Part 3 of 5 acquisition posts covering my haul from Dawn Treader books in Ann Arbor, Michigan…. The only Sturgeon novel I’ve read was the masterpiece (and rightly so) More Than Human (1953) so I was thrilled when I found not one but three copies of Venus Plus X (1960). Unfortunately, I was not able to scour the shelves closely enough to find a first edition and thus am stuck with Gray Marrow’s cover for the 1968 Pyramid Science Fiction edition. But, I went ahead and posted the first edition art instead because it’s without doubt Victor Kalin’s best cover…..
Sheckley is brilliant so I snatched up another collection of his short stories without hesitation.
The two other authors are ones I have heard about but never read — Charles L. Harness and Madelaine Duke. Duke’s novel was a complete risk due to the ridiculous sounding premise but I love reading works by unknown authors. Harness is claimed by some to be one of the great authors whose neglect, in the words of John Clute in the SF encyclopedia entry on Harness, “is difficult to understand.” His work sounds like my cup of tea….
Thoughts? Has anyone read Charles L. Harness?
1. Venus Plus X, Theodore Sturgeon (1960) (MY REVIEW)

(Victor Kalin’s cover for the 1960 edition) Continue reading →