New Arrivals and updated Reading Exercise

My last post featured items I picked up on a trip to visit family. The items in this post came via ABE. 

This cover by Ronald Walotsky always intrigued me and when I realized this collection, included Guin's short story "Beyond Bedlam" I had to get it.

I have made no secret of my admiration of the art of Richard Powers. I consider this cover one of his best, so I finally abandoned any hope of picking up a copy without incurring shipping costs and ordered it.

The rest of these books come from Alex Simpson on

 ABE, I was really impressed with the service. The books are in beautiful condition, the seller reduced the shipping charges even further upon receiving the order and I had my books in about a week. Thanks.

I was initially looking for Badger books, a UK imprint discussed at length on the unsubscibed blog.

https://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/book-on-sunday-doom/

I found a Badger book (Reactor XK9, cover by H. Fox) and a Vega book (Special Mission, cover H. Fox). Vega seems to be an America imprint for Badger books. I then looked to see what else this bookseller had and found some lovely stuff.

A couple of years ago, my buddy Doug convinced me to reread Foundation, one of his favourite books. I borrowed his cool 1951 Book Club Edition, I have been looking for a reasonably priced copy of my own ever since.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favourite novels by one of my favourite authors. I wanted this edition because it was intended for use in the Ontario school system. It does have a cover image from the rather wretched 1966 film. I just noticed a remake is on tap for 2018, I will probably stick with the book.

Early Book Club Edition, 1958, cover Paul Baron.

And a couple of items which show my collecting tastes are  still fairly eclectic.

New additions to the reading list include;

Arnason Eleanor, Mammoths of the Great Plains, (2010)

Asher Neal, Strood, (ss) 2004

Barnes John, The Birds And The Bees And The Gasoline Trees, (ss) 2011

Bear Elizabeth, Dolly. (ss) (2011)

Okorafor Nnedi, Wahala, (ss) (2011)

And Doug dropped off some more magazines for my perusal.

New Arrivals. Attic Books, London Ontario

My wife and I made a trip east to visit family last week. One highlight was a visit to Attic Books in London Ontario, possibly the best used book store we have ever visited. We picked up a number of books but a highlight for me was these beautiful copies of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Some lovely covers here.

http://www.atticbooks.ca/

Cover artists, TL David Hardy, TR Ed Emsh, 

BR Ron Walotsky, BL Carol Pohl

Two author tribute issues and a Brigadier Ffellowes story by Sterling E. Lanier. 

Cover artists. L to R, H Castellon, David Hardy, Ron Walotsky

Great stuff. a favourite Zelazny story, the first part of Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle.

Cover artists L to R. Bert Tanner, Mazey and Schell, Jack Gaughan for Ballard's wonderful Vermillion Sands story "The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D".

Our trip also took us to Toronto where I took the following photo.

Reading Exercise Part Two

Illustration by Jack Gaughan

The reading exercise mentioned in my last post continues with Doug and I both offering selections and then reading and briefly discussing them. I had hoped to be providing posts on some of the titles by now but that will have to wait as I have other commitments for the next few weeks. Doug has read everything we have chosen so far but I have to admit I read less than half of Class Six Climb by Cochrane. While I look at older SF as historic artifacts that may include the racism and sexist attitudes of the time the misogyny of Class Six Climb was setting my teeth on edge. But it was the writing that finished me off. Many of the incidents included in the plot were simply illogical, and after one third of the story the characters still had not begun the climb. I could go on but I see little point. My intent in this blog has always been to post only about works or authors that I think have something worthwhile to offer.

Cover by Frank Kelly Freas                                       Cover by Dean Ellis

The system or non-system we have initiated for choosing specific titles has worked so far. While I was trying to avoid reading a number of works on specific themes one after another, the repetition of themes is almost unavoidable as certain tropes have come to define science fiction. So instead we simply play it by ear. The recent revelations concerning Jupiter have, for example encouraged us to read a number of stories concerning that planet. I have to admit I am enjoying seeing how the same concepts play out across stories by different authors and also how the passage of time and a more diverse group of authors has changed the way they are handled. 

Anderson Poul, Call me Joe, (ss) (1957)

Anderson Poul, Epilogue, (ss) (1962)

Anvil Christopher,  Strangers in Paradise, (1966)

Anvil Christopher, Experts In the Field, (ss) (1967)

Anvil Christopher, The Trap, (ss) (1969)

Asimov Isaac, Not Final, (ss) (1941)

Asimov Isaac, Victory Unintentional, (ss) (1942) 

Baxter Stephen, Tempest 43, (ss) (2009)

Bodard Aliette de, The Waiting Stars, (ss) (2013

Clement, Hal, Close to Critical, (1958)

Dickson Gorden R., Wolfling, (1969)

Egan Greg, Wang’s Carpets, (ss) (1995)

                                                       Cover by John Harris

 

Cover by Dominic Harman  

                                       

Hallus Tak, Mini-Talent, (ss)  (1969)

Harrison Harry, The Man from P.I.G., (ss) (1967)

Harrison Harry, The Man from R.O.B.O.T. (ss) (1969)

Kapp Colin, The Wizard of Anharitte, (1972)

Kornbluth C.M. & Pohl Fredrick, The Space Merchants, (1953) 

Laumer Keith,The Last Command, (ss) (1967) 

Leiber Fritz, Gather Darkness, (1943)

Piper H. Beam & McGuire John J., Null-ABC (ss), (1953)

Reynolds Alastair, Fixation (ss) (2009)

Schmitz James H.,The Witches of Karres, (1949)

Sheckly Robert, Specialist (ss) (1953)

Silverberg, Downward to the Earth, (1969)

Simak, Clifford, Time is the Simplest Thing, (1961)

Simak Clifford,  Desertion, (ss) (1944)

Illustration by Frank Kelly Freas

Sipes Richard Grey, Of Terrans Bearing Gifts, (ss) (1967)

Van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle, (1939)