Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Engineer

It's pretty picture time again. Here first is the original cover of The Engineer published by Tanjen.

‘A thought-provoking operatic romp’ – SFX.

‘This is an astonishing collection of stories’ – Genre.
Ambiguous plot and crown style. No Trek morals here’ – Dragon’s Breath.
‘Asher will soon become better known outside his native land’ – Borders.
The Engineer (a novella) and the short stories Snairls, Spatterjay, Jable sharks, The Thrake, Proctors, and The Owner.
Mysterious aliens ... ruthless terrorists ... androids with attitude ...genetic manipulation ... punch-ups with lasers ... giant spaceships ... what more do you want?

And here is the version from Cosmos books with some extra stories and introductory blurbs from me. I called this The Engineer Reconditioned because well ... you recondition an engine.


Apparently it's being distributed by a company called Diamond and is now selling pretty well. If you've got a copy of the one above I recommend you go out and buy a copy of the new edition. It's received further editing, has those extra stories and blurbs, but that's not the reason why. You need to wrap the old version in plastic and lock it away in a safe, since I've seen copies on eBay up for $125.

Then again, I'm not entirely sure they sell for that since it's a 'buy now' price. But buy the new one anyway!

...

I'll shut up now - too much wine.

Here's Rick Kleffel's review.

7 comments:

Kirby Uber said...

sweet. i'm that much closer to independent wealth via my library. i have both, of course, and are again, both, hidden away in boxes in plastic bags. but that's just how i pack books.

8)

Neal Asher said...

Ah, the problem with that kind of wealth is that you need to sell your books to be able to bank it. I'll be selling off some of the possibly remunerative book I've acquired over the last few years, but not the ones I like. Then again, possibly not that remunerative, since the stuff I like seems to steadily climb in value and the stuff I don't like flashes noisily onto the scene for a while then quickly fades away.

Kirby Uber said...

i was thinking a sort of mutual fund based on book wealth.

but moot as i would sooner part with a leg than a book.

lousy legs. useless.

Neal Asher said...

Ariel, as I said, that's the 'buy now' price which probably bears no relation to the price the book sells for. I do know of a few people who've paid $20 for a copy, and fourth-hand accounts of copies selling for $50 or more. Early days yet, perhaps better to leave the book to your heirs, and they can traipse along to the 2050 Antiques Roadshow to get a valuation.

drxray said...

I would never consider parting with any of my books. And when I die, if my children sell them I'll come back and haunt them.

Neal Asher said...

Well, judging by your profile picture, Dr X, you're already into some haunting. Thanks for the comments on your blog btw.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

For hard numbers:

I bought the Tanjen edition on Amazon.com about 4-5 years ago when I discovered Mr. Asher. I paid 15$ + 3.50$ s@h. When the new Engineer appeared I bought it for ~10$ new on Amazon (no s@h) too and then sold on Amazon the old edition to cover costs for both at ~38$ (which comes to ~30 for me minus Amazon's commision).
Incidentally I had the Runcible Tales in both editions (chapbook and writers of the future sf big book) and to cover costs at some point I sold the chapbook again at cost for both and it sold on listing day. Personally I do not want to profit from other people's work so I would not sell at more than cost + replacement any such book, but selling them allows me to have more money to purchase new books.

Cristian