Chung Kuo (http://www.bobnewell.net/chungkuo/wingrove.html) is David Wingrove’s monumental eight-volume SF series about a future Earth ruled by the Chinese, in which most people live in 100-storey continent-sized “cities” (arcologies), designed to make unlimited population growth possible. (Ill-conceived idea, needless to say, and the series is mostly about humanity running up against immutable limits.) I’ve read every volume but the last, The Marriage of the Living Dark, (http://www.bobnewell.net/chungkuo/book8.html) – which is now out of print, and so far as I can tell it was never distributed in the U.S., for some strange reason. (The other seven volumes were distributed here, in hardcover, paperback or trade paperback.) Help! I need cloture! Does anybody know where I can get a copy?
If you have £72, you can get a used copy here.
I don’t know that there’s any reliable way to find it. That’s the problem with out of print books.
Here it is on E-bay for $19.38, but there are still 4 days left.
Don’t give up. I have a version published by Doubleday Canada, which lists prices on the back for both “U.S. International,” and Canada. I have no recollection how I came across this. But it indicates it was at least distributed in N. America.
Update: Good Lord – but apparently not distributed very widely – abebooks.com lists used trade paperbacks in non-collector condition going at over $100.
I have to wonder out loud why people would want to read more of this series. It took me a grand effort to get through the first volume without violently heaving my last four meals, and I can’t imagine the later volumes being good enough to make a repeat attempt worthwhile.
Cheaper than having to buy all that ipecac. Seriously, I liked the books, except the 6th and 7th (haven’t read the last one, but I heard bad things.) The characters tended to have actual motivations, and you couldn’t pigeonhole them as “good” or “evil”.
Looks like the EBay bids are now up to $60.
If all you want to do is read it, why not get it on Inter-Library Loan?
I just looked it up on WorldCat and it looks like 14 libraries in the US carry it.
The WorldCat OCLC accession number to give your librarian is: 38431297
This is for the Canadian (Doubleday Canada) version, ISBN 0385257368.
Unfortunately, the nearest copies to you are in Pennsylvania and New York, so it might take a while to get it.