Books Too Rich for My Blood: The Martian Legion

Some people seem to think I collect every damn SF/F/H book that comes down the pike, but this simply isn’t true. There are large swathes of horror I don’t read or collect and I’ve skipped the vast majority of bug-crushing high fantasy.

Finally, there are books that are just too ridiculously expensive for me to pick up.

The Martian Legion is one of those books.

The Martian Legion is a Tarzan/John Carter crossover book authorized by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate created, backed and penned by longtime Texas SF writer and comic books dealer Jake “Buddy” Saunders. It’s a very elaborate, lavishly illustrated production, with five different states, the most expensive of which comes in an edition of three, with a commemorative platinum coin, for a cool $15,000. (The cheapest is $200, and the only edition without a presentation box.)

Will they sell? Dunno. The Burroughs collector market is a world unto itself. They may fly off the shelves at the next Dum Dum…

(Hat tip: Howard Waldrop.)

By Lawrence Person

Lawrence Person is a science fiction writer living in Austin, Texas. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's, Analog, Postscripts, Jim Baen's Universe, Fear, and several anthologies. He also edits the Hugo-nominated SF critical magazine Nova Express, and runs the Turkey City Writer's Workshop. His non-fiction has appeared in National Review, Reason, Whole Earth Review, The Freeman, The World & I, Science Fiction Eye, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and Slashdot.org. He owns such a large library (mostly science fiction first editions) he had to buy a two-story house to put it in, and then adopted a golden retriever to drag him out of his house on a regular basis. He also makes a mean batch of salsa.

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