# Is "A Good Old-Fashioned Future" by Bruce Sterling a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Good Old-Fashioned Future by Bruce Sterling (Bantam Spectra, 1999) is identified by: Story collection of seven pieces. The US Bantam Spectra paperback original is the true first; no US hardcover was issued.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Story collection of seven pieces
- Bantam Spectra mass-market paperback original, New York, June 1999, running 279 pages, with the number line ending in 1 on the copyright page
- ISBN 0-553-57642-9
- Publisher imprint reads Bantam Spectra
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Bruce Sterling |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Year | 1999 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Story collection of seven pieces |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Story collection of seven pieces. Bantam Spectra mass-market paperback original, New York, June 1999, running 279 pages, with the number line ending in 1 on the copyright page. ISBN 0-553-57642-9 (9780553576429).

## Is this the true first?
The US Bantam Spectra paperback original is the true first; no US hardcover was issued. The UK Millennium/Gollancz edition (ISBN 1857987101) is a later reprint dated 2001 rather than a precedent, so it does not displace the 1999 Bantam printing as the first appearance in book form.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
None.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Good Old-Fashioned Future* by Bruce Sterling a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-good-old-fashioned-future
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.