Belated Book Haul Coverage

I had alot of stuff to do this month so there has been little time for both reading and blogging, little for even any of the stuff I normally do in my free time. Though Metal Gear Solid 5 is practically, but not completely, done as of now.

So. Just little time to devote to my blog and for now and in the near future I'm probably going to struggle to find time to write anything.

 It's a little stupid that I might have a job (or not) so soon after actually starting a blog, but hey, that's life for you. Whenever you get invested in something, you can be assured that something will try to get your attention away from it.

So there probably going to be quite a reduction in blog quality, but we'll see how it goes. Apologies.

Also apologies for the even more reduced quality of the pictures, some of my lights have broken and I haven't yet gotten around to fixing them.

Without further ado, though, here we go.

What you see here is my efforts to complete several series I had started collecting some time ago. A massive book-haul indeed.

First off; my continued collecting of the Michael Moorcock Collection, which I also have finally started reading. I've chosen to begin with Elric, despite being more intrigued by Von Bek.
I haven't read any Elric yet? Yes I know. I'm an uncultured swine.
At the time of writing I'm halfway into Elric of Melniboné. I am undecided as of yet.

Besides completing my Elric collection I also bought Behold the Man and Von Bek.
I had heard of Behold's reputation and am eager but also quite hesitant to take a look at it.
Von Bek was bought (besides of course just BECAUSE, and because I'm finishing collections) because its blurb sounded immensely appealing and also because of that title;

The War Hound and the World's Pain

Which is just so tragically beautiful.
For the longest time I thought it was The War Hound and the World's Woe though, would that have been even better?

Then we come to the UFS

the Ultimate Fantasy Sequence, which I will, now that my collection is complete, do a post on quite soon.

Apologies  again for the horrible quality of this particular picture; as the covers are white and very reflective it's astonishingly hard to take a decent picture of these books. The pictures were also taken in quite a rush.

The books themselves are quite beautiful though.

The top three were the ones that I had not had before, the lower two I bought thinking they would be the fantasy masterworks editions of the respective titles. Alas, those copies I already owned, though the Lyonesse one was in far better state than my previous copy. A win there.

Talking about the Fantasy Masterworks. Here's four more for my collection. And yes, they do absolutely HAVE to be those particular editions.

Once again; Elric. in almost a good state, but not quite. It came with an amusing 'Frozen' sticker on its spine. Would you believe I took it off?

Gloriana was in very good state and yes, again a novel by Moorcock.
Three Hearts and Three Lions has a faded spine but as this Fantasy Masterwork is particularly hard to get I'm not going to quibble.
Lyonesse 2 and 3 is in pretty bad shape, but again, since these little bastards are very hard to get I'm pretty happy to have them.

Here's some lovely Sci-fi from Neal Asher

I have quibbles with both of these books' covers.

The Gabble is matte non-reflective and feels a little flimsy, unlike every single other book of Asher I have! Though on the shelf the spines do match.
And War factory (book 2 of the transformation trilogy) has the Pan Macmillian icon in black, where it's supposed to be white... it doesn't even match with book 1 in the trilogy. (also both books should've had the Tor icon to match with the rest of the series, quite shitty.)

Regardless I have read the first 8 books in the Polity series and enjoyed them quite a bit.
I wonder if I'll ever get to continue reading them at this rate, though. Last one I read was the Technician and that was pretty damn awesome.

"Gabble, Gabble" said the Gabbleduck.

Next; A stupid purchase from me; I bought this hoping that this one wouldn't be completely similar to the book I already had.

It was though. Completely the same.

But at the time, I figured that the first one I got, being signed and made out to a blogger, had been some sort of a preview copy, thus explaining its glossy cover as opposed to the matte for books 1 and 3.
Yeah, I was wrong. The picture doesn't show it completely but in hand it's irritatingly noticable.

Shit, Nightshade, you need to stay on top of these things.
Ah well...

Next up, a rather stunningly ugly depiction of Red Agnes.

No, Red Agnes is not Red Sonja, Robert E. Howard is not responsible for the scantily clad big-titted red-head, but he might have been, had he had more time.

This purchase takes steps to continue collecting (and reading) Howard. all of his work in the DelRey editions which come with so many extras that it really is well worth the price. After this one six more books to go; Oddly enough, three of those are Conan, though I've actually read all of the tales already.

Here's an unknown quality as of yet, I have not read ANY Clark Ashton Smith, though he is widely regarded as the best of the Godfathers of Weird fiction.
This purchase completes my set of 5.
Wish I could have gotten the hardbacks though. But with Nightshade Press you're gambling with your money and satisfaction anyway. perhaps it's for the best. Cool publisher though. Maybe I should do a tiny blog post on them to alleviate some of the badmouthing I'm doing here.

Next up some comics.

A stunningly bad-ass cover for Northlanders book 2

Haven't read any Northlanders yet, though. Writer Brian Wood writes some gritty stuff apparently. But again haven't ready anything of his.
Nor any of his stint on Dark Horse Conan, haven't heard many good about that one.

shit, was this purchase a mistake?

Regardless, badass cover is worth the price.

Here I'm finishing up Hellboy. Though at the time of first reading I didn't think this particular story was any good.

Btw, for anyone interested; Hellboy in Hell Library edition is coming out this year.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this blindingly cool cover.

A man goes to hell in...

And this isn't bad lighting either, no, that's the damn cover.

Been drooling over this one a while, anything with hell gets my attention.

And finally a few things that I mentioned I might get.

Both Sticklebacks and the odd-looking bitch of a cover of Ampney Crucis.
You wouldn't believe Eldritch Gods would have a hand in the story if you just based yourself on the cover, right? I first thought that thing on the right was a particularly vile house plant.
But yes, there are evil Gods. Apparently these comics form a part of an unofficial universe from Ian Edginton.

So, alot of books and comics and absolutely no time to read them.
Well done, Levi.
Well done. *Massive sigh of Sarcasm*