Geekmas 2016: Hope Springs Eternal

The Christmas season is coming fast upon us, and with it, the inevitable challenge of gift-giving.  Secret Santa names have been drawn at the workplace, and our departmental potluck Christmas luncheon and gift exchange is scheduled for December 16th.

One of the new arrivals in our department expressed her surprise that the Secret Santa process was specific rather than general - that might make it easier, but I sadly suspect that if we were required to buy a completely generic present for the exchange, we'd have a big box with 20 bottles of wine in it. Given that we have one member of our department who is a long-standing member of Alcoholics Anonymous, this is not a perfect solution.

As it is, we rely upon a system of whispered inquiries and occasional name-swapping in order to find appropriate co-worker gifts.  In some cases, people have posted suggestions near their desks - I seem to be the only person with an online wish list.

The funny thing is that I don't ever seem to get any of the things that I list online. Having said that, I certainly don't want to suggest that I've been disappointed by the gifts I've received in the past.  In fact, I've been quite impressed by the degree of thought and imagination that people have put into the selection of geek-appropriate presents for me.  Still, you'd think that some poor desperate person would have taken the easy way out by now.  On which note...

Movies

Sigh - still no classic Doctor Who episodes, and both The Day of the Triffids (any version, but preferably the original 1962 movie) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon are still on the list of unfulfilled requests.  More recent choices would be Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Batman Versus Superman, and Star Trek: Beyond.   I checked on Amazon.ca and all of the movies come in under $25 in Blu-ray format - old Doctor Who episodes tend to be DVD only, and often a bit more expensive than they really should be.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't have ANY Star Trek movies on Blu-ray...

Books
About two-thirds of last year's list still stands:  Fran Wilde's Updraft, Elizabeth Bear's Karen Memory, Ian McDonald's Luna, Naomi Novik's Uprooted, and Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace.  They should all be affordable paperbacks at this point.

Toys

I think that if I was trying to come up with a name for a toy company, it would be hard to beat BOOMCo, which appears to be the licensed manufacturer of firearms from the first-person shooter Halo game franchise.  The weapon of choice is the UNSC Marine Magnum Blaster foam dart gun, which would go on the shelf beside my Star Trek Original Series phaser and my Buck Rogers disintegrator pistol. And I promise - PROMISE - that it will never be used to remind Jaq the Cat that he shouldn't be on the kitchen table.

Art

Here's a bit of a departure from previous years:  art prints.  The Museum of Popular Culture (previously the EMP/SF Museum and Hall of Fame) has original series Star Trek movie posters on sale.  There are twenty sets available, made up of four posters each.  They're designed by illustrator Juan Ortiz, with a fabulous retro feel, and any one of them would make an excellent addition to the geek wall of your choice.  Just visit the euphoniously named MoPopShop to view the selection - they're all equally desirable.

NB:  MoPop prices are in US dollars.  However, carefully timed shopping will help with that.  From November 25th to December 2nd, enter checkout code mopop25 to save 25% off your entire order (which just about makes up for the exchange rate). From December 12th to December 17th, use mopopfast to get 15% off your entire order and an automatic no-cost upgrade to express shipping for standard ground shipping orders - which may or may not apply to Canadian shipping.

And that's this year's wish list.  Please note that these suggestions aren't restricted to co-workers:  friends, relatives and squaddies are equally welcome to take advantage of this list.  All I ask is that an anonymous comment be posted announcing that a particular item is being purchased - I'm fine with not being surprised if it prevents the arrival of two gift-wrapped copies of Batman Versus Superman.

EDIT: Please note that as per the comment below, Karli has stepped in and is using her blog to coordinate purchases so as to maintain secrecy.  Just when I think I can't find another reason to love you, my dear... 

  - Sid

P.S.  For anyone wishing to throw caution to the winds and seek out their own choice of casual geek gifts, HMV has an excellent selection of fandom items: mugs, buttons, coasters, t-shirts, etc.  Shoppers in the lower Mainland can visit the Robson Street or Metrotown outlets.

"You maniacs! "

"Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

George Taylor, The Planet of the Apes

And here we are on the morning after the American presidential election, looking at the news that Donald Trump is the next president of the United States. In some strange way, I'm excited - between this and the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, it's obvious that at some point in the recent past we've gone through the looking glass, or maybe down the rabbit hole - something like that, some kind of departure from the linear, probability-based, cause-and-effect reality that we used to inhabit.

As a result, I now fully expect Bigfoot and his wife to come strolling out of the forest, space aliens to land on the White House lawn and ask if they can talk to the new guy, cold fusion to become a proven source of cheap safe energy, and the Loch Ness Monster to rise to the surface of her cold, watery home and take a deep, deep breath.

After this, anything's possible.

  - Sid

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November."

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V."

V, V for Vendetta

I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.

  - Sid

Voyages' End.

In my previous post I mentioned buying a replacement copy of Stephen Tall's The Stardust Voyages, a collection of short stories that I originally purchased in 1975.  The stories deal with the travels of an interstellar exploratory vessel - the Stardust - and a variety of alien first-contact plotlines.

Replacement copies are one of the sad inevitabilities of being an avid re-reader: bindings crack, pages are accidentally dogeared, covers become creased and worn, and finally it's time to retire the text in question and buy another copy. 

When I do this, I prefer to purchase the same edition as the novel being replaced - it's an odd quirk, but I feel that it gives my collection a sort of continuity.  I was quite pleased to find a matching copy of The Stardust Voyages, but I'm a bit surprised that anyone could own an 41 year old book in such good condition. The copy on the right must have belonged to a collector. I feel a bit proud that my copy - on the left - is so obviously the property of a reader.

  - Sid

"Science fiction double feature..."

My girlfriend Karli has been visiting a new chiropractor who is located about a thirty minute walk from my workplace, so whenever her appointment schedule permits, I meet her there after work.

My route takes me past the Main Street location of Pulp Fiction, one of Vancouver's better used book stores, and it occurred to me recently that I've been doing most (if not all) of my book shopping in foreign cities.  I had some time to spare, so I decided to go in for a browse.

After a pleasant half hour perusal of the shelves, I walked away with five books: Fragile Things, a collection of Neil Gaiman short stories - hard to go wrong with Neil Gaiman - a long overdue copy of William Gibson's Distrust That Particular Flavour in trade paperback*, a replacement copy of The Stardust Voyages, by Stephen Tall, and a pair of near mint-condition Ace Doubles to add to my collection:  a replacement copy of The Beasts of Kohl backed with A Planet of Their Own, and Crisis on Cheiron backed with The Winds of Gath.

What, you ask, is an Ace Double?

Ace Doubles are one of the great unique aspects of science fiction book collecting. Very simply, an Ace Double is made up of two short novels rotated 180 degrees and bound back to back so that each one has its own cover.  Although Ace Books did publish material from other genres in this distinctive tête-bêche** binding, it was the science fiction content that really made its mark for the publishers.

Ace published the Doubles format from 1952 until 1974. They continued to print double-novel editions until 1978, but they were no longer in the back-to-back format, and as such really aren't the same thing. Online sources state that Ace released 221 science fiction Ace Doubles in the classic format, which to be honest sounds like a lot less than I thought there were - I own 57 Doubles myself, without ever having made a serious commitment to collecting them. (My sister Dorothy owns 48, with a couple of duplications - no pun intended.)

In spite of their landmark position in the history of the genre, the story of the Ace Double was not always a happy one. SF editor and author Donald A. Wollheim*** was in charge of the Doubles line, and was infamous for chopping down novels to fit the Double page count - apparently the tagline "Complete and Unabridged" which appeared on the copyright page was not always truthful.

However, the Ace Double format helped to launch the careers of a long list of well-known authors including Gordon R. Dickson, Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, and Philip K. Dick. The books combined writing by established authors such as A. E. van Vogt, Ray Cummings or Leigh Brackett with that of newcomers in the same way that television networks tentpole new or less popular programs around a successful show. 

Perhaps because I was in my teens and just starting my independent book-buying career at around the time that Ace Doubles went out of production, I have no memory of ever seeing a new Ace Double for sale.  In my world, Ace Doubles have always been a slightly battered but beloved artifact of the used book store science fiction section, which provided my first introduction to talents such as Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, John Brunner, Kenneth Bulmer, John Jakes, Brian M. Stableford and A. Bertram Chandler.

For science fiction fans looking for a comprehensive and entertaining overview of classic SF, the 22 year publication span of the Ace Double provides a fascinating resource that combines a wide range of authors and styles in a unique format that's affordable for collectors.  However, if you're even slightly obsessive compulsive, Ace Doubles will present you with an unexpected challenge: which author's name do you use to shelf them?

  - Sid

* I always feel bad when I see used William Gibson books for sale, I can't help but wonder if the previous owner has made other bad life decisions.

** This style of binding is often referred to mistakenly as dos-à-dos. Having passed along that bit of print industry trivia, let me reassure nervous readers that this will never ever come up in conversation, and as such there's no need to retain the information.

*** Wollheim, who passed away in 1990, is probably worth a posting all of his own as one of the more notable polarizing figures in the history of science fiction. Wollheim was responsible for the bootleg 1965 American publication of The Lord of the Rings - he seemed to have a bit of a predilection toward taking liberties with the work of other authors. On the other hand, DAW Books, which he started in 1971 after leaving Ace, remains a well respected and prolific publishing house.

Gnomic Statement XV.

 

Wait - Chiwetel is Mordo? Damn - I thought Mads was Mordo.

At least Wong is Wong. And it goes without saying that Cumberbatch is Strange.

  - Sid