Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Neil Gaiman Presents (Vol. 3)... R. A. Lafferty's Space Chantey!

Wh-wh-what? Is it true? What does it mean? Could this revolutionise Lafferty's readership and rescue him from oblivion?

I can confirm that this re-issue indeed appears to be in print!



The rationale behind the series:

'This is the first of 6 collections in the Neil Gaiman Presents line, chosen by Gaiman to represent the origins of his views on classic heroic literature.'

'The Neil Gaiman Presents program will be devoted to returning to print long-unavailable works in affordable paperback editions personally selected by Gaiman. Each book will carry a new introduction by Gaiman, speaking to the reasons why he selected the book for this line, as well as why the book deserves a wider audience. '

I greatly look forward to Gaiman's thoughts on Space Chantey (Lafferty's completely left field take on Homer's Odyssey), urging that it deserves a wider audience!

I was disappointed at first to see that they have retained the original cover of Space Chantey, but then one site says: 'Features art by legendary underground artist Vaughn Bodé!' I looked back through my copy and was reminded that each chapter is headed by an illustration and indeed they're quite cool. (Still don't like the cover though and think it'll be a bit of a put off for some. Then again, my wife loves this cover and she's the visual artist of the two of us and I usually trust her judgment on these matters - she loves a lot of Tim Burton and Edward Gorey, which go right along with the Gaiman aesthetic I think - so perhaps at least his fans will appreciate this cover after all. Believe me, I hope my misgivings about it are unnecessary and unjustified.)
'It was all strong talk with the horns and hooves still on it.'
(R. A. Lafferty, The Devil is Dead)