Shopping, SpaceWitch and A Fantastical Librarian
Sunday, July 14, 2013
First, as always, the shopping:
Selvedin Avdić's Seven Terrors. One of the finalists in this year's SF & Fantasy Translation Awards. I've tried to track down most of the finalists (it is surprisingly, depressingly difficult - most come via the US and are surprisingly expensive), this is the first to show up. (Abebooks)
Ira Levin's This Perfect Day. I think Levin deserves more credit as a genre-hopping, er... "hack" isn't the right word, "proficient"? Between Rosemary's Baby, The Boys from Brazil, Sliver, A Kiss Before Dying... he wrote completely decent books in half-dozen different genre flavours. This Perfect Day is his (deservedly?) overlooked contribution to dystopian SF. It is, if I recall correctly, in the vein of A Brave New World. Except not very good. Anyway, a first edition. (Also a terrible cover.) (Quinto)
August Derleth's The Wind Leans West. I know I've pointed this out before, but I really love the irony of the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel Award being named after August Derleth. He's a) American, b) the poor man's Lovecraft (who adorns the World Fantasy Award) and c) kind of a terrible writer. (He is appropriate in that the BFS has always championed small presses and the Weird, but wouldn't he be better placed on the Best Publisher prize? Discuss.) Anyway, all that said, Derleth's collectible as hell, and finding a first edition of one of his historical novels is a coup. I may even take the plunge and read it, because a "panorama of Milwaukee's growth between 1839 and 1854" seems... uh... ok, maybe not.
A fun thing about this book (which is not particularly valuable in and of itself) - it has a lovely embossed previous owner's stamp "MCA / Library of McAlpine / Venice". Dunno about you, but researching previous owners is always a blast - especially if they turn out to be (possibly) someone interesting. The best I can come up with here is the remote possibility that it belonged to Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green; a noted book collector (as well as many, many other things...) who has spent (and presumably has property in) Venice? Probably not, but, hey. Nifty. (Apparently if I mistakenly claim the book was his on Twitter, I could be in line for a lawsuit. TOPICAL HUMOUR.) (Quinto)
Richard Stark's Lemons Never Lie, David Dodge's The Last Match, Lawrence Block's Lucky at Cards. Hard Case Crimes #22, 25 and 28, respectively. Stockpiling. (Abebooks and Book Depository)
Plus Marijane Meaker's Game of Survival, Fletcher Flora's Park Avenue Tramp, Gavin Lambert's In the Night All Cats are Grey, Moorcock's Wizardry and Wild Romance, Lord Dunsany's Guerrilla, David Grubb's The Watchman and Robert Nye's Faust. A busy week!
Meanwhile, other stuff:
SpaceWitch went live! The new ecommerce portal for independent SF publishers was launched yesterday and EdgeLit. If you've not checked it out, it is an excellent shopping alternative for your SF needs. Currently our lovely Jurassic publications are up there, sharing space with NewCon, Clarion and Fox Spirit. Others are coming, but, in the mean time, there are already hordes of books available for your perusal.
If you missed the fun, A Fantastical Librarian spent a whole wonderful week reviewing Jurassic titles: 1853, Fire, A Town Called Pandemoniumand The Lowest Heaven. There was also an interview with, er, me, in which I expounded at length about stuff. ("length" - not really that long, "stuff" - trying desperately to come up with interesting answers to good questions, argh.) We're really charmed and touched and grateful and all those things - it was amazing to read an entire week of dedicated content, and Anne and I were both particularly delighted to see some of the chapbooks get reviewed!
At Tor.com, Niall Alexander got really excited about Pandemonium: Ash and The Reef. (He's got good taste!). And, don't forget, over on GoodReads, we're hosting giveaways of A Town Called Pandemonium and The Lowest Heaven (the latter ends this week).
Also at Tor.com, the penultimate chapter of The Folding Knife reread. Eep.
I think we're getting to the end of the long list of "Jurassic publications to announce". Well, almost. One more novel, a novelette, one - no, two - chapbooks and an anthology. Wait, two anthologies. And an indescribable art project with Vincent Sammy. Yup. And that's it. Except for the other two anthologies, and the... argh.