Posts Tagged ‘Science Fiction’

Library Addition: George O. Smith’s Path of Unreason

Thursday, September 10th, 2026

Another book from that Mysterious Benefactor, and another small press book from the 1950s.

Smith, George O. Path or Unreason. Gnome Press, 1958. First edition hardback (“First Edition” stated, as per Currey), a Near Fine copy with the start of slight creasing at head and heel, slight bend at head and heel, trace of wear to a couple of points, with characteristic toning of pages for Gnomes of this era, in a Fine- dust jacket with the barest trace of darkening to top edges of flaps. Currey, page 459. Chalker/Owings, page 204. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 263.

Library Addition: Murray Leinster’s Operation: Outer Space

Wednesday, September 9th, 2026

Another book from that Mysterious Benefactor, and another small press book from the 1950s.

Leinster, Murray. Operation: Outer Space. Fantasy Press, 1954. First edition hardback in a first state blue binding (as per Chalker/Owings), a Fine- copy with slight bumping at heel and a trace of rubbing to band at heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight creasing and abrasion wear at heel, slight fading to red lettering on spine, tiny trace rubs to front, and a few small spots of dust soiling to white rear cover; overall, a very nice copy. Currey, page 268. Chalker/Owings, page 162 (“The first interstellar journey, financed by making it a TV spectacular”). Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 47.

Library Addition: Eric Frank Russell’s Deep Space

Tuesday, September 8th, 2026

Another book from that Mysterious Benefactor (I’m going to be cataloging these for quite a while), and another small press book from the 1950s.

Russell, Eric Frank. Deep Space. Fantasy Press, 1954. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine, Mylar-protected dust jacket (there’s a tiny bit of wrinkling at top of spine, but this is such a perfect copy that it feels like nit-picking); just a spectacular copy. Short story collection. Chalker/Owings says there’s a Grant remainder binding, but so close to the original that there’s no way to tell them apart; this copy is so “as new” that it may be one of those. Currey, page 423 (where he says this blue binding is the first state binding). Chalker/Owings, page 161. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 45.

Library Addition: Silverberg & Garrett’s The Shrouded Planet

Monday, September 7th, 2026

A Mysterious Benefactor who enjoys my other blog contacted me to give me his entire library, knowing I could take care of and appreciate his books. He was getting on in years, and just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of selling his own collection, and didn’t feel that any of his relatives wanted it. So on September 1st, he drove down from the SFW Metroplex and unloaded 14 large plastic containers from his truck, so now I have hardback books (plus some magazines) coming out of my ears. Some will be incorporated into my own library, some will be sold via Lame Excuse Books and a few will end up getting donated.

For the first library addition, I picked the Gnome Press Silverberg/Garrett collaboration because I already owned the sequel, The Dawning Light.

Silverberg, Robert and Randall Garrett (as Robert Randall). The Shrouded Planet. Gnome Press, 1957. First edition hardback (stated, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel and usual toning to pages, in a Fine-, Mylar-protected dust jacket with slight bumping at head and heel and a small circular repricing sticker over the price. Currey, page 196 (and 439). Chalker/Owings, page 203. Kemp, The Anthem Series page 250. Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction page 281 (“*”).

Library Additions: Three Critical Books

Tuesday, September 1st, 2026

A friend is gradually culling the book collection of his mother, a literary academic, and I’ve been helping him seperate out books that might have some value from those that don’t. Here are three SF (or SF adjacent) critical works I saved for myself.

  • Clareson, Thomas D. Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction: The Formative Period, 1926—1970. University of South Carolina Press, 1992. Second printing trade paperback, a Fine- copy with two small spots to page block edges. Clareson wrote a number of SF reference works, so I expect this to be pretty decent.

  • (Le Guin, Ursula K.) Cummins, Elizabeth. Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin. University of South Carolina Press, 1993. First edition trade paperback original of this revised edition, a Fine copy. Critical book on Le Guin.

  • (Pynchon, Thomas)Tanner, Tony. Thomas Pynchon. Methuen, 1982. First edition trade paperback original, a Poor copy since the center two leaves were falling out when I received this, but I’ve glued them back in. Critical companion to Pynchon’s work, covering early short work, V, The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow. Part of Methuen’s Contemporary Writers series.

  • Normally I wouldn’t add reprints (or a book falling apart) to my reference library, but at “free” the price was certainly right…

    Library Addition: Mark V. Ziesing Bibliography 1982-1993

    Wednesday, August 26th, 2026

    Here’s a bibliography of a publisher I collect that I never picked up when it came out because I was already aware of every book in it because I was on the Ziesing mailing list for the last half of the period covered. But I do like having bibliographies, so I finally picked it up.

    (Ziesing, Mark V.) Mark V. Ziesing Bibliography 1982-1993. Airtight Seels Allied Production (A.S.A.P.), 2003. First edition chapbook original, #43 of 200 numbered copies signed by “Introduction” author Lucius Shepard, “The Bus of Many Windows: A Digression on Mark V. Ziesing” author James P. Blaylock, illustrator Phil Parks, and Mark and Cynthia Ziesing, a Fine copy. Bought from the Mysterious Bookshop for $12.

    I can tell you there are at least three notable errors/omissions.

    First, it fails to note that there were far more than 1,600 trade editions of Joe R. Lansdale’s Cold in July and Savage Season. I’ve heard it rumored as many as 6,000 total (including the 500 copy limited edition) were printed, though I’m guessing 4,000 might be closer.

    Second, it doesn’t mention that for some titles (including the Cold in July/Savage Season set, and Howard Waldrop’s Them Bones/A Dozen Tough Jobs sets) Ziesing ended up with extra slipcases and sold unsigned sets in them (as unsigned sets), I think upon request.

    Third, it fails to mention the unpublished, first state dust jacket for Ray Garton’s Trade Secrets, the jacket copy for which was written by Andy Watson and which Mark Ziesing felt was too explicit. I lost an eBay bid for a copy with it, and my understanding is that about 10 copies escaped pulping.

    DVD Library Addition: Signed Fahrenheit 451

    Monday, August 17th, 2026

    Every now and then I come across something that’s not a book signed by an author I collect.

    (Bradbury, Ray). Fahrenheit 451. Universal Studios, 2003. DVD of the 1966 Francois Truffaut film, let’s call it Fine, with only the seal at top slit, with sticker on front cover inscribed by Ray Bradbury: “Doug! 2006/Rosalie! XMAS Love! Ray B.” The auction listing said “Acquired at the estate sale of one of Bradbury’s best friends of 40 years.” Cursory investigation has not yielded who Doug and Rosalie might be, so further research is needed. Bought off eBay for $19.99.

    I haven’t seen the movie yet, so it’s a dual-purpose purchase.

    My signed(ish) hardback first of Fahrenheit 451 can be found here.

    John Crowley, RIP

    Monday, August 10th, 2026

    Writer John Crowley has died. He’s slightly difficult to talk about, in that I knew him (first from bumping into him at conventions and getting him to sign stuff, after which he friended me on Facebook), but not particularly well. I liked and collected his work, but he was a bit more hit and miss with me than the nigh-on-universal critical praise he received. I tried reading Little, Big around 18 or 19 and it didn’t click for me. (Despite which, I have the Gollancz first hardback edition of Little, Big, done in a ridiculously small print run of 300 copies, bought from Willie Siros’ personal collection and inscribed to him.) It was a slog getting through the first 120 pages of Engine Summer…but the last 40 pages are brilliant, and heartbreaking. Great Work of Time is a swell novella in which time a secret organization of time travelers trying to preserve the British Empire results in some rather radical changes up the line. I have all four volumes, but haven’t even tried reading his acclaimed Aegypt series yet.

    I had just started reading Two Chapters in a Family Chronicle, one of four smallish books in The John Crowley Conway Miscellany set off Kickstarter (for which I still have signed copies available), when I heard news of his death.

    He seemed like a nice guy, and a fine writer, and I enjoyed talking to him on the few occasions I got a chance to.

    He will be missed.

    Neuromancer Coming to Apple TV

    Wednesday, July 29th, 2026

    After decades of failed attempts to film it, an adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer is finally coming to Apple TV.

    My first reaction to the trailer is: I don’t hate it. It hits a lot of the right notes. And Gibson is an executive producer on the show, so presumably it won’t drift too far from the book. (Then again, Gibson wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic, so he’s not exactly infallible…)

    Maybe it was fate that delayed a media adaptation until there actually were wild AIs running around lose in cyberspace.

    30 or even 20 years ago, this would have been big exciting news, but a lot of water has flowed under that bridge. People that were blown away by Neuromancer in college are entering Social Security eligibility. Many of the ideas of Cyberpunk have already been woven into the fabric of science fiction as a whole, and classic high tech/low life tropes have been around so long that they’re just another flavor of nostalgia now.

    Not to mention a whole bunch of the younguns what never lived under Communism, or even the 1970s, claiming we already live in a Cyberpunk Dystopia.

    Obviously I had to do the meme.

    So it’s hard to say how it will land in January 2027.

    I don’t have any streaming services, so I’ll have to wait for others to let me know if it’s any good.

    Library Addition: Signed First of Hal Clement’s Cycle of Fire

    Monday, July 13th, 2026

    I’m working on a complete Hal Clement collection, and this was one of the key titles I was missing.

    Clement, Hal (pseudonym for Harry Clement Stubbs). Cycle of Fire. Ballantine Books, 1957. First edition hardback, an Ex-Library copy with all the usual flaws, including stamps on page block edged, inside covers and interior pages, tape ghosts, endpapers excised. etc., with wear along bottom boards, moderate crease to spine, and writing on lower spine, in a dust jacket with 1/4″ chips at head, sticker at heel, and severe sunfading to spine and an inch to free cover, completing fading the the title, and front label faded from orange to yellow, with a bit more wear at edges at points, otherwise intact; call it a Good/Very Good- Ex-Lib copy, signed by Clement (“Hal Clement” (Harry C. Stubbs)”). Hassley, Hal Clement, pages 33-37./ Currey, page 469. Pringle, Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, page 76. ought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $100, bargained down from considerably more. It’s been decades since I’ve seen a Fine/Fine copy offered for sale, and even Ex-Lib copies tend to list for several hundred dollars.

    I knew Hal a little bit, having given him a ride back from an Armadillocon dinner decades ago. We talked about him flying B-24 Liberators in World War II.