ISFDB:Community Portal/Archive/Archive05

Duplicate Titles Created By Adding Contents to a Pub

After adding the contents to this book [1] I noticed that all the stories which were already in the isfdb have been duplicated. That is to say, the original instance of them with whatever pubs it already had, and a new one that only has the pub I just edited, and thus requiring an orgy of merging. Is there any way to add contents to a book without this happening? (I just looked at the instructions for adding a new pub to a title, and it looks like the same problem would occur, i.e., creating a whole new title, rather than adding the story to an existing one.)Jefe 15:41, 11 Jan 2007 (CST)

There is a way around this in some cases, but contents do still have to be manually merged in some situations.

First, if you're adding a new publication of an existing title, if you choose to clone one of the publications, instead of "Add Pub to Title", then you will get a screen that looks like the addpub screen but it will be already filled in with much of the data. Adding page numbers and submitting/approving the result will cause an automatic merge for each content item.

If you're adding a pub and there are some differences, it's often most efficient to clone, then use "Remove Title" where necessary, and finally "Edit Pub" and add contents as needed, manually merging these last items.

Cloning has limitations, though. You can't use it if you want any differences in the title of the book, or the author's name. If you have a "Brian Aldiss" pub in your hand, and the existing title in the ISFDB is by "Brian W. Aldiss", then you're going to have to enter it from scratch.

There's an outstanding feature request to allow selection of stories to automerge with on submission of new pubs, but I don't think it's easy and so it may not arrive in the near future.

-- Mike Christie (talk) 20:24, 11 Jan 2007 (CST)

Eric Ambler's "The Dark Frontier"

from Wikipedia: "Based on the development in weaponry of the year 1936, The Dark Frontier was one of the first novels to predict the invention of a nuclear bomb and its consequences. Ambler evidently had no knowledge of what producing an atomic bomb may involve (even professional physicists at the time had only a vague idea). The book makes no mention of uranium or any other radioactive material, and makes instead the assumption that setting off an atomic bomb would involve a considerable electric charge. Still, Ambler could be credited with having become aware, before many others, of this coming weapon which was to have such a profound effect on the entire world, and his depiction of scientists in a secret hideout buiding such a bomb could be considered a premonition of the Manhattan Project - and he correctly surmised that refugees from Nazi Germany might get involved in such a project."

What do you think? Hayford Peirce 16:37, 12 Jan 2007 (CST)

I believe the Nicholls encyclopaedia omits "future war" books on the grounds that the genre is too vast. However, specific works like this sound like they're too close to the border to be worth the effort to delete. I say leave it in if it's in; don't bother adding it if it's not unless you're working on Ambler's biblio (assuming he wrote anything else that would qualify). Mike Christie (talk) 17:34, 12 Jan 2007 (CST)

No, this is the only thing he ever wrote that could remotely be called SF. It's pulpish and melodramatic and it's practically unknown -- I don't think he liked being associated with it. It isn't listed at the moment. It isn't really "future war" -- a standard spy-thriller or innocent-in-danger thriller that Ambler later perfected, but with the atomic bomb McGuffin. I'll wait to see if anyone else offers an opinion. Hayford Peirce 18:41, 12 Jan 2007 (CST)

Reginald lists it, but no one else does (including Bleiler's "The Early Years", which is fairly inclusive). Reginald says the first edition is the 1936 Hodder & Stoughton. If it's good enough for Reginald, it's good enough for me. Alvonruff 19:32, 12 Jan 2007 (CST)