All of these were Half Price Books finds, all firsts, and all but the Sagan and Wong came from Austin stores. The Sagan and Wong came from Dallas Metroplex area stores, but I pulled them into this post because they go in bookcases I’m reorganizing.
Unusually for Half Price Books, three of these titles had aftermarket labels over the UPC code that needed a fair amount of Bestine and elbow grease to remove…
When Pulphouse first unveiled the short story paperback, I remember thinking “That’s stupid.” For all they bragged about “buying a single story for $1.95,” you could buy an entire issue of Asimov’s (with 5-10 times as much content) for $2.50. And, indeed, they were not swift sellers. Though a few of these (the Wolfe, the Lansdales, etc.) became slightly collectable over the years. (And a few of the companion Short Story hardbacks even more so.)
But I bough these from that same collector culling his collection for $1 each.
Almost all of these are paperback originals thus (though some of these have previously shown up as the title stories in collections, like Bloch’s Yours Truly, Jack the Rapper or Zelazny’s The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth), though exceptions (like Blaylock’s Paper Dragons) are noted. Some of the early ones (“Loser’s Night,” “Xolotl”) are the first publication anywhere, but most of the stories have appeared somewhere previously. Unlike most Library Addition entries, these will be listed by series order rather than alphabetical by author.
All of these are Fine copies unless otherwise noted.
Reference: Jack Chalker and Mark Owings, The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Critical and Bibliographic History, 2002, page 719 (numbers 1 through 10), page 721 (numbers 11-20), pages 722 (numbers 21-30). This is what Chalker had to say about the Short Story paperback line:
In January, 1991, Pulphouse continued its expansion with the Short Story Paperbacks and the selected Short Story Hardbacks, although we’re still only half- convinced that these are in any sense legitimate books. What they were, though, was what seemed to be a quick way to make money, and if people bought them, fine. They brought the whole operation as of the start of 1991 at a whopping 80+ titles a year. It should be noted that the paperbacks series was supposed to be originals and reprints, but became, after the initial ones, primarily reprints, a move that, while understandable, seemed to us to take away the one good reason why most people might buy them.
Money held by SF/F/H collectors is a finite commodity, and Pulphouse in the early 1990s seemed to treat it as a limitless resource. If you’re publishing books by Lansdale, Zelazny, Wagner, De Lint, etc., that’s a license to print a little money. But Antieau, Clemence, Caraker? Not so much. Why they thought collectors were going to shell out money for such items is a mystery.
The entire set bought for $61.
When I saw they only did 600 copies of this, I thought “I better pick some up.”
Robinson, Kim Stanley. Stan’s Kitchen. NESFA Press, 2020. First edition hardback, #171 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Short story collection.
I’ll have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
More books I bought from Michael Moorcock. These are the non-Moorcock hardbacks I bought off him (in addition to Rendezvous With Rama).
So this year’s Worldcon is this week, and you’re posting photos from last year’s Worldcon?
Yep.
And didn’t you already post some of these photos?
Yep.
So why do it again?
Last year at Worldcon, I uploaded these photos in a big bunch to Facebook, then linked to the Facebook photos from this blog. However, Facebook, evidently hating the idea that people outside their walled garden of changing preferences and sunglasses spam might see said photos, keeps changing their URLs, thus breaking links to them. So the photos themselves disappeared from the old post. These I’m uploading directly to my blog.
Also, I didn’t blog all the images I meant to, so there will be some new ones in Part 2.
So without further adieu…
Leigh Kennedy, who I had lunch and dinner with, along with Nick Austin, the Monday before the con. We have loads of common friends, but knew them at different times, so there was a lot of trading stories…
In profile.
Cory Doctorow, exhibiting his unique sense of style…
…and with an actual top to his head.
John J. Miller of Wild Cards fame, with Gail Gerstner-Miller.
Kim Newman, in his usual natty, multilayered attire. Wear this in Texas in August and you’re asking for heatstroke.
Jonathan Strahan and David Hartwell.
Pat Murphy, all scarfed-up.
Lavie Tidhar, who used to do reviews for me back in the Nova Express days.
Ian Watson and Lavie Tidhar, signing books at the PS Publishing table in the dealer’s room. I asked Watson what the genesis of the Watson-Aldiss feud was. “I’ve gotten to the age when I’m not sure I remember it properly anymore…”
Connie Willis.
Liz Hand.
And looking slightly less crazed.
Ellen Datlow and Liz Hand fan themselves and look down upon the peasantry.
Elle Datlow solo.
Guest of honor John Clute.
Adam Roberts.
Geoff Ryman peers at me suspiciously.
Gary K. Wolfe.
Andy Duncan.
Didn’t get all the names, but this is something like 75% of the Israeli SF publishing industry.
Kim Stanley Robinson.
John Gibbons.
Michael Swanwick, Geoff Ryman, and Ellen Datlow.
Michael Swanwick and Gordon Van Gelder, looking way too befuddled for the first day of the con.
Lisa Tuttle, who I had lunch with, joined by…
…George R. R. Martin.
George R. R. Martin and the Spanish George R. R. Martin.
Michael Swanwick and George R. R. Martin, enjoying fine dining in an atmosphere of unpretentious ambiance.
Parris McBride Martin.
Alastair Reynolds.
Pat Cadigan.
Pat Cadigan in green.
Pat Cadigan with fan-drawn cyberpunk.
Finally, Pat Cadigan with her spiffy Doc Martin boots.
The elusive Richard Calder.
Michael Swanwick showing off his outfit. “This shirt is bespoke! Bespoke, I tell you!”
Finally, Michael Swanwick showing off the t-shirt for MidAmericon II, the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon he’s Guest of Honor at. (Pat Cadigan is Toastmistress.)
Leigh Kennedy, who I had lunch and dinner with the Monday before the con. We have loads of common friends, but knew them at different times, so there was a lot of trading stories…
In profile.
Cory Doctorow, exhibiting his unique sense of style…
…and with an actual top to his head.
John J. Miller of Wild Cards fame, with Gail Gerstner-Miller.
Kim Newman, in his usual natty, multilayered attire.
Jonathan Strahan and David Hartwell.
Pat Murphy, all scarfed-up.
With scarf and shoes.
Lavie Tidhar, who used to do reviews for me back in the Nova Express days.
Ian Watson and Lavie Tidhar, signing books at the PS Publishing table in the dealer’s room. I asked Watson what the genesis of the Watson-Aldiss feud was. “I’ve gotten to the age when I’m not sure I remember it properly anymore…”
Connie Willis.
Liz Hand.
And looking slightly less crazed.
Ellen Datlow and Liz Hand fan themselves and look down upon the peasantry.
Elle Datlow solo.
Guest of honor John Clute.
Adam Roberts.
Geoff Ryman peers at me suspiciously.
Gary K. Wolfe.
Andy Duncan.
Didn’t get all the names, but this is something like 75% of the Israeli SF publishing industry.
Kim Stanley Robinson.
John Gibbons.
Michael Swanwick, Geoff Ryman, and Ellen Datlow.
Michael Swanwick and Gordon Van Gelder, looking way too befuddled for the first day of the con.
Lisa Tuttle, who I had lunch with, joined by…
…George R. R. Martin.
George R. R. Martin and the Spanish George R. R. Martin.
Michael Swanwick and George R. R. Martin, enjoying fine dining in an atmosphere of unpretentious ambiance.
Parris McBride Martin.
Alastair Reynolds.
Pat Cadigan.
Pat Cadigan in green.
Pat Cadigan with fan-drawn cyberpunk.
Finally, Pat Cadigan with her spiffy Doc Martin boots.
The elusive Richard Calder.
Michael Swanwick showing off his outfit. “This shirt is bespoke! Bespoke, I tell you!”
Finally, Michael Swanwick showing off the t-shirt for MidAmericon II, the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon he’s Guest of Honor at. (Pat Cadigan is Toastmistress.)
And here’s the second set of books, following yesterday’s list of exceptional volumes from the same trip. All are first edition hardbacks, Fine copies in Fine dust jackets, unless otherwise noted.
I knew that dealing books at Worldcon would eat up a lot of time, but I had no idea just how much time it would take me to not only get all the books back on the shelf, but to catch up on everything I set aside while getting ready for, then recovering from, Worldcon.
Which explains why I’m just now putting up the pictures I took there. Here are the handful of pictures I took at Worldcon that came out decent.
Clotheshorse that she is, the lovely and talented Gail Carriger kicks off our review with the first of three outfits I managed to photograph.
A second.
And a third.
And here’s the same outfit she insisted I snap with her own camera. “You’ve got to include the shoes!”
Stina Leicht, sitting next to me at the Rayguns Over Texas event at the San Antonio Library.
Scott Cupp and Josh Rountree at the same event. The other photos I took there came out crappy.
Bookseller and con chair Mike Walsh.
Lou Antonelli channels Flavor-Flav.
Howard Waldrop and Eileen Gunn, just before Howard went three rounds with a concrete step.
And here’s Howard just after that bout.
Andrew Porter, now free of the terrible burden of publishing a semi-prozine.
Pat Murphy, back again.
Ex-NASA employee Al Jackson.
Ex-Austinite Maureen McHugh.
Kim Stanley Robinson, back from whatever frozen locale he’s visiting this time. Possibly Iapetus.
Gardner Dozois at full rant.
Gardner Dozois at full rest. The two modes are deceptively similar.
In 2012, Pat Cadigan asked me to take down one of her pictures. So this year I made sure that this picture with Robert Silverberg was 100% flattering.
I think this is a very good picture of Dwight Brown.
Rich Simental, who spent much of the con in his room working on a completely different con.
Ben Yalow. Or possibly one of those hundreds of Ben Yalow impersonators you hear so much about.
Max Merriwell, in a very clever diusguise.
David Kyle, who I think has passed the late Forrest J. Ackerman for Most Worldcons Attended.
I’m sorry that I didn’t get pictures of Alastair Reynolds, David Brin, Jack McDevitt, Joe and Joy Haldeman, and Lois McMaster Bujold (among others I missed), who were all kind enough to come by the Lame Excuse Books booth.