Paolobias Buckelligalupi Goodness!

No, that's not the scientific name of a recently discovered Madagascan tree frog. It's the portmanteaux SuperCoupling of outstanding SF writers Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell. Why are they a SuperCouple?

But which is which?

Because they have written a shared world fantasy double novella due out this summer. Tobias Buckell broke the news on his blog this morning.

So I’ve talked about a novella I’ve been fiddling around with for the last year, The Executioness, off and on. I’m happy to report that it’s finished. But that’s not all.


The Executioness is going to be one of two novellas, put together back to back (like the old Ace doubles) to create a larger project that is about as long as a short novel. The other novella was written by Paolo Bacigalupi and is called The Alchemist. Together they’ll be The Alchemist & The Executioness.


The next twist is that both novellas share the same background. We created a world, characters, places, and each novella uses that. So together they create a cool glimpse at this world Paolo and I made. Both of us were also excited to write something we don’t get a chance to write often: Fantasy. With our own unique takes, of course.

I haven't read any fantasy by either Buckell or Bacigalupi but both authors are talented enough to get my attention if they are writing almost anything short of Twilight fanfic. This seems along the same lines as Metatropolis, a 5 author collaborative world written by Buckell along with Jay Lake, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, and Karl Schroeder albeit in a fantasy setting instead of SF.

You will be able to consume The Alchemist & The Executioness sometime this summer but unfortunately it's only scheduled to be released in audio version from Audible.com. I don't like listening to books on tape (I'm far too easily distracted visually to concentrate on audio for the majority of the day and I'm liable to fall asleep when I can close my eyes and listen). On the other hand, I'm sure this will be out in a print/eBook edition from Subterranean Press or some other publishers at some point in the next year or two.

I do think it's funny that they are doing a double novella (Buckell references those old Ace PB doubles to which we need to return) in an audio format. The two books bound together works but these are just going to be two audio files sold together and packaged in the same download (I think). Maybe I will record them on a two-side cassette tape just for fun.

Paolobias Buckelligalupi should be pure awesomeness incarnate. Keep your eyes ears open for this one.