Another year older and wiser, and yet here I am, still writing this column!

Yes, it’s the most exciting ritual of the new year – I get all excited about which older books are being brought back into print in the coming year! That’s quite enough pre-amble, let’s get to it.

Back in the hazy mists of 2022, I reviewed Rosemary Tonks’ rediscovered masterpiece The Bloater which had been out of print for years. The book immediately became a favourite of mine, yet much to my chagrin Tonks’ remaining novels remained out of print and only possible to buy online for ridiculous amounts of money. So one of the most exciting things 2024 has to offer me is that, on the 2nd of May, Vintage is finally bringing back into print more of Tonks’ novels! The Halt During The Chase (reissued in the states only last year by New Directions Publishing), Businessmen As Lovers and The Way Out Of Berkley Square will all be brought back into print so that the new generation of Tonks’ fans can enjoy them. Honestly I can’t wait, and I can only hope this means that Vintage will be bringing Opium Fog and Emir back into print soon as well, then all of Tonks’ novels will be available again. [No covers as yet!]

Find out more and pre-order here

Gollancz and Tor have some exciting stuff for us this year. The SF Masterworks series has been quiet for a while, but April sees Sterling E. Lanier’s Hiero’s Journey and June sees Maureen Duffy’s First Born inducted into the series. The latter deals with animal rights, feminism and cross-species breeding, whilst the former is a post-apocalyptic novel set in a vivid ruined Earth. Meanwhile, Tor Essentials will be bringing us Michael Swanwick’s bizarre and beautiful Stations Of The Tide on the 23rd of January, plus Cameron Reed’s trans feminist post-cyberpunk classic The Fortunate Fall on the 13th of August. Both are exciting and innovative works of speculative fiction that it’s truly wonderful to see being brought back into print. Not in the Essentials series but still of interest, Tor will be publishing John M. Ford’s prescient proto-cyberpunk debut novel Web Of Angels in April. 

Gollancz | Tor

Handheld Press continue to do great work, and this year they have a real treat for us – The House of Silence, Ghost Stories 1897-1920, a collection of Weird fiction by E. Nesbit. Though she is more famous these days for her children’s stories, E. Nesbit was one of the great writers of the Weird, and her ghost stories are thrillingly disturbing all these years later. This new collection will be edited and curated by Melissa Edmundson, noted Weird fiction scholar, who has chosen her favourites among Nesbit’s tales for the collection. I am very much looking forward to reading this one, which will be released on the 14th of May. More information and pre-order here

Gold SF, who up until now have concentrated on bringing exciting current works of feminist speculative fiction into print, will be dipping their toes into the world of reissues with a thoroughly necessary project – a collection of Vonda N. McIntyre’s short stories. McIntyre remains a hugely influential and important writer, even as much of her work has drifted out of print in recent years, so this chance for a new generation to discover her iconic short fiction is not to be missed. Little Sisters and Other Stories will be released on the 21st of May. More information and pre-order here

And to round us off, there are a handful of genre-adjacent titles coming from NYRB Books. The Oceans of Cruelty: Twenty Five Tales of a Corpse Spirit, by Douglas Penick, sees a modern author retell the ancient Indian tales collected in ‘Tales of the Vetala’, and sounds wonderfully mad. It will be released on the 21st of May. February 27th will also see some new translations of works by Russian science fiction author Vladimir Sorokin, the absolutely barking postmodern satirical novel Blue Lard, and the short story collection Red Pyramid and Other Stories, which collects much of Sorokin’s best work across his entire career. More information and pre-order Douglas Penick | Vladimir Sorokin

That’s all I currently know about, but it looks like enough to make 2024 a rich and exciting year for rediscovering old fiction. Any publishers bringing out other genre-related reissues or translations, do let me know so we can all get excited about them!