon
Born in New Orleans on May 14, 1897, Sidney Bechet was the first great Jazz clarinetist. He famously performed with many famous musicians including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Josephine Baker. A master of improvisation, Bechet often played lead parts that were usually reserved for trumpets.
In 2004, Tachyon produced a chapbook of Bechet’s OMAR, a tale of of passion, danger, and betrayal in the Bayou. Infused with voodoo, love, music, and death, the chronicle is wrought out of a brutal period in American history, passed down by a family born into slavery. It is jazz legend Sidney Bechet’s story.
Sidney Bechet died in Paris on May 14, 1959 at the age of 62.
The ten time Bram Stoker Award winner and creator of Hap and Leonard, Joe R. Lansdale and host of stellar Guest of Honors highlight StokerCon 2021.
Maurice Broaddus
Joe R. Lansdale
Seanan McGuire
Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Lisa Morton
Steve Rasnic Tem
ISBN: Print ISBN: 978-1-61696-358-3; Digital ISBN: 978-1-61696-359-0
Published: September 2021
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital
Fascinating events, surprising at first but completely believable. Characters I cared about more with each page. And best of all, it made me think, and go on thinking as one idea sprang to another, and on, and on. That is the greatest gift a writer can give.
—Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series
All of his life, Thomas Thresher has been free of obligation and responsibility, but that is over now. He is a twenty-three-year-old man whose best days are behind him. Thomas’s older brother Walter has trapped him in a tedious clerical job at the family bank in London, and Thomas is expected to wed a wealthy young woman in whom he has no interest.
But Thomas has more serious problems than those of a disaffected young man. There are irregularities at the bank he cannot explain. His childhood friend has mysteriously turned up dead. Worse, a verdant skin malady has infected him: leaves have begun sprouting on his skin. Thomas must conclude that it is due to the long-rumored Peculiarities. London’s famous grey fog has been concealing a rash of unnatural afflictions—and worse, the murderous Elegants.
As Thomas grows leafier, the conspiracies surrounding him become more apparent. He cannot determine whom to trust: his own family; his banking co-workers and superiors; the beautiful widow of his companion; the woman he is to marry. Or perhaps a lycanthropic medium; the members of a secret occult society . . . or even Aleister Crowley.
David Liss masterfully blends rich historical fiction with terrifying supernatural body horror. He stands with Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker. Highly recommended.
—Jonathan Maberry, author of V-Wars and Ink
David Liss is the author of fourteen novels, as well as numerous novellas, short stories, and comics. His previous books include A Conspiracy of Paper which was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the 2001 Barry, Macavity and Edgar Awards. The Coffee Trader (2003) was also named a New York Times Notable Book and was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the year’s 25 Books to Remember. He is also the author of the middle grade Randoms series. Many of Liss’s novels are currently being developed for television or film. He has worked on numerous comics projects, including Black Panther and Mystery Men for Marvel, The Spider and Green Hornet for Dynamite, and Angelica Tomorrow. Liss lives in San Antonio with his wife and children.
Vietnam vet, sometimes private investigator, sometimes bouncer, and all around bad ass, Leonard Pine is a gay, politically conservative black man from LaBorde, TX. Alongside his “brother” Hap Collins, who is straight, white, and liberal, Pine challenges the seedier and more unpleasant elements of East Texas. The, at times, bumbling duo has fought the Klan, the Dixie Mafia, murders, kidnappers, and all sorts of other notorious hombres.
Pine has zero tolerance for racist or anti-gay slurs and will challenge the offenders with strong fists and a barbed tongue. His aggressive nature has led to many encounters with the law, most notably regarding his repeated torching of neighborhood crackhouses.
Beginning with Savage Season (1990), Joe R. Lansdale used his adventures with Collins, as the basis for the popular Hap and Leonard series. The 25 published books include four titles currently available from Tachyon Publications: HAP AND LEONARD (2016), THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD (2018), HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE (2018) and OF MICE AND MINESTRONE (2020). The pair’s life also inspired the TV series, Hap and Leonard, which is currently available on Netflix.
All of us at Tachyon wish a happy birthday to Leonard, our favorite cantankerous moral enforcer. May your day be filled with vanilla cookies and Dr. Pepper.
Born April 26, 1912, the popular and influential writer A. E. van Vogt began his long and illustrious career writing for “true confession” style pulps. Shortly after, he decided to pursue a career as a science fiction writer. Van Vogt’s first sci fi short “The Black Destroyer” appeared in the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The story remained one of his most popular stories, often cited as a source for the film Alien. In 1980, he was honored with Prix Aurora Award Life Achievement and in 1996, named a Nebula Grand Master.
In a career that spanned five decades, van Vogt produced numerous legendary and acclaimed novels including Slan (1946; 2016 Retro Hugo), The Weapon Makers (1947; 2005 Prometheus Hall of Fame), The World of Null-A (1948), The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950), and The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951). Out of the Unknown (1948), which featured stories co-written with his wife E. Mayne Hull, was the first of his many short story collections.
Tachyon was honored to publish FUTURES PAST: THE BEST SHORT FICTION OF A. E. VAN VOGT (1999), the last of his books to see print before the author’s death in 2000.
Born on April 23, 1923, Avram Davidson was a medic in the Marine Corps during World War II, fought with the Israeli Army in the 1948 war for independence, and began writing in the early 1950s as a Talmudic scholar. He eventually produced nineteen acclaim novels including Joyleg (1962 with Ward Moore), Mutiny in Space (1964), Kar-Chee [Rogue Dragon [1965], The Kar-Chee Reign [1966]) , a pair of mysterious as by Ellery Queen (And on the Eighth Day [1964] and The Fourth Side of the Triangle [1965]), Clash of Star-Kings (1966), Vergil Magus (The Phoenix in The Mirror [1969], Vergil in Averno [1987], The Scarlet Fig ; or, Slowly through a Land of Stone [2005]) The Island Under the Earth (1969), Peregrine (Peregrine: Primus [1971], Peregrine: Secundus [1981]), Ursus of Ultima Thule (1973), and THE BOSS IN THE WALL (1998 with Grania Davis).
His more than two hundred short stories and essays were collected in Crimes & Chaos (1962), Or All the Seas with Oysters (1962), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), Strange Seas and Shores (1971), The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy (1975; World Fantasy Award Winner), Polly Charms, The Sleeping Woman (1977), The Redward Edward Papers (1978), The Best of Avram Davidson (1979), Avram Davidson: Collected Fantasies (1982), And Don’t Forget the One Red Rose (1986), Weird Tales no. 293 (Winter 1988-1989, special Avram Davidson issue), The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy (1990), Adventures in Unhistory (1993), The Avram Davidson Treasury (1998), The Investigations of Avram Davidson (1999), The Last Wizard; with A Letter of Explanation (1999), El Vilvoy de las Islas (2000), Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven (2000), The Other Nineteenth Century (2001), The Beasts of the Elysian Fields by Conrad Amber (2001), ¡Limekiller! (2003), and David & Son: Peregrine Parentus and Other Tales (2016).
While at the helm of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964, Davidson also edited three volumes of The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (13-15) and later Magic for Sale (1983).
His works garnered Davidson two Hugo (1958 Best Short Story “Or All the Seas with Oysters”; 1963 Best Professional Magazine The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) two World Fantasy (1976 Best Anthology/Collection The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy; 1979 Best Short Fiction “Naples”), and an Edgar (1962 Best Short Story “Affair at Lahore Cantonment) award. In 1986, he was given the prestigious World Fantasy Award For Life Achievement.
On Saturday, May 1 at 1PM PT, Mysterious Galaxy hosts a virtual talk between the visionary Godfather of Cyberpunk Bruce Sterling, whose latest collection ROBOT ARTISTS & BLACK SWANS: THE ITALIAN FANTASCIENZA STORIES introduces the work of his Turinese alter ego Bruno Argento to American audiences, and Christopher Brown, author of the 2021 Philip K. Dick award nominee Failed State.
