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One week to go to THE RHESUS CHART

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that "The Rhesus Chart" is officially available from next Thursday, July the Third. And to whet your appetite, it got a starred review in Kirkus:

Laundry regulars by now will be familiar with Stross' trademark sardonic, provocative, disturbing, allusion-filled narrative. And, here, with a structure strongly reminiscent of Len Deighton's early spy novels, the tone grows markedly grimmer, with several significant casualties and tragedies, perhaps in preparation for Angleton's feared CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

Stross at the top of his game--which is to say, few do it better. Pounce!

You can buy the US edition—and other Laundry titles—here, or the UK editions of the series here.

And tomorrow I'll be posting the first chapter here, on my blog!


23 Comments

1:

Excellent.

Thanks for the update, and the upcoming preview, Charlie. I'm looking forward to it.

2:

Looking forward to reading another Laundry novel,as always.

3:

Amazon (US incarnation) says it will be available Tuesday, July 1. Most books come out on Tuesdays here.

In fact, I hope to be done reading it by Thursday. No matter the details: Go Laundry!!! And congrats on the starred review.

4:

Pre-ordered.

5:

Even Now a matched Team of Dolphins will be being prepared to deliver my Long Ago pre-ordered US of A vian hardback. Yes, I know - how self indulgent eh wot? Well they will be printed on really good paper, and, err, the Dust Jacket...well I quite like the art work... SO THERE!!

6:

You just couldn't resist the one Twilight reference, could you?

7:

I have just received my copy via amazon.de :-)

8:

A quick check tells me there's a 30+ person waiting list at my local library, which seems pretty good for a book that's not in stock yet.

9:

Like I said ... trundle down to Forbidden (planet) for a copy ... [ Get it signed @ Loncon3? ]

10:

Preordered and eagerly awaited.

Anything planned at WorldCon, to further raise the profile?

11:

I'm sure it sounds totally naive, and I've heard you defending publishers before, but man. neverwilliever fully appreciate why there still needs to be a delay between completion of a project and publication, especially when there's basically no advertising for it out there (source: I never know when you've published a new book and am frequently months late, in spite of loving every word you've written).

PDFs are my flesh and audiobooks are my bones, and neither needs a shelf. just seems odd. anyway, preordered the PDF, and will get the audiobook off Audible when they wake up and get it done. thanks for being you! I just finished Wireless and loooved a lot of it.

12:

FYI, for cheapskates like me, Neptune's Brood came out in paperback the other day (the 24th?), so the Kindle price (and presumably other e-formats if you want to avoid the Evil Empire) has now dropped.

13:

Because a book isn't done when I hand in a manuscript. It's full of bugs and typos, is in a not-terribly-reader-friendly format, doesn't have a cover ... and just because you can't see the marketing it doesn't mean it isn't happening; half my sales are still made via traditional bricks-and-mortars bookshops, and the advertising/marketing isn't directed at readers like you, it's directed at bookseller inventory clerks without whom the other half of my readers will never see the book on a shelf. Next silly question? (See the "Common misconceptions about publishing" essays in the sidebar to the right if you want more interminable details of the workflow involved in turning a manuscript into a book.)

14:

Or, if you're looking for an ebook of "Neptune's Brood" in the UK, you could wait until the middle of next week then check the price again. My lips are officially sealed, but let's just say if you buy it right now you'll be kicking yourself later.

(This is UK-only.))

15:

Huzzah! What was once tomorrow is now today! Can we have a chapter of THE RHESUS CHART now?

How about now?

Perhaps now?

/should probably learn to cultivate patience, but - ooh, shiny!/

16:

Patience. I'm several time zones behind my normal dateline and I've got to check for typos before it goes live. Maybe in an hour.

17:

Charlie, is there going to be a DRM-free ebook option this time around? If so, any recommendations or suggestions as to ebook stores? On Apocalypse Codex, despite the whole "DRM-free" version, I had to fight with Amazon to get a DRM-free version of it... and wound up having to get it from the publisher themselves.

Given that horrible, horrible experience, I wish to voice my displeasure with my dollars, and buy from a bookstore that will give me it DRM free without jumping through hoops.

Any help greatly appreciated. I went looking for the Tor DRM-free store, which appears to have never occurred (and their site doesn't list Rhesus Chart as coming out, besides).

18:

"A quick check tells me there's a 30+ person waiting list at my local library, which seems pretty good for a book that's not in stock yet."

And you do that so blithely, not noticing Our Author shivering and starving on the Cruel Streets of Scotland.

Do you even know how much beer is takes to sustain human life in that frozen land?

19:

Charlie, is there going to be a DRM-free ebook option this time around?

No.

DRM is shit, as we know, but the policy on it is set by my publishers -- and well above the level of editors (or people who interact directly with readers, for the most part).

This book is published by Ace (a division of Penguin Random House) in the USA, and Orbit (a division of Hachette) in the UK. Both these corporations require DRM on everything.

If you don't like DRM, and want to transcode a DRM'd ebook for your own personal enjoyment, you can find the tools to do so here.

20:

Thanks, sir. I seem to recall that last time it was an option, so if it was this time, I wanted to Do The Right Thing and give my money to the right folks. Appreciate the answer.

21:

That was Tor, who are happy to omit DRM. (They're the exception to the DRM-on-everything rule among the big six five.) Basically, Merchant Princes novels are DRM-free.

As/when Orbit and Ace are allowed to make DRM optional, I will of course lobby to remove DRM from those of my books that they publish.

22:

Hardback on order from small retail shop.

So begins the pavlovian salivation Can't wait to get my teeth into it ok ill stop now

23:

So excited by this. I am busily re-reading the whole series to get the maximum enjoyment out of this one.

They're even better than i remembered.

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This page contains a single entry by Charlie Stross published on June 26, 2014 2:55 PM.

YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034 was the previous entry in this blog.

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