For several years I only owned the first novel in F. Paul Wilson’s ICE trilogy, Panacea, in the TOR mass market hardcover edition. Then, earlier this year I bought the other two books in the series, The God Gene, and, The Void Protocol, also in the TOR hardcover editions. A few months later, I found copies of the first and second book in the series in the limited edition states from small press publisher, Gauntlet Press, both of them online for reasonable prices. However, the third book, The Void Protocol, eluded me at the time.

Then, a couple of months after I bought The God Gene, a Gauntlet Press edition of The Void Protocol appeared online for $15. Bidding drove up the price to $39 (plus taxes and shipping…ugh), and I ended up with a copy. Published by Gauntlet Press and limited to 500 signed and numbered copies (plus some lettered copies), this edition now joins its brethren on my bookshelves. My copy is #35, whereas my copy of The God Gene is the lettered edition “M,” and Panacea is #70. Not that I’ve ever cared about getting the same exact numbers (or letters).

The compulsion to acquire the Gauntlet Press editions is a strange one. I own all the Repairman Jack novels in Gauntlet Press editions. I bought these books for cover prices the moment they were announced, months before the TOR books came out, starting with Conspiracies, back in 1999. I was a fan of the Repairman Jack books, and getting numbered & signed copies of back then was something new to me. While I owned some signed books, or books that I managed to get signed in person, the idea of numbered copies was something I discovered through an FPW forum (now fairly quiet or defunct). Once you have a few of such books in a series, like Repairman Jack, you almost want to collect them all.

Meanwhile, The ICE trilogy, as well as two other FPW trilogies, were books that I initially bought as mass market hardcovers. Thus, I was somewhat reluctant to shell out more money for the Gauntlet Price books, though once I learned of their existence I wanted them. Now, I have a set of two of those three trilogies. Does this make me want the third and last one? Yes, but still I hesitate. Maybe I’ll find copies online at my prices, maybe not. I currently have 25 of the FPW Gauntlet Press books. I only lack three solo GP books, plus two that were published in collaboration with Borderlands Press.