Collecting on a Shoestring (cont')

Grandmaster Series

Diehard American Lone Wolf fans know that the UK editions of the Grandmaster series have almost everything going for them. In contrast, the US editions have been abridged horribly, and the production standards of Berkley slipped considerably. The cover art is only strength of the US Grandmaster series. Additionally, there is poor illustration imaging, fouled section links because of the hack and slash editing, and the distribution network for the series was reduced. Of course, after LW#20, Berkley stopped publishing Lone Wolf books in the US.

Strangely, the US Grand Master series is difficult to come across in used bookstores. To date, I’ve only encountered a total of eight Grandmaster series books at used stores and most of those have been LW#13-15.

As an aside, it is still possible to obtain the unused US Kai, Magnakai, and Grandmaster series at Barnes and Noble, Borders Books and Music, and a few other retail sellers. I’ve noticed, however, that lately they aren’t replenishing their stock.

Legends of Lone Wolf Series

I was surprised how quickly I found my first copies of Eclipse of the Kai, The Dark Door Opens and Tides of Treachery at used bookstores. However, the rarity of the rest of the series increases greatly. Finding copies of anything beyond Tides of Treachery becomes difficult, but not impossible.

Berkley split up the UK Sword of the Sun into the Tides of Treachery and Sword of the Sun, and quit publishing the Legends series after Hunting Wolf. The US editions have the complete text of the UK editions.

World of Lone Wolf (Grey Star) Series

It took me a while to find any Grey Star books at US used bookstores. I’ll generalize and say that GS #1 and #2 are somewhat more plentiful than #3 and #4. After visiting fifteen to twenty used bookstores, odds are that all four books can be found.

Next Section -->