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.
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 (“*”).
I’ve slowly been picking up some general literary bookselling references when I’ve found them cheap, and this purchase fits in that category.
Dingman, Larry. Bibliography of limited and signed editions in literature, Twentieth Century American Authors. James Cummings Press, 1973. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy in red cloth with a few faint spots, and slight wear at head and heel, sans dust jacket, as issued. Just what it says, and of very limited use to SF/F/H collectors, with only a few figures onn the literary end of the genre (James Branch Cabell, William S. Burroughs, etc.) included. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $5.40 plus shipping.
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…
Centipede Press’ latest book is pitched firmly at my Zelazny collection:
Zelazny, Roger. Roadmarks. Centipede Press, 2026. First limited edition, #358 of 400 numbered copies signed by introduction and glossary author (and Zelazny bibliographer) Christopher Kovacs and artist Pascal Blanche, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in publisher’s shrinkwrap. Zelazny’s novel of a man that can drive between different times, places and timelines. Supplements a signed first (via Bob Pylant), an unsigned first (probably a Half Price Books find), an unsigned UK hardback first (via Bob Pylant), and a signed Del Rey first paperback edition that I bought new and had Zelazny sign for me at the 1994 World Fantasy Convention in New Orleans, the only time I met him in person.
Note: The white streaks at bottom are just reflections off the shrinkwrap.
Though this is already sold out from the publisher, I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (November/December-ish).
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.
One of my more obscure collecting vectors is festschriften, a volume in which a science fiction writer or editor is lionized by other luminaries. Other volumes I have include Polder (celebrating John Clute) and Moorcock@60.com, about which I’m pretty sure you can figure out who’s being celebrated. This volume celebrates Britsh horror editor Stephen Jones, who I know a bit.
(Jones, Stephen) Val Edwards, editor. The Mammoth Book of Stephen Jones. PS Publishing, 2003. First edition trade paperback original, one of 200 copies printed, a Fine copy. Festschrift in honor of Stephen Jones on his 50th birthday, with contributions from the likes of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Kim Newman, Lisa Tuttle, Pat Cadigan, Ramsey Campbell, etc. Bought from Cold Tonnage Books at the same time as the Pat Cadigan chapbook for about £20 pounds, plus shipping for both (which was pretty reasonable for UK post).
I don’t think any of these were for sale from the publisher, just issued to contributors (which is the usual case with festschriften).
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.
Here’s a chapbook I was unaware of before it popped up in a Cold Tonnage Books catalog:
Cadigan, Pat. Chalk. This Is Horror, 2013. First edition chapbook original, #46 of 125 copies, a Fine copy, signed by Cadigan, with an 8 written on the title page and eight Xs on the inside front cover. (I sent Pat an email asking what was up with that.) Horror novella about two girls that can disappear in plain sight. Bought for £10.
Onions, Oliver. A Little Tan Book of Terror. Borderlands Press, 2026. First edition hardback, #463 of 350 signed, numbered copies signed by editor (and publisher) Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands: “we only print 350 copies but if anyone has matching numbers above 350, we make sure they continue to get it”), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Short story collection. For some reason, I got the impression that Onions (like so many writers in David Hartwell’s The Dark Decent, which is where I first encountered him) was a 19th century writer, but all these stories appeared between 1910 and 1922, and Onion himself didn’t die until 1961.
I will have a small number of copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (Novemberish).
