Reviewing the Mail: Week of 12/16

Hey there! Once again I'm going to list the books that came in during the past week, in hopes you -- yes you, no one else -- will find something fun to read next. I do this out of the pure goodness of my heart, out of inertia, and out of an overpowering guilt that I need to do something with these free books that come in the mail. (And that I don't manage to read as often as I want to.)

First up is a new novel from Ben Bova, yclept Survival. It's the fourth in his current hard-SF series, which began with New Earth and seems to be about preparing humanity (and whatever other civilizations they can contact and aid) to survive an upcoming gamma-ray pulse from the center of the galaxy, which would otherwise do nasty things to organic life. In this book, the guy who seems to be the series hero -- Alexander Ignatiev -- is off to make contact with another civilization and warn them about the burst. Unfortunately, that civilization is a secretive one of machine intelligences, who think they will survive the burst just fine and are not happy at all with meat-bags knowing they exist. So things look rough for Alex and his crew, though I'm sure they make it through in time for the next book. Survival is a Tor hardcover, available the day after Christmas in all of the usual places.

Also from Tor -- as a trade paperback , hitting stores last week -- is the new Ellen Datlow-edited anthology Mad Hatters and March Hares. Do I need to tell you the theme is Alice in Wonderland? I hope you figured that out on your own. It has eighteen brand-new stories from authors including Ysabeau S. Wilce, Jane Yolen, Catherynne M. Valente, Delia Sherman, Seanan McGuire, Jeffrey Ford, Andy Duncan, and others.