Vacancy and Ariel

Cover art by J. K. Potter.

For many of us, the Ace Double Novels of the '50s and '60s have long been a source both of pleasure and nostalgia. This new double volume from Subterranean Press stands squarely in that distinguished tradition, offering a pair of colorful, fast-paced novellas from one of the finest writers currently working in any genre: Lucius Shepard.

InVacancy, 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.

Contents:

• Vacancy
• Ariel