Find out everything about upcoming releases!
To help you sort through your future purchases during this literary tidal wave that represents the literary season, we have decided to give the floor to publishers to tell you about their favorites…and the rest of the year Also !
Olivier Girard & Erwann Perchoc:
Aas spearhead and editorial common thread of the Bélial‘, the collection « A Light Hour » (“UHL”, for short) continues to structure our annual editorial journeys.
2024 ended for us with The Armies of Those I Love of Ken Liu (trans. from Pierre-Paul Durastanti)2025 begins with Did you deserve your eyes? d’Eric LaRocca (trans. from Melanie Fazi).
A 21st century style of epistolary storytelling, composed of email exchanges and chats, this love story (?) queer made of consensual manipulation and perversity is… stiff. Very. Don’t look for anything supernatural, you won’t find any. Don’t look for hope there either, you won’t find any more. But tenderness, yes, despite everything, perhaps… Eric LaRoccafor which this will be the first publication in French, is one of the most promising horror writers across the Atlantic.
It has its place in “ UHL ».
Still in the same collection, change of atmosphere in March with The Inversion of Polyphemus of Serge Lehman. We have a very special relationship with this short novel: originally published in the Bifrost n° 5…in 1997 (damn, already!)this text alone contributed greatly to the influence of the journal and the genesis of the collection “ UHL ».
The truth is that we should have included it sooner. The truth is that it could have been the first title in the collection. Above all, it is a superb story of friendship, between the Peter Pan of Barrie and Le Corps/Stand by me by Kingcoupled with a declaration of love for science fiction, that of the golden age — that of when you are a young teenager and you discover the genre, the dream, the desire and the hope, and the transgressions that go with it.
And there are dinosaurs!
In May, it is of course the return of the operation “ UHL » (a special edition offered for the purchase of two titles from the collection).
Two books, two atmospheres.
On the one hand, Ray Nayler sends us into a distant future with Extinction defenses (trad. The Shoulder of Orion). A woman, one of the last elephant specialists before their disappearance, is brought back to consciousness… in the body of a mammoth. Because these proboscidians have certainly been resurrected, but they do not know how to live. Alas, human rapacity knows no limits… All the art of the author of protectorates in 160 pages of intelligence and science fiction; a masterful text which has just been elected SF story of the year 2024 by The New York Times et The Washington Post.
On the other side: To read when you wake upof Robert Jackson Bennett (trans. from Michelle Charrier). Pursued by his creditors, a British archaeologist flees to Lorraine, not far from a ruined abbey.
Throughout the letters he writes to his lover who remained in England, we follow his discoveries – starting with the fact that the abbey is not really one, that it is not always in ruins and that it conceals secrets more dizzying than our archaeologist dares to imagine. Vertigo, vertigo… As for the traditional special issue, we will read a long story of… Eh, oh? You don’t think we’re going to tell you everything, non ?
To end with “ UHL », our second semester will offer stories of Robert Silverberg (immortals and museum towns of the fiftieth century), Tidhar’s Life (short uchronistic noir novel… with Nazis (cool!)) et Adrian Tchaikovsky (mechas! mechaaaaas!!! and, no less strange,… Finns (yes)). Is it useful to remember that the covers will all be signed Aurélien Police ?
Hors « UHL », the first half of 2025 will give pride of place (surprise !) to the imagination in all its forms. Well, let’s say, especially its science-fictional form, but hey…
February will see the release of two new items in the “ Quasar “. On the one hand, the Chronicles of Durdane of Jack Vance (trans. from P. Dusoulier et A. Rosenblum)in a definitive and complete edition.
Combining the initiatory story and the tale of revenge over the course of a disproportionate adventure in a world with colorful settings, this volume brings together three novels written between 1971 and 1974, and represent the quintessence of the art of Jack Vance — one of its flagship cycles. Erudite afterword and unpublished maps complete the set, under a signed cover Pascal « tclassy » White.
On the other hand, Changes of Plans d’Ursula K. Le Guin : imagine that, during those boring hours spent in any airport, “ by the grace of a simple twist associated with a slide, easier to execute than to describe “, you can go anywhere. Really anywhere. As a good anthropology enthusiast, LeGuin thus takes us on a stroll through various planes of existence, by turns marvelous and frightening, and always fascinating. This collection, largely unpublished, translated by Melanie Fazi for the most part, benefits from a preface by Karen Joy Fowlerinterior illustrations ofEric Beddowsfrom an interview originally published in the prestigious The Paris Reviewall under a cover ofAurélien Police.
Bon(s) voyage(s) !
In March, in addition The Inversion of Polyphemus of Serge Lehmanwe will reissue Science makes its cinema of Roland Lehoucq et Jean-Sébastien Steyer. Out of print, this inaugural title of the popular science collection “ Parallax » returns in a version « Final Cut », increased by five articles. The goal is not to undermine the seventh art in its relationship to science – a relationship that is sometimes… uh… approximate? —, but rather to enrich our view by dealing with the scientific content of different films. In short, doing science while having fun! We can already announce it, this 2025 vintage of “ Parallax » will be very cinema-oriented, since there will be two titles in October (a new release, a reissue) devoted to two well-known franchises.
The very famous collection “ Forty-two », led by Ellen Herzfeld et Dominique Martelhas already introduced French-speaking readers to a lot of essential contemporary science fiction: Ken Liu, Rich Larson or Ray Naylerand this through collections regularly praised by the Grand Prix of the Imagination. In March, you will meet Suzanne Palmer (no, no relation with a certain Ada).
The Secret Life of Robots (trans. from Pierre-Paul Durastanti)an unpublished collection with no Anglo-Saxon equivalent, will offer you thirteen adventures of chemically pure science fiction touching with humanity, with a zest of humor or melancholy.
In April, we continue our work of reissuing the great Eganian work with The Enigma of the Universe (trans. from Bernard Sigaud). Third novel by the mad Australian, it takes place in 2055, on the artificial island of Anarchia, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, during a conference of physicists at the end of which nothing less than the Theory of Everything, the one supposed to explain the Universe, the whole Universe, from A to Z. Except that things will quickly go to hell. As always with Greg Eganit’s full of ideas and concepts, and if the novel is demanding (Eganquoi)it nonetheless rewards its reader in the end.
Just dizzying SF food!
In June, finally, we will find Noon and Yors for a third adventure entitled The Desert of Heaven. You don’t change a winning team: L.L. Kloetzer with a pen, Nicolas Fruitus with brushes.
And if we’re lucky, we’ll welcome a returnee into the collection.” Pulps » : Curt Newton alias « the Wizard of Science » alias Captain Future. Fingers crossed and all!
That’s it for the first semester!
In the second, we will find among other things Alastair Reynolds with a monster project, but also Audrey Pleynetwho is working hard on his novel, big sci-fi that sends messages. There could also be Harlan Ellison in the air, and one or two other surprises… Stay tuned !
Finally, of course, a few words about the review Bifrostof which we are currently closing issue 117 (January)which attaches itself, well, to the face ofHarlan Ellison (1934–2018)the enfant terrible of American SF.
On the program, an extensive biographical article signed Laurent Queyssia no-nonsense interview (to say the least!) du loustic, and a package of studies on his work. On the fiction side: Ellison of course, with a humble and touching text, winner of a few small literary prizes, like the Hugothe Nebulathe Locusthe Jupiterthe British Fantasy (and yes!)but also a taste of Suzanne Palmerof Alastair Reynoldsof Thomas Day.
Very solid, in short, to start the year off right, as it should be
In April (#118)the review will pay tribute to Ayerdhalthis year 2025 being that of the ten years of his death; We miss the guy terribly. In the second semester, Bifrost will be interested in two other big names of the genre: one of the Killer B’s and a certain author of Welsh origin.
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Et voilà !
SF, more SF, always SF.
With a touch of illustrated fantasy, to flavor it, and a hint of horror to spice it up. In short, the usual good stew in the big stewpot of the Bélial’ !
All you have to do is serve hot and enjoy…
→ Find all the upcoming programs for 2025!
