The Best of SF Masterworks from Gollancz / Orion. Spreadsheet, checklist and cover slideshow.

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  • Опубліковано 17 лис 2024
  • Is this series truly the best? The Best of Sci Fi Masterworks.
    Post with spreadsheets for SF, Best of SF and Golden Age Masterworks
    vintagesf.ca/20...
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    Reading Through the SF Masterworks playlist
    • SF Masterworks
    Host: Richard Rempel
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 21

  • @vintagesf
    @vintagesf  3 місяці тому +1

    Post with spreadsheets for SF, Best of SF and Golden Age Masterworks
    vintagesf.ca/2024/06/20/sf-masterworks-updated-spreadsheet-pdf-and-xl/
    Vintage SF website
    www.vintagesf.ca
    Reading Through the SF Masterworks playlist
    ua-cam.com/play/PLFtI0ilG7FLq3_lE8yPhoUmgcBp1AqU4N.html

  • @SciFiScavenger
    @SciFiScavenger 3 місяці тому

    I actually hadn't noticed that this livery was just for the Best of books, I thought it was just a new edition of the whole range. Learn something new every day!

  • @Ahnor1989
    @Ahnor1989 3 місяці тому +6

    I like the design of this series much more than the standard masterworks edition.

  • @isam.2653
    @isam.2653 3 місяці тому

    Thank you for this! 😊 📚

  • @GrammaticusBooks
    @GrammaticusBooks 3 місяці тому

    Good video Richard and really like that cover for Sarah Canary.

  • @BookChatWithPat8668
    @BookChatWithPat8668 3 місяці тому

    Thanks for this video, Richard, and for your spreadsheets. It’s not clear to me why these are the “best of,” but I do find the series to be visually quite stunning.

  • @ericchristen2623
    @ericchristen2623 3 місяці тому +1

    Okay, as an SF and Fantasy connoisseur, artist, poet and writer, I'd say it was an arbitrary selection. It could easily have been replaced by another collection that included I Robot, The Big Time, Rendezvous with Rama, Left Hand of Darkness, Lord of Light, Ringworld, Tower of Glass, Stranger in Strange Land, and so on...

    • @vintagesf
      @vintagesf  3 місяці тому

      @@ericchristen2623 They already published four of the books you mentioned in the regular SFMW. If they add another twenty titles to “The Best of …” does it further water down the arbitrary feeling to this line?

  • @MarinaK03
    @MarinaK03 3 місяці тому

    I wish there were more of those red hardcovers. They are gorgeous!

  • @paulcooper3611
    @paulcooper3611 3 місяці тому

    "Is it needed?" I would argue that it is needed by two groups. First, the collectors: it gives them a chance to put a set of uniformly liveried books on the shelf. Second, Victor Gollancz: it gives the publisher another lucrative stream of income. Win/win?

    • @vintagesf
      @vintagesf  3 місяці тому +1

      @@paulcooper3611 I guess a 21 book collection seems doable as an entry into SF. Brings to mind how many copies of a book are in a collector’s library. I certainly have a number of doubles. I can think of at least one triple, ‘The Day of the Triffids’.

    • @paulcooper3611
      @paulcooper3611 3 місяці тому

      @@vintagesf I know what you mean. I have culled my collection but I still have three copies of the Barry Hughart's "Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox" trilogy, "Bridge of Birds", "The Story of the Stone", and "Eight Skilled Gentlemen", two in bags, and one to reread periodically. I don't know if you are familiar with them, but they are humerus faux-Chines fantasy books which had a great effect on me and my wife. She named her van Number Ten Ox. Even if fantasy is not your thing, you might want to take a look at them.

    • @Fwobbed
      @Fwobbed 2 місяці тому

      It's definitely targeted at a younger audience, this minimalist, cartoony, stylised artwork is very in and tbh it helped attract me. I've read elsewhere that older, veteran sci fi readers hate the new art work, and prefer previous designs, but as a younger reader when I see the previous ones they look dated and tacky. This is the difference in generations. You have to remember that to stick out in current book stores like Waterstones the artwork needs to be catchy but also catchy in the modern sense. If it's helping younger people to get initially attracted to these books then I really can't see the harm done.
      I was particularly attracted to the concurring theme of a bold circle in each design. Gives it that 'collectors' feel to it.

    • @vintagesf
      @vintagesf  2 місяці тому

      @@Fwobbed They certainly do stand out in the bookstore. Great point.

  • @chocolatemonk
    @chocolatemonk 3 місяці тому

    Thank you again for your work cataloging! I like the artwork and aesthetic of the series. It doesn't seem like most of these are out of print but I don't know. . .. The only books I haven't seen for sale or that are unfamiliar is Sarah Canary and The Word for World is Forest so they seem nice but needed?

  • @waltera13
    @waltera13 3 місяці тому

    Once again I am thankful and impressed with your spreadsheet. Going through the trouble to collect this information.
    I really like the idea of an elite line within the line. Looking at what they chose, I am going to hold to my idea that Gollancz does not care about organization, and does not care about what you, their customers want. The only thing premium about this selection is that it shows more forethought and unity. Not actual discernment or organization mind you. . .
    I like the feel of the illustrations with the covers, but I feel they are very uneven. And some of them even show he clearly has not read the book. Others are really clever, or beautifully striking.
    Since you raise the question, I had to look at it a whole new way: what were the editorial decisions that would land a book in this line? Could Silverberg write a "series intro" describing the mathematics used?
    No? Then it's just another cash grab / pilot program/ beta test of what the masterworks will slowly transform into.
    Don't trust 'em kids.

  • @AlienBigCat23
    @AlienBigCat23 3 місяці тому

    I hate to be a bringdown, but I hate the mustard yellow covers.. colour is a vibrational frequency, after all

    • @vintagesf
      @vintagesf  3 місяці тому

      @@AlienBigCat23 This brings to mind my opinion about the best liveries. I haven’t shown any white hardcover editions from 2001 because I don’t own any. I think they may be the best looking variation of the SF Masterworks. Then followed by the black spines, the GAMWs, the yellow to white gradient spines and lastly the mustard spines. Your thoughts?

  • @ChrisBadenoch
    @ChrisBadenoch 3 місяці тому

    I'm really not a fan of those illustrations