When the World Fantasy award for best novel went to Lavie Tidhar's groundbreaking Osama at the weekend, it was a triumph on a number of levels.
First, of course, getting the gong at the World Fantasy convention in Toronto was a validation of Tidhar's determination to stretch the boundaries of the genre. Osama is a stunning novel set in an alternate reality where Osama Bin Laden is the anti-hero of a series of thrillers penned by a reclusive writer. There are shades of Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle, a resonance also spotted by Damien G Walter who waxes effusive about Osama here.
But the success of Osama – it finished ahead of stiff competition from Stephen King's 11/22/63, George RR Martin's A Dance With Dragons, Jo Walton's Among Others and Christopher Buehlman's Those Across the River – also gives us cause to celebrate the great British small-press outfit that published it.
Presciently though picked up by Solaris for a mass-market edition, Osama was first published in October 2011 by PS Publishing, a house based on the East Yorkshire coast that has been putting out high-quality, limited-edition books by some of the biggest names in science fiction, fantasy and horror since 1999.
In an age where even precious books have been reduced to collections of digitised code to be transmitted across the ether at the touch of a button and stored, thousands at a time, as ephemeral concepts upon slim machines, PS Publishing delights in crafting books for the connoisseur. More than that, they bring to readers books that would not normally see the light of day – either because of their sheer edginess (in the case of Tidhar's Osama), or their size – PS Publishing has something of a specialisation in novellas, those not-quite-full books frowned upon by the mainstream publishing industry.
This willingness to take chances on two fronts has earned dividends for PS Publishing, which has an astonishing roster of big names on its back catalogue: China Miéville, Michael Moorcock, Adam Roberts, Ray Bradbury, Joe Hill ... and his dad, a chap called Stephen King.
In the interests of transparency, I confess to having a dog in this fight – though a much smaller one than the titans of the genre listed above. A few years ago, I submitted a short story on spec to PS Publishing's quarterly digest anthology, Postscripts. PS founder Peter Crowther emailed back within two hours to say he was not only taking the story, but he'd just been off to post the cheque. I doubt I'll ever get such a quick response again in my life.
Crowther should probably receive a personal award, for being one of the nicest, most enthusiastic people in the genre, alongside the slew of gongs PS Publishing has picked up in the past 13 years. Infectiously animated about his work, he comes across as what he is: a tireless promoter of quality fiction that would probably never see the light of day without him. He's also no slouch with the pen himself: his latest book, Darkness Falling, was published last year by Angry Robot.
In an age where bigger is said to be better, faster is foremost and commerciality is king, both readers and writers owe Crowther and PS Publishing a huge debt for his determination to step back and make quality a watchword, in the process bringing books such as Tidhar's Osama to public attention. And the best way to pay that debt is to go and buy something from them, to ensure the admirable ethos of this little house punching well above its weight continues for a long time to come.
