Book Hauls!

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Had a nice little haul today during an official trip to Pune, a small city near Bombay. This was at a very low-key book sale (apparently they can't afford to advertise, I was the only person browsing there for more an hour and a half) and I got them for very cheap prices.

3-novel collection (Book of Skulls, Nightwings and Dying Inside) - Robert Silverberg
Hungry Moon- Ramsey Campbell
Cunning - Robert Bloch

Also got 3 books of the Elric series by Michael Moorcock (Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Bane of the Black Sword and Stormbringer). I normally stay clear of sword and sorcery and multi-volume sagas but got these for the following reasons:
1) JP has repeatedly recommended Moorcock (they better not turn out to be fairy stories or I'll have bloody vengeance )
2) The stories are short and supposedly self-contained so I don't have to fill in the gaps
3) these were really cheap.

I read the Elric of Menilboné books when they first came out, and still remember significant quantities of the plots, suggesting they must have had something going for them.The most significant point for me was that it wasn't a battle of good against evil, so that good could win at the end all cheer, surprise, surprise, but order against chaos, if either wins it's a catastrophe, death by stasis or death by instability, and while Elric represents both and is sort of a hero, what he really is is a fulcrum on which creation attempts to find a balance.

[Jay]

I recently received an anthology edited by Lou Anders, Future Shocks, that has stories by some of my favorites like Paul di Filippo, Adam Roberts, Chris Roberson, Robert Charles Wilson, Paul Melko, Resnick, and Robert J Sawyer among othedr, and something called Changelings, a new series by Anne Mccaffery and Elizabeth Scarborough.


I'm not one of those people that run out an buy a book that because an author I enjoy blurbs something positive about it, but Kelly Link was pimping a couple of books when I interviewed her and I'm figuring someone that talented as a writer, not to mention an editor/owner of a press that doesn't publish anything but quality, might know what the hell she is talking about so I scooped up these:


Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (which Matt Cheney was also pimping)
Times Like These by Rahcel Ingalls
The Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelly Jackson
Something to Write Home Aboutby Rachel Ingalls

[Jay]

Elantris by Bradon Sanderson

Starship: Mutiny by Michael Resnick

Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint

[littlemissattitude]

I discovered a used book store about two blocks from my place here. While they mostly have mainstream novels, mysteries, and romance novels, they do have a nifty little SF/Fantasy section and a small non-fiction section. I came away with three books on my first visit:

The Crust of the Earth, edited by Samuel Rapport and Helen Wright. This is billed on the cover as "A popular introduction to geology". The thing is, it was published in 1955 and is, as far as I can tell, a first printing (it's a Signet paperback). So, it is completely out of date as regards facts, but I've always loved "period" science books. The best thing I've seen in it so far is an article by J.L.B. Smith (a reprint of a 1939 article), who first described the living coelacanth, in which he concludes by stating, completely seriously, that it is his opinion that the discovery of the coelecanth makes it more likely that there are sea serpents (he puts the term in quotes) lurking in the deep.

Citizen of the Galaxy, by Robert A. Heinlein. I first read this book when I was around 8 or 9 years old, so I had to pick it up.

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe. To replace the copy I had to leave behind when I moved.

[Redactor]

The other day I picked up a first edition, hardcover, dustjacketed copy of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates for six dollars.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Redactor

The other day I picked up a first edition, hardcover, dustjacketed copy of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates for six dollars.

OH well done, that's a classic of the Genre and a first edition hardcover is a nice get indeed...

[polymorphikos]

I bought Elric of Melinibone' by Michael Moorcock, because people are always going-on about Elric and the cover-art was simple but gorgeous, and The City of the Beast by same because it had an exciting excerpt about the back about fighting the aforementioned beast, and promised Burroughesque Mars-based sojourning.

[rune]

Got Imperial Spy by Mark Robson

[Culhwch]

I picked up The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker in a bargain bin. Tried it before and I couldn't get into it, but I thought I might as well pick it up on the cheap to tackle again at my leisure. Also got Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen, also at a rock-bottom price. Looking forward to getting into that one.

[GOLLUM]

WOW! two excellent buys you've done very well there mate...

[Jay]

Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
Shriek: an afterword by Jeff Vandermeer
Savage Messiah by Robert Newcomb (possibly the worst employed author in major publishing history)
Magic Seeds by V.S NaiPaul

[murphy]

[quote=Jay]I recently received an anthology edited by Lou Anders, Future Shocks, that has stories by some of my favorites like Paul di Filippo, Adam Roberts, Chris Roberson, Robert Charles Wilson, Paul Melko, Resnick, and Robert J Sawyer among othedr, and something called Changelings, a new series by Anne Mccaffery and Elizabeth Scarborough.


(snip)

Changelings is a contuation of a previous series by these 2 authors, Powers that Be, Power Lines and Power Plays. They were pretty good reads. I have Changelings in in TBR pile. Haven't gotten to it yet.

[littlemissattitude]

As always when I go to the library, I checked the "for sale" shelves. Found two, for twenty-five cents each. Not bad considering.

The First American: A Story of North American Archaeology, by C. W. Ceram (a hardback first edition, with original dust jacket, published 1971) - a popular account of archaeology in North America up until it was written. I had a paperback copy of this for years, then had to leave it behind when I moved, so I was really happy to find this for sale.

Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?, by Mark Lane (paperback first edition 1992) - written by one of the best known of the conspiracy theorists. Don't know how credible he is, but I'm fascinated by books on the Kennedy assassination, so I had to have this one for my library.

[Jay]

Changelings is a contuation of a previous series by these 2 authors, Powers that Be, Power Lines and Power Plays. They were pretty good reads. I have Changelings in in TBR pile. Haven't gotten to it yet.

Thanks for the info, I have it in the slush pile!

[Allanon]

15 gemmel books