I absolutely love the cover art. Very cool.

The American cover is serviceable, but that one is clever.

It was on sale today in Waterstone's in Cameron Toll too.

Huh, I picked it (UK edition) up on the 17th, from the Bristol Forbidden Planet. It's good!

I believe it was originally scheduled for the 17th, got put back to the 24th, and it looks like a number of booksellers didn't get the message. I'm not too upset by this -- I'm not J. K. Rowling, it's already out in the US, and they weren't jeopardizing some kind of high profile launch!

Anyway, it's the first of four books of mine coming out in the UK this year. To be followed by fewer next year, I suspect ...

I'll wait for it to hit Waterstones.

Not because I like Waterstones, but I have a gift voucher so...

We had extra people at bookgroup today, so couples were asked to take only one copy of Family Trade. While one guy was out looking to see what else the library has of yours, he found Halting State which has a very different cover in the US. I've had it for a while from SFBC.

I gave them your warning that it's only half a book. I think Hartwell did the same thing to the book we discussed today -- Kress' Probability Moon because it's really just a first act.

got it Friday from waterstones... not the nicest bookstore... but it is between me and my PhD just read the first couple of pages (brilliant) then pints came between me and book, and apparently its not socially acceptable to read in a pub (when friends are around), so I really hope that my hang-over tomorrow allows me to read it with a glass of nice whisky. Anyway, the main point was: Waterstones had it on Friday (damn it 3 for 2 but no other books worth it ... read them all...)

Hi Charlie,

When I first saw the covers of the US and UK versions last year I figured I'd import the UK version, simply because I far prefer that cover, but now that I'm thinking about it (Thinking: Yes, I know - Aways Dangerous), as long as I'm going to have it mailed to me anyway, do you have an arrangement with any bookstore in the UK regarding buying signed copies?

Best,

Jonathan K Stephens

PS. Did you ever get around to trying that bottle of Canadian Whiskey I gave to you at C'est What? in Toronto?

Jonathan: if you're still in Toronto, and willing to wait a few months, I hope to be visiting in October. The bottle of whiskey was indeed sampled and found to be good!

Nice art, C.S.. The look gives it an instant cultural context. The blood is a nice touch.

The little isometric people remind me of Douglas Coupland's JPOD cover. But yours is much better!

BUM!

I WISH I'd seen this yesterday, since I just sent Amazon an order (*) - I'll have to wait until Thursday, now.

(*) "Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer The Origins of the British & Eden in the East - Stephebn Oppenheimer.

What's interesting about the two covers is how they emphasis different elements of the book, though the US cover maybe isn't quite so clear. It's Crime (and not-SF) contrasted with computer games.

Anyway, it's really a Romance.

Hi Charlie,

I tried to email you privately but there appears to be some problem with my writing style. I received a message saying:

* Bogus content Due to comment spam received in the past couple of days, this script has implemented spam checking. You appear to be using a spamming tool or attempting a buffer overrun attack. This mail has not been sent. Please accept my apologies if you are indeed a legitimate user. *

I wonder if this is because I habitually write my email in Microsoft Word (to take advantage of the spell check function) and then copy and paste.

Anyway, yes, indeed I am still in the same vicinity. Actually, although Toronto born and bred, for the last 12 years I've lived about an hour away, down Niagara-way, in Stoney Creek - the setting of one of our immortal British victories over the Yanks during the War of 1812 (actually our American brethren are pretty good sports, since every year they turn up to get beaten in the yearly summer re-enactment).

Charlie, now excuse me for presuming, but are you suggesting you would be willing to bring a UK version of 'Halting State' for me when you visit in October? If so, may I propose a fair swap: if indeed you enjoyed that bottle of whiskey from our local distiller Kittling Ridge, I propose to make a quick jaunt to the winery (it's the only winery in Ontario also licensed as a distillery) as see if they have a little something special, suitable for a visiting foreign dignitary such as yourself.

How does that sit with you?

Anyway, Happy New Year and all the best to you and the lovely Feorag, who I would hope again to have the pleasure of meeting in October.

Jonathan

Dave @ 14:

I'm of the opinion that all books are Romances at heart. :)

Jonathan K Stephens: almost certainly writing in MS Word will bork the mail feedback form. It filters for high-bit ASCII characters (after some asshats in China started using it to mailbomb me). Just type in a "hello" by hand and I'll reply from my real email address.

Better remind me nearer the time about the UK edition of Halting State; you might do better ordering it via Amazon.co.uk or Bakka Books (remember, I get to deal not only with trans-Atlantic luggage weight limits and schlepping along formal kit for a wedding, but with having to schlep said luggage down three flights of stairs by hand before I get the taxi to the airport).

Hi Charlie,

I've done a lot of traveling myself, so I did wonder what you were on about. Still, my dear ol' Daddy taught me be polite and never to look a gift horse in the mouth so I figured I better get some sort of clarification. Ordering it ahead of time and then getting you to sign it is a much better idea since, as a book collector, by definition I'm a fuss-ass who wants a perfect copy! Still, I do think I'll take a wander down the road and see what I find. It is your fine self after all, and October in Canada can be chilly so it's wise to have a little something on hand, purely for medicinal purposes, of course!

Best,

Jonathan

Jonathan@15, I live in Manassas, VA, and the Union re-enactors show up several times a year to lose to the Confederate re-enactors.

Annd it was in Waterstones.

..wanders back to his reading table

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/It39s-a-reallife-Crimewatch-as.3695628.jp

"SPY cameras are to be fitted to the uniforms of Scottish police officers for the first time, in a new hi-tech initiative in the fight against crime.

The cameras will be in open view on the uniforms or body armour of officers on patrol and will be used to gather evidence to help secure convictions.

Initially, recorded footage taken by the CCTV cameras will be downloaded to a computer, but SCS Security Design, the company behind the scheme, is developing software that will allow images from the cameras to be beamed back live to the force's CCTV control room."

Picked it up in Waterstones in Dublin this morning. It's in their '3 for 2' deal.

Picked up your book, US cover, from Amazon.com. An entertaining and inciteful read. I was personally amused to discover your reference to ilovebees, as I participated in that ARG. And in case you hadn't already heard of it, "Majestic" was a US based, for-pay ARG that had a "government conspiracy theory" spin. I plan to pick up a few more of your books. Keep em coming. :o)

Hi i bought my copy of halting state a few month ago in a uk store, why wait when you can go to forbidden planet (if you lucky enough to have one near you) guess its the usa edition as the cover is different. A truly excellent read. They also have your latest Family book that ain't out officially here yet; which i plan to buy in the not to distant future.

Mark -- why wait? Because if everybody did that, my UK publishers would lose sales to the US imports, which I earn less from. So my UK publishers would pay less for the rights to my future books. So I'd earn less.

As long as it's a couple of hundred copies for the collectors and hyper-eager fans who can't wait, nobody minds too much. But if it gets to the stage where my UK and US publishers are competing for each others' sales, I have a big income-shaped problem.

(The solution, of course, would be to merge the English language rights split into a world market. But that's not up to me, and if/when it happens I'll bet you the combined world-rights contract would pay less than the two separate contracts I get under the current situation ...

Second copy now purchased just for that wonderful UK cover art. :)

Describing a character (on p120 or thereabout) as having the build of a "rugby quarterback"? For shame, Charlie! For shame! Next you'll be talking about someone fielding first base at Lord's! (May I suggest "prop forward" for the next edition?)

My copy arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I laughed when I picked up this week's Economist and saw that a current virtual world (Second Life) is having a financial crisis right now. Your timing is excellent, CS, but I'm already starting to think that this might be old hat by 2016!

Unless I'm much mistaken, that's a portrait of Charlie on the back cover, bottom left.

:-)

Ajay@27: Comment is on p194

NelC@29: I noticed that too - I still haven't finished, so I'm wondering if he'll turn up, Hitchcock-style, in a cameo?

James @31: when I turn up in one of my own novels, you can dig me a grave -- it'll be a sure sign the brain eater's gotten to me, and I'll be starting to stink pretty soon thereafter.

(Caveat: bizarre but deliberate exercises in postmodern excess excluded.)

Right, finished it now, and it was bloody marvellous. Thanks for three days of head-spinning fun. Did you consciously choose the name "Dietrich Brunner Associates" for its acronym, or is that just my database-warped imagination?

Now that you're on my fairly short list of people I'd buy in hardback, I'm curious - why no hardbacks?

I think the lack of hardbacks is due to the fact that Charlie tends to have books published first in the US making the UK editions reprints, which are usually published in paperback. 'Glasshouse' was originally slated for hardback release but this was cancelled & went straight to mass market paperback. I could be wrong though.

gmilton: you're wrong.

James@33, I get a lot of Charlie's books in hardcover from SFBC.

Ha Ha. I suspected as much.

The whys, wherefores and howtos of publishing in different form factors are complex, arcane, and don't make obvious sense to outsiders if discussed in isolation, without a lengthy exegesis on how the publishing industry got to be the shape it is. And I am, I'm afraid, too lazy and/or busy writing the next book to deliver a lengthy essay just to explain why some of my books show up in hardcover and others in paperback.