Archive for the ‘Fantasy’ Category
Monday, November 16th, 2020
Three books bought from Subterranean Press at the usual discount:
Bennett, Robert Jackson. In the Shadows of Men. Subterranean, 2020. First edition hardback, #134 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Novella by the author of Mr. Shivers and Company Man.
Egan, Greg. Dispersion. Subterranean Press, 2020. First edition hardback, #173 of 1000 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. “In a world not quite our own, every living thing is born into one of six discrete “fractions” that are incompatible with—and often invisible to—each other. These fractions have coexisted peacefully for centuries, but now a disease has appeared that seems to drag the infected parts of the body into a different fraction. The effects are devastating. Individual victims suffer painful, protracted deaths. Entire communities turn against one another, and a state approaching perpetual war takes hold.”
Powers, Tim. The Properties of Rooftop Air. Subterranean Press, 2020. First edition hardback, #277 of 474 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. An Anubis Gates story.
I will have copies of all three of these available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, currently in progress.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Greg Egan, Robert Jackson Bennett, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Subterranean Press, Tim Powers
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2020
Still more from the Bob Pylant purchase, including two more Zelaznys that I thought I didn’t need, but it turns out I did.
Bass, T. J. The Godwhale. Eyre Methuen, 1974. First hardback edition (the Ballantine PBO precedes) and first UK edition, a Fine copy save some very sight age darkening to pages, in a Fine dust jacket. Sequel to Half Past Human and a Nebula Award finalist. Currey, page 25.
Moorcock, Michael. The Hollow Lands. Harper & Row, 1974. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Signed twice by Moorcock, on the half title and title pages. Second volume of the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. Tanelorn Archives, page 21. Currey, page 370.
Pohl, Frederick, Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph Olander, editors. Worlds of if: A Retrospective Anthology. Bluejay Books, 1986. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Reprint collection of stories that originally appeared in If magazine. Includes Zelazny’s “This Mortal Mountain.” A couple of points of interest: First, all the stories whose authors were still alive provided short, original “Memoirs” to their stories, including ones from Zelazny, Lafferty, Ellison, etc., and I believe the vast majority of these have never been reprinted anywhere else. Second, this book came out from Bluejay Books in September of 1986, which means it was among the very last block of books published before their implosion, along with Rob Swigart’s Vector and Vernor Vinge’s Marooned in Realtime.
Zelazny, Roger. Eye of Cat. Timescape, 1982. First edition proof, a Fine copy. Thought I had bought another Eye of Cat proof from Bob in an earlier purchase, but no. Timescape was another imprint that ceased business in the 1980s.
Zelazny, Roger. Unicorn Variations. Timescape, 1983. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with the Simon & Schuster “walking man” remainder mark at heel in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of soiling to the white jacket. I thought I had a signed first, but not, I have a signed book club, and a Fine unsigned first, but not a signed first.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Fantasy, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction
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Monday, October 12th, 2020
Non-Zelazny (mostly) hardbacks from my most recent Bob Pylant purchase.
de Camp, L. Sprague. Warlocks and Warriors. Putnam, 1970. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with five tiny ink “x”s next to stories on the copyright page and a trace of bend at head and heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with traces of edgewear along flap folds. Signed by de Camp. Includes Zelazny’s “The Bells of Shoredan.” The Zelazny and others include maps for their stories that I’m not sure I’ve seen anywhere else.
Greenberg, Martin H. Dragons: The Greatest Stories. MJF Books, 1997. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Anthology. A few mysteries about this copy: Has a numberline ending in one (which would typically indicate a first edition rather than a book club edition), but no price on the dust jacket (which would typically indicate the opposite), and has a red binding along the spine. The ISFDB lists two editions, one at a price of $19.95, and the other at a price of $7.98, the latter of which it indicates is taken from the Locus database, which also lists only one edition of the book and that as an instant remainder (which would explain the lack of a price). The Don Maitz cover appears to be a cropped example of the fuller dust jacket illustration that originally appeared on Kathleen Sky’s Witchdame in 1985; copies of this anthology with green spine and the fuller illustration (still with no price on the dust jacket) appear to be second printings. Still another mystery is the not-quite-right Zelazny signatures on the title page and at his story “The George Business,” which would be a neat trick since Zelazny died in 1995. No idea if Bob or someone else created the spurious signatures. It would seem that this instant remainder edition was done first and the pricier retail edition (if it even exists) may have been done later.
Ipcar, Dahlov. A Dark Horn Blowing. Viking Press, 1978. First edition hardback, a near Fine copy with slight bend at head and heel, a short, thin line of rust-colored staining at very bottom of front free endpaper, and a trace of age-darkening to pages, in a Near Fine dust jacket with a vertical crease running along the edge of the rear flap. Fantasy novel of a woman kidnapped to elfland to nurse a newborn elf prince. Never heard of it, but Bob said it was a good novel. In the Encyclopedia of fantasy, John Clute calls her work “atmospheric and densely conceived.”
Lee, Tanith. Sometimes, After Sunset. Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1980. First edition hardback, an omnibus edition of Sabella, or The Blood Stone and Kill the Dead (neither of which had any other hardback editions), a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with slight wear at points, a thin 1/2″ scratch at top front spine join, a trace of rubbing along front flap join bend edge, and slight age darkening to white flaps. Nice early Maitz cover.
Le Guin, Ursula K., editor. Nebula Award Stories 11. Gollancz, 1976. First edition hardback (precedes the U.S. edition by a year), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel, traces of foxing to front free endpaper, and slight dust soiling at head, in a Near Fine copy with spine fading and a trace of edgewear at points. Includes the Nebula-winning Zelazny novella “Home is the Hangman.”
Meacham, Beth. Terry’s Universe. Tor, 1988. Uncorrected bound proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Tribute anthology to the late Terry Carr. Includes Zelazny’s “Deadstone Donner and the Flintstone Cup.”
Schiff, Stuart David, editor. The Best of Whispers. Borderlands Press, 1994. First edition hardback, #375 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Signed by all the then-living contributors (Fritz Leiber died in 1992), including Zelazny, Ray Bradbury, Karl Edward Wagner, Russell Kirk, Hugh B. Cave, Lucius Shepard, Jerry Sohl and Alan Ryan. Includes Zelazny’s “The Horses of Lir.”
Tags:Bob Pylant, dragons, Fantasy, Horror, L. Sprague de Camp, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, SFBC, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le Guin
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2020
Part 6 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant. I previously listed signed Amber book club editions, today is signed (all but one) non-Amber book club editions.
Zelazny, Roger. The Changing Land. Del Rey/SFBC, 1981. Book club hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to white flaps, signed by Zelazny. Supplements signed copies of the PBO and the Underwood-Miller signed/limited hardback. Kovacs, I.6.d. Levack, 4c.
Zelazny, Roger. Dilvish, The Damned. Del Rey/SFBC, 1981. Book club hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to white flaps, with signed letter from Zelazny laid in. Supplements signed copies of the PBO and the Underwood-Miller signed/limited hardback. Kovacs, I.15.d.
Zelazny, Roger. The Dream Master. SFBC, 2004. Book club hardback, a Fine- copy with uniformly age-darkened pages in a Fine dust jacket. SFBC 50th Anniversary edition book. Kovacs, I.18.n.
Zelazny, Roger. The Last Defender of Camelot. Pocket Books/SFBC, 1980. Book club and first hardback edition (gutter code L10 on page 278, as per Kovacs), a Fine- copy with slight age darkening to pages in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Zelazny: “To Liz,/All sorts of good wishes -/ — Roger Zelazny.” Supplements the Underwood-Miller limited edition, and another copy of this edition inscribed to me in a more worn dust jacket. Kovacs, V.15.c. Levack, 24b.
Zelazny, Roger. Madwand. Ace/SFBC, 1981. Book club edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust dust jacket with slight age darkening to the white jacket. Kovacs, I.30.d. Levack, 26c.
This ends the Zelazny hardback portion of the purchase, which I needed to finish so I could move the Zelazny section down as part of putting in a new bookcase. I will get to the non-Zelazny hardbacks (including some anthologies with Zelazny stories), signed Zelazny paperbacks, and magazines featuring the first appearances of Zelazny stories, in due course.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Fantasy, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, SFBC
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Friday, October 2nd, 2020
Part 5 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant. Book Club editions are something I don’t generally collect (except when they’re the first hardback edition), but I thought these pristine signed hardbacks of the second (or Merlin) Amber trilogy were worth adding. All of these supplement signed first edition hardbacks of the same titles. These are listed in series rather than alphabetical order.
Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. Arbor House/SFBC, 1985. First book club edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to the white portions of the dust jacket, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I.43.d.
Zelazny, Roger. Blood of Amber. Arbor House/SFBC, 1986. First book club edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to the white portions of the dust jacket flap, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I.2.d.
Zelazny, Roger. Sign of Chaos. Arbor House/SFBC, 1987. First book club edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to the white portions of the dust jacket flap, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I.38.c.
Zelazny, Roger. Knight of Shadows. Morrow/SFBC, 1989. First book club edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to the very top white portions of the dust jacket flap, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I.27.c.
Zelazny, Roger. Prince of Chaos. Morrow/SFBC, 1991. First book club edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I.35.d.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Fantasy, Roger Zelazny
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Thursday, October 1st, 2020
Part 4 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant. I probably would have collected these eventually, as part of my half-ass intention to collect every Gregg Press SF hardback, but it was nice to get all the ones I didn’t already have in one fell swoop.
Zelazny, Roger. Damnation Alley. Gregg Press, 1979. First hardback edition thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Adds 24 pages of photos from the movie of the same name. Supplements a signed copy of the first Putnam edition, an unsigned copy of same, and a signed copy of the paperback movie tie-in edition. Kovacs, I.10.k. Levack, 9r.
Zelazny, Roger. The Dream Master. Gregg Press, 1976. First U.S. hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine aftermarket dust jacket Bob made from blowing up a copy of the Frank Kelly Freas PBO cover, with a title page removed from an Ace paperback edition laid in. This and the Gregg Press editions of Lord of Light, Nine Princes in Amber and Bridge of Ashes (which I already had) all share the same Freff cover art featuring characters from all those novels. Supplements a signed first of the Rupert Hart-Davis hardback, a signed first of the Ace PBO, and an unsigned copy of same. Kovacs, I.18.e. Levack, 14i.
Zelazny, Roger. Lord of Light. Gregg Press, 1979. First Gregg Press hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a letter from Betsy Groban of G. K. Hall laid in talking about how they had gotten Freff to do the artwork. Hugo and Nebula Award winner for Best Novel. Kovacs, I.29.1. Levack, 25s.
Zelazny, Roger. Nine Princes in Amber. Gregg Press, 1979. First Gregg Press hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a signed title page from a paperback laid in. Kovacs, I.34.g. Levack, 28n.
Zelazny, Roger. Today We Choose Faces. Gregg Press, 1978. First U.S. hardback edition, a Fine copy with a Fine aftermarket dust jacket Bob created from a Signet reprint featuring Dean Ellis art. Signed by Zelazny. Supplements a signed Millington hardback first and a signed PBO first. Kovacs, I.42.d. Levack, 37h.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Fantasy, Gregg Press, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2020
Part 2 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant:
Saberhagen, Fred. Berserker Base. Tor, 1985. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a touch of edgewear and slight age-darkening to pages. Theoretically a fix-up novel set in Saberhagen’s Beserker universe, but really more of a Beserker anthology with some filler material by Saberhagen. Includes the Zelazny story “Itself Surprised,” which originally appeared in Omni the year before.
Zelazny, Roger. Changeling. Ace, 1980. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Kvocs, I5v.
Zelazny, Roger and Neil Randall. Roger Zelazny’s Visual Guide to Castle Amber. Avon, 1988. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear. Kovacs, X14a. Supplements a signed copy of the SFBC (only hardback) edition.
Zelazny, Roger and Fred Saberhagen. Coils. Wallaby Books/Simon & Schuster, 1982. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine copy with one faint top front corner crease and slight age darkening to pages. Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I7a. Supplements a copy of the SFBC (and only hardback) edition inscribed to me. Kovacs, XIB1a.
Zelazny, Roger and Robert Sheckley. A Farce to be Reckoned With. Trade paperback, presumably a POD reprint, as it lacks the numberline of the first edition, and includes the usual POD barcode on the last page, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear and wear at points. Interestingly, despite having the same ISBN, this is a larger trim size (9″ x 6″) than the first edition (8 1/4″ x 5 1/2″), and could pass as a large print edition, except it is not so marked. This edition not in Kovacs.
First edition on left, this copy on right.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Fantasy, Fred Saberhagen, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, Starmont House
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Monday, September 28th, 2020
You may remember these two previous Zelazny purchases. Well, Bob Pylant, the same guy I bought them from, wanted to sell off the reminder of his collection, so I went over to his house and cleaned him out of virtually all his remaining books, Zelazny and otherwise. I’ll be listing some over the next few days, while I’ll be selling others in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, and still others (like his collection of Zelazny first magazine appearances) will have to wait until even later while I figure out how I want to store and display them.
My primary collecting focus has been on first editions, but Bob collected almost everything Zelazny related, from foreign editions, library market hardback reprints, got Zelazny to sign pristine book club editions, and every anthology that reprinted a Zelazny story. (I think there are six or seven featuring “Home is the Hangman” alone). I’ll be incorporating the interesting ones into my own collection because, well, I’ve already paid for them, haven’t I?
Bob also did things that I wouldn’t have done, like adding aftermarket dust jackets to books that weren’t issued with them. And there’s one book in this batch he did something particularly odd to.
Here’s the first batch of Zelazny books, the only theme among these that they didn’t fit into any other themes.
Zelazny, Roger. The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, And Other Stories. Doubleday, 1971. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with very slight bend at head and heel and a trace of foxing to inside front gutter, in a Fine- dust jacket with touches of wear and a tiny bit of age darkening to the spine and at top rear. With signed Zelazny bookplate laid in. Kovacs, V9a. Levack, 12a. Currey, page 570. Replaces an Ex-Library copy.
Zelazny, Roger. Gone to Earth. Pulphouse, 1991. First edition hardback, #40 of 50 signed, numbered copies bound in leather, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Author’s Choice Monthly #29. (Well, they say leather; I have my doubts. Also note that between volumes 18 and 19, the color of the “leather” edition went from a dark gray to a dark blue.) Supplements a signed “trade” clothbound hardcover in dust jacket. Kovacs, V13iv. Chalker/Owings (2002), page 728. I suppose that now I should look for one of the 10-copy red leather staff editions…
Zelazny, Roger. Lord of Light. Easton Press, 1994. Hardback, a Fine copy bound in decorated leather, sans dust jacket, as issued, with unused personalization bookplate sticker laid in (as issued), as well as a signed Zelazny signature plate. According to Kovacs, copies in aquamarine-colored leather like this one are reprints. Kovacs, I29m.
Zelazny, Roger. Manna From Heaven. DNA Publications/Wildside Press, 2003. Hardback, a Fine copy in non-decorated boards and a Fine dust jacket. The 1-59224-199-9 ISBN matches the first edition listed at the ISFDB, but Kovacs says this is the UK Lightening Source hardback reprint. Signed by publisher Warren Lapine. Kovacs, V18b. Supplements the first printing with pictorial boards.
Zelazny, Roger. This Immortal. Garland Publishing, 1975. First (and only) edition thus, a hardback reprint for the library trade, a Fine copy in a Fine- aftermarket dust jacket Bob created from a copy of the SFBC/Ace Books reprint from 1988 with Richard Powers’ cover art, and which has some faint creasing along the folds. Signed by Zelazny. This edition is reproduced from the 1973 Ace third paperback printing, as stated on the reproduced Ace copyright page. Part of the Garland Library of Science Fiction. Kovacs, I40c.
Zelazny, Roger and Jane Lindskold. Donnerjack. Avon Books, 1997. First edition hardback, either a Fine or a Poor copy (depending on how you count the annotations), in a Fine dust jacket. Novel started by Zelazny and finished by Lindskold after Zelazny’s death. Zelazny was a famously lean prose stylist, and Bob felt that Lindskold was not, so he has annotated the book by crossing out in brown or blue marker every section he felt was un-Zelazny-like from page 167 on. I passed on picking this up in the first bulk buys, but took it this time around because, well, it’s not like I can sell it to anyone else, and who else would know or appreciate the story behind it? Kovacs, I16b. Supplements a Fine/Fine copy inscribed to me by Lindskold.
Tags:Bob Pylant, Books, Easton Press, Fantasy, Garland Press, Pulphouse, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, Wildside Press
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020
This finally came in, the second in what I’m given to understand is a trilogy:
Powers, Tim. Forced Perspectives. Charnel House, 2020. First signed/limited edition (the Baen hardback precedes), hardback, #54 of 150 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards with a gold-foil sphinx embossed on the front cover (matching the look of Alternate Routes), sans dust jacket, as issued. I will have precisely one copy of this available for sale in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Charnel House, Fantasy, Limited Editions, signed, small press publishers, Tim Powers
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Monday, August 24th, 2020
More chabooks:
Matheson, Richard. Counterfeit Bills. Gauntlet, 2004. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy, signed by Matheson. Bought off eBay for $36.52.
Swanwick, Michael. Gulliver’s Wife. Dragonstairs Press, 2020. First edition chapbook original, #33 of 50 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Sold out upon publication. Bought from the publisher at full price.
(Wolfe, Gene) Swanwick, Michael. Swan/Wolfe. Dragonstairs Press, 2020. First edition chapbook original, #50 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy (save some slight wrinkling at head; since the outer paper wrapper is bigger than the inner chapbook page block, I suspect this is an endemic problem). Transcription of a Swanwick interview with the ReReadingWolfe podcast. As noted in the acknowledgements, I actually suggested the creation of this chapbook. Bought from the publisher at the usual bookseller discount. Sold out shortly after publication. I’ll have copies of this for sale in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Books, chapbooks, Dragonstairs Press, Fantasy, Horror, Michael Swanwick, Richard Matheson, Science Fiction
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