“Questions for a Soldier” in Subterranean Magazine #8
Posted on September 15, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
For a number of years now, the only way you could get “Questions for a Soldier,” the first short story I wrote set in the Old Man’s War universe — and which features John Perry making an early appearance on the colony of Huckleberry — was to get the increasingly rare chapbook version, which is these days selling for something in the $150 range (there’s a reason one copy is part of the Redshirts auction I’m running at the moment). But soon there will be a more affordable option: the final print edition of Subterranean Magazine is at press and will feature the story, along with stories by Michael Marshall Smith, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Monette and others. All for $6! What a steal.
(Although for collectors, there will also be a special $80 limited hardcover edition of the magazine, which will be signed by me and other authors. I have the signature sheets in my house right now.)
Subterranean Press says: “We’re not seriously overprinting this issue, which will not be available in bookstores, so please feel free to order and guarantee you snag a copy.” Translation: Get on it.
(Pre) Ordered. Thanks for the heads up.
I place my order for this almost 3.5 years ago. I had forgotten about it until this post.
Done!
I ordered this 4 years ago and was seriously thinking about emailing SubPress and asking them to issue a credit–I had wanted your story and the MM Smith one but had about given up. So glad I held off just a little longer. Probably the longest pre-order wait in history or something.
I tried to order it and the last step of the order process threw the ol’ Internal Server Error. :(
You must have enough short stories kicking around to publish a collection. I mean, it’s been months since I bought Fuzzy Nation, and I have a Scalzi-shaped hole on my shelves.
It looks like the order went through anyway though. Yay.
I second John F’s call for an OMWverse collection of short stories. Especially if it has story-specific introductions like Isaac Asimov’s story collections had.
I was hoping that the NESFA book next year would be a short story collection. Not that the filmcritic.com columns don’t need collecting, but I really like the short stories.
Allow me to join the chorus of people clamoring for a collection. You HAVE to have enough short fiction floating around by now to fill one, and although I know those don’t usually sell as well as novels there are still more than enough of us that would buy it.
FYI, the Subterranean site gives an “Internal Error” message at the end of the ordering process, but the order apparently DOES go through–I received an e-mail confirmation.
@#11…Same here
Done. I got the same errors, but it seems to have worked for me as well. Thanks for the heads up, John!
I ordered mine over two years ago, I used to check in with them every six months or so to check on the status, but recently stopped. If I had know all I had to do was stop asking and it would get printed I would’ve done that two years ago.
Same error as all the others, but the order went through anyway and I received the confirming email.
Thanks for the heads-up, John.
Just pre-ordered. For $6, I’m quite happy to have a “reading copy” or QfaS, along with a bunch of stories by others. (I bought the original QfaS chapbook back in 2006.)
QfaS chapbook is going for $150? Sweet. These SubPress books of yours (QfaS, Coffee Shop, AttS, etc.) are turning out be a great investment! :-)
Wow, and I thought my six months were bad…
I am very excited to finally read this story – and to read the other stuff in there as well. Should be sweet!
Still at work, will do when I can get back to the hotel, hopefully not sold out?
I ordered this, God Engines and Metatropolis at the same time. 8/13/09 :) I’m excited sooo excited.
Catching up on blog reading; sorry for the late comment.
Wow, I’m another old order. Ordered March 2008, e-mailed 18 months later (response said coming by end of 2009, all ready except dropping ads, etc.), and finally realized in 2010 that I’d never pre-order from SubPress again. I thought it was $6 down the drain. So forgive me if I say I’ll believe it when I see it. ;-) It’s difficult to ditch the bad impression, but I never actually wrote of SubPress completely (just never preordered from them again); I mean, they publish some groovy things.
Anyway, I’m very happy it’s finally coming out! And happy for you and the other authors; I imagine it was frustrating for y’all, too.
(Hmm, this is probably the time to e-mail them and make sure they have my 3.5-year-old order….)
I just ordered it, so I hope I didn’t jinx the timeline. I rarely order things that cost more to ship than the purchase price but every once in a while it’s worth it.