I Bought Another Vintage Sci-Fi / Fantasy Collection [Book Haul]

[@zardoz_the_great]

"That's gotta be a rare book" *throws it carelessly back into the box* So jealous of your finds, looking forward to the Roadside Picnic review, one of my favourites.

[@D4n1t0o]

"New Bookpilled just dropped!" *drops everything to watch*

[@HigrationsMintergrund420]

I'm so jealous man, I live in Germany and I have to order all the vintage scifi books over ebay so I can enjoy them here... Only great books you show us!!!

[@JohnInTheShelter]

Damn, what a haul. Cordwainer Smith is a write I wish more readers would investigate. THE INSTRUMENTALITY hardcover is one of my most precious possessions. He had a VISION--that's what I love in a writer, a unique look at the world. Ellison...Leiber...AH! Enjoy your reading, man, good stuff coming you way.

[@hunterdpassmore]

That pebble in sky book is awesome. Great finds man!

[@personmcpersonperson2893]

Your videos give me a sense of enormous wellbeing

[@DonnaW71]

I love this comment

[@emsleywyatt3400]

"Earth Abides" is truly timeless.

[@JohnInTheShelter]

Robert Silverberg is SO underrated. He always delivers.

[@davidevans1667]

Yes

[@robertwhitworth8352]

Completely agree. His Majipoor series is essential.

[@JohnInTheShelter]

@@robertwhitworth8352 I hope the folks who love Majipoor go back to his late sixties/early seventies streak. It's where he graduated from being a decent SF writer to being one of the very best: DYING INSIDE, DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH, etc. He's said he saw these as places where he could try out different styles, themes and kinds of SF, and the results are a variety of really good books.Then after a few years off (he said at the time he was 'retiring' from SF) he came out with LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE, which was a big deal in the SF community (I was a movie-loving STARLOG reader and even I could sense this was a big return). His career is fascinating to see for its phases and what resulted from them.

[@thecryptile]

You don't get to be a SFWA Grandmaster without having a few skills :)

[@chriswright9096]

@@JohnInTheShelter Yes, late 60s early 70s Silverbergs are the ones to read. Downward to The Earth, A Time of Changes, Dying Inside, Book of Skulls, Tower of Glass, The Man in the Maze, Nightwings, The World Inside, Stochastic Man, Shadrach in The Furnace. All SF of the finest quality. I'll pass on Majipoor. It is considered good fantasy, but that says more about the fantasy genre than anything else.

[@severianthefool7233]

Really like your channel! I moved to the San Diego area about a year and have been meaning to check out an SF bookshop called Mysterious Galaxy

[@Arational]

Keep your eyes pealed for Mick Farren, especially The DNA Cowboys trilogy.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

That’s a great haul of books, looking forward to the next sale. I’d bet the bidding on the Wolfe book will be savage.

[@AllisonRoadWest]

Neverness - 1st of the series and good place to start. The one you got is it’s beautiful original paperback. Slow psychological and philosophical character drama. Series ramps up in pace as the books go on. Save that and read it asap. 🎉

[@jamesleighton85872]

I read wizard of the pidgeons a long time ago, thought it was pretty good at the time, cant remember much about the plot now. Great haul of books though.

[@elliotwalton6159]

I'm vicariously living my reader's life through you! Great haul. I'm just finishing Solaris today. Babel-17 next.

[@wireheadslabs]

Those books would be my dream collection! I have some of them, but most I have never read. Have you heard of the "12 Planets of the Intergalactic Map" series? Book 3 called "The Vandekirians" was just released. It's main plot is: "What happens when 12 civilizations from different planets meet for the very first time? Will their common origin unite them? Or will they destroy each other?" The world-building alone is so imaginative and creative to behold, and the character-driven and grand mythos of this universe the author has created is very engaging and mesmerizing.

[@angusmckeogh659]

I haven't read that Mike McQuay Robot Series book, but his Mathew Swain series of pulpy, sci-fi, noir fiction novels is absolutely awesome. McQuay wrote a good bunch of stuff on his own, a load of pulpy series material (like the Robot Series and Mack Bolan books), and a collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke called Richter 10. I'd suggest the Swaim series as a beginning and if you were a fan of Escape from New York (the movie) he wrote that novelization.

[@sethball2475]

Mike McQuay's novel called Memories has got to be his masterpiece, and is one of my Top Ten SF novels of all time.

[@thevintageviking4752]

This immortal has been at the top of my tbr for awhile now. The cover on it is fantastic!

[@BenjaminCapoeman]

"I heard it's good..." Yes, it tied with Dune for best novel for the 1966 Hugo award. :)

[@steverobbins4872]

A World Out of Time is one of my favorite Niven novels.

[@apilgrim8715]

Long Arm of Gil Hamilton is a good one too.

[@InTrancedState]

Holy shit Neverness! My uncle recommended it to me as a kid and it was the very first hard sci fi book i ever read! It was my intro to the whole genre and what kept me in it!! Its a good book and im so surprised it isnt talked about more

[@clydecrashcup2792]

Hi Matt! Good to hear you're doing good on Whatnot. I just signed up for it and maybe if I can figure it out I'll join the crowd to watch (or buy) some great SF Books from you.

[@stevecruztube]

On and off for about 6 months, I've been trying to remember the name of a book I read long ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was Niven's A world out of Time. Thanks, its been killing me. Shockwave Rider! I love that book.

[@MrAndyWiggins]

I read Neverness earlier this year and loved it. Excited to hear your eventual review.

[@erbernaljr]

"Lord of Light" is one of the five I'd take to a desert island with me.

[@stuartrobertson696]

Excellent videos. Your knowledge of genre literature is admirable. My new binge watch channel.

[@drmidnight2419]

The Peirs Anthony book must be scarce because I never saw that one back in the day when I was collecting sf paperbacks. I can paint these covers in acrylic. I show my paintings around and people who know nothing about SF also like them, both men and women. The cover art is part of the reason these books sold when they were new. And they sold lots of them.

[@nunyabizness6595]

I think I remember a Gilliland as an illustrator for Locus and other fanzines back in the day. Don't know if his first name was Alex though.

[@Larrym-rz5bk]

You might want to try Nunquam by Lawrence Durrell, my favorite robot book along with Caves of Steel. Usually ignored because it is the second of a pair of book and the first, Tunc, is not sf, but both are stylistic masterpieces.

[@johnmartin4650]

H G Wells…..When the Sleeper Awakes…….loved it

[@joseelacasse3189]

Fabulous cover art on so many of those beauties

[@ellenlandowski1659]

Would love to see some of the front book art

[@salty-walt]

DAMN! I just stumbled upon "Warlord of Ghandor" in a Library sale today (and NEVER before in my life!)

[@lex6819]

I went to a public library book sale this week and found lots of vintage books. I even found copies of a book I've been looking for but forgot the author's name. "The Baker's Boy" by J. V. Jones, and the second book in that trilogy also. Plus lots of obscure 80s women writers in fantasy/sci-fi, and some Star Trek books.

[@uncannyvalleywoods7248]

Roadside Picnic is so freakin rad. When I saw the previews for Annihilation, I couldn't help but think it was a nearly direct ripoff of Roadside...ultimately this detracted from the movie because I couldn't separate the two in my head. Still a great movie on its own, but it makes me want a new adaptation of Roadside. If you haven't seen the Tarkovsky adaptation Stalker, I highly recommend. It's a very moody and dark film, but it definitely captures the essence of Roadside.

[@ChrisBadenoch]

I read Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert after seeing your enthusiasm and it's FANTASTIC! Please read it if you have not got around to it.

[@timarmstrong9026]

Inferno by Niven and Pournelle is a fun to read version of Dante-Lite

[@DavideMana]

A bunch of things while I try and keep my envy at bay... Neverness is absolutely great - think Dune but on an ice planet, with LOTS of ideas and speculation, and beautifully written. Also, Janet Morris is quite good, and the Silistra series (that is SF despite the covers) is absolutely unique. Ron Goulart can be hit or miss, but at his best he was brilliant. And both Ansen Dibell and Jo Clayton are just smart and lots of fun; they are SF, not fantasy (and pretty rare, AFAIK).

[@mikejcross]

I second the recommendation for Ansen Dibell (real name Nancy Ann Dibble). DAW published 3 novels in the Kantmorie series; she wrote 2 more, not sure if they're in the series or not, but sadly they've only been published in the Netherlands, in Dutch.

[@space_patrolman]

Fantastic beefcake already at 5 seconds into the video. This is going to be good.

[@sethball2475]

Fun video. They always are. The gems, as far as I’m concerned: Neverness by Zindell (I hope you keep it; anyway, someone is gonna love that one.) The Wizard of the Pigeons by Lindholm (yeah, it’s good! that’s a bit of a find, too - not common; somewhat of a well-respected, now forgotten novel…someone who knows about it will want it.) The Phoenix and the Mirror by Davidson (I focused on that as my first book by Davidson simply because it was on an old “100 Best Fantasy” novels, and it’s great. Recommended.) Boy, someone went to town on getting tons of Colin Kapp. My perception is that he is one of the least well-reviewed SF authors out there. Like, hackwork incarnate - which might be fun!)

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

hear hear re the Lindholm - I included it in my book '100 Must Read Fantasy Novels'.

[@sethball2475]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Well I can’t say I’m surprised.

[@Etry63]

Excited to hear what you think about Roadside Picnic, it’s one of my all time favourites

[@Bookpilled]

Perfect novel

[@mikejcross]

I think you should keep & read Elizabeth A. Lynn's A Different Light; it is excellent, v much has an early Delany vibe. All of her work is excellent, but mostly fantasy; she only wrote one other SF novel, The Sardonyx Net - which comes with puffs by Varley, Jeff Frane, Piercy, McIntyre. Jo Clayton's Diadem series (what she is best known for) is v definitely SF, despite that cover. The Edward Llewellyn books are pretty-good-for-their-time space opera.

[@phaedrus2633]

I don't go to Goodwill very often, but every time I do, I take a look at their book selection, and would have to say, they do have some great books.

[@chuckbridgeland6181]

You find weird stuff at Goodwill, gems in the pile of crap novels and wildly out of date "X for Dummies" books. And, of course, at any given time you can probably amass a complete set of Left Behind novels from what's there.

[@phaedrus2633]

@@chuckbridgeland6181 No doubt, I'm a soppy sentimentalist, but one reason I don't visit Goodwill more often, is that it's just depressing to me, thinking about how all those items in there could tell a story. Some belonged to happy families, some to households in tragic situations.

[@sciencefictionreads]

Star by C.I Defontenay has been on my radar forever. Its a sort of space opera first published in 1854.

[@JohnInTheShelter]

Richard McKenna is underrated. You made a GREAT haul this time.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Agreed, McKenna did some great stuff.

[@withnail1967]

Great site: brilliantly captures the opiate excitement of plunging into charity shops for paperback trove, then the whole is garnished with incisive critical commentary and then he sells them to you! Have you tried the page 99 test? it works on the theory that al all writers try very hard at the beginning and end of the book to make their prose sing, if you want to see what the big book will sound like when they're in the midst of it look at page 99 and try to engage with the quality of their prose from there: it works!

[@smallscalefutures]

The Skylark Three cover is indeed Chris Foss....he did all the Panther Doc Smith books in the early 70's. The cover on The Einstein Intersection is by the late great Peter Elson who painted several Delany covers for Sphere....the cover he did for Babel-17 is sensational.

[@zdog34whatnow]

I found that same copy of Cyberiad at a local used bookstore and they were asking for $25! I NEVER see that book in shops

[@boromirjonah5774]

NEVERNESS!!! So dark and creepy and cold and....

[@meesalikeu]

roadside is one of my top favs

[@thecryptile]

Idk if it is rare or not, but the Cluster books are fun and two of the aliens got included in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. The series has an interesting conceit: the further from a center of development a colony is, the less technology can be sustained there--so instead of having the frontier colonies be sleek Star Trek style outposts, they are literally in the stone age.

[@Fissi0nChips]

Just started reading Blood Music (at your recommendation). I am liking it right off the bat (but then I like Greg Bear generally)

[@MediaEnraged]

Where can you find book stores that sell these type of boxes?

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Sent you that book today finally Matt. I have 'Neverness', it was big back in the 80s. The Chilson is quite uncommon. That 'Neuromancer' isn't a first paperback - the World First is the Ace Terry Carr special, which predates the UK Gollancz hardcover (this is how it won the PKD award, which is for paperback originals only). It looks like a pbk of the Ace tenth anniversary to me, but I may be wrong there. A fun haul as ever!

[@Bookpilled]

Thanks Steve, I'm hanging onto that Chilson as well as all the Lems. Hope you're well.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@Bookpilled -Thanks Matt, I'm not too bad, will email you soon. You should get the book in around a week, I'd say.

[@salty-walt]

I believe The Outlaw Bookseller told me to get that Lumley in a video. . . Or was it a Dream. . . ?

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@salty-walt -One way or another, it was me. It's a fun tome, but later ones in the series are to be avoided!

[@hannahpeters9600]

New favorite word unlocked: “Gryffincake”

[@TFmaster75]

gahhh selfishly im mad youre not selling those Lem's! im just now getting into his work, and while i didn't love Solaris, im obsessed with somr of his other novels like His Masters Voice and The Invincible

[@Rangersly]

New subscriber here! That's a LOT of books! Do you really intend to read all of them? And I concur, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser is one of the most important series in the fantasy genre. Top 5 in my humble opinion. Very surprised to see Where Were You On Last Pluterday by Paul Van Herck pop up there at the end. I didn't even know it had been published in the US. I highly recommend this weird, nonsensical, and very fun novel if you get tired of reading the same old-same old, and want to try something very different. Don't let go of it before you read it!

[@salty-walt]

You DO find unusual quantities of rare books. . . and the sexiest editions

[@michaelgarza6735]

I prefer Lem's funnier books, and I think The Cyberiad is his best/funniest. Girl Who Was Plugged In is brilliant! You picked some real winners...

[@danieljette8007]

Gerard Klein is a french author. So unless there is an author with the same name, Mote in time's eye is probably a translation.

[@helpfulcommenter]

The New York Times just ran an article on how to get into Phillip K Dick (like breaking down his most canonic books and why you’d like them if you like something else) and featured some awesome vintage covers. Love them.

[@jonathanedwardgibson]

I have been recently searching for my Shockwave Rider and cannot locate. Blood Music was surprisingly good.

[@Jenna.Im.Just.Saying]

I wonder if the Edward Llewellyn books you keep finding, if he's somehow related to the author of the yearly planting books, sun & lunar Cycle books & all the books related to mysticism? You wouldn't think that a very common name 🤔

[@ThrownOut2Sea]

The Gregg Turkington of sci-fi books

[@donovanmedieval]

Unlike Robots in Time, Asimov lent his name to the series Robot City when he was still alive. If you have any interest or experience in live theater, you should read Christopher Stasheff's A Company of Stars. It's first sequel was We Open on Venus (actually set on a planet called New Venus). I can't rememeber the name of the third in the series, but as far as I know, that was the last of the series, but a much longer series seemed to be promised.

[@steverobbins4872]

The Rosinante series is pretty good.

[@LocoFocoLit]

A World Out of Time is my favorite Niven novel. It’s not great, sure; but is almost Simakian in mood, and I up my ardor in acknowledgement of the James Branch Cabell references.

[@LocoFocoLit]

I've read a number of these, including The Ship that Sailed the Timestream. Sydney Van Scyoc's book starts out about as good as you could hope. Excellent. I also talk about the very Timescape edition of The Shadow of a Torturer on my recent video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWO2dYCdbsd1qJo

[@klipkultur3680]

''Expedition to Earth'' is a great title, and a short story that, with ''The Sentinel'', would become ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.

[@b.a.7228]

Brunner is good. SHOCKWAVE RIDER a proto-cyberpunk. Like you, I love Bear's BLOOD MUSIC. Cordwainer Smith and Stanislaw Lem are great auto-acquisitions. The awards volumes always make for good reading. Fritz Leiber's surname is pronounced Lie-ber, not Lee-ber. The Zelazny, LORD OF LIGHT, is really good. Spinrad is oft excellent, but I've not read that specific title. Love Vance. THIS IMMORTAL is good Zelazny. It tied with DUNE for best Hugo novel in '66. L'Engle is pronounced like the apostrophe isn't there. French in origin but anglicized. LENG-el. WIZARD OF THE PIGEONS is wonderful urban fantasy. Love Avram Davidson. I'm not as enamored of his SF, but his Fantasy/Weird stuff is great. THE PHOENIX AND THE MIRROR is great, but also hard to come by. I've never come across that edition in the wild. You're right on the Ron Goulart pronunciation. Ghoul-art. Incredibly prolific, infamous for writing the William Shatner TEKWAR books. HAAKON, not MAAKON. Quasi-historical fantasies centered around Vikings. More sword and sorcery adjacent than true sword and sorcery. Aye, Lumely wrote the NECROSCOPE series. Tiptree was, and remains, a favorite. Gérard Klein, not Gerald. French SF author. His short work, especially the early short work, is his best. The novel isn't related to Nivel and Pournelle. It's just that both titles are playing off of a Biblical episode. Gosh how Thomas Burnett Swann's profile has fallen. THE INTEGRAL TREES is Hard SF. It doesn't begin realistically like BLOOD MUSIC, but it ramps up to heights of awe and jaw-dropping invention like BLOOD MUSIC. Fafhrd is to rhyme with proffered. Strugatskys are good. COSMIC RAPE has also been published as TO MARRY MEDUSA. I love Sturgeon, and liked it when I read it, but upon refection it isn't one of his stronger novels. Delany is great; as is Wolfe. I believe, though I could be misremembering, that Hubbard's ghostwriter came late into his life. ORBIT series is great.

[@chrispernasky9619]

If you took the suggestive book cover from "Prelude to Space" and hooked it up with the suggestive book cover from "The Flight of the Horse, what would you get? Booklets!

[@phaedrus2633]

Rozinante, Don Quixote's squeeze. Oops! Wrong, that was the Don's horse. Dulcinea was his romantic interest.

[@MacAisling]

I have a few titles in the Diadem of the Stars series, but not that one.

[@adamgreene9878]

Wizard of the Pigeons, by Lindholm is a very good contemporary fantasy book. Highly recommended for anyone who thinks the synopsis on the back cover sounds vaguely interesting.

[@chuckbridgeland6181]

"Dean Koontz, somehow" (He wrote some SF for the magazines, early, as I recall. I remember reading him in F&SF). Simak, "Why Call Them Back From Heaven" -- part of the Ace Science Fiction Specials series, which was mostly really good stuff. "Inferno" -- excellent. (The sequel, not so much. IMHO&YMMV.) "As the Curtain Falls" -- swashbuckling adventure in the absolute twilight of the world. SF, not S&S. Colin Capp mostly published in John Campbell's Analog. Potboiler stuff, nothing outstanding that I recall. Arsen Darney is also a name from that era, ditto. Delaney did juveniles? Now there's a scary thought. And a whole bunch of names I have no recollection at all of.

[@bookmeridian]

I really want to read Blood Music after hearing you talk about it.

[@YoStabbaStabba]

me: *freezes video at 11:51

[@robertmalinowski6804]

I think "dangerous visions" has the same style cover art as the Foundation books of the same era. Plus, i think there is a similar cover style for "pebble in the sky" and "earth is room enough".

[@chuckbridgeland6181]

Leo and Diane Dillon (did the DV art) did a lot of SF over the years. But, I don't think they did the Avon Books Foundation covers. (I did have both, way back in the day. If they still exist, they've been in my garage for 30 years.)

[@robertmalinowski6804]

@@chuckbridgeland6181 i just remember Dangerous Visions 2 having the same artwork on it. I'll have to check.

[@jerryfiore5818]

Meghan Lindholm is Robin Hobb's old pen name.

[@TableTopTroubadour]

Griffin-cake made me hungry

[@mescalito]

For your information : Gérard Klein is a French author.

[@Bookpilled]

lol

[@HalJalikakik]

Sword and Sorcerer falls into some fun 80's cheese. Rather than read the book or watch the movie I recommend watching with Mystery Science Theater 3000 (rebranded to Rifftrax?) after a couple adult sodas or edibles... depending on your preference. 😂

[@phaedrus2633]

Have you ever come across "Titan", or the Titan series by Varley, I think? Very different.

[@Bookpilled]

Yes, I have a copy in hardcover.

[@rickkearn7100]

BP: can you suggest a one-stop source all about SF cover art? I've not searched extensively yet to find one but, if anybody knew of a source I figured it would be you. Great haul BTW. Cheers.

[@Bookpilled]

If you find one, let me know. I learn bits and pieces as I go along.

[@richwagner9883]

Read a description on Wikipedia of Lem’s The Invincible…. Oh my, grubby little hands indeed.

[@davidevans1667]

I just read Solaris by Lem. I liked some things about it but also found it kind of boring. Are there better titles to try by him?

[@dimitrikorsakov2570]

Who is the Lloyd mentioned in connection with Neverness?

[@Bookpilled]

"Moid," of a channel called Media Death Cult

[@nathan_james]

How do you identify first editions?

[@DamnableReverend]

Joining the discord server sounds like something I'd like to do. But the link there is showing as invalid!

[@Bookpilled]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. This link should work: discord.gg/DA5c5UsWr7

[@b.a.7228]

Non-English language SF that I noticed: Stanislaw Lem (Polish) The Strugatsky Brothers (Russian) Géard Klein (French) Paul van Herck (Belgian)

[@petersmith6508]

As you made no comment on it I assume you have not read "the shockwave rider" by John Brunner. It was interesting in 1975 when I first read it and remains my favorite SF to this day.

[@peterm.fitzpatrick7735]

I have an almost complete collection of Brunner's work, and while I appreciate his "big message" books, I find his earlier Ace Double books to be more entertaining.

[@Imsuper656]

Have you ever come across copies of "The Saga of Pliocene exile" by Julian May? They're amazing sci fi combining a bit of European mythology written by a woman in the 1980's.Millions of copies were sold globally. I think that they're very under rated and you never hear much about then anymore which I find strange. She was a fantastic, inventive story who created a complex story with many fascinating characters that encompasses the Earth as it was 6 million years ago to a galaxy spanning multi species civilisation that was watching and waiting for humanity to mature to a certain level for 60,000 years! First in the series is "The many coloured land" 1981

[@Bookpilled]

Yes, I have the whole series. Will get to it eventually.

[@Imsuper656]

@@Bookpilled They're great, truly. What an imagination she had! 'Intervention' is my favourite in the series, it's mostly set in the 20th century.

[@Imsuper656]

Have you ever read any Peter f. Hamilton? I'd recommend the 'Night's Dawn Trilogy' and all the 'Greg Mandell' stories and I LOVE 'Fallen Dragon'

[@peterlacey4773]

I remember that Jo Clayton book being more scifi than fantasy

[@phaedrus2633]

Ah, "The City of Gold and Lead", that is one I read. But I always have to Google the author.

[@onurcaksu3145]

if you like don maitz's art (shadow), rereading wolfe podcast has an episode with him as a guest. you can find it on youtube. recommend it ^.^

[@dillonrogers1812]

I never find this much stuff around where I live.

[@crimmo54]

Love Lem’s The Invincible

[@steverobbins4872]

You haven't read Inferno? It's brilliant. And there's a sequel too.

[@emsleywyatt3400]

I'm almost 70 and have read SF since I was 14 or so and have never, ever heard of "Edward LLewelyn". Let us know your reaction to him.

[@JohnInTheShelter]

I try so hard to read one before I buy one, but it's a sickness, isn't it?

[@klipkultur3680]

Gérard Klein, that means translated from french.

[@chriswright9096]

I suspect the original owner of those fantasy books may have been unduly influenced by the covers.

[@garymoraco3184]

I'm still having problems signing into Discord so pass this along to Moid if you could. Moid I hope you know when you bring those classics that are hard to come by to "charity' that they probably use the pages for something other than reading...Seriously. Do you actually think someone in poverty gives a rat's ass about reading science fiction?

[@garymoraco3184]

LOL! 🤣😉😇