Talk:The Complete Compleat Enchanter

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UK Orion Fantasy Masterworks edition does NOT include Wall of Serpents and The Green Magician[edit]

This is based on an e-book I've seen of the Fantasy Masterworks version, it includes the first two stories and the Wall of Iron novel. It also has the 'Fletcher and I' essay as a forward.

In that essay is the following paragraph: We also wrote two more novellas of the saga, placing Harold first in the world of the Finnish Kalevala (The Wall of Serpents) and then in the world of Irish myth (The Green Magician). After magazine publication, these two stories were combined in a cloth-bound volume, Wall of Serpents. It was not possible to include them in the present volume, first because of considerations of space and second because of contractual complications.

It is hard to find reviews of this specific book on Amazon or Amazon.uk because of their practice of combining reviews for all editions of a book. I did see one review that mentioned 'The Compleat Enchanter' and its companion book 'The Enchanter Completed' (which contains Wall of Serpents and The Green Magician.)68.97.202.187 (talk) 16:34, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Fantasy Masterworks version, titled The Compleat Enchanter, does have "The Wall of Serpents" and "The Green Magician" and does not have the "Fletcher and I" essay. The Compleat Enchanter was also the title of the 1975 collection The Compleat Enchanter published by Doubleday, SFBC and Del Rey; that edition was limited to the first three stories and did include "Fletcher and I." Sounds like your e-book is based on the Doubleday edition, not the Fantasy Masterworks one. BPK (talk) 00:00, 11 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The ebook is titled The Compleat Enchanter - The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea and the title page does say Fantasy Masterworks Volume 10. Obviously, I have no clue as to the actual origins of the ebook, but it seems odd that they would use the title page from one book and the contents from a different version. However, I am assuming your post is based on possession of the actual book, not just an ebook, so that would take precedence.68.97.202.187 (talk) 00:31, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yep. There are other de Camp ebooks, mostly from Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint, that are also not what they seem. For example, I've seen an ebook edition of The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales that contains ONLY The Tritonian Ring, omitting the "other tales" -- it also misspells Pusadian as "Pasudian." BPK (talk) 04:26, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]