The Flood

UK Polygon (Edinburgh, 1986) is the true first and the only 1986 edition — Rankin's genuinely rare pre-Rebus debut — and the census claim is confirmed. There is no US first of this date and no original-language issue other than the Scottish one, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises. The dominant trap is the 2005 Orion (London) hardback reissue, which is a first-thus and is regularly mis-listed as a first: it carries a new introduction by Rankin, is bound in black cloth lettered in silver with a price in sterling at the front flap, and has different pagination from the Polygon issue. An uncorrected proof of that 2005 Orion reissue also circulates and is likewise not a first.