"Life the second time around is short, strange and terrifying to the awakened, until one breaks away, leaving a trail of murder and miracles as he flees the Project and the horror his 'life' has become," from the back cover copy.

"...perhaps most striking about Shepard is his style; colourful, inventive, and at times subtly poetic, it is a decidedly smooth and sophisticated read. On top of this Shepard has a vision lodged somewhere between the romantic, the horrific and the loosely metaphysical.," from Infinity Plus review by Jason Gould. Terry Carr credited as Editor, second in a series of "Science Fiction Specials." (Collector's note: some might consider the uncorrected proof to be the true first edition.)

"In the jungles of Guatemala, David Mingolla is struggling to survive amongst the rotting vegetation and his despairing fellow foot soldiers. He knows he is nothing but an expendable pawn in an endless war. On R & R a few miles away from the warzone he meets Debora - an enigmatic young woman who may be working for the enemy - and stumbles into a deadly psychic conflict where the mind is the greatest weapon," from the back cover copy.

"...masterfully written, taking what could have been a perfectly adequate war story and expanding it to encompass the fate of the world as well as the main character's soul. The opening section (based on the short story, "R&R") is tightly plotted, with vivid, dreamlike clarity and the building momentum of a runaway train. ... Shepard's conception of extrasensory powers blends perfectly with the elements of magic realism in his setting. ... In the world of Life During Wartime, very little is white, some is black, but mostly there are only shades of gray," from SF Site review by Charlene Brusso. (But not everyone loved it!) (Collector's note: some might consider the uncorrected proof to be the true first edition.)

"...Lucius Shepard has emerged as a phenomenon, one of the most astonishing new talents ever to grace the genre of imaginative fiction... superbly crafted tales of futuristic war, menacing wind elementals, parallel worlds, interstellar incursions, a six-thousand foot dragon, and in the ironically entitled 'R&R,' a Central American sojourn that is one of the most sheerly harrowing stories ever conceived by an American author," from the dust jacket copy. Cover art by J.K. Potter. Foreword by Michael Bishop. The first appearance in book form (outside of anthology appearances) of the first story in the Dragaon Griaule series, 'The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule.'

"The Jaguar Hunter is a varied mix of speculative fiction shorts that collects most of Shepard�s first published works. While there are a couple of stories which serve no higher god than well-written entertainment (The Traveler�s Tale and How the Wind Spoke at Madaket), the remaining stories utilize Shepard�s surfeit of talent for a higher purpose. R&R, 'The Jaguar Hunter', 'The End of Life As We Know It', and 'The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule' do a particularly good job of examining poignant facets of humanity, tradition, war, culture, evil, and quotidian issues among others. A good first collection, the omnivorous reader of speculative fiction will perhaps enjoy it most." from Speculiction review. (Collector's note: this edition reportedly limited to 3,194 copies. Kerosina Books in the UK also did a very nice hardcover edition the following year, including a 250 copy limited edition in slipcase.)

A Dragon Griaule story. "'The Scalehunter�s Beautiful Daughter' is the second in the Dragon Griaule series and puts a lot of high fantasy to shame. I thought this journey taking the said daughter into the very Vancian (or Michael Shea-like) environment within Griaule was as epic as any large trilogy while remaining at a novella length. Just a brilliant piece of work, this one," from a review by Charles L. Grant. Cover art by J.K. Potter. (Collector's note: Released simultaneously as a limited edition hardcover, 300 signed and numbered copies, and a trade edition hardcover.)

A Dragon Griaule story. "'The Father of Stones,' has perhaps the most carefully complex plot of all the [Griaulle stories leading up to "The Skull"] (which tend to be relaxed, circumstantial, a bit episodic), but once the whole plot is unwound, we and the protagonist are left to wonder how to find meaning within events manipulated by Griaule's scheming, mad chessmaster whims. The effect is unsettling and profound, because the question quickly opens itself wider than an individual story," from a Strange Horizons review by Matthew Cheney.

Cover art by J.K. Potter. (Collector's note: According to ISFDB, this novella was issued in a single edtion by the Washington Science Fiction Association, limited to 500 numbered copies, signed by Shepard and Potter, and slipcased in black cloth, for special $30 purchase by attendees Disclave #33 in Washington, DC, May 1989.)

Features two short novels by Shepard and one by Robert Frazier. Regarding "Nomans Land," Charles L. Grant wrote in a review, "In many ways this as science fictional as Shepard often gets, but to explain why this is so would be to ruin the plot and there�s a greater secret to what happens here that gives the whole idea of 'Nomans Land' an entirely new definition. This one was also seriously brilliant."

Shepard's "Nomans Land" appears here for the first time in book form (in English, that is). (Collector's note: Hardcover edition limited to 250 numbered copies, signed by Shepared and Robert Frazier. ISFDB: "Laid-in extras include map, postcard and cocktail napkin." Trade paperback edition released simultaneously.)

"Deep in the lush jungles of Borneo, an American fugitive discovers a native drug that can bring hallucinations to life and revive the ancient spirits of the land," from Tor paperback reprint back cover copy.

"Borneo is a claustrophobic environment conveyed well by Shepard, with ghosts flitting (literally) around every corner. The cast is populated by dissolutes and degenerates, from a senile botanist stranded high in the jungle, through the foolish MacKinnon to a scheming native witch. The prose is lush and dreamy, perhaps too florid for some, conveying the thick jungles and atmosphere of the story. It is true that the characters only dimly understand in what story they are taking part. This is perhaps even true of Shepard. To the reader it only matters slightly", from a review by Paul-Michael Agapow, shared in rec.arts.sf.reviews.

(Collector's note: the true first edition of Kalimantan is the Legend/Century limited hardcover edition, 300 copies, signed and numbered, cloth-bound (no dj) in matching cloth slipcase. See also this wonderful photo of the UK limited courtesy of Von at Interesting Books.)

"Shepard's hypnotic, flowing, generous prose, his keen perception and bold honesty make stories such as the brooding 'The Ends of the Earth,' the phantasmagorical 'Bound for Glory,' and the moving tale of time-travel and fate, 'Aymara,' thoroughly modern and literarily satisfying. Shepard has been called an American magic realist, but this label is more deceptive than telling. Though the occasional story, such as 'Life of Buddha,' suggests a comparison with the work of Fuentes or Garcia Marquez, the roots of Shepard's fiction lie instead in the North American pulp tradition. The magic realists treat the supernatural as miraculous, inexplicable by human logic, but Shepard's ghosts and magic obey rules different from our world's yet comprehensible to his characters and to the reader.", from the Publisher's Weekly review.

Cover art and interior illustrations by J.K. Potter. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 1992. (Collector's note: according to ISFDB, issued in an edition of 4,655 copies; booksellers also report that 100 of those copies were released in an "author's edition" signed by Shepard on the front free endpaper.)

"In the mid nineteenth century, vampires gather at Castle Banat, one of their most sprawling and ancient warrens. Their five-hundred-year breeding project has produced the Golden, a mortal of perfect blood, and they've come to drink from her in a ceremony that will incidentally make her one of the Family. When the girl is found murdered, the clan�s shadowy patriarch calls on the detective Michel Beheim to solve the crime. But Michel has been a vampire for only a short while, and though he was a talented investigator among mortals, he is ill-prepared for the task. Soon he is fighting to survive the bizarre terrors of the labyrinthine castle and the schemes of vampires who guard a secret that may forever alter the world of the undead.", from the Amazon Kindle edition.

"The excitement in this vampire / detective / romance story resides less in the plot than in the the characters, the details, and the tweaks Shepard gives to convention. Although Beheim remains something of an enigma, the characters he encounters are all finely drawn in two dimensions, beautiful static portraits. Castle Banat, which is like all the haunted castles of the world jumbled together, is also carefully constructed," from a review by Michael Lichter, posted the old school way to rec.arts.sf.reviews.

Winner of the 1994 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel. Cover art by Arnie Fenner.

A chapbook collection containing revised versions of two stories: the novelette "Sports in America," published in its original form in Playboy, and the short story, "A Little Night Music," which first appeared in Omni magazine. According to ISFDB, both stories were later reprinted in their original forms in the collections Barnacle Bill the Spacer (UK) / Beast of the Heartland (US). Cover art by Arnie Fenner. (Collector's note: published in a single edition of 1,000 numbered copies signed by Shepard and Fenner.)

This is a unique and worthwhile production, collecting the Shepard novella "The Last Time," classified by many as a horror story, with an introduction by James Blaylock and an essay called "Why I Collect Lucius Shepard" by Tom Joyce. Cover drawing and interior artwork by Phil Parks. Limited to 150 numbered copies, signed by Shepard, Blaylock, Joyce, and Parks. The book is bound beautifully in red leather, and is housed in the publisher's clear acrylic slipcase. Nothing else like it.

"The trick, when it comes to the successful use of sex in fiction, is to portray it in the same manner as the remaining elements of the story - part of a whole. Perhaps an extraordinary event in a character's life, but not just the reason for a reader to keep reading. As Lucius Shepard showed with The Last Time, you can portray the most extreme of situations without toppling into absurdity. Highly recommended," from a review of the anthology Little Deaths: 24 Tales of Horror and Sex, where this story later appeared.

A collection of seven stories covering the period 1987-1995, including the title story. "The book contains two novellas and five shorter stories taking in SF, fantasy, thriller and mainstream. ... Apart from the two non-speculative ones the stories as a whole show a tendency to start in the real, solid world and part way through shift into a more fantastic milieu. Their narrators are also keen to tell rather than show and to philosophise. Betrayals are common. The collection as a whole is really just what you�d want in fiction," from a review by Jack Deighton.

The title story won the Hugo award. The US edition, Beast of the Heartland and Other Stories (1999) collects the same stories, highlighting a different story for the title.

"Beast of the Heartland contains seven tales that explore the darkside where science fiction meets horror. Headed by the award-winning 'Barnacle Bill the Spacer,' a story of high-space mutiny, the book includes 'A Little Night Music,' a gothic tale of insanity; 'All the Perfumes of Araby,' where an adventurer in the Middle East links up with an ancient entity; 'Human History,' a postapocalyptic chiller; 'Sports in America,' a noir tale in the Chandler tradition; 'The Sun Spider,' a mini space opera; and the title story -- an ingenious picture of a battered boxer on the decline," from the cover copy.

Collector's note: Beast of the Heartland is identical in content to the UK edition, released under the title Barnacle Bill the Spacer. The trade paperback US edition may be a digitally printed POD title, but reports are unclear whether there was originally an offset-printed edition in 1999.

"His penchant intact for turning familiar landscapes into alien zones, the newest from Shepard offers a hurricane-tweaked vision of Florida, where two ex-lovers find themselves together again, free to do what comes naturally until the weather clears," from 2002 Kirkus Review.

Memorable for the way in which the characters are trapped in an authentic, well rendered setting in Florida's west coast, a fictional town called Piersal, where a freeze in time and isolation of place is created by hurricane conditions. Plot is not so much the point. I remember liking it very much. And the US first edition is a nice little hardcover book, worth collecting.

Despite the ad-laden website, this 2003 PopMatters review by Matt Dionne is also worthwhile:

"Those familiar with Shepard�s other fiction, such as the recommended novel Life During Wartime and the short story collection The Jaguar Hunter, will recognize Russell as a typical protagonist. He�s worldly, cynical yet romantic, capable but not successful and has a lot of sex without getting married. And, of course, Shepard remains a smooth writer with a strong voice. With Valentine, Shepard has ventured slightly out of his usual genres. Although Piersall has an eerie, unreal atmosphere and the ending has an X-Files-ish twist, Valentine can not be classified easily as science fiction or fantasy."

"While Shepard is widely regarded as a science fiction author, there is very little of the fantastic in Colonel Rutherford's Colt. Jimmy's story's affect on contemporary events involves neither time travel nor multiple worlds, but rather Jimmy's mental facilities which are alluded to in the opening paragraph. The tale he creates about Colonel Rutherford appears to be a mechanism that helps him cope with the reality he finds," from an SF Site review by Steven H. Silver. Silver's review also appears to confirm that Colonel Rutherford's Colt was originally available as an Electric Story e-book in 2002, before the 2003 Subterranean hardcover. Electric Story, like Sci Fiction, deserves credit for being early to the online/e-book/digital wave that began to crest just a few years later. Shepard was there for both.

"Though not as sharply focused as Shepard's more speculative fiction, this short novel showcases his gift for psychologically penetrating character study and supports a historical story-within-the-story as evocative as anything he has written," from the Publishers Weekly review.

The first of many fine collaborations between Lucius Shepard and Subterranean Press. Published in a limited state of 750 copies signed by Shepard and also in a lettered state of 26 signed copies. Cover art by J.K. Potter, who also designed the signature sheet. Also released as a Blackstone audio book.

"In this unsettling new novella, Shepard returns to the near-future setting of his Nebula Award�winning story, 'R&R' (later part of Life During Wartime). El Rayo, the bustling border community grown up along the electrified fence along the U.S./Mexican border, is home to Eddie Poe, who earns his living by providing security. ... Eddie's pragmatic voice is perfect for this story of people whose only hope for the future is an AI with a messiah complex. One gets the feeling that the author has only begun here, that this novella could grow into a novel, as did 'R&R.' We can only hope that's what Shepard thinks, too," from the Publishers Weekly review.

Cover art by J.K. Potter. This novella originally apeared circa September 2001 in four installments, on the now defunct Sci Fiction website, edited by Ellen Datlow. At the time, this was pretty radical stuff, publishing original fiction online at the professional level--a real paying market. It is possible the original publication of AZTECHS was eclipsed by the events of September 11, 2001. The 2003 Subterranean Press hardcover was limited to 500 signed and numbered copies, and according to the publisher, "26 signed lettered copies housed in a handcrafted slipcase."

"Shepard's second outstanding short novel of 2003 makes excellent use of atmosphere, employing the animated mist that pours off the water and spreads through the swamp like a completely separate character. Louisiana Breakdown plays for a while like a voodoo "Wicker Man," pitting a clueless outsider against a townful of strange locals and their quaintly horrifying customs, but in the end it's a successful and sexy blend of secret motivations and secret knowledge...Lucius Shepard's work stands with the best of them," from a review by W.D. Gagliani.

"Lousiana Breakdown is...almost Aristolean in its unity, the novella possesses the beauty of language, clearness of construction, and mythological inspiration that make great tragic drama. Any expansion of this little masterpiece would be nothing but bloat," from a review by Paula Guran which originally appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine.

"Detective William Dempsey of the New York Police Department is having a bad time of it. Having endured--along with his brothers in blue, Manny Pinero and Evan Haley--a months-long homicide trial for the inadvertant (or was it?) shooting of Haitian immigrant, Israel Lara, he's been abandoned by his fiancee, deemed unfit for duty, and is sinking into an oblivion of vodka and pills. Then there's that little problem with his eye. A floater, his optometrist says. Nothing to worry about. Microscopic bits of protein adrift in the humor that cast shadows on the retina. But Dempsey's worried. ... As he tries to determine what is happening, Dempsey's investigation leads him from rave culture to santeria ceremonies in storefront temples and, ultimately, to a circumstance that may have cosmic implications and a truth that lies hidden in the deepest sub-basements of his own mind," from the jacket copy.

"Shepard's writing is evocative but never too precious. It's also quite gripping. No matter how warm and safe you are, you'll feel as if you're on the streets of New York with the wind slicing through your jacket, one foot in front of the other in the sludge and slush of filthy snow on the sidewalks. The tension is palpable from the first page. There's clearly more to this shooting than Dempsey knows. In order to salve his anguish, and salvage his reputation and career, Dempsey must find out why the shooting happened. But in doing so, he will discover a whole new world of hurt. ... Floater is an exceptionally good novel by a writer clearly at the top of his game. It uses the tools of two genres -- police procedurals and the supernatural horror -- to dive deep into a mind tormented by deserved guilt, and to evoke physical, psychological and cultural landscapes. In synthesizing the three, Shepard creates his own vision, derivative of none, as powerful as any. Readers won't find this landscape comforting, but it's certainly compelling. Shepard evokes the unease of a [post 9/11] New York changed, cold, and unknowable. Read Floater. You'll see," from a review by Rick Kleffel.

Introduction by Jeffrey Ford. Cover art by Edward Miller.

"In early 1998, author Lucius Shepard... joined the 'hobo nation' � riding the rails throughout the western half of the United States, his 'neighbors' the disenfranchised, the homeless, the punks, the gangs, and the joy riders. At the time, the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) were making headlines across the country: Were they an organized gang using the U.S. rail system to rape and murder, to smuggle illegal drugs, and to terrorize unsuspecting train-hoppers? Or, were the FTRA members simply a 'brotherhood,' united for support and companionship only? While investigating the facts for an article that appeared in the July 1998 issue of Spin, Shepard traveled the rails with FTRA members Missoula Mike and Madcat for the inside story. ... In addition to 'The FTRA Story' � unedited and expanded from its original Spin appearance � this volume also contains two novellas written in Shepard's award-winning inimitable style: 'Over Yonder' and 'Jailbait,' the latter novella published here for the first time," from the Golden Gryphon Press promotional copy.

"The reprint essay and novella and original novelette gathered in Lucius Shepard's Two Trains Running represent not so much a collection as a demonstration of the way experience mutates into art in the hands of a gifted storyteller. ... Shepard probes deeper and discovers a complex society of rail-riders: punk teens, yuppie day-trippers, nomadic homeless losers, petty desperados, not many women but lots of dogs (the dogs more prized and fought-over). It's a world unto itself, messy, contradictory, perceived by many of its inhabitants through a haze of hard liquor, bad drugs, and addled passions that leave them too cracked to engage in any organized activity, including crime. Exit the monolithic conspiracy theory. Enter the perfect opportunity for a writer of dark fantasies to plunge into a realm unlike any seen before," from the Locus review by Faren Miller.

'Over Yonder' won the 2003 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, another story to have first appeared online, in Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction. Cover art by John Picacio.

"In the last few years, Shepard has been utterly inspired, producing story after brilliant story. Now Trujillo - his biggest and best collection to date - assembles the cream of this extraordinary output: one novel, six novellas, and four novelettes, all of them portals into the most extreme and terrifying possibilities of contemporary existence," from the PS Publishing promotional copy.

"It is difficult to truly describe the writing of Lucius Shepard. Some of the stories touch on the horror genre but mainly I would consider his work to be, quite simply, creative fiction. He creates a narrative that paints you a picture of the world he has created. Unlike many other writers, when you read his work you can actually see the people and the settings as vividly as if someone had taken a photograph and placed it in front of you," from a review in The Eternal Night.

Introduction by Michael Swanwick. Cover art by J.K. Potter. Published in a trade hardcover edition of 500 and a signed, numbered, slipcased edition of 200 copies.

A Dragon Griaule story. "And so 'Liar's House' becomes a tale of trangressed borders and permeable membranes: the grimy grit of a tough daily life is infused with romance and wonder, species intermingle, histories and legends flow through each other, creation and destruction twin their forces, the mysteries of magnificent birth leave a practical mess in their wake, new life leads to death, and death itself lives in the ambiguity between delusion and transcendence. Truth is unknowable, but lies have a location, a home of their own. Magali, who has been hero and villain in a plot he never for a moment controlled, and who has won and lost everything, ends fated by Griaule with a conclusion he cannot know," from a Strange Horizons review by Matthew Cheney.

Cover art by J.K. Potter. Limited to 500 signed and numbered copies, and according to the publisher, "26 signed traycased leatherbound copies."

"Handbook is like finding yourself in a Ralph Steadman print. With drippy, jagged lines and distorted surfaces, the characters come alive with splashy, colorfully exaggerated personas. Stuart expounds on his version of reality in numerous internal tirades, in which the lines of his reality cloud and fade to the surreal. Shepard seamlessly blurs the lines between reality and fantasy to create a fascinating look at the balance we attempt to create among spirituality, wealth and celebrity," from the Seattle Times review by Rebecca Taylor.

"This well-paced meditation on the nature of faith and our national obsession with the cult of celebrity finds Shepard at the height of his powers: poetic and pugnacious; metaphysical, yet down and dirty as a back-alley brawl," from the Publishers Weekly review.

"Shepard's novel is compelling on a number of levels. It's alternately funny, surreal, frightening and tense. Shepard effectively orchestrates plot points, conceptual riffs, satire and graceful characters, creating a spiritual mystery. The core of the novel, the kernel that keeps us riveted is the first-person prose narration of Wardlin Stuart. ... A Handbook of American Prayer finds [Shepard] writing lyrical Americana, tough prose leavened with a dash of poetic insight ... like listening to the entrancing story of a charismatic but non-religious preacher. Shepard is funny, biting, acerbic and always observant," from a review by Rick Kleffel.

A collection of novellas originally published from 1999-2004, including "Eternity and Afterward", "Jailwise" (Locus award winner), and "Crocodile Rock" (International Horror Guild award winner). "Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?" appeared in book form in Night Visions 11 from Subterranean Press. "Only Partly Here" takes place during the cleanup of ground zero in the aftermath of 9/11.

"Shepard's haunting, structurally perfect stories in his latest collection serve as a veritable travel guide to geographic hot spots of tragedy and trauma and the horrors they spawn," from the Publisher's Weekly review. A trade paperback original.

A collection essays sourced from film columns written for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and the Electric Story. "Coming off like the writings of a literary hybrid of H.L. Mencken, Harlan Ellison and Mark Twain, these vitriolic dissections, examinations and condemnations of film and popular culture are guaranteed to leave readers either frothing at the mouth or falling out of their chairs in spasms of laughter. Very few readers will always agree with him, but neither will they be able to deny the truth behind his writings.

"As with all good storytellers, Shepard saves the best for last - an examination of the shenanigans of the Nevada Boxing Commission and, more important, the finest and most insightful essay to come out of the Columbine High School tragedy in Colorado, 'Littleton Follies.' This essay will be of particular interest to Denver-area readers, but it should be required reading for all Americans," from an insightful Denver Post review by Dorman T. Shindler.

"Ranking up with the haunted house novels (which are rarely about haunted houses)�The Haunting of Hill House, Ghost Story, Bag of Bones�Shepard�s Softspoken is a classic ghost story that comes off like a collaboration between Shirley Jackson and Tennessee Williams, with just a touch of James M. Cain," from a review in Subterranean Magazine review by Dorman T. Shindler.

"Flannery O'Connor examined the grotesque of the American south from the inside, using characters fully entrenched in the southern way of life to explore regionalism and history. Lucius Shepard, in his latest novel, looks at the South from an outsider's perspective by telling his story through the point of view of a woman from the North, but retains the impression of the place as O'Connor saw it: mysterious and haunted, not quite fully real," from the Strange Horizons review by Richard Larson.

Cover art by J.K. Potter. Night Shade published a signed, numbered limited edition of 100 copies, and a trade hardcover edition.

A fiction collection from Subterranean Press. "The Best of Lucius Shepard is the first ever career retrospective collection from one of the finest writers of the fantastic to emerge in the United States over the past quarter century. It contains nearly 300,000 words of his best short fiction and is destined to be recognized as a true classic of the field." Cover art by J.K. Potter.

Published as a trade hardcover as well as an edition of "200 signed numbered hardcover copies, including an exclusive trade paperback volume�over 100,000 words�containing previously uncollected rarities such as the stunning novella 'Skull City' and the shorter gem, 'The Glassblower's Dragon.'" Also available as an e-book,

"In Vacancy, a washed-up actor, a mysterious motel, and a Malaysian 'woman of power' form the central elements in a riveting account of a rootless man forced to confront the impossible � but very real � demons of his past. This is Shepard at his harrowing, hallucinatory best. Ariel brilliantly transmutes some traditional SF concepts � alien incursions, the mysteries of quantum physics � into an astonishing, often moving reflection on love and obsession, memory and identity, and the archetypal conflict that stands at the heart of an infinite multitude of worlds."

This collection is anchored by the title story, an expanded version of the novella originally published by Night Shade Books in 2004. "Though the stories are substantial, the main course is 'Viator', an excellent and bewildering short novel. ... I loved this novel; it�s perhaps the best novel I read in 2010. ... a novel that could be read and read again to draw out such themes. Like those shorter pieces in the book it crosses genres, or rather draws on them all, perhaps reflecting that in fiction why things happen (often the dividing line between genres) can matter less than how those events affect the protagonists. Is 'Viator' science fiction, fantasy, or horror? Readers may come to different conclusions, or to none at all, but it�s a brilliant novel, of that there�s absolutely no doubt," from a review by Stephen Theaker.

"The title novel, Viator, is here published in its full, intended text for the first time � the previous version was some 20,000 words shorter � and is revealed as Shepard�s masterpiece of the decade. Five men of Swedish descent, drifters and drunks on the mend, are assigned to live aboard a derelict ship on the Alaskan coast, only to perceive that they are on the brink of a voyage beyond our world, one of beckoning glamour and incipient madness. Long sentences, alternately languorous and urgent, run moodily throughout the tale, in a feast of metaphoric language limning the perils of a soul caught between anchoring love and transcendent illusion. Viator Plus is a book of charismatic distinction, one of the finest collections of the year," from a review by Seregil of Rhiminee.

In a Bookslut interview, Shepard described how the technique of very long sentences in Viator came about: "This sounds stupid, I know, but I wrote the first long sentence of the book. I liked it. I thought it was really good. A long time ago I�d read a novella by a Polish writer that I admire named Svorecky that used long sentences. I thought -- my sentences are pretty long anyway so why don�t I try to mess with it. Then I realized inadvertently -- writing is like taking a rubbing of your brain -- that it was reflective of the main character. It helped to transmit the confusions and the growing nuts-ness of him. It was sort of a happy accident -- or I had it in mind unconsciously all along. I�m a pretty instinctive writer. I don�t really plan things out too much."

"Beautifully written and intensely ironic, this tale will strongly appeal to connoisseurs of sophisticated adult fantasy," from the Publisher's Weekly review. (spoiler alert) "From miraculous birth and ambiguous death we then move on to Griaule's own death in 'The Taborin Scale,' wherein the dragon seems to bring people into a realm of his own mind as he is dying, to create for himself an audience, witnesses to his destruction, one last set of pieces to shuffle across his chessboard's mortal coil," from the Strange Horizons review by Matthew Cheney, which also has a worthwhile analysis of Shepard's use of footnotes in this tale.

Published in a limited edtion of 1,500 numbered copies, signed by the author. Cover art by J.K. Potter. "The Taborin Scale" was also published online in Subterranean Magazine.

In a two year period, Subterranean Press both pulled together and pushed forward the Lucius Shepard's masterful Dragon Griaule saga. First, 2012's The Dragon Griaule, collecting five previously published installments plus a major new novel, The Skull, which easily would have been enough to cap off a series spanning three decades. Then, in 2014, Subterranean followed up with Shepard's final novel, Beautiful Blood, a sprawling, decade-spanning story of the Dragon Griaulle, bringing the total collection of stories, novellas, and novels to seven.

Subterranean published The Dragon Griaule in two states, a 300 copy signed an numbered limited edition, bound in leather, and and trade state. The collection also includes some revealing story notes, written by Shepard. Cover art by J.K. Potter.

"The human cast for each of these stories is different. Their common thread is Griaule, the monster who dominates the world even in paralysis. The sheer size of the dragon highlights the insignificance of the tiny human ants scrabbling around his hide. It�s almost as if they�re living on or near a volcano: at the mercy of an uncontrollable force that�s always there in the background, even if they occasionally manage to pretend otherwise. This creates a dark, even fatalistic atmosphere: people come and go with their romances, dreams and petty rivalries, but Griaule perseveres," from a Tor.com review by Stefan Raets.

"The Dragon Griaule contains stories that will alternately entrance, amuse, perplex, shock, enlighten, confound, and compel you to keep reading. It's a journey of altered lives in an altered landscape, where the fantastic and the real mingle in the lives of people who are never quite sure where their desires end and the dragon's desires begin. That's left for the reader to ponder, and in that way, the dragon Griaule remains as alive as ever," from an SFSite review by Greg L. Johnson. Also worthwhile reviews in SF Crows Nest, Publisher's Weekly, and Strange Horizons.

"Five Autobiographies and a Fiction collects six original novellas by Lucius Shepard. It's rare to see a collection of novellas, never mind by a single author. It is a length that Shepard excels at, and we are lucky that Subterranean Press has made this collection possible. Shepard opens the collection with a frank introduction that shows how the protagonists of five of the novellas represent paths that Shepard could have seen his own life taking, showing how they are in a sense alternate history autobiographies, which probably explains the sensitivity and compassion Shepherd's writing displays for even his most flawed protagonists," from the SFRevu review by Benjamin Wald.

Reviewer Stefan Raets summarizes an overall positive Tor.com review with, "For fans of Lucius Shepard, this collection will be revelatory, but I wouldn�t call it his best work. Several of the stories follow a pattern that�s maybe a bit too obvious. Some of the endings feel too similar, some are a bit rushed. Maybe most importantly, some of these stories work mostly because of the context they�re in: without the introduction and the instant additional layer of meaning it imparts, I wouldn�t rank them with my favorite Lucius Shepard stories. Even an average story by this author is worth reading, but I�d still steer new readers to some of his previous works instead."

Published in a cloth-bound trade edition and a leather-bound limited edition of 250 signed and numbered copies. Cover art by J.K. Potter.

"Lucius Shepard�s Beautiful Blood is something both special and long awaited: the first novel-length exploration of the world of the Dragon Griaule. It�s a subject that has preoccupied Shepard since the publication of 'The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule' in 1984, and he has returned to it repeatedly over the years, though never before in such a mesmerizing, all-encompassing fashion," from the publisher's description.

"Shepard demonstrates the ability of a fantasy narrative to address the complexities of human experience. That the novel is Shepard�s last is cause for sorrow, as it displays his considerable gifts for language, the portrayal of character, and philosophical rumination as well as anything he wrote. That we have the book--that we have all of Shepard�s work--is a cause for joy. Shepard�s words burn like the blood of a dragon, racing through fantastic narratives that coil their muscles, open their wings, and leap into flight," from the LA Review of Books review by John Langan (well worth a full read).

Published by Subterranean Press as a limited edition cloth bound hardcover, 1,000 numbered copies. Cover art by J.K. Potter.