Madscience Books

06/11/2023

The latest from Ukraine, with Tim Mak on the ground.

A war correspondent's open notebook, reporting live from Ukraine. Click to read The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of readers.

02/22/2017

Arthur Henry Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu.Like his contemporaries Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen, Rohmer claimed membership to one of the factions of the qabbalistic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Bookfinger is an independent publisher operating in the 1970s that specialized in re-issues of classic noir-type detective novels. All of the books were published without dust jackets in lots of 1000 each. They all have black cloth bindings. Fourteen Sax Rohmer novels were published by Bookfinger, including those in the picture.

12/07/2016

PS Publishing is a Hornsea, UK based publisher founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther. They specialize in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres, as well as some unusual literary fiction. Mostly they do small publication runs, with many signed limited editions. They make beautiful books which are prized by many collectors. Since they publish in the U.K., it is hard to find these books available in the U.S.

The photo shows three of our recent additions from PS.

12/04/2016

McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers in 1998, headquartered in San Francisco. McSweeney's initially published only the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, but has grown to publish novels, books of poetry, and other periodicals.
The recipient of dozens of awards for its contributions to literature and publishing, McSweeney's was named the country's seventh most innovative media company for 2012, "for proving the value of print publishing."

Quarterly Concern no. 16 (shown in pictures) is a typical example of Eggers' quirky style. It comes in a fold-up that opens up to show four panels with pouches. One pouch has a normal quarterly volume, with various stories and other literary writings. One has a stand-alone volume, "Mr. Nobody-at-all" written by Ann Beattie, one has a story called "Heart Suit" actually written on a heart suit of cards, and one pouch has, what else? a comb. The comb is engraved with the name Timothy.

Every Quarterly seems to be packaged differently, and they are beloved by certain collectors.

10/30/2015

Caitlyn R. Kiernan (aka Katherine Tierney) is one of our favorite authors here at Madscience Books. According to her sometime collaborator, Poppy Z. Brite, she writes "like a Gothic cathedral on fire."

If you have any favorite authors you want us to stock, please tell us. You can respond to this post.

10/30/2015

This is a collectors edition of Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories from Subterranean Press.

Harlan Jay Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.

His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. He was editor and anthologist for two science fiction anthologies, Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison has won numerous awards including multiple Hugos, Nebulas and Edgars.

Let us know if you have any favorite authors you want us to stock.

06/24/2015

Perry Rhodan is the name of a science fiction series published starting in 1961 in Germany, as well as the name of the main character. It is a space opera, dealing with several themes of science fiction. Having sold over one billion copies (in pulp booklet format) worldwide, it is the most successful science fiction book series ever written. The series and its spin-offs captured a substantial fraction of the original German science fiction output and have exerted influence on many German writers in the field.

The series was translated into English by Wendayne Ackerman, the wife of SF superfan Forrest Ackerman, and published by Ace during the 1970's. The last edition was no. 137. These books are an inexpensive way for the science fiction collector to start. The earliest in the series and the latest are scarce and hence more valuable.

05/24/2015

Clark Ashton Smith was one of the Weird Tales big three, which also included Robert E. Howard (author of Conan) and H.P. Lovecraft. Though there was extensive correspondence between the three of them, they never met. Later, Arkham House, started by August Derleth, republished much of their work, along with other luminaries, including Ray Bradbury, Donald Wandrei, William Hope Hodgson, L.P. Hartley, etc. Collectors loved the sturdy black Novelex bindings and limited publication runs.

05/24/2015

George R.R. Martin is, of course, the author of the fantasy epic The Game of Thrones. But did you know that he also writes science fiction novels, and short stories in every genre imaginable? Martin is a Madscience favorite.

05/24/2015

O.K. This is not really a picture of Madscience Books. Actually, its the library of Trinity College in Dublin. But its what we aspire to.

02/19/2015

Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American science fiction author, best known for his sequences of novels, especially the World of Tiers (1965–93) and Riverworld (1971–83) series. Up from the Bottomless Pit, pictured here is a special signed limited edition from Subterranean Press (comes with a slipcase). We have many of Farmer's novels, including several others from Subterranean.

01/24/2015

The Classics of Liberty Library is from Gryphon Editions and features a lot of books that were critical to the development of our democracy. They feature cloth bindings with leather spine strips, gold titles and trim, gilt-edged pages, marbled end pages, and satin ribbon placeholders. The photo shows some of our recent additions.