I already had a copy, but this one popped as both signed and listed at a bargain price, so I jumped on it.
Vance, Jack. Coup de Grace and Other Stories. Vance Integral Edition, 2001. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a dozen pinpricks to light spotting to top page block and a tiny trace of wear at head, heel and points, sans dust jacket, as issued, matching the appearance of the “Reader’s Edition” of the Vance Integral Edition, signed by Vance (characteristic of Vance’s late, overlapping signature after he went blind). Short story collection done as a “preview” edition to generate interest in the VIE project. Offered at $75. Chalker & Owings (2002), page 946. Chalker & Owings list a print run of 1,000 copies, which seems too high given the relative scarcity of the title, though several were evidently distributed at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Bought from Half Price Books on the Internet for $50.
Davidson, Avram. Dragons in the Trees: A Visit to British Honduras (Belize). Or All The Seas With Oysters Publishing, 2023 (i.e. 2024). First edition trade paperback original (this is a Print-on-Demand book fulfilled through Amazon; I ordered it the same day it was announced on the Avram Davidson Universe newsletter on April 23, and the printing code at the back states “Made in the USA/Coppell, TX/23 April 2024”), a Fine copy. Non-fiction. “This unique travel journal, born from Davidson’s travels between December 1965 and January 1966, showcases his unparalleled imagination and erudite commentary. Known primarily for his fantastical fiction, Davidson proves to be a masterful travel writer, capturing the essence of his experiences with vivid prose and introspective reflections.” Note: Despite the “First edition paperback published 2023” line on the copyright page, the people at the Avram Davidson Universe confirmed that this POD edition is indeed the true first.
The book is available through Amazon at the above link, and if you haven’t picked them up already, you may also want to get Davidson’s AD 100: Volume I and AD 100: Volume II as well.
The theme this week seems to be “firsts I already had, but signed.”
Lafferty, R. A. Slippery and other stories. Chris Drumm, 1985. First edition chapbook original, #115 of 176 signed, numbered copies, a Near Fine copy with a quarter-sized sticker remnant at spinefold near the heel that has discolored the paper. (You know those colored circular stickers you can buy at grocery stores to price things for garage sales? Don’t use those for books.) Supplements an unsigned copy. If I had been collecting Lafferty in the 80s (hell, into the 90s), all the Drumm signed Laffertys could be bought for $5 a pop. Woulda coulda shoulda. This was bought off eBay for $40.
I already have a nice hardback first of this, but when this signed copy showed up on a saved want at a bargain price, I snapped it up.
Oliver, Chad. Shadows in the Sun. Ballantine Books, 1954. First edition hardback (in a previously unrecorded binding state of dark red cloth lettered in brown), a Near Fine+ copy with slight bump at head, wear along top boards, and trace of wear at points, and a trace of foxing to gutters, in a Very Good- dust jacket with a 1/4″ deep x 1/2″ long chip, plus two smaller chips at top of front panel and associated long creases, shallow loss at head, spine faded, and numerous small spots to dust jacket, most notable on white portions, inscribed by Oliver: “11 January 1955/For Morris -/With the hopes that/this will give you as/much pleasure as/knowing you has/given me./Chad.” Quite a flawed dust jacket, but a previous unrecorded binding state, and copies of the hardback signed or inscribed by Oliver seem genuinely rare. Currey Supplements that better unsigned hardback first and an inscribed UK hardback. Hall, The Work of Chad Oliver A2. Currey (1979), page 397. Currey (2002), page 322. Bought for $47.99 plus shipping.
I picked up a keystone science fiction first, replacing a lesser copy, at a bargain price at auction. Which is a good thing, as just about every part of the of the post-auction process was unusually and deeply irritating.
Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood’s End. Ballantine Books, 1953. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with a spine crease and a bit of lean, trace of wear at head, heel and points, touch of dust soiling to outer edge of bottom page block, and a trace of foxing to inside covers, in a Very Good, Mylar-protected dust jacket with moderate spine fading, abrasion to the bottom 1/4″ of front panel (probably from an old style dust jacket protector) plus a few edgewear touches elsewhere, faint creasing along front spine join, two 1/4″ closed tears (and associated crease) at top near spine join, a couple of smaller closed tears, slight wear at points, and slight dust soiling to white rear panel; all in all, a nice copy of a book frequently found in much worse condition. Replaces an Ex-Library first I’ll be listing in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress), from which I have extracted an aftermarket bundle of a signed Clarke bookplate, Clarke’s business card, and a picture of Clarke to lay into this copy. Clarke’s most important novel, and one of the keystone science fiction novels of the 20th century. Currey (State A), page 113. Locke, Science Fiction First Editions, page 23 and pages 84-85, where he argues that the hardcover (Currey A) state was probably printed before the simultaneous paperback edition. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy page 52. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 9. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4 3-44. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, pages 337-341. Hartwell, Age of Wonders, pages 82-83. Pringle, The Utlimate Guide to Science Fiction page 58 (“****…Clarke’s best novel.”) Bought for a hammer price of $300 (the opening bid), which, after buyer premium and shipping, was just under $450.
This was a lowball bid I unexpectedly won, possibly because there were few other SF titles in this auction. It’s a good thing I won it so cheap, since I experienced considerable difficulty paying for it. After a delay for auction platform Invaluable to accept my resale certificate to drop taxes from the invoice, the credit card payment was unexpectedly declined. Checking with my credit union, it seems Invaluable’s system was trying to run my card with the old expiration date despite having the new one on file. There then followed several frustrating days dealing with technical support of them continuing to try to run the card with the wrong expiration date, despite having thought the problem was fixed. Finally, they had me completely delete and re-add my card information (which I should have thought to try earlier), only for the system to throw an error when trying to save the updated information! It continued to do this even after trying both Firefox and Chrome (including trying incognito/private mode), and discovering that on Chrome, it keeps you logged into the system even after having logged out! (Obviously their system isn’t properly managing its caching.) I was finally able to get it to take the credit card information after using Safari, after which I was able to pay for my purchase.
One final frustration was the auction house I bought from having no in-house shipping. A UPS store they specified picked up the book (for a stiff price) and shipped it to me. Upon its arrival, I discovered they used no padding for the book! But I am happy to finally have a better copy of this classic, arguably one of the ten most important science fiction novels of the 20th century.
Another signed, limited Dragonstairs Press signed Swanwick chapbook.
Swanwick, Michael. Comicosmics. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #42 of 50 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Short shorts in the manner of Italo Calvino. I should have one unspoken for copy available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
(Lansdale, Joe R.) Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, editors. Joe R Lansdale’s The Drive-In: Multiplex Thunderstorm Books, 2024. First hardback edition, #230 of 350 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Preceded by the Pandi Press trade paperback original. Original anthology set in Lansdale’s Drive-In universe, including stories by Joe & Kasey Lansdale, Josh Malerman, David J. Schow, Nancy Collins, Gary Braunbeck, Owen King, etc. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
This is now sold out from the publisher, but I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, and I still have copies of Joe and Kasey Lansdale’s Dark Kin from the same publisher, which is also sold out, still available at cover price.
When Mysterious Press first announced this book, I thought to myself “That’s nice, but not $150 nice.” Fortunately they had a 45th Anniversary sale that put it in my price range.
Stevenson, Robert Louis (Joe Hill) . The New Annotated Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Mysterious Press, 2022. First edition hardback, #198 of 250 numbered copies signed by annotator Leslie S. Klinger and introduction author Joe Hill, a Fine copy in quarter-leather and marbled boards and Mylar protector, sans dust jacket, as issued. Profusely illustrated and annotated edition of the classic novel. Bought for $45, marked down from the original price of $150.
Title: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Director: Adam Wingard
Writers: Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater, Adam Wingard (story)
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House IMDB entry
Like the previous entry in the series, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire works because it understands what people going to a Godzilla films do and don’t want to see: monsters fighting, not people bickering.
You know that part of the Pitch Meeting video for Godzilla vs. Kong where the writer goes “Giant monkey punches giant lizard!” and the producer immediately stops worrying about logic?
Yeah, I’m that guy.
The movie starts with Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall, sporting Jamie Lee Curtis’ hairstyle) mystified by signals detected in their hollow earth station that also seem to be giving her adopted deaf monster-whisperer Iwi daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) visions. In the Hollow Earth, Kong is suffering from loneliness and a infected tooth, and comes up to the surface to have it replaced (!) by kaiju veterinarian (!!) Trapper (Dan Stevens). Meanwhile, Godzilla rises from his slumbers, slays titan Scylla (sort of a giant crab thing) in Rome, and then levels a nuclear power plant to feed on the radiation and power up for…something.
So Kong goes back to the Hollow Earth, followed by all the human characters in the above paragraph, plus conspiracy theory podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry, who, like Hall and Hottle, is reprising his role from Godzilla vs. Kong). Naturally, things go wrong for them and their redshirt gravity ship pilot. Meanwhile, Kong is lured by a mini-Kong to locate a tribe of giant primates ruled over by the cruel Scar King, with the assistance of his own enslaved titan Shimo, a cross between Stegosaurus and a D&D ice dragon, complete with the latter’s freeze breath.
Naturally, Kong goes up against the Scar King, and naturally, it being the first big Kong fight, he loses, because it turns out that Scar King is a better tool user than he is.
All of this, of course, sets up a tag team Kong and Godzilla vs. Scar King and Shimo fight at the climax.
The Monsterverse approach has evolved to “You will completely suspend all your disbelief, and in exchange we promise to overawe you with wonders.” Which solves the long-running problem with Godzilla movies, in that you never really care about the human characters. By minimizing their screen time to the bare minimum to move the plot forward in favor of more kaiju battles, this results in a quicker sprint past various plot improbabilities. (A kaiju dentist! A giant exoskeleton arm for Kong we just had lying around the hollow earth!)
To those who complain that the plot improbabilities in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are way too improbable, I would like to remind them that, merely by buying a ticket, viewers have already accepted the existence of a hollow earth and a high-speed subterranean tunnel between Pensacola and Hong Kong that was evidently built in less than a decade by private funds without anyone finding out that was on display in the first Godzilla vs. Kong. Compared to that, a giant Kong exoskeleton lying around in a convenient location is rounding error.
Also, to those that further complain the Monsterverse is too silly compared to the original Toho movies, I say: Remember this?
Or this?
Can you make a Godzilla film where the human characters don’t suck? It’s possible. The original Gojira and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack both come to mind. I have not seen Godzilla Minus One (the timing just didn’t work out for it’s short run here), which Critical Drinker and others have indicated does a much better job on the human story front.
But instead of human drama, you get more kaiju fights, giant crystal energy pyramids, and a flaming cavern right out of a D&D supplement.
It’s a fair trade.
As a bonus, here’s the Pitch Meeting video for this one.
