… again.

DYING OF THE LIGHT was first published by Pocket Books back in the dawn of time (that’s 1977 to you young punks), when Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and I was a college journalism instructor with dark brown hair. I had already been writing and publishing science fiction for six years, many of the stories set against the same future history, a very loose background I later named the Thousand Worlds. Novels were long and scary, but I finally decided I was ready to tackle one in 1976. I wrote the entire thing start to finish before giving it to my agent to sell. My title was AFTER THE FESTIVAL. Pocket, after winning the auction against three other publishers, decided that wasn’t science fictional enough and made me change it. I didn’t mind… much. DYING OF THE LIGHT fit the book just as well.

By any title, it was a Thousand Worlds book, probably the culmination of that phase of my career. A melancholy, romantic, elegiac sort of novel it was, but then I was a melancholy romantic myself in those days. It did pretty well. Even made the Hugo ballot that year, losing to Fred Pohl’s GATEWAY at Iguanacon II in Phoenix, 1978. The reviews were good too.

But don’t take my word for it. Subterranean Press has just published a lovely new hardcover of the book, copiously illustrated by the talented Tom Kidd, signed by both of us, and limited to 500 numbered and 26 lettered copies.

The lettered edition is already sold out, I fear, but SubPress still has copies of the numbered edition available at $125. To order yours (and see some more of Tom Kidd’s gorgeous artwork), go the Subterranean website at:

http://subterraneanpress.com/store/product_detail/dying_of_the_light

I hope you will enjoy your visit to my past… and the distant world of Worlorn on the edge of the galaxy, in the far distant future.

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