3 Geoff Ryman first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Child Garden (1989) to Air (2004) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Geoff Ryman title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Geoff Ryman copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Child Garden — 1989 · Unwin HymanUK Unwin Hyman hardcover, London 1989, full title The Child Garden, or A Low Comedy; bound in blue cloth boards and issued in a pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Dave McKean, the jacket carrying its original printed price on an unclipped copy. Unwin Hyman was a short-lived imprint, so clean jacketed firsts are relatively scarce. The UK Unwin Hyman 1989 hardcover is the true first; it precedes the US St. Martin's Press edition of 1990. The novel won the 1990 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 1990 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It was shortlisted for, but did not win, the BSFA Award for Best Novel; the incorporated novella Love Sickness had earlier won the 1988 BSFA Award for short fiction. The US St. Martin's edition is the first American, not the true first; later Gollancz/Bantam and SF Masterworks issues are reprints or first-thus reissues, distinguished by their own imprint and copyright-page settings.
- 253: The Print Remix — 1998 · FlamingoUK Flamingo (HarperCollins) trade paperback original, 1998 — the print adaptation of Ryman's hypertext work. The first printing states 'First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 1998' on the copyright page beneath a full descending number line reading 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, and appears in illustrated wraps (there was no hardcover). A first-state copy retains the printed cover price unclipped. The UK Flamingo 1998 paperback is the true first print edition (first thus relative to the online original). It won the 1999 Philip K. Dick Award; the print remix was the eligible print form. The online 253 predates it but is not a print book. A US St. Martin's Press edition of 1998 is the first US printing and does not carry the Flamingo copyright-page statement or descending number line.
- Air — 2004 · St. Martin's Press / GollanczUS St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin imprint) trade paperback original, 2004; ISBN 9780312261214; full first-state title as printed reads 'Air: Or, Have Not Have.' Issued in wrappers with cover art by Philip Pascuzzo; there was no St. Martin's hardcover, so the Griffin trade paperback is the format of first publication. A true first printing shows the complete descending printer's key on the copyright page…. The US St. Martin's Griffin edition of 2004 is the true first; the UK Gollancz edition followed in 2005. The book grew out of Ryman's 2001 novelette 'Have Not Have' (Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 2001). It won the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award, the BSFA Award, the 2005 James Tiptree Jr. (Otherwise) Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Note that the 'Or, Have Not Have' subtitle appears on the first…. No book club edition. The UK Gollancz edition is a separate, later state; subsequent printings that drop the 'Or, Have Not Have' subtitle and carry a printer's key not ending in 1 are reprints.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: George Eliot, George Gissing, George Meredith, George Moore, George Saunders, George Washington Cable.
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