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

Being a big fan of the goings-on at 221B Baker St., I looked forward to Andrew Lycett’s weighty biography THE MAN WHO CREATED SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. But it’s a little too – forgive the pun – elementary. Interesting snippets are dropped throughout – such as Doyle’s collegiate hobby of testing drugs to determine the point of overdose (or severe diarrhea), or his character almost being named Sherrinford – but the author’s life is rather dry in this telling. Doyle’s more colorful, eccentric phases have been made more exciting in other nonfiction works (such as the spiritualism debate, in THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI), and it resembles more of a recitation of facts than a narrative with flow. Lycett’s effort is complete, to be sure, but also too safe.

Journalist Chuck Thompson got so upset that all the good stuff would get get cut from his articles for travel magazines that he decided to compile them all into a book, titled SMILE WHEN YOU’RE LYING: CONFESSIONS OF A ROGUE TRAVEL WRITER. After all, Thompson argues it’s the dirt on a faraway place that tells you what the place is really like, as opposed to the glowing write-ups edited simply to attract/trick tourists. Thompson’s often-hilarious adventures include a “show” in Thailand (”Fifty dollah for genuine pussy writing!”) that’ll make you rethink that afternoon glass of Coke, and supposedly straight men in Japan who hold a “penis olympics” to see whose erect phallus can withstand the most hanging towels. Yessiree, you don’t get goods like that from Condé Nast Traveler, which is exactly the point.

As it did with the recent X-MEN FAIRY TALES, Marvel places your friendly neighborhood wallcrawler into a quartet of old children’s stories in SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES. Once again, the merging of the two mythologies works well. “Off the Beaten Path” casts Mary Jane as Little Red Riding Hood against a Venom-ous wolf, while “The Spirits of Friendship” imagine Spidey as Anansi the Spider-God. “Eclipse” takes on Japan’s Spider Spirit legend, and “What You Wish For” is a gender-flipped “Cinderella,” with the unmistakable inks and colors of Mike and Laura Allred. C.B. Cebulski wrote all the stories in this enjoyable collection.

Edited by George R.R. Martin, INSIDE STRAIGHT is a nine-author quasi-anthology/quasi-novel that tracks a new generation of superheroes as they audition for a reality show called AMERICAN HERO, and the various challenges that await them both on the show and off, including a full-fledged war with the Egyptian army. Among these powered youths are Earth Witch (she digs holes with her mind), Hardhat (he makes girders appear out of nowhere) and Gardener (she makes things grow). Between the stories are the progressive blog entries of journalist Jonathan Hive (he can turn into wasps), chronicling his own experience. This franchise reboot of Martin’s WILD CARDS series – this is the 18th – is friendly to newcomers like me. While a bit repetitive, it offers a fun mix of pointed satire and fantasy. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.