The Blade Runner Sketchbook is one of the ultimate pieces of memorabilia for fans of the 1982 science fiction movie. The book details the look and feel of the film’s production artwork from simple props like Deckard’s gun to police cars and clothes. Some of the designs come from director Ridley Scott himself but also Syd Mead.
Blade Runner starred Harrison Ford although the real star is Rutger Hauer, and it’s a movie that stands the test of time and that probably owes much to its look. I remember thinking the first time that I watched it that the streets were shockingly packed and the rain never stops. The movie is based on Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Edited by David Scrogg, the Sketchbook has been out-of-print for many years but there are five copies on AbeBooks for prices between $300 and $500.
I have a thing for beautiful old space books (or at least the associated art), and it seems I’m not alone – biology librarian John Sisson has a blog called Dreams of Space, featuring vintage space-themed children’s books, ephemera and books. It looks like he’s been updating it since 2009, and he has amassed a truly lovely collection of images like the ones below:
It’s very cool and worth checking out – he’s really created a nice collection.
He first wrote for children, including a series about Frances the badger and a popular novel called The Mouse and His Child. Riddley Walker, set in Kent two thousand years after a nuclear war, was published in 1980.
Legendary science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey has died in Ireland after suffering a stroke. She is famous for penning the Dragonriders of Pern series. McCaffrey was the first female to win a Hugo Award for fiction, the first woman to win a Nebula Award, and achieved popular success with her novels.
McCaffrey published Dragonflight, the first book in her Dragonriders series, in 1968. Her 1978 novel, The White Dragon, was a huge commercial success. Her works displayed men and women as heroes and heroines, and dragons were a key theme.
Beginning in April 1926, Amazing Stories ran for almost 80 years. The first magazine dedicated purely to science fiction, it was much beloved, despite an occasionally spotty publication schedule.
Some issues are particularly noteworthy, like Volume 3, Issue #5 from 1928, which features the first print appearance of Buck Rogers. But from rocketships and robots to telepathy and time travel, Amazing Stories provided entertainment, adventure and intrigue in every issue, and many are very collectible today.
Terry Pratchett’s newest Discworld novel, Snuff, is now out and who better to interview him than Mr. Neil Gaiman himself. I half expected a little more silliness out of the interview but in the end it’s just interesting to see that kinds of questions an author might ask a colleague. The two chat about whether science fiction has gone mainstream, Pratchett’s favourite books, and annoying your local elected official.
Margaret Atwood’s new book comes out this week and there’s a signed limited edition (300 copies) of In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination printed on straw, “without any harmful impact on forests and their fragile ecosystems,” according to the author. The Globe and Mail has the full story.
It’s the brainchild of Vancouver-based environmental group Canopy, the limited edition is designed to showcase the viability of wheat and flax straw as alternative sources of fibre for fine paper. “I just find it shocking that in 2011 we still cut down 400- to 800-year-old trees to make bank statements and junk mail,” Canopy executive director Nicole Rycroft said in an interview. “We want to demonstrate that in fact you can produce paper without using forest fibre at all.
I think this is a fine idea but the whole print run should have been made from straw. This book explores Margaret’s relationship with science fiction – lots of essays and literary criticism of key authors and narrative tools.
Isaac Asimov was one of the world’s most prolific authors with somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 books and collections (it’s a disputed figure) to his name.
If you know the Three Laws of Robotics and think you know Asimov, think again – he wrote books covering almost every genre. There was more to the man than met the eye.
Given how popular and prolific Asimov was, it’s no surprise that even in the collectable editions of his books, two decades after his death, there is something for almost everyone.
Enjoy this selection of rare and collectible Isaac Asimov books. They would make great gifts for the science fiction fans and voracious readers in your life.
This video is offered by colleague Zac, who is not a marketing drone but a ‘software configuration management engineer.’ I have not got a clue what that means but it’s definitely technical. I feel Zac’s devotion to mathematics is reflected in this double review of Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott & The Annotated Flatland by Ian Stewart. During the summer, AbeBooks staged a staff video contest and this was one of the entries, and it shows very nicely the diverse people we have in this company.
Flatland was published 1884 by the English clergyman and headmaster Edwin A. Abbott. It tells the tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions. By being forced to consider the notion of dimensions beyond their own, Abbott exposed his readers to the idea of a fourth dimension. This book warmed up people for Einstein’s theory of relativity. Stewart’s annotated version is, well, the first annotated version of this classic Victorian book that was decades ahead of its time. Confused? Just watch the video.
Good news for fans of hard science fiction (Hard SF is usually defined as any works with an emphasis on scientific and technical detail). NASA has teamed up with Tor-Forge Books to create a series of books based on concepts pertinent to current, and future, agency missions and operations.
The project will team up Tor-Forge writers with NASA scientists and engineers which will give the space agency will have a fun and interesting way to tell the public about their latest technologies and findings while giving the writers first hand technical information to make their novels as scientifically accurate as possible.
I love Connie Willis. Okay, to be fair, I’ve only read The Doomsday Book, but what a gripping and inventive story. Time machine runs amok, sends user back to the black plague? Give me some more of that. I couldn’t put it down. I’m going to put Blackout/All Clear on my to-read list at once.
June 2011 proved that he who controls the spice, controls the universe – our top sale was a signed, first edition copy of Frank Herbert’s magnum opus Dune which went for $7,500. The novel spawned a series of sequels all set on the desert world of Arrakis, the only source of the universe’s most valuable material: a melange called “spice” which is required for space travel.
This is the highest recorded price paid for a copy of the landmark novel on AbeBooks, but it is also the first time a first edition copy of this quality has been sold with a signature included. Herbert got the idea for the novel while visiting Florence, Oregon and the famous Oregon sand dunes.
The rest of June’s eclectic list includes French poetry, Portuguese photography, Italian philosophy, an alphabet of murder, and much more.
Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast saga has a new installment – 62 years after the last one. Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone have now been joined by Titus Awakes after the discovery of a long lost manuscript.
Rumors of a fourth novel circulated for years but were always just rumors. In January 2010 the granddaughter of Peake’s widow found a complete manuscript that her mother, Maeve Gilmore, had written in the 1970s based on notes Mervyn Peake had written before dying at the age of 57 from Parkinson’s Disease. The results of Gilmore’s labor have since been edited and will now appear, just in time for the centenary of the author’s birth
It’s a complete overview of this Johnny Come Lately genre – less than 30 years old – with more than 150 images and commentary on its origins. There’s discussion on the influence of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and how the ‘Steampunk’ term was coined by K.W. Jeter.
A month or so ago, AbeBooks brought you the Beginner’s Guide to Steampunk so this illustrated guide is very timely as the genre goes from strength to strength. If a bookshop doesn’t have a Steampunk section then it’s missing a trick.
The Nominees for the 2011 Hugo Awards have been named, the winners will be announced Saturday, August 20th, 2011, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at Renovation in Reno, Nevada. Here are the finalists for the Best Novel catagory:
