Reviewing the Mail: Week of 5/25

When regularly scheduled posts fall on major holidays, what is a poor blogger to do? Delay in the pursuit of eyeballs, or follow the schedule and be damned? When that blogger is me, "do the same thing the same way all the time" is pretty much the only option.

So here are the books -- all both of them -- that came in last week, delivered on a day where I hope at least a large chunk of my American readers are busy doing something more pleasant than staring at a computer screen indoors. (Though this weekend hasn't been all that great for outdoor activities at my end of the country so far.)

As usual, I haven't read either of these books, but here's what I can tell you about them:

Time Trapped is the second book in Richard Ungar's young-adult SF series "Time Snatchers," after the first book that defined the series title. (Though, unlike most Book Twos, this one will be the end of the story.) The first book had a great set-up, with time-traveling teen thieves controlled by a Fagin-like mastermind in the year 2061, and this one sees the hero of that book, Caleb, yanked back from what he thought was safety and a new life back into the stealing-things-for-a-nasty-boss-in-the-future game. It's coming as a hardcover from Putnam in September -- but that first book is already out in the world, if you're intrigued by the concept.

And the other book this week is Earth Afire from Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, the second volume of a series of unrevealed length set during the first invasion of the "Buggers" from Card's famous Ender's Game franchise. (The first volume was Earth Unaware, so I suppose the third book will be something like Earth Totally Screwed.) In this book, presumably, nasty aliens attack Earth and kill lots of people while the Plucky Heroes battle bureaucrats and incompetents to get the chance to poke those Buggers back. It's a Tor hardcover, publishing on that most auspicious day of June 4th.