(Tears) A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz

[James Nicoll]

A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz

Five answers to "What's eating you?"

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

[Chris Buckley]

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

Schmitz had a lot of nice work, although only _The Witches of Karres_
makes it to my Favorite bookcase. You could expect his writing to be
good solid stories (if you don't automatically reject those stories
about psi), often with much more reasonable female protagonists than
most stories of the era.

James, I do think you're being unfair to your readers when you bemoan
the fact the collection is "long,long out of print" without mentioning
that all the included stories (indeed almost all of Schmitz's stories
and novels) are in print and easily available in collections on Kindle.

Some are even available for free:
https://freesfonline.net/
which is a nice resource that has a lot of links (including to
Gutenberg works). I checked it for Schmitz (quite a few). I was surprised to
see how much was on the site now. The author index had about 250 SF authors
whose name begins with 'S'!

Chris

[Michael F. Stemper]

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

You said, "Too bad it is long, long out of print." Any ideas (from
you or others) as to why it wasn't included in all of the Schmitz
reprints that Flint edited several years back?

[James Nicoll]

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

You said, "Too bad it is long, long out of print." Any ideas (from
you or others) as to why it wasn't included in all of the Schmitz
reprints that Flint edited several years back?

The contents may have been but this specific arrangement and the intro
in particular are OOP.`

[Paul S Person]

On Mon, 13 May 2024 07:53:52 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

You said, "Too bad it is long, long out of print." Any ideas (from
you or others) as to why it wasn't included in all of the Schmitz
reprints that Flint edited several years back?

As I understand it, if you know the stories in the collection under
discussion and have a source that lists the contents of existing
collections for the same author and a spreadsheet, you should be able
to identify the optimal books to purchase to get of the stories in
this collection.

Just don't be surprised if you end up with multiple copies of some or
all of the stories. I did this a long time ago and, for popular
writers, it was a major problem in some cases. Modern collections that
omit one or two of the stories I wanted but have all the others -- and
it was never same one(s) that were omitted. I found this particularly
unhelpful.

OTOH, IIRC, a lot of Bradbury short story collections were published,
intact, but paired together so it wasn't clear without checking which
collections I was getting. I think I got 100% coverage of those early
collections, in new trade paperback twofer form. This was, of course,
pre-Kindle, when I went to the book store with a printed list of what
I was looking for to avoid buying the a book I already owned over
again.

Sort of like the folk song albums (groups like The Brothers Four, for
example) where you got two LPs on the same CD, as it were. Except that
there it was because the LPs were so skimpy (but satisfying) to begin
with.

[James Nicoll]

Post by Paul S Person
On Mon, 13 May 2024 07:53:52 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

You said, "Too bad it is long, long out of print." Any ideas (from
you or others) as to why it wasn't included in all of the Schmitz
reprints that Flint edited several years back?

As I understand it, if you know the stories in the collection under
discussion and have a source that lists the contents of existing
collections for the same author and a spreadsheet, you should be able
to identify the optimal books to purchase to get of the stories in
this collection.
Just don't be surprised if you end up with multiple copies of some or
all of the stories. I did this a long time ago and, for popular
writers, it was a major problem in some cases. Modern collections that
omit one or two of the stories I wanted but have all the others -- and
it was never same one(s) that were omitted. I found this particularly
unhelpful.
OTOH, IIRC, a lot of Bradbury short story collections were published,
intact, but paired together so it wasn't clear without checking which
collections I was getting. I think I got 100% coverage of those early
collections, in new trade paperback twofer form. This was, of course,
pre-Kindle, when I went to the book store with a printed list of what
I was looking for to avoid buying the a book I already owned over
again.
Sort of like the folk song albums (groups like The Brothers Four, for
example) where you got two LPs on the same CD, as it were. Except that
there it was because the LPs were so skimpy (but satisfying) to begin
with.

I think in this case, the stories can be found in the following places:

Lion Loose: Gutenberg + The Best of James H. Schmitz + Trigger & Friends

The Searcher: The Hub: Dangerous Territory

The Winds of Time: Gutenberg + The Hub: Dangerous Territory + The Winds
of Time and Other Stories

The Pork Chop Tree: T'nT: Telzey & Trigger (despite not involving either
Telzey or Trigger, I think)

Greenface: Agent of Vega and Other Stories (not to be confused with
the 1960 Agent of Vega collection)

The paperbacks seem to be priced at circa 2001 prices, which suggests
they didn't sell through the whole print run.

[James Nicoll]

Post by James Nicoll
Greenface: Agent of Vega and Other Stories (not to be confused with
the 1960 Agent of Vega collection)

My rather hideous Agent of Vega MMPB has the Agents of Vega stories:

Agent of Vega
The Illusionists
The Truth About Cushgar
The Second Night of Summer


The more recent collection has

"That was an epiphany...." essay by Mercedes Lackey
Agent of Vega
The Illusionists
The Second Night of Summer
The Truth About Cushgar

Plus the following non-Agents of Vega stories:

The Custodians
Gone Fishing
The Beacon to Elsewhere
The End of the Line
Watch the Sky
Greenface
Rogue Psi

[Chris Buckley]

Post by Paul S Person
On Mon, 13 May 2024 07:53:52 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"

Post by Michael F. Stemper

Post by James Nicoll
A Pride of Monsters by James H. Schmitz
Five answers to "What's eating you?"
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/scratching-through-the-wall

You said, "Too bad it is long, long out of print." Any ideas (from
you or others) as to why it wasn't included in all of the Schmitz
reprints that Flint edited several years back?

As I understand it, if you know the stories in the collection under
discussion and have a source that lists the contents of existing
collections for the same author and a spreadsheet, you should be able
to identify the optimal books to purchase to get of the stories in
this collection.
Just don't be surprised if you end up with multiple copies of some or
all of the stories. I did this a long time ago and, for popular
writers, it was a major problem in some cases. Modern collections that
omit one or two of the stories I wanted but have all the others -- and
it was never same one(s) that were omitted. I found this particularly
unhelpful.

In this case, it's not really a danger (it definitely is for some
authors!). Baen, who I realize James is refusing to mention on
principle (or is it just Flint?), issued a very nice 7(?) book set,
all non-overlapping, of the complete works of Schmitz. Certainly an
appreciated reprinting of the works of an often overlooked author.

Chris

[James Nicoll]

While it's true I don't review Baen books, in this case the issue
is I generally don't run down the contents of out of print collections
or antholgies to see if they are available in more recent editions.

Also, I am at least a little surprised the Flint-editions of Schmitz
are still in print. They are, after all, more than 20 years old. I
see prices at Baen of $6.99, which suggests the MMPB in the warehouse are
from that 2001 run. Huh, looking at Amazon, they offer used copies.
Chapters offers new MMPB, at CAD 10.99 (USD 8). Barnes and Noble
has one paperback at about 8 bucks but otherwise sticks to ebook.