Some New Books: April – August 2014

This month marks the first anniversary of the first post to this blog, which has chugged along with at least one post per month, each month, since the blog began. Considering the fact that I believed that this might just be a short-lived offshoot of my main blog, and that it most likely would be folded back into that blog relatively quickly, I’m quite pleased that it has made it to the year mark. 🙂

Anyway, here’s an update on the books that I’ve picked up from Ebay UK, Amazon UK and elsewhere, over the period roughly April – August of this year:

Novels:

• RAINBOW MARS by Larry Niven (hardback)
• THE MEMORY OF SKY: A GREAT SHIP TRILOGY by Robert Reed (trade paperback)
• FIRE WITH FIRE by Charles E. Gannon (paperback)

Collections:

• THE COLLECTED STORIES OF VERNOR VINGE by Vernor Vinge (trade paperback)
• THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE by Larry Niven (paperback)

Anthologies:

• YEAR’S BEST SF 11 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (paperback)
• YEAR’S BEST SF 12 edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (paperback)
• THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY 2014 edited by Rich Horton (trade paperback)
• SPACE OPERA edited by Rich Horton (trade paperback)
• THRILLING WONDER STORIES Volume 1 edited by Winston Engle (trade paperback)
• THRILLING WONDER STORIES Volume 2 edited by Winston Engle (trade paperback)
• AMAZING STORIES – GIANT 35TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE – APRIL 1961 (2014 REISSUE) edited by Steve Davidson & Jean Marie Stine (trade paperback)
• THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF MINDBLOWING SF edited by Mike Ashley (trade paperback)
• THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF EXTREME SCIENCE FICTION edited by Mike Ashley (trade paperback)
• THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF GOLDEN AGE SCIENCE FICTION edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg (trade paperback)
• ALIEN’S: RECENT ENCOUNTERS edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane (trade paperback)
• FUTURE LOVECRAFT edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula R. Stiles (trade paperback)
• DEVILS AND DEMONS – A TREASURY OF FIENDISH TALES OLD & NEW edited by Marvin Kaye (hardback)
• MASTERPIECES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL – A TREASURY OF SPELLBINDING TALES OLD & NEW edited by Marvin Kaye (hardback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 1 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 4 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 5 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 7 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 9 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 10 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 15 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)
• THE GREAT SF STORIES 16 by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (paperback)

Non-Fiction:

• THE FORREST J. ACKERMAN OEUVRE by Christopher M. O’Brien (trade paperback)

Aside from two novels, Chuck Gannon’s excellent FIRE WITH FIRE and Larry Niven’s equally excellent RAINBOW MARS, one omnibus of three novels, Robert Reed’s “Great Ship” Trilogy THE MEMORY OF SKY, two author short story collections, Larry Niven’s THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE and THE COLLECTED STORIES OF VERNOR VINGE, plus one non-fiction book, THE FORREST J. ACKERMAN OEUVRE, it’s all anthologies this time around.

An interesting trend seems to be running right now, with anthologies of material from classic SF magazines being republished. Here we have two volumes of THRILLING WONDER STORIES and the 2014 reissue of the classic April 1961 35th Anniversary issue of AMAZING STORIES. Lovely stuff.

I’ve also picked up several horror anthologies, DEVILS AND DEMONS, MASTERPIECES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL and FUTURE LOVECRAFT, which is unusual for me, as ninety-nine percent of my fiction reading is SF. But I’ve always had a soft spot for anything Lovecraft, so FUTURE LOVECRAFT should be right up my street. I’m not fussed on modern horror & supernatural stuff, but DEVILS AND DEMONS is made up of all older, classic horror stories, which I really like, as is its sister anthology, MASTERPIECES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL. These should both be great reads.

There are three more anthologies of MAMMOTH books in among this lot, which are very nice indeed. I love those MAMMOTH anthologies. There are also two more anthologies from the ever-reliable Rich Horton – his most recent (2014) edition of THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY, and SPACE OPERA, a nice fat anthology of excellent space opera tales culled from more recent years. And to round off the newer books, there’s Alex Dally MacFarlane’s ALIEN’S: RECENT ENCOUNTERS, collecting some of the best recent SF stories covering that subject.

Finally, I’ve been on a bit of a roll tracking down Asimov’s classic THE GREAT SF STORIES series, which covers a massive 25 volumes of SF paperback goodness. Last time out, I’d only managed to procure one of them, Volume 19. But sheer determination will always win through, and this time around, I’ve picked up another eight volumes in the series, and just a few days ago I nabbed another three volumes, which haven’t arrived yet. That’s 12 out of the 25 volumes so far in only 3-4 months, so a pretty good start. I intend to keep going until I get all 25 volumes, as the OCD/obsessive collector in me will not allow anything else (I go nuts until I fill in any gaps in my collection).

So even more anthologies than usual. But I can’t complain, as I love my short fiction. 🙂