Danger, Will Robinson. Danger! Link-filled entry coming up.
The majority of books I buy are science-fiction/fantasy paperbacks and there’s a couple of used bookstores I check out on a regular basis: Know Knew Books and BookBuyers. If there’s a particular title I’m looking for, and those two stores don’t have it, I might make a run down to Recycle Books in San Jose. One thing I can’t stand is leaving a used bookstore empty handed so, if I haven’t found the particular book I’m looking for, I’ll usually browse for anything by an author I like and buy that.
These substitute books are relegated to the bottom of my reading list. Since I only pick one up to read if there’s nothing else available, and I add one every time I go to the store and don’t find what I’m looking for, the stack had gotten quite large. I finally had enough, last month I decided to not go to a used bookstore until I’d reduced that pile to nothing. After a month of work, here’s the last five books standing between me and the end to my self-imposed exile:
A Spadeful of Spacetime, edited by Fred Saberhagen
This is a collection of short stories that, "explore new, original ways to bring together the future, past, and today – without Time Machines!" [according to the back cover]. I picked it up for a couple of reasons: the editor and the topic. Fred Saberhagen is an author who has given me a lot of enjoyment over the years. I own a number of his novels as well as all the books in the Empire of the East, Book of the Swords, and Book of the Lost Swords series (I’ve been holding off getting into his most famous work, the Berserker series, but it’s only a matter of time). Saberhagen hooked me with his exploration of what happens when the gods create weapons that can kill even them and distribute them to humans as part of a game (the Swords). As far as the topic goes, the sub-genre of science-fiction dealing with adventures in time is a particular favorite of mine, along with the similar sub-genre of parallel universes. I was curious to see what the authors would do, given the constraints.
Two Crowns for America, by Katherine Kurtz
Here’s the blurb from the back of the book, "Bestselling fantasist Katherine Kurtz combines magic, Freemasonry, and revelation in this spellbinding tale of the American Revolution as it might have been…" I liked the alternate history angle, but the real reason I bought this book was because of the author. Katherine Kurtz is probably best known for her Deryni Saga, which I haven’t read. The first book of hers that I read was a collaboration with Scott MacMillan, Knights of the Blood. I’ve also purchased and enjoyed the books in the Knights Templar and Adept series (the latter one written with Deborah Turner Harris). I’ve always been fascinated with the Freemasons and the Knights Templar and I love how Kurtz combined those two elements, along with sorcery, in her series.
The Excalibur Alternative, by David Weber
This book takes place in the Foreign Legions universe created by David Drake. The reason why I bought it is that I’m working my way towards owning every book David Weber has ever written. He’s one of the few authors whose work I purchase new in hardcover format. I first got hooked on his Honor Harrington series – I love how he updated the whole Horatio Hornblower concept for space of the far future. I’m also a huge fan of the Assiti Shards series (he’s written one book, 1633) that was started by Eric Flint.
The Rose Sea by S. M. Stirling and Holly Lisle
I first read S. M. Stirling’s Islands in the Sea of Time trilogy, where Nantucket is transported back in time to the bronze age. I immediately added his name to my list of authors I look for. He is now working the other side of that concept, what happened to the earth that Nantucket disappeared from, and the first book in that series, Dies the Fire was outstanding. He’s one of my favorites in the realm of alternate histories and parallel universes – The Peshawar Lancers and Conquistador were quite enjoyable. The Rose Sea is more along the lines - at least I think it is, my opinion might change after I read it - of his earlier Fifth Millennium collaborations with Shirley Meier and Karen Wehrstein (I’m still looking for Shadow’s Son to round out my collection).
Hunt the Toff by John Creasey
This is part of my ongoing quest to own all the Toff books. John Creasey was an amazingly prolific writer who penned more than five hundred books using a variety of pseudonyms. He wrote a number of different series, my favorites are the detective type mysteries (Roger West, Gideon, Patrick Dawlish, The Baron, and Dr. Palfrey – just to name a few of his major characters). The Toff, that aristocratic antagonist of crime, is my favorite of his many creations. Creasey’s books are like an old flannel shirt. They may not be flashy or of the highest quality, but they’re extremely comfortable. I know exactly what I’m going to get when I sit down to read a Creasey, a couple of hours of enjoyment. I think this puts my total of Toff books close to forty. Just another twenty to go. This book actually shouldn’t have been on this list, but I’m saving it for last because it’s a known quantity.
Five books is not a lot. I should be back shopping in used bookstores very soon. I’m just glad I gave up on The Childe Cycle of Gordon R. Dickson and packed away every book that didn’t have a Dorsai as the protagonist. The Chantry Guild, Young Bleys and Other were all decent sized and The Final Encyclopedia was just plain long. I liked the Dorsais, just didn’t care about the books that dealt with the bigger pictur
