On 7/8/26 11:57 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <112jc0o$2vvhu$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Earlier today I was at one of the local Half Price Books stores,
primarily to look for two specific books for my wife, but of course,
while I was there ….
In the end, I found eight books of my own, and here are four somewhat
noteworthy ones (that came to $7.96 total!):
Nerves - Lester del Rey (1956, but this is the 1976 Ballantine edition)
This is the novel-length version, which knew existed, but which I’d
never seen before. Since the shorter version (1942) is a great story
(and one of my very favorite stories in the famous Healy & McComas
anthology Adventures In Time & Space), I figured I’d pick it up. I doubt >> it will be as fun as the original (a high bar), but hopefully it’s still >> a fun read.
I know I have read both versions of this, but I can't bring much of
it to mind.
This longer version is indeed a fun read, but I slightly prefer the
original shorter version.
My favorite del Rey is still "Instinct".
Oh yes, that's a good one - I just re-read it after your mention of it.
Land of Unreason - de Camp & Pratt (1942, but this is the 1987 Baen edition) >> I've always greatly enjoyed and appreciated their Harold Shea/Incomplete
Enchanter stories, and I’d always been mildly curious about this
unrelated work - and there it was, so why not?
Likewise, I have read the Shea stories and not this. I find that de Camp
on his own can be a bit stodgy (though "Lest" is excellent), and Pratt on
his own can be awful, but together the Shea stories were quite fun.
I think the only solo Pratt I've read is The Well of the Unicorn, and I remember very little. It must have been okay to me, since if it were
extreme in either direction, I'd likely remember more about it.
Tony