Vintage SF Book Haul | A Stack of Clifford Simak and More

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:05][music] Hey book, Matt from Science Fiction Reads here with um the fifth video in this series of uh going through this thousand plus books uh I recently acquired. Uh and as with the last few, the first half will be some random so so stuff and the second half will be stuff that's more exciting stuff that I'm keeping for myself.

[00:00:30]um and typically the better quality stuff. All right, so first up, um I have an anthology here edited by Martin Greenberg and two others. It's the city 2008 AD: Urban Life through science fiction.

[00:00:49]Uh I did not see this or at least not notice it when I previously went through these books and I was just looking at the contents and I think I'll keep this one, add it to the anthology shelf because there's a lot of interesting stories and authors in there and it's in real nice condition.

[00:01:13]All right. And there is a theme to this.

[00:01:16]Um, half the stuff I'm going to show you is like parts of series, but they're by authors I don't really know, so I don't know much about these. I've got Chris Claremont, First Flight.

[00:01:29]Looks like some military SF and let me see.

[00:01:40]Got jeez, these actually have some pretty neat wraparound art, but I've never heard anybody talk about these.

[00:01:47]Sundowner. I do like the art.

[00:01:51]So, if you've read any of these, which half of this stuff is going to be obscure to me, uh, let me know what you thought.

[00:01:59]Daniel D Cruz, another author I'm not familiar with. Some of these could be a series.

[00:02:06]Um, I don't really know. This is an interesting title. F Cubed.

[00:02:13]And these are pretty sharp. Pretty good condition.

[00:02:19]Uh, Texas triumphant.

[00:02:24]Like they're all from Del Rey. Yeah.

[00:02:27]Texas on the rocks and the eyes of Texas. So, okay. I'm guessing this uh at least three of these must be part of a series.

[00:02:46]Uh another series here from someone I haven't heard of. John Dechansy. These are from Ace Star Rigger in which we have futuristic transports uh maybe being pursued by 57 Belairs.

[00:03:05]I'm not sure. I like the artwork.

[00:03:09][snorts] These are just cool because I mean they're they're in such good shape. This is from 1983.

[00:03:18]I don't know anything about these, but uh they're all part of a series I think.

[00:03:22]Hey, there's uh we've got another 57 Chevy by the looks of it. Or at least they're damn close. They're trying.

[00:03:30]That's what they're going for. And again, some futuristic transportation.

[00:03:36]Not sure how you get a trilogy out of this, but uh and actually what's cool is the artwork is pretty consistent. Pretty much the same thing, same vehicle. And there's a third red limit freeway.

[00:03:55]I'm going to have to look these up.

[00:03:56]These are so weird. Somebody left a comment about uh potentially coining the term SF obscura, but then uh the comment disappeared, but uh I would consider this stuff some obscure stuff, at least to me. Robert Dotri, I have three books, probably a series. Area 51, Noseratu.

[00:04:20]Definitely not going to be my type of thing.

[00:04:24]Legend and the reply.

[00:04:35]Uh, I've got some Gordon R. Dixon here that are these are all in amazing shape.

[00:04:42]Uh, time storm from Banttom.

[00:04:51]It's got color fading, but otherwise [snorts] it looks and feels quite fresh. 1980.

[00:05:02]Uh, Masters of Everon.

[00:05:05]I have a copy of this, but I'm willing to bet this is in better shape. So, it was in better shape. Probably will have to upgrade there. Arcturus Landing.

[00:05:25]Uh, Space Pod, which sometimes gets a laugh online for the uh the cover art there. These are all really nice.

[00:05:35]And Pro. Oh, an Ace illustrated novel.

[00:05:40]Don't think I've come across that before.

[00:05:43]I've come across illustrated novels, but not this particular one.

[00:05:49]All right. Uh, a few Jerry Pornell.

[00:05:51]We've got Pocketbook, uh, The Mercenary, which says it's the Fantastic 4Runner to the moat in God's Eye.

[00:06:01]So, if it's connected, taking place in the same universe, that's pretty cool.

[00:06:07]or maybe they simply mean similar themes.

[00:06:12]I'll have to look into that as well.

[00:06:13]Then we've got um looks like an anthology series maybe created by Jerry Pernell called Codaminium.

[00:06:24]So I've got a few of these here.

[00:06:29]Uh Warorld, the first novel of Blood Feuds.

[00:06:40]and Tran by Jerry Panell and Roland Green.

[00:06:50]Formerly published in parts as Clan and Crown and Storms of Victory. This is the first unitary edition.

[00:07:01]All right, some more randoms here. This is two, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

[00:07:07]Uh, at least an eightbook series that I know nothing about from some authors I know nothing about. This is the first in the series. Sten novel by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch.

[00:07:22]Vulcan was a factory planet centuries old company run, ugly as sin and unfeilling as death.

[00:07:29]And there's some more there, but uh evidently this book spawned quite a lengthy series because we've got uh The Wolf Worlds.

[00:07:40]I'm pretty sure these are all connected.

[00:07:45]And again, these all have nice crisp finds. The Court of a Thousand Sons, Fleet of the Damned.

[00:08:00]Let me know if you've read this and what you thought of it. Sounds like the cat has found a toy. I might have to take away from her.

[00:08:12]Uh, The Return of the Emperor.

[00:08:20]Vortex and Empire's End, which could be the final in the series.

[00:08:30]Um, I definitely have all the ones listed there, I'm pretty sure. So, all right. Some from Brian Deli.

[00:08:41]Looks like maybe two different series here. I've got the Doomfarers of Cormand.

[00:08:48]This massive book haul is primarily science fiction, but this guy did have a decent amount of fantasy mixed in. The Star Followers of Cormand.

[00:09:03]Then I've got three that I believe are connected but a character called um elacrity fits you maybe fall of the white ship avatar.

[00:09:20]Again this guy kept his books in very good condition. Jinx on a Terran Inheritance and Recreum for a Ruler of Worlds. This guy had great titles.

[00:09:41]All right, one more Obscure to Me series and then um I've got some more interesting stuff from three classic authors.

[00:09:51]So Rick Shelly, never heard of him, but I got a big series from Ace here.

[00:09:56]Colonel, I think these are DMC is the series or something. I don't know. I'll have to look into these major. These are definitely not my type of thing. There are certain uh military SF books that I've really enjoyed, but I don't think I'd be into a giant series like this. All right, this is going to be a shorter video than I thought, but the last three authors I've got are Lester Del Rey, John W. Campbell, and then a bunch of Clifford Simax.

[00:10:39]So, Lester Del Rey. I think a couple of these are what we consider today as um like a young adult but day of the giants.

[00:10:52]What's it in really nice shape? Looks like this guy bought it in ' 68 and read it in ' 68.

[00:11:02]And I think this copy was published in 64.

[00:11:07]Uh Lester Del Rey, Attack from Atlantis.

[00:11:10]I don't think I had ever heard of this.

[00:11:13]I think this is one of the juvenile novels, but it just looks and sounds cool. So, don't think it's worth anything. I looked most of these uh del and things up, so I thought I'd keep it. Uh the 11th commandment.

[00:11:39]really really sharp Valentine copy of Nerves. Had a copy of this, but replacing it with this one because it's so damn sharp.

[00:11:53]Uh, this is a third printing from 1970 and it just looks and feels new.

[00:12:00]And then I was happy. This is a one I already had, but it's an upgrade. the best of luster del Rey from Del Rey Valentine u uncracked spine although it does kind of have a a lean to it uh with an int introduction from Frederick Ple. So yeah, really really happy with that one.

[00:12:24]And I think in an earlier video I showed off the best of Eric Frank Russell which was the last one I needed. So I've got them all.

[00:12:32]Uh, I think I upgraded my copy of the best of John W. Campbell as well.

[00:12:39]So, this is the copy I'm keeping.

[00:12:42]And I'll try and sell the uh the one I had. Then I've got a couple anthologies here which uh I don't think I'll be keeping. Analog one edited by John W. Campbell.

[00:12:58]See when this came out and who's in it.

[00:13:04]First printing was June 64. This is a second printing from 1971.

[00:13:17]And another one here, the astounding science fiction anthology edited by JW Campbell Jr. from Berkeley.

[00:13:37]It's got a Louiswis Padet story in there when the bow breaks or the bow breaks, which would be uh CL Mo and Henry Cutner, which is pretty cool.

[00:13:47]And that leaves the Clifford Dimac.

[00:13:53]Um, I think with the exception of one or two of these, I had all of these already.

[00:13:59]And, um, they're all much better condition than what I had. So, um, yes, maybe I'll include a picture of the Simac shelf once, uh, these are all filed away again because it's it's getting to be pretty impressive. It's kind of my tribute to my late friend, uh, Sean Stanfast, who was a booktuber, and he was obsessed with SIMac. And anytime I came across some simak, I'd send him a picture and we'd talk about it and he'd usually criticize the copies I found because they had crease spines, but uh most of these are pretty good.

[00:14:32]Um I wish I could have shared them with him. This however is a kind of a rough copy of City, which I absolutely don't need. I have multiple copies of City, including one of his which I had mailed to me um from Aaron Hook, his friend who uh was very nice to do that for me. But I'll keep that. Um when was this published?

[00:14:56]This particular copy says 1952.

[00:15:03]I don't think this is a first edition though. Uh paperback. I mean, I can't remember. Sean would have told me. He already has told me many times. I just can't remember.

[00:15:13]Then I've got The Goblin Reservation, which was one of his favorites. And uh I think this is the most recent one I read.

[00:15:22]Oh, no. I read uh one other since then.

[00:15:25]Um and it was not bad, but uh City and Way Station are my two favorites. I don't think those will ever be topped for me. Here's one I didn't have. This is from Avon. The worlds of Clifford Simak.

[00:15:43]Not in the best of condition, but um pretty hard to find these in my is has been my experience cuz I'm trying to get everything he had or everything he had published except you know the more rare books and um I've got almost everything.

[00:15:59]I've got all his novels. Now it's just a case of tracking down short story collections and things.

[00:16:05]Uh Cemetery World from Berkeley. A bunch of these are from Berkeley and they are really damn sharp.

[00:16:14]Uh I did enjoy Cemetery World. It was nothing that blew me away, but it was it was just fun. So this is from July 1974.

[00:16:26]And yeah, it is really crisp. uh at this point in the future in this book uh Earth is like just a giant graveyard and the wealthy um when they pass away on other planets will sometimes uh have made arrangements to have their bodies sent to planet Earth after their death and buried there. Um and then a mystery unfolds and our our character is uh running around Earth uh trying to solve some mystery the nature of which I can't remember.

[00:16:55]Uh, another Berkeley. This is Our Children's Children. First time in paperback with a Richard Powers cover and it's cool. I think he liked Simak because he wrote when he bought and read all of these. So, I think he's read most of the SIMs. Uh, this is also from 1975.

[00:17:24]Ah, uh, another one I I might not have had. Uh, Other Worlds of Clifford Simak. This is Avon again.

[00:17:33]And this is pretty cool.

[00:17:36]I haven't looked at these at all really.

[00:17:38]Six stories from the original edition titled The Worlds of [snorts] Clifford Zimac.

[00:17:45]Okay, now I'm going to have to compare the two because I thought the first only had six stories.

[00:17:51]Let's see here.

[00:17:56]All right. It's uh totally different contents.

[00:18:00]So, those make a good uh companion. Couple companions right there. Those will go on the shelf.

[00:18:11]A nice copy of Waystation from McFadden Books.

[00:18:18]Again, I've got uh three or four copies of Waystation, including one which was Sean's.

[00:18:27]This was published in 64.

[00:18:32]And uh yeah, I will add that to the collection. Uh Way Station would be my favorite of his.

[00:18:39]Uh uh Ring Around the Sun. This is what I most recently read and this artwork is not at all uh representative of the story. It was pretty good. It would be uh in my top four of his.

[00:18:56]And you can find a discussion for this over on um Scott Danielson's channel.

[00:19:01]Hopefully I'll remember to link that.

[00:19:03]There's a bunch of us still reading uh Simax books in honor of Sean who started this project to read all of his books.

[00:19:12]Uh, a Heritage of Stars.

[00:19:15]This is another Berkeley.

[00:19:18]The spine has weird damage, like water damage or something, but otherwise it's it's [snorts] pretty good.

[00:19:24]A lot of these I have in a book club edition, too.

[00:19:29]But they all have such awesome art. Uh, Out of Their Minds with some Richard Powers art. I imagine another Berkeley in really nice shape.

[00:19:41]Uh, Destiny Doll from Sidwick and Jackson.

[00:19:46]Uh, I read this with the group and we discussed it on YouTube. That discussion is on Sean's channel and that this is a copy from 1973 and it was in much better shape than the one I had.

[00:20:04]Uh, there's also some nice condition Delrays here. This is Project Poe.

[00:20:11]I have a hard cover, maybe a paperback, too.

[00:20:15]Uh, where the evil dwells, Shakespeare or Shakespeare's Planet, which I had this in hard coverver, one of the first of his I read, but uh I did not have the paperback.

[00:20:38]Uh, The Visitors Uh, three more. We've got Macedonia.

[00:20:54]A really nice copy of Time and Again from Ace.

[00:21:04]Uh, says 1951.

[00:21:07]That's in amazing shape. if that's from 1951.

[00:21:11]And the last I've got here, a book I recently bought and it arrived off eBay and was just in terrible shape. So, this is really nice to get this. This is a McFadden book. Uh, they walked like Men.

[00:21:26]And that's in really good shape, too.

[00:21:31]From 1963.

[00:21:34]So, yeah. Maybe I'll I'll add a uh picture of the uh simax shelf. It's pretty impressive in my humble opinion.

[00:21:41]Still trying to track down all of the uh book club editions, which uh I've never even looked up how many there are. I just pick them up when I find one I don't have. Um lots more videos to come.

[00:21:54]Thanks for watching and see you in the next one.