By the Gods!

See that book over there? A while back, I had written about how I was having no luck tracking down a copy. Well, I'm not tracking it down any longer: my friend Charles surprised me this evening by slipping it into the bottom of a stack of three Otis Adelbert Kline books he had previously told me he would be passing on to me as he cleaned out his collection.

I didn't see Karl Edward Wagner's Gods in Darkness at first; it was the third book down in a four-book stack. When Charles handed them to me, I was finishing up with a customer, so I thanked him and set them on the counter to peruse later. When later arrived, I went through the stack: one Kline book that I fondly remembered, one that I recalled only in parts so I'd need to read it again, one Gods in Darkness, one... hey, wait a minute!

I was so taken by surprise that I didn't know what to say. I think I mumbled something like, "Aw, Charles!" as he grinned at me. "Where'd you find this?" I finally asked, but Charles wasn't giving away his secrets.

I have fond memories of Karl Wagner from my years in the SF con circuit, and I am thrilled to have this collection of his Kane novels in my library. I'm even more glad, though, to have a friend like Charles. Wotta guy!