After Such Knowledge Matching Set of 4 - A Case of Conscience, Doctor Mirahilis, Black Easter and The Day After Judgment

A Case of Conscience

Father Ruiz-Sanchez was a dedicated man — a priest who was also a scientist, and a scientist who was also a human being. He found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or in his ethics until he was sent to Lithia.

There he came upon a race of aliens — reptilian in form — who were admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they were incapable of faith and belief. On Lithia, Father Ruiz-Sanchez also found a scientific riddle, and he was presented with an ethical problem that reached across two worlds.

Father Ruiz-Sanchez was then torn in a struggle between the teachings of his faith, the teachings of his science, and the inner promptings of his humanity. There was only one solution. He had to accept an ancient and unforgivable heresy — and, in accepting that heresy, he risked the futures of both worlds.

This is the first book of the quartet of books called After Such Knowledge. Book two of the series, Doctor Mirabilis, will be available later in 2021 and books three and four, Black Easter and The Day After Judgment, will be available in 2022.

This new edition of A Case of Conscience has an introduction by Greg Bear, new cover artwork by Pascal Casolari, new interior art by Allen Koszowski, and archival artwork by Darrell K. Sweet. The signed edition is limited to 300 signed and numbered copies. Each book is signed by Greg Bear and Allen Koszowski, with an Estate-approved facsimile signature by James Blish.

The specifications for this set are: one book, printed in four colors and one color throughout, bound in European cloth with two hits of foil stamping, top-edge stain, ribbon marker, patterned endpapers, and a handsome dustjacket.

Edition Specifications:

• Limited to 300 copies, each signed by Greg Bear and Allen Koszowski with an Estate-approved facsimile signature by James Blish.
• Bound in full black cloth, with two color foil stamping.
• New dustjacket art by Pascal Casolari.
• Archival artwork by Darrell K. Sweet.
• Introduction by Greg Bear.
• Gorgeous dustjacket.
• Top-edge stain.
• Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
• Published January 2021.
• ISBN 978-1-61347-238-5.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.
• Number of pages: 280.

Doctor Mirahilis

This is the second book in Blish’s quasi-religious quarter After Such Knowledge. The historical novel recounts of the life of the 13th-century English Franciscan Roger Bacon and his struggle to develop a “Universal Science.” Though thoroughly researched, with a host of references, including extensive use of Bacon’s own writings, frequently in the original Latin, the book is written in the style of a novel, and Blish himself referred to it as “fiction” or “a vision.” It is widely considered to be the most ambitious novels of the quartet.
      Blish’s view of Bacon is uncompromisingly that he was the first scientist, and he provides a postscript to the novel in which he sets forth these views. Central to his depiction of Roger Bacon is that “he was not an inventor, an Edison or Luther Burbank, holding up a test tube with a shout of Eureka!” He was instead a theoretical scientist probing fundamental realities, and his visions of modern technology were just by-products of “…the way he normally thought — the theory of theories as tools…”
      Blish indicates where Bacon’s writings, for example, consider Newtonian metrical frameworks for space, then reject these for something which reads remarkably like Einsteinian relativity, and all “…breathtakingly without pause or hiccup, breezily moving without any recourse through over 800 years of physics”.
      This is the second book of the quartet of books called After Such Knowledge. Book three and four of the series, Black Easter and The Day After Judgment, will be available in 2022.
      This new edition of Doctor Mirabilis has new cover artwork by Ben Baldwin, new interior art by Allen Koszowski, and archival artwork by Geoff Taylor and Wayne Douglas Barlowe.
       The specifications for this set are: one book, printed in four colors and one color throughout, bound in European cloth with two hits of foil stamping, top-edge stain, ribbon marker, patterned endpapers, and a handsome dustjacket. 

Edition Specifications:

• Limited to 300 copies.
• Bound in full black cloth, with two color foil stamping.
• New dustjacket art by Ben Baldwin.
• Archival artwork by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Geoff Taylor.
• Gorgeous dustjacket.
• Top-edge stain.
• Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
• Published December 2021.
• ISBN 978-1-61347-239-2.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.
• Number of pages: 416.

Black Easter

This is the third book in Blish’s quasi-religious quartet After Such Knowledge. Black Easter is more of a horror novel, with demons unleashed from Hell to have sway over the earth.
      This is the third book of the quartet of books called After Such Knowledge. Book four of the series, The Day After Judgment, will be available later in 2022.
      This new edition of Black Easter has a new introduction by J.A. Lawrence, new cover and interior artwork by Samuel Araya, new interior art by Allen Koszowski, and archival artwork by Chris Moore and Wayne Douglas Barlowe.
       The specifications for this set are: one book, printed in four colors and one color throughout, bound in European cloth with two hits of foil stamping, top-edge stain, ribbon marker, patterned endpapers, and a handsome dustjacket.

Edition Specifications:

• Limited to 300 copies.
• Bound in full black cloth, with two color foil stamping.
• New dustjacket art by Samuel Araya.
• Archival artwork by Chris Moore and Wayne Douglas Barlowe.
• Gorgeous dustjacket.
• Top-edge stain.
• Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
• Published December 2021.
• ISBN 978-1-61347-240-8.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.
• Number of pages: 184.

The Day After Judgment

This is the third book in Blish’s quasi-religious quartet After Such Knowledge. The Day After Judgment is more of a horror novel, with demons unleashed from Hell to have sway over the earth.
      This is the fourth book of the quartet of books called After Such Knowledge. This is the last book of the series.
      This new edition of The Day After Judgment has a new introduction by Sandy Robertson, new cover and interior artwork by Samuel Araya, new interior art by Allen Koszowski, and archival artwork by Doug Beekman
       The specifications for this set are: one book, printed in four colors and one color throughout, bound in European cloth with two hits of foil stamping, top-edge stain, ribbon marker, patterned endpapers, and a handsome dustjacket.

EDITION INFORMATION

• Limited to 300 copies.
• Bound in full black cloth, with two color foil stamping.
• New dustjacket art by Samuel Araya.
• Archival artwork by Doug Beekman.
• Gorgeous dustjacket.
• Top-edge stain.
• Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
• Published May 2022.
• ISBN 978-1-61347-241-5.
• Book size 5½ × 8¾ inches.
• Number of pages: 168.