Larry Niven falls into a sort of weird valley in my collecting history. I read a great deal of Niven in my youth and liked his work, but thought for novels he was better when he collaborated with Jerry Pournelle. By the time I started collecting first editions in the mid-1980s, his print runs had gotten pretty big, and I was more focused on collecting cyberpunk authors. Later, I started going back collecting writers from the Golden Age through the New Wave, Heinlein, Kuttner, Moore, Vance, Zelazny, Dick, etc. While I collected some of the Niven highpoints (such as the Gollancz Ringworld) and other works as targets of opportunity, I never made a particular effort to collect hardback firsts of his early works. (I’ll need to add that to my revised Books Wanted list, currently in progress.) When I picked up Burning City and Burning Tower, I saw that it was set in The Magic Goes Away universe, which I haven’t read and didn’t own. (I did pick up a TPO first of related book More Magic! for something like $2 way back when.) I’d had the impression it was a TPO only, but in fact there was a 1/1000 signed, numbered hardback published by Ace (which was not typically known for doing such editions), so I picked up a copy of that.
Niven, Larry. The Magic Goes Away. Ace, 1978. First edition hardback, #243 of 1000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and hand numbered (it looks like by Niven himself) on the front free endpaper. Bought off the Internet for $38.25
