ISFDB:Research Assistance/Archive 09

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This archive includes discussions from July 2017 - December 2018.

Unlike earlier archives, this page will contain requests/issues which have not been resolved. Please do not respond to requests on this page or add new requests to this page. If you're able to respond to any of these requests/issues, please post it on the talk page of the editor who made the original request. If the editor is no longer active, you can post a response on the ISFDB:Community Portal.

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The Averoigne Chronicles

We have two Clark Ashton Smith collections with the same title: "The Averoigne Chronicles" (1996) and "The Averoigne Chronicles" (2016, reprinted in 2017).

The publication record associated with the 1996 title is bare bones and I can't find any evidence that this book was ever published. Also, the catalog of my personal collection says "The Averoigne Chronicles, collection, announced as forthcoming in 1995". I suspect that our 1996 title record was originally based on the same announcement, but I hesitate to delete it or change it to 8888 since I am not a CAS expert. Anyone happen to know more about this oddity? Ahasuerus 15:03, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

This page at Eldritchdark.com states "Announced in 1995 - so don't expect it any time soon. Illustrated by Fernando Duval with introductions by Gahan Wilson and Ron Hilger and an afterword by Donald Sidney-Fryer, this collection contains 12 stories and 13 poems and is illustrated with 12 full page colour illustrations. (In Feb 2004 I was told: 'Hopefully we will get to it next year.')" Based on that, I suspect it was never actually published in 1996. The only one SFE lists is the one published in 2016. AbeBooks also only lists the 2016 release. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:05, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

Updated, thanks! (I have to admit that a 20 year gap is impressive. A bit scary, but impressive nonetheless...) Ahasuerus 17:47, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

The planned 1996 book by Donald M. Grant is not the one that was published in 2016 though I think. The 1996 one does not seem to have made it at all; Centipede Press managed to get a similar one out in 2016 instead. The prefaces and afterwords are from the same people (or at least the same people are involved) but somewhere along the time, the artist changed. Annie 18:51, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

Well, Duval turned 80 a few weeks ago and Centipede Press wasn't even around in 1995 -- clearly a lot has changed in 20 years! Ahasuerus 19:19, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

Philip Stead and Erin Stead

Cursory googling suggests that the writer/illustrator Philip Stead and the illustrator Erin Stead were both born in Farmington Hills, Michigan on 1982-12-27. Although it's possible that two spouses were born in the same city (population ca. 80,000) on the same day, it seems more likely that their birth dates have been conflated in some fashion. Ideas/suggestions? Ahasuerus 18:10, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

Both of them seem to have sites - maybe sent an email and ask? Annie 18:51, 4 August 2017 (EDT)

The Gryb

Hi! Can somebody post here first and last passage from The Gryb? Debolestis 04:55, 5 August 2017 (EDT)

The first sentence is His eyes ached. and the last sentence is Good-by, my son. oh, god go with you always, my son, Cain. Rudam 05:43, 5 August 2017 (EDT)

That first sentence I can find in both my copies of 'The Gryb' and 'The War Against the Rull', but the last sentence differs in both: 'Be careful, sir!' breathed the anxious voice of Ray Bartlett. 'Be careful, or you'll be killed.' [the Gryb] vs. 'Oh, my God!' said Jamieson aloud, in anguish. The message slipped out of his hands and floated to the floor of his suite. [The War Against the Rull, chpt.6-7].--Dirk P Broer 10:06, 12 August 2017 (EDT)

Curse of Kings by Alex Barclay

Fixer has added this 2011 US edition of Curse of Kings by Alex Barclay. The pub looks odd for a number of reasons: the price ($22.50) is too high for a trade paperback, it's the first edition of a book by a UK-based author, there is something odd going on with the title, etc. At first I suspected vaporware, but used.addall.com finds 9 hits. Any ideas? Ahasuerus 16:29, 21 August 2017 (EDT)

Sekyrová in Locus #344 Sep 1989

Could somebody verify that SF in Czechoslovakia in Locus, #344 September 1989 is really given as by Favla Sekyrova, which is obvious typo for Pavla? Sadly the PDF TOC http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/1989/09/table-of-contents-september-1989/ does not give name, just the title. Thanks, --JV jr 17:29, 6 September 2017 (EDT)

After displacing a few issues, it's in fact signed "Pavla Sekyrová" (note accent on the last letter). I'll let you decide of the changes. Hauck 03:01, 7 September 2017 (EDT)

Thanks a lot. I fixed the first name, but forgot about the accent. Still, perhaps we need be sticklers about such a minor figure (especially when we don't know about the other two articles; any volunteers? ;-) Pity that Locus isn't included in pulpscans or at least Google Books.) --JV jr 07:41, 7 September 2017 (EDT)

Prokop obit, Locus #403 Aug 1994

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?323669 gives the first name as "Gerd" as per http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/1994/08/table-of-contents-august-1994/ while it was actually Gert Prokop. Is anybody able to check whether the error is preserved even in the article itself? (And how should be it dealt with in the ISFDB itself; keep the wrong title and just make a note?) Thanks again. --JV jr 12:11, 13 September 2017 (EDT)

The error is in the ToC and in the article itself. I added a note to the title with a link to the author bibliography. --Willem 14:54, 13 September 2017 (EDT)

Interviews in Locus #481 Feb 2001

Both Bujold and Brooks interviews in http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?59403 are given as by the subject themselves which seems an obvious nonsense; at best they should be "uncredited" as in the Jan issue (March has proper attribution, April reverts to "interview of Bruce Sterling • interview by Bruce Sterling"). Sadly, no more ToC scans at Locus website; can somebody take a look and ideally fix? --JV jr 21:01, 19 September 2017 (EDT)

The note field seems quite clear on the subject: "This is the first issue in which the interviews are credited to the interviewee.". After extracting with difficulties my issue from its stack, I can confirm that the interview is indeed signed LMMB. Note that you should perhaps ask directly the PVs of the publications (instead of posting here) as it seems that there are not a lot of runs of Locus avaliable for verification purposes. Hauck 02:13, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

Thank you and sorry, I managed to overlook that in all the notes, especially as I was looking at other issues. (What a chance of running into the very first such issue!)
Having self-credited interviews seems absurd to me but obviously I am not going to change that. Oh well, live and learn.
I rather prefer having all requests in one place, with the option of directing the original verifiers here if there is no response. So far with Locus I always succeeded at the first stage :-) Guess I will try it below with something more obscure. --JV jr 10:48, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

Contents of Czech story in Die letzten Bastionen

408237 contains Ondřej Neff's story "Reinhard Heydrichs siebte Inkarnation", given as translation of "Sedmé převtĕlení Reinharda Heydricha" (both meaning Reinhard Heydrich's Seventh Reincarnation). However, no such story by Neff is known; but he wrote Druhé převtělení Otty Skorzenyho (Otto Skorzeny's Second Reincarnation).

It has 5500 words, some 18 pages in the book. Plot: Skorzeny (who per Nazi mystic considers himself a sixth reincarnation of Manfred von Aue, knight of the Grail) and his unit were sent by Himmler (a reincarnation of the emperor Henry the Fowler) to Crete just before the German invasion to guard rare swallows nesting above a village in a faroff valley. After one soldier "gets" a local girl attacks on the troops begin until all are slaughtered by a mysterious force, and even the birds are destroyed in an avalanche. In ancient ruins, he sees local girl Ariadna being put underground as a symbolic wedding/sacrifice. In the labyrinth, he meets the monstrous Minotaur and shoots him although Ariadna refuses being saved by him, arguing that only good could fight evil and Skorzeny is no knight. She notes that Minotaur's blood had seeped into Skorzeny and transformed him into another such a monster, which he confirms by strangling her in a fit and feeling a new fury towards the whole world.

Could somebody of the book's verifiers take look at the German story whether it is this one, renamed/adapted for some mysterious reason, and whether the book really gives the wrong Czech title? Thanks. --JV jr 10:48, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

It is stated to be an original publication within the anthology. It has the same setting (and takes place on the 27th of May, 1942). It also tells the same story. However, it's Heydrich who has replaced Skorzeny. If you don't object I think it's best to variant it to Druhé převtělení Otty Skorzenyho (and add some notes), if you have the date of first publication for that item at hand. Christian Stonecreek 14:10, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

Thanks a lot; agree and will do tomorrow. But what exactly do you mean by "It is stated to be an original publication"; that it gives the Czech title as "Sedmé..." and no publication source for the original?

Well, this happens from time to time: texts are published not in their original language, but only in translation. Neff (or von Wetzky, the translator) seems to have presented is as an original text. Stonecreek 16:05, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

Druhé převtělení Otty Skorzenyho comes from Neff's debut 1985 coll Vejce naruby whose East-German trans http://www.sf-hefte.de/Details.php?id=386&Reihe=Kompass not covered by ISFDB lacks 7 of 23 stories most likely on the basis of length, including this.
The change of date makes no sense to me: 27 May 1942 was of course the Heydrich assassination (and he would not have the time to travel to Crete, securely occupied anyway, before that), while the German invasion of Crete took place on 20 May 1940 (date is not mentioned explicitly but the battle figures heavily in the story).
I might try e-mailing Neff himself to ask whether he remembers anything about the changes. (A similar story: The hero of his action-packed story in the SFWA European Hall of Fame was originally called Schwarzenegger as he found it a good idea in 1987 but had to be renamed innocuously at the editor's demand.) I was thinking that perhaps there was fear of the Skorzeny family suing, but I think they lived in Spain, and Heydrich left children as well... --JV jr 15:59, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

I have done the varianting (and dated the original to 1985). Stonecreek 16:35, 20 September 2017 (EDT)

Thanks; I added some more details. --JV jr 15:04, 21 September 2017 (EDT)

frisson : disconcerting verse

frisson : disconcerting verse does appear to be an octavo, 24 standard bond pages with a wrap around heavier bond cover stapled on spine (saddle stapled?) And thanks to STONECREEK for the help with contacting as the previous moderator never offered any help only calling me names and making assumptions concerning a newcomer to the site abilities. 3 cheers for STONECREEK, hopefully other monitors are more like him. Signed: Elizabeth Hardy

Book David's Sling

David's Sling by Marc Stiegler 1988 Baen. Page says artwork by David Mattingly. However it is by Alan Gutierrez per https://alangutierrezart.deviantart.com/art/David-s-Sling-272838558

I'm guessing this is the title you mean? More specifically, this publication? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:00, 25 November 2017 (EST)

Maurice Level: Original titles to identify

Some of Maurice Level's stories translated into English have not had their original titles identified. Herewith an indication of the contents and the opening lines, in hopes that someone can identify them from French collections. (None are in the collections Les portes de l'enfer or Sous le chloroforme et autres contes et nouvelles, which I have checked.)

After the War (The German Colonel, with a view to relations between France and Germany after the war, orders the French house he is staying in to be left in perfect condition when the German army retreats.)

Although he was a colonel, a Prussian baron, a veteran officer of the Guard and the possessor of a castle on the banks of the Rine, at which His Majest the Kaiser had once stopped for a few hours, in other respects this Boche had a spirit rather generous for a Boche. Having served two years at Paris as an embassy attaché, he recalled that sojourn with infinite graciousness, and never advertised more than was necessary the fact that he had spent tow other years in the same city as an employee in a little restaurant near the Champ-de-Mars, frequented by orderlies of the officers of the Ecole de Guerre.

At the Movies (Husband believed dead seen alive in newsreel.)

In simple little phrases, such as one uses who has repeated the same thing over and over again, the woman in mourning was telling her story to a neighbor during the intermission at the moving picture house. In these war times one makes acquaintances very easily. Any one individual's sufferings are but a part and parcel of the sufferings of the community at large. "Yes, madam, I lost my husband two years ago—my husband that was to be, the father of my little boy."

The Bastard (A peasant throws the child he's decided isn't his own to a rabid dog.)

Seated on his stool, an elbow on the table, the man ate his supper slowly, a long interval between every spoonful of soup. The woman was standing by the big open hearth, now and again pushing the blazing twigs into place with her sabot. She talked incessantly, paying no attention to the obstinate silence with which her remarks were received. "Is it true that the Chaputs have got rid of their old hens? that the Rizoys' butter has turned?"

The Confession (A dying man confesses that as a prosecutor he convicted an innocent man and has been atoning for it the rest of his life.)

I stood still for a moment before the open door, hesitating, and it was only when the old woman who had been sent to bring me said for the second time, "It is here," that I went in. At first I could see nothing but the lamp screened by a low-drawn shade; then I distinguished on the wall the motionless shadow of a recumbent body, long and thin, with sharp features. A vague odor of gasoline and ether floated round me. But for the sound of the rain beating on the slates of the roof and the dull howling of the wind in the empty chimney, the silence was deathlike.

"For Nothing" (A starving man goes to his estranged father for help, and getting no reply, murders him just as he's making his will)

Certainly this Jean Gautet did not look like a dangerous criminal. He was a sickly little being of uncertain age with an air of premature suffering. The eyes that wandered about behind the specatcles which from time to time he adjusted on his nose with a quick movement were quiet and mild; he had the look of a child who fears being scolded rather than that of an assassin.

The Great Scene (The playwright thinks strong emotion should be expressed ravingly; the actor disagrees, and tells of his reaction when he heard of his son being killed in the war.)

A voice mounted from the depths of the obscurity in which the main floor of the theater was left, despite the glare of the six dusty stage lamps. "That's not the way, Monsieur Fanjard. Won't you do it over again?" Fanjard, who had been perched on a chair which represented the staircase of a château, jumped down and made his way to the front of the stage.

The Horror on the Night Express (Discussion on a train about a murder where the killer left behind an identifying handprint: "He will be discovered unless he strikes off his hand at the wrist")

The train hurtled through the black night toward the Swiss frontier. My three companions in the compartment, an elderly gentleman and a young couple, were not asleep. From time to time, the young woman, almost a girl, spoke a few words to the young man, who answered with a nod or a gesture. Then all would be silent again.

The Little Soldier (A soldier dies of pneumonia because of his gallant gesture toward a woman.)

She listened, her elbow on the table, her chin in her hands. While he spoke he gazed at her with eager eyes—the eyes of amorous youth. He was telling her the story of his life—of his brief memories of boyhood, of college, the ending of his studies; the war, his ardent desire to fight, his mother's fears and, finally, his dream of fighting realized.

The Man Who Lay Asleep (A man breaks into a house intending to kill and rob the occupants—only to find that one occupant is the local executioner)

Worn out with fatigue, half dead with hunger, Ferrou got to the gates of Paris as night was falling. For eight days he had dragged himself from village to village, getting strength from the desire to see once again, now that he was out of prison, the great city with its broad streets and the narrow roads which night suddenly peoples with moving and silent forms. For five years he had thought of nothing but his return, storing up hate and a desire for murder strong enough to make his first action the purchase of a knife he had sharpened in the dark on the stone edge of a well. As he walked along, his fingers were constantly on the handle.

A Mistake (A false diagnosis of tuberculosis leads a man to commit a terrible act.)

"Doctor," said the man, "I want you to examine me and tell me whether I am suffering from tuberculosis. I want to know the truth. I have enough courage to hear the worst without flinching. I consider, too, that it is your duty to speak with perfect frankness, and that it is my right to know my exact condition. Will you promise to do as I ask?"

Poussette (An old maid with an aversion to sex expects her cat to be equally chaste.)

Every morning as the clocks of the town struck six, the old maid left her house, shutting the door carefully behind her, and, grasping tightly in her hand an old prayer book with broken corners and greasy pages, she crossed the road quickly and hurried to the neighboring church to hear the first mass. There, in the almost empty nave, kneeling on her prie-dieu, her hands clasped, her head trembling, the murmur of her prayers mingled with the voice of the priest. When the service finished she went quickly home.

She Thought of Everything (Her husband makes good use of her preparations to murder her instead of vice versa.)

It was an evening much like any other evening, after a day when nothing had happened that did not happen any day, that Madame Chertier decided to kill her husband. He was reading with one elbow propped on the table, the light on his book, his face in the shadow. Nevertheless, he must have sensed something, for he looked up and spoke. "Why do you look at me?"

The Spirit of Alsace (Is M. Hermann in league with the German army? Is the mayor of the town? Will they tell where German troops are?)

The house of M. Hermann was the third to the left on the Place au Cuir, facing the market. A shop occupied the ground floor—a gloomy ground floor, where it was often necessary to light the lamps before sunset. In the springtime the linden trees on the sidewalk filled it with a perfume of honey, which mingled with the crude odor of linens and cottons. When winter came, one saw the storks, abandoning Alsace, fly by just over the roofs in a long, noisy train.

The Taint (Infanticide over the possibility of hereditary epilepsy.)

The prisoner had listened to the charge in complete silence and had replied to the questions of the judge in evasive phrases. "I was alone when my child was born. I tried to get up, to call for help. I had not the strength. I put it beside me in my bed... Afterwards I must have lost consciousness. When I came to myself in the morning, its body was cold... Had I overlain and suffocated it?... Was it dead when I placed it by my side?... How could I possibly know seeing I hardly remember anything that happened before I fainted?..."

Thirty Hours with a Corpse (Two men and a murdered woman in an apartment.)

Day had come at last. The two men looked at each other and although they did not move or speak, each read in the eyes of his companion relief—followed quickly by fear. With the growing light a murmur of voices came up from the newly awakened street. They waited tensely almost as if they expected some unknown accuser to burst open the door, rush in, and seize them.

Under Ether (A French doctor hears some damning words from a delirious German prisoner, his patient.)

In the evenings, when the wounded were asleep, when there were left burning in the halls only the Argand lamps, shaded by hoods of cardboard, the old doctor used to take a little turn up and down the road. His pipe stuck between his teeth, he used to climb the little hill, from which through the trees he could see the denuded plain, the villages, whose mutilated profiles made strange, sharp-drawn figures against the sky, and, further off, St Quentin, which for eight days past had been illuminated by the glare of incendiary fires.

Who? (Skull identified by its resemblence to a living person)

That day I had worked very late, so late that when at length I raised my eyes from my desk, I found twilight had invaded my study. For some minutes I sat perfectly still, my brain in the dull condition that follows a big mental effort, and looked round mechanically. Everything was gray and formless in the half-light, except where reflections from the last rays of the setting sun made little patches of brightness on table or mirror or picture. One must have fallen with particular strength on a skull placed on the top of a bookcase, for, looking up, I saw it clearly enough to distinguish every detail from the point of the cheekbones to the brutal angle of the jaw.

--Vasha 00:19, 20 December 2017 (EST)

Here's a link to the most complete list I found on Homeville. I noted the translations found above. There are few items in this list where your citation above uses "The", and this list does not. --MartyD 10:27, 3 February 2018 (EST)

That's good; I've removed those three from the list above, along with two others I have identified. Lots more to go... --Vasha 20:25, 3 February 2018 (EST)

The Best of John W. Campbell (1976)

According to a Usenet poster, The Best of John W. Campbell (1976) is a part of Ballantine's Classic Library of Science Fiction based on what another volume states. I will point the primary verifiers to this page to see if we need to update the three affected pub records. Ahasuerus 09:51, 3 February 2018 (EST)

The series is listed (though not the Campbell collection itself) on the page facing the title page. I'd say it is part of the series. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 11:36, 3 February 2018 (EST)

I agree with Ron on this.Don Erikson 15:35, 3 February 2018 (EST)

If I remember correctly the Campbell collection is mentioned to be part of this series in the other collections that make part of it. It also has all the outer marks of the series (e.g. "Classic Science Fiction" over the title name).--Dirk P Broer 18:47, 3 February 2018 (EST)

Thanks, I have updated the 3 pub records. Ahasuerus 19:34, 3 February 2018 (EST)

I see the series has been updated in the meantime. All my verified Ballantine "Best of ..." editions are now part of the series. I.m.o. the four editions of "The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre" are not part of this series. --Willem 14:12, 17 February 2018 (EST)

FWIW: I’ve checked three different printings of the Best of Lovecraft. None of them make a mention of the Classic Library of Science Fiction. Can they be removed from this list? TAWeiss 19:28, 8 April 2018 (EDT)

Title Record # 19978 Double Contact by James White: Cover Artist confusion

All editions of Double Contact published by Tor have the same artwork as the cover. The text on the cover differs slightly between the hardcover and paperback editions in appearance. The 1999 hardcover has John Berkey listed as the Cover Artist. The 2000 paperback lists John Harris. The 2015-10-00 Tor eBook lists John Harris (but since I entered that record, I can state that the argument to the Mod was that it was the exact same cover, including text formating, as the 2000 paperback; the eBook didn't actually credit John Harris.) Both the 1999 and 2000 editions have three verifications from individuals owning copies of the item. Which would seem to indicate that the information is indeed that provided by the publisher in that edition. So. Earlier today, I emailed the agent for the estate of John Barkey, and the US agent for John Harris, asking if they had any information concerning this matter. Alan Lynch, John Harrris' US agent, has replied that, indeed, it is the same artwork in both editions, and was created by John Harris. I can provide a copy of the email exchange if someone can explain to me how to do so; I screen printed it and have it as a .png, but it's sitting on my hard drive. (as a maybe-relevant aside, I don't have the permissions necessary to edit my user page: help!)

Kd7mvs 19:11, 5 February 2018 (EST)

It's all been updated. Thanks for figuring it out. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:41, 23 February 2018 (EST)

Dan Millman?

We have one novel by Dan Millman on file. Apparently it's a prequel to his "Peaceful Warrior" saga. I don't know anything about it except that apparently it has to do with New Age spiritualism. Would anyone happen to be familiar with the series? Is it speculative fiction? Should we add the rest of the series or should we delete the one novel that we currently list? TIA! Ahasuerus 18:09, 23 February 2018 (EST)

Looking at his website and the listings on Amazon, I'm skeptical about them being speculative fiction. They seem to be spiritual guidance-type books. The first book is categorized in "Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult & Paranormal", "Books > Religion & Spirituality > Worship & Devotion > Inspirational", and "Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Alternative Medicine > Meditation". ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:35, 23 February 2018 (EST)

The prequel appears to be a novel illustrating the author's philosophy. Perhaps it's the only eligible part of the series, but I don't know enough about it to decide one way or the other. Ahasuerus 18:45, 23 February 2018 (EST)

Shahriar Mandanipour's "Moon Brow"

Would anyone happen to know the Persian title of Shahriar Mandanipour's Moon Brow? It's magical realism (angels in 1980s Iran) and we'll need to set up a VT etc. Ahasuerus 18:43, 23 February 2018 (EST)

It appears to be ابرو هلالی. I have no idea how to Romanize it, though, and I have no idea when it was published, or by whom. Mandanipour's Persian name appears to be شهریار مندنی‌پور. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:11, 23 February 2018 (EST)

I created a parent title and variant based on the information I could find. You can see it here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:26, 27 February 2018 (EST)

Looks good, thanks! Ahasuerus 16:20, 27 February 2018 (EST)

Illustrations for "Fizz and Freeze"

Does anyone recognize the illustrator for "Fizz and Freeze: A Story of the North Pole" (Harper's Magazine, January 1877)? The signatures are illegible but the style looks very distinctive and familiar. --Vasha 14:32, 27 February 2018 (EST)

I don't recognise the style, but some of the illustrations are signed as "Abbey", this must be Edwin Austin Abbey, who did illustrations for Harper's Magazine. --Willem 15:35, 27 February 2018 (EST)

You're right. Compare to this for example. Mystery solved! Thank you! --Vasha 16:10, 27 February 2018 (EST)

White as Milk, Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth

Fixer has identified and added White as Milk, Red as Blood: The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth to the database. Apparently it's a selection of some of the 500-ish fairy tales collected by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in the 19th century and re-discovered in 2009. Would anyone happen to know whether this Knopf Canada edition is an original selection or a translation of some German-language collection? Wikipedia lists a few possible suspects (perhaps Prinz Roßzwifl und andere Märchen, a much longer book?), but nothing definitive. Ahasuerus 19:08, 5 March 2018 (EST)

Anyone knows the English original of Blikgeld?

There's a short story (~6 pages long) in this anthology attributed to Thomas M. Disch, translated in Dutch, and titled Blikgeld. It starts and ends as follows:

In de hal op de begane grond werd meneer Weymans vuurwapen hem afgenomen door een van de vier geüniformeerde bewakers en weggesloten in een postbus. Een dergelijke concessie werd niet verwacht van zijn begeleider, die Lenny heette. Toen Lenny hem volgde, de donkere trap op, doorliep meneer Weymans een korte maar heftige crisis.

and

Shröder kraaide van plezier. 'O, meneer Weymans, wat enig! Wat snoezig! En natuurlijk weet ik precies wat ik u als tegenprestatie kan bieden. Het volmaakte ruilobject.' Hij verdween in zijn provisiekamer en kwam er weer uit terug met een blik Campbell's tomatensoep.

Is there anyone out there that knows what the English original is/could be? Thank you very much in advance! MagicUnk 14:59, 29 April 2018 (EDT)

That would be Canned Goods. I have a copy of the story in "The Wall of America". --Willem 16:04, 29 April 2018 (EDT)

Thanks! I'll variant Blikgeld to Canned Goods then. MagicUnk 16:29, 29 April 2018 (EDT)

Andrei Zakizjanov

I am pretty sure that our Andrei Zakizjanov is actually Andrey Zakirzyanov/Андрей Закирзянов (see the missing "r" in the last name in our record - the y/i change is due to different transliteration)?). The only 3 sites that list this artist with our name are ISFDB, Locus and Galactic Central (here is the search) and this feels like a loopback repetition from a single wrong record. The big question is if it was spelled this way in the publication (it is very possible) or it is a mistake created during the cataloging. Does anyone have any way to check the magazine (Visions, Fall 1991) by any chance? If not, I will leave it as is (maybe it was a typo in the magazine) but will add the rest of the information above in the record... Thanks in advance.Annie 16:34, 4 June 2018 (EDT)

I sent him an eMail with a query about. Will see if he answeres. --Zapp 07:55, 22 July 2018 (EDT)

Андрей Закирзянов answered very quickly. He wrote:
"Hi. Yes it is mine work, something from this series https://www.flickr.com/photos/art_by_andrey_zakirzyanov/3683021146/in/dateposted-public/ Don't remember which one though." So his identity is for shure. --Zapp 09:39, 22 July 2018 (EDT)

La roue du temps

Since user Hauck is no longer active, I post my question here. Curiously Bibliotheque nationale de France, OCLC/WorldCat and Amazon.fr enlist different ISBN as of 978-2-266-19153-1 for this pub of 2008, but not the verified one. The verified ISBN is only to find at Amazon.fr for the same pub of 2005. Neither BNF nor OCLC enlist a printing of 2005. I put a note there or did I wrong? --Zapp 15:46, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

OK, which one exactly are you asking about and what exactly do you need verified? The ISBN? Because I cannot see a 2005 printing in our listing and I am lost at what exactly the problem is here? Annie 15:58, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

Hauck verified that 2008 pub with an ISBN that is not enlisted in OCLC, BNF, Amazon and Abebooks for a printing of 2008. All of them enlist a different ISBN for the 2008 printing. Only Amazon enlists Hauck's ISBN for a 2005 printing. But the others haven't enlisted Hauck's ISBN and no 2005 printing anyhow. I wonder if there is something wrong or curious? --Zapp 01:47, 19 July 2018 (EDT)

Armageddon Outta Here (2nd edition)

The record for the second edition of Derek Landy's collection Armageddon Outta Here, which has different contents from the first edition, has a note indicating that the table of contents shown in Amazon Look Inside may not be correct: "The contents page mistakenly includes several headings and an excerpt, that are not in the book." However, whoever wrote that note didn't add contents to the record. Can anyone get hold of this edition and see what's in it? --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 19:35, 26 July 2018 (EDT)

James Warner in Interzone #276

Would someone with access to the most recent issue of Interzone (#276, July-August 2018) please check the bio for the James Warner who wrote "P.Q." and make sure he is the same person as the author of the other stories in the DB: this guy, born in England and now living in San Francisco where he's active with literary groups. (Also, please add the reviews to the record for this issue). --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 23:27, 26 July 2018 (EDT)

Same one - his site and his only novel ("All Her Father's Guns") are mentioned specifically. Annie 15:29, 29 July 2018 (EDT)

Conversation with a Bug by Jack Sharkey

Can someone that owes a book with this story check their book and look at that story. I am looking for the source of a Bulgarian translation which is most likely this story but I cannot find a summary or any notes on what the story is about anywhere so asking here instead. If there is a wasp (which is actually some kind of a ghost?) caught into a spider's net and the bugs are talking. Can someone confirm? Thanks in advance! Annie 14:36, 22 August 2018 (EDT)

I don't have this story in my collection and I can't find its text online, but a Russian translation is available here. Fantlab confirms that the original title was "Conversation with a Bug" and that it was first published in the October 1961 issue of Playboy. Ahasuerus 15:17, 22 August 2018 (EDT)

I officially need more coffee - I did not think to switch to Russian (no clue why). Thanks a lot! Annie 15:20, 22 August 2018 (EDT)

L'ultima riga delle favole

Is there anyone that's sufficiently proficient in Italian to confirm whether L'ultima riga delle favole contains sufficient spec fic elements for adding to the DB? Thanks! MagicUnk 16:10, 6 September 2018 (EDT)

I'm italian. I onestly don't think that "L'ultima riga delle favole" fit the DB. I say this because of the plot and because this author has never written fiction. --Grianne 07:09, 14 June 2019 (EDT)

Andre Norton's Forerunners Universe: Timeline and recommended reading order

After my initial questions on the subject here on this website, I started reading (again) through all of Norton's Space Age books, this time specifically to find whatever time and event references she had hidden away in the stories. This is the result of that venture.

My personal research showed that (some of) the comments I quoted from the Amazon page (see previous post #32 on the subject) were written by someone who did not read the books (very thoroughly), as they place some books in locations that are not mentioned in the books.

My research also showed that the sequence of the F-U titles on Maureen O’Brien’s 'multiverse' timeline on andre-norton-books.com is confusing and retains major inconsistencies.

My timeline removes all the major inconsistencies and ties the 57 stories stories into a logical sequence that even allows a neat graphic representation.

I hope this presentation may lead to the acceptance that Andre Norton - like several other SF-authors - wrote a substantial 'Future History' collection, which deserves to be acknowledged as Andre Norton's Forerunners Universe.

See Andre Norton's Forerunners Universe: Timeline and recommended reading order for more detailed information. Follow the links in this text to see the complete pages.

Forerunners Universe

Timeline image INTRODUCTION 1. The Forerunners Universe.

Andre Norton wrote 70 Space Age stories during 5+ decades. Forty-five of those have "Forerunners" as a recurrent background theme.

In analogy to Norton’s ‘Witch World Universe,’ it seems logical to bring all these books together in a ‘Forerunners Universe’. (F-U) Yet, apparently this has not happened to date. Neither ISFDB nor Goodreads acknowledge the Forerunners Universe and their listings show many of the F-U stories as stand-alone novels. There are several reasons for that:

a. The Forerunners theme is a very loose connection. There is no over-arching story line that ties it all together in a larger mega-saga as in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Arc. In that regard, Norton's Forerunners Universe is more like Jack Vance's Gaean Reach or Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish cycle, which were also notoriously difficult to catalogue until the authors stated that those stories belonged together.

b. Andre Norton never made such statement about her F-U stories. She never published a timeline and the documents in her estate don't have any information on that subject either. Apparently, this was not an issue of great importance to her. She was a writer of shorter pulp-fiction-style stories, not sweeping sagas. She wrote fast-paced adventure stories, many of which had recurrent background elements, but she didn’t worry overly much about being 100% consistent between all those separate stories.

c. While there are many common themes in the F-U stories, there are also quite a few inconsistencies and even some glaring conflicts between the various stories. Andre Norton never resorted to fix-up novels to tie her earlier stories together and 'fix' these problems. Understandably, the inconsistencies have led to disagreements about which books belong and which don’t. They also are why imposing a chronology on these stories is so difficult. (See Appendix B for details) .../...

We would do well to remind ourselves that Andre Norton was a storyteller, not a historian. Accepting that — with all the inconsistencies that come with it — was the first step I needed to take on the road to creating some order in the chaos of this Universe.

II. Time Line + Recommended Reading Order

This is in part a thematic reading order. It closely follows the main divisions of the timeline, but within those divisions titles are ordered by common themes rather than absolute chronology.

III. Story Review

This page lists all the stories and sub-series in the chronological / thematic order as described above, with a brief synopsis of each story and some comments tying it all together in the greater 'historical' context.

In order to avoid interruptions in the story review, the inconsistencies and conflicts have been gathered on THIS PAGE, while the next page provides a detailed explanation of how I created the timeline so you can see I did my homework on this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SF&F-fan (talk • contribs) . 10:53, 21 October 2018

Given the complexities involved, perhaps the low-hanging fruit in this case would to add an Author Note to Norton's record. It could briefly explain that different researchers have come up with somewhat different interpretations of how Norton's series overlap and then link to the relevant third party Web pages/lists. Ahasuerus 17:51, 26 October 2018 (EDT)

Analog, May/June 2018

Could someone who has a copy of this year's May/June Analog please check the story "My Base Pair" on page 101; it is categorized "short story" in the magazine, however Rocket Stack Rank says this is erroneous and it is actually 9,493 words long. The length should be confirmed, corrected, and noted in the database. --Vasha (cazadora de tildes) 11:26, 6 November 2018 (EST)

Flowers for Algernon, edition clarification

The cover on my copy doesn't have a price and it has the text "BANTAM BOOKS/SPECIAL EDITION"

How would others interpret the printing date for this version based on this copyright page. https://photos.app.goo.gl/iuWEhsxFsuz4CLgc7 File:IMG20181117.jpg (I believe I have made this link public, sorry if I got it wrong)

Would it be the 2nd Bantam Edition with a publishing date of October 1967? or was the 1st Bantam edition published October 1967 and this is the 2nd printing?

I found a list in another edition that had these dates but I don't know where they came from:

Harcourt edition March 1966. 2nd printing April 1966. Bantam edition published October 1967. 2nd printing Nov 1967, 3rd printing Feb 1968, 4th printing Oct 1968, 5th printing Oct 1968,

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?273784

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dan.henne‎ (talk • contribs) .

Based on that scan of the copyright page, your copy is the second printing of the Bantam edition. In the past, it was common not to state the printing date on the copyright page. However, some later printing could list all of the previous printings and their dates. That's where the list that you quoted presumably originally came from. Barring typos, these types of lists are quite reliable, so it's safe to assume that your copy was published in November 1967. Considering the book's popularity, it's not surprising that the second printing came out within a few weeks of the first one.

Re: "edition" vs. "printing" and "first edition" vs. "second edition", it can get complicated. The short version is that an "edition" is a book version done by a publisher. An edition can have multiple printings. In this case I see the following English language editions:

Cassell & Company published a hardcover edition for the UK market
Harcourt, Brace & World published another hardcover edition for the US market
Pan Books published a mass market paperback edition for the UK market
Bantam Books published a mass market paperback edition for the US market

Each edition could have multiple printings. Ahasuerus 15:57, 24 November 2018 (EST)

Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard

I have an undated copy of Allan Quatermain published by A. L. Burt, probably around the 30's that has two parts - Allan Quatermain (...) goes to page 226, and is followed by The Two Captains (over) A Narrative on pages 95 to 147. No pages missing from the book. I can't find any mention of anything called "The Two Captains" as being by HRH. Anyone have any idea what it is or what it's from? ../Doug H 09:02, 6 December 2018 (EST)

Answered my own question by searching for character names. Seems that The Two Captains was actually written by Baron Friedrich de La Motte Fouqué although no credit is given in the book. ../Doug H 11:55, 6 December 2018 (EST)