INCOMING

A frustrating, computer-less week or so -- made better by some interesting books I found along the way.  Not only were my computer and e-mail screwed-up, but many of my records were lost, including my catalog of books I own.  (Grrr.  It'll take a long while to reconstruct that one.)  Most likely I have copies of several of these books (I'm looking at you, David Weber!) and some time in the (far distant?) future, I'll cull the duplicates.

• Edward Abbey, Abbey's Road and Down the River.  Two non-fiction collections with 19 essays in each.
• Jeff Abbott, Black Jack Point.  A Whit Moseley mystery.
• Dan Abnett, Traitor General.  Gaming (Warhammer 40,000) tie-in novel, first in a new sequence (The Lost) in the Gaunt's Ghosts series.
• "George Bagby" (Aaron Marc Stein), Murder's Little Helper.  An Inspector Schmidt mystery.
• T. C. Boyle, The Human Fly and Other Stories.  Literary collection of 13 stories.
• Algis Budrys, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume IV.  An early entry into the never-ending series of SF anthologies sponsored under the aegis of not-Scientology and a dead Hubbard.  This talent search has produced some pretty good writers:  included in this volume are Nancy Farmer, Mary A. Turzillo, and R. Garcia y Robertson.  Sixteen stories and seven article, includiong a "trunk" essay/introduction by Hubbard.
• James Lee Burke, Last Car to Elysian Fields.  A Dave Robicheaux mystery.
• W. R. Burnett, The Roar of the Crowd.  Non-fiction.  Oponions about baseball.
• A. S. Byatt, Ragnorak:  The End of Gods.  Fictional retelling of a Norse myth.
• "Jack Campbell" (John G. Hemry), Beyond the Frontier:  Dreadnaught, Valiant, and Victorious.  SF novels in the popular Lost Fleet series.
• Bennett Cerf, editor, Reading for Pleasure.  General anthology with 65 stories, articles, and excerpts.
• "John Christopher" (Samuel Youd), The Lotus Caves.  YA SF.
• "James Clemens" (Jim Czajkowski), Wit'ch War.  Fantasy, Book Three of The Basnned and the Banished.  The author also writes thrillers as "James Rollins."
• Harlan Coben, Long Lost.  A Myron Bolitar mystery.
• John Connolly, Dark Hollow.  Mystery with supernatural overtones; the second book in the Charlie Parker series.
• Glen Cook, Bitter Gold Hearts and Whispering Nickel Idols.  Fantasies in the Garrett, P.I. series.
• Matthew Costello, Seaquest DSV:  Fire Below.  Television tie-in novel.
• Lester del Rey, Early del Rey.  SF collection with 24 stories from 1938 through 1951.
• Marjorie Dorner, Freeze Frame.  Thriller.
• Candace Jane Dorsey, A Paradigm of Earth.  SF.
• Richard M. Dorson, editor, Folktales Told Around the World.  Folklore from forty-four (if I counted rightly) cultures.
• Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg, editors, 100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories.  Horror collection with -- you guessed it -- 100 stories.
• "Rosalind Erskine" (Roger Erskine Longrigg), The Passion Flower Hotel and Passion Flowers in Italy. Humorous and mildly erotic books about five schoolgirls who turn their school gym into a bordello.  The author also wrote spy novels as "Ivor Drummond," mystery novels as "Frank Parrish," and just about everything else as "Laura Black," "Domini Taylor," "Megan Barker," and "Grania Beckford."
• Paul Gallico, Trial by Terror. Cold War thriller.
• Heather Graham, Dark Harvest.  Paranormal romantic suspense, second in the Flynn Brothers trilogy.
• Martin H. Greenberg, editor, Nightmares on Elm Street:  Freddy Kreuger's Seven Sweetest Dreams.  Movie tie-in collection with seven stories.
• Wendy Haley, White Light.  Suspense.
• Carolyn Hart, Murder Walks the Plank.  A Death on Demand mystery, me hearties!
• Nancy Holder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer:  Carnival of Souls.  Television tie-in novel.
• Trevor Hoyle, Kids.  Horror.
• Roderic Jeffries, A Fatal Fleece.  An Inspector Alvarez mystery.
• Richard Jessup, The Deadly Duo.  Mystery.
• Henry Kane, Death of a Flack.  A Pete Chambers mystery.
• Mercedes Lackey, Arrows of the Queen.  Fantasy, the first book in the Heralds of Valdemar series, a subset of the main Valdemar series.
• Laura Lippman, In a Strange City.  A Tess Monaghan mystery.
• Eric Van Lustbader, Mistress of the Pearl.  Fantasy, Volume Three of the Pearl Saga.  I have it on good authority that Jason Bourne does not appear in this book.
• John Lutz, Urge to Kill.  A Frank Quinn mystery from one of the most reliable writers out there.
• Seon Manley & Gogo Lewis, editors, Masters of the Macabre:  An Anthology of Mystery, Horror and Detection.  Anthology of 17 mostly familiar stories.
• Julian May, Magnificat.  SF, Book Three in the Galactic Milieu trilogy.
• John Milne, Dead Birds.  A Jimmy Jenner mystery.
• Kenneth Oppel, Skybreaker.  YA SF, sequel yo Airborn.
• Chuck Palahniak, Lullaby.  Literary fantasy.
• Michalr Pearce, The Night of the Dog.  A Mamur Zapt mystery, set in Cairo during the British Rule.
• Don Pendleton, Heart to Heart.  An Ashton Ford adventure.  Ford is spy who has some special psychic powers.
• Leo Perutz, The Master of the Day of Judgment.  Mystery.
• Chris Pierson, Trail of the Black Wyrm.  Gaming (DragonLance) tie-in novel, Volume Two of the Taladas trilogy.
• Michael Riley, Conversations with Anne Rice.  Non-fiction/interviews.  This one was published in 1996, so it's pretty dated now, not covering the interesting aspects of Rice's life since then.
• "J.D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Visions in Death.  Near-future mystery in the Eve Dallas series.
• R. A. Salvatore, The Thousand Orcs.  Gaming (Forgotten Realms) tie-in novel, Book 1 in the Hunter's Blade trilogy.
• Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages.  Fantasy, Book Three in the Mistborn trilogy.
• Ruth Sawyer, The Way of the Storyteller.  Non-fiction. The art of the storyteller, with eleven folk tales included as examples.
• "Darren Shan" (Darren O'Shaughnessy), Slawta.  YA horror, Book 3 in the Demonata series.
• Benjamin M. Schutz, Mary, Mary, Shut the Door and Other Stories.  Mystery collection of all twelve of Schutz's short stories.  Another author gone too soon. 
• Martin Cruz Smith, Three Stations.  An Arkady Renko mystery.
• Nancy Springer, Metal Angel.  Fantasy.  Kitty took a look at the cover and said to me, "Angel porn?  Really?"  Probably not, but time will tell.
• Darwin Teilhet, The Big Runaround.  Thriller.
• Brad Thor, Full Black.  A Scott Harvath thriller.
• David Weber, Ashes of Victory, Echoes of Honor, Field of Dishonor, Flag in Exile, Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, and The Short Victorious War -- all SF novels in the honor Harrington series.  Also, The Shadow of Saganami (a novel in the Honorverse and the first in the Saganami Island  series), The Armageddon Inheritance (a standalone novel), and Worlds of Weber (a collection of nine stories, some novel and novella length).
• David Weber, editor, Worlds of Honor #3:  Changer of Worlds.  SF, four stories in the Honorverse, including two by Weber.
• David Weber & Steve White, Crusade and Insurrection.  SF.
• Margaret Weis, The Soul Forge.  Gaming (DragonLance) tie-in novel, Volume One in the Raistlin Chronicles.
• Margaret Weis &Tracy Hickman, Time of the Twins.  Gaming (DragonLance) tie-in novel, Volume 1 in the Dragonlance Legends series.
• Edmund Wilson, I Thought of Daisy.  Novel.  Ballantine Book Number 20, published with Farrer, Straus & Young.  This paperback was in pristine condition.  Can you blame me for picking it up?
• Scott F. Woltner, The Hooked X, the Key to the Secret History of North America.  I guess you could call this speculative archeology/geology.  The author has turned this into a cable television program that we recently saw on some basic cable channel (don't know which).  The books mentions a number of sites near my Massachusetts chuldhood stomping grounds -- The Westford Knight, The Westford Boat Stone, The Tyngsboro Map Stone, et cetera, but (as far as I can tell from a brief glimpse) no mention of Mystery Hill in nearby Salem, NH.  Signed.
• Austin Tappen Wright, Islandia.  The classic doorstop Utopian fantasy
• Philip Wylie, Tomorrow!  SF.  America under atomic attack --a familiar Wylie theme.
• Jane Yolen, Wizard's Hall.  YA fantasy.