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Jul. 12th, 2003 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThe Science Fiction Book Club has caught me again. I've been a member for years, but I tend to go through long periods when nothing they offer appeals to me, at least among the titles I don't already own. I can't say that I've exactly been going through such a period in recent months, but there definitely hasn't been much. I've picked up a couple of sale items, gambled on a couple of new authors (when I get around to finishing the books, I'll try to remember to talk about them here) and bought a Brust two-in-one volume so that I could own Issola (I already had the other novel, Dragon, having received it as a present, but the SFBC volume was cheaper than getting Issola on its own in hardcover). Apart from that, I've seriously considered picking up the combined editions of James White's Sector General novels. I own them all in paperback, but my copies are battered and a bit brittle.
The most recent SFBC flier, however, had something that I absolutely have to buy.
A bit of history's in order-- When I was in high school, Meredith Ann Pierce published Darkangel. I found it at the public library, checked it out and read it. Then I reread it immediately. When it came out in paperback, I bought it. Darkangel tells the story of a girl kidnapped to be the servant to a vampire's wives. Once a year, the vampire kidnaps a girl, marries her and steals her life force, leaving her a despairing wraith. When he has the life force of 13 maidens, he'll be able to become a true demon. Naturally, the heroine has to find a way to prevent this from happening.
Darkangel did not require a sequel, but Pierce wrote one soon after, A Gathering of Gargoyles. I snagged that one as soon as I could. A Gathering of Gargoyles did, in fact, require a sequel. I waited. And waited. And met other people who were also waiting. The series became a common part of our lament (complete with cursing) about incomplete series that we feared never would be finished.
When the third book, Pearl of the Soul of the World, finally did come out, nearly a decade later, it was only available in two forms: the library edition and the SFBC three-in-one edition. I bought the library edition before I found out that the SFBC edition was going to be published. I'd been waiting a very long time for the book and damned well wanted it as soon as I could get it. I'm glad I didn't wait because it didn't come out in paperback (I think it may have done so in the last year or two, which would be at least a five year wait).
Our grumblings about Pierce were aggravated by the fact that, between books two and three, she published two other novels, The Woman Who Loved Reindeer and Birth of the Firebringer. I got the former in paperback and the latter as a remaindered hardcover. Birth of the Firebringer was obviously the first in a series (I think it even said so on the cover), but I never saw anything further until about three days ago.
The SFBC is offering a three-in-one edition of Birth of the Firebringer and its two sequels. I never saw either of the other books in the stores, and I looked. I really did. It makes me wonder how many books by authors of similar obscurity I've missed. A little poking around online revealed another Pierce book that I'd missed. Sigh... I've now ordered it from Amazon along with the new Diana Wynne Jones. Normally, I'd prefer to go to one of the bookstores in town, but Delia's presence still complicates such things too much.
The most recent SFBC flier, however, had something that I absolutely have to buy.
A bit of history's in order-- When I was in high school, Meredith Ann Pierce published Darkangel. I found it at the public library, checked it out and read it. Then I reread it immediately. When it came out in paperback, I bought it. Darkangel tells the story of a girl kidnapped to be the servant to a vampire's wives. Once a year, the vampire kidnaps a girl, marries her and steals her life force, leaving her a despairing wraith. When he has the life force of 13 maidens, he'll be able to become a true demon. Naturally, the heroine has to find a way to prevent this from happening.
Darkangel did not require a sequel, but Pierce wrote one soon after, A Gathering of Gargoyles. I snagged that one as soon as I could. A Gathering of Gargoyles did, in fact, require a sequel. I waited. And waited. And met other people who were also waiting. The series became a common part of our lament (complete with cursing) about incomplete series that we feared never would be finished.
When the third book, Pearl of the Soul of the World, finally did come out, nearly a decade later, it was only available in two forms: the library edition and the SFBC three-in-one edition. I bought the library edition before I found out that the SFBC edition was going to be published. I'd been waiting a very long time for the book and damned well wanted it as soon as I could get it. I'm glad I didn't wait because it didn't come out in paperback (I think it may have done so in the last year or two, which would be at least a five year wait).
Our grumblings about Pierce were aggravated by the fact that, between books two and three, she published two other novels, The Woman Who Loved Reindeer and Birth of the Firebringer. I got the former in paperback and the latter as a remaindered hardcover. Birth of the Firebringer was obviously the first in a series (I think it even said so on the cover), but I never saw anything further until about three days ago.
The SFBC is offering a three-in-one edition of Birth of the Firebringer and its two sequels. I never saw either of the other books in the stores, and I looked. I really did. It makes me wonder how many books by authors of similar obscurity I've missed. A little poking around online revealed another Pierce book that I'd missed. Sigh... I've now ordered it from Amazon along with the new Diana Wynne Jones. Normally, I'd prefer to go to one of the bookstores in town, but Delia's presence still complicates such things too much.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-12 04:16 pm (UTC)In the US that is.
In the UK, books 2 and 3 came out in hardcover, then paperback, and have since gone out of print. Tor US simply never released them.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-12 04:25 pm (UTC)The not published in the US is worse though. My sympathies. Have you ever been able to find copies?
no subject
Date: 2003-07-12 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-14 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-14 08:52 pm (UTC)