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The final science fiction novel by SF legend Brian Aldiss will be published this June by The Friday Project, as its programme of close to 50 titles from his backlist gathers pace.
The Finches of Mars has been described by 87-year-old Aldiss as the last science fiction novel he intends to write, as he plans to focus on contemporary fiction.
Publisher Scott Pack said: “With Aldiss’ books, the standard is such that there is always something about his books that is amazing, that grabs you; with Finches of Mars, he takes an idea that grabs you and he really explores it.” The story is set on Mars where a group of colonists have problems setting up a new society when women on the planet only ever give birth to stillborn children.
Pack acquired the title along with three other new books, and nearly 50 novels that had fallen out of print, a mix of both science fiction and contemporary-set titles, through Curtis Brown agent Gordon Wise.
TFP has been releasing the backlist titles in batches for a year already as print-on-demand titles and e-books, with three more batches planned for 2013. The most recent batch containing his continuations of classics, including Frankenstein Unbound, Dracula Unbound and Moreau’s Other Island.
TFP plans to release the next new work, Comfort Zone, a study of a community’s reactions to plans for a local pub to be turned into a mosque, set in contemporary Oxford, in December this year. Pack said: “Our plan is to publish one [of the new titles] each December. I have found December is a really interesting month for publishing; there is a cultural wasteland in November and December, with all the big Christmas books published in September and October. When we publish a new Brian Aldiss, I don’t need to be front of store, the fans will seek it out—so why not do it in December? It doesn’t need to compete with the unnecessary noise of the Christmas releases.”
Pack said the publisher was also going to be publishing Aldiss’ short stories, collecting them into omnibuses according to the decade they were written in, and releasing them in traditional print and e-book formats. Pack said the digital omnibuses of Aldiss’ work, collecting together his essays, for example, or books in a particular series, have been selling well.
Pack added that the extent of the reissuing programme, and the fact that it is combined with new novel releases, meant that both “the real hardcore community” and “younger fans” would be looking out for Aldiss’ works.
The Finches of Mars will be released as a £14.99 hardback on 6th June.