Sunday, May 15, 2011

Another Appendix N Score

Every year, our local Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio station sponsors a charity booksale, in support of childrens' literacy projects. This is the second year of my attendance. Again, I came away with a nice collection of Appendix N science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. Here is a list of those paperbacks, for which I paid a buck a book:

  • Anderson (Flandry of Terra, Flandry-Agent of the Terran Empire, Flandry-A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, The Man-Kzin Wars, Three Hearts and Three Lions)


  • Anthony (A Spell For Chameleon)


  • Aspirin (Shadows of Sanctuary, Face of Chaos)


  • Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes, Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, Warlord of Mars, Gods of Mars, Thuvia Maid of Mars)


  • Carter (Flashing Swords #5)


  • deCamp (Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Adventurer, Conan the Buccaneer, Conan the Warrior, Conan the Usurper, Conan the Avenger, Conan of Aquilonia, Conan of the Isles, Conan and the Spider God)


  • Doyle (The Lost World)


  • Eco (The Name of the Rose)


  • Eddison (A Fish Dinner in Memison, Mistress of Mistresses)


  • Foster (Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Time of the Transference)


  • Glut (Empire Strikes Back)


  • Haggard (The World's Desire, Heart of the World, People of the Mist)


  • Howard (People of the Black Circle, Hour of the Dragon, Marchers of Valhalla, Swords of Shahrazar, Skull-Face, Red Nails, Black Canaan)


  • Jackson (Fighting Fantasy)


  • Harrison (The Stainless Steel Rat)


  • Lee (The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast)


  • McCaffrey (Dinosaur Planet)


  • Moorcock (Legends from the end of Time)


  • Moore (Jirel of Joiry)


  • Norman (Slave Girl of Gor, Tarnsman of Gor, Time Slave)


  • Norton (Quag Keep, Lord of Thunder)


  • Nowlan (Armageddon 2419 AD)


  • Offutt (Sword of the Gael, Demon in the Mirror)


  • Perry (A Warlock's Blade)


  • Saberhagen (Empire of the East)


  • Smith, E.E. (Triplanetary)


  • Stasheff (The Warlock Wandering, The Warlock is Missing, Warlock and Son, The Majesty's Wizard)


  • Van Vogt (Quest for the Future)


  • Vance (City of the Chasch, The Dirdir, Big Planet, Galactic Effectuator, The Blue World, the Anome)


  • Zelazny (Hand of Oberon, Dilvish The Damned)


14 comments:

Desert Scribe said...

Congrats on your score!

Empire of the East does a pretty good job of combining "traditional" fantasy with science fiction, and I think it even serves as a distant prequel to Saberhagen's Book of Swords series. The author also released a more direct sequel to Empire a few years back that included an interesting dungeon crawl.

Arkhein said...

Ah, good old John Norman. He was a favorite of mine as a teenager. Looking back, regretfully, the prose had left something to be desired. Much of it went something like this:

I, a Gorean Master took her, a Gorean Slave, in the way a Gorean Mater takes a Gorean Slave.

Oh well . . . :)

- Ark

Talysman said...

Tarnsman of Gor isn't too bad -- bad writing, of course, but interesting culture details. But Slave Girl of Gor is going to be severely disappointing.

Dan said...

Nice haul! I recommend reading the Vance books first, then Eco.

DaveL said...

Nice haul! I've read most of those books, long before I knew about "Appendix N," including the gawdawful "gor" series.

DaveL

Chris Kutalik said...

What a haul, the Vance and Eco books are among my favorites.

trollsmyth said...

Oh wow, some of those titles bring back memories. I remember adoring ADF's Spellsinger books.

Akrasia said...

Impressive score!

Can't stand Gor myself (even when I was a teenager). But lots of gems in there as well.

Aaron E. Steele said...

@Desert Scribe ... i've never been a Saberhagen fan, but i'm going to read Empire of the East with an open mind, perhaps i'm wrong about him!

@Arkhein ... I don't recall reading any of the Gor novels, but based on assorted feedback, these will probably go to the bottom of the pile.

@Talysman ... i'm detecting a theme here!

@Dan ... yes, I was quite excited about Vance, since i've had trouble finding any at the used book stores.

@DaveL ... i'm making my way through some CAS right now (who is not strictly Appendix N) but my recent haul is going to take me at least a year to work through.

@ckutalik ... I read Foucault's Pendulum and loved the Name of the Rose movie.

@Trollsmyth ... I havn't read much Foster, I will get more of his stuff (once I clear my backlog!).

Akrasia ... I was surprised by the number of people passing these titles over, but I was most enthusiastic about the Conan and Vance titles.

Eric R. Wirsing said...

That is a great haul! I have fond memories of most of those. I have Jirel of Joiry on my ever-expanding "must read" list.

Dilvish the Damned is interesting, mainly because it's bog-standard fantasy dressed so well it was up for awards. A good read nonetheless.

The Gor novels were what you'd expect to see if the makers of the Schwarzenegger Conan movies were fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

It's funny -- whenever I went to the library I kept forgetting to bring Appendix N along. Didn't matter, since I found a zillion more things to read.

Akrasia said...

"I have Jirel of Joiry on my ever-expanding "must read" list."

Same here! It's up right after I finish my current Moorcock run.

John Harper Brinegar said...

As regards the Vance, you should be aware that City of the Chasch is the first in a four-book sequence of which The Dirdir is the third. The books are fairly tightly connected, so if you don't have the second (Servants of the Wankh), you may be frustrated. Also, The Dirdir ends with a major cliffhanger, IIRC.

Aaron E. Steele said...

@steelcaress ... i've internalized Appendix N to the point where I can pick those authors out almost subconciously.

@Akrasia ... i've read one of the Jirel short stories. Very enjoyable.

@John Harper Brinegar ... yes, i'm looking to fill in the gaps in that Vance cycle, Vance is suprisingly hard to find this side of the border.

Scallop Skulled Skald said...

@Dan ... yes, I was quite excited about Vance, since i've had trouble finding any at the used book stores.

Vance fans tend to hold onto their copies with a fierce tenacity!

Planet of Adventure was reissued in a single volume not too long ago.

Empire of the East is a lot of fun- it overturns the whole "good guys prefer light, bad guys prefer darkness" cliche. I also recently scored a good-condition replacement copy.

I think it even serves as a distant prequel to Saberhagen's Book of Swords series

The "swords" books make explicit references to characters from "Empire".