Behold the Double Feature!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Though we've put out a lot of awesome titles in the Planet Stories line in the past few years—not a few of them stellar classics in the genre—the debut of the first-ever Planet Stories Double Feature in a couple months has really got the editorial team here stoked. And for good reason—the book features two exciting sword and planet novellas by literary grand masters Michael Moorcock and Joe R. Lansdale!

Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Sojan the Swordsman features the adventurous tales of Michael Moorcock's first published character, which originally saw print in serial form in an impossible-to-find fanzine in the 1950s. Mike has revised Sojan especially for the Double Feature, so if you're looking for the definitive edition of the work, this is it. Mind you, Sojan Shieldbearer is an incarnation of Mike's recurring Eternal Champion, of whom Elric of Meniboné is another personification. Plus, Sojan carries a mean retro-futuristic steampunk air-gun—how can you beat that?

Joe Lansdale's novella Under the Warrior Star is not only an astoundingly well-executed homage to the rollicking pulp adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adelbert Kline, it's also the first original fiction published by our Planet Stories book line. Whether it's battling giant spiders in the miles-high trees of the forest world of Juna or taking on that planet's Cthulhu-like overlord with but a sword in hand, Joe's hero Braxton Booker, a former Olympic fencing champion with a shady past, makes the perfect counterpart for Moorcock's sword-wielding Sojan.

Now that you know a little bit about the Double Feature, check out the pulp hero goodness of Kieran Yanner's cover art for the book. Get your swords sharpened and your air-guns primed—the Double Feature releases this fall!

Christopher Paul Carey
Editor