Posts Tagged ‘Science Fiction’
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
I intend to send out my latest Lame Excuse for a Book Catalog to regular customers via email this week. Lots of new small press books by the likes of Joe R. Lansdale, Jay Lake, Ted Chiang, Peter Straub, Joe Hill and Charles Stross, along with the huge, definitive, two-volume H. P. Lovecraft biography I Am Providence, a signed pristine first edition of Ender’s Game, etc. If you aren’t already receiving my catalog, drop me a line at lawrenceperson@gmail.com to receive a copy when I send it out.
Tags:Books, Charles Stross, Fantasy, H. P. Lovecraft, Horror, Jay Lake, Joe R. Lansdale, Lame Excuse Books, Orson Scott Card, Peter Straub, Science Fiction, Ted Chiang
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Impossible Encounters
By Zoran Zivkovic
Polaris, 2000
This is a short book of six stories by Yugoslavian Serbian writer Zoran Zivkovic, each dealing with an impossivle situation (post-mortem, a conversation with God, a writer visited by his own character, etc.), and each of which feature, recursively, a book called Impossible Encounters. These are well crafted, but somewhat slight, and, as Bruce Sterling noted in his Nova Express review, somewhat stateless, existing in a world where “trains have no destinations, streets have no names, rivers and mountains have no histories, and characters have no ethnicities. It’s a very quiet world of used bookstores, family dining tables, and cramped university offices.”
I’m not sure I would want to read too many of these in a row, but they make nice “palate cleansers” between other fiction.
Since the Belgrade Polaris editions will probably be hard to come by, if you’re interested in reading these, they’re collected (along with several other Zovkovic books published by Polaris) in the PS Publishing collection Impossible Stories. I don’t have a copy of that for sale anymore, but I do have a copy of Impossible Stories II available if you’re interested.
Tags:Book reviews, Books, Bruce Sterling, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Serbia, Slipstream, Yugoslavia, Zoran Zivkovic
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
You may remember this post on how a lot of science fiction was showing up in the public domain at Project Gutenberg (which was picked up by SF Signal, Io9, etc.).
Well, Greg Bear and Astrid Anderson Bear, his wife and daughter of Poul Anderson (whose works were among those put up by Project Gutenberg), are saying that Project Gutenberg screwed up:
After conducting legal research on the LEXIS database of legal cases, decisions, and precedents, we have demonstrated conclusively that PG was making incorrect determinations regarding public domain status in many, many works that originally appeared in magazine form. The Poul Anderson estate has been able to get one work, “The Escape”, that PG had firmly declared to be public domain, removed from their site. PG’s original reasoning was that since the magazine it appeared in had never actually filed for copyright, the work was unprotected. “The Escape”, printed in 1953, was the first half of Anderson’s well-known novel BRAINWAVE, which was published and properly copyrighted the following year.
However, even if ‘The Escape” had not been published as a novel, it would have remained under copyright protection until 1981 (28 years) and been eligible for copyright renewal. Authors of that era, and Anderson in particular, were very aware of the need to renew copyrights, and typically meticulously kept their copyright protections up to date. Copyright law for works created more recently is much easier: life plus 70 years. (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998).
(snip)
In general, Project Gutenberg is doing a tremendous service by making available texts that have truly long since fallen out of copyright, but they are clearly overstepping their original mandate. They are not merely exploiting orphan works, but practicing a wholesale kidnapping of works that are under copyright protection. Authors and estates need to aggressively take back what belongs to them.
I would imagine that Project Gutenberg may very well be hearing not only from the estates of Philip K. Dick and Leigh Brackett, but from lawyers for the still-very-much alive Frederik Pohl, Norman Spinrad and Jack Vance…
Tags:Frederik Pohl, Greg Bear, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Norman Spinrad, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson, Project Gutenberg, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | 39 Comments »
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
From Doc Mars, whoever he might be. (Besides, of course, another insane Jack Vance collector, of which there are many, and who tend to make my own Vance bibliomania look relatively mild in comparison.) It includes a lot of covers and interior spot illustrations. And I must say, that the outfit in that Virgil Finley illustration for The Houses of Iszm is rather fetching…
Tags:Jack Vance, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Charles Stross
The Fuller Memorandum
Ace, 2010
I’m a big fan of Charlie Stross’ Laundry books. As Geek Cthulhu Mythos British Bureaucracy Spy Thrillers, they hit a lot of my personal pleasure centers, and the latest installment is no exception. Our Network Admin/Computational Demonologist Bob Howard starts off enjoying, for the first time in his career, a competent boss he likes. However, he’s soon sent out to a bit of fieldwork for his ancient, inscrutable “real” boss Angleton, whereupon he promptly bollocks things up, resulting in the death of a bystander and some mandatory leave. Meanwhile, Bob’s wife Mo (with her deadly Erich Zann violin) comes back from a particularly gruesome mission a mental wreck, and that’s before a possessed Russian agent shows up trying to kill them, Angleton disappears, and a top secret document goes missing. And if all that weren’t enough, not only is the clock ticking ever-faster on Nightmare Case Green (i.e., when the Old Ones come down from the stars to eat our brains), but cultists are actually trying to hasten the event.
In short: The usual.
If you liked the previous Laundry novels, you’ll like this one. The plot is compelling, the supernatural elements are darker and more disturbing, and this may have the best ending of any of the laundry novels. (Important Safety Tip: If you’re going to try to sacrifice a Computational Demonologist to powerful, malevolent, otherworldly entity, you better make sure you have your binding spell right…) But the reason The Fuller Memorandum isn’t any better than the The Atrocity Archive and The Jennifer Morgue is that it suffers from flaws not found in those novels. For one thing, Bob acting like an idiot once is OK, but him acting like an idiot again, in exactly the same way, strains credibility given that he’s a pretty smart cookie. For another, if you’ve read “The Concrete Jungle” and “Pimpf,” you’ll figure out who the villain is entirely too easily.
Still, well worth reading and remembering come award time.
Tags:Bob Howard, Charles Stross, Cthulhu, Laundry, Science Fiction, The Fuller Memorandum
Posted in Books, Horror, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Over at Locus Online. We were not impressed.
Sadly, Skyline 2 is already in development.
As the first post put it in this Fark thread:
Skyline was a bigger budgeted SyFy movie of the week. I am waiting for the sequel, “Skyline vs MegaHorizon”.
Tags:Bad Movies, Howard Waldrop, movie reviews, Movies, Science Fiction, Skyline
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
The period right around Halloween and the election was particularly busy, so I took a break from blogging here. To get back in the skiffy swing of things, here’s the latest list of books I’ve added to my library.
Books that I have available for sale through Lame Excuse Books are marked LEB (though some of those titles won’t appear on the stock page until after I send out my next book catalog, which will probably be late this month or early next; email me if you’d like to get on the mailing list to received it).
Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship-Breaker. Little Brown, 2010.
Baring-Gould, William S.. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1976. Two volumes, reprint.
Barker, Clive. Visions of Heaven and Hell. Rizzoli, 2005. Art book.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010. Mass market paperback, inscribed by Bennett. (He was giving them away at his Armadillocon signing.)
Brackett, Leigh. The Best of Leigh Brackett. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1977. Near Fine/Near Fine.
Bradbury, Ray. Dark Carnival. Arkham House, 1946. First edition hardback, good only, with lettering on spine almost completely worn away, spine lean, general wear, and lacking the dust jacket.
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man. Doubleday, 1951. First edition hardback, lacking the dust jacket.
Brunner, John. The Jagged Orbit. Ace (SFBC), 1969. (Book club, first hardback edition).
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed limited edition.
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Coover, Robert. The Public Burning. Viking, 1977. Signed by Coover.
Cullin, Mitch. Tideland. Dufour Editions, 2000. Signed by Cullin. Basis of the Terry Gilliam film.
Day, Bradford M. The Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Arno Press, 1974. First hardcover edition, Fine, sans dj, as issued. Non-fiction.
Di Filippo, Paul. Roadside Bodhisattva. PS Publishing, 2010.
Doctorow, Cory. Makers. Tor, 2009.
Egan, Greg. Zedengi. Orion/Gollancz, 2010. I have the Night Shade edition for sale here.
Harrison, Harry. The Stainless Steel Rat Returns. Tor, 2010.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Chatto & Windus, 1932. VG- only, lacking the dust jacket.
Kelly, James Patrick and John Kessel. Rewired: The Postcyberpunk Anthology. Tachyon, 2007. Trade paperback original.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2003. First trade edition.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2004. First trade edition.
Kay, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven. Roc, 2010.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary. H. W. Wilson, 1975. Fifth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. H. W. Wilson, 1982. Eighth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Lansdale, Joe R. Deadman’s Road. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. The Sky That Wraps. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. Specific Gravity of Grief. Fairwoods Press, 2010. LEB
Leiber, Fritz. Strange Wonders. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lentz, Harris M. III. Science Fiction, Horror, & Fantasy Film and Television Credits: Second Edition: Volume 1: Credits. McFarland & Company, 2001. Ex-library copy, otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Ligotti, Thomas. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Hippocampus Press, 2010. Non-fiction.
Lovecraft, H. P. Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. SFBC, 2001.
Lovecraft, H.P. Collected Poems. Arkham House, 1963. VG/VG, with top inch of boards discolored and sun-fading to spine.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft Hippocampus Press, 2010. Two volumes, one of 1000 sets. Non fiction. LEB
Manvell, Roger, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Film. Joseph, 1972. Near Fine/Near Fine.
McDevitt, Jack. Time Travelers Never Die. Ace, 2009.
McDonald, Ian. The Dervish House Pyr, 2010.
(Moorcock, Michael) Bilyeu, Richard. The Tanelorn Archives: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of Michael Moorcock 1949-1979. Pandora’s Books, 1981. Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Niven, Larry. Stars & Gods. Tor, 2010.
Oliver, Chad. The Wolf is My Brother. Herbert Jenkins, 1968. First UK and first hardback edition, a Near Fine copy in a Good+ only dust jacket, missing an irregular 3/4″ x 1/2″ ship at head, and shallow chipping and edgewear. I didn’t even know there was a hardback until I chanced across this copy (though it is in Currey).
Pohl, Frederik. The Best of Frederik Pohl. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1975.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 200 signed, numbered Slipcased copies in slipcase with companion volume, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep, not included with the trade edition. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 26 signed, lettered Deluxe copies in slipcase with two companion volumes, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep and bound, photographic reproduction of the original hand-written manuscript for The Anubis Gates, not included with the trade or Slipcased editions. Slipcase and Anubis Gates volume very slightly bumped, otherwise Fine/Fine. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
Priest, Cherie. Clementine. Subterranean Press, 2010.
Reilly, John. The Painted Word: Paintings by John Reilly. Cross Publishing, 2008. Trade paperback original, NF, slightly bumped and bent in center. Art book.
Rucker, Rudy. Hylozoic. Tor, 2009.
Sadler, Jeff, editor. Twentieth Century Western Writers: Second Edition. St. James Press, 1991. Ex-library copy., otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket.
Schmitz, James A. The Demon Breed. Ace (SFBC), 1968. First hardback edition, a Fine/Fine- with a trace of edgewear.
Silverberg, Robert. The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Five: The Palace at Midnight. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Silverberg, Robert. The Last Song of Orpheus. Subterranean Press, 2010. On of 200 signed, leatherbound copies.
Summers, Rev. Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. E. P. Dutton, 1929. First U.S. edition, VG, lacks dust jacket. Non-fiction.
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed, limited edition. LEB
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Stross, Charles. The Fuller Memorandum. Ace, 2010.
Stross, Charles. Toast. Wyrm Publishing, 2010. First limited edition and first edition thus, signed, with new material. LEB
Pringle, David, ed. The St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers. St. James, 1998. Ex-Library copy, otherwise NF.
Wells, H. G. The World of William Clissold. Published by Ernest Benn (UK) 1926. Three volumes, one of 198 copies signed by Wells on the title page. Full description here.
Vance, Jack. The Complete Dying Earth. SFBC, 1998. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Ports of Call/Lurulu. SFBC, 2004. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Sjambak. Wildside Press, 2010. Chapbook. (There seem to be multiple copies of this title from multiple POD publishers this year, so I’m unclear on the publishing precedence. I suspect that Vance failed to file a renewal, allowing the work to slip into the public domain, which is why it can be found at Project Gutenberg.)
VandeerMeer, Jeff, ed.. Last Drink Bird Head. Wyrm Publishing, 2010.
Wolfe, Gene. The Best of Gene Wolfe. Tor, 2009.
Wolfe, Gene. Home Fires: Tor, 2011. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format. Details here.
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn. False Dawn. Doubleday, 1978. NF/NF copy, signed by Yarbro.
Previous posts on my library:
A more comprehensive look at my library can be found here.
A previous list of library additions from January to June 2010 is here.
A previous list of library additions from December 2009 to January 2010 can be found here.
Here’s a list of books I picked up on a book-hunting trip to Archer City and Denton.
Tags:Aldous Huxley, Arkham House, Book Collecting, Books, Bradford M. Day, Chad Oliver, Cherie Priest, Clive Barker, Cory Doctorow, first editions, Frederik Pohl, Gene Wolfe, Greg Egan, Harry Harrison, Jack Vance, Jay Lake, Joe R. Lansdale, John Brunner, Leigh Brackett, Library, Mitch Cullin, Paolo Bacigalupi, postcyberpunk, Professional Library, Ray Bradbury, Robert Coover, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rudy Rucker, Science Fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Stephen King, Ted Chiang, Tim Powers
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Tags:Gareth Edwards, Horror, Howard Waldrop, monsters, movie reviews, Movies, Science Fiction
Posted in Horror, Movies, Science Fiction, Uncategorized, video | No Comments »
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
I try to avoid political topics in this blog (and Facebook, for that matter), because, as someone once pointed out, “Telling someone their political ideas are wrong is like telling a 14-year old girl that the boy band she like sucks. She won’t believe you and she’ll instantly hate you for your efforts.”
But since WisCon’s cowardly decision to disinvite Elizabeth Moon as Guest of Honor over her very mild comments about Islam is so essentially a political story, I covered it over on my political blog BattleSwarm.
I also have some signed Elizabeth Moon books for sale through Lame Excuse Books is you’re interested.
Tags:Conventions, Elizabeth Moon, fandom, Science Fiction, WisCon
Posted in Clueless Dorks, Science Fiction | No Comments »
Saturday, October 16th, 2010
With pictures.
While I do have the Vance integral edition, which he doesn’t, I still don’t have a lot of the stuff shown here. Vance collectors are so fanatical that they make my bibliomania look relatively sane by comparison…
(Hat Tip: Mike Berro)
Tags:Book Collecting, Books, Fantasy, first editions, Jack Vance, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Science Fiction | No Comments »