Subterranean Press to shut down

In sad news, premium genre publisher Subterranean Press is to cease operations in 2027.

Founded in 1995 by William Schafer and Tim Holt, the press is based in Burton, Michigan. The press publishes science fiction, fantasy, horror and some mystery. The press was noted for being an early adopter of the luxury/limited print book format, publishing, among others, George R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Arkady Martine, Joe Hill and Robin Hobb. Arguably Subterranean Press's success helped pave the way for the likes of Broken Binding.

According to the press release, Subterranean will continue fulfilling its 2026 and 2027 release schedule, but will terminate operations in late 2027 or early 2028 depending on the schedule being hit. Some ongoing projects will be transferred to other publishers with plans to coordinate art and design to ensure a consistency of appearance with new publishers.

Subterranean Press were due to publish three novellas by Scott Lynch in the near future to act as a prelude to his novel The Thorn of Emberlain. It is unclear how this project will be impacted.

Subterranean Press produced many beautiful editions of classic genre novels over the years, getting ahead of the rest of the game. They will be missed.

Scott Lynch provides update on his GENTLEMAN BASTARD series

Scott Lynch has provided another update on his long-percolating Gentleman Bastard series, confirming progress on both the fourth novel and a number of long-promised novellas.

Lynch's series began with The Lies of Locke Lamora in 2006, a hugely successful debut fantasy novel that was marketed the first of seven books. It was immediately followed by Red Seas Under Red Skies in 2007. However, it was five years before the third book, The Republic of Thieves, finally hit shelves. Lynch confirmed in candid blog posts that he had been facing mental health issues which had delayed work on the series.

Lynch completed a draft of the fourth novel in the series, The Thorn of Emberlain, in 2019 (and shared a sneak peek at the map in 2016). However, additional health issues (presumably not helped by the pandemic) meant that progress on revisions proceeded very slowly. Lynch confirmed a year ago that he had switched to a new medication regime which seemed to be paying off, and was trying to speak more openly about his projects.

In today's update, Lynch confirmed that work on revising The Thorn of Emberlain continues and he hopes to have news on that front next month. In the meantime he has also completed the third of three Gentleman Bastard novellas which will serve as a nonessential bridge between The Republic of Thieves and The Thorn of Emberlain, the first exploring Locke and Jean's flight from the city of Karthain. The first novellas is as-yet untitled, but will be published by Subterranean Press before possibly seeing a wider release later on. The later novellas' titles have been known for a while, being The Mad Baron's Mechanical Attic and The Choir of Knives.

The Thorn of Emberlain is one of the most eagerly-awaited, long-gestating fantasy novels in the field, alongside George R.R. Martin's The Winds of Winter and Patrick Rothfuss's The Doors of Stone (both some eleven years in progress) and JV Jones's Endlords (twelve years). Both Martin and Jones have provided significant recent updates on making good progress, although the status of Rothfuss's novel remains unclear.

Two new KJ Parker books announced

Subterranean Press has announced it has two new books by KJ Parker in the works.

The first is a collection of her short fiction, Academic Exercises, which will be published in 2014. The book is 670 pages long. What will be included in the collection is not known at this time, but it's assumed to be most or all of her short fiction and novellas to date: Purple and Black, Blue and Gold, Amor Vincit Omnia, A Rich Full Week, A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong, Let Maps to Others, One Little Room an Everywhere, Illuminated and The Sun and I. Illuminated, The Sun and I and a non-fiction piece, Rich Men's Skins, can also be found in the current issue of Subterranean Magazine.

For 2015 Subterranean will also be releasing Parker's next novel, Savages. It is assumed that this will also be released by Parker's mass-market publishers (Orbit in the UK). Whether Academic Exercises will also get a big release or will remain a Subterranean-exclusive remains unknown.

It should be noted that SubPress refer to Parker as 'her' in their article.

Cover art for the limited edition of BEST SERVED COLD

Here's the Raymond Swanland cover art for Subterranean Press's limited edition of Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold:

This edition will be released in the autumn and is available for pre-order right now. Abercrombie seems to approve.

Orson Scott Card writes lame version of HAMLET

Science fiction author Orson Scott Card has, most curiously, chosen to rewrite Hamlet to make it lame.


Hamlet's Father was actually written a few years ago and appeared in a few anthologies, but a new, stand-alone edition from Subterranean Press is due out soon. The new version of the story removes the complex characterisation and thematic development of Shakespeare's play and instead proposes that everything bad that happens in the story is down to the fact that Hamlet's father was homosexual. In fact, we learn that Hamlet's father was not only gay, but managed to infect a number of other characters (Horatio, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) with teh gay as well by molesting them as children. Hamlet's father maintains his menacing gay ways even in undeath, and it is implied that at the conclusion of the story Hamlet's spirit will be taken to Hell by his gay dad and have gay things done to him for all eternity. Potential readers are advised that reading may have to be undertaken with earmuffs, lest you be distracted by the sound of an axe being ground in the background.

Naturally, this hilarious nonsense lends itself well to satire, and Scott Lynch has already taken up the baton. There have also been a number of complaints to SubPress about the book, enough that they have posted a response on their website.

A rumour that Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are considering reuniting to make Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Now Benders, Apparently, based on the Card book, cannot be substantiated at this time. Mainly because I just made it up.

SubPress edition of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS up for pre-order

Subterranean Press has announced that its limited edition of A Dance with Dragons, with illustrations by Marc Fishman, is available for pre-order. Priority orders will go to those who have already purchased A Feast for Crows, with sales being opened to the general public after that.


GRRM discusses the edition here. SubPress are accepting orders for the book here.

DEADHOUSE GATES limited edition cover art

Subterranean Press have released their cover art for their forthcoming limited edition of Deadhouse Gates, the second Malazan novel by Steven Erikson, with art by J.K Drummond.


Hmm. It's not exactly as impressive as the Komarck cover for Gardens of the Moon.


But still, it could be a lot worse.

ARRGH! So 80's it hurts! Burn it with fire!

That's the actual original American cover art, which was so horrendous that even Tor - who pay actual money to Darrell K. Sweet for his work, remember - couldn't stomach it and ditched it. But for some reason it was inflicted on innocent Bulgarian readers instead. What did the Bulgarians ever do to Tor to deserve such harsh treatment?

It'll also be interesting to see if SubPress step up their release schedule a little. At this rate it'll be 2027 before the limited editions of all ten books are out, which is a long time to collect a complete set.