Ironcastle
by J.-H. Rosny and Philip José Farmer
US $23 tpb/$65 hc
5.5×8.5, 204 pages
Trade Paperback
Limited Edition of 200 Hardcover copies
Paperback Edition
Somewhere in the unexplored heart of Africa, a part of this Earth had been taken over by an intelligence from outer space. Such was the message that reached the explorer Hareton Ironcastle, member of the famous Baltimore Gun Club. In that hidden and transformed valley would now be found monsters and pre-humans not to be seen anywhere else. Such a challenge could not be ignored…
The account of Ironcastle’s expedition of daring but inexperienced amateurs became one of the classic novels of the French writer, J.-H. Rosny aîné, who was a contemporary of Verne, Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Philip José Farmer, Hugo winner and chronicler of the adventures of Tarzan and Doc Savage, translated and retold Rosny’s 1922 novel, L’étonnant voyage de Hareton Ironcastle, making it a marvelous adventure novel to stand alongside the works of Burroughs, Haggard, and Farmer himself. Farmer’s 1976 version, published in paperback only, followed Rosny judiciously, while adding certain surprising embellishments of his own.
This handsome new edition boasts the same stunning cover art and six interior illustrations as the original paperback—by the legendary Roy G. Krenkel!
Curiously, the 1976 edition featured only a tiny sample of Krenkel’s painting, making this the first edition to feature the entire magnificent cover art. Honoring Krenkel’s original art, the Meteor House limited edition hardcover is presented unadorned—that is, no title and byline will cover any portion of Krenkel’s stunning artwork.
Hardcover Edition
Bonus Features:
Brian Stableford, a prolific British science fiction author who has in recent years translated many of Rosny’s works from French to English for Black Coat Press, has provided an introduction to this edition of Ironcastle.
Published with Ironcastle for the first time is the short story sequel, “Iron and Bronze: A Hareton Ironcastle and Doc Ardan Adventure,” by Farmer and pulp-lit experts Christopher Paul Carey and Win Scott Eckert.
Taduki-inspired visions draw an intrepid adventurer and a madman to a lost African outpost of Atlantis where they must confront an ancient mystery from the stars… Drawing on diverse sources such as Jules Verne’s The Barsac Misison, H. Rider Haggard’s She and Allan, Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan (who has been called the “French Doc Savage”), J.-H. Rosny âiné’s L’étonnant voyage de Hareton Ironcastle, Pierre Benoit’s L’Atlantide (The Queen of Atlantis), and Philip José Farmer’s own “monomyth,” “Iron and Bronze” hearkens back the classic SF adventure pulps of the 1920s and ’30s.
Also in this edition, Win Scott Eckert provides a short afterword covering Farmer’s “surprising embellishments” related to the Wold Newton Family. And Christopher Paul Carey’s bonus piece looks at the cosmic connections between Ironcastle, Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time, and other works.
This book is available in a Trade Paperback and Signed Hardcover Limited Editions (signed by Stableford, Carey, and Eckert). The hardcover features a leatherette cover with gold foil stamping and custom printed color end papers—a high quality collectible in the tradition of Meteor House’s prior limited edition hardcovers. We’re taking preorders now and both editions will ship in June 2022.
The trade paperback edition is $23 (plus shipping).
The signed hardcover limited edition is $65 (plus shipping).
Or you can buy them together for only $83 (plus a further discount with combined shipping)!
Important Note: If you preorder this book, and purchase any in-stock item at the same time (in the same shopping cart), we may either need to charge additional postage for separate shipments, or you may need to wait until June to have all the books shipped together.
About the Authors
J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856 – 1940) was the pseudonym of Joseph-Henri Honoré Boex, a French author of Belgian origin who is considered one of the founding figures of modern science fiction. Born in Brussels, he wrote together with his younger brother Séraphin Justin François Boex under the pen name J.-H. Rosny until 1908. After they ended their collaboration, Joseph Boex continued to write under the name “Rosny aîné” (Rosny the Elder), while his brother used J.-H. Rosny jeune (Rosny the Younger).
Philip José Farmer (1918 – 2009) was a three-time Hugo award winner and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, capping a distinguished career of over fifty novels and one hundred short stories. He is best known for his Riverworld and World of Tiers series, the Dayworld series, and for the Wold Newton Family, which includes many recognizable characters such as Tarzan, Doc Savage, Nero Wolfe, and Sherlock Holmes. He has long been recognized as one of the foremost writers in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. Visit his official website at www.pjfarmer.com.