Old Wine; New Bottles

I'm very pleased with the cover for the mass-market paperback of The Quiet War; it's been redesigned for the smaller format, but cleverly retains all the design elements of the cover of the hardback/trade paperback. I've also received covers for new editions of Four Hundred Billion Stars, Eternal Light, Red Dust, and Pasquale's Angel, which are scheduled for publication in September. They're still being tweaked, but once they're finalised I'll post them here. I have no shame. Eternal Light is also being reprinted in April, as part of Gollancz's space opera promotion. I don't know. You spend what seems like an age, waiting for one of your books to be republished, and then two editions come along at once...

Instant Architecture (3)

This old Routemaster, parked in a corner a car park off Brick Lane, has been converted into a restaurant (a vegan restaurant, hence the groan-inducing pun in the name), kitchen downstairs, dining space upstairs (and outside, when the weather's more clement). As far as I know, it's the only such example in London; you'd think there'd be more.

Introducing

In the post today, complimentary copies of two book for which I wrote introductions: the anthology We Think Therefore We Are (see below) and Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days, which collects together seven stories set in the near-future India of River of Gods. Like an establishment known for its fine wine, Mr McDonald needs no bush hung in front of his enterprise to attract eager customers, but I was flattered to be asked, and glad to oblige. I'm a huge admirer of his work and think he hit a new personal best with River of Gods, and the stories in Cyberabad Days are equally good. Check 'em out.