Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

Edited by Marc Jaffe, BEST STORIES OF THE AMERICAN WEST: VOLUME 1 isn’t the expected formulaic collection of saintly cowboys defeating crooked gunslingers or saving cattle from a raging river. Although the stories within handily qualify as Westerns, they all take place in the West – it just may not be the Old West. This is to your benefit, as we get modern-day, moving stories from the likes of Sherman Alexie and even John Sayles, better known as one of the more maverick auteurs working in indie film today. Throw in people like Elmer Kenton, who works solely in the genre, and others like Elmore Leonard, who cut his teeth in the genre, and you have a well-balanced meal of adventure and heartbreak.

Across an entire season of competition, there’s sure to be sweet victories, crushing defeats, high drama, raging egos and internal strife. And I’m not even talking about football, but high school chess. Sportswriter Michael Weinreb follows the ragtag boys of New York’s Edward R. Murrow High in his nonfiction account of their bid for the national championship, THE KINGS OF NEW YORK: A YEAR AMONG THE GEEKS, ODDBALLS, AND GENIUSES WHO MAKE UP AMERICA’S TOP HIGH SCHOOL CHESS TEAM. The subtitle really nails these kids, mostly immigrants and poverty-level. They exhibit a real gift in front of a 64-board square, but are in danger of flunking their classes. They are among the most arrogant, self-centered youths you’ll come across, yet are painfully awkward in any social situation and have very little common sense. Of course, this all makes for great conflict, and a gripping, tough-to-put-down look into the lives of some supremely talented but highly flawed youths. You want to cheer them and slap them at the same time.

It’s nice to know punk rockers can be normal guys, like Pennywise’s Jim Lindberg, who reveals as much in PUNK ROCK DAD: NO RULES, JUST REAL LIFE. From the looks of it, you’d expect a memoir about his specific travails as a parent who’s on tour a lot, but actually it’s pretty much a straight autobiography, from his own childhood on up. He just happens to a fairly normal family life, with a supportive wife and three daughters in private school, where he shows up for parents’ nights dressed in his punk regalia. As expected, Lindberg has a very easygoing “dude’s dude” personality which translates to the page – more “talked-out” than “written” – making his story less than taxing to read, but also less than compelling. It’s average but inoffensive, and could use a little more anarchy.

The title of JSA ALL-STARS refers not just to the superheroes, but the wealth of talent behind this eight-issue miniseries penned by Geoff Johns and David Goyer (screenwriter of BATMAN BEGINS and the BLADE trilogy), with backup stories from Darwyn Cooke, Howard Chaykin and even Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon. The story finds the original members of the Justice Society of America (i.e. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman) at the mercy of a baddie named Legacy, who tells the newer members (i.e. Dr. Fate, Hourman, Mr. Terrific) that only ditching their emotional baggage (i.e. death of a spouse, parental strife, extreme guilt) can save them. Each issue focuses on a separate hero trying to do just that. The art is top-notch throughout, and the backup stories – with a bent toward having fun – provide a nice balance to the ongoing, more serious-minded arc. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Our monthly depressing look at the search terms that bring pervs to BOOKGASM!

One of the hallmarks of Scandinavian crime fiction is that it takes death seriously. You don’t see a lot of special-effects thrillers with a huge, casual body count in books written by Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish authors. They tend to domesticate the crimes, to bring death in close, to make it more intimate.

Death is a given, but a death that is caused by violence isn’t really a fit subject for a tea party or a James Bond movie. It’s an horrific and irrational occurrence, and the authors and their detective protagonists treat it as such. Case in point: Jan Costin Wagner’s ICE MOON.

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If there is one conceit in crime that’s tried and true, it’s that of the rogue cop who plays by his own rules. The boss may want his badge, but the hero won’t let up in his pursuit. Breathing some fresh air into that setup is Don Easton, a former undercover officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

To be honest, all I knew of the RCMP came from the DUDLEY DO-RIGHT cartoon of my youth, but in his first novel – LOOSE ENDS – Easton has created such a bad-ass character with Jack Taggart, an undercover cop who is so good at his job, it has his supervisor worried that Jack might not be playing by the rules. Thus, Jack is assigned a new partner named Danny O’Reilly, who’s pretty much told to keep tabs on him.

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Only a year after Pyr published the epic RIVER OF GODS in the U.S. comes Ian McDonald’s latest novel, BRASYL, and though it’s smaller than its predecessor, it packs no less punch and even more genius. Where other writers spend their whole lives creating fantastic imaginary worlds that have their own languages, calendars and social strata, McDonald has dived headfirst into a culture that’s every bit as fantastic and also awesomely real.

The extensive cultural literacy and knowledge McDonald showcased in regard to India for RIVER OF GODS has been extended to Brazil, and he writes as if he were raised on the beaches of Rio. Food, language, attitudes – everything comes off as authentic, and it needs to be, because it’s the backdrop for a story that simultaneously involves:
• a TV reality show producer in 2006 Brazil,
• a street hustler in a 2036 Brazil chasing the quantum dream that is the woman he loves,
• a priest in 1736 sent on a HEART OF DARKNESS-style mission, and
• quantum physics.

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Neil Gaiman’s original MARVEL 1602 miniseries was such an imaginative concept – superheroes as if they originated in the early 17th century – that it could have turned into a reliable franchise.

However, on the basis of MARVEL 1602: NEW WORLD and even moreso the new MARVEL 1602: FANTASTICK FOUR, it’s clear this won’t be the case, because Marvel seems content to half-ass it.

The usually reliable Peter David scripted this mess, and his story his so impenetrable, it can barely be summarized. Suffice to say, it features the Fantastic Four – here deemed “Fantastick” – squaring off against its archenemy, Count Otto von Doom. Also figuring into the mix are the Sandman, the Sub-Mariner and, um, William Shakespeare.

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An eye-opening account of the real Bangkok is the setting for Timothy Hallinan’s latest, A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART. Poke Rafferty writes travel books –  the kind of which search out the seedier side of cities. He’s a ex-pat living in Bangkok with his girlfriend, Rose, a former go-go girl who gave up that life to be with him. A quasi-family unit is formed with a little girl named Miaow, a former street kid for whom Poke has made it his priority to keep safe and try and adopt her.

Things are going on like usual for Poke until he is contacted by an Australian woman who is search of her uncle. She thinks Poke can help her because of a cop friend of his who has vouched for him as someone who’s trustworthy and won’t lead her on a wild goose chase, unlike the two cops she has been paying up to this point.

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This week we deal with the wonderful world of the post-apocalypse, where books depict the future as a lawless wasteland, where only the strong survive. Hell, if Oprah can tackle the subject, why can’t we? Thanks to Matt Baker for contributing one of this week’s covered titles; donations are always welcome here.

TRAVELER #1: FIRST, YOU FIGHT by D.B. Drumm – I only can imagine the pitch meeting for this series, which began in 1984: “I know, we’ll have world destroyed in a horrific nuclear war and set the books 15 years after the fact, with our hero being a guy we know only as ‘Traveler.’ He’s some sort of special ops soldier who’s infected with a mysterious chemical combination which makes him feel all the pain around him. Then we’ll throw in enough stuff from the MAD MAX movies to keep the kids entertained.”

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With so many vampire novels on the market, it’s tough to stand out. But Susan Hubbard’s THE SOCIETY OF S does, approaching the whole idea from an entirely new way.

On the cusp of womanhood, Ariella Montero lives with her father in an appropriately Gothic home where he works as a blood researcher. He can’t venture outdoors because, he says, he has lupus, and Ariella herself is confined to an insular life within their walls, home-schooled and having no friends.

But one day, with Mr. Montero’s blessing, Ariella’s caretaker Mrs. McGarrit takes the youth to her home so she can play with her children. One of the things they do is watch a vampire movie on TV. It horrifies Ariella and literally makes her sick – not so much because it’s scary, but because the movements of the bloodsucker onscreen remind her of her dad.

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It’s nice to see a Stephen King adaptation at an actual movie theater again, where they belong, instead of the watered-down, overlong miniseries that play several nights on network TV and basic cable. It’s also nice to see it contain actual scares, which helps when your source material does the same.

1408 comes from King’s most recent short-story collection, 1992’s EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL: 14 DARK TALES. As King notes in his introduction, it was never meant to be an actual story, but an example of how writing progresses from draft to draft. For whatever reason, he finished it, and it’s one of EVENTUAL’s many highlights. It’s easy to see why it’s been handpicked for big-screen treatment, and here’s hoping its success helps usher in another wave of quality King films.

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Superheroes continue to dominate the summer box office, but bestseller lists are another story. Hey, it’s not for a lack of trying, with the latest being Austin Grossman’s semi-serious and tantalizingly titled SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE.

Set in a world where superpowers are very much real –  but only for exactly 1,686 people – the book begins from the perspective of Doctor Impossible, a mad scientist-type villain who sits behind bars but anxiously awaits his 13th consecutive escape so he can embark on his latest plan to control – quite literally, it turns out – the world.

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Megan Abbott was born in the wrong time, since she writes like she was a compatriot of the Chandlers and Hammetts of the world. With QUEENPIN, her third novel, she shows no sign of slowing down in style or substance.

Our female narrator remains nameless throughout the whole story. She works the night shift at Club Tee-Hee, while taking courses to expand her horizons during the day. It soon becomes apparent to her bosses that this woman is a lot brighter than expected, and should be handling the books for them. That’s when she meets Gloria Denton, a female boss who could give some of the old-school mob guys a run for their money, with her tough-as-nails, take-no-guff attitude – in other words, not a woman you would want to cross.

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I was a little worried at the beginning of Paul Levine’s TRIAL & ERROR, the fourth installment in the Solomon vs. Lord mystery series. Apparently, the nephew Bobby, who suffers from some form of Asperger’s syndrome, can now speak with dolphins. Um … no. If you can get by that conceit, things get much better, but that’s still a tough one to take for the sake of disbelief.

For those who don’t know the series, Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are defense lawyers, their styles are diametrically opposite one another, and they are partners both in business and in life. They jointly care for Solomon’s teenage nephew, who is somewhat of a prodigy when it comes to memorizing facts and word games, but who is painfully vulnerable when it comes to the social sphere.

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Just as the cover images warns, OUT OF THE GUTTER #2 will beat you senseless with 200 pages of tough-as-nails fiction that punches straight for the gut. It’s even an improvement over the near-perfect first issue. Plus, as editor Matthew Louis’ introductory letter tantalizes, “We’ve got whores.”

Changes are slight, mainly being the upfront inclusion of a “flash fiction” section consisting of eight super-short stories. If you don’t like any of them, you’ve only invested no more than a page or two. But if you don’t like any of them, you’re reading the wrong magazine, because they’re all dive-right-in terrific, starting with the opening line of John McFetridge’s drug-smugglin’ “Plugged”: “Summer had seen bigger dildos.”

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The first two chapters of Will Staeger’s PUBLIC ENEMY fairly burst off the page in cinematic thriller glory. We are treated to an American suicide bomber and a Coast Guard interdiction that goes spectacularly wrong, resulting in six deaths. Better catch your breath while you can, because it gets even more hairy and exciting through the rest of the book’s length, which clocks in at a whopping 467 pages.

The suicide bomber deliberately has let a miniscule amount of a filovirus into the air after he has blown himself up. This virus – an intensely contagious nasty thing that causes hemorrhagic fever and ultimately death – has been genetically engineered to resist vaccination. Before the authorities can quarantine the area, the virus causes a dozen or so deaths of people near the blast.

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This week’s column easily could have been subtitled “Guaranteed Good Reads: Take Two,” because I’m treating myself – and you –  to three authors who don’t stink. With this installment, I’m covering two books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while, plus a familiar face of one of our favorite criminals. Yeah, these are the bad guys, and the worlds in which they live.

KILLTOWN by Richard Stark – My favorite anti-hero criminal is back on another job. Where does Parker find these people? Oh, that’s explained early on in the 1964 book. But where does Donald E. Westlake – er, I mean, Stark – come up with these stories? This is the fifth in the Parker series, and a great one.

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From Britain comes a tale of terror that’s like a gone-horribly-wrong episode of that ridiculous MTV show where disillusioned teens undergo plastic surgery to look more their pop-music idols.

In Melvin Burgess’ SARA’S FACE, Sara Carter is a typical teenage girl: loves music, thinks she’s fatter and uglier than she really is. She’s borderline obsessed with an enigmatic rock star named Jonathon Heat, whose repeated dalliances with facial reconstruction make Michael Jackson look like an amateur. Heat doesn’t just take a little of the tip of his nose, you see; he has his entire face reshaped to look like that of a dog.

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All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

ESQUIRE GETS KINGED
The July issue of Esquire features a new novella by Stephen King. Titled “The Gingerbread Girl,” it’s about a woman who, following the death of their child, literally runs away from her husband one day, and ends up having to run for her life. It’s intense. So is the cover with Angelina Jolie and a very lucky silk sheet.

‘SHOCK’ING NEWS
Online horror-book purveyor Shocklines is calling it quits. Citing personal issues rather than the typical financial troubles, site runner Matt Schwartz is getting out of the bookselling biz. This news doesn’t affect any preorders or any existing inventory; just don’t expect to see anything new added for sale. I’ve blown lots of PayPal money at Shocklines; you should, too.

LINKA-DINKA-DOO
Did you know…
• that David Wellington made a cool short film to promote his vampire novel 13 BULLETS?
• that 80 percent of people who have taken this quiz plugging Matt Richtel’s HOOKED are addicted?
• that big, sad changes are afoot at the Science Fiction Book Club?
• that Amazon now sells groceries?
• that Random House profits 50 cents from every $10 paperback sold?
Were you even aware of it?

SELF-PROMOTION CORNER
The latest multiauthor comics anthology in the GRAPHIC CLASSICS series is now out. GRAPHIC CLASSICS: GOTHIC CLASSICS offers “five great tales of ghosts, vampires, haunted castles and forbidden love” in comic-book format. Among the adapted stories are works from Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen, Ann Radcliffe and J. Sheridan Le Fanu, whose lesbian-vampire-rific “Carmilla” was scripted by yours truly, with art from Lisa K. Weber.

COMMENT CONTEST WINNER
Gal Josefsberg of Sunnyvale, CA is our first winner of a free book from BOOKGASM for leaving regular, relevant comments on the site. From the BOOKGASM vault, he wisely chose Corey Redekop’s SHELF MONKEY as his prize. Will you be the next winner? Comment away and see! –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

It’s not sold as such, but Lawrence Block’s HIT PARADE is not a novel, but a threaded-together collection of short stories, all featuring the esteemed crime author’s venerable homicide-for-hire hitman/stamp collector named John Keller.

Four of the nine stories I had read before – “Keller’s Designated Hitter,” “Keller by a Nose,” “Keller’s Double Dribble” and “Keller’s Adjustment” – in the anthologies THESE GUNS FOR HIRE, MURDER AT THE RACE TRACK, MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE and Ed McBain’s TRANSGRESSIONS, leaving five new to my eyes. This is not a complaint, because even just one new Keller story would be worth the purchase price. Yes, he’s that much fun.

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Combining the brutality of a spaghetti Western with elements of horror makes for a fine combination in Matt Baker’s SACRED COWS & DEAD VEGETARIANS. What starts out as a tale of the Old West takes a much different path than expected, after a weary traveler stumbles upon a farm in the middle of nowhere, much to the owner’s delight. You see, the rancher has a bit of a graveyard in the backyard.

But if you think you know where this story is headed, you’re way off. The tables are turned really quick, with the traveler turning out to be a much-wanted man who’s going to relate a tale before he kills the owner. And our storyteller is a man named Ripley Abromowitz.

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