Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category

Library Additions: Three R. A. Lafferty Firsts, Two Signed

Thursday, June 10th, 2021

Three new R. A. Lafferty firsts, two signed (one by Lafferty).

  • Lafferty, R. A. The Collected Short Fiction Volume Six: The Man Who Never Was. Centipede Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #40 of 300 numbered copies signed by Neil Gaiman, John Pelan, and Jacob McMurray, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Presumably the last volume edited by John Pelan, who died April 12. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. Normally I would have copies available, but all the copies I’ve been allocated have sold to people who bought previous volumes with matching numbers.
  • Lafferty, R. A. The Early Lafferty II. United Mythologies Press, 1990. First edition chapbook original, #57 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Near Fine copy with some phantom creasing on the top left front cover. Bought for $49.99 off eBay. The signed copy of this chapbook original sold for $7, and the unsigned for $4, and both editions are now scarce and pricey.

  • (Lafferty, R. A.) Cheek, Kevin, editor. Feast of Laughter Volume 5. Kistic Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original (POD publication), a Fine copy. Ongoing anthology series of Lafferty interest, including fiction, essays, etc. Includes three Lafferty works (“The Hands of the Potter: An Idyll” (which seems to be fiction, and not in the ISFDB), “Astérix et Cléopâtra” (a review of the French comic) and “Riddle Writers of the Ithmus,” a short essay. Plus contributions from Michael Swanwick, Howard Waldrop, etc. Bought from Amazon at full price, since they do fulfillment (and hence the link on the title).
  • Library Addition: Signed, Limited Edition of Jack Vance’s Cugel’s Saga

    Thursday, May 20th, 2021

    Here’s a Jack Vance limited edition that I’ve been looking to pick up for quite a while:

    Vance, Jack. Cugel’s Saga. Underwood Miller, 1983. First limited edition hardback, a presentation copy of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with some age darkening to the spine and touches of wear at head, heel and points, in a Fine- slipcase with a few traces of wear. Sequel to Eyes of the Overworld. Hewett A71b, which notes the slipcase was actually issued later than the book itself. Cunningham 19b, which notes that there were 50 PC copies. Bought off eBay for $202.50, which is about half of what normal copies usually go for, much less a presentation copy with the slipcase.

    Library Additions: Two Signed Harlan Ellison Edgeworks Firsts

    Tuesday, May 18th, 2021

    Two more signed Ellison firsts to replace unsigned copies.

  • Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 1: Over the Edge/An Edge in My Voice. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback thus (and first hardback edition of Over the Edge), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Ellison.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 2: Spider Kiss/Stalking the Nightmare. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Ellison.
  • Library Addition: Signed Copy of The Ray Bradbury Companion

    Thursday, May 13th, 2021

    Another book in my quest to get a signed copy of every Ray Bradbury-related book:

    (Bradbury, Ray) Nolan, William F. The Ray Bradbury Companion. Gale Research, 1975. First edition hardback (no statement of printing as per Currey), a Fine copy in a sound, Very Good slipcase from which numerous small (tackhead sized and smaller) pieces of the affixed wrap-around paper label have chipped away, plus a few other touches of dust and wear, sans dust jacket, as issued, signed by Bradbury on page 37. Critical companion on Bradbury’s work. Currey, page 59. Tymn, Schlobin, Currey, 221. Bought off eBay for $59.

    Library Addition: Signed First of Poul Anderson’s Flandry of Terra

    Tuesday, May 11th, 2021

    Here’s one of those books I heard good things about in my youth but never actually read:

    Anderson, Poul. Flandry of Terra. Chilton, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with bumping at head and bumping and slight rubbing at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight wrinkling at head and heel and a touch of rubbing, signed by Anderson. Currey, page 10. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-7. Bought off eBay for $22.50.

    MST3K Kickstarter Update: Fully Funded, New Joel Episodes, Dueling Hosts, More!

    Friday, May 7th, 2021

    For those who still haven’t backed the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, they just roared past their $5.5 million goal to make 12 episodes and they still have (as of this writing) 13 hours left to go.

    I previously covered The Gizmoplex, but here are few of the more interesting tidbits about Season 13 that have been revealed since the campaign launch:

  • Grand Poobah Joel Hodgson will reprise his role as test subject Joel Robinson for two episodes.
  • In addition to Jonah Ray returning as test subject Jonah Heston (and Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt returning as the Mads), Emily Marsh (who appeared on the most recent MST3K live tour) will be appearing as test subject Emily Crenshaw. Evidently there will be separate Jonah and Emily (and Joel) episodes.
  • They’re going to do at least one 3D movie.
  • Two of the films to be riffed will be Robot Wars and Demon Squad. Since the latter came out in 2019, that has to rank as the shortest release-to-MST3K gap ever.
  • If you haven’t backed the Kickstarter yet, now would be a good time…

    Library Addition: Signed First of Theodore Sturgeon’s Without Sorcery

    Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

    Picked up another signed Sturgeon first:

    Sturgeon, Theodore. Without Sorcery. Prime Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at head, heel and points and a tickmark and circled “A+” next to “Maturity” on the title page, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with edgewear and crinkling at head, heel and points, rubbing along edges one thin streak of discoloration to spine (not affecting any text), slight haze rubbing to front cover, and age darkening and dust staining to white rear cover, signed by Sturgeon. Sturgeon’s first short story collection (and first “real” book). Diskin, Theodore Sturgeon: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography, A54. Currey, page 473 (state B, trade issue). Chalker/Owings, page 352. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 129. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 189 (not in the 1948 edition). Locke, Anatomy of Wonder, page 208. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-173. Bought for $50 off eBay.

    Honest Trailer: Godzilla vs. Kong

    Tuesday, April 27th, 2021

    And here’s the conclusion of our (sorta) Godzilla Week on Futuramen, The Honest Trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong:

    Hopefully more book geeking starting tomorrow.

    Art Addition: Original Bob Eggleton Godzilla Painting

    Monday, April 26th, 2021

    So back at the beginning of 2020, I found out that there was a Godzilla in Hell comic book miniseries, for which a different professional artist painted every page of an issue, and that Bob Eggleton did the paintings for issue #2. I like Godzilla, I liked the idea, and I like Bob’s work, so I contacted him to see if any of the paintings were available. Some were.

    So I bought one for what I think is an extremely modest sum for an artist of Bob’s stature.

    Then it took me another year to buy, assemble, and frame the work. (Framing art is freaking expensive.) But I think the end result is quite nice:

    I don’t have a lot of original art because I spend so much on books. But it’s nice to be able to afford the occasional piece…

    Godzilla vs. Kong Pitch Meeting

    Saturday, April 24th, 2021

    As you can tell, I liked Godzilla vs. Kong, but I can’t deny that there are a few, ahem, scientific implausibilities in the film, and Screen Rants Pitch Meeting guy digs into those with gusto:

    Of course, remember what franchise we’re talking about. Compared to “He must have programmed himself to get big!” (Jet Jaguar in Godzilla vs. Megalon), Godzilla vs. Kong‘s leaps in plausibility are mere hopscotch…