Comments | nwhyte: June Books 7) What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, by Paul Kincaid

nwhyte

June Books 7) What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, by Paul Kincaid

Jun 13, 2009 10:13

This is another Hugo nominee in the Best Related Book category, a collection of Paul Kincaid's excellent essays and talks about sf. I particularly enjoyed the first quarter of the book, which includes the title essay and some fascinating analysis of various sf encyclopedias, Year's Bests, and the influence of Conrad's Heart of Darkness on the genre ( Read more... )

writer: paul kincaid, bookblog 2009, hugos 2009

Comments 5

webcowgirl June 13 2009, 11:58:59 UTC

Um ... did you buy it? Is it sitting around your house being unloved right now?

coth June 13 2009, 12:13:50 UTC

This book is published by Beccon Publications, and my friend Roger Robinson will be perfectly happy to send you a copy. His website is here:

http://www.lxnen.com/rogerbeccon/A/Alist.html

nwhyte June 13 2009, 12:58:21 UTC

my friend Roger Robinson will be perfectly happy to send you a copy

That's not what it says on his website. He makes it quite clear that he accepts payment only in the form of cheques in UK pounds or US dollars, and this is pretty useless for those of us with only euro accounts who have not had chequebooks for years.

I was able to get my copy of the book by negotiating via its author and his spouse. I don't think that's very satisfactory for the general reader who may not happen to know the Kincaids. I discovered this morning that the book is also available via Amazon, a fact which could have been helpfully pointed out on Beccon's website. As it is, I am very unimpressed with the way in which Beccon Publications seeks to attract customers.

coth June 13 2009, 15:52:48 UTC

Sorry, I misunderstood the cause of your frustration. May I pass your comment on to Roger, please? He could indeed tell people if his books are available by Amazon.

Roger is a fan publisher, who originally sold bibliographies and filk books via tables at cons and by post, largely to UK fans and people already known to him. His publishing major critical works with international appeal is very recent, and his volumes (dozens rather than hundreds of most titles) don't justify his taking payment by credit card and/or in Euros.

nwhyte June 13 2009, 15:58:34 UTC

My comments here are entirely public; I copied him on some of my earlier correspondence with the Kincaids, but I'm sure it does no harm to reinforce the message.

It would take roughly 45 minutes to set up a PayPal button, and probably less to find out how one's British bank might handle euro transactions; but if he can't be bothered I suppose that is his affair.