Two Bob

I've checked and double checked - and will continue to check – but it looks like I've only two more Gollancz hard back editions of Bob Shaw's work to get. These are 1 Million Tomorrows and Palace of Eternity. Then I'll have a full set of Shaw works in Gollancz hardbacks. With concentrating on getting the hardbacks and looking out for the best prices this has sort of crept up on me. Last year it was a monumental task I had to carry out, now it's just a bit of tidying up.

Although, the ones still to get are tricky; they are both early novels from the late sixties and early seventies and they don't come cheap or pop up in availability a lot.

It's taken at least a year (and a fair amount of money) to complete my collection but even when I do have all the books in Gollancz hardback I've still got a lot of Shaw to find. Shaw had four short story collections but he published a lot more short stories. Luckily I have a bibliography which can help me identify the magazines and track them down.

Before the internet it was hard to track down Bob Shaw's work, you'd wander round J R Hartley like asking if they have it: now it's just a matter of typing in his name in search engines and book sites.

I wasn't too much into magazines when reading SF, it was always books. I suppose mainly because I was either buying them or borrowing them from the library. I subscribe to Interzone now but SF magazines have never been a big purchase.

Palace of Eternity is a gripping story, space opera like with very vivid aliens, and it's a very memorable novel, dedicated to E A Van Vogt.