Sale Error Fixed! Oops!

Just discovered a small technical error on our sales page. *sigh* – not one that affected ordering so if you have placed an order, I should have it safe – but one that affected FINDING it, which I guess is kind of important. That has been fixed now.

And hey – it doesn’t do any harm to remind people as well, so to reiterate – we currently have some nice ‘choose your own bundle’ offers connected to our three latest titles, Rustblind and Silverbright, Miss Homicide Plays the Flute by Brendan Connell and Caledonia Dreamin.  All three of these are up there among the most exciting titles we have ever released, I think. ‘Homicide’ is our first ever luxurious limited edition, a beautiful book and a unique and strange read. Rustblind and Silverbright has been attracting rave reviews – one of our most successful titles. And in the short time since publication, Caledonia Dreamin has proved one of our best sellers.

See here for more info: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/specials.html

Latest Eibonvale Titles – Bundle Sale!

http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/specials.html

I think it is time for another sale here at Eibonvale Press – to clear some space and make a little cash ready for our next two titles. This time, if you buy the hardcover of one of our three latest titles, you can choose another three books for a special bundle price. That’s any eibonvale book you fancy! So here’s a chance to stock up a bit.

Our three latest titles are Miss Homicide Plays the Flute by Brendan Connell and the anthologies Rustblind and Silverbright and Caledonia Dreamin’. All three of these are up there among the most exciting titles we have ever released, I think. ‘Homicide’ is our first ever luxurious limited edition, a beautiful book and a unique and strange read. Rustblind and Silverbright has been attracting rave reviews – one of our most successful titles. And in the short time since publication, Caledonia Dreamin has proved one of our best sellers.

Click here for more info: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/specials.html

Seasonal Silverbright

Pauline Masurel has handed in a rave review of Eibonvale’s railway anthology ‘Rustblind and Silverbight’ over at The Short Review website. Pauline writes:

“There are twenty-four stories in this chunky book, which is billed as A Slipstream Anthology of Railway Stories. Many of the stories take liberties with reality, slipping effortlessly into fantastic worlds, but many of them are also quite strongly rooted in reality. This seems appropriate, given that railways are part of the edgelands, borderline places that divide landscapes. The book isn’t a cyberpunk, geek-fest of futuristic fiction but more of an insidious virus eating away at veracity. If ‘strangeness’ is the primary defining feature of slipstream literature then this collection has it by the carriage-load…

…This book may not be the ideal Christmas gift for a trainspotting old buffer (although it might be just the ticket if he or she has suitably open-minded, eclectic reading tastes). But I think it could induce at least a modest portion of train-appreciation in the most vehement rail-deniers. Reading this anthology I became convinced that every story should have a railway in it somewhere; it’s just that no one has realised this before. Try it out for yourself, but don’t forget to mind the gap…”

Our thanks to Pauline. Please do support her website by reading the review in full.

Rustblinder…

Nick Jackson (author of The Secret Life Of The Panda) has given Rustblind and Silverbright are rattling good thumbs-up, writing over at the reviews section of the most excellent Sein Und Werden magazine. Nick writes:

“Taking its title from a story by Wolfgang Borchert, this anthology is a shrine to the railway in all its manifestations and draws as much on the iconic status of these iron behemoths as on the collective psyche of railway buffs that worship them. There’s not a train spotter in sight and there are no pieces about the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian railway or any of the world’s other great train lines but to my mind the anthology is all the better for it, looking beyond these clichéd images of railways at what makes them such lasting objects of fascination. Railways feature as subjects of obsession or in the form of a developing fanaticism into which the characters are slowly, sometimes unwillingly, drawn…

…I found this a hugely enjoyable collection and whatever their individual merits, there’s a synchronicity which makes the stories ping off each other in a very satisfying way. David Rix has brought together a bunch of stylistically disparate stories and, though I have my favourites, I think the weaker are improved by their placement in the anthology. The stylistic excesses of several gave an astringent edge to the deadpan delivery of others.”

Please do read the review in full, because Nick seems to have taken the time review almost every single story in a decent amount of detail, which is quite a feat. Cheers, dude.

Leaves on the line…

Oops… looks like my brain has been so overworked and understaffed that it neglected to mention one of our recent reviews. Not to worry, I’ll make it up to you now with an endless string of apologies announced over a deafening tannoy system. The great Sami Airola of the Rising Shadow website has written glowingly of Rustblind and Silverbright, and in considerable depth, giving it 5-out-of-5 stars and describing it as one of the best anthologies of the year. Sami writes:

“…I liked all the stories in this anthology, so it’s difficult for me to choose my favourite stories, but if I had to pick a few stories, I’d probably pick these stories: Nina Allan’s Vivian Guppy and the Brighton Belle, Andrew Hook’s Tetsudo Fan, Rhys Hughes’ The Path of Garden Forks, Joel Lane’s The Last Train, Allen Ashley’s On the Level, Daniella Geary’s Death Trains of Durdensk, Jet McDonald’s The Engineered Soul, Steve Rasnic Tem’s Escape on a Train, Danny Rhodes’ The Cuts, Christopher Harman’s Sleepers, Steven Pirie’s Not All Trains Crash, Matt Joiner and Rosanne Rabinowitz’s The Turning Track, and Douglas Thompson’s Sunday Relatives. All of these stories (and also the ones that aren’t mentioned here) are worth reading and praising.

I dare say that Rustblind and Silverbright is the most versatile speculative fiction anthology of the year. Some of these stories are touching and beautiful while others are weird, shocking and disturbing, so there’s something for everybody in this anthology. This anthology will be of interest to both experienced readers and newcomers, because it contains diverse stories that have plenty of depth and atmosphere in them.

I give this unique and versatile anthology full five stars and I highly recommend it to all readers, because it contains original and fascinating speculative fiction stories about trains and railways. All the stories in Rustblind and Silverbright are fine examples of how versatile and well written speculative fiction stories can be and how much they offer to the readers in terms of depth, characterization and storytelling. If you’re thinking of reading only one anthology this year, please make sure that it is Rustblind and Silverbright, because you won’t regret reading it.”

Our thanks as ever go out to the tireless Sami Airola, Finland’s greatest export.

Arriving at Platform 3…

Charles Packer over at the Sci Fi Online/Review Graveyard website, has reviewed our railway anthology ‘Rustblind and Silverbright’ in glowing terms, giving it a spectacular 9 out of 10.

Charles writes:

“Rustblind and Silverbright is a new collection of Slipstream stories edited by David Rix and published by that excellent purveyor of quality stories, Eibonvale Press, based around the themes of trains and their stations. If you have not read any Slipstream, it is a genre of writing which has shrugged off known genre chains, pulling influences from multiple literary influence to produce something which is both unique and deliciously unpredictable…

As you can imagine with so many writers telling tales set around a single theme, there are some similarities between some of the stories, a restriction born of only having two settings. And yet not a single author failed to turn in something worth reading…

…It’s difficult to pick a favourite amongst the collection, some are creepy, Death Trains of Durdensk is able to be touching and creepy concurrently with the idea of placing the dead on a train which just travels round the tracks, which is contrasted with outright romances or rites of passage.

The collection is strongly edited and an excellent way of discovering the authors at the cutting edge of slipstream literature.”
Our sincere thanks to Mr Packer, and do remember to read his review in full here.

Rustblinded

The second review of our railway anthology ‘Rustblind and Silverbright’ appeared this week over at the SF Revu website.
Seasoned short story connoisseur Mario Guslandi says of the book:

“The stories, interwoven with insightful commentaries by editor David Rix, offer a variety of atmospheres and situations, making the book a compelling and satisfying mix of reading material. Obviously, not every tale is accomplished or memorable, but some are truly excellent…”

Mario singles certain of the stories out for particular mention, but we’ll let you click on the link yourself to find out who. One of the many fascinations of anthologies (speaking from some experience here!) is the way different readers and critics will warm to certain stories that others pass by.

Rustblind + Moonshine Preorders – Good News!

Good news – the specials and extras from Poppet have finally arrived safe and sound, in spite of going off the radar (apparently the tracking number went dead for a while). So i will be getting all the preorders packed up and mailed out starting from Monday.

To make up for the delay for some of you, I will be popping an extra Eibonvale paperback in as many of them as i can. It will be a bit random, but i only have a certain number to hand!

Before all that though, there’s just time for a bit of book porn. One of the perks of this business is that i get to play with them en mass. Most of you you only get one copy. I get to roll in them (metaphorically – usually)! Heheh! So here they are!

Rustblind/Moonshine Preorders

Just a note for those who preordered our special copies of Rustblind and Silverbright and Moonshine Express.  The books have not been dispatched yet since i am waiting for an international delivery of the personalised material that will accompany some of them – which of course had to be prepared AFTER people had ordered the book!

I must apologise for the speed this one has been dispatched.  For some reason it never occurred to me just how much getting this stuff posted half-way round the world would slow things down!  However, it should definitely not be too long now and of course, i will announce the dispatch here on the blog when it happens.

Hang in there my friends!

 

Arriving at Platform 1…

The renowned writer and reviewer D F Lewis has completed one of his legendary ‘Realtime Reviews” of Rustblind and Silverbright. Des was at the launch event itself, and seems to love the book, describing it in his ever-idiosyncratic style as “its own Holy Grailtrack”. He also says “This book no longer surprises me as one gem follows another, all skilfully chosen by the book’s over-arching force of creation…”

Des’s technique is such that he (uniquely among reviewers) makes it almost impossible for me to paraphrase his review without giving undue weight to one story over another, so dear reader, you’ll just have to read his review in its entirety here. Suffice to say he enjoyed every story and predicts this will be rated as one of the best anthologies of the year.