Archive for the ‘Fantasy’ Category
Wednesday, August 28th, 2024
Another Borderlands Little Book:
Doyle, Arthur Conan (Mark W. Whitback, editor). A Little Orange Book of Odd Orchestrations Borderlands Books, 2024. First edition hardback, #463 of 500 copies signed by the editor, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Fantastic stories, several of which are covered in Bleiler’s Supernatural Fiction, pages 159-161, and Bleiler’s Science Fiction: The Early Years, pages 203-209. Part of their “Past Masters of Horror and Fantasy” series, focusing on late 19th/early 20th century writers.
I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Arthur Conan Doyle, Books, Borderlands Press, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, small press publishers
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Thursday, July 18th, 2024
I don’t have signed firsts of all Neil Gaiman’s children’s books, but I’m closing in on it.
Gaiman, Neil, and Adam Rex (illustrator). Chu’s First Day of School. HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2014. First edition hardback (“First Edition” stated and numberline ending in “1”), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Gaiman. Illustrated children’s book about a Panda, and a sequel to Chu’s Day, which I don’t have. Bought for $30 off eBay.
Note: This is just slightly too wide for my scanner, so a sliver of the right side of the book is cut off in the scan.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Neil Gaiman
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Wednesday, July 17th, 2024
I already had a first of The Seventeen Virgins, but not a signed first.
Vance, Jack. The Seventeen Virgins. Underwood/Miller, 1979. First edition chapbook original, a Fine- copy with one wrinkle to top corner and slight fading along spine, signed by Vance. Hewett, A58. Cunningham, B.70a. Chalker/Owings, pages 430-431 (where they note that only 400 were produced, not the 600 stated). Supplements an unsigned copy and the signed, limited hardback edition of The Seventeen Virgins & A Bagful of Dreams. Bought off eBay for $32 plus shipping.
Tags:Books, chapbooks, Fantasy, Jack Vance, signatures, small press publishers, Underwood/Miller
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Friday, June 28th, 2024
Here’s a book I was tempted to pick up copies of when it was announced, but passed because I wasn’t sure how well it would sell. With The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, Wyndham is probably considered a top 10 SF all time writer in the UK, but he’s less well known on this side of the pond.
Wyndham, John (David Dyte, editor). Logical Fantasy: The Many Worlds of John Wyndham. Subterranean Press, 2024. First edition hardback, #361 of 1,000 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and publisher’s plastic bag, with bookmark laid in. Bought for $25 plus shipping during a Subterranean sale.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, John Wyndham, Science Fiction, small press publishers, Subterranean Press
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Thursday, June 27th, 2024
Another Swanwick book, this one from PS Publishing.
Swanwick, Michael. The Sleep of Reason. PS Publishing, 2024. First edition hardback, #24 of 100 signed, numbered copies (the only hardback edition), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. 80 short stories, each based on a Goya etching.
This hardback edition is now sold out from the publisher, but I will have a very small number available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Goya, Limited Editions, Michael Swanwick, PS Publishing, small press publishers
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Wednesday, June 19th, 2024
Four more books from that estate purchase.
Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson. Aurora. Orbit, 2015. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of wear at points. Generation ship novel.
Straub, Peter. A Dark Matter. Doubleday, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine copy with slight bend at head and heel. Stoker Award winner.
Walton, Jo. Or What You Will. Tor, 2020. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. A fictional character plots an escape from his writer’s mind. For some reason, there do not seem to be a lot of copies out there in the wild for so recent a book.
Watts, Peter. Echopraxia. Tor, 2014. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with a long, very thin scratch to front cover, and slight bend at head and heel. Sequel to Blindsight. Supplements both a first of Blindsight and the Centipede Press signed/limiteds of both Blindsight and Echopraxia.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Horror, Jo Walton, Kim Stanley Robinson, Peter Straub, Peter Watts, Science Fiction
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Wednesday, June 12th, 2024
A science fiction associate put out a call for help with the science fiction library of an Austin area friend of his who died. Despite living in the area, this friend evidently didn’t make any local friends or visit any SF events or signings. He had a few modern SF books worth buying, either for myself or to deal through Lame Excuse Books, which I picked up for a combined price. This set was the best thing from that purchase.
Dick, Philip K. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volumes One Through Five (Beyond Lies the Wub, Second Variety, The Father-Thing, The Days of Perky Pat, The Little Black Box). Underwood Miller, 1987. First edition hardback, #135 of 400 numbered copies, all Fine copies in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jackets, as issued, with chapbook for Brief Synopsis for an Alternate World Novel: The Acts of Paul laid in. Wintz and Hyde, Precious Artifacts COL8.3 (though they erroneously state 300 rather than 400 sets). Chalker/Ownings, page 438. Supplements an unnumbered set (the varying shades of red set) and the later Subterranean Press set.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Horror, Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction, small press publishers, Underwood/Miller
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Monday, June 10th, 2024
Two critical companions, both bought at Half Price Books.
(Heinlein, Robert A.) J. Neil Schulman. The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana. Pulpless.com, 1999. First edition trade paperback edition thus (there was a previous digital edition, but this is the first hardcopy version), a Near Fine- copy with creases to both rear corners. Long interview with Heinlein conducted in 1975, along with reviews of his works, letters, etc. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a copy of this before. Bought for $8.99.
(Pratchett, Terry) Burrows, Marc. The Magic of Terry Pratchett. White Owl, 2020. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Critical companion to Pratchett’s works. Bought for $6.29.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Half Price Books, J. Neil Schulman, reference works, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction, Terry Pratchett
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Tuesday, June 4th, 2024
One signed by the author, another by the editor.
Morrow, James. Shambling Toward Hiroshima. Tachyon, 2009. First edition trade paperback original, second printing, a Fine copy, inscribed by Morrow: “To Josh,/Gorgantis Forever!/best wishes, James Morrow.” Novel of a psyop project in 1945 to make a kaiju movie to convince the Japanese to surrender. Not sure why I didn’t pick up a copy of this from Tachyon when first announced. Bought for $5.99 from Half Price Books.
Poe, Edgar Allen (Thomas Monteleone, editor). A Little Gold Book of Grotesqueries. Borderlands Press, 2024. First edition hardback, #463 of 500 numbered copies signed by Monteleone, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
I will have copies of this in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (probably November).
Tags:Books, Borderlands Press, Edgar Allen Poe, Horror, James Morrow, kaiju, Science Fiction, small press publishers, Tachyon
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Thursday, May 30th, 2024
This was an odd auction lot that I won for the opening bid. It’s three signed firsts, only two of which are signed by the author, and are a diverse bunch that seldom have the same collectors buying them.
Bush, George H. W. All the Best: My Life in Letters and Other Writings. Lisa Drew/Scribner, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine- copy with just a tiny bit of bend at head and heel, signed by Bush on a bookplate on the half title page. (Note: All copies come with a printed signature on that page, but this is an actual signed bookplate below that.) Autobiography of the 41st President of the United States of America. I have two books signed by Bush43, but this is the first one I’ve picked up signed by Bush41.
Conklin, Groff. Big Book of Science Fiction. Crown Publishers, 1950. First edition hardback ($3.00 price on dust jacket, as per ISFDB), a Very Good+ copy with bumping at head and heel, spine slightly concave, wrinkles at head and blunting of points, in a Very Good dust jacket with creasing, rubbing and small tears at head and heel, long crease at top front, slight fading to spine, 1/4″ closed tear to top front flap, wear at points, and slight edgewear, with previous purchase slip laid in, and former owner name on front free endpaper. The owner was Charles Richter, whose name I didn’t recognize in the auction listing. I thought it might have been the author of one of the stories in the anthology, and didn’t assign any value when calculating a lot price for the Bush and Dunsany volumes, as I don’t typically collect reprint anthologies. Turns out it’s seismologist and physicist Charles Richter, as in “Richter Scale.” A card with his signature evidently sold for $202 in 2010. Conklin edited numerous science fiction reprint anthologies, and his signature is evidently quite uncommon. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years page 151 (included for three science fiction stories difficult to find elsewhere). Reginald, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist 03270.
Dunsany, Lord (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany). The Chronicles of Rodiguez. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922. First edition hardback (Currey state A), #148 of 500 copies, signed by Dunsany below his Preface and illustrator Syndney Sime below his frontispiece illustration, a Very Good copy with various rubs and touches of wear, abrasion wear to spine label, blunting of points, and several small foxing spots to pages throughout, lacking the dust jacket. An elaborate production, with paper vellum pages and marbled endpapers. Currey, page 168. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy page 74. I lacked both Dunsany and Sime signatures in my collection before acquiring this.
All bought off an Invaluable auction for the opening bid of $190 ($243 after buyer’s premium).
Tags:anthology, Books, Fantasy, George H. W. Bush, Groff Conklin, Lord Dunsany, Science Fiction, signatures, signed
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