I'm not particularly up-to-date on the vagaries of the sf publishing business, but I just received some publishing information that may be of interest to fans of Gene Wolfe. Wolfe's novel FREE LIVE FREE, which was written in 1983, was not published as expected in 1984 because of the demise of Pocket Books' Timescape sf line. Instead Mark Ziesing published a special limited edition of the book in late
1984. I talked to Mark Ziesing on the phone this week and asked him about the prospects for a trade edition of the novel. Ziesing said that he had some information that he wasn't completely certain of; the gist of it was that the book would appear as a Tor or Baen trade hardcover sometime in late 1985. (This may have something to do with the fact that David Hartwell, Wolfe's editor at Timescape, is now an 'acquisitions editor' for Tor, among his other occupations, according to Norman Spinrad's column in LOCUS #289.) I have a copy of Ziesing's beautiful (and expensive) edition, but this new edition would mean that more than 750 people would get to enjoy this warm, funny, STRANGE book...
Wishing I knew when THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN will come out,