INCOMING

A lot of SF and fantasy this week, mixed in with some good westerns.  Plus, Honey West (!) and the conclusion to Irving Shulman's Amboy Dukes trilogy.  I'm in a holiday mood now.

• Robert Adams, Monsters and Magicians (Stairway to Forever:  Book II).  Fantasy.
• Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason, The Trinity Paradox.  SF.
• Piers Anthony, Bio of an Ogre.  Autobiography.
• Rober Asprin, Phule's Company.  Humorous SF.
• Ben Bova, Escape Plus.  SF collection of eleven stories, included the 1970 YA novel Escape!.
• Terry Brooks, The Wishsong of Shannara.  Pseudo-Tolkien.  Number three in the series.
• C. J. Cherryh, Cuckoo's Egg.  SF.
• Arthur C. Clarke, Imperial Earth.  SF.
• Walt Coburn, Coffin Ranch:  A Western Trio.  Three novellas from Action Stories and 10 Story Western, 1927-1937.  Edited by Jon Tuska.
• "Jackson Cole" [Leslie Scott], The Death Riders.  A Jim Hatfield, Texas Ranger novel.
• Aleister Crowley, Book 4.  The self-named "Great Beast" with a primer on Magick, Yoga, and mysticism.  Ho-hum.
• Ellen Datlow, editor, The First OMNI Book of Science Fiction and The Second OMNI Book of Science Fiction.  The first volume has 14 stories from OMNI circa 1978-1982;  the second has 17 stories, all but one from 1979-1982, with an additional "original" story translated from the Russian.
• Samuel R. Delaney,  Tales of Neveryon.  Fantasy; five stories.
• Philip Jose Farmer, Gods of Riverworld.  SF; the sixth novel in the series.
• "G. G. Fickling" [Gloria and Forrest E. Fickling], Kiss for a Killer.  Honey West, the female Mike Hammer, in a case involving an evangelical christian nudist camp and a car full of turantulas.
• Alan Dean Foster, The Day of the Dissonance and The Moment of the Magician.  Books 3 and 4 in the Spellsinger fantasy series.
• Eric Garcia, Anonymous Rex.  A PI novel with dinosaurs; first of a series.
• Elizabeth George, With No One as Witness.  An Inspector Lynley/Sergeant Havers mystery.  Spoiler Alert:  This is the where Helen is offed!
• Peter F. Hamilton, The Reality Disfunction, Part 2:  Expansion.  SF.
• Graham Joyce, The Facts of Life.  WWII (and post WWII) family novel which takes place in England and shows us that magical realism is not a province strictly for Latin writers.
• Katherine Kurtz, The Bishop's Heir, The King's Justice, and The Quest for King Camber.  Fantasy trilogy comprising The Histories of King Kelson.  Also, The Legacy of Lehr.  SF.
• Louis L'Amour, Comstock Lode.  Western.
• Sterling E. Lanier, Hiero's Journey.  SF.
• Robert Lory, Dracula's Brothers.  Horror, number 3 in the Dracula Horror Series, one of a gazillion books packaged by Lyle Kenyon Engle in the 70s.
• T. J. MacGregor, Vanished.  Thriller/horror.
• D. Keith Mano, The Bridge.  SF.
• Sharyn McCrumb, The Ballad of Frankie Silver.  An Appalachian novel;  McCrumb doesn't like to call them mysteries.  (I forgive her for that because she writes so darned well and because she looks a lot like my sister.)
• Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, Elvenblood.  Fantasy.  Book Two of the Halfblood  Chronicles.
• Robert Rankin, Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls.   Fantasy with more than a twist of humour.
• Mike Resnick, Martin H. Greenberg, and Loren D. Estleman, editors, Deals with the Devil.  Fantasy/horror anthology with 32 original stories.
• Anne Rice, Merrick.  A mash-up of Rice's Vampire and Witch series, from her post-erotica, pre-Christian period.
• Melissa Scott, Mighty Good Road.  SF.
• Irving Shulman, The Big Brokers.  The third book in The Amboy Dukes trilogy.  The Amboy Dukes (1947 and the first in the trilogy) was a national best-seller and was the book that brought juvenile delinquents to the American forefront.   In Cry Tough! (1949) one of the gang members tries to go straight after a stretch in prison.   Finally, in The Big Brokers (1951), three of the gang members graduate to the mob and are sent to Las Vegas.  It's been over 40 years since I have read the trilogy and I was happy to find this book.  Tame stuff now, but it was pretty exciting in its time.  [Irving, by the way, added to his street cred by writing the preliminary script to Rebel Without a Cause; he later novelized his script as Good Deeds Must Be Punished.]
• Duane Swierczynski,  Severance Package.  Crime novel.
• Kenneth Von Gunden, K-9 Corps.  SF.
• David Weber, The Armageddon Inheritance.  SF.
• Roger Zelazny, Eye of Cat.  SF.