|
|
|
 |
|
|
News
& What's New - February 2020 |
|
|
|
|
|
Cover
again by Manchu |
|
|
23 Feb
2020
 French
publisher Le Livre de Poche released in 2012 the 8th reprint of Le
labyrinthe magique (The
Magic Labyrinth).
The cover illustration of that one was from National Geographic/ Getty
Images, a total different one than the earlier printings. Usually the
publisher uses the same cover illustration on all printings.
I just discovered the 9th printing, published in 2015. In this case the
original illustration by Manchu has been used again. See left.
It's hard to find online the different printings of a title. Book
dealers often only give the publication year of the first printing,
even with reprints.
The newly discovered book has been added on the book page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Finally
my own copy |
|
|
16 Feb
2020
For
a very long period of time I still was missing a first hardcover
edition of The Green Odyssey. It
was published by Ballantine Books in 1957, many years before I started
reading science fiction, and even more years before I started
collecting all the novels and stories written by Philip José
Farmer.
I started collecting the US publications in 1973 with snail mail orders
to Richard Witter (F&SF Book Co.) in New York. One of my first
orders were copies of the original hardcover editions of To
Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat
(1971).
I received the second one, but Scattered
Bodies was just out of print, alas. I bought it several
years ago for more than hundred times the original price.
Once there was internet one could check the online dealers, and I saw
the book at Abebooks for about a thousand times the original price,
from 2000 till 2500 dollars and more.
The last time I checked Abebooks the prices ranged from $2.250 till the
huge amount of $9.500 for a clean copy. Most of the small print-run of
the hardcover went to (military) libraries. Clean copies are very
scarce also, and very expensive. This particular book is one of the
scarcest titles in the Ballantine hardcover series.
But recently I found online a copy for sale for a very reasonable
price. Not a clean copy, but an ex-library one in a reasonable good
condition. See the picture above.
Finally my collection of Farmers first editions is complete, I now can
stop collecting...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Japanese
sience fiction magazines |
|
|
5 Feb
2020
Last
November I ordered and received seven books from a Japanese web shop.
That went very smoothly. So I looked again but did not see yet any of
the other missing books in my collection.
But I discovered that the web shop also has a huge collection of
Japanese magazines for sale. It took me a while to check them all, and
I found eleven science fiction magazines that I wanted. Most of them
are issues of the S-F
Magazine (S-F
マガジン).
The issues, and the stories in it are:
I added and corrected some data with
these publications.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Up
from the Bottomless Pit |
|
|
1 Feb
2020
 A new
announcement from Meteor House of a forthcoming book:
«Philip José Farmer’s Up from the Bottomless Pit,
originally written in the late 1970s with the working title The Dragon’s Breath,
is a near-mainstream novel about the ultimate ecological nightmare. Set
in an alternate/near future 1970s, Up
from the Bottomless Pit
tells of a world so ravenous in its desire for oil that it has thrown
caution to the wind. Using an experimental deep-water laser drill off
the California coast, humankind burns a hole through the ocean floor
only to unleash a deadly torrent that initially threatens the greater
Los Angeles area, but quickly escalates to a catastrophe of worldwide
proportions with the potential to wipe out all life on the planet.
This is the Farmer novel you’ve heard about but never got to
read! Now, available for the first time ever in a trade paperback
edition, you can get Up
from the Bottomless Pit for only $20
(+shipping).»
This novel was published before in ten issues of the fanzine Farmerphile
(2005-2007). In 2007 it was included in the collection Up
from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories, published in
expensive hardcover ($125 or $300) by Subterranean Press.
The above illustration is one of many by Keith Howell, used in these
publications.
Go to the website of Meteor
House to preorder your copy. Books will be shipped to you in
August 2020 right after FarmerCon XV.
|
|
|
|
|
|
La
odisea de Green |
|
|
1 Feb
2020
 In
October 2019 the Spanish publisher 'La biblioteca del laberinto'
released the first Spanish translation —62 years after its
original
publication— of The Green Odyssey. It is
published in their series Delirio Ciencia Ficción, #130,
with the title La odisea de Green.
The cover illustration is the same uncredited one as with the first
hardcover publication by Ballantine Books in 1957.
The book starts with an essay
by David Pringle and John Clute, that was published before in The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction. It is also publshed with permission of the
authors on this website, as "The
Most Anarchic SF Writer".
In the Spanish edition the same, translated, title is used: "El
excritor más anárquico de la ciencia
ficción".
The essay is illustrated with some photos of Phil and also with several
book covers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages this month.
 1922
publications
1305 different
covers
There are less covers than publications due to the reprints
with the same cover, and due to omnibuses.
|
|
 "click to enlarge")
 "click to enlarge")
 "click to enlarge")
