Books published by Vertvolta Press

Born of Earth parents. Raised on Mercury. Mercenary on Mars and Venus. Warrior of the Solar System. "For hours the hard-pressed beast had fled across the Martian desert with its dark rider. Now it was spent. It faltered and broke stride, and when the rider cursed and dug his heels into the scaly sides, the brute only turned its head and hissed at him. It stumbled on a few more paces into the lee of a sandhill, and there it stopped, crouching down in the dust."Eric John Stark is Leigh Brackett’s dark-skinned freedom fighter, a relentless hero who clashed with armies and rulers, sorcerers and ghosts, survived myriad hellish landscapes and deadly-strange beasts, across an exotic and dangerous solar system.The Mercurian collects three of Eric John Stark’s earliest Planetary Adventures: Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Black Amazon of Mars, and Enchantress of Venus.

Shelley's mold-breaking and genre-creating Frankenstein hasn't been out of print since its first publication in 1818, though the story of science and dark melodrama has been reconfigured and reanimated many times over the years-in shadowy cinematic style in the 1930s; comedic, loveable boob-tube style in the 1960s; marvelously illustrated comic form in the 1970s; and even as a sweet treat children's cereal, evoking grunts and laughter, rather than shrieks of terror. This printing returns the tale to its original form, uniting the three anonymously published volumes here in the Booksellers Preferred Edition. This version of the story, before the softening by Shelley in her 1831 revision, tells the tale of god-like aspirations and too-human failings, of the ache of longing to belong and relentless isolation, of family, of the emerging ethics of science and the often cruel realities of nature. It's a story of rage, cowardness, inspiration, creation, and mortality. The kind of story that remains relevant for centuries. With an introduction by bookseller and author Mark Teppo.Featuring illustrations by Seattle-based bookseller-artists that help to flesh out this classic tale of a scientist and his creation in whimsical, spooky, and emotive ways.

Science fiction as a genre of literature was not differentiated in the minds of publishers from fantasy tales until nearly the middle of the Twentieth Century-and that sentence may inflame affectionados of the form but so be it. Is Edward Bellamy's Looking Backwards a political fantasy or science fiction dealing with politics and economics? Good question. The answer is in the mind of the reader.In the mind of the author of Lord of the World brewed a saga dealing with an uncertain future date when the world is split into warring factions of radical socialists, each in control of one or more continents. Benson calls them communists but he does not have the Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist type communists in mind, just utopian socialists who have abolished most aspect of a capitalist society but retained a semblance of representative-if authoritarian-government. Throughout the world there is universal health care but it advocates euthanasia for those who are depressed, ill or injured. People fly from place to place on transports that double as bombers. A charismatic American politician manages to gain control of all of the continental factions, ending their internecine wars, and uniting them in the task of eliminating religion by bombing the principle headquarters of religious institutions. Survivors are pursued relentlessly. It is a well told tale by a contemporary of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Franz Kafka and Jules Verne.Robert Hugh Benson's 1907 novel arrived in the same era as L. Frank Baum's Ozma of Oz, G.K. Chesterton's The Man who was Thursday, Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows, H. Rider Haggard's Yellow God; An Idol of Africa, and H.G. Well's War in the Air. It is a science fiction period piece but in November of 2013, Pope Francis said that it depicted, "the spirit of the world which leads to apostasy almost as if it were a prophecy." Who knew the Pope read science fiction?

The geographic names on the Atlantic seaboard were in use for more than a century before the war of the American Revolution was fought.Just as that war was beginning the first Spanish caravels crept northward from New Spain toward the fabled Straits of Anian. After the war was ended the wild coasts along the Pacific were a lure for the explorer and the fur trader. Voyages of this kind increased, breeding disputes over sovereignty, which culminated in Great Britain's geographic and diplomatic expedition of 1792.The commanding officer, Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy, was the friend and acquaintance of many men who had taken part for their country in the disputes and the war with the American colonies. It was perfectly natural that he should compliment those men as he discovered or rediscovered places that needed naming. An explorer of the same nationality, but of an earlier or a later period, would, of course, have given us a different set of names famous in British history.The American who loves the history of his country is usually broad enough to love also the great achievements of his kin beyond the seas. He therefore not only tolerates but actually grows fond of such names as Hood, Howe, Rainier, Puget, and Vancouver, as applied to the geography of the northwest.~ from the Introduction.A Vertvolta Press Rediscovery Facsimile Edition

Read! a firsthand account of the trials and tribulations of Seattle's founding residents! Political rivalries! Native tribe encounters! Devastating fire!Imagine! a Seattle of mud and trees and nary a single coffeehouse!Learn! just what it took to build a metropolis out of raw material and natural elements in an environment where nature reigns with a firm grip!Arthur Denny's chronicle of events in the first days of Seattle and his later success as a businessman and politician, originally published in 1903, has found a place in the Rediscovery Editions library after decades of being unavailable.

"The mustering-places for the regiment were appointed in New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. The difficulty in organizing was not in selecting, but in rejecting men. Within a day or two after it was announced that we were to raise the regiment, we were literally deluged with applications from every quarter of the Union. Without the slightest trouble, so far as men went, we could have raised a brigade or even a division. The difficulty lay in arming, equipping, mounting, and disciplining the men we selected."As an American war hero and future President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt leads his readers through the dangerous encounters and unbecoming circumstances of the Spanish-American War of 1898 in this 1899 best seller, The Rough Riders.His group of infantry, composed of American cowboys, intellectuals, and outlaws that volunteered to serve under his leadership, experienced extreme hardship throughout the war. In this first-hand account, Roosevelt's book gives voice and context to the battles of Las Guasimas, San Juan Hill, and Santiago, and depicts the dire preparation and equipping of his troops, referred to as 'The Rough Riders' by the United States Army. From the moment he took command of the infantry, all the way to Roosevelt's defeat of the Spanish Army and request to bring his men home, this personal depiction brings the Spanish-American War to life.For war-buffs, historians, and action readers alike, this rough tale will captivate and amaze.A Third Place Press Rediscovery Edition.

I remembered Camilla’s agonized scream and the awful words echoing through the dim streets of Carcosa. They were the last lines in the first act, and I dared not think of what followed—dared not, even in the spring sunshine, there in my own room, surrounded with familiar objects, reassured by the bustle from the street and the voices of the servants in the hallway outside. For those poisoned words had dropped slowly into my heart, as death-sweat drops upon a bed-sheet and is absorbed. The elusive, mysterious play ‘The King in Yellow,’ weaves through several of the stories in this collection, which blends a variety of genres showcasing Chambers’ vast literary talent.Highly acclaimed at the time of publication in 1895, and for many years afterward, The King in Yellow became the touchstone and inspiration of many generations of writers, including H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Karl Edward Wagner, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert Heinlein, and many others.It was Chambers’ ability to integrate dread suspense, while alluding to supernatural events, that became influential in defining the tone of  20th century horror and fantasy, and helped define a literary movement often referred to as Weird Fiction.

The stories in Grit and Roses trace the unsteady arc of a life spent pursuing a dream. A musician's career, filled with the hard, grueling work of perfecting a craft, the mishaps and disappointments of touring, and the between-gig times of mundane jobs and restless wandering. They also transcend the basic framework of a journeyman musician and explore more universal issues: desire, aimlessness, regret, hope, determination-the search for meaning in a stranger's smile and a cool drink, a backcountry sunset, or the neon beacon in the distant dark. Eugene Babb's proses have a cadence, a tempo, that suits the telling of a musician's experiences. Grit and Roses marks the debut of promising new voice in contemporary fiction.