Ballantine Books - Latest Updates

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Comment by Magic Marmalade:

Also worth noting, that there is more than one Foucault of historical note.

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Comment by Magic Marmalade:

What a tangled web we weave!

This is one for the conspiracy theorists, especially those who got entangled with the likes of The Da Vinci Code, and The Holy Blood, And The Holy Grail... Except this is work of (overt) fiction is a almost a masterpiece of deadpan satire of conspiracy theories.

In fact, given the author was an absolute master of medievalism (he knew his historical, and indeed his "historical" stuff!), this leaves those other works in the dust, due to his total command of the material in ways others can only dream of.

Essentially, within the framework of the plot, of a trio of cynical, esoteric book publishers who decide to make a little publishing enterprise by concocting a global "masterplan" based on their combined knowledge of all things "secret society", freemason, and Knights Templar etc., they weave a massive web of horseshit for their target audience, built form the accumulated mass of almost every piece of history and "history" not nailed down that you can think of...

(Seriously, almost any historical figure or place you care to mention pops up at some point, and even the most learned or familiar among you will struggle with some of these references)

...Only to discover, once dark events and happenings around them may suggest their created plan may actually be true!

.....And now it seems it may be after them.

There's plenty of twists here, naturally, and I think it may be somewhat too dense with historical reference at times, but that only serves to highlight the psyche of the conspiratorial mind, by taking it, and running further with it that most of them are able, or willing to go. It gets to be like a joke told deadpan, that just keeps going and going, and getting more and more elaborate and funnier, not necessarily because of the content, but due to the absurdity of persistence.

It is also great at breaking this down, and showing the mechanics of conspiracy, and the conspiratorial mind, and how such people are susceptible and vulnerable to such intrigues. So not only a masterpiece of satire of the whole "world" of conspiracy, but actually quite useful for those wishing to seek some objectivity... or indeed... sanity.

Ultimately, there is no conspiracy, and everybody else knows it but you :)

...Or is there?

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Comment by ppint.:

serialized in earlier (?possibly abridged?°) form as "helium" in galaxy vol.36 #4, #5, #6; 4-5, 6, 7/1975; episode #1: cover story, art and a b+w illustratio; episode #2: two b+w illustrations; episode #3: three b+w illustrations, all by jack gaughan

"uk edition" numbers #28, #29, #30 were printed on the original merkin issues' covers iirc, and these were distributed (ha!) in the uk-of-gb(?'n'norniron?) by tandem books, but these were not distinct british reprint editions ("bre"s).

° - i've not compared the two versions in any way; in fact, i'm not even certain i read the ballantine mmpb - things were happening in single step that demanded a lot of attention, and i wasn't then aware that the texts differed.

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books mmpb first printing, first edition

cover art by boris vallejo (unsigned, though the full artwork probably is, credited)
cover price $1.50
256pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Back cover added.

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Comment by ppint.:

the four lords of the diamond tetralogy #4:

#1: "lilith: a snake in the grass" (1981), q.v. for series listing, and links.

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Comment by ppint.:

the four lords of the diamond tetralogy #3:

#1: "lilith: a snake in the grass" (1981), q.v. for series listing, and links.

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Comment by ppint.:

the four lords of the diamond tetralogy #2:

#1: "lilith: a snake in the grass" (1981), q.v. for series listing, and links.

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Comment by ppint.:

the four lords of the diamond tetralogy #1:

#1: "lilith: a snake in the grass" (1981), (this book)
#2: "cerberus: a wolf in the fold" (1982), q.v.
#3: "charon: a dragon at the gate" (1982), q.v.
#4: "medusa: a tiger by the tail" (1983), q.v.

omnibus edition of #1, #2, #3 & #4:
produced by the merkin science fiction book club:
#O: "the four lords of the diamond" (1983), q.v.

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books near-identical mmpb first printings sharing merkin-printed covers
del rey series

cover art by david b. mattingly (unsigned, credited)
cover price $3.75 (canadian-carcassed copies intended for distribution north of the parallel)
cover price $2.95 (wholly merkin-printed copies for general distribution)
304pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc., end pp. advertising

refer also to indicia to check if carcass of copy held was merkin- or canadadian- printed.
no priority established nor liable to be

check also for additional printing history line stating
second printing: april 1983
cover price $2.95

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books near-identical mmpb first printings sharing merkin-printed covers
del rey series

cover art by david b. mattingly (unsigned, credited)
cover price $3.75 (canadian-carcassed copies intended for distribution north of the parallel)
cover price $2.95 (wholly merkin-printed copies for general distribution)
304pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc., end pp. advertising

refer also to indicia to check if carcass of copy held was merkin- or canadadian- printed.
no priority established nor liable to be

check also for additional printing history line stating
second printing: june 1983
cover price $2.95

... ... ... ...

1/1983 sixth printing retains cover art, cat#, isbn, increases cover price
sixth printing: january 1983
cover price $3.50

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books near-identical mmpb first printings sharing merkin-printed covers
del rey series

cover art by david b. mattingly (signed, credited)
cover price $2.95 (canadian-carcassed copies intended for distribution north of the parallel)
cover price $2.50 (wholly merkin-printed copies for general distribution)
256pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc., end pp. advertising

refer also to indicia to check if carcass of copy held was merkin- or canadadian- printed.
no priority established nor liable to be

check also for additional printing history line stating
second printing: january 1983
cover price $2.50


4/1983 third printing increases cover price and bears new
isbn 0345311221
cat# 31122
third printing: april 1983
cover price $2.75

?/198n? fourth printing not seen/not seen recorded by yr hmbl srppnt.

6/1985 near-identical fifth printing differs:
isbn 0-345-32948-1
cat# 32948
cover price $2.95

?/1986? sixth printing not seen/not seen recorded by yr hmbl srppnt.

7/1987 seventh printing differs:
isbn 0345352475
cat# 35247
cover price $3.50

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books near-identical mmpb first printings sharing merkin-printed covers
del rey series

cover art by david b. mattingly (signed, credited)
cover price $2.95 (canadian-carcassed copies intended for distribution north of the parallel)
cover price $2.50 (wholly merkin-printed copies for general distribution)
256pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc., end pp. advertising

refer also to indicia to check if carcass of copy held was merkin- or canadadian- printed.
no priority established nor liable to be

check also for additional printing history line stating
second printing: october 1982
and for further possible addition:
third printing (june 1983 - possibly so stated)
both of these reprintings cover price $2.50

?/198n? fourth printing not seen/not seen recorded by yr hmbl srppnt.

10/1986 near-identical fifth printing differs:
isbn 0-345-34420-0
cat# 34420
cover price $3.50

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books mmpb first printing, first edition

cover art by h. r. van dongen (signed at bottom edge and may be guillotined off, credited)
cover price $1.50
224pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising

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Comment by 23skidoo:

With respect to the original uploader, added a clearer front cover scan plus a back cover image.

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books simultaneous near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers, not first mmpb edition

cover art by bob (robert) giusti (signed, credited)
cover price $1.50
192pp. including unpaginated pages titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising

refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first printing: august, 1975

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Comment by ppint.:

(possibly intext group†) ballantine books mmpb near-simultaneous near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers

cover art unsigned°, uncredited
cover price 75¢
224pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp.

refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian-or merkin- printed
canadian-printed carcase states first printing: march 1969; merkin-printed states first printing: february 1969

† - check title page and indicia for statement of this, or - more likely - its absence from both

° - very faint trace possibly "ray"

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Comment by ppint.:

sequel is "wall around a star" frederik pohl & jack williamson (1983), q.v.

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Comment by ppint.:

fix-up of "doomship" (novella) if vol.21 #10, (3-4/1973), q.v.
if (bre) #6, (3-4/1973), q.v.
and
"the org's egg" (novel) galaxy vol.34 #7, vol.35 #8, #9 (4, 5, 6/1974), qq.v.
galaxy (bre) #14, 17th edition, 18th edition (4, 5, 6/1974), qq.v.

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Added back cover.

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Comment by ppint.:

the full series has been collected in a printed-on-demand ("pod") tp/b as "water rites" (fairwood press 2007), q.v.

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Comment by ppint.:

the statement - or claim - that the ballantine mmpb is/was an original is (and was) at least debatable.

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Comment by ppint.:

the three-digit last element of the number string stated to be the american sbn is the cover price in cents; it is not in fact part of the book's sbn, as the standard book number is/was defined as a nine digit number, the first element of which identifies the publisher, the second element identified the book title in that publisher's then-current catalogue (which allows for eventual re-used of any particular sbn), and the final digit is the checksum digit calculated from the first eight digits allowing errors to be detected (and, if this was the most common error, that of the accidental swapping of two adjacent digits, allowing this to be identified and corrected by a human being or, later, a computer program routine).

possibly because of the way the failing rival - and incompatible - abn (american book number) system, which does not seem ever to have made use of a checksum digit, had been used, different merkin mmpb publishers committed a variety of more(-or-less) catastrophically non-compliant variations when they began to adopt the sbn (standard book number) system, up to and including creating fake, and usually - almost inevitably - non-checksum-digit-system-compliant - "isbn"s.

the standard book number system was later extended to become the international standard book number system by prepending (or deeming to have been prepended) the digit zero, 0, to all current sbn system numbers; being arithmetically equivalent to these isbn ("isbn10" on bookcat) numbers, 9-digit sbn system numbers may be treated identically by number-crunchers human, mechanical, electrical and electronic.

the much later isbn13 system is not backwards-compatible with the sbn/isbn10 system.

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Comment by ppint.:

intext publishing group ballantine books imprint mmpb simultaneous near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers

cover art by mort engel (unsigned, credited as by mort engle; full first name seems to've been morton)
cat# 01903
sbn 345-01903-2
cover price 75¢
192pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising

refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first american edition: april, 1970
refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first american edition: april, 1970

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Comment by ppint.:

timepiece series #2:

#1: ''timepiece'' (1968), q.v. for series listing, and links.

(seen stated to've been intended to be a pentalogy, but no source for this statement was given)

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Comment by ppint.:

intext publishing group ballantine books imprint mmpb simultaneous near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers

cover art by tom adams (unsigned, credited)
cover price 95¢
192pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising

refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first printing: december, 1970

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Comment by 23skidoo:

Cover art is the same as that used for the first UK edition of the James Bond novel, Colonel Sun! The cover hasn't been scanned in yet as of the time of this post, but you can see it here

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Comment by ppint.:

alastor cluster #1, a novel of the gaean reach:

#1: ''trullion: alastor 2262'' (1973), (this book)
#2: "marune: alastor 933" (1975), q.v.
#3: "wyst: alastor 1716" (1978), q.v.

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Covers added.

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Comment by ppint.:

random house group ballantine books mmpb simultaneous first printings sharing merkin-printed covers

cover art by greg hildebrandt, tim hildebrandt (signed hildebrandt, credited as the brothers hildebrandt)
cover price $1.95
384pp. including titles, indicia, table-of-contents etc, end pp.

refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadian-or merkin-printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first edition: march 1976

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Comment by annaloog:

There is, perhaps, some room for confusion. Acc. to the Guide (for) Adding Books, I don't suggest changing, say, all 170 entries (so far) of Jack Vance titles to John Holbrook Vance — the author is "best known" as we now have it ... similarly with Lord Dunsany.

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Comment by 23skidoo:

Name of author was Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett. In keeping with how we handle pen names I'll be submitting this as an overall correction with Lord Dunsany moved to pen name field.