[LMB] (news) Miles, Mutants & Microbes

[Lois McMaster Bujold]

Hi all --

    I note in passing that the next Miles-universe omnibus volume is on 
the schedule at Baen Books for August, 2007.  This is my "quaddies 
themed" omnibus, and will contain _Falling Free_, the novella 
"Labyrinth" (yes, again; I explain why in a new forward) and _Diplomatic 
Immunity_.  It will also be available in Webscriptions.

    This is the one I was toying with titling _Miles & Metallurgy_, but 
no one liked that name.  It does mean there will be two MM&M omnibuses 
out there, which I hope will not be too confusing to the book buying 
readers.

    The inevitably-titled _Miles in Love_ will be out the following year 
sometime, and will of course contain _Komarr_, _A Civil Campaign_, and 
the novella "Winterfair Gifts" (at last!).

    This leaves _Memory_ loose as the sole single title, for now.  As I 
explain at greater length in the new forward, there was no way to 
rationally divvy up the books after _Mirror Dance_ (chronologically last 
in the _Miles Errant_ collection) without either leaving something out 
or creating something monstrously unwieldy, so I decided we ought to 
part from strict chronology and go for theme as the unifying principle.

    For the new reader, each omnibus should be a somewhat-unified whole 
as a read, and I hope satisfying enough to bring them back looking for 
more.  Old readers should find them handy as give-aways, as they are 
reasonably self-contained; neither require a new reader to read a bunch 
of other books first to understand their contents.  _Komarr_ was 
designed by me from the get-go to be a fresh entry point to the series 
for those too daunted to start at the beginning, and the focus on the 
quaddies will do the same, I hope, for _Miles, Mutants & Microbes_.

    Ta, L.