Here we go again

As soon as I ship out the last 3 packages of books, we'll have successfully expunged over 80 volumes from our apartment. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from acquiring more over the course of the past month. Here's the haul.

Title: Star Trek FotoNovel #2 - Where No Man Has Gone Before

Author: Samuel A. Peeples (adapted from the TV episode)

ISBN: 0553113461 (Abe.com link)

Binding: Mass market paperback

Publisher: Bantam

Pub Date: November 1977

Pages: not labeled, but around 160-170

Cost: Free

Obtained from: a coworker who was cleaning out his apartment

Synopsis: Take frame captures of the TV episode of the same name. Add speech bubbles containing the dialogue. Bind and sell. Surprisingly readable.

Title: The World of Star Trek

Author: David Gerrold

ISBN: 0345285719

Binding: Mass market paperback

Publisher: Del Rey

Pub Date: November 1979 (10th printing, originally printed 1973)

Pages: ~280

Cost: Free

Obtained from: the same coworker as above

Synopsis: Nonfiction retelling of the genesis of the show, including trivia, cast interviews, and 64 pages of photos. Written by the science fiction author who originated the script for Trouble With Tribbles.

Title: The Star Trek Reader IV

Author: James Blish

ISBN: 052520962X

Binding: Hardcover

Publisher: Dutton

Pub Date: 1978 (First Edition)

Pages: 472

Cost: Free

Obtained from: the same coworker as above

Synopsis: 12 novelizations of the TV episodes, plus Blish's orginal novel Spock Must Die!

Title: Pandemonium

Author: Daryl Gregory

ISBN: 9780345501165

Binding: ARC

Publisher: Del Rey

Pub Date: September 2008

Pages: ~288

Cost: Free

Obtained from: the freebie case at work

Synopsis: Starting in the 1950s, people start getting possessed by demons. Del Pierce was possessed as a boy, but is believed to have been successfully exorcised. Now his demon is back. I picked this one up because it has "Valis, an entity possessing the science-fiction writer formerly known as Philip K. Dick" in it. That alone is more than worth the price of admission.

Title: Zoe's Tale

Author: John Scalzi

ISBN: 9780765356192

Binding: Mass market paperback

Publisher: Tor

Pub Date: April 28, 2009

Pages: 406

Cost: $5.59 + tax

Obtained from: Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Synopsis: Zoe, the adopted teen daughter of the heroes of Scalzi's Old Man's War series, tells the events of The Last Colony in her own words. I've already read this and will eventually get around to reviewing it.

Title: Maps in a Mirror

Author: Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0765308401

Binding: Trade paperback

Publisher: Orb

Pub Date: January 2004 (originally in hardcover in 1990)

Pages: ~676

Cost: $4.55 + tax

Obtained from: bargain area at Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Synopsis: Collected short fiction from 1977 to 1990.

Title: Keeper of Dreams

Author: Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 9780765304971

Binding: Hardcover

Publisher: Tor

Pub Date: April 2008

Pages: ~656

Cost: $4.89 + tax

Obtained from: bargain area at Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Synopsis: 22 more stories written since the publication of Maps in a Mirror.

Title: Quicksilver - Volume One of the Baroque Cycle

Author: Neal Stephenson

ISBN: 0060593083

Binding: Trade paperback

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Pub Date: 2004

Pages: ~944

Cost: $4.55 + tax

Obtained from: bargain area at Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Synopsis: Historical fiction from a science fiction author. The blurb on the back really doesn't tell me much. I liked Cryptonomicon, though, so thought I'd give this a try.

Title: The Android's Dream

Author: John Scalzi

ISBN: 9780765309419

Binding: Hardcover

Publisher: Tor

Pub Date: November 2006

Pages: ~396

Cost: $4.19 + tax

Obtained from: bargain area at Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Synopsis: As you may guess from the title, there are plenty of nods to Philip K Dick in this one. Harry Creek works for Earth's state department. He's tasked to find a replacement sheep for an alien ceremony after the deliberate killing of all the ones they were planning on using. Of course, in grand PKD fashion, things aren't as they seem. I read this from the library back when it first came out and had to have my own copy so I could re-read it soon.

Title: Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow

Author: James Rollins

ISBN: 9780061473791

Binding: ARC

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pub Date: April 28, 2009

Pages: ~406

Cost: Free

Obtained from: freebie case at work

Synopsis: Marketed to fans of Indiana Jones, Alex Rider, and the Maximum Ride series. Well, I fit one of the three criteria. An artifact found by their archaeologist parents on the expedition from when they never returned leads Jake Ransom and his older sister Katy to a strange world inhabited by a mix of long-lost civilizations. Blah blah "if they survive" blah book two coming soon. Way to take the suspense out of that, folks. This is Rollins' first YA novel, after writing several thriller/scifi titles for adult audiences.

Title: Dread - How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu

Author: Philip Alcabes

ISBN: 9781586486181

Binding: ARC

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Pub Date: April 2009

Pages: ~296 (the ARC lacks an index and the photo insert)

Cost: Free

Obtained from: freebie case at work

Synopsis: "Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times."