The Year of Disappearances
Susan Hubbard
Simon & Schuster, May 2008, $22.95
ISBN: 9781416552710

Teenage Ariella “Ari” Montero is a half-breed vampire, who lives with her vampiric mother in Homosassa Springs, Florida which many vampires call home as they have their own shops, restaurants and other hangouts catering to the their needs. Ari is lonely as she has no friends so is elated to meet Autumn and Mysty. However, a van pulls up near where the three girls are walking together; Ari senses evil from the driver whose eyes contain no pupils. When Mysty disappears, the police and the XBC suspect Ari as the last known person to have been with her.

To escape from the suspicious townsfolk, Ari goes to Hillhouse College in southern Georgia. A bored Autumn comes to visit her. When Ari and her classmates go on a field trip; Autumn sneaks away to tour the campus. Ari and her classmates see a body in the swamp that turns out to be Autumn. She tells a powerful vampire leader that humans are taking pills that turn them into zombies like what happened to Mysty. Something must be done before vampire become the supreme species.

Even vampires are divided as to how they should relate to humans as some extremists believe mankind is cattle to their superior species using ruthless means to obtain easy sustenance. Politics and remorse are two lessons Ari receives at school, but she like her parents (her dad is a scientist) believes that peaceful co-existence between the species is possible and necessary. Although the heroine seems much more experienced than a young teen, vampire lovers will enjoy this cutting sequel to THE SOCIETY OF S.

Harriet Klausner

The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection
Edited by Gardner Dozois
St. Martin’s, Jul 2007, $21.95
ISBN: 9780312363352

As always this annual collection is the best science fiction anthology of the year. Besides the strong selection of twenty-eight stories, the Summation 2006 is an interesting article that concludes that 2006 was “overall a relatively uneventful year”. Still in this quiet year, Mr. Dozois references Locus magazine stating that “there were 2495 books of interest to the SF field” excluding a myriad of Internet options and other tie-ins that would dramatically increase the total. All of the chosen twenty-eight are well written with many of the authors highly regarded like Cory Docterow, Robert Charles Wilson, Kage Baker, Alastair Reynolds, Robert Reed, Greg Egan, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette and Stephen Baxter, etc. The best of the best (at least in my opinion) are “Riding the Crocodile” by Greg Egan in which two immortals consider boldly conspicuously suicide together; Robert Charles Wilson’s Julian: A Christmas Story as two men meet and struggle to survive a wintry night before traveling different life paths; and a tour of Venus in Tin Marsh by Michael Stanwick, who according to Mr. Dozois has been writing for over two decades, but I confess I only read any of his works for the first time recently (see THE DRAGONS OF BABEL). Once gain this is a superb compilation as none of the entries are losers and most are excellent exploring the genre from quantum physics communicating with the dead to outer space and beyond; 2006 may have been lacking in innovation, but still with quality tales abound prove to be a great year affirmed by Mr. Dozois’ latest anthology.

Harriet Klausner

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection
Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (editors)
St. Martin’s, Oct 2007, $21.95
ISBN: 9780312369422

As has been the case (at least since this reviewer began reading this annual collection several years ago), this anthology provides some of the best horror and fantasy short stories, poems and other media from 2006. The forty entries are always fun even for those who may have read most of them in other collections. The tales range the gamut from wishfully whimsical to fundamentally frightening to awesomely amusing. However, once again it is the deep articles that provide “Summation 2006: Fantasy”, “Summation 2006: Horror”, “The Year in Media of the Fantastic: 2006”, “Fantasy in Comics and Graphic Novels 2006”, “Music of the Fantastic: 2006”, and “Obituaries: 2006” that bring an extra edge to this always strong collection; even the obits enhance the book with its short homage to the famous like the Jims Baen and Williamson and the not so famous (to me) such as “Retro Hugo” winner Wilson Tucker. This reviewer especially enjoys comparing this year’s trends as described in the Summations to the last few years. Readers will enjoy meeting new authors (at least to me) like Ira Sher and Margo Lanagan and long time favorites like Gene Wolfe and Terry Dowling. Besides the articles, perhaps the best entry is the realistic futuristic “Another Word for Map Is Faith” by Christopher Rowe (right surname for the author of this tale), who extrapolates the religious right teaming with the Neocons into a scary vision of a Taliban-like control of America. The Twentieth Annual Collection is a terrific compilation.

Harriet Klausner

You’re Coffin or Mine?
Kimberly Raye
Ballantine, Oct 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 9780345492180

In Manhattan professional matchmaker BV (beautiful vampiress) Countess Lilliana Arabella Guinevere du Marchette (call her Lil) is hired by a reality TV show to find a match for a famous bachelor. However, that project seems relatively tame when compared to a telepathic message she received from bounty-hunting vampire Ty for help; He vanished several months ago without a trace after a glorious one night with Lil.

As Lil tries to locate Ty in order to rescue him for a second night and who knows what else, she meets homicide detective Ash, who is not human or vampire. They work together seeking to find Ty. At the same time the human fiancé of her brother pleads with Lilliana (not quite one of her best buds yet so Lil is inappropriate) to find the right wedding dress and her mother tries to matchmake her DEAD AND DATELESS daughter with any mortal, vampire, or other ilk as long as they are male.

The latest adventures of that DED (DEAD END DATING) BV Countess Lil is, for the most part, a lighthearted romantic romp although the Ty subplot is a bit darker and much more serious in tone. Fans of the serious will appreciate Lil’s fun Manhattan frolic as few authors combine chick lit shtick with vampire bites better than Kimberly Raye does.

Harriet Klausner

You Had Me at Halo
Amanda Ashley
NAL, Aug 2007, $12.95
ISBN: 9780451221353

Holly Evans is unhappy to be dead at twenty-two years old and mortified having attended her own funeral. Her heavenly shrink grants her a forty-eight hour reprieve with two stipulations. First she must make a heavenly effort to clear up the tiffs she had with friends and family, etc; second she must use someone else’s body whose soul has just vacated the premises.

Holly enters the corpse of recently deceased computer nerd Vince Murphy; only there is a minor problem. Vince still lives so she shares his body, which irritates him no end. However he agrees to help her with her cause. Meanwhile Holly realizes that the biggest mistake of her life when she was living was not realizing how nice yet strong Vince is.

This delightful after life fantasy is entertaining and amusing as Holly and Vince will remind readers of the terrific 1980s Tomlin-Martin film All of Me. Readers will laugh out loud as the geek and the dead chic chick battle for control of his body and their relationship even as an odd attraction forms. Amanda Ashley provides a charming offbeat tale.

Harriet Klausner

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection
Gardner Dozois (editor)
St Martins, Jul 2007, $35.00
ISBN 9780312363345

As always this is a fascinating anthology as much for those stories selected as the best in 2006 as for the essays starting with the Summation, which though Mr. Dozois opens with a “relatively uneventful year” he quickly affirms otherwise as the publishing world had radical changes. The stories come from a wide variety of sources that prove how vast the options in the field have become. Some tales by famous authors were originally electronic such as “I, Row-Boat by Docterow was an on line entry in Flurb I and “The Ile of Dogges” by Bear and Monette was on Aeon Seven. Others were typically included in magazines such as “Tin Marsh” by Swanwick and “The Djinn’s Wife’ by McDonald both in Asimov’s Sconce Fiction, and “Damascus” by Gregory and” Okanoggin Falls” by Gilman in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Finally, a few were part of what seem like somewhat a dinosaur at least in this anthology: printed books such as “Nightingale” by Reynolds (see Galactic North). The twenty-eight short stories are solid tales with fan favorites and newcomers included. Each entry is well written and fun to read as the collection covers the gamut of the genre. However, it is Mr. Dozois’ fabulous “Summation” that brings together the year in which source diversity keeps expanding making it impossible even for an insomniac lunatic book reviewer to even have heard of some of the tales; don’t even try to ponder how Mr. Dozois finds some of them; though all are worthy of inclusion.

Harriet Klausner

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Michael Chabon
HarperCollins, May 2007, $26.95
ISBN: 0007149824

In 1948 with the collapse of Israel, the question of a Jewish State is temporarily resolved when Alaska becomes the homeland for the Diaspora Jews. However, the agreement is that this is not the Promised Land as the Alaskan Settlement Act authorized a sixty year lease. In two months, the Reversion occurs raising the question what to do about two million Alaskan Jews.

Sitka police detective Meyer Landsman relies on alcohol to keep him from going over the edge. His marriage died alongside the abortion of their birth defected fetus while his sister died in a plane crash. His sleuthing skills no longer are keen as he does not care whether he solves a case or not.

Shocking even himself, a murder in his dumpy Hotel Zamenhof awakens the once dedicated cop inside of Landsman as he goes for one last piece of glory knowing he will be unemployed once the reversion is implemented. The victim Emanuel Lasker was a harmless heroin addict who played chess; no apparent motive surfaces as to why he was executed. Even more surprising is his former wife and suddenly current boss have reentered his life and he has been promoted the police chief for the final sixty days. Still Landsman allows nothing to intervene in his uncovering the identity of the culprit; that is nothing except some hazy rumor that his sister was murdered instead of dying in an accident.

This interesting alternate history police procedural frozen Noir provides a fascinating spin to the twentieth century issue of the Jewish homeland. The kvetching levels are stratospheric as fears of being abandoned again lead to the historical chosen mantra “It’s a strange time to be a Jew.” Landsman is an interesting character who finds redemption in the murder investigation. Though a conspiracy takes away from the prime theme of what if the Jews were placed elsewhere, readers will appreciate this innovative thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Yellow Eyes
John Ringo and Tom Kratman
Baen, Apr 2007, $26.00
ISBN 1416521038

The Monroe Doctrine has never been challenged like what has happened throughout Latin America. The reptilian Posleen aliens have conquered everything without much resistance except in Panama where American soldiers, especially former expatriate vets, join a local resistance to battle the alien horde while all the strategic thinkers agree on the outcome that if the Canal is lot it means the starvation of North America.

Though unable to send troops as the military is needed to defend the continental United States, the countryside enables the humans to use successful guerilla tactics against a powerful foe who sees the enemy as lesser beings in the food chain. However, politicians make deals that would shame Neville Chamberlain with a willingness to sacrifice the freedom fighters as expendable pawns. Still the human militia takes the fight to the lethal Posleen.

This entertaining fast-paced military science fiction thriller grips the audience from the first page action until the final battle. Interestingly the superpower aliens seem more humane than the cowardly politicians who sell their soul (and some lives) to remain in power, albeit a much weaker command. Fans of the series will enjoy the latest Human-Posleen War as the action moves from a WATCH ON THE RHINE to Latin America.

Harriet Klausner

You Don’t Scare Me
John Farris
Forge, Apr 2007, $24.95
ISBN 0312850646

As she attends Yale University as a math major working to prove the existence of a dimension outside of the relative reality of ours, Chase Emrick knows how close she came to die as a teen. Her abusive disturbing stepfather Crow Tillman abducted her with the intention of a murder-suicide for some eerie motive. He failed as she escaped, but he killed himself.

However though a decade has passed, Chase knows somehow Crow’s evil eye still seeks her from beyond. She is alone because of him as bad things accidentally happen to anyone who tries to get close to her as he still plans to possess her. Chase thinks she has found the coordinates to what she calls Netherworld where she believes Crow lives, that is if a dead person can live. Desperate to destroy the serpent, the frightened Chase journeys to Crow’s turf to challenge him with her soul on the line.

The opening scenes on earth are some of the best horror description in years as everyone will feel the creepiness of Crow when he lived and the malevolence of this creature when he died as well as the astral-spatial geometry of Netherlands. Once Chase begins her trek into Netherworld, the story line retains its excitement, but loses some of its uniqueness. Still John Farris will have his audience hooked in a one sitting thriller in which the mouse insists to the cat (and herself) YOU DON’T SCARE ME when she knows she should be very scared.

Harriet Klausner

You Suck
Christopher Moore
Morrow, Feb 2007, $21.95
ISBN: 0060590297

Elijah is an eight hundred years old vampire suffering from ennui so he turned Jody Stroud into one of his kind and taught her how to survive before she turned her boyfriend Tommy Flood after drinking from him one time too many. Elijah is now trapped inside a bronze statue that eh cannot escape from while Tommy has only been a vampire for two weeks and Jody not much longer; they remain ignorant about their new condition.

Tommy’s friends, the Animals, go to Vegas using Elijah’s money. The police take Elijah’s collection and inform them they will not stake them if they leave the city immediately. Tommy’s supervisor knows he turned and calls the cops while Elijah escaped his incarnation and seeks revenge. Tommy, Jody, the wino William, his cat Clint and sixteen years old Goth Abby prove no help as they struggle to survive against a big bad angry adversary.

Christopher Moore is in top form as he writes a hilarious love story about two fledgling vampires and the people who want them dead. Jody relishes the change because she no longer fears living while Tommy seeks returning to being a human. Their antics along with a delightful support cast, even ancient Elijah, make YOU SUCK a fun happening.

Harriet Klausner