This line is my attempt to redesign the Star Wars universe in an antiquated Victorian style.

This line is a three part series. It features my favorite aesthetic…old. I love the clunky old-fashioned look of the industrial era. It is kind of steampunk, but not really, which is why I changed the name of the line. It is influenced by Jules Verne, HG Welles, Terry Gilliam, Guillermo Del Toro, etc. But I feel it has my own unique sensibilities as well.

The book will provide a new account of the life of Jesus, challenging the gospels and arguing that the version in the New Testament was shaped by the apostle Paul. “By the time the gospels were being written, Paul had already begun to transform the story of Jesus into something altogether new and extraordinary, and some of his version influenced what the gospel writers put in theirs,” said Pullman, who last year pronounced himself delighted that the His Dark Materials trilogy was one of the most “challenged” series in America’s libraries, boasting the most requests for removal from the shelves because of its “religious viewpoint”.

His new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, will be published next Easter as part of Scottish independent press Canongate’s Myths series, which has also seen Margaret Atwood tackle The Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus’s wife Penelope, Jeanette Winterson retell the myth of Atlas and Heracles and Michel Faber take on Prometheus with a modern retelling which sees an academic discover a fifth gospel. In Faber’s version, Jesus’s last words on the cross are “please, somebody, please finish me”, and one of his last actions is to urinate on the head of the gospel’s author.

“Paul was a literary and imaginative genius of the first order who has probably had more influence on the history of the world than any other human being, Jesus certainly included. I believe this is a pity,” said Pullman. “The story I tell comes out of the tension within the dual nature of Jesus Christ, but what I do with it is my responsibility alone. Parts of it read like a novel, parts like a history, and parts like a fairy tale; I wanted it to be like that because it is, among other things, a story about how stories become stories.”

This highly anticipated release also marks something we’re particularly proud of: Tor.com’s debut as a publishing entity, distinct from Tor Books and as a separate imprint under our shared corporate overlords at Macmillan.

YBF 9 is available only as a print-on-demand book, in keeping with our mission of always exploring alternative forms of publishing. Similar to the launch of the Tor.com Store, this title is one of our various publishing projects that seek to experiment with the available alternatives to publishing’s traditional sales, distribution, and delivery mechanisms.

Year’s Best Fantasy 9 is available in the Tor.com Store, of course, as well as via online retailers such as Amazon, B&N, and more.

“Shoggoths in Bloom” – Elizabeth Bear

“The Rabbi’s Hobby” – Peter S. Beagle

“Running the Snake” – Kage Baker

“The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm” – Daryl Gregory

“Reader’s Guide” – Lisa Goldstein

“The Salting and Canning of Benevolence D.” – Al Michaud

“Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake” – Naomi Novik

“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica” – Catherynne M. Valente

“From the Clay of His Heart” – John Brown

“If Angels Fight” – Richard Bowes

“26 Monkeys and the Abyss” – Kij Johnson

“Philologos; or, A Murder in Bistrita” – Debra Doyle & James Macdonald

“The Film-makers of Mars” – Geoff Ryman

“Childrun” – Marc Laidlaw

“Queen of the Sunlit Shore” – Liz Williams

“Lady Witherspoon’s Solution” – James Morrow

“Dearest Cecily” – Kristine Dikeman

“Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta” – Randy McCharles

“Caverns of Mystery” – Kage Baker

“Skin Deep” – Richard Parks

“King Pelles the Sure” – Peter S. Beagle

“A Guided Tour in the Kingdom of the Dead” – Richard Harland

“Avast, Abaft!” – Howard Waldrop

“Gift from a Spring” – Delia Sherman

“The First Editions” – James Stoddard

“The Olverung” – Stephen Woodworth

“Daltharee” – Jeffrey Ford

“The Forest” – Kim Wilkins

I saw the aside [on] Dribble of Ink concerning the Swords and Dark Magic anthology. I’ve got a piece in there, too, a new Fool Wolf story. The whole thing is shaping up to be damn cool.