This past Saturday Tachyon Publications celebrated it's 13th anniversary (or it's bar mitzvah as their web page proclaimed) with it's traditional party at Borderlands. Ellen Klages, Terry Bisson gave readings, and a whole slew of other Bay Area sf-scenesters were present incudling Rudy Rucker and recent transplant Nick Mamatmas. The Emperor Norton Awards were handed out (Cory Doctorow and Jack Rems winning) and much fun was had by all, although most folks had more fun than I did since I overbooked my day and had to leave halfway through the proceedings, without even getting a chance at the cake, alas. Still I had a chance to chat with Jacob Weisman, who was in excellent spirits, and to Jill Roberts who helped put together the Steampunk anthology which I took the oportunity to pick up while I was there.
I've been attending the annual parties held at the Borderland's store and following the Tachyon story for quite a few years now and it's wonderful to see them grow and succeed year by year, Jacob Weisman and Jill Roberts have been putting their hearts and souls into it from the beginning, and Rina Weisman who also runs the SF in SF events, joined the merry band more recently to very good effect.
It is through Borderlands that I first encountered Tachyon and along with Jeremy Lassen's Night Shade Books and the SFinSF.org crew they form a simbiotic (or maybe the word I'm looking for is 'incestous') bunch that exist at the genre heart of the city's vibrant literary community. You are likely to find members of each group at the other's events and certainly if you run into any of them at someplace like Worldcon they'll almost certainly to be having a drink together.
Like many small publishers one of their strengths is reissuing updated editions of unacountably out-of-print books. In their case that includes the classic Harlan Ellison collection Shatterday, a revised edition of Beagle's A Fine and Private Place, Robert Nathan's fantasy classic A Portrait of Jennie as well as lesser known books by he likes of Mary Shelley, A.E. Van Vogt and Clifford Simak.
However, reissues are not the bulk of their catalogue; in the past few year's they've managed to consistenly publish critically well received and relevant new books and in the process their authors and artists have collected a whole slew of awards; Michael Dashow received a Chesley for his cover of The Rhinocerous Who Quoted Nietzsche as did John Picacio for his cover to the Titpree collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. The recent Hugo and Nebula winner 'Two Hearts' appears in the Beagle collection The Line Between and it's a rare year when the Tachyon name does't show up on the Hugo nominee list in some category.
For my own personal tastes however, the true strength of Tachyon is their habit of producing great short story collections and anthologies. Two of the most talked about recent anthologies came from Tachyon; Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology and the recent Steampunk anthology, the editors of which will be promoting at the upcoming Steam Powered convention next month. Tachyon is also the only place you can get the short fiction of Tim Powers, Michael Swanwick and Susan Palwick. They also put out the Tiptree and Year's Best Fantasy anthologies.
Their most recent book is The Wall of America, a post-humous collection of short fiction by the late Thomas M. Disch whose last novel, The Word of God, they also published this year.
I've been attending the annual parties held at the Borderland's store and following the Tachyon story for quite a few years now and it's wonderful to see them grow and succeed year by year, Jacob Weisman and Jill Roberts have been putting their hearts and souls into it from the beginning, and Rina Weisman who also runs the SF in SF events, joined the merry band more recently to very good effect.
It is through Borderlands that I first encountered Tachyon and along with Jeremy Lassen's Night Shade Books and the SFinSF.org crew they form a simbiotic (or maybe the word I'm looking for is 'incestous') bunch that exist at the genre heart of the city's vibrant literary community. You are likely to find members of each group at the other's events and certainly if you run into any of them at someplace like Worldcon they'll almost certainly to be having a drink together.
Like many small publishers one of their strengths is reissuing updated editions of unacountably out-of-print books. In their case that includes the classic Harlan Ellison collection Shatterday, a revised edition of Beagle's A Fine and Private Place, Robert Nathan's fantasy classic A Portrait of Jennie as well as lesser known books by he likes of Mary Shelley, A.E. Van Vogt and Clifford Simak.
However, reissues are not the bulk of their catalogue; in the past few year's they've managed to consistenly publish critically well received and relevant new books and in the process their authors and artists have collected a whole slew of awards; Michael Dashow received a Chesley for his cover of The Rhinocerous Who Quoted Nietzsche as did John Picacio for his cover to the Titpree collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. The recent Hugo and Nebula winner 'Two Hearts' appears in the Beagle collection The Line Between and it's a rare year when the Tachyon name does't show up on the Hugo nominee list in some category.
For my own personal tastes however, the true strength of Tachyon is their habit of producing great short story collections and anthologies. Two of the most talked about recent anthologies came from Tachyon; Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology and the recent Steampunk anthology, the editors of which will be promoting at the upcoming Steam Powered convention next month. Tachyon is also the only place you can get the short fiction of Tim Powers, Michael Swanwick and Susan Palwick. They also put out the Tiptree and Year's Best Fantasy anthologies.
Their most recent book is The Wall of America, a post-humous collection of short fiction by the late Thomas M. Disch whose last novel, The Word of God, they also published this year.
~Espaņa Sheriff
SF/SF Issue 74, October 1, 2008