Martin's DW

In which Hugo finalists are announced, I hit up a bunch of bookstores, and I am too lazy to post them until now:
( Five books )
So I've got first editions of four of this year's six Best Novel finalists. Piranesi will be a bit tricky for this American since the first edition is British, and all of the copies I've seen of Black Sun so far have been later printings. It's been generally a bit challenging to pick up used 2020 novels since a lot of the usual suspects haven't been accepting sales/donations—or have greatly limited their intake—due to COVID. Hopefully that eases soon, and I'm not just saying that because I have a couple bags of books I'd like to offload.

In which I fell horribly behind on posting and have to do a month-long update all at once....

( Cut for length )

With COVID-19 cases dropping a bit, I thought it would be a good time to drop by Recycle Bookstore to grab a couple books I had my eye on for a little while. I stopped by right at opening, so I'd have the SF/F aisles to my self, and bought:

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Talents. New York / Toronto: Seven Stories Press, [1998]. First edition hardcover. Nebula Award. Sequel to Parable of the Sower. Butler's look at religious fundamentalism and survival in the face of the same. Highly recommended. AbeBooks description of this Very Good copy: Book has light smudges and stains to textblocks, light rubbing to covers, a couple of light smudges to back endpage and endpaper. otherwise in great condition, tight binding, clean and unmarked pages; an overall sturdy, attractive copy. Dust jacket has moderate rubbing to front and back, light wear to top and bottom edges, a small chip to outer top corner of front side. in very good condition, now in archival cover. Purchased for $29.94, which is a good $40 cheaper than anything online with the first edition tag.

McKillip, Patricia A. Ombria in Shadow. New York: Ace Books, [2002]. First edition hardcover. World Fantasy and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards; Fantasy Masterworks (Orion) #58. I didn't linger in the store for too long but I did do a quick skim of the shelves and this caught my eye. Purchased for $7.99.

Resnick, Mike, & Joe Siclari (eds.). Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches. Deerfield[, IL]: ISFiC Press, 2006. First edition hardcover. Hugo finalist for Best Related Work. AbeBooks description of this Near Fine copy: Book has a touch of smudging to the top text block, otherwise in near new condition. The dust jacket has minor rubbing to covers with light wear to the edges and corners, leaving it in great condition. Crisp, holds color well, and is now enclosed in an archival cover. At $28, this wasn't much cheaper than the $30 list price—but it's also signed by Mike Resnick (on the title page) and Vernor Vinge (on page 247).