I think this is the final library addition from my DFW trip.
Guran, Paula, editor. New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird. Prime Books, 2011. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Reprint anthology of Cthulhu Mythos and related stories, with stories from China Mieville, Neal Gaiman, Michael Shea, John Shirley, etc. Bought at Half Price Books for $13.
Jeter, K.W. Star Wars: Slave Ship: Book 2 of The Bounty Hunter Wars. Bantam Spectra, 1998. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight foxing to inside covers and a trace of edgewear. I already had volume 1 and volume 3 of the trilogy, as well a signed copy of the SFBC hardback omnibus. Bought for $3.99.
Three more PBOs bought at DFW Half Price Books locations.
Kurland, Michael. The Unicorn Girl. Pyramid, 1969. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with non-breaking crease across front cover and some edgewear (but no spine creasing). Second book in the hippie science fiction trilogy, preceded by Chester Anderson’s The Butterfly Kid and followed by T. A. Waters’ The Probability Pad (which I have). Bought for $2.49.
Saha, Arthur W., editor. The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 9. SAW, 1983. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with slight abrasion line to spine, slight age toning to pages, moderate foxing to inside covers, a trace of edgewear, and a trace of age darkening of white rear cover along spine. Year’s Best anthology with stories from R. A. Lafferty, Michael Shea, Tanith Lee, Harlan Ellison, Parke Godwin, etc. Saha took over from Lin Carter on this series starting with volume 7. Bought for $1.99.
Wagner, Karl Edward and David Drake. Killer. Baen, 1985. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with phantom crease to top front corner, a trace of edgewear and slight foxing to inside covers (but no spine creasing). Novel of hunting an outer space monster in ancient Rome. Replaces a slightly less attractive copy. Bought for $1.49.
Two Henry Kuttner PBOs, both bought on my DFW trip.
Kuttner, Henry. Valley of the Flame. Ace, 1964. First edition paperback original (40¢ price and no printing statement on copyright page, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with a trace of wear at points. Currey, page 293. Cawthorn and Moocrcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, page 135. Bought at Recycled Books in Denton for $3.
Kuttner, Henry and C. L. Moore. Earth’s Last Citadel. Ace, 1964. First edition paperback original (40¢ price and no printing statement on copyright page, as per Currey), a Near Fine copy with hairline creasing along front spine join, slight edgewear at head, heel and points and a few other traces of edgewear. Currey, page 292. Bought at a DFW Half Price Books for $3.
Both of these were picked up at the Half Price Books Outlet Store in Waco:
Blaylock, James P. The Aylesford Skull. Titan Books, 2013. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a few tiny touches of wear. Bought for $4.99.
Interestingly, there was supposed to be a 750 signed, limited hardback edition of this. One copy of that showed up in a Cold Tonnage Books catalog in 2023, but I never saw any others listed. I asked Jim Blaylock about this on Facebook, and he told me the following:
The story behind those ultimately destroyed books is unlikely, but essentially the production of the books was botched. There was gold-embossed writing on the cover and, I think, spine, but the gold was misapplied and muddied. They weren’t saleable, and Titan had no idea of reproducing them, so they pulped the lot. Several were sent out as pre-orders that were okay. One of my friends got one, which she ultimately gave to me. I can’t be sure how many survived the carnage, but Andy has one of probably a dozen books. I was slightly miffed, partly because I had to sign the signature pages twice. The first 750 were signed by me and Tim Powers, and then I sent the result to K.W. Jeter in Ecuador along with the box of necessary pens. The story is far more hilarious than I have room for here, but they were ultimately blown to smithereens by the Ecuadorian postal service who suspected that the box was some variety of terrorist plot and exploded it in a parking lot.
Blaylock, James P. Beneath London. Titan Books, 2015. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a few tiny touches of wear. Bought for $4.99.
(Donaldson, Stephen R.) W. A. Senior. Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Variations on the Fantasy Tradition. Kent State University Press, 1995. First edition hardback (“03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 5 4 3 2 1” numberline), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket (although, oddly, it seems quite like a heavy grade of red construction paper). Critical companion to the Thomas Covenant books. Added mainly because Kent State has put out a number of interesting SF/F/H related books over the years, some of which (like Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Fiction) have gotten quite pricey on the secondary market. Bought for $8 at Recycled Books in Denton.
Moskowitz, Sam. Explorers of the infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction. World Publishing Company, 1963. Hardback reprint (Currey says First Edition stated on copyright page, and I’m not seeing it anywhere), a Near Fine copy with bend at head and heel and a few pinpoint spots to boards, in a Near Fine- Mylar-protected dust jacket with wear at head and heel, slight age darkening to spine, some rubbing, and slight darkening to white portions of rear panel. Mostly essays on individual writers, arranged chronologically, from well-known figures like Lovecraft, Stapledon and Burroughs to more obscure ones like Fitz-James O’Brien and Frank Reade Jr. Moskowitz was tremendously important as one of the field’s first historians and critics, but also tremendously controversial due to many tendentious opinions. Bought at a DFW Half Price Books for $6.99.
Westwood, Emma, editor. Midnight Movie Monographs: Bride of Frankenstein. Electric Dreamhouse/PS Publishing, 2023. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Essays on the celebrated second film in the Universal Frankenstein series. The only other volume I have in this series is their Plan 9 From Outer Space book. Bought for $6 from Recycled Books in Denton.
Here are three Charles Stross “Laundry Files” I found at a Half Price Books in the DFW area.
Stross, Charles. A Conventional Boy. Tor, 2025. First edition hardback (ISFDB states that the UK and U.S. editions came out the same day), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. For some reason I’m not finding the Half Price Books receipt for all three of these books, but I believe they were each around $9.99.
Stross, Charles. Dead Lies Dreaming. Tor, 2020. First edition hardback (ISFDB states that the U.S. edition came out two days before the UK edition), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Stross, Charles. The Labyrinth Index. Tor, 2018. First edition hardback (ISFDB states that the UK and U.S. editions came out the same day), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
All of these were bought at a Half Price Books in McKinney, Texas.
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Shadow. Tor, 1999. First edition hardback (trade state; Tor did expensive signed/leatherbound editions for both this and Shadow of the Hegemon), a Fine copy in a Fine, Mylar-protected dust jacket, signed by Card. Bought for $8.49.
Card, Orson Scott. Shadows in Flight. Tor, 2012. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine, Mylar-protected dust jacket, signed by Card. Bought for $8.49.
Card, Orson Scott. Shadow of the Hegemon. Tor, 1999. First edition hardback (trade state), a Fine copy in a Fine, Mylar-protected dust jacket, signed by Card. Bought for $7.49.
Card, Orson Scott. Stonefather. Subterranean Press, 2008. First separate edition, one of 2,000 signed, hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine, Mylar-protected dust jacket. Fantasy novella. Bought for $16.99.
I checked out of the Ender books after Xeonocide, but I don’t mind adding signed Fine/Fine firsts at about 1/3rd cover price when I chance across them.
This is an odd one. I had an unsigned first of Warren Hammond’s KOP, but then found a signed copy of KOP on my Thanksgiving trip to the DFW metroplex. Then, just before I had a chance to catalog it, I found an inscribed first of KOP Killer on my recently completed Houston trip to visit my mother and do some book-shopping.
Hammond, Warren. KOP. Tor, 2007. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Hammond. Postcyberpunk crime drama. Back when I was still invited to Worldcon etc., someone mentioned that this was a good cyberpunk police procedural. Bought from Half Price Books for $4.99.
Hammond, Warren. KOP Killer. Tor, 2012. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of haze rubbing to rear panel, inscribed by Hammond: “To Deane,/Down the/rabbit hole/Warren Hammond.” Postcyberpunk crime drama. Bought from Half Price Books in Pearland for $4.99.
