It looks like ibooks, publisher of genre fiction (among other things) has filed for bankruptcy. This is troublesome for many reasons, mostly dealing with one less avenue of genre fiction, but two other (admittedly selfish) reasons spring immediately to my mind.
First and foremost, the fate of the Science Fiction: Best of 2005 and Fantasy: Best of 2005 anthologies edited by Jonathan Strahan and Karen Haber are up in the air, even though I have no doubt they will eventually see publication. I liked the 2003 and 2004 versions and think it's a worthwhile series among the plethora of Year's Best anthologies. (Another selfish reason: more stories for my short-story-a-day project.)
From a book-cover-loving fanboy perspective, this is a bummer because ibooks' covers always caught my attention. It was iBooks attractive cover that brought Robert Silverberg's outstanding book Nightwings to the top of my reading pile not too long ago. (Not that I judge a book by its cover or anything...)
[Via Strahan's Notes from Coode Street]
Comments (4)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday February 22, 2006 at 9:28 PM
© 2008 SF Signal
Well, a lot of companies come out of Chapter 11, so maybe we'll be lucky. I did buy a lot of their books, especially the TPB reprints of classics by Silverberg, Zelazny, Bester and others. Better get the rest, just in case!
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday February 23, 2006 at 9:00 AM at 9:00 AM
This is a Chapter Seven bankruptcy, which means little chance of the company ever coming back.
Posted by Sean Wallace on Friday February 24, 2006 at 3:54 PM at 3:54 PM
This seems to be the crux:
"The companies were founded by Byron Preiss, who passed away on July 9, 2005."
Preiss was a creative force. I'm not surprised things went downhill after he passed away. What a shame!
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Friday February 24, 2006 at 4:11 PM at 4:11 PM
