Slowly but surely I’m closing in on my complete Jack Vance hardback collection:
Vance, Jack. Son of the Tree. Underwood/Miller, 1983. First hardback edition, #183 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a tiny bit of wrinkling at head and heel. Hewett, A13g.
Pioneering artist H. R, Giger has died at age 74. Few other 20th century artists produced work so technically accomplished, pioneering, and disturbing (all at the same time) as his biomechanical paintings, which were mostly produced by airbrush. Even if Giger had never done the design for Alien, his work would still have been hugely influential. And few artists are able to open successful museums of their own work in their own lifetimes.
There’s lots of news about staggeringly successful, critically acclaimed movie franchise having new installments out in 2015.
What, you’re saying the words “staggeringly successful,” “critically acclaimed” and “franchise” don’t apply to Sharknado?
All I have to say about that is: I had a great deal more fun watching Sharknado than I did Attack of the Clones.
In other Sharknado-related news, The Asylum is crowd-funding a scene in Sharknado 2: The Second One. Personally, I think $50,000 for a single scene is more than a bit high. Give The Asylum’s previous track record, with that much money I would expect them to make an entire film…
Another weird library addition, not so much a book as a “book-like object.”
Le Guin, Ursula K. Four Different Poems. Longhouse, 2007. First edition chapbook original, a 3″x5″ card with an accordion foldout attached and a title band signed by Le Guin wrapped around, one of only 24 signed copies, a Fine copy.
An odd item with a very small limitation. Bought for $20 off the Internet.
Fox has evidently cancelled the science fiction police drama Almost Human. Which is a damned shame, since it was the first attempt to do a serious post-cyberpunk drama on American TV. (The true first was Japan’s animated Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.) While it wasn’t a great show (it had too much 1970s cop dram patina to it, including the requisite Climatic Gunfight at the end of every episode), it was a pretty good one and had a lot of potential.
Well, so much for that. Unless another network picks it up, or the DVD sales convince Fox to pick it up again. I’m not holding my breath.
Penny Arcade Expo is coming to San Antonio January 23-25, 2015. No venue was announced, but I can’t imagine they can hold that monster in anything smaller than the convention center, since PAX Prime in Seattle has drawn as many as 70,000 participants.
This is what they call “a big deal.” And unlike Worldcon, expect most of the attendees to be under 30 rather than over 50…
Bookseller James Cummins is offering up Gardner Dozois’ personal archive for sale for a mere $150,00:
35 linear feet (17 standard archive boxes and 11 letter files). The Science Fiction Archive of Gardner Dozois. Generally very good to fine (some early note books and letters with toning or crumpling). References: Encyclopedia of Science Fiction http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dozois_gardner. Item #262493
Papers and correspondence of science fiction author, editor, and anthologist Gardner Dozois, whose early stories established him as one of the most talented writers of the American New Wave (though at first perhaps better known to his fellow authors than to a wide readership) and whose subsequent work as editor and anthologist has shaped the field of science fiction more than anyone since John W. Campbell. His stories were collected in The Visible Man (1977), Strange Days: Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (2001) and When the Great Days Come (2011); many of his story collaborations (with Jack Dann, Michael Swanwick, and others) were collected in Slow Dancing through Time (1990) and The Fiction Factory (2005). Dozois twice won a Nebula Award, for his stories “The Peacemaker” (1983) and “Morning Child” (1984). “Counterfactual” (2006) won the Sideways award for works of alternate history. His first novel, Nightmare Blue (1975) was an adventure tale co-written with George Alec Effinger; his novel Strangers (1978), a love story between human and alien, like his fiction and the anthologies he produced, challenges many of the earlier notions of science fiction. Another novel, Nottamun Town remains unpublished; it is present in the archive in many draft forms and in a finished typescript.
Snip.
For nearly twenty years (from 1985 to 2004) Dozois was editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction, where he discovered and encouraged many new talents in the field. He won 15 Hugo Awards during this period. Dozois’ circle of personal and professional correspondence has been wide ranging and it documents the changes in the genre over more than four decades. He was an early and clear-headed reader of James Tiptree, Jr., and the introduction Dozois wrote for the Gregg Press edition of Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home (1976) presented an analysis that was psychologically acute and was in no way overturned by the revelation the next year that Tiptree was Alice Sheldon. Tiptree letters in the archive (12 T.L.s., 1974-1977, and 9 postcards) include Tiptree’s reponse to the introduction and the letter in which Alli Sheldon reveals her identity to Dozois in advance of the public acknowledgment.
Snip.
The correspondence also documents long friendships with Pat Cadigan, Eileen Gunn, Howard Waldrop, Mary Rosenblum, Joe Haldeman, Jack Haldeman; the long connection with agent Virginia Kidd; and working relationships with Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, and almost every notable science fiction author and editor of the late twentieth century and into the new century. Since 2005, an increasing portion of Dozois’ correspondence has been electronic, and the archive includes a digital file of approximately 35,000 e-mails (sent & received) and 2,250 electronic documents.
$150,000 is:
A. Too rich for my blood.
B. Probably a comparative bargain for an institution or serious SF collector who has everything else (“Just put it over there between the first edition Alice in Wonderland and all those Lovecraft manuscripts.”)
The most numerous books I bought from that 70% off sale were signed Jack Vance:
Three more books from that big 70% off purchase:
More from the big 70% off sale purchase:
Michael Shea was probably the finest dark fantasy stylist of his generation, and Nift the Lean is a classic work that I expect to be read for years to come. He died unexpectedly on February 16th at age 67. I never had a chance to meet Shea in person.