Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Monday, October 22, 2012

INCOMING

A fairly hefty week, mostly SF.
  • John Joseph Adams, editor, By Blood We Live, The Living Dead 2, and Wastelands.  Juicy anthologies about (respectively) vampires, zombies, and the apocalypse.One hundred four stories total.
  • Lloyd Alexander, The Four Donkeys.  Juvenile from the author of the Prydain Chronicles.
  • Kurt Brand, Atlan in Danger and Shadow of the Mutant Master.  Two Perry Rhodans, numbers 82 and 49.  For those unfamiliar with the series, Perry was the hero of a long stream of pretty juvenile SF magazine novels published in Germany.  Forrest J. Ackerman edited a number of the novels and a bunch of typical 4SJ filler material for a (slightly less) long stream of paperbacks from Ace in the 1970s.
  • Steve Carper, editor, The Defective Detective:  Mystery Parodies by the Great Humorists.  Twenty-one swipes at the mystery genre.  Not to be confused with the "Defective Detective" anthologies from Bowling Green University Popular Press, which reprinted pulp tales of handicapped (some bizarrely so) detectives.
  • Jeanne Cavalos, editor, The Many Faces of Van Helsing.  Vampire anthology with twenty-one stories.
  • C. J. Cherryh, The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh.  A total of twenty-nine SF and fantasy stories, including the contents of two earlier collections, Sunfall and Visible Light.
  • Joanna Cole, selector, Best-Loved Folktales of the World.  Selection of two hundred folktales, fairy tales, and legends.  Cole, who wrote the introduction, "selected" the contents, rather than editing the book.
  • Clark Dalton, Prisoner of Time.  Perry Rhodan #56.
  • Elen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, editors, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror:  Twenty-First Annual Collection.  Thirty-three stories, six poems, and close to a hundred pages of summarization of 2007 in the genre.
  • Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, editors, Salon Fantastic:  Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy.  Literary salons are the subject of this themed anthology.
  • Gardner Dozois, editor, The Year's Best Science Fiction:  Seventh Annual Collection, twenty-five of the best stories from 1989, and The Year's Best Science Fiction:  Twelfth Annual Collection, twenty-three of the best from 1994.
  • David Drake, Vettius and His Friends.  A Roman sword and sorcery collection with a dozen stories.
  • "Leslie Egan" (Elizabeth Linington", Paper Chase. A Jesse Falkenstein mystery.  A very popular writer, Linington published eighty mystery books over a twenty-eight year period (1960-1987) under her own name and as "Leslie Egan," "Dell Shannon," and "Anne Blaisdell."
  • Gordon Eklund, Lord Tedric #2:  Space Pirates.  Part of an original series based on a character created by E. E. 'Doc" Smith in 1953.  Space opera.
  • "Wesley Ellis," Lone Star and the Texas Killers.  Number 86 in the long-running adult western series.
  • Margaret Erskine, Harriet Farewell.  An Inspctor Finch mystery.
  • Philip Jose Farmer, Red Orc's Rage.  SF, a World of Tiers novel.
  • Leland Fetzer, editor and translator, Pre-Revoluntionary Russian Science Fiction:  An Anthology (Seven Utopias and a Dream).  From the 19th and early 20th centuries, eight stories.
  • Martin H. Greenberg, editor, The Further Adventures of Batman (fourteen stories of the Caped Crusader) and The Way It Was't:  Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternate History (thirteen stories).
  • Daniel Grotta, The Biography of J. R. R. Tolkein, Architect of Middle Earth.  Non-fiction.  Glancing at some of the reference notes at the back of the book, this one may be a little snaky and opinionated; time will tell.  This is the second edition (1978) and includes an epilogue on the then-recently published The Silmarillion, although this is not covered in the book's index.
  • Harry Harrison, editor,  SF: Authors' Choice.  A dozen authors each selected one of their own favorite stories.
  • Harry Harrison and Robert Sheckley, Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains.  The second in the continued adventures of Harrison's hapless, not-so-bright space hero.
  • David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, editors, Year's Best SF 9.  Twenty stories from 2003.
  • Morris Hershman, The Crash of 2086.  SF novel from a writer better known in the mystery and gothic fields.  Originally published as Shareworld.
  • Philip E. High, The Prodigal Sun.  SF.
  • Frank J. Hutton, editor, Butcher Shop Quartet.  Four horror stories.
  • Maxim Jakubowski, editor, The  Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries.  Thirty-seven stories from 2006, although one (a promotional BMW audio drama) is copyrighted 2005.
  • Yvonne Jocks, Witches' Brew.  Horror compilation of thirty-eight items, including some poetry and non-fiction.
  • Stephen Jones, editor, Visitants:  Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts.  fantasy anthology with twenty-seven stories.
  • Stephen Knight, editor, Crimes for a Southern Christmas.Sixteen crime stories from Down Under.
  • Tanith Lee, Black Unicorn(the first book in the Unicorn trilogy), Vazkor, Son of Vazkor and Quest for the White Witch (the cecond and third books of the Birthgrave trilogy), and Lycanthia; or, The Children of Wolves (a werewolf novel).
  • Brian Lumley, seven books in the Necroscope horror series, including Blood Brothers and Bloodwars (both featuring Harry Keogh's twin sons), Necroscope:  The Lost Years and Necroscope:   Resurgence:  The Lost Years, Volume 2, and three books featuring the new Necroscope, Jake Cutter:  Necroscope:  Invaders, Necroscope:  Defilers, and Necroscope:  Avengers.
  • George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind.  The classic children's fantasy.  MacDonald was a Scottish minister and this edition is published under the general heading of "Christian Fiction Classics" by a company whose "mission is to publish and distribute inspirational prodects offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses."  There is no indication of what edition this printing is of, although I suspect that it's the 1870 edition, rather than the simplified 1914 version.
  • Kurt Mahr, more Perry Rhodan:  The Blue Dwarfs (#54), The Atom Hell of Grautier (#71), and Enemy in the Dark (#85).
  • George R. R. Martin, editor, Wild Cards V -- Down and Dirty and Wild Cards VI -- Ace in the Hole.  "Mosaic" novels cotaining eight and twelve stories, respectively. 
  • Anne McCaffrey, The Renegades of Pern and The Masterharper of Pern, the seventh and twelfth books in the Pern-acious (ha-ha, get it?) Dragonriders series.  Also, The Wings of Pegasus, and omnibus of the first two books in the Talents series:  the collection To Ride Pegasus and the novel Pegusus in Flight.  And, finally, the third book in the Petaybee (Powers) series written with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Power Play.
  • Mary Ann Mitchell, The Witch.  Horror.
  • Andre Norton, Merlin's Mirror and Yurth Burden.  Sf novels.  And, Perilous Dreams, a collection of four stories.
  • Andre Norton & Martin H. Greenberg, editors, Catfantastic.  Fifteen fantasy stories with cats.  Well, duh.
  • Mel Odom, F.R.E.E. Lancers (gaming tie-in), Lethal Interface (SF), Might and Magic:  The Sea of Mist (gaming tie-in), and Stalker Analog (SF). 
  • Kim Paffenroth, editor, The World Is Dead.  Eighteen zombie stories.
  • Otto Penzler, editor, Dead Man's Hand:  Crime Fiction at the Poker Table.  Fifteeen stories.
  • S. J. Perelman, Eastward Ha!  Travel done humorously by one of the greats.
  • Gary Philips and Christopher Chambers, editors, The Darker mask:  Heroes from the Shadows.  Eighteen stories of marginalized superheroes.
  • Douglas Preston, Impact.  SF thriller.
  • "John Rackham" John Phillifent, Beanstalk.  SF.
  • Robert J. Randisi, editor, First Cases, Volume 3.  Mystery anthology of twelve stories.
  • "Marilyn Ross" (W. E. D.Ross), Memory of Evil.  Gothic.
  • Robert Sheckley, Hunter/Victim and Victim Prime.  SF books in the Victim series.
  • E.E. "Doc" Smith with Stephen Goldin, The Purity Plot.   Number 6 in the Family D'Alembert SF series based on a story by Smith.
  • Thomas Burnett Swann, Lady of the Bees, Moondust, and The Tournament of Thorns.  Fantasies.
  • Don Thompson & Dick Lupoff, editors, The Comic-Book Book, Second Edition.  Nostalgia.  Thirteen articles on a fascinating subject.
  • Brian M. Thomsen, editor, A Yuletide Universe:  Sixteen Fantastical Tales.  Fantasy and Christmas -- a classic combination.   
  • Arthur Tofte, Crash Landing on Iduna.  SF.  One of the early books in the Laser Books line.  I don't know if the book is any good, but the Freas cover is great.
  • E. C. Tubb, four books in the Dumarest of Terra series:  Technos (#7), Zenya (#11),  Web of Sand  (#20), and Earth Is Heaven (#27).  Technos, an Ace Double, is back by the eight-story collection A Scatter of Stardust.  SF.
  • A. E. van Vogt, Supermind.  A fix-up SF novel based on the stories "Asylum," 'Research Alpha," and "The Proxy Intelligence."
  • Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, A Rumor of Dragons.  Gaming tie-in, Part 1 of Dragonlance Chronicles.  This is a YA edition and was originally part of 1984's Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
  • Colin Wilson, The Desert and The Tower.  The first two books in the Spider World SF sequence.
  • Bari Wood, Amy Girl.  Horror novel.  Sooooo glad my amy Girl (now 14) is not evil.

2 comments:

  1. It took me a long time to just read the list. That Batman anthology looks especially appealing.

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  2. The BATMAN book is pretty amusing. I haven't yet checked to see if Adams took any of my recs for the contents of his anthos. Ed Bryant's a/v reviews/roundups for the Datlow/Windling and Datlow/Grant & Link volumes always were a bit annoying because he could rarely get a fact straight...I don't think he ever tumbled to the fact, for example, that although BUFFY was produced through Fox's television arm, it was never a Fox Broadcasting Co. series.

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