KAVAN, Anna.

£1,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Ice. Scarce first edition, first impression, first issue, of the author's final book and her masterpiece, "a classic surreal novel of existential catastrophe" (Anatomy of Wonder). Often contrasted with Ballard's Drowned World, Ice depicts "a world jarred into ecocatastrophe by political and scientific crimes" (Lethem). Brian Aldiss praised the book: "Ice represents one of the high points of science fiction... a catastrophe novel that goes as far beyond Ballard as Ballard is beyond Wyndham, sailing into the chilly air of metaphysics" (pp. 336-7). The first US edition, published three years later, included an introduction by Aldiss, who hailed it as the best science fiction novel of the year.This copy is the first issue, with blue boards and the unclipped jacket priced at 30s; later issues were in black boards with the jacket repriced to £4.25.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.