Tag Archives: Vintage fantasy

Books Update: Jack Vance A-Plenty

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: This latest addition to this category consists of a hefty chunk of Jack Vance titles, including an Ace Double (The Brains Of Earth/The Many Worlds Of Magnus Ridolph), an early Lancer edition of The Dying Earth (a superbly crafted fantasy with a dark undertone of humour, which helped inspire Gene Wolfe’s great Book Of The New Sun) and a host of 1st PB editions, rightfully giving works previously only published in pulps a wider audience. Vance was a master of the Swords & Sorcery genre, with a greatly appreciated humorous streak. He created several series, each encompassing its own carefully imagined universe: from the Big Planet series we have Big Planet itself and Showboat World, from the Durdane series The Anome, The Brave Free Men and The Asutra, from the Gaean Reach series The Gray Prince, Maske: Thaery, Trullion: Alastor 2262, Marune: Alastor 933 and The Book Of Dreams, while from the Planet of Adventure series we have The Dirdir and The Pnume. In addition – yes, there’s more! – we have Son Of The Tree, The Dragon Masters, The Houses Of Iszm and The Languages Of Pao. The Ace Double has two Jack Gaughan covers, while The Dirdir and The Pnume have Jeff Jones cover art and The Dying Earth has Emshwiller cover art.

Books Update: Clark Ashton Smith In The Shop

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re delighted to add Clark Ashton Smith to our list of authors, a writer whose work spans all three genres of this category. When you get fulsome praise from H P Lovecraft ‘Smith’s stories deal powerfully with other galaxies, worlds and dimensions. Who else has seen such gorgeous, luxuriant and feverishly distorted visions of infinite spheres and multiple dimensions and lived to tell the tale?’ and from August Derleth ‘..virtually without peer in the genre of fantasy and the macabre’, there’s really not much more recommendation required. We’ve added three collections of short stories, Out of Space & Time Volumes 1 and 2, and two copies of The Abominations Of Yondo. All these titles are hard to find, so snap them up to find out what all the praise was about.

Books Update: Conan Confusion!

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: You just can’t trust minions! Dr Evilla’s been very preoccupied in her Evilla Cave (conveniently situated below her secret alter ego’s stately residence), with her latest plan for world domination. Due to this she tasked her assistant, Greebo, with sorting out more Conan books to sell. Greebo’s pair of neurones weren’t able to cope and Dr Evilla was surprised to find an update consisting of Conan The Usurper and The Conan Doyle Stories! Greebo has now been assigned more menial minion duties, but the books remain enticingly on the shelves. The Conan Doyle stories, selected by John Dickson Carr, range over several genres and include Tales of the Ring, the Camp, Pirates, Blue Water, Terror, Mystery, Twilight and the Unseen, Adventure, Medical Life and Tales of Long Ago. Conan The Usurper has its eponymous hero battling deadly magic, murderous demons and incredible monsters – all in a day’s work for the mighty barbarian.

Books Update: Howard’s Way

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Robert E Howard packed an impressive amount of writing into his short life (committing suicide at just 30 years old). His influence can be gauged by the continuing interest in his work and his life. We’ve gathered together six non-fiction works that, through a mixture of biography and selected work by the great man, explore his achievements and lasting appeal. Titles consist of Dark Valley Destiny: The Life Of Robert E. Howard (de Camp et al), The Dark Barbarian: The Writings Of Robert E Howard: A Critical Anthology (Herron ed), Robert E Howard: Starmont Reader’s Guide 35 (Cerasini & Hoffman), Conan’s World And Robert E Howard (Schweitzer), Literary Swordsmen And Sorcerors: The Makers Of Heroic Fantasy (de Camp) and The Last Celt (Lord ed). Nearly all are 1st editions, and they can all be found just after the R E Howard listing in our catalogue.

 

 

 

Books Update: Hither Comes Howard – In Hardcover!

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Tying in with our celebration of Conan, we’ve added three hardcover editions of works by his creator Robert E Howard, all with notable illustrators. Always Comes Evening (£35) is an exhaustive collection of poems (lovingly compiled by Glenn Lord), even including a poem which won Howard a school competition when he was 15 years old, with illustrations by Keiko Nelson. The Swords of Shahrazar (£20), featuring cover and internal art by Michael Kaluta, is a swash-buckling adventure with Kirby O’Donnell seeking treasure in the forbidden city of Shahrazar. Finally, The Return Of Skull-Face (£25) (with Richard A Lupoff), has The Master (AKA The Scorpion) continuing his adventures, with Stephen E Leialoha cover art and illustrations. With grades in the FN range, these handsome dust-jacketed volumes, presented in removable archival film, are too good to miss, by Crom!

Books Update: A Bear, A Wolfe And Two Cherryhs

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Not a meal suggestion, but four books that will definitely leave you satisfied. First up, Greg Bear’s Infinity Concerto, a quite different look at a trip to ‘Fairyland’, then two books by C J Cherryh. Heavy Time deals with the early period of human expansion into the space, while Hunter Of Worlds explores the effect of human alien contact as she does so well (fans of the Foreigner series may recognise some traits of the Atevi in the iduve). Finally Gene Wolfe’s Operation Ares looks at a different type of Martian invasion.

Books Update: Out Of Their Comfort Zones

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror / Crime, Spies & Sleaze: This update features a set of books where authors have crossed from established genres to explore new horizons. Jack London, Hank Janson and Edgar Wallace, best known for Crime have Science Fiction novels with The Star Rover, The Unseen Assassin and The Green Rust respectively. In fact, cognoscenti of Hank Janson’s Reginald Heade cover art will find the distressed damsel on the cover of The Unseen Assassin very similar in pose and dishevelled clothing to those adorning the detective fiction (although the background art is by Ron Turner).  J B Priestley, now best known as a playwright has a Crime novel – Salt Is Leaving. The last three publications defy easy classification, but we’ve put them in our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category: The Starcomber, originally a novella by Alfred Bester, Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) is it Fantasy? Horror? a Polymesmeric Bestseller? and finally Dragaonflame And Other Nightmares by Don McGregor, who’s best known as a comics writer.

 

Books Update: A Fine Fantasy Selection

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: An update showcasing the broad range that fantasy encompasses. The Beckoning Fair One (Oliver Onions) is a classic with more than a tinge of horror.  The great nineteenth-century innovator of modern fantasy, George MacDonald is featured twice, in The Golden Key, suitable for children, and in Lilith, which is considered to be his darkest work. The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld (Patricia McKillip) is more elegaic in manner, while The Castle Of Iron (L Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt) and The Disappearing Dwarf (James P Blaylock) take a humorous approach.

Books Update: The Bookshop Crawl Cometh!!!

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This year we’re very excited (maybe the !!! gives it away?) to be taking part in the London Bookshop Crawl, which will be happening over the weekend of 9th – 11th February. The Bookshop Crawl, as you might imagine is like a pub crawl, only with books, and is an opportunity for booklovers to visit lots of (mainly) independent booksellers and be rewarded in the process.

We’ll be offering 10% off all purchases from our Books section, and a selection of free books (up to 5 per customer). In addition, for this Sunday (11th) only, we’ll be open from 10:30 to 18:00.

If you want to join in, or just find out more, just click here.

Books Update: More Moorcock (Elric and the Eternal Champion)

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Four more Moorcocks (apart from being a bit of a tongue-twister) are always welcome on our shelves. This time we’ve added Phoenix In Obsidian with the Eternal Champion, an early US version of Stormbringer (with a Jack Gaughan cover), The Singing Citadel and The Stealer Of Souls (two more early Mayflower Elrics with other characters). Join Elric as he agonises eternally, the Eternal Champion in his agonies and numerous other characters in the struggle between Order and Chaos that only Moorcock could conjure up.

Books Update: Howard’s Hyperborian Heroics

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A fine update in the fantasy hero tradition, written or inspired by Robert E Howard, mainly 1st UK PBs and featuring some notable cover artists. Works by the man himself are King Kull, the Skull-Face trilogy (all with Chris Achilleos cover art) and Marchers Of Valhalla. Howard, Nyberg and de Camp are represented by Conan The Avenger and Howard, de Camp and Carter by Conan Of Cimmeria, both with Frank Frazetta cover art. L Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter were inspired to write the only non-Howard book in this update, Conan Of The Isles, with cover art by John Duillo. Finally, we must give a special mention to Chris Achilleos, for creating at least five pieces of heroic barbarian cover art without a single scantily clad nubile/pneumatic female in view.

Books Update: Four Square Books

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We present a range of Four Square Science Fiction and Fantasy books published during the 1960’s. In the first camp are Titan’s Daughter (James Blish), Space Pioneer (Mack Reynolds) and Memoirs Of A Spacewoman (Naomi Mitchison’s fascinating future where many humans devote their time to communicating with all sorts of strange aliens). Firmly in the Fantasy camp are Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels about Venus (Carson Of, Lost On and Pirates Of) and A Princess Of Mars, all with very striking cover art.

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Books Update: Belmont / Belmont Tower Science Fiction

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: As the title suggests, our publisher of note this time is Belmont, founded in 1960, later subsumed into Tower Comics and hence becoming Belmont Tower. In the two decades of its existence it embraced Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror with a mix of well-known and aspiring authors. We have three Belmont double features (where could they have got that idea from?), Doomsman/Thief Of Thoth (Harlan Ellison/Lin Carter), an unusual combination of Doomsman/Telepower (Harlan Ellison/Lee Hoffman) and A Lamp For Medusa/The Players Of Hell (William Tenn/Dave Van Arnam). Harlan Ellison is also represented by From The Land Of Fear, while Dave Van Arnam’s solo work is Wizard Of Storms. In addition we have The Warriors of Terra (John Faucette), Doomstar (Edmond Hamilton), The Alien (Raymond F Jones) and After Some Tomorrow (Mack Reynolds), all designed to tempt you to the bookshelves.

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Books Update: The Green Star Also Rises

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44_lc_undergrstarw44_lc_whengrstarcallsw*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Lin Carter, generally best known as an editor poet and critic, edited the popular Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and is particularly known for his collaboration with other writers on the Conan series. He was also author to several successful sword and sorcery series. The Green Star saga involves a crippled Earthman who uses soul projection (an idea borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs) to acquire the well-preserved but dead body of a hero on a planet circling a green star. Naturally many adventures ensue as the hero enjoys flexing his muscles again. We have the complete set of Green Star novels, all in the 1st US PB incarnation. All of them are illustrated by well-known artists, including Roy Krenkel, Michael Kaluta and Michael Whelan.

Books Update: Akers and Akers of Dray Prescot

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: In 1971 Donald A Wollheim, a veteran paperback editor who had previously worked for Ace, founded DAW publishing company with his wife. The company was the first ever devoted to just Science Fiction and Fantasy. Several of Ace’s high profile writers, including E C Tubb and John Brunner supported him by contributing works for him to publish. Kenneth Bulmer also wrote to support DAW, rattling out 37 Dray Prescot novels for DAW within a few years, using the pseudonym ‘Alan Burt Akers’. We have added the first five of these novels, all having Scorpio in the title. The first book, Transit To Scorpio is available in UK (Orbit) and US (DAW) editions. The books feature a range of notable artists on their covers and internal illustrations, including Chris Achilleos, Jack Gaughan, Josh Kirby and Tim Kirk.
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Books Update: Channelling Edgar Rice Burroughs

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: 30th Century Goes Ape! Tarzan caught the imagination authors as well as readers, and a number have written stories with eerie similarities to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ man raised by apes. J T Edson went so far as to make his hero, Bunduki, the adoptive son of Tarzan. We have two of his books, Bunduki itself and Fearless Master Of The Jungle, the latter of which is in FN grade and benefits from Chris Achilleos cover art. Meanwhile, somewhere north of the Arctic circle, on a volcanic, ice-ringed island of evergreens (Nato’wa, lost homeland of the American Indians), Kioga the Snow Hawk, sole survivor of a lost ship encounters mammoths, savage peoples and lost cities in the stories of William L Chester (Hawk Of The Wilderness, Kioga Of The Wilderness, One Against A Wilderness and Kioga Of The Unknown Land). Finally, just when you thought all bases had been covered, the ‘Tarzan of outer space!’. Wallace Moore is the culprit author of Balzan Of The Cat People – The Blood Stones, about a human child brought up by cat-like aliens.
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Books Update: 30th Century Goes Ape! Aping Edgar Rice Burroughs

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44_bw_tarzansilverglobew44_bw_tarzancavecityw*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: The success of Tarzan books and films led to many imitations, not all of which were welcomed by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. In 1964 and 1965 in the US Gold Star Books published five unauthorised novels by Barton Werper (actually Peter T Scott or Peg O’Neill Scott). The estate successfully sued the publishers and unsold copies of the books were withdrawn, making any surviving books rare and desirable. To mark Ape Week at 30th Century Comics we are releasing copies of the first two tales into the wild: Tarzan And The Silver Globe and Tarzan And The Cave City (both by Peter T Scott). Both are GD/VG grade and 1st US PB.

Books Update: In A Land Fafhrd, Fafhrd Away

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44_fl_swordsdeviltryw 44_fl_swordswizardryw 44_fl_knightknaveswordsw*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Fritz Leiber’s Sword and Sorcery tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s exploits in the land of Nowhen first appeared in 1939, continuing for another 50 years. Much applauded and loved, and often imitated, the stories were highly influential for many authors, including Joanna Russ (Alyx) and Terry Pratchett (Bravd and the Weasel). We have all seven titles of the series, in high grades (VF/NM or NM), the first six all being the Mayflower edition of 1979.

Books Update: The Dennis Wheatley Library Of The Occult

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44_rhb_tnecromancersw44_jkh_downtherew*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: In the 1970’s Dennis Wheatley (author of To The Devil A Daughter and many more books in a similar vein) assembled a collection of books to act as a guided tour of the worlds of magic and mayhem. We have five books from this Library Of Occult: The Necromancers by R H Benson, The Gap In The Curtain by John Buchan, Down There by J K Huysmans, Voodoo by Alfred Metraux (a factual account, allegedly) and Harry Price Ghost-Hunter by Paul Tabori (a biography). Covering Ghosts, Necromancy, Prescience, Satanism and Voodoo these represent a good start for anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge of the occult (!).

Books Update: In The Tradition Of Conan

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*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Robert E Howard should be feeling very pleased, as all of these books are ‘In the tradition of Conan’. The heroes featured include Tark (Colum MacConnell), Odan the Half-God (Norvil Manning; actually Kenneth Bulmer), Cormac (Andrew J Offutt & Keith Taylor), ex-gladiator Prester John (Norvell W Page), Bran Mak Morn (David C Smith & Richard Tierney and Karl Edward Wagner) and Jamnar (Dave Van Arnam). Most of the covers display the hero’s mastery of the lost martial art of Skan Ti-Do (fighting whilst encumbered by a barely dressed woman), and more muscles than seem humanly possible, although they all seem to have found time to wax to display their musculature to maximum advantage. All of these books are 1st US PB and an added bonus is that Lord Of Blood (Dave Van Arnam) has a Steranko cover.

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Books Update: Steampunk Fantasy

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44_sh_tkingdombtwavesw*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Although this a comparatively modern novel/work, Stephen Hunt’s The Kingdom Beyond The Waves has been favourably compared to such disparate writers as Jules Verne, H G Wells, Charles Dickens, Philip Pullman and Ian Fleming. With antecedents like these it must be good! We have a signed, NM HC copy, with a FN dustjacket at £40.