Thursday, April 28, 2011

Vampires on Mars! Tor reprints Christopher Pike’s 1992 SF-Horror novel The Season of Passage

Tor Books, the white shoe, flat iron genre publisher down in New York City, recently reprinted The Season of Passage (March 2011), an adult science fiction-horror novel written by multi-million copy bestselling Young Adult author Christopher Pike that was originally published by Tor back in 1992. Here’s the promotional piece for the novel:


Dr. Lauren Wagner was a celebrity. She was involved with the most exciting adventure mankind had ever undertaken: a manned expedition to Mars. The whole world admired and respected her. But Lauren knew fear. Inside—voices entreating her to love them. Outside—the mystery of the missing group that had gone before her. The dead group. But were they simply dead? Or something else? A haunting and unforgettable blend of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and suspense from one of America’s bestselling writers. A novel you won’t soon forget.

In 1991, Kirkus Reviews concluded that The Season of Passage is “Not without its ups and downs but, at its best, both riveting and a back-prickler.”

Publishers Weekly was less impressed by Pike’s novel, concluding in a 1992 review: “An intriguing subplot concerning Lauren's earthbound sister and a story she is writing—which appears to be a telepathically received fable about Mars becoming a wasteland of ghouls—is not strong enough to redeem the outlandish main events. Long before the Nova heads home, most adult readers will have abandoned ship.”

It’s also worth noting that, over the years, 159 readers have posted reviews of The Season of Passage on Amazon, with more than 90% of them giving the novel the top rating of 5 stars.

Speaking of Amazon: Surprisingly, given Tor’s resistance to digital publishing, it has made The Season of Passage available for the Kindle e-reader!

2 comments:

  1. Blue Tyson: Presumably it is all part of the brilliant Flat Iron strategy.

    ReplyDelete