macdonald & co. (publishers) first h/cvr printing, first uk h/cvr edition
n.b. published after the futura publications p/b first printing and first uk edition
cover (d-j) art by peter andrew jones (signed paj81, shared from futura publications p/b edition)
cover (d-j) price £6.95
340pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, blank end pp, bound with endpapers between covered boards
aimed primarily at sales to the uk public library system, which was still a thriving public service - then
cover art by peter andrew jones (signed paj81, uncredited)
b+w maps by diane duane, jerry pournelle
cover price £1.95, $6.95 australia
336pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
serialised in astounding vol. lxxxviii #4, #5, #6, 12/1972, 1/1973, 2/1973,
part one: the cover story, parts one, two & three two b+w illustrations each, art by (frank) kelly freas,
a considerably longer revised edition of the novel was published as ''king david's spaceship '' (1981), q.v.
daw books mmpb simultaneous first printings sharing merkin-printed covers
cover art by (frank) kelly freas (signed, credited)
b+w interior illustration unsigned, uncredited
near-meaningless daw books collector no.42
cover price 95¢
160pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
refer to indicia publishing history to see if carcass of copy held was canadadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both state first printing, february, 1973
''the mote in god's eye'' was set in jerry pournelle's already extant codominium sf setting:
(see his ''a spaceship for the king'' (1973), q.v., revised as ''king david's spaceship'' (1981) q.v.)
it had a prequel short story by the two cut from its pages prior to reaching its published form:
#0: reflex (short story) in ''there will be war'' eds. john f. carr, jerry pournelle (1983), q.v.
#1: ''the mote in god's eye'' larry niven, jerry pournelle (1974), (this novel)
#2: ''the gripping hand'' larry niven, jerry pournelle (1993), q.v.
aka ''the most around murcheson's eye'' (1993 uk), q.v.
#3: ''outies'' j. r. (jennifer) pournelle (2011)°, q.v.
° - this last was an authorised sequel written by jerry pournelle's daughter
futura publications ltd. futura books first printing, first uk p/b
cover art (unsigned, uncredited; seen suggested to be by peter ''paj'' jones, asked to do a foss-oid cover)
cover price 95p (overseas territories prices?)
576pp? (check) including (i)-x pp. titles, indicia, dramatis personae, codominium chronology, etc, end pp.
weidenfeld & nicolson h/cvr first printing, first uk edition
cover (d-j) art (unsigned, prob'ly credited; quite possibly nick sutton)
cover (d-j) price £4.50
540pp? (check) including titles, indicia etc, end p, bound with endpapers between covered boards
weidenfeld & nicolson h/cvr first printing, first uk edition
cover (d-j) art by nick sutton (perspective block caps against a black/very dark blue night sky of stars)
cover (d-j) price £3.50
240pp? (check) including titles, indicia etc, bound with endpapers between covered boards
faber & faber (though there was only ever the one) h/cvr first printing, first edition
reprint collection of one novella, five novelettes and a short story
cover (d-j) art unsigned, possibly credited, geometric mathematical design on red & black vertical bars
cover (d-j) price 21/-
252pp. (check) including titles, indicia, table-of-contents etc, end p, bound with endpapers between covered boards
introduction (nf) john carnell
danse macabre (short story) mervyn peake, science fantasy #61, 10/1963
blood offering (ss) john kippax, science fantasy #47, 6/1961
same time, same place (ss) mervyn peake, science fantasy #60, 8/1963
master of chaos (ss) michael moorcock, fantastic vol.13 #5, 5/1964, one b+w illustration by virgil finlay
wednesday's child (ss) william tenn, fantastic universe vol.4 #6, 1/1956
dial ''o'' for operator (novelette) robert presslie, science fantasy #27, 2/1958
the flowers of the forest (ss) brian w aldiss, science fantasy #24, 8/1957 without the ''the''
fresh guy (ss) e. c. tubb, science fantasy #29, 6/1958
the garden of paris (ss) eric (c.) williams (apparently original to this anthology)
the graveyard reader (ss) theodore sturgeon, in ''the graveyard reader'' ed. groff conklin (1965)
transworld publishers corgi books imprint p/b first printing, first edition
almost entirely reprint anthology of one novelette and nine short stories, nf introduction by the editor
cover art by josh kirby (unsigned, uncredited) (re-used, smaller, and credited, on the 1969 avon mmpb)
(and is in dave langford's joshlist.html compiled mainly from josh kirby's records)
cover price 3/6
160pp. including titles, indicia, table-of-contents etc, end pp. advertising
granada publishing group second printing, also panther books second printing - but the first granada publishing group printing was the intervening mayflower books imprint 1972 uk p/b edition.
(n.b: all are essentially from the same typesetting, suitably adjusted - and this panther/granada printing bears an isbn that incorporates cat# of the panther books ltd. 1967 edition - that granada publishing didn't publish, and don't credit, not the isbn of the mayflower books that they did publish - and do credit. . .
- can this bibliographically-put-upon sf & fantasy fan and sometime editor please be allowed use of a time machine to kill some publishers' miscreant manglements - ?)
cover art by geoff taylor (unsigned, credited on back cover)
cover price £1.95, $5.95 australia, $7.95 new zealand
128pp. including titles, indicia, etc, end pp. advertising
panther books ltd. p/b first printing, first uk p/b edition
cover art unsigned, uncredited, uninspired greeny-bluey mostly out-of-focus photographic
cover price 3/6
128pp. including titles, indicia etc, end p. advertising
grosset & dunlap charter communications ace books imprint mmpb first printing, not first mmpb edition
cover art by michael whelan (unsigned, full artwork if found prob'ly bears his m/w device, credited)
cover price $1.95
240pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
refer to publishing history to distinguish from near-identical second mmpb printing on same isbn, cat#, same cover price, which states second ace printing: february 1979
and from fairly near-identical undated (believed 9/1981) third mmpb printing on new
isbn: 0441-081265
cat# 08126
cover price $2.25
which bears indicia h publishing history printing number line 46809753 after the first two printings with dates
undated (believed 1982, possibly early 1983) fourth printing on new
isbn: 0-441-08127-3
cat# 08127
cover price $2.50
which bears indicia publishing history printing number line 4680975 after listing the first three printings with dates
next known ace imprint mmpb printing:
7/1984 berkley publishing group charter communications ace science fiction sixth° mmpb printing:
isbn: 0-441-08128-1°
cover price ($2.95 canada) • $2.75 u.s.
which bears no publishing history printing number line
° - and may indicate someone bringing the publishing history printing number and implicit cat# 08128 into line with history after the second printing was incorrectly given the same cat# and isbn as the first - but yr hmbl srppnt. wouldn't swear to it. . .
macdonald & co. (publishers) first printing, first uk edition, first h/cvr edition
cover (d-j) art (line drawing on the hollow caps SF of the macdonald sf series uniform design d-js)
cover price 21/- (check)
172pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end p., bound with endpapers between covered boards
introduction
the marvellous brass chess-playing automaton (novelette) gene wolfe, ''universe 7'' ed. terry carr (1977)
unicorn variation (ntte) roger zelazny, iamsf vol.5 #4, 13/4/1981, cover story art by robert crawford, two b+w illustrations by jack gaughan
the immortal game (short story) poul anderson, f&sf vol.6 #2, 2/1954
midnight by the morphy watch (ss) fritz leiber, if vol.22 #6, 7-8/1974; if tandem bre #4 (ignore: go by masthead vol-no & date as merkin original)
unsound variations (novella) george r. r. martin, amazing vol.55 #5, 1/1982
a game of vlet (ss) joanna russ, f&sf vol.46 #2, 2/1974
without a thought (ss) fred saberhagen, if vol.12 #1, 1/1963 as ''fortress ship''; a berserker story
a board in the other direction (ss) ruth berman, f&sf vol.46 #1, 1/1974
von goom's bandit (ss) victor contoski, chess review 4/1966
kokomu (ntte) daniel gilbert (apparently original to this anthology)
moxon's master (ss) ambrose bierce, san francisco examiner 16/4/1899
rendezvous 2062 (poem) robert frazier (apparently original to this anthology)
reflections on the looking-glass. an essay (nf) fred (alfred) stewart (original to this anthology)
berkley publishing group ace books imprint mmpb first printing, first edition
themed, almost entirely reprint anthology of a novella, three novelettes, seven short stories, a poem, nf introduction by the editors and nf article by fred stewart, all chess- (&/or other-) game-based sf stories
cover art (unsigned, uncredited - nicely suitably atmospheric; i'd like to know by whom)
cover price $2.50
270pp. (check) including titles, indicia, table-of-contents etc, end pp. advertising
transworld publishers corgi books imprint p/b first printing, first uk p/b edition
cover art by bruce pennington
cover price £1.75 (no overseas territories prices)
320pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
i'm not sure transworld publishers ever reprinted their corgi books p/b edition: they definitely imported their merkin sister company's bantam books mmpb both before and after their own p/b's availability, distributing it with a uk price letterpress printed upon the cover, which uk price varied with the different merkin mmpb printings' importations
for quite a while, alternate issues of supernatural stories magazine were given the variant title of ''supernatural special'', but continued to be numbered in the magazine cat# sequence; these contained only one story, either a long novella or a short novel, and may reasonably be regarded as either or both issues of the magazine, and/or as novels standing in their own right.
the chronicles of hawklan:
#1: ''the call of the sword'' (1988), (this book)
#2: ''the fall of fyorlund'' (1989), q.v.
#3: ''the waking of orthlund'' (1989), q.v.
#4: ''into narsindal'' (1990), q.v.
#5 through #12 are all set after the above tetralogy:
#5: ''dreamfinder'' (1991), q.v.
headline books headline feature sub-imprint general p/b first printing, apparently first p/b edition
cover art by mark harrison (unsigned, credited on back cover)
cover price £5.99, $16.95 australia
412pp? (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising