I’ve now significantly increased my collection of these books, having gone from one to six to 26 volumes. There’s a hint of madness in my eyes when I look at them all lined up, or even laid down flat and line up next to each other. Maybe that madness gets dulled somewhat when I consider that I own less than half of the books in that series, and at some point I’ll run up against insane collector prices. Not to say that around $30 for a small volume with less than 150 pages doesn’t seem insane, but I’ve seen some of the books listed for over $300.
When compared side by side, there are certain physical variations in the books. This isn’t just in color, as is expected from their titles, but in size, materials, and design. Some are smooth, while others are bound in a rough cloth-like material. I like the rougher ones best, as I find that a certain roughness feels better than the smoother, earlier volumes. Still, the ones with smooth covers seem to hold the print of the titles better, while the rougher designs may over time lose some of the text and
In terms of the design, some books have just text on the cover, some have text and art. The fonts are not the same, and some use small caps while others regular text. The titles and bylines also are all over the place vertically. None of the books have any text on the spines, so when lined up there is no way to tell the title of any book. I supposed that’s part of the reason Borderlands Press created display cases for each grouping of five books (or, a quick way to make some additional cash).
In terms of the writers, aside from these books I don’t own a single other copy of their other works, with minor exceptions, such as F. Paul Wilson and William Hope Hodgson. Wilson is the author whose sole book I had when I started this vacuuming up of books in the series. As for Hodgson, I’d bought to books published by Donald M. Grant many years ago. I’d heard of most of the other authors, with certain exceptions: Charlotte Riddell, a long-forgotten Victorian era writer, and a few newer writers like Mort Castle, Brian Keene, Josh Malerman, etc. Some writers appear in collections that I own, but I’ll confess (and apologize to the authors) that this didn’t lead me to track down their own works.
Speaking of Riddell, there are few women writers in this series, which is a shame. There are only three other women writers so far out of the 52 published books , meaning the other 48 are male. The books appear infrequently; the series started prior to 2004, and with 52 books listed published and one announced for later this month. Perhaps the publishers and editors will find more women writers as they continue with the series. Or maybe not. Maybe the series will run out steam, or interest, although hopefully it will continue and also bring attention to many other writers out there. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll now actually look for some of their other books.
