STAND ON ZANZIBAR

Limited edition. Hardcover. Signed by the author and Kim Stanley Robinson. Publisher's original quarter black pebble-grained cloth, with a white printed cloth-covered upper board, and red textured Japanese cloth-covered lower board. With gilt titles to the spine and black and white titles printed to the upper board. Black satin bookmark. Tissue-guard tipped in to the title page. Illustrated with ten colour plates by Jacob McMurray. A lovely fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh, with just a touch of rubbing to the fore-edge of the upper board. The contents are clean throughout, and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps.

Issued in an edition of 300 copies, from which this example is numbered 120, and signed by the author John Brunner and the author of the introduction Kim Stanley Robinson in black and blue ink, respectively, on the colophon. Winner of the 1969 Hugo Award for 'Best Novel' and the inaugural British SF Association Award. John Brunner (1934-1995) was a British writer focussing on general space operas in his early career but hitting his literary style with 'Stand on Zanzibar' in 1968. The fragmented narrative technique he used, delving into the lives of a vast array of characters, not simply for plot reasons, but to create a rich context for his futuristic setting, was heavily inspired by John Dos Passos' innovative 'U.S.A.' trilogy (1930-6). As with many sf writers of the era, Brunner is seen as somewhat prescient in retrospect, but his claim to fame is probably using the word 'worm' to apply to a computer virus. According to the publisher's website, before he passed away in 1995, Brunner had signed a 'few hundred' sheets as part of a project with Charles Brown (1937-2009), co-founder and editor of Locus Magazine, which sadly never saw the light of day. When Brown was told of Centipede Press' limited edition publication, he generously sent across the signed sheets to the publisher, enabling Brunner's signature to be included on the colophon at the rear.