Collecting Gene Wolf's The Book of the New Sun Trilogy

 

Amazing books, if you can afford them

     Gene Wolf was born on May 7th 1931 (we share a birthday) and unfortunately he passed in April of 2019 at the ripe old age of 87 years old. He was one of the strongest story tellers and fantasy authors of the 20th century. He is most known for the books above, known to most as the Torturer Trilogy, or the Book of the New Sun Trilogy officially. The Shadow of the Torturer is one of the best books ever written in the genre, winning all of the prestigious awards available, and netting Wolf the highest honor of Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

The Best.

The trilogy itself is nothing short of amazing. It's gripping and world building, explains violence in a poetic and passive way, and sets the tone for a whole new breed of author that develops character-in-world assuming that you know that this world exists. Shadow, the first book in the series is considered one of the best Fantasy books ever written.

Classics in their own right.

     In the last 3-5 years and since Wolf's death, the value of the books have increased pretty considerably. Timescape- The series that this book trilogy was released under, was not really something people went out of their way for in the 80's. I would pass on these books knowing they are rereleases of popular novels on the cheap. The greatness of the book, with the small amount of releases back then, was the perfect storm of increasing value to the whole series. A poor condition example of Shadow for instance, goes for around $25 on any given day. The trilogy can go for as much as $80 bundled together, or more depending on condition. I have had a lot of luck just finding these copies at paperback exchanges for $1, so people really don't know how rare they are, or how much they cost, or how great the books are. To be safe, pick up all Timescape books going forward for sure.

Yet another package from Arizona

    Mom comes to the rescue again with some great vintage science fiction. What was thought to be a wife-requested box of flannel pillow cases, turned out to be quite the little score of paperbacks.

   I left the bags on, but you get the idea. I love me some Ace Doubles. I don't have many Farmer ones, and he is by far one of my favorites. He did some collaborations with Piers Anthony, and that's when I started reading some of his older stuff back in high school.

The Mad Goblin cover is really great and embodies the cheap/quick and dirty art of the day. Super iconic. The K. Dick Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is in pretty decent condition, and I have never owned a copy. I called my mom to let her know it sells for around $100 on ebay in used/worn condition, and told her I would never sell it and it's safe with me. It's good to build the Phillip K. Dick collection back up from when I sold some off, and have good examples of that era.

Cheers.

Lazy Holiday Weekend Pickups at Salvation Army

The fence is there to protect all the beat up old furniture.

My wife has been on the hunt for art and a coffee table she could fix up for last month-ish, so I have accompanied her on these outings. We have been chasing this Memorial Day sale at the Salvation Army, where each and every week the sales increase until the last week of the month, where everything is 75% off. For someone who says they are not "Seriously Collecting" anymore, I sure do find my share of stuff.

Cube of Wonderous Things

Books were slim at the 4 locations we went to, but at the first store, I did find 4 shelves of beat up sci-fi and fantasy for .25 cents each. The place was really packed with customers, so it was hard to grab this picture without someone walking by, or me looking like an asshole. Not a ton I was really looking for, but there were some standouts.

     The R.R. Martin got me a little excited, but then I saw the condition and just deflated. I have never read it, so at least I can say I have a first edition and that I read it. Naked Society is not something you see often, and the Heinlein is something I don't remember having in my collection. Picked up the Enders Game because I sold my first/first copy and all I have is some shitty modern cover edition I hate. Love the book and the original cover, so it was a no brainer. Nothing really to sell like the last post, but still a nice little haul. I will say that I have been passing up things I would normally buy in the last year or so. I have so many boxes I have not opened in years that I forgot what is in them, so there is no reason to really go crazy. If I can get 2 more book cases in my office however.. it's go-time.

Thanks for reading.

Huge Hardcover Score at Life's Treasures Thrift

Don't sleep on thrift stores, ladies and gentlemen. 

My wife woke up this morning and declared it a Garage Sale Day, and by the rules of Mother's Day weekend, you are not allowed to say no.. and I wanted to go anyways. We drove around for what seemed like an hour, and it was so hot so only saw a few sales. After a quick coffee, we decided to hit the thrift stores in our area. I've been to life's treasures only once before, and it was more of a clothing store than anything, but things had changed in the year or so since I've stopped by.

While my son went straight to the VHS tapes, I went over to the book shelves. First thing I noticed in the bins were 100's of science fiction and fantasy books, all .50 cents each and in really good shape.

Bins and bins of 80's and 90's modern fantasy and science fiction. Nothing really crazy in terms of value, but if you were looking to complete a lesser known series without hitting ebay, you could easily get that done here. A quick inspection and I only picked out four paperbacks that had a value of over $10, all Timescape novels by Pournelle. Not sure why, but Timescape is really hot right now. I was ready to leave when I decided to just give the hard covers a once over like I always do, and I never expect much to be honest. Hard covers are heavy, take up a ton of space, and the liklihood of me finding anything rare is.. well, rare.

The motherlode 

The first bookcase I looked in, you can see in the brown bookcase above in the first picture of the bins. It was 100% filled with 60, 70's and early 80's first edition and book club edition science fiction and fantasy hard covers in amazing condition. All but a few looks unread, or near mint. Two full bookcases! I asked the wife to bring me over a cart so I could unload some of the more familiar authors and see what I'm looking at. I'm nervous even writing this; I left about 100 more hard covers at the store. I right about to buy new tires for my truck, so I'm making some kind of attempt to save money, so I grabbed the 30 I thought would be the best at the moment.

What a find. It's been since I went back to the Book Rack over two years ago since I've seen some BCE and old school hard backs in the wild, but these were only $2 each, and the book rack charged low eBay pricing. BCE Books from the late 70's must be made out of different paper or something, because they always look pretty decent and the when the dust jackets are on, they are in great shape with little wear.

These all-in-one series anthonologies always peak my interest. I like boxed sets, and this has the same appeal. These are mail away first editions from 1978, have all the maps and fun of the original first editions and have unique cover art. The Boris cover Zalazny's were really awesome, shared the same cover, and I'm glad I picked them up. Overall, a great score, and I hope I can make it back soon with some more cash to pick up another haul of these books before they are gone. I secretly hope someone is reading this and heads down to Life's Treasures Thrift to pick up some books and benefits from this in some way. Even the paperbacks would be special to someone who is just starting their collection and wants to pick up a couple of boxes on the cheap.

Thanks for reading. 

Neighborhood Garage Sale Finds - H.P. Lovecraft & More

      

     Well look what we have here, a community-wide garage sale! I have been seeing the signs in the adjoining neighborhood for weeks, and today was finally the day. I somehow managed to get my teenaged son out of the bed to come with me, which was welcome indeed. It was on of those events where there were so many cars, you kind of had to park somewhere on the street and plot your destination. If I had to guess, I would say there was over 50 garage/yard sales total. As you can see from the above pictures, I did find a bag of books for 50 cents each! I spotted a bunch of very bad condition fantasy 80's novels in a box, and just keep looking around. My son was finding win-after-win and I was empty handed right up until the end. The picture on the left is the actual sale, and that's me on the right walking back to the car with the loot. Don't mind the wrist brace.

The garage sale loot.

     

     When I saw the HP Lovecraft book, I knew I was in the right place. A few other little gems and some unknowns caught my eye right away and I knew for 50 cents each, I could not go wrong. Most notably the two Lovecraft books, Charnel house, and Heart of Darkness all have eBay sold listings for well over $20 each recently.

All the books had that white tag with the price on them.

     Really great covers, especially on the early Burroughs trade paperback. I have not been going to many garage sales lately because of the price of gas, and the amount of garbage you have to sift through to find anything. Back in the early days of the blog I use to live off of Mcgregor Blvd in Fort Myers, by the Edison Home and Ford Estates. Very high end area, and their yard and garage sales are licensed with the city in that area. Not sure why, but there was always something good to find. Maybe one person paid to have their garage sale licensed and all the neighbors brought something over to sell? The cost of the houses? Rich people do throw away cool shit. 

Anyways. Thanks for reading. 

Quick visit to Wilson's Book World

Wilson's Book World - St. Pete (Website)

     I was recently in St. Petersburg for a work event, and had to quickly leave to go back to the office, when I passed Wilson's Book World. I nearly drove right past it; it came up on me so fast. I drive a medium sized pickup, and their parking lot was so small and hard to navigate, I did not think I was going to have room to park, but I just barely made it. leaving, it took me 4 attempts to clear the side of the building, and multiple tries to turn back on to the road. This building looks like its in multiple different levels or rooms, but I don't think it is. Someone may live above/behind it in the attached building? Not sure.

Half of the Science Fiction section.

Half of the Fantasy Section

One shelf of around half of the Vintage Sci-fi

     Walking in, I was greeted by a very cheerful person working the counter behind a plastic sheet. Super friendly and offered help right away. Some regulars were walking around shopping which was nice to see in a post-pandemic world. An old man walked in when I did to return some books he bought previously, and was called out for bringing in books that were not purchased there, and hoooo boy did she handle it quickly. Never even let him get a breath, just said no, this is what I can do and goodbye. No, "The customer is always right" bullshit here! 

     Prices were medium-high ebay average in good condition. Every book has a stamp in it with a pencil written value; almost always $3 on the regular books. Vintage were about $7 and up.. this place knows what it has in inventory and will not be had by someone like me. Condition does not seem to matter, all prices were ebay medium/high sold auction value even if the cover was just barely on there. The stamp itself really affects the condition, and in used book stores that do this, I kind of expect a little lighter on the prices. I really wanted those ace doubles, it's super hard to find them, especially in this frequency, but again with the condition and stamping. I love the organization and, commitment to the alpha system, and even keeping the series books together by number is a super welcome and refreshing thing to see in any book store, something you don't even see at Barnes & Noble. I asked if she had some Dungeons and Dragons modules, and she had several in the "Antiquities and Rare" section for $60 each which was VERY extreme. The box sets themselves the books came from, for example, Menzoberrazan Forgotten Realms- goes for $100 in perfect shape. $60? No way. $20 on a good day. A quick peek around and I confirmed some of my fears.. some things were a little overpriced. I did find a few little gems:

Star Gate by Andre Norton, 1958 pulp edition in fair condition

Riverworld 5 book Boxed Set in fair condition

    No stamp in either one, just some light pencil. Star Gate was marked $9 and Riverworld box was marked $15.95. Strangely, when I checked out, she only charged me a flat $20 for both items which was super nice of her. I can't find anything on the Riverworld Boxed Set, which leads me to believe it was somewhat rare. I see the books contained inside for sale on ebay for $35, but no shell. The Star Gate I have in other editions, and goes for exactly the same as marked.. around $9. I spent a little more than I would normally but I did not want to leave empty handed from a family owned business. I hate to be so critical in my quick review, and reading this back, it just really seems like I hated it. It was a nice little store, if you need something to complete a set, I would highly recommend going here to get that done as they have so many hard to find items. If you can wait a few days you can get it on ebay. I did not have much time, but I bet with enough patience you could find some good deals.

See you next time.

Double-Trouble - Pickups from two different Florida bookstores

A Novel Idea Bookstore - Ocala Florida

     It's close to my birthday, and I had to travel a lot this week, so I hit some old favorites of mine in Fort Myers and Ocala. The Book Rack in Fort Myers is still owned by the same person, and I have posted about the store several other times in this blog. Its great for a twice a year stop in to see if any of the inventory has changed over. The other store I visited is A Novel Idea in Ocala, which I had been in once before, but there was really nothing in my price range. Their cheapest books are $2-$4 on average. I did find some gems however. They had an orange cat at checkout in a box of books, which is very good luck and much appreciated. Anyways, back to the Book Rack.

   Well friends, she finally got wise to reseller and collector antics. There was a ton of new stuff in the store, but everything that was worth anything is now on a huge table behind the owner at the front, and to the side priced for eBay sale. Anything over an eBay sold value of $4 has been deemed as "Rare" and removed to be put on eBay. She did allow me to look behind the counter, but warned me it's prices as marked. There was two large wire racks in the middle of the sci-fi fantasy section just covered with Book Club Edition's for days. A lot of stuff I did not have, and all in good condition, but each one is marked with sharpie in the front cover insert as for sale for $8 each. The actual value of these books are around $5 each on eBay, so I think she is looking at listed values and not sold auctions. Either way, I caught her slipping on a Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe and a stack of Zelazny for $1 each on the very bottom shelf mixed in with some Shatner Tek War. I did notice if it was on the bottom shelf, it appeared to be priced years ago and untouched. It's also worth noting, any of the Timescape books are going for big money and I have no idea why.

The haul from both locations

     Left stack is from the Book Rack, right stack is from Novel Idea. Some really great old pulpy sci-fi, and some great covers from Novel Idea, and they had some more stuff that I wanted. I broke the bank at $31, which is MUCH more than I would normally pay. $2 is the minimum price for a book there as mentioned previously. When I found The Black Horde by Lewis, I didn't feel bad spending the money, as I have one other copy and I knew it was worth $30+. The Origin of the Crabs really stood out for me, so got that as well and was pleasantly surprised of its value. The rest of the books I did not have, or had in a different edition so grabbed them on merit knowing I'm going to make my money back on the one book alone. Full transparency, I sell the doubles of books I find in the wild, and keep the better edition for myself to fund more book buying down the line. I also pick up books for fellow collectors, but I'm horrible about getting back to them and looking through mountains of storage for what they need. I spent just under $50 on this trip, got some stuff I wanted, and two books to sell to get that money back. Some cover shots below:

Artax the Book Cat paying the Cat Tax

     Speaking of Cat Tax, Bastian the original book cat pictured in tons of my posts and in the margin to your right, died in February of old age at 18 years old. My wife and I got him at a yard sale in Lehigh Acres Florida, covered in fleas and had worms along with his sister Chloe. We had them both until they were 18 years old, and he still sat and watched me read and toppled over my stacks of books from time-to-time. So RIP Bastian, you will be missed. 

RIP Bastian - 2004-2022