Following the events of THE ELECTRIC CHURCH, Jeff Somers has given us another look into his creation of the dystopian future where bizarre robots run rampant, in THE DIGITAL PLAGUE.

After years of living high on the hog, antihero Avery Cates stills lives and breathes with the criminal element. But it comes as no shock when groups of cops and soldier types try to bring him to a clandestine meeting, which of course, Cates wants nothing to do with — especially not on their terms. But something strange is also going on with Cates: Friends of his are dropping like flies from some mysterious disease.

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This is nothing against Del Rey, but certainly there had to be a better title for THE DEL REY BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: SIXTEEN ORIGINAL WORKS BY SPECULATIVE FICTION’S FINEST VOICES. That wordy, generic moniker suggests the Ellen Datlow-edited anthology is generic and assembly-line, when quite the opposite is true: This is a standout collection deserving of a more standout title.

Its subtitle contains the most telling phrase – SPECULATIVE FICTION – as, admirably, the stories within don’t fall neatly into either the standard sci-fi or fantasy genres. In other words, don’t go looking for spaceships or elves. Instead, expect the unexpected.

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

When I was in junior high school back in the mid-’80s, lots of fellow students read the fantasy novels of Terry Brooks, starting with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA. If I were there today, I suspect those same kids would instead have a copy of the new DARK WRAITH OF SHANNARA in their hands – Brooks’ first graphic novel, adapted by Robert Place Napton with art by Edwin David. Set after the events of WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, it follows Jair Ohmsford, the boy whose notes can turn him invisible; an ancient text of evil; and a witch behind it all. There’s plenty of swords, sorcery, clawed creatures and the usual fantasy tropes – imaginative in story and well-done in shades and tones, although probably better served if it were in color. As a newcomer to the SHANNARA world, I was more pleased to see the “making of” features in the back that demonstrated how the book came to be, and who contributed what.

Not long after a Planned Parenthood clinic is bombed, one of its teen clients is found dead in a Dumpster, in L.J. Sellers’ politically charged mystery THE SEX CLUB. Investigating separately are Oregon homicide detective Det. Wade Jackson and understandably shaken youth outreach clinic nurse Kera Kollmorgan. It’s the latter’s discoveries that drive this procedural. Her findings? These kids of today like to get freaky! (Hey, it’s right there in the title.) The prurient nature of the plot makes this CLUB worth a trial membership; it may not break new ground, but is brave in its telling. Clearly Sellers has an agenda here, so if it doesn’t match yours, don’t even start. If it does, you’ll rally behind it.

Military science fiction remains elusive to my tastes. I get caught and confused by all the lingo, nicknames, abbreviations, rank and descriptions of weapons. I had higher hopes for ORPHAN’S JOURNEY by Robert Buettner, based on its appealing cover and its Orbit Books parentage, but registered as another SNAFU with me. Its star is Jason Wander; on the plus side, the futuristic hero fights giant slugs and sea monsters, but over in the minus column, I got lost not long after that. Part of the problem may be that this is the third of a sci-fi series, so Wander’s world may seem like shorthand to fresh enlistees. With so many adventures under Buettner’s belt, I’m sure the ORPHAN series has its loyal soldiers, but I’ll have to respectfully go AWOL.

Not quite an episode guide, tie-in novel or encyclopedia, THE SUPERNATURAL BOOK OF MONSTERS, SPIRITS, DEMONS, AND GHOULS is designed to be a narrative from the himbo-brother duo of The CW’s X-FILES-esque shriek series SUPERNATURAL, only it’s written by Alex Irvine. He apes their smart-aleck tone well as they dish facts and folklore on zombies, poltergeists and creatures of urban legends, most of whom have merited considerable face time on their own episodes. If monsters are your thing, this book is actually fun and can stand alone from the show, so no advance knowledge is needed. With cool illustrations from Dan Panosian, the BOOK is well-designed (save for an ugly font used for journal excerpts) and offers stories within stories. It even made me want to watch the show, which had to be the intent all along. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

I’ve really wanted to do an all-Remo Williams column for a long time, but felt I should do something truly special for it. So instead of covering the usual three books, I read 10 DESTROYER novels. Some are fan favorites; others were suggested as must-reads. So settle back and enjoy, since there is no way I’m ever going to attempt this one again. Well, at least not soon.

THE DESTROYER #11: KILL OR CURE by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy – Someone has figured out a terrible secret that only a select few know about: There is a secret organization gathering information to be used to clean up messes like some sort of secret police force. This is what sets this early 1973 DESTROYER novel.

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Quick takes and capsule reviews from the dark suspense master himself, Ed Gorman!

Haffner Press’ THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON is a massive, handsomely made book that is a centennial tribute to the writer Arthur C. Clarke put on a level with both Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. The book is also a tribute to science fiction and fantasy as well, because by the time he passed away at age 98 in 2006, Williamson’s history was the field’s history.

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Frank Cho may not be involved, but the jiggling jungle girl he resurrected returns in Marvel Comics’ SHANNA, THE SHE-DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, written by the JONAH HEX team of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and drawn by Khari Evans.

The four-issue story begins when jewel thieves steal a load of diamonds from a luxurious cruise ship – one which then is attacked by a leviathan and swarmed by its sharp-toothed babies. Our modern-day pirates escape on a boat that crash-lands on Monster Island. No sooner have they stepped foot on sand than they’re staring face to face with hungry velociraptors.

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Once you’ve polished off THE NEW WEIRD, editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have another genre-defining anthology for you in STEAMPUNK. With such talents as Michael Chabon, Joe R. Lansdale and Michael Moorcock, the collection aims to present a snapshot of a speculative-fiction movement that marries the Victorian era with modern technology.

The merry, married VanderMeers talked to BOOKGASM about what steampunk – and STEAMPUNK, the book – is and is not (one thing it is: nicely discounted and autographed, if you preorder by May 15), and their very busy future.

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Was high school geometry a nightmare for you? Just wait until you see the horrors that triangles wreak in INFECTED, Scott Sigler’s heavily hyped hardcover debut.

Both the CIA and CDC take notice – and then action – when a string of unusual killings occur: Otherwise normal people make phone calls to complain about “the triangles,” then hack up their entire family before doing themselves in, too. One guy even cuts off his own legs with a hatchet just at the knee before turning himself flammable, just to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere else.

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It’s not for nothing Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel I AM LEGEND has now made it to the big screen three times: 1964’s THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, starring Vincent Price; 1971’s THE OMEGA MAN, starring Charlton Heston; and now last year’s I AM LEGEND, starring Will Smith. The only one to retain the title, it’s this latest and greatest version that seems most faithful to the spirit of its source.

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I can’t think of another book that had me grinning throughout as much as SPACE VULTURE, a total throwback to old-school science fiction of the pulp days. The book is a collaboration between two longtime childhood friends whose careers took different paths: Gary K. Wolf, a writer whose creation of Roger Rabbit became a huge movie, and Archbishop John J. Myers, a high-ranking official in the Catholic Church.

In the opening pages, we learn that as kids, they devoured books together with a common love for sci-fi. They always had an idea to write a tribute to the space operas they grew up with – epic in scope and adventure – and this is it.

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This summer’s hotly anticipated superhero movie that doesn’t involve a dark knight gets an early novelization in IRON MAN. Author Peter David is no stranger to these things – neither to comics nor adaptations of flicks based on those comics – so you’re in good hands for the short time it takes to read, which is just slightly longer than the film’s running time.

Tony Stark is the kind of multimillionaire you really love to hate, meaning that besides being filthy stinking rich, he’s obscenely lucky with super-hot women. He deals in the industry of designing and selling weapons of war, and ironically, it’s this success that nearly brings about his demise.

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Another day, another demon for the men and women of Torchwood Institute, that secret, underground organization dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom against alien crime. In TORCHWOOD: BORDER PRINCES – the second original novel based upon the BBC’s popular TORCHWOOD series – Captain Jack Harkness and company find themselves battling “the Amok.”

It’s a geometrically symmetrical object that causes “cerebral flooding.” But that’s just a fancy way of saying its signal turns the nearby populace into George A. Romero zombies.

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Truth in advertising: THE NEW WEIRD, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Believe me, when they say it’s weird, they mean it.

This so-called “New Weird” subgenre is an extension of ye old “weird tale,” but with a higher literary level and a heavy hand of the grotesque and grueling. And least that’s what I gathered from Mr. VanderMeer’s intro.

Personally, I view New Weird like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart did hardcore pornography: “I know it when I see it.” And I see it all over the pages of this unique, twisted, unpredictable and oddly rewarding anthology.

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A quick lesson: FLIGHT is the name for a series of loosely themed comic anthologies for older readers. The new FLIGHT EXPLORER: VOLUME 1, however, is a loosely themed comic anthology by the same creators, only for middle-school students. I happened to love it. As in, a lot. Does that make me 12 again? If so, I’ll take it – but this time, without the angst, please.

My only exposure to FLIGHT thus far (about to change, however) was from a sampler given away a few Free Comic Book Days ago. You need no introduction for FLIGHT EXPLORER; just open it, dive in and get lost.

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

One has to give points to ESSENTIAL MARVEL SAGA: VOL. 1 for at least having its heart in the right place. The book collects a dozen issues of Marvel’s mid-1980s series, which aims to tell “the official history of the Marvel Universe” in more or less chronological order, using panels and pages clipped from the original adventures of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men, Captain America, Doctor Strange and the like. But the text bridging the reprinted material is maddening, the tone is schizophrenic, and often the pages are ill-designed. Nice try, but I’d rather just have a collection of origin issues.

Who’s Josh Howard? Dunno, but he’s the proud ringleader behind JOSH HOWARD PRESENTS SASQUATCH, an indie-comics anthology of stories specifically about Bigfoot and his hairy ilk. Maybe you got a sneak peek via last year’s Free Comic Book Day edition? If so, make do with that. Had this been more horror- and suspense-oriented, Howard might have had something. Instead, too many creators go the “funny” and/or cutesy route, which makes most of it hard to stomach. A couple of exceptions lie in David Hartman’s gory “Sawmill Horror” or Christopher Graybill’s absurdist “… The Yeti,” but that’s not enough to save it from disappointment. Some of the pieces are so bad they’re unreadable, while others merely mildly amuse.

After being hurled through the cosmos by Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate’s wayward helmet seeks a new owner in THE HELMET OF FATE, a five-issue miniseries now in one handy trade paperback. Each chapter stands alone, with the helmet finding its way to a different obscure character from the expanse of the DC Comics universe. Furthermore, each is tackled by a different creative team, and thus, has its own style and feel. FABLES‘ Bill Willingham does wonders with Detective Chimp, Steve Niles goes the E.C. route with Sargon the Sorcerer, and Gail Simone places it in the hands of Goth girl Black Alice, but it goes downhill from there, with fairly pointless excursions with Ibis the Invincible and Zauriel. So, about half-good.

More dark adventures with the apparently schizophrenic crimefighter await you in ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT: VOL. 2, collecting 20 issues from the superhero’s early-’80s series. Here, Moon Knight goes to Mardi Gras, encounters a demonic creature, teams up with The Thing to tackle a Medusa-esque monster, fends off a trio of kung-fu chicks on an island fortress, tracks down a cabbie killer, takes on Kingpin, and just about loses his hot girlfriend. Brother Voodoo and Werewolf by Night also make appearances, and a couple of shorter backup stories serve as prequels, showing Marc Spector’s days as a mercenary. A lot of value is packed into these 600 pages, with great scripts from Doug Moench and greater art from Bill Sienkiewicz.

Whereas the SPIDER-MAN FAMILY one-shots rounded up reprinted material featuring a variety of Spider-Men across time, the new series – of which the first three issues are contained in SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: BACK IN BLACK – is comprised of all-new stuff featuring an array of characters from Peter Parker’s world. In this digest, Spidey fights The Sandman, Black Cat fights Hellcat, Spidey fights Venom, The Lizard fights a lab assistant, Spidey fights The Fantastic Four and Electro, and Scorpion fights Venom. It’s a bit ballsier than the all-ages rating on it would have you believe, but it’s still a bunch of fun.

After collecting 52 in a series of four trades, DC Comics still found a way to milk an extra few bucks out of the franchise with 52: THE COMPANION, which reprints noteworthy, non-52 stories of 10 of the series’ most valuable players, including Steel, Elongated Man, Booster Gold, Rip Hunter, Renee Montoya, The Question and Black Adam. Best are Grant Morrison’s Animal Man adventure in a time-frozen Paris, and Steve Gerber’s look at an unhinged Dr. Magnus, creator of the Metal Men. Skip the Adam Strange chapter, which is text-based and never before reprinted for a reason. –Rod Lott

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Judging from the names of some of the stories in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD BATMAN TEAM-UPS: VOLUME 2, tell me if you can spot a trend: “Count Ten … and Die!,” “Play Now … Die Later!,” “Double Your Money – and Die!”

As unimaginative as those titles may be, the tales to which they’re affixed are pure fun in DC’s crime/adventure mold of the ’70s, and the 21 on display here all pit Batman with a separate ally – sometimes with heavy reluctance on the Dark Knight’s part – each and every issue.

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Peter F. Hamilton’s novel THE DREAMING VOID is billed as a three-part space opera, and I’m hooked. Any attempt by me to stand off and postulate would be pointless; I wouldn’t be able to hide my enthusiasm.

Before I gush too much, let me first say that far-future sci-fi stories are hit-and-miss with me. Authors often lose me in the details, leaving me unable to find a connection to the story or the characters. THE DREAMING VOID trilogy was built from two previous novels of which I had no knowledge and understand, and I found the first 100 pages a little difficult to follow, but then the doors swung open wide and I was in my Ultradrive ship, lost among Hamilton’s worlds and political intrigue.

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“MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose,” reads the jacket. It’s this kind of thinking that almost dooms the book: the idea that MATTER – and Iain M. Banks’ science fiction – is somehow inherently superior and far more literary than its contemporaries on the sci-fi shelves. This isn’t true, but MATTER is pretty great.

MATTER, as the logo on the cover states, is “A Culture Novel,” set in a universe where multiple civilizations exist in multiple planes of development. The Culture, a post-scarcity (doesn’t use money) society in which anyone can do and be pretty much anything they choose, is near the top of a stratified civilizational hierarchy that ranges down to nearly medieval human colonies on far-flung worlds.

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In the question of JUMPER – the book vs. the movie – the general consensus gives a clear edge to the book. One of the film’s fatal flaws is how little it attempts to explain. Had it included more of the backstory as found in JUMPER: JUMPSCARS – Oni Press’ official graphic-novel prequel – it would’ve risen above the level of mediocre.

Here, the central character of teleporting David Rice is merely peripheral. He’s being tracked by Jessica, one of the Paladins charged with located these “jumpers” and snuffing them out, lest they present a threat to the world. It’s a gig she’s being doing for 16 years, and her first mission comprises the core of the story.

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

About all I remember from the 1983 miniseries V of my childhood: 1) Faye Grant looked hot, 2) Freddy Krueger was in it, and 3) that lizard baby. V’s writer/director Kenneth Johnson revisits the loose ends of the resulting 1984 weekly series with the novel V: THE SECOND GENERATION. The reptilian alien “Visitors” have wrestled control of Earth by tricking its residents, except for the small splinter group of resistance fighters. Your enjoyment will help tremendously if you’ve revisited V on DVD, as several characters and storylines either are referenced or still in play. Everyone else may be working at a disadvantage, and may be better suited to awaiting the eventual screen adaptation, even if Johnson’s ever-thriving imagination is still in full force.

For THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES: ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE FOOD, Jennifer 8. Lee traveled the globe to find the very best Chinese restaurant. I won’t spoil the surprising winner for you, but the real charm of the book comes in the other chapters, in which she laments the dangers of being a Chinese food deliveryman, explores the origins of chop suey, visits the manufacturers of those white takeout boxes (a wholly American thing, by the way) and recounts a 2005 Powerball mishap when there were more payouts than usual because a fortune cookie string of lucky numbers actually was. Lee writes so friendly, you want to take her out for a bowl of hot-and-sour soup. This engaging buffet of travel, history and popular culture will put a smile on your face and a pang in your stomach. And no MSG!

Gonzo cruciverbalist Ben Tausig attempts to hook kids into pencil games instead of video games with MAD TAUSIG VS THE INTERPLANETARY PUZZLING PEACE PATROL. You’re supposed to stop madman Mad Tausig by doing crosswords, cracking codes, unscrambling words and tackling a variety of logic, word and other puzzles. The quasi-mystery is a lot of fun, with something to do on every page, and the cartoony illustrations by Goopymart – an alias, I’m assuming – help make the book irresistible. Buy one for your kids … and one for yourself. It’s not the most fiendishly clever puzzle book out there – that’d be Lemony Snicket’s THE PUZZLING PUZZLES – but it’s darn close.

The whole of our country’s cinema criticism is chronicled in AMERICAN MOVIE CRITICS: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE SILENTS UNTIL NOW – EXPANDED EDITION, edited by Phillip Lopate. Among its earliest entries are poet Carl Sandburg’s awkwardly phrased reviews (”Then it is for you this Caligari and his cabinet”) and Cecilia Ager’s take on KING KONG, which focuses solely on Fay Wray. Film criticism got better as the decades progressed, as Jonas Mekas’ all-question review of Andy Warhol’s SLEEP shows, or the rightfully praised works of Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael and Vincent Canby. More recent pieces of note include J. Hoberman’s bad movies essay/tribute and screenwriter Paul Rudnick’s take on DANCES WITH WOLVES, albeit under the satricial guise of Libby Gelman-Waxner, the über-yuppie columnist from the late Premiere magazine. At more than 750 pages, there’s a wealth of material here for serious film enthusiasts.

THIS MAY HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORLD, goes Lawrence Potter’s slim little volume, which serves as an FAQ for this current crazed earth of ours. It seeks to tackle – through both commentary and good ol’ hard facts – many of the trickiest hot-button issues of today, including “Is Bush actually stupid?,” “Is it possible that global warming is not taking place?” and “What is Iran up to?” (The short answers, respectively: His IQ equals John F. Kennedy’s, not likely, it ain’t pleasant.) Chapters are divided amongst topics like China, Darfur and Russia. That Potter offers concise, easy-to-follow explanations justifies the book’s title; unfortunately, those in most need of knowing the answers may not even care.

‘Tis easy to see why they call New York “the city that never sleeps”: Because when you have a thousand-plus-page book like WRITING NEW YORK: A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY, you’d better be planning on some long nights. Edited by Phillip Lopate, the book originally was published in 1998, but this 10th-anniversary edition from Library of America is much more relevant with the inclusion of post-9/11 material, like a chilling excerpt from Don DeLillo’s FALLING MAN novel. A wealth of classic writers are here – F. Scott Fitzgerald, William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller, Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Wolfe, O. Henry – paying tribute to (and sometimes knocking) the Big Apple. If you’re a fan of the metropolis, or a New Yorker subscriber, this belongs on your bedside table. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.