But which seven?

There's a 1949* novelet by Keith Bennett called The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears which details the trials of Ground Expeditionary Patrol One, whose ship crashes during an exploratory mission on Venus.** Thirty-two men set off on a five hundred mile trek back to their main base - seven survive the trip.

The story is told partially from the perspective of Clarence Hague, an inexperienced young gunnery officer who, through the process of attrition, ends up in command of the last remnants of the ship's crew. Near the end of the story, he lists the remaining eight men under his command:

There was young Crosse, his face twitching nervously.  There was Blake, the tall, quiet bacteriologist; Lenkranz, the metals man; Hirooka, the Nisei; Balistierri; Whitcomb, the photographer, with a battered Hasselbladt still dangling from its neck cord against his armored chest. Swenson was still there, the big Swede crewman; and imperturbable Sergeant Brian, who was now calmly cleaning the pneumatic gun's loading mechanism.

Following one last battle with the lizardlike natives of the Venusian jungles, they successfully arrive at the base:

Chapman remembered his field glasses and focused them on the seven approaching men.  "Lieutenant Hague is the only officer."

And so the story ends. Obviously Hague survives that final skirmish, but I've always felt a bit cheated by the fact that we are never told which two of those other eight men fail to complete the journey. I wonder why Bennett decided to omit that crucial bit of information - and why the editor let him get away with it?

 - Sid

* In the interests of complete accuracy, copyright is from 1949, but the story wasn't published in Planet Stories until Spring of 1950.

** There was a point in time where Venus was theorized to be Earth-like but much warmer due to its position closer to the Sun.

In search of vintage books: a tragedy in three acts.

Act One:  The Object of Desire
There's a particular subgenre of fantasy, primarily British in origin*, in which teenagers and tweenagers find themselves unexpectedly involved in mystical events of enormous importance while on vacation.  Examples would be the Narnia books, Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series, and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner. (Not Harry Potter - I think that J. K. Rowling was painting a far more complex canvas than the sort of story that I'm talking about here.)

I own a very early example of the genre:  What Happened At Garry-Eustace, by Dorothea Townshend, with illustrations by Alan Wright, detailing the adventures of the four Eustace children with leprechauns, the Sidhe, Tirna'an Og, enchanted princesses, magical swords, hidden treasures and the like. My copy is undated, but was probably published in 1927.*  Sadly, it is in such horrible condition that it is only by courtesy that I can call it a book - the covers still enclose the pages, but that's about it.  In my defense, I haven't abused it (okay, maybe a little when I was ten or eleven) it's just an old book that wasn't taken care of.

Act Two: Fulfillment
I was flipping through this poor battered book recently, and thought to myself, "Wait a minute, Sid, this has to be available someplace on line - you can't possibly own the only copy in the world."  So, I sat down with Google™, and to my extreme pleasure instantly found a copy for sale by a third-party seller on Amazon.co.uk for a mere £5.99 and an additional £6.94 for shipping and handling. A different edition, admittedly, but under the circumstances, I considered finding a copy at all to be a win.

I was a bit concerned that the British branch of Amazon might not want to sell to someone in Canada, but all of my regular Amazon.ca account information worked - bang, done, and then it was just a question of waiting a couple of weeks for delivery.

Act Three:  Disappointment
Imagine my surprise to then receive an e-mail announcing that the seller had cancelled my order because the item was out of stock.  This was followed by a very polite letter of apology from the seller, explaining that the book had been sold recently and that she had neglected to delete the listing immediately.

As I commented in my reply to the seller, I was of course disappointed, but more than anything else I was surprised that someone else - in fact, ANYONE else - had been looking for the same book at the same time!

So, ultimately I was left with my original timeworn tome. I couldn't find another copy for sale at that point in time, but it's not as if I am in desperate need of a copy in better condition, and at least I know that there are other copies out there. Hmmm...perhaps I should do another search now, you never know...

- Sid 

* I'm open to debate on this, but personally I think of it as a British thing.

** The online WorldCat Book Catalogue says that there were only 1927 and 1930 editions of this book, and based on the publisher, mine is from 1927.

Chicago 4: Visitations

I hope it turns out to be nice today in Chicago for book shopping.  Goodness gracious, what additional books will you be looking for?

- Excerpted from an e-mail from Laurie Smith

I realize that for most people, a trip to a foreign city doesn't necessarily involve visiting the local book stores. However, I view it as an opportunity to get a bit off the beaten track left by other tourists, see a part of the area I might not otherwise see, and perhaps make some judicious purchases for my collection.

Now, as per Laurie's e-mail, people are often surprised that I still feel the need to buy books - I've got thousands of the damn things, isn't that enough?  And there's a certain element of truth to that. I've certainly reduced my book buying in the last few years, but I still like to keep my eye open for interesting additions to my little library.

A little research on the Internet aimed me at Bucket O'Blood in Chicago - sadly, The Stars Our Destination, another local science fiction specialty store, is no longer open. In addition, another conference attendee recommended a bookstore called Myopic as being a good spot for used books.

Myopic is certainly a classic old-school used bookstore - in fact, as you can see from this photo of the science fiction and fantasy section in their basement, if it was any more old school it would probably be unsafe to visit. Regardless, they have a large and varied selection, and I walked away with some interesting finds, including the three volumes of the Neustrian Cycle, by Leslie Barringer: Gerfalcon, Joris of the Rock, and Shy Leopardess - 1976 reprints of books which were originally published in 1927, and exactly the sort of thing that I hope to find in these little book shopping trips.

(The funny thing is that I couldn't remember how I'd heard about this trilogy.  I knew that I'd read about it being a classic read somewhere - but where?  As it turns out, I stumbled across the answer purely by accident while shelving books - it was Andre Norton, who recommends Barrington in her excellent 1971 essay On Writing Fantasy, wherein she discusses the influences and sources for her work.)

I was surprised by how small Bucket O'Blood was compared to most of the bookstores I've visited, especially since half of the store is dedicated to vinyl. (Never before in my life have I been in the same room with so many hipsters.)  However, it's obvious that their relatively small selection of second-hand genre literature has been carefully selected - and, to be honest, there is a lot of chaff in most used bookstores, it was actually a bit of a pleasure not to have to wade through shelf after shelf of bad Conan the Barbarian rip-offs in search of something worthwhile.

Most noteworthy of the five books that I purchased there were the 1955 printing of Star Guard, by Andre Norton, and the 1965 version of Second Stage Lensmen, by E. E. "Doc" Smith, both replacement copies for books that I already own - sad how Time has its way with paper, ink and glue. I was particularly pleased to find the E. E. Smith book - my mother owned this edition, but by the time I was old enough to pick it up, both cover and binding were in sad condition. It was a pleasure to see an old favourite again in such good condition: they literally don't make covers like this anymore.

You know, now that I think about it, I've never been to a used book store in England, how have I missed doing that? Obviously that's on the list for my next UK visit. (Oh well, there goes my weight allowance for the flight home from that trip...)

- Sid