BITS & PIECES: INCOMING ONLY EDITION BECAUSE THE HURRIEDER I GO, THE BEHINDER I GET

 Incoming:

• "Carson Bingham" (Bruce Cassiday), Flash Gordon:  The Witch Queen of Mongo.  Comic strip tie-in novel, adapted from Alex Raymond's original story.  This was the fifth in a series of  of six paperback novels released by Avon in 1974-5; the first three were written by Ron Goulart and the last three written by Cassiday.  Another series of six uncredited  (but actually writen by David Hagberg) novels appeared in 1980-1 from Tempo Books.  "Victimized by a psychotic teenage prankster, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov find themselves transported to the planet of Mongo, where Flash is captured and drugged by the ravishing witch Queen Azura and her evil cohort -- none other than Ming the Merciless, Jr.!  But Zarkov and Dale escape to Arboria, and enlist the aid of Prince Barin, who, by use of a brilliant ruse, sets in motion a series of violent encounters and hair's breadth escapes that places Flash's life in imminent peril."
• J. L. Bourne, Day by Day Armageddon:  Shattered Hourglass.  Zombie apocalypse novel, the third in a series.  "In a desperate bid to take back the continental United States -- where hordes of undead now dominate the ravaged human population -- a Navy commander leads a global mission to the heart of the pandemic.  Task Force Hourglass is humanity's final hope, and his team's agonizing decisions could mean living one day more -- or surrendering to the eternal hell that exists between life and death."
• Alan Brennert, Moloka'i.  Historical novel set in Hawaii beginning over a century ago and continuing to the mid-twentieth century.  "Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girlf, drams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman.  The one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her.  Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i.  Here her life is supposed to end -- but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.  With a vibrant cast of vividly realized charaters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death."
• William  Burroughs, Naked Lunch.  Drug-fueled novel.  An "unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity.  By mixing the fantastic and the realistic with his own unmistakable vision and voice, Burroughs has created a unique masterpiece that is a classic of tweniteth-century fiction,"  I'll have to be in a cartain mood to read this one, a mood I'm not sure I'll ever achieve.
• F. M. Busby, Slow Freight.  Science fiction novel, the first in a series.  "Rance Collier is among earth's first pioneers through the vast wilderness of spacetime.  But the maiden voyage of the Starfinder is marred by warped power plays and dirty politics.  Then the ship's nav systems are fouled by the wake of a passing ship -- a nonhuman ship.  This first encounter is complicated by the ensuing damage to the alien ship, which now requires vast transfusions of matter and energy in order to make repairs.  And that matter and energy happens to be the nearest star system:  Sol.  Before human politicians can react, the alien ship devours a handful of Saturn's moons and sets its planet-swallowing course straight for Earth."
• Joanna Cannon, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.  Suspense?  Mystery?  Literary fiction?  Who knows?  "England, 1976.  Mrs Creasy is missing.  the neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren't convinced, and decide to take matters into their own hands.  Spunky, spirited Grace and quiet, thoughtful Tillie go door-to-door in search of clues.  The cul-de-sac starts to give up its secrets, and the amateur detectives uncover more than they imagined.  A complicated history of deception begins to emerge -- everyone on the avenue has something to hide.  During that sweltering summer, the lives of all the neighbors begin to unravel.  The girls come to realize that the lies told told to conceal what happened on fateful day about a decade ago are the same ones Mrs. Creasy was starting to peel back just before she disappeared..."
• Matthew J, Costello & F, Paul Wilson, Three Flms and a Play.  Just what it says:  Three filmscripts and a play.  "Matt Costello and F. Paul Wilson spent the 90s scripting interactive CD-ROMs (Disney's Mathquest with Aladdin, for one) and FTL Newsfeed for the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy).  Since they were spending so much time with the entertainment industry's production companies, they decided to try their hands at spec movie scripts as well.  This volume is just what the title says:  Three unproduced spec film scripts and a play that (briefly) made it to the stage.  So here for your enjoyment are:  Weather War, Aces, Psi, [and] Syzygy.)
• Avram Davidson, AD 100:  100 Years of Avram Davidson, Volumes I & II.  100 unpublished or uncollected stories by one of the most distinct voices of the twentieth century; edited by Neva Hickman and pubished by Davidson's godson, Seth Davis.  More than 1175 pages span the two volumes.  An absolute goldmine to be treasured for as long as people are able to read, dream, imagine, laugh, or simply remain human.
• Avram Davidson, Beer!  Beer!  Beer!  A previously unpublished novel of magical realism, historical fiction, and Davidson's unique and idiosyncratic viewpoint.  We are taken back to the days when prohibition was the law of the Land and beer barons like Dutch Schultz sold illegal alcohol to the public.  The streets of Davidson's Yokuns represents the Yonkers of his youth in the 1920s and 1930s much in the way that the British Hildago of Davidson's Limekiller! parallels Belize.  Published by Seth Davis for Or All The Seas With Oysters Publishing, with more of Davidson's work in the pipeline.
• Debra Doyle & James D. MacDonald, A Working of Stars.  Space opera adventure, the 7th in the Mageworlds series.  "Ten years ago, Arekhon sus-Khalgath sus-Peledaen abandoned his native planet for a new life on the far side of the Gap Between -- the starless rift separating the Eraasian worlds from the rest of the galaxy.  On the planet Entibor, he found shelter and domestic tranquility with his old love, Elaeli Inadi, at the price of what he had left behind:  a dispersed ans shattered Mage-Circle, an estranged brother who had tried to kill him, and a homeworld on the cusp of a massive cultural upheaval.  Now the bill is coming due, and Arekhon finds himself impelled homeward by strange dreams and prophetic visions.  The Great Working -- the effort to do the unthinkable and reunite a galaxy long sundered by the Gap Between -- remains incomplete, left unfinished in the aftermath of the dissolution of Arekhon's Mage-Circle.  But too much energy and too many lives have been poured into the Working Plan already, and it cannot end so long as any of the Circle members remain alive and are bound into it.  Home, unfortunately, isn't a safe place for Arekhon to be at the moment.  For Eraasi has changed -- and the great fleet-families at the center of Eraasian culture are girding for war."  George the Tempter strikes again!
• "Jack Ellis" (Stephen R. George), Nightlife.  Horror novel.  "His eyes glittered like black stars.  his mouth is a jagged slit.  He rides in a shiny limousine with plush curtains that block out the sun...and waits for darkness to fall.  He is Richard Carnitch -- a man of pitiless hate and insatiable hunger.  No one like Carnitch has ever walked this earth.  And no one can stop his feeding frenzy as, one by one, society's outcasts and loners disappear from the streets of the city.  Now a handful of survivors is about to fight back.  Now, the prey are about to become the hunters.  But to stop this hellish nightmare means controlling an evil more unspeakable than death itself -- and a descent into the ultimate night..."
• Christopher Fowler, Bryant & May and the Burning Man.  The twelfth in the Peculiar Crimes Unit series.  "In the week before Guy Fawkes Night, London's peaceful streets break out in sudden unrest.  Enraged by a scandal involving a corrupt financier accused of insider trading, the demonstrators are rioting outside the Findersbury Private Bank, chanting, marching, and growon viplent.  But when someone hurls a Molotov cocktail at the bank's front door, killing a homeless man on its steps, Bryant, May, and the rest of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are called in.  Is this an act of protest gone terribly wrong?  Or a devious, premeditated murder?  Their investigation heats up when a second victim is reported dead in similar fiery circumstances.  May discovers the latest victim has ties tio the bank, and Bryant refuses to believe this is mere coincidence.  As the riots grow more intense and the body count cimbs, Bryant and May hunt for a killer who's adopting incendiary methods of execution, on a snaking trail of clues with roots in London's history of rebellion, anarchy, and harsh justice.  Now, they'll have to throw themselves in the line of fire before the entire investigation goes up in smoke."
• Brian Garfield, Sliphammer.  Western.  "Some called Wyatt Earp a hero, but to the hard young deputy called Sliphammer, the famous gunman was a murdering outlaw.  Earp was riding high and handsome in this boom town of Gunnison, surrounded by the local big wigs, their bought sheriff, and Earp's fiercely loyal sidekick, Doc Holliday.   Earp needed none of that protection.  Sliphammer did not have a chance in hell against a walking legend of raw strength, iron nerve and lightning calculation.  Then, Siphammer's hotheaded young brother was cut down in cold blood -- and suddenly the odds didn't matter as Sliphammer buckled on his guns."
• David G. Hartwell, editor, The Science Fiction Century.  A massive, thousand-page compendium of 45 of some of the greatest science fiction stories from 1899 to 1991, deliberately excluding Isaac Asimov, John W. Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein -- all of whom had been heavily featured in previous doorstop anthologies by the editor.  So who's left?  Poul Anderson, Gregory Benford, James Blish, Algis Budrys, Hal Clement, John Crowley, Gordon Eklund, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, William Gibson, Frank Herbert, Nancy Krees, C. S. Lewis, Richard A. Lupoff, James Morrow, Chad Oliver, Edgar Pangborn, Robert Silverberg, Cordwainer Smith, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, Willian Tenn, James Tiptree Jr., Jack Vance, A. E. van Vogt, H. G. Wells, Connie Willis, John /Wyndham, Roger Zelazny, and many others.  An essential volume for anyone interested in 20th century SF.  Another gift from George.
• Will F. Jenkins, Ten Unique Stories by Will F. Jenkins.  Short story collection, edited by Jenkins' daughter Billie Stallings.  "Will F. Jenkins is primarily remembered as a writer of science fiction under his pen name, Murray Leinster.  He is credited with over 1500 stories, books, tv scripts, and films.  Two of the pieces in this collection are classified as science fiction, however, his daughter Billie Stallings' childhood memories are of his old Remington upright typewriter clicking away as he wrote stories to be publoshed under his own name in mainstream magazines.  Jenkins considered his work in science fiction a hobby.  His ability to switch genres and keep ujp with changing trends led to a successful 50-year career.  He was a regular contributor to Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post where the ten stories in this collection first appeared.  These magazines had circulations exceeding two and a half million copies a week.  This collection will give you a peek at what entertained people before the rise of television.  Jenkins is known for his tight plots and twists in the endings.  His daughter felt that these ten stories, even though some are over sixty years old, still stand up well for today's readers and should be available for their pleasure."
• Dean Koontz, Innocence and 77 Shadow Street.  Two supernatural thrillers form the backlist of the best-selling author.  I had read then both before but then each came out with a paperback edition that included the bonus stories,"Wilderness" and "The Moonlit Mind."  Several other Koontz reissues also contain bonus stories and I'll pick them up when I get the chnce.  We'll see if they justify the price.
• Spencer Kope. Collecting the Dead.  Thriller with supernatural undertones, the first in the Special Tracking Unit series.  ""Magnus 'Steps' Craig is part of an elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI, charged with finding the lost or abducted and bringing them home.  Dubbed 'The Human Bloodhound,' Steps is renowned for his incredible ability to follow and find trails over any surface.  He has a special skill -- known only to his npartner -- that has enabled his team to stop seventeen serial killers over the past five years,  But, now there's a new monster at large, and the bodies are piling up.  When the remains of one young woman are found, Steps recognizes the 'signature' from another crime scene:  the marks of a sad face.  Meanwhile, a serial killer that Steps has been trying to track for over ten years, code name 'Leonardo,' is back in play -- and on Step's trail.  Just as the investigation seems to be closing in on Leonardo, the hunt for Sad Face heats up.  Now it's up to Steps to outrun and outwit one of the most twisted serial killers he's ever encountered...as time ticks away on the lives of the victims.  Will this be another one of Steps's miraculously solved cases -- or his last?"
• "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins), The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure.  Collection of 20 pulp short stories dating from 1919 to 1933. most from such long-forgotten magazines as The Thrill Book, Ace-High Magazine, Triple-X Magazine, Short Stories, Danger Trail, Everybody's, Adventure Trails, World Wide Adventure, and Popular Fiction Magazine.  A glorious collection. 
• John Lutz, The Havana Game.  Thriller, the second in the Thomas Laker series.  "With the U.S. seemingly linked to a terrorist bombing in a Baltic nation and a Russian troop buildup just over the border, the covert Gray Outift sends Thomas Laker to untangle the mess.  But after a  second attack leaves him out in the cold, Laker's on his own.  Five thousand miles away in Miami, Laker's partner and NSA codebreaker Ava North is investigating the murder of a fellow agent.  When tracks lead to a Cuban-American billionaire in bed with the Jersey Mob, Ava's supervisors want her to lay off.  Not a chance.  Though oceans apart, Laker and Ava discover their separate missions are tied to one explosive plot.  The only way out is to breach all protocol and play by their own rules..."  Lutz, an Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author, could also be relied on to write an unputdownable book.
• Tom Monteleone & F. Paul Wilson, Definitely Not Kansas.  YA (?) fantasy/horror noivel; Book One in the Nocturnia Chronicles, a series for both adults and young readers, middle grades and up.   "Hoping to find their missing older brother, Emma and Ryan find themselves in the path of an enormous F-5 twister.  Before they are swept into the vortex, a hole opens in the air and they are pulled into a parallel world peopled by all the creatures from human horror stories:  werewolves, vampires, zombies, trolls, and others.  Welcome to Nocturnia. where the monsters have their own nation states and humans are either slaves, or food, or both.  Where even the flowers will suck your blood if you venture near.  As Emma and /Ryan search for a way home, they come to suspect they did not arrive in Nocturnia by accident.  But if not, why are they here?  Are their destinies somehow entwined with this nightmare world."
• Ra Page & Magda Raczynska, editors, LEMISTRY:  A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem.  A collection of seventeen stories and essays about Lem and his creations, including three stories never before translated into English.  "We 'know' Stanislaw Lem whether of not we consciously know that we do.  He may be only recognized in the West as the author of the twice-filmed novel, Solaris, but the influence of his other work is legion.  From computer games (The Sims was inspired by one of his short stories) to films (the red and blue pills of The Matrix owe much to his Futurological Congress); from the space comedies of Red Dwarf to the metaphysical satires of Douglas Adams...the presence of this masterly Polish writer can be traced far and wide.  Nor was his genius confined to fiction.  Lem's essays and pseudo-essays -- borne out of the military industrial tensions of the Cold War -- have outlived their original context and speak to the most current developments in virtual reality, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence.  To celebrate his name, as well as his vision. this anthology brings together writers, critics and scientists who continue to grapple with his concerns.  British and Polish novelists join screenwriters, poets, computer engineers, and artists, to celebrate and explore Lem's legacy through short stories and essays -- two literary forms that, as Lem knew well, can blend together to create something altogether new...Lem was aways ahead of us.  It's time we caught up."  Another book that somehow found its way from Tonawanda to the Florida Panhandle.
• "Michael Slade," (Jay Clarke, et al.) Burnt Bones.  Police procedural/thriller, the seventh in the Special X series (Special External Section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police).   "On a remote island off the coast of Seattle, a man lies buried alive.  Mile away, his captor -- the elusive killer known only as Mephisto -- listens through a transmitter to his victim's dying screams, waiting for him to reveal a secret only he knows.  But learning the secret is only the beginning of Mephisto's maniacal game....Tracking the madman are two etectives.  In Canada, Superintendent Robert DeClercq, a man who has experienced horror up-close.  In America, Jenna Bond, a young detective who has never known true horror -- until  now.  Together they will uncover a trail of clue that will lead them to Mephisto, and into the bloody past in which he exists.  Because there the most terrifying secrets are buried, lying among the bones of the dead...."  Clarke is the lead writer behind the "Michael Slade" pseudonym, which has included a number of co-authors.  The Slade books relie heavily on psychological hoor and may not be recommended for all readers.
• Mickey Spillane, The Last Cop Out.  Standalone crime novel.  "The Last Cop Out features a new super virile and violent Mickey Spillane hero -- Gillian Burke, known as the Gill, a good cop thrown off the force in a frame-up, and looking to even a blood score with the Mob.  He's out to plow his way through a maze of gorgeous women and blasting guns, and take apart a secret army of assassins -- man by man and limb by limb -- until he can get his hands on the ultimate enemy for an orgy of blistering destruction."  Yep, that sure sounds like a Spillane book.
• Jonathan Straham, editor, Reach for Infinity.  Science fiction anthology with fourteen original stories.  Authors are Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Pat Cardigan, Karen Lord, Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Alistair Reynolds, and Peter Watts -- top-flight authors all.  Once again, I have Geroge Kelley to thank for this.
• F. Paul Wilson, Secret Stories:  Tales from the Secret History.  Collection of eight stories from Wilson's "Secret History of the World," which now comprises thirty-seven volumes, including the Adversary Cycle and the Repairman Jack Saga.  "The Secret History of the World deals with a history that remains undiscovered, unexplored, and unknown to most of humanity.  Some of this history has been revealed in the Adversary Cycle, some in the Repairman Jack novels, and bits and pieces in other, seemingly unconnected works.  Taken together, even these millions of words barely scratch the surface of what has been going on behind the scenes, hidden from the workaday world.  In Secret Stories, F. Paul Wilson has gathered some of the shorter pieces of the Secret History and placed them for convenience between a single set of covers.  He's left out pieces available as stand-alones or collected in Quick Fixes, and concentrated on those published in scattered collections and anthologies over the years.  To each he has added commentary as to how a story earned its place in the Secret History."   Many of these stories were available in other collections by Wilson.