One of the coolest things at the convention this year was to see how Pyr Books is coming along. I first heard about Pyr about a year ago at the World Fantasy Convention in Madison, Wisconsin. At the time, Pyr was basically a newborn by publisher standards, having just emerged from Prometheus as their science fiction and fantasy imprint.

Now, a year later, Pyr has published over twenty books, has snagged some of the biggest names in the genre, and printed some of the most beautiful books I’ve seen in a long time. This is a publisher to watch. For over a decade, Tor books has been the biggest name in the field—and how I love the books that Tor releases! However, it’s nice to see other publishers catching up with the same quality of stories and packaging. I think we’re hitting another boom in the genre, similar to what we saw in the early 90s—only with more enthusiasm and more originality.

Books to watch for from Pyr, and which are now on my reading list:

Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Fast Future 1 edited by Lou Anders

These are a few that caught my eye immediately, but I must say that Pyr has more books that sound interesting to me than I have time to read. Take a look at who else they’re publishing!

Fiona Avery, Michael Moorcock, Storm Constantine, Mike Resnick, Joel Shepherd, and Robert Silverberg. This is just to name a few!

In addition to all this, I had a chance to talk to Lou Anders—Pyr’s editorial director—for a few brief minutes during his kaffeklatsch and in the hall later. And I must say that he is a stellar individual with a keen eye for a good story. He’s definitely taking Pyr in a great direction. He even mentioned my maps in his blog.

John Scalzi, winner of this year’s Campbell Award for best new writer, mentioned the Lego Scalzi award that me and a few friends put together for Brandon. More on this when Scalzi gets his version of the story up. It’s a long post, so here’s the quote here:

Meeting Brandon Sanderson and his sneaky friends who got me to sign a piece of LEGO (the explanation for that will come at a later point, when I get pictures).

The Scalzi Award and Scazlibane

There was quite the buzz about several other books—from Pyr and other publisher—that have come out this year, many of which I expect to see on the Hugo and World Fantasy ballots for next year’s cons:

Infoquake by David Louis Edelman
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
(Scott’s blog can be found at this link.)
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

More about the convention later.