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Conference noted::sf

Title:	Arcana Caelestia
Notice:	Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:	NETRIX::thomas

Created:	Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1300
Total number of notes:	18728

56.0. "Quality among Editors" by EDEN::MAXSON () Thu Apr 12 1984 19:35

	There's a noticible quality difference among publishers of SF.
	Ballantine, Timescape, Berkley, Pocket - those are reliable
	publishers. The titles published under these houses may not always
	be great, but at least they do not stink. On the other hand,
	Ace, DAW, and "Jim Baen Presents..." occasionally are SO bad
	that you wonder how the hell they ever got into print. Not to
	say that there hasn't been anything great under those publishers,
	there has - but their quality control is spotty.

	That's a bold statement, but I think it's true. Has anyone else
	noticed this? If so, is it a safe policy to recommend shopping
	for unknown books by publisher?

					Max

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
56.1		SHORTY::REDFORD		`Thu Apr 12 1984 20:10`	10
	The old Ace Science Fiction Specials were consistently good, or at least consistently interesting. They made a real effort to stay out of formulas and perhaps they tried to hard sometimes, but the results were worth reading. Terry Carr has recently started up the line again at Ace. I've read the first two, "The Wild Shore" and "Green Eyes" and they've both been worth while. Ballantine/Del Rey is also almost always good. Anyone out there remember the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series? The one with the unicorn logo? I got my first taste of Lord Dunsany through them and so relentlessly found every other book in the series. /jlr
56.2		CORVUS::BARANSKI		`Mon Oct 21 1985 16:43`	4
	One of my Favorite Publishers, is DAW paperbacks. When they first started coming out, they had some REALLY good ones: Andre Norton ..., and good artists: Kelly Freas.... Admittedly DAW does have flops, and recently they have gotten worse, but I still have a soft spot for them.
56.3		AKOV68::BOYAJIAN		`Tue Oct 22 1985 03:56`	8
	Don Wollheim (DAW) has certainly published some good stuff (Moorcock, Vance, et al.) and has "discovered" some good writers (Cherryh, Lee, et al.), but he is a lousy editor. He has even said that he prefers to buy books "as is" with no editing on his part (it's either good enough to publish or it isn't). This has had a deleterious effect on some writers, most notably Marion Zimmer Bradley; her books need to be heavily edited. --- jerry
56.4		FUTBAL::BROOMHEAD		`Tue Oct 29 1985 17:52`	5
	[.1] Another vote for the new ACE SF Specials series (particularly "Neuromancer" and "Green Eyes"). Some of the better written and more creative sf to come along in a while. Kirk
56.5	Questar is trash!	SNDCSL::SMITH	William P.N. (WOOKIE::) Smith	`Sun May 01 1988 17:21`	7
	I always check for the blue arrow (Questar), quickly replace the book on the shelf, wipe my hand on my pants, and make a warding sign when I come across one in my search for SF. All because of exposure to a single book..... Willie_who_is_spelunking_the_archives.