please, oh please consider doing a podiobook or 4. (podiobooks.com)
If you have the original digital files at all, they may still be recoverable, given a bit of hackery...
Feel free to contact me, or perhaps put a note in your blog asking for help with them.
paul _d0t_ huff _at_ gmail _d0t_ com
Yes, please do make mention of precisely what "extinct and unrecoverable" format you are referring to. You never know who might have the right program!
wow, kudos for the experiment, and best of luck!!
the books sound fascinating...
Hi Mayer,
I am the host of a daily show on the French NPR called France Culture Minuit Dix. Would it be possible to get one book or two so I can make a piece about it ?
Best,
soufron
i BOUGHT catastrophe's spell and liked it a lot. but i never saw any of the other three books and thought you had just given up. Kudos for putting the series out again...i'll pony up some cash to read them all.
Wow, I love your books! I have all four at home and re-read them every year or so. I am really looking forward to seeing more information on these.
To anyone who hasn't read these books, I highly recommend them if you like good dialog and snappy wit. It's a much higher comedy bar than a lot of other "fantasy" I've read.
Kudos to you and I hope this experiment goes very well for you!
Your description of why you think the books didn't do so well makes me think that I will really like these books. They sound like something completely in my taste!
I'm gonna download the first one and have a read. If I find myself liking it I'll probably buy the lot of them!
I got here yesterday via BoingBoing, and just finished the first two books. They're pretty much exactly what I'm looking for in Fantasy books, these days - particularly the way magic has real laws and structure.
I look forward to seeing the rest of the series...
Don't forget about interlibrary loan and Abebooks as ways to find these books! (sorry, Mayer ...)
Your description makes me think I'll like the series.
Going to download them now.
While I'm not a fan of the genre, I am a fan of you! Enough so, that I will take the plunge and stretch my mind to take in your wisdom and creativity in the written form. My sincere hope that many, many others will do so as well.
I'm always looking for good fantasy to read, and I'd never seen these before. I've downloaded the first two. May I help by sending you Mobipocket and/or Microsoft reader versions of them?
To everyone who's posted here: thanks for taking the time to post! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you all here; I've been answering emails &c - a welcome task to be sure.
Anne: I'm definitely considering readings via podcast! Hopefully I'll have this sorted out within the next couple of weeks.
Paul & Tim: Catastrophe and Intrigue were on 5 1/4" discs from a Kaypro (and possibly an Apple II), as I recall, but since I've already finished re-editing those, that issue's been archived. Fate and Apocalypse are on 3 1/2" Mac OS discs, so they won't be a problem either.
M. Soufron: Thanks very much for your interest! Please email me directly at "himself at mayerbrenner.com", and I'd be happy to work out getting you any materials you'd like.
conpermiso: Unfortunately, you weren't alone in your experience of not being able to find the later books. In 1987, the big books chains, led by Crown, were very active in tracking book sales using their computerized inventory systems, and without a promotional push from the publisher, would order no more copies of any succeeding titles than had already been sold by that author. This was obviously a self-fulfilling prophecy trap, especially when coupled with the "perishable goods" approach to stock management; when the new book in a series came out, it was difficult - outside of the SF specialty shops - to get the previous volumes, so why would a browsing shopper bother? This explains why the third and especially the fourth book in the series have been relatively expensive and hard to find.
Lyn: Wow! Thanks for being a fan! When I went back to re-read the books this summer, for the first time in fifteen years, I was quite nervous about my own reaction. I was happy - and relieved - to find that the dialog and wit seemed to hold up well, even for me, too. I appreciate your support!
FighterHayabusa: Well, I kind of think the reasons I was given for the books not selling were strengths, too. I hope you like them!
Elyandarin: You clearly had a few solid days of reading - I'm glad you've enjoyed the books so far. Fate is the longest of the books, but it still leaves absolutely everything up in the air at the end; when I get to the end of posting Fate, though, I'll be going straight to Apocalypse, so at least you won't have to wait then...
Fred: No problem mentioning loans and ABE - I'm a frequent ABE user myself, and I'm just happy that folks are finding and reading the books again, however they get them.
Pam: I hope you enjoy them!
Cori: Thanks for the note. Since we're acquainted off-line, you may be amused at how much some of the characters, although certainly not all of them, do indeed sound like me...
Deena: Thanks for the generous offer. If you like, please send my any reader versions you like at the "himself at mayerbrenner.com" address - I'd love to post them!
I've really enjoyed your books thus far; I'm looking forward to the rest!
I've really enjoyed the first two books and am looking forward to the next two.
I'm another of the select few that managed to find copies of all four books new when they came out. And I also greatly enjoy the series. In fact, IIRC, I picked up the first book not long after it came out, and eagerly awaited and watched for each subsequent book.
As to how they've held up, let me just say that the main reason I'm even here is that I just finished rereading them today (yet again). Decided I'd check to see if anything new was in the works and discovered all this wonderful-ness. I hope this is the start of a revival of a great series that deserves better than it got... And leads to even more down the road.
My local library (Wellington, New Zealand) had all four books, but after many years they were in need of replacement, and when it was discovered that they were out of print nothing more was done.
I really enjoyed them when I was younger, and having just read the first book in pdf form, am enjoying them again today.
I've just posted my review of Catastrophe's Spell 
Hope you enjoy...
Chris
The Book Swede
Woot! I just found a good condition used copy of Spell of the Apocalypse; now I just have to wait for Mr. Brenner to finish fixing up the third book.
Enjoyed the first two quite a bit -- found that MS Word version appears to work best for my Sony Reader. Your eyes and mileage may vary.
Shock. Awe. First, I own the books. I love them. I'm a reader across genres, and this series has a unique flavor and creativity. It's always been a favorite.
For years now I keep wondering, where the hell is Mayer Brenner? No new books. Nothing. I couldn't understand it.
I never considered that they hadn't sold well. Wasn't even a possibility.
It seems to me that Lawrence Watt Evans' audience and what's left of Costikyan's audience and the Brentford guy and George R. R. Martin's crowd and Nina Hoffman's and maybe Stephenson's... that's quite a pool of potential readers that should enjoy the series...
Marketing seems to be the issue... marketing... why not dress the text up pretty and sell the books on all these e-reader sites? Plus on amazon as ebooks?
Thanks again to all of you who've been leaving supportive notes! I'm glad those of you who've enjoyed the books in the past are still finding them worth the time again now.
The final chapters of Spell of Fate should be posted reasonably soon...
Joshua: in the course of this whole adventure I've discovered how small a proportion of people are willing to read a full novel in electronic form; much smaller than I'd expected. As a result, I don't know that going with commercial ebook distribution would get the books much further than posting them here has done. The real goal is still to get them back into dead-tree print. I'm still hoping that the interest this experiment has attracted, and the number of downloads, will be effective enough for that.
another of your fans here. have all 4 books, like them very much. want more.
My taste in written fantasy tends to be eclectic. Most of what is on the bookstore shelves leaves me cold. Having said that, I loved "Spell of Catastrophe" and "Spell of Intrigue".
I'm sorry I missed them when they first came out. It looks like I let my distaste for generic fantasy lead me astray in a big way. Hopefully you will get the entire series back in print (and write another?) You can count on me to buy them all! I read a lot of ebooks (basicly because I haven't figured out a way to easily haul around a couple of dozen real books). ebooks are great but they don't have the visceral appeal of ink on paper.
I have an author to add to your "endangered and missing" list: James Stoddard. As far as I know he only wrote two books (in the late 90's): The High House and The False House.
MD
MB is too modest to mention it prominently, but there's a PAYPAL link now from the main page. So go chip in a few $ and help out!
If only he'd put the link up when this site was linked from BoingBoing. I bet that new hits are probably not coming as quickly as they used to 
I'm in the same boat as conpermiso. Many years ago I bought Catastrophe's Spell and enjoyed it but I never did see the sequels. Thank you so much for writing these and now deciding to make them all available online!
By the way, I got a deal on a Sony eReader and I am now almost exclusively into reading digital books. Plus my wife no longer yells at me for filling up our one bedroom condo with books.
I believe you'll see an upswing in digital books as the devices get cheaper and the formfactor improves.
Hello there,
I've only recently discovered your books and I'm currently enjoying the first one simultaniously reading it and listening to you reading it to me.
I'm experimenting with writing a story myself so I know how difficult it is, so congratulations to you for giving me a (long lost) new and refreshing look on the fantasy genre.
I like your sense of humour and you do the narrating very well. So whatever you do :p keep podding that cast or casting that pod. (whichever you prefer)
Did you write any other novels perchance?
yours sincerely
LLyan
I'm another of your fans who has wondered off and on, what happened to Mayer Brenner? I'm glad to find that you're still around and still writing.
Too bad to hear that your series didn't sell well - I believe you're right that they must have been tough to market because they didn't fit exactly into a given category.
I encourage you to do whatever it takes to get these books into the hands of more readers. Whenever I think of my favorite fiction books of all time (and I'm a semi-voracious reader), your titles come to the top of my list. Particularly Catastrophe's Spell. I can't tell you how much I envy your ability to establish several separate story threads, then weave them together seamlessly in a dramatic and heart-pounding conclusion! I dream of the day I'll be able to write as skillfully.
I also love the characters - each with their own clear background, motivation, and style of speaking and interacting with your world and each other. Not an easy task, yet one you've handled with grace and style.
Thank you again for these wonderful tales, and best wishes for your future endeavors!
Fantastic! I discovered spell of apocalypse in a used bookstore years ago, and began a grand hunt to find the other 3 books. I still remember how excited I was when I tracked down the last one. The four hold a treasured place in the "never let go" part of my bookcase. I have reread the series several times, and I hope to keep doing that for years to come. My biggest fear was loosing the books and not being able to get copies again. Thank you so much for posting them online. I hope to read more from you in the future.
I just downloaded and read all four of the books from feedbooks for the iphone and was much impressed. As fantasies they were a nice departure from the norm. I read mostly science fiction though I have read hundreds of fantasy novels and these stand out from the crowd as being truly original. They also work well as science fiction novels. I think times have finally caught up with your ideas as I read Peter F. Hamilton's latest offering in between the first two books and yours hold up nicely in that company. The availability of the books from feedbooks will help get them back into print. Good luck in the future.
Alex Ross
Let say
They dont reprint Jack Vance or Barry Hughart and fantasy is mostly for woman and science fiction for men
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