I’ve spent a lot of time – too much time – looking at books from small presses and the books that they produce. One that looks definitely to be on the improve, and expanding, is Jacob Weisman’s Tachyon. They’ve been around for a long time, but just in this last year have improved their production and design, increased their publication schedules, and produced some very interesting books by Leslie What, James Morrow, Eileen Gunn and others.
Their list of upcoming titles is impressive, and includes:
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, James Tiptree, Jr. (collection, 12/04)
I Live with You (and You Don’t Know It), Carol Emshwiller (collection, 04/05)
Strange Itineraries: The Collected Stories, Tim Powers (collection, 07/05)
Greetings, Terry Bisson (collection, 07/05)
Cultural Breaks, Brian Aldiss (collection, 08/05)
The best thing you can say about a small press (and the worst thing about mainstream publishing, is that the small press publisher is producing books they shouldn’t be able to produce because they’re coming out from majors. That’s true of this crop. The Tiptree is a staggeringly brilliant book, the Emshwiller, Powers and Bisson should be coming out from majors, and if the Aldiss actually is a career retrospective for his 80th birthday (as the description on the Tachyon site suggests), then it’s a major book that should be getting series coverage. Kudos to Jacob and the gang.