This just arrived, courtesy of UPS. It's one of two boxes; just visible, top left, is one corner of the carton of American mass market paperbacks of "The Apocalypse Codex". Front and centre, of course, are the American "Neptune's Brood" hardcovers — or as I prefer to think of it, the mermaid boobies edition. ( Because nothing says "high-concept financial caper novel" or "allegory about banking corruption and the 2007-2008 financial crisis" like mermaid boobies on the dust jacket ... oh well, at least Kirkus gave it a starred review ... )

They exist, they've been printed, and if I got my author copies, it means they're even now winging their way to warehouses and distribution hubs. Launch date is July 2nd, and if you order the ebook or buy from a big box supplier that's when you'll get your copy, but they might begin showing up a few days earlier in smaller stores.

It's an increasingly rare sight, by the way. The industry hasn't yet come up with a satisfactory model for sending complementary ebook copies for authors to hand out to their friends. So I'm wondering how much longer this is going to be part of my working life ...

(If you want to pre-order your own MERMAID BOOBIES dust jacket, with a book thrown in for free—or even some of my other books—you can follow the links here.)

And in other news (from my editor at Orbit) ...