If you're interested in Ligotti, but rather scared by the prices, the only way to obtain him – besides the few cheaper editions out there – is to get in on release day. As such, I just want to point out two upcoming rereleases of his work for anyone out there who's been intrigued by my reviews.
First, there's Subterranean Press's reissue of the man's Grimscribe, his second fiction collection. The limited edition sold out (alas, before I could make up my mind to spring for it), but the regular can still be bought on the publisher's site for 40 and on amazon for 26, providing copies remain. Judging by what the Subterranean Songs of a Dead Dreamer did, this is going to be 70-100 bucks within a year, so I'd buy now if you're interested. The cover was painted by Thomas Ligotti Online member Aeron Alfrey, who's got a fantastic amount of horrifying work up on his blog.
Second, there's an item of more interest to pure collectors. Ligotti's rarest work, The Agonizing Resurrection of Viktor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Stories, is being reissued by Centipede Press here. If you live in the US, you might be better served ordering from Subterranean, however, as they'll have it while their borrowed stock lasts for ten dollars cheaper. A warning on that front, though: Jerad's notorious for adding all sorts of goodies to big orders like this, and I've no idea if that'll hold true for those who order elsewhere. The book, though slim, will be filled with illustrations from Harry O. Morris and promises to be beautiful enough to sell your soul for, as you may well have to do to afford it, especially if you happen to go for the Insane and Wonderful Man's Obscenely Expensive and Beautiful edition, which is several times what I paid for my computer.
If you're after the other books, my best advice is the obvious: set up alerts on ebay/abebooks, and swing through amazon every few days. For the vast majority of my Ligotti books (and my collection's essentially complete), I got them for far below standard price by just being aware of them. My copy of The Nightmare Factory, for instance, I got for twenty-five dollars, compared to the cheapest listed amazon price of 125 dollars.
And no, in case you're wondering, Thomas Ligotti doesn't pay me to rave about him twice a week. I acquired my malignantly useless man love all on my own.
I have a half-read copy of the UK edition (I assume) of The Nightmare Factory sitting around somewhere. The reason I never got around to finishing it has nothing to do with the stories, and everything to do with my life when I was reading it.
ReplyDeleteI think the pricing is interesting, because this is clearly how paper books are going - to be marketed purely as collectibles, as opposed to the electronic ephemera most of us will be reading.
Sadly enough, you're probably right there.
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