The great paperback giveaway, part 2

More boxes of books repacked, with similar results:

Same rules as last time (and some of those are still available for another week as well). Whatever is not claimed by mid-July will go some other way. I’m leaning toward donating them to the hospital library at this point. Post your requests, don’t email me–that way I won’t forget what you wanted and everyone can see what’s already gone.

This time the list is:

• Robert Anton Wilson‘s Historical Illuminatus Chronicles – Less fun than the Chronicles, but perhaps the most linear of Wilson’s fictions. Worth the read just for the Paris/mistress joke
• A. E. Van Vogt‘s Slan – I enjoyed this book a lot when I read it as a teen. I can’t enjoy it anymore because I have severe cognitive dissonance these days when the title makes me think of a certain kind of person with a “fans are Slans” button and a propeller beanie
• Denner’s Wreck by Lawrence Watt-Evans – It’s no Lord of Light, but it’s a readable slim novel
• The first two Lords of Dûs books by Lawrence Watt-Evans – This was definitely one of the first pure fantasy series that I read when I started on “proper” novels (as oppposed to “kids” books like the L’Engle stuff), and I have no idea how it will read now. I had to get the Wildside omnibus for sentimental reasons, and now I’m kind of scared to read it
• The first Sector General book, and a collection of short stories, by James White – I love that the SFBC did Sector General omnibi, and I worry that recent changes there will mean this kind of thing stops happening
• The first two Drake Maijstral books by Walter Jon Williams – When the author himself classifies novels as ‘divertimenti’ you know you aren’t in for a Big Serious read–accept that and enjoy a really great romp with an Allowed Burglar in a future aristocracy, and don’t miss the scathing criticism of celebrity-for-its-own-sake
• Voice Of The Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams – Hardwired was a big deal to me when I read it as a teenager, so naturally I sought out the “kind of” sequel
• Facets, a short story collection by Walter Jon Williams – I really like Williams. A lot.
• Diana Wynne Jones‘ Deep Secret – Afraid to read Diana because her stuff is usually in the kids section? Try this packaged-for-grownups multiple-worlds fantasy as a way to get over your YA phobia.
• Diana Wynne Jones‘ Power Of Three – …then try this straight up YA work
• Lord of Light by Roger Zelanzy – Surely one of the ten finest science fiction novels of all time
• Isle Of The Dead by Roger Zelazny – Another damn fine novel
• The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth, a short story collection by Roger Zelazny
• The Golden by Lucius Shepard – Possibly my favourite vampire novel whose title is not also a punchline to that lame door joke
• Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith – This is a novel for people who like mad ideas and don’t mind a gear shift in mid-story (if, for example, you hated it when From Dusk Til Dawn switched from a road movie into a vampire movie, this is not the book for you, although it is neither contemporary nor about vampires)
• The entire Lensman series by E. E. “Doc” Smith – Bless the SFBC for putting this Old Skool pulp, perhaps the sine qua non of all Space Opera, into omnibi
• Three Skylark books by E. E. “Doc” Smith – ditto, except with less excitement
• Deus X by Norman Spinrad
• Angel of Pain and The Carnival of Destruction by Brian Stableford – For the record, these two, and the predecessor Werewolves of London, were both not at all what I expected based on the titles, and were much better books than I expected–Fin-de-siècle-extended-to-the-end-of-the-WWI-era intellectual horror with no hint of Warren Zevon
• Two short story collections by Allen Steele – Steele’s first book about Deadhead construction workers in orbit (and the NSA spying on us) pretty much made me a long term fan. His stories are pretty fine for the most part
• The Jericho Iteration by Allen Steele – Steele’s crack at the near future disaster novel
• Clarke County, Space by Allen Steele – if a novel with a Sheriff in a space colony, an assassin, and the joys of the Church of Elvis, sounds like it might be up your alley, the pick this one up
• Distraction by Bruce Sterling – every time I read a Bruce Sterling novel it’s better than I expected it to be, even when I take into account this phenomenon
• Resurrection Man by Sean Stewart – an excellent contemporary fantasy
• Night Watch by Sean Stewart – one of my personal ten favourite fantasy novels–among other things it exactly captures the differences between the essences of two major Canadian cities
• Leave It To Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse – I don’t have to explain this do I?
• The Death And Life of Bobby Z by Don Winslow – a fun, straight up caper story; I hear they’re making a movie
• Wrapt In Crystal by Sharon Shinn – a science fiction murder mystery that works on issues about religion

Related Reading: All Those Books and this NYT article that Gwenda pointed out.