For those of you who have tuned in late, I'll do a thumbnail sketch of what Books of Distinction is about, what to expect, and what weird, veering curves I habitually take. I started doing this column about seven years ago for Dark Moon Rising (DMR). I tossed the idea in the general direction of Angela Silliman, the editor of DMR, and she thought it had promise. It certainly hadn't been done before so from that point of view, it already worked quite well. The idea was to present the work of one writer per column, my personal take on anything I cared to share, and to include a run-down on the value of the writer's books on the collector's market. If there was time and space in the article, then also I could give some tips on the collecting of books in general, care of them, and whatever else seemed to be of interest in that field.

When DMR ceased publishing, I managed to find a brief venue for the column in another e-zine but that lasted only for two issues before that e-zine went bye-bye as well. By this time, I'd been doing the columns for about five years and I decided that perhaps it was time to move on.

This last August, David K. Montoya contacted me about joining the staff for The World of Myth and you can now see the result, again. Books of Distinction is once again active and open for business.

I have two other points that need to be mentioned. First, one of the features of the column was that I'd ask a trivia question at the end of the column, to be answered at the start of the next column. Often, I'd give a prize to the first person who managed to come up with the right answer and I want to stress that the prizes were NOT junk prizes. Each one is a book culled from my own personal collection, almost always in the SF/Horror/Fantasy field and collectible. Quite a few were worth between fifty and one hundred and fifty bucks. That tradition will continue and I'll have a trivia question at the end of this column that you can try. The prize for the first correct answer will be a copy of the Fantasy Press edition of The Titan by P. Schulyer Miller. The specs for the book are as follows: First edition, copyright 1952, 252 pages, Hannes Bok cover, VF/VF (I'll explain this in a moment for new readers). The current market value for such a book is highly variable right now, but I believe I originally paid $75 for it about a decade ago.

The second point is that each trivia question will point to the next column subject writer.

Now, to explain the collecting terms I'll be using. The VF/VF refers to the condition of the book and the book jacket respectively. In this case it indicates that the book is in Very Fine condition and so is the book jacket. Book condition is generally rated thus: Mint (or Pristine, occasionally), Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor or RCO (reading copy only). The standards for each designation will vary with the seller but generally, one can count on the following. Mint books will be practically unopened copies that have never been read. No marks whatsoever on the book pages, spine, face or edges. Dust jackets are completely unmarked, no tears, no chips, and no creases. Very Fine are books that have been read a couple of times, at most, by someone who planned to keep the copy in perfect shape. No chips, creases, fading, marks, spotting. Zip for blemishes. At the worst, you'll see some very, very slight dust marks on the top of the book from storage in a lawyer-style bookcase.

I won't belabor the point further. The descending order pretty much speaks for itself and hardly what I'd call confusing. I'll be listing references fairly often and you should be able to glean what you need between them and what I elect to burden each column with.

Got all that? That means the copy of The Titan is in excellent shape, especially when one considers that the book is older than I am. I wish to heaven I was in such shape.

The writer I'm going to tackle this time out is a New York Times best selling author and very well known. Collecting this writer's books also illustrates an oddity in the publishing/collecting game that makes perfect sense when one thinks about it, but is still surprising. The writer is David Eddings (with or without his wife, Leigh).

Eddings came out of nowhere, which only means that he was relatively unknown when he first started garnering attention. His first series of books, The Belgariad, was published in paperback by Del Rey beginning about 1982, with the first of the series being The Pawn of Prophecy, which was followed by Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's Endgame. They quickly sucked in readers and Eddings' writing career was assured. Note, all of the books were published originally in mass market or quality paperback format, a point that complicates collecting Eddings.

You see, book collectors generally prefer hardback books to any type of paperback, for a number of reasons, especially after the mass market paperback took off. With hardbacks, one can generally count on a number of things, beginning with the quality of the binding, dust jacket art work, and durability of the paper. It's rare for a paperback to employ acid-free paper, for example. Another consideration is the quantity of books bound per printing, with hardback generally being much smaller print runs than either quality or mass market paperbacks.

The value assigned for a first edition David Eddings book reflects those points perfectly. None of The Belgariad, for example, was originally published in hardback - they're all mass market paperback books. Consequently, such copies are not terribly valuable. First editions in foreign countries, if hardback editions, thus become more valuable which is what has happened to The Belgariad. The last time I checked, there were Very Fine/Very Fine, autographed copies of the British first edition for sale at prices exceeding $2500. While autographed copies often inflate the value of a book, they don't generally do so that much. Generally speaking, you can figure on finding a solid, good hardback copy of Eddings' books in the range of $40 to $120.

I like Eddings for the most part. He reminds me, in some ways, of Edgar Rice Burroughs in that one can expect a good plot with some interesting twists to it, a quick read, and some surprisingly interesting characters dotting the landscape. Burroughs more or less perfected the way of fantasy book series and Eddings clearly has done well with his own version. After the original Belgariad came out, he proceeded to put out several more series which have all done well: The Malloreon, The Elenium and The Tamuli, as well as his current series, The Dreamers. I do have a couple of quibbles, however, so I probably ought to get them off my chest.

He has certain stock phrases of dialog that pop up with alarming and somewhat numbing regularity. I've gotten to the point where I cringe when another character mutters “Well said” or “old boy.” It becomes fairly annoying and one could argue that it detracts from the story. It becomes a matter of how much one is willing to put up with, to see exactly what Eddings has planned for his characters. His dialog, between characters, often comes across as highly contrived and something tossed off without a great deal of care.

Do not get me wrong. I enjoy the books. But then again, I liked Edgar Rice Burroughs and many pulp writers of the thirties and forties, so perhaps that's not an indication of literary merit. I rather doubt that Eddings particularly cares whether or not the literary establishment likes his work or not, and frankly, I agree with him. I'd rather read a book with a solid, clear plot and likable characters than wade through pointless meandering.

Recommendations? Read the start of a series and see what you think. My guess is that you'll be glad you did.

Trivia Question:

I mentioned Edgar Rice Burroughs earlier, knowing full well that most people will at least know the name. There's another, much better writer of that same general era who should be known as widely as Burroughs but isn't, largely because he was far from prolific. One illustrator/cover artist is firmly paired with this writer - Hannes Bok, and many have pointed out that this writer had a great deal of influence on H. P. Lovecraft. Who was that writer? Need a hint? Surprisingly, the TV series Lost seems to have drawn on some of this writer's works, though no official acknowledgment has been made by the creators of that series. The answer, of course, will be next time.