In a history extending all the way back to 1960, this is the first time the Buffalo Bills will play in a marquee game: opening the 2022 NFL Season against the Super Bowl Champion LA Rams. Hopes are high among the Bills Mafia, but disaster has dashed the hopes of Bills fans ever since 1960. I’ll be watching this game in Minneapolis surrounded by BOUCHERCON attendees. The Bills are 2 1/2 point favorites. Go Bills!
The Year’s Best Fantasy, Volume 1 is Paula Guran’s 50th edited anthology. If you’ve read any of Guran’s other anthologies, you know she tries to present quality writing with a diverse range. The old cliche, “Something here for every taste,” certainly applies.
My tastes in fantasy tend toward the unexpected. Take P. Dieli Clark’s “If the Martians Have Magic” for instance. The Martians have invaded Earth three times and a collective Martian mind wants to help Humans resist the next invasion. They offer Martian Magic as a possible protection…but at a price. I also enjoyed Richard Parks’s “The Fox’s Daughter.” A member of royalty must travel away from her kingdom for six months. She asks her friend, the ruler of a nearby kingdom, to take care of her difficult teenage daughter. Reluctantly, he agrees. The teenage daughter has the power–like her mother–to turn into a fox or a woman. Challenges appear.
While I wasn’t familiar with P. Dieli Clark or Richard Park (although I’m planning on finding their books), I am familiar with James Enge and his “Drunkard’s Walk” possesses the same high level story-telling qualities of Enge’s The Tournament of Shadows trilogy.
I enjoyed many of stories in The Year’s Best Fantasy, Volume 1. If you’re in the mood for an anthology with a variety of fantasy styles, this is the one to check out. Are you a fan of Fantasy stories? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS (alphabetical):
• Marika Bailey, “The White Road; Or How a Crow Carried Death Over a River” (Fiyah #18) — 122
• Elizabeth Bear, “The Red Mother” (Tor.com) — 140
• Tobias Buckell, “Brickomancer (Shoggoths in Traffic and Other Stories) — 252
• P. Djèlí Clark, “If the Martians Have Magic” (Uncanny #42) — 314
• Roshani Chokshi, “Passing Fair and Young” (Sword Table Stone: Old Legend, New Voices) — 195
• Varsha Dinesh, “The Demon Sage’s Daughter” (Strange Horizons 2/8/21) — 260
• Andrew Dykstal, “Quintessence” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #324) — 211
• James Enge, “Drunkard’s Walk (F&SF 5-6) — 297
• Karen Joy Fowler, “The Piper” (F&SF 1-2) — 379
Introduction: Mirrors by Paula Guran — xi
• Carlos Hernandez & C. S. E. Cooney, “A Minnow, or Perhaps a Colossal Squid (Mermaids Monthly, April) — 334
• Kathleen Jennings, “Gisla and the Three Favors” (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #43) — 189
• Allison King, “Breath of the Dragon King” (Fantasy #72) — 376
• PH Lee, “Frost’s Boy” (Lightspeed #128) — 77
• Yukimi Ogawa, “Her Garden the Size of Her Palm (F&SF 7-8) — 174
• Tobi Ogundiran, “The Tale of Jaja and Canti” (Lightspeed #135) — 96
• Richard Parks. “The Fox’s Daughter (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #344) — 354
• Karen Russell, “The Cloud Lake Unicorn” (Conjunctions:76) — 103
• Sofia Samatar, “Three Tales from the Blue Library” (Conjunctions:76) — 368
• Catherynne Valente, “L’Esprit de Escalier” (Tor.com) — 50
• Fran Wilde, “Unseelie Bros, Ltd.” (Uncanny #40) — 1
• Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, “Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts” (Apex #121) — 282
• Isabel Yap,“A Spell for Foolish Hearts” (Never Have I Ever) — 387
• E. Lily Yu, “Small Monsters” (Tor.com) — 26
About the Authors — 433
Acknowledgements — 440
About the Editor — 443
Maybe I’m getting super-heroed out but this newish iteration of the Batman story left me cold. I finally watched it on HBO Max but the Blu-ray/DVD is on sale for those who crave “Additional Content.”
It seems like each Batman movie tries to be darker than the film that preceded it. In The Batman, a sadistic serial killer murders key political figures in Gotham. Batman investigates the city’s hidden corruption. And, of course, questions about his family’s involvement arise.
Yes, there’s plenty of action. Yes, there’s plenty of violence. Explosions…check. Cool gadgets…check. Loud music..check. Even though The Batman checks all the boxes, I had that deja vu feeling that I’ve seen all this before. Are you a Batman fan? GRADE: C
A few days ago I reviewed The War on Music: Reclaiming the-Twentieth-Century By John Mauler and Ennio Morricone’s name was mentioned a few times in your comments. Just through serendipity I stumbled onto this performance of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” theme by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. It really rocks! And, check out that dangling guy!
The National Buffalo Wing Festival returns to Highmark Stadium (where the Buffalo Bills play their games) on Sept. 3rd and 4th 2022. Now in its 21st year, celebrating its 20th festival, Wing Fest has over the past 10 years averaged 50,000+ attendees that have been tracked from all 50 states and 44 different countries, featuring 25 local, regional, national and international eateries serving more than 100 styles of chicken wings. About 10 tons of chicken wings will be consumed this weekend!
Other activities include live music, a baby wing pageant, amateur and XXXHot chicken wing eating competition, celebrity influencer sauce-off competition, bobbing for wings, and much more!
Are you a fan of chicken wings?
Martin Edwards’s monumental The Life of Crime (724 pages!) will sweep whatever Awards BOUCHERCON and other groups bestow on BEST NON-FICTION MYSTERY BOOKS. Edwards wisely consulted with Art Scott (thanked on Page One–page 644–of the Acknowledgements). Edwards refers to Art’s Nero Wolfe knowledge on pages 101 and 172. And Edwards goes further to praise and recommend Art Scott and Wallace Maynard’s The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis on page 324. However, Art’s valiant lobbying effort to get Edwards to devote an entire chapter to Nero Wolfe…produced a vaporware chapter that cannot be found between these covers.
It took about 20 years for Martin Edwards to research and write this magisterial work. To attempt to capture all the facets of the History of the Mystery in less than a 1,000 pages is quixotic to say the least. I’m sure many readers will quibble about the coverage (or lack thereof) of their favorite mystery writers. The Editors of The Life of Crime pressured Edwards to “cut” and “reduce” his mammoth book. However, I’m pleased to report that Edwards managed to stave off many of the attempts to shrink his project. The result is a book that should be in the library of any serious reader of mysteries. GRADE: A+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — 1
Chapter 1 Revolution: Origins — 9
Chapter 2 Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe and the First Detective Stories — 20
Chapter 3 Guilty Secrets: Sensation Novels — 29
Chapter 4 Detective Fever: Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Early Detective Fiction — 37
Chapter 5 Poacher Turned Gamekeeper: The French Revolution: Vidocq, Gaboriau and their Worldwide Influence — 49
Chapter 6: The Great Detective: Sherlock Holmes — 58
Chapter 7 Rogues’ Gallery: Raffles and Other Villains — 71
Chapter 8 The Nature of Evil: G. K. Chesterton and Faith and Sin in Detective Fiction — 81
Chapter 9 Plot Minds: Marie Belloc Lowndes and Edwardian-era Detective Fiction — 92
Chapter 10 The Science of Detection: R. Austin Freeman and Scientific Mysteries — 103
Chapter 11 Had-I-But-Known: Mary Roberts Rinehart and ‘Women in Jeopardy’ Novels — 116
Chapter 12 War and Peace: The First World War and Detective Fiction — 127
Chapter 13 Treacherous Impulses: Early Spy Fiction — 135
Chapter 14 The Mistress of Deception: Agatha Christie — 149
Chapter 15 American Tragedy: Van Dine and the American Golden Age — 162
Chapter 16 Superfluous Women: Queens of Crime — 174
Chapter 17 Challenging the Reader: Detection and Game-playing — 187
Chapter 18 Locked Rooms: ‘Impossible Crime’ Mysteries — 199
Chapter 19 The Long Arm of the Law: Early Police Stories — 212
Chapter 20 Blood-Simple: Dashiell Hammett — 223
Chapter 21 Murder and its Motives: True Crime — 234
Chapter 22 Twists of Fate: Francis Iles and Ironic Crime Fiction — 245
Chapter 23 The Sound of Mystery: Radio Mysteries — 259
Chapter 24 In Lonely Rooms: Raymond Chandler — 270
Chapter 25 Brothers in Crime: Patrick and Bruce Hamilton — 281
Chapter 26 Cracks in the Wall: Georges Simenon and European Crime Fiction — 291
Chapter 27 Sensation in Court: Legal Mysteries — 304
Chapter 28 California Dreaming: Crime Writers and Hollywood — 314
Chapter 29 Carnival of Crime: Mystery and the Macabre –326
Chapter 30 Waking Nightmares: Noir Fiction — 336
Chapter 31 Dagger of the Mind — 347
Chapter 32 Whose Body?: Whowasdunins: Mysteries about the Victim’s Identity — 355
Chapter 33 Private Wounds: Transitioning from the Golden Age — 365
Chapter 34 Out of this World: Traditional Detective Fiction Evolves in the United States — 375
Chapter 35 Perfect Murders: Crime and the End of Empire — 387
Chapter 36 Mind Games: Post-war Psychological Suspense — 398
Chapter 37 Deep Water: Patricia Highsmith — 410
Chapter 38 Forking Paths: Borges and Postmodernism — 418
Chapter 39 Bloody Murder: Julian Symons and Crime Fiction Criticism –429
Chapter 40 People with Ghosts: Post-war Private Investigators and the Legacy of Vietnam — 443
Chapter 41 Killing Jokes: Comedy and Crime — 454
Chapter 42 Literary Agents: Post-war Spy Fiction — 466
Chapter 43 Nerve: Adventure Novels and Thrillers — 480
Chapter 44 Outsider in Amsterdam: Dutch Crime — 490
Chapter 45 Whodunwhat?: Theatrical Murder — 502
Chapter 46 Black and Blue: British Police Fiction — 511
Chapter 47 Home Discomforts: Domestic Suspense — 522
Chapter 48 Mystery Games: East Asian Detective Fiction — 533
Chapter 49 Early Graves: Difference and Diversity — 545
Chapter 50 A Suitable Job for a Woman: Women Writing about Private Investigators — 560
Chapter 51 A Feeling for Snow: Scandinavian Crime Writing — 571
Chapter 52 Fatal Inversions: Ruth Rendell and Modern Psychological Suspense — 581
Chapter 53 Dark Places: American Police Fiction — 591
Chapter 54 Long Shadows: Historical Crime — 601
Chapter 55 A Taste for Death: P. D. James and the Truth about Human Character and Experience — 613
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY — 623
Acknowledgements — 644
INDEX OF TITLES — 646
INDEX OF NAMES — 688
SUBJECT INDEX — 716
It would be hard to overestimate the impact of Motown hits in the 1960s. I found these two CD compilations which collect 32 Number One Motown songs from that decade. The Temptations and The Supremes led the way with multiple Number One hits. But, other Motown performers and groups found their way to the top of the charts, too. The Motown Sound was the sound of money!
Do you remember these Number One hits from the Sixties? Any favorites? GRADE: A (for both)
TRACK LIST:
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles*– | Shop Around | ||
| The Marvelettes– | Please Mr. Postman | ||
| The Contours– | Do You Love Me | ||
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles*– | You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | Fingertips (Part II) | ||
| Martha And The Vandellas*– | Love Is Like A (Heat Wave) | ||
| Mary Wells– | My Guy | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Where Did Our Love Go | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Baby Love | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Come See About Me | ||
| The Temptations– | My Girl | ||
| Jr. Walker & The All Stars*– | Shotgun | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Stop! In The Name Of Love | ||
| The Four Tops*– | I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | Back In My Arms Again | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes*– | I Hear A Symphony |
TRACK LIST:
| The Supremes– | You Can’t Hurry Love | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | Uptight (Everything’s Alright) | ||
| The Temptations– | Get Ready | ||
| The Temptations– | Ain’t Too Proud To Beg | ||
| Four Tops– | Reach Out I’ll Be There | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | You Keep Me Hangin’ On | ||
| The Temptations– | (I Know) I’m Losing You | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | The Happening | ||
| Stevie Wonder– | I Was Made To Love Her | ||
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles– | I Second That Emotion | ||
| The Temptations– | I Wish It Would Rain | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Love Child | ||
| Gladys Knight & The Pips*– | I Heard It Through The Grapevine | ||
| The Temptations– | I Can’t Get Next To You | ||
| Diana Ross & The Supremes– | Someday We’ll Be Together |
This Berkley Books paperback from 1957 reprints 10 of the 32 stories appearing in the original 1950 Crown Books hardcover.
Several of the stories in The Big Book of Science Fiction fall into the “classic” category. The first story in the book is Clifford Simak’s “Desertion,” a key story in his City series. “Nobody Saw the Ship” is one of my favorite Murray Leinster stories about an alien invasion.
Probably the most famous story in this book is Fredric Brown’s “Arena” which became a fan favorite Star Trek episode where a human and an alien are forced to fight for survival. War is also at the heart of C. M. Kornbluth’s “The Only Thing We Learn.” The story that most surprised me was Fletcher Pratt’s “The Roger Bacon Formula” which resembles a LSD trip. The Big Book of Science Fiction is another Groff Conklin winner! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Desertion [City] (1944) by Clifford D. Simak — 7
Mewhu’s Jet (1946) by Theodore Sturgeon– 18
Nobody Saw the Ship (1950) by Murray Leinster — 52
The Wings of Night (1942) by Lester del Rey — 69
Arena (1944) by Fredric Brown — 86
The Roger Bacon Formula (1929) by Fletcher Pratt — 111
Forever and the Earth (1950) by Ray Bradbury — 126
The Miniature (1949) by John D. MacDonald — 141
Sanity (1944) by Fritz Leiber — 152
The Only Thing We Learn (1949) by C. M. Kornbluth — 167
This post-apocalyptic drama is set in the twenty-first century after a virus has wiped out most of Earth’s population. Fewer than two million people had survived, and their descendants have all lost their sense of sight because of the disease. See takes place several centuries after the Pandemic where the survivors has found new ways to socially interact, build, hunt, and survive without vision. The concept of vision has become a myth and any mention of it is considered heresy.
Season Three of See will conclude the series. Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard try to defend their tribe from Queen Sibeth Kane (Sylvia Hooks), the ruler of the Payan Kingdom, a ruthless leader who murders anyone who stands in her way.
Apple TV+ has released two of the eight episodes. New episodes will be released each week. GRADE: Incomplete