Paperback 1154: Ace D-110 (1st ptg, 1955)
Title: The 1,000-Year Plan
Author: Isaac Asmiov
Cover artist: Ed Valigursky
Condition: 7/10
Value: $10
[gift from a reader]
- John Houseman is ... Mr. Clean in ... The 1,000-Year Plan!
- Is he just wearing a shitty t-shirt with a worn-out collar? How am I supposed to take Captain Eyebrows here seriously if he can't even keep his uniform tight.
- "Sir, we have a plan for waxing your head?" "Fantastic, how long will it take?"
- Weirdly, this book was released both as one half of an Ace Double paperback (also numbered D-110, with Poul Anderson's No World of Their Own as the flip side) and in this standalone format. I have no idea why.
Best things about this back cover:
- That's a nice shade of blue, I guess.
Page 123~
"A priest is at the head. He has been identified as High Priest Poly Verisof. He demands the immediate release of Mayor Salvor Hardin and cessation of the war against the Foundation."
Those names! Was this originally written as space porn? Come on. You're gonna tell me that these characters weren't originally named Polly VerySoft and Salvor Hard-On? I don't believe it.
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
3 comments:
If those *were* porn names, it would be "Savor Hardon," surely?
Asimov was not very good at futuristic names.
I don't know why Ace decided to put this out as special edition (10 cents cheaper than one of their doubles!). Maybe they were losing the rights and pushed this out the door quick to grab a few more bucks. ISFDB is down right now, so I can't check the publishing history.
As for the back cover, it's obvious that nobody at Ace knew what goes on the back of a book, thanks to their specialization in tete-beche. Rather than ask somebody or work out some copy, they just punted.
You do realise this is an extract or an earlier idea for his masterpiece Foundation ... yes?
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