Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category

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Library Addition: Signed First of Jack Williamson’s Dragon’s Island and Other Stories

Monday, August 26th, 2024

A signed Jack Williamson first I picked up (cheap) mainly due to the publisher.

Williamson, Jack. Dragon’s Island and Other Stories. Five Star, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards and a Fine dust jacket, inscribed by Williamson: “To Dane,/Jack Williamson/Bubonicon/2003.” Note: The cover title is Dragon’s Island, while Dragon’s Island and Other Stories appears on the title, half title and copyright pages. Bought off eBay for $26.

Five Star is a subsidiary of educational publisher Gale. They started out doing romance and mystery hardbacks, but began doing significant amounts of science fiction in 2002, were active for several years, then started to trail off around 2009. According to Willie Siros, they were quite hard to deal with, as they wanted you to order at least 25 books at a time to get a reasonable discount. I have a signed Robert Silverberg omnibus first from them, plus a few others. I pick up signed Five Star firsts of important writers when I see them cheap, because I suspect they were geared for the library market, and that there aren’t as many signed Five Stars firsts as there are of firsts from other publishers for the authors.

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Trailer For Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

The new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s new film Megalopolis just dropped. I’ll let you take a look at it before commenting further.

Is it just me, or does that look like pretentious crap? Sumptuous pretension crap, but pretentious crap none the less.

Nor is the Wikipedia entry any more encouraging. “The film was a longtime passion project for Coppola, who wanted to make a film drawing parallels between the fall of Rome and the future of the United States by setting the events of the Catilinarian conspiracy in modern New York. ”

Snip.

“An accident destroys a decaying metropolis called New Rome. Cesar Catilina, an idealist architect with the power to control time, aims to rebuild it as a sustainable utopia, while corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero remains committed to a regressive status quo.”

Yeah, I think a Roman parallel and an architect who cans stop time is a conceit too far.

Also, I’m not exactly thrilled by the “Coppola is a genius and the critics were wrong!” intro. The Godfather was hailed by almost all at the time as a classic and won Best Picture. Apocalypse Now got somewhat more mixed reviews, but was an Oscar nominee (losing to Kramer vs. Kramer), and John Simon was notorious for hating just about everything. Bram Stoker’s Dracula? I don’t think anyone looks back on that as a classic of cinema, or even vampire cinema, though opinions about that seem to have improved a bit as well. I noticed Jack and Twixt didn’t get mentioned…

Update: Evidently, some of those critics quotes are made up.

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Library Addition: Signed Philip Jose Farmer PBO

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024

A signed Farmer PBO at a bargain price.

Farmer, Philip Jose. Cache from Outer Space b/w The Celestial Blueprint. Ace Double, 1962. First edition paperback original (no statement of printing on copyright page and price of 40¢, as per Currey), a Very Good copy with 3/16″ abrasion at head, moderate spine creasing, wear at head and heel, and trace of wear at points, signed by Farmer. Ed Emshwiller. Currey, page 183. Brizzi, Reader’s Guide to Philip Jose Farmer, page 66. Bought off eBay for 99¢ plus shipping.

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Library Addition: Michael Swanwick’s The War With The Zylv

Friday, July 5th, 2024

Another Dragonstairs chapbook.

Swanwick, Michael. The War with the Zylv. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #50 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. A story based on the piece of art used as the cover.

I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

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Library Additions: Two Gift Books

Monday, July 1st, 2024

The only theme here is books received as gifts.

  • King, Florence (as Laura Buchanan). The Barbarian Princess. Berkley Medallion Books, 1978. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a trace of edgewear, otherwise new and unread. Historical bodice-ripper set in Roman Britain written by Florence King, who was better known for her political non-fiction, under the transparent pseudonym of Laura Buchanan (King is credited on the copyright page). King wrote a fairly amusing essay about writing it (“When in doubt, rape”). Given to me as a birthday gift by Dwight, who knew I already had several of her non-fiction books.

  • Martin, George R. R., editor (Howard Waldrop, Roger Zelazny, etc.). Wild Cards I: Volume One. Tor Books, 2017. First edition thus, a small format hardback reprint of the first Wild Cards superhero anthology, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Robert Taylor bought me this to display as part of the Howard Waldrop memorial he organized, along with my other Waldrop first editions, because the cover depicted Howard’s Jetboy character from the opening story, “Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!” I was also one of the speakers at the memorial. Supplements a copy of the PBO first inscribed to me by most of the contributors as well as the SFBC first hardback edition. My tribute to Howard can be found here.

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    Library Addition: John Wyndham’s Logical Fantasy

    Friday, June 28th, 2024

    Here’s a book I was tempted to pick up copies of when it was announced, but passed because I wasn’t sure how well it would sell. With The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, Wyndham is probably considered a top 10 SF all time writer in the UK, but he’s less well known on this side of the pond.

    Wyndham, John (David Dyte, editor). Logical Fantasy: The Many Worlds of John Wyndham. Subterranean Press, 2024. First edition hardback, #361 of 1,000 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and publisher’s plastic bag, with bookmark laid in. Bought for $25 plus shipping during a Subterranean sale.

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    Library Additions: Two Philip K. Dick PBOs

    Tuesday, June 25th, 2024

    These are the last two books from that estate auction I’m incorporating into my own library.

  • Dick, Philip K. Dr. Futurity with The Unteleported Man. Ace, 1972. First edition thus (each book previously published with other Ace Doubles), stating “Second Ace printing, September 1972,” a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at corners, slight wear along spine, foxing around edges of interior covers, and slight age darkening of pages. Levack, 14.c and 43.c. Wintz and Hyde, Precious Artifacts SF8.2 and SF29.2. Supplements the Ace PBO first of Dr. Futurity (back to back with John Brunner’s Slavers of Space), the Centipede Press first hardback of Dr. Futurity, the Ace PBO first of The Unteleported Man (back to back with Howard L. Cory’s The Mind Monsters), the Berkley PBO first of the expanded edition of The Unteleported Man, and the Gollancz hardback first of Lies, Inc. featuring the expanded text.

  • Dick, Philip K. The Golden Man. Berkley, 1980. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with one spine crease and a trace of edgewear. Short story collection. Levack, 20.a. Wintz and Hyde, Precious Artifacts COL6.a. Supplements a copy of the SFBC (first hardback) edition.

    • I picked up a lot of Dick paperbacks (among other books) that will be available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

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    Library Additions: Two Anthology Firsts

    Friday, June 21st, 2024

    Over the years I’ve tended to pick up fewer and fewer anthologies, mainly because I haven’t been reading them as much, and they’re almost always available in nice condition on the used market for considerably less than cover price. Such as these two anthologies, which I considered picking up when they came out but ultimately didn’t. These are the last two hardback books for my own library from that estate purchase.

  • Kessel, John, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner, editors. Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology. Tor, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with faint haze rubbing. Original anthology of Sycamore Hill participants, including Bruce Sterling’s award-winning “Bicycle Repairman.”
  • Rucker, Rudy, Peter Lamborn Wilson and Robert Anton Wilson, editors. Semiotext(e) SF. Autonomedia, 1989. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight bump to front corner. Anthology with both a lot of recognizable SF names (William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Sheckley, etc.) and a lot of counterculture figures (William S. Burroughs, Ivan Stang, Kerry Thornley, etc.) Part of that Autonomedia/RE:Search/Fringeware axis of post-punk SF that flourished in the late 80s and early 90s. If you don’t own a copy of Modern Stories #1 (I do), this is the only place to find Gibson’s “Hippie Hat Brain Parasite.”

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    Library Additions: Robinson, Straub, Watts, Walton Firsts

    Wednesday, June 19th, 2024

    Four more books from that estate purchase.

  • Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson. Aurora. Orbit, 2015. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of wear at points. Generation ship novel.

  • Straub, Peter. A Dark Matter. Doubleday, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine copy with slight bend at head and heel. Stoker Award winner.

  • Walton, Jo. Or What You Will. Tor, 2020. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. A fictional character plots an escape from his writer’s mind. For some reason, there do not seem to be a lot of copies out there in the wild for so recent a book.

  • Watts, Peter. Echopraxia. Tor, 2014. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with a long, very thin scratch to front cover, and slight bend at head and heel. Sequel to Blindsight. Supplements both a first of Blindsight and the Centipede Press signed/limiteds of both Blindsight and Echopraxia.

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    Library Additions: Haldeman, Liu, McDonald Firsts

    Monday, June 17th, 2024

    More books from that recent estate purchase.

  • Haldeman, Joe. Worlds: A Novel of the Near Future. Viking, 1981. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with two tackhead sized spots to rear boards, slight spotting to bottom page block and slightly dusty top page block, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with a faint crease at top spine. Completes my collection of the Worlds trilogy.

  • Liu, Cixin. The Dark Forest Tor, 2015. First edition hardback thus and first English language edition, a Fine-/Fine- copy with slight bumping at head, heel and points. Sequel to The Three-Body Problem and second in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. One of the books I noticed in the collection was a hardback copy of The Three-Body Problem, but it and Death’s End were later printings, but this was a true first. What I didn’t realize was that firsts of this seem quite pricey as well.

  • McDonald, Ian. Luna: New Moon. Tor, 2015. First hardback edition (the Gollancz trade paperback edition evidently precedes by five days), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. First in the Luna trilogy. I’m way behind on my McDonald, and haven’t even read the Everness trilogy (the one before this one) yet.

  • McDonald, Ian. Luna: Wolf Moon. Tor, 2017. First hardback edition (the Gollancz trade paperback edition of this also evidently precedes by five days), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Second in the Luna trilogy.

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