secundus66's page

I have mixed feelings about Planet Stories doing ERB's Mars books. I loved the books (especially the early ones), but I don't want the series to publish a bunch of titles that are readily available in other editions, especially since this would mean that fewer hard-to-find titles would make it to print. If Planet Stories ever became successful enough to publish two books a month, then I would love to see these in Planet Stories editions.

I agree. Barnes & Noble is putting out an omnibus of the first 3 books (with Tom Yeates art) very soon. Brackett, Merritt, Wellman and others are FAR more in need of publication.

I really like Cook's series. It's definitely quirky, and a bit more "Dying Earth than Conan the Barbarian, but it's pretty interesting.

Only the first three (of 10) were ever released in full in the United States, so you can be forgiven for never having heard of it.

The first book was a minor hit in the early 80s from Questar, entitled "WIZARD WAR."

The books can be read in any order, and share only a common setting and some minor characters.

It's a really interesting series, and it would be cool to find a new audience for Hugh Cook here in the States.

Considering I own all the Dying Earth books (including Michael Shea's "Simbilis"), all of CAS' Zothique tales, all the Nifft the Lean novels and the Book of the New Sun tetralogy, Hugh Cook still sounds plenty interesting to me. :-) Looking forward to reading it. :-D

We're on top of the Brackett material. My main priority is to polish off the remaining Eric John Stark stuff (one more book of odds and ends, really), after which I would prefer to move on to stuff like The Nemesis from Terra. A lot of what you mention falls into that category. Much of it was recently reprinted in hardcover from Haffner, and out of respect I'd prefer not to tread to carelessly through his garden.

I am totally with you on the longer series, largely for the reason that agreeing to publish that material would fill up virtually all of our slots and leave no room for anything else. Plus, many of those really long series have loving homes with micro publishers who clearly are in it for the love, so that community (at least as far as Akers is concerned) is relatively well served.

At the current frequency of six books a year even a trilogy is claiming a significant chunk of an annual offering, and I suspect just about everyone (ourselves included) appreciates variety.

VERY glad to hear that about Brackett. I also agree with your policy regarding the other books. :-)

Deuce

New ones are ok if they can be as good as S. M. Stirling's In the Courts Of the Crimson Kings.

Right on. Excellent new "S&P". Bought both new in hc.

Louis Agresta wrote:

Just heard that Philip Jose Farmer passed away this month.

I wonder if some of his lesser known, but just as delightful, works might be available? Two-Hawks from Earth strikes me like a fit. Loved that book.

You'll be happy to hear Two Hawks will be reprinted in the near future, although not by Planet Stories. MonkeyBrain Books has picked it up. As a friend of Phil's and editor of his three latest collections, I was honored with being invited to write the afterword to the new edition, which I turned in last week, sadly before I had a chance to send it to the Farmers so it could be read to Phil.

Phil's works have come up in our discussions about possible titles to print a number of times, even before I came aboard here, and some others have also expressed some interest on the messageboards. We'll see what we can do. I do think it would be a nice fit with the line, and as the rabid Farmerphile that I am, I am certainly having fun nudging Erik about the prospects on a regular basis.

"Two-Hawks" IS a very good book. What about Paizo publishing THE SONG OF KWASIN?

Thongor: Rights not available.

Pusadian: I need to read more of this stuff, as my de Camp impressions are not exactly favorable.
Kothar: I have permission from Fox's family to reprint these, but doing so involves research that involves travel to another state and a lot of time in a library, and I haven't yet had the chance to make that happen.

I don't think anyone would accuse me of being a "deCampista", but I've always enjoyed LSdC's Pusad tales. Lots of action, magic and good world-building. I would definitely like to see a collection of all the short stories.

Deuce

Request - more Merritt! Ishtar is not enough!

Right on. DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE and THE FACE IN THE ABYSS beg to be given the PS reprint treatment.

Andrew Turner wrote:

I would like to take this opportunity to conduct my quarterly reiteration of the fact that no-one has reprinted the complete Hounds of Tindalos since Jove's Arkham reprint back in 1978.

::hint-hint::

Brilliant idea!

I believe Hippocampus is publishing THE TINDALOS CYCLE, which collects that tale and many other ones connected to it.

I sincerely request a link from the Planet Stories product page to these messageboards!

I do understand that your product pages don't have links to these boards, but Planet Stories is incredibly bare of options. Wouldn't you think that "Discuss Planet Stories Here" would at least help newbies on your site?

I might also add, that having a community of readers at the fingertips of potential subscribers is an asset.

I second that emotion. This messageboard is not that easy to access. A few more options would be nice. There are a fair number of people I know who are very passionate about this type of fiction, but were unaware of this board.

We've just announced our March 2010 Planet Stories release, The Walrus & the Warwolf, by Hugh Cook, with an introduction by China Miéville.

The cover image is a mockup.

Sounds interesting. I'm not familiar with the book.

Just received my copy (Amazon was 2 months late). Beautiful. The best edition EVER, IMO. Griffith's intro is good (though she somehow left out Robert E. Howard). Expect to see a review on The Cimmerian site within two weeks.

Once again, I thank Erik Mona and the crew at Paizo. :-)

Cool stuff, Zuxius! All the dark gods willing, I should have a blog post up reviewing SWORD OF RHIANNON in a week or two. :)

I just finished reading the Ace 1960s edition of Brackett's The Nemesis from Terra, which is set on Mars and happens to include a different (evil) character with sun-burnt-black skin who was raised in Mercury's Twilight Belt. In many ways it seems a precursor to elements from Sinharat and People of the Talisman, and a short section of it seems to follow up on The Sword of Rhiannon, which we'll be publishing shortly.

It's a decent book, and we may publish it eventually.

But my point is I must have found two dozen typos in it, including one whole paragraph I read three or four times and still couldn't make any sense out of.

Cool book, though.

I first read "Nemesis" back in '88. Personally, I feel it would make a great lead-off/title story for a collection of Leigh's Martian tales. Are there any plans to do a collection of Brackett's Venus stories? Tales like "Enchantress" and "Lorelei" are true classics.

When will this be shipping? Has it been delayed or something?

Good question, Theris. Amazon says it's coming out in July. I've updated my blog post with the new info here:

http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=3978

Best,
Deuce Richardson

Checking back in. :) I want to say that the cover looks gorgeous and I'm VERY glad that the Finlay art will be included (though I actually believe that Stephen Fabian is the best Merritt artist, so far). This book is a milestone in Merritt/fantasy publishing.

In a post on the "Cimmerian" blog site a few weeks ago, I gave a shout-out to this new edition. Here's a link:

http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=3978

Best,
Deuce Richardson

So, any exact date as to when "Rhiannon" is being issued? I may be wrong, but it appears to have been moved back a bit.
Best, Deuce

That would be great! I love The Cimmerian!

Hi Erik! I'm Deuce Richardson, once just a fan of the "Cimmerian" journal (RIP) and blog, now a TC blogger and still a fan. :) I name-dropped Merritt in my first-ever blog. Brian Murphy name-dropped YOU in his most recent TC blog on Gygax. Hope you enjoy the posts from all four of us TC bloggers in the future.

Best, Deuce

I whole-heartedly agree. I've been preachin' the gospel over on the REH Forum. However, with a blog to write weekly for "The Cimmerian" and all sorts of pesky "real life" stuff, I may not be spreading the word as much as I should. I'm thinking about working up a Brackett or Merritt post for the TC blog. We'll see. :)

Great cover! Thanks, Vic. :D

I can't wait 'til this new edition hits my mail-box. An absolute classic of Martian adventure.

Robert E. Howard would have been 103 years old on January 22nd. All hail the king! (... or one of 'em, anyway ;) )

Deuce

secundus66 wrote:

Any chance of seeing the "Hok" or "Kardios" tales reprinted?

Yup!

secundus66 wrote:

Merritt, IMO, is THE forgotten sci-fi/fantasy master of the 20th century. He influenced everyone from HPL and Clark Ashton Smith to (possibly) TRANSFORMERS. I own nearly all of his works, but I solemnly swear to buy each and every Merritt book that Paizo publishes.

Awesome! We'll hold you to that. ;)

I'll forward my order confirmations from Amazon to y'all to prove it. ;) BTW, I'm VERY pleased to see that you got Tim Powers (He of the Impeccable Taste) to write the intro to "Ishtar". Paizo has done an excellent job of snagging cool people to do intros for their books. I assume this will continue. :)

]Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion returns as Kane of Old Mars, a brilliant American physicist whose strange experiments in matter transmission catapult him across space and time to the Red Planet.[/QUOTE wrote:

After reading the above copy (and having recently graduated with my Master's in physics), I'm definitely the most excited for this one. In addition, I've never read any of Moorcock's work, so this should be a treat.

The "Kane" novels (along with Corum and the early Elric tales) are my favorite works from Moorcock. That said, I'm not a huge fan of MM otherwise. I'm definitely glad that Erik and Paizo brought back these tales. :)

Anyone remember an old RPG called Space 1889? Victorian-era early steampunk setting with Mars at the center of most of the published materials. If this type of setting is to your taste there are plenty of RPG supplements as well as fan and third-party material available (web sites, eBay, etc.) that make great reading - or you can create your own stories.

Though I never played the game, I own the vast majority of the "1889" stuff. Just really great steam-punk. As for the original topic, my preference would be:

A collage of everything I can find :-

(without getting into crazy multi-editions, etc. )

For some reason, the old link/page won't work anymore. Moderator people could dump the Brackettology post as now being useless if they like.

Leigh Brackett Covers Here

VERY cool. Thanks, Tyson! I just wish that Freas had done some more paintings for Brackett's tales.

I can confirm that I have already signed one more Wellman collection, and I'm working on a third that will collect material that has _never_ been collected before.

Hey Eric! Sounds great! I've been a Wellman fan for 20+yrs. Any chance of seeing the "Hok" or "Kardios" tales reprinted? What about Cahena? Y'all at Paizo (along with others like Bison Books and Wildside) are performing a tremendous service for the pulp fans of the world (and literature in general, IMO). B)

Also, I love Merritt. We will certainly publish more of his brilliant material.

Merritt, IMO, is THE forgotten sci-fi/fantasy master of the 20th century. He influenced everyone from HPL and Clark Ashton Smith to (possibly) TRANSFORMERS. I own nearly all of his works, but I solemnly swear to buy each and every Merritt book that Paizo publishes.