Steve

Asking your crush to the big dance, dealing with bullies, having oily skin, molting... adolescence is tough. Throw in the fact that J!m is a minority alien whose father tried to destroy the planet and you can begin to understand why he wishes he could just go ahead and die already.

Go, Mutants! is a classic teen angst story in the vein of Rebel Without a Cause, except this time there are many laughs to be had, mostly from the fact that the book is absolutely jam-packed with references to old horror and science-fiction movies (seriously, there’s a 25-page index). If it sounds like yet another mash-up, though, don’t worry- this story has a radioactive, seven-chambered heart of its own.

My favorite non-fiction of 2010 (and one of my favorites, period)is now in paperback! Perestroika seemed like a great thing to the West, but to Russians, it was a loss of stability and an economy in free-fall. for those in the far-eastern district of Primorye, rugged frontier country wedged between the northeastern portion of China and the Sea of Japan, an already-harsh existence became, for many, literally hand-to-mouth. Subsistence poaching was never uncommon, but with few job opportunities and nearby China paying big money for exotic species, the temptation to go after bigger game than badgers and mink was strong. Of course, when the animal in your sights is a tiger, you'd better kill it, because these cats are not just incredibly smart and deadly- they have an almost-human capacity to hold a grudge. Part police procedural, part Russian history, and part National Geographic documentary, John Vaillant's excellent book uses the story of a man-eater not only as an example of how life is in a small, isolated part of the world, but as a microcosm of human/big cat interactions throughout our shared history. A perfect guy book.

There's a lot more to Samuil Petrovich than meets the eye, and most of that is how much damn smarter he is than everyone else. Fortunately for him, he's pretty well aware of this; unfortunately for him, he doesn't mind making everyone else aware of this, and often in the bluntest way possible. You have to forgive him, though, because he really is a decent guy, but surviving in the post-Armageddon London Metrozone often requires a certain amount of insensitivity, especially when you're caught in the middle of a mob war, apocalypse cultists, ass-kicking nuns with guns, and the physics equation that could save the world. Oh, and a little something calling itself the New Machine Jihad...

A touch pulpy, a bit cyber-punky, and featuring an awesomely arrogant protagonist, the Petrovich Trilogy is one of the more fun reading experiences I've had all year (once I could stop staring at the covers).

Dr. Charlie Neumann is a brilliant, socially-dysfunctional engineer who loses his leg in a lab accident. He is given a prosthetic but, unsatisfied with the design, takes it apart and builds a better one. So much better, in fact, that he wonders why he needs to rely on flesh-and-blood parts at all, which leads to an eventful trip back to the lab... Yeah, you see where this is going. Of course, he's doing these modifications on the clock at Better Future, a big company that recognizes the potential military value in Charlie's research, so he gets funding, he gets a team, and he gets a lot more problems than he's equipped to handle. Best of all, we get to see Charlie discover what it means to be human, one robotic part at a time.

Philip K Dick isn’t exactly a household name, but many people will, with a little prompting, say, “Oh, yeah- the Blade Runner guy! Wasn’t he crazy or did a lot of drugs or something?” Yes, maybe, and yes. PKD certainly did have an appetite for illicit substances, was notably paranoid, and was obsessed with the idea that what we think of reality might not actually be real. These all feature prominently in his novels, which is all well and good, but what’s really fascinating is that his later books are all merely spin-offs of his true magnum opus, the Exegesis.

What’s that, you say? Well, in February and March of 1974, something happened to PKD. Something beamed information into his brain and gave him knowledge he shouldn’t have had and gave him ideas that would consume almost every waking moment of the rest of his life- did God talk to me? Are we being manipulated by aliens? Is the future somehow traveling back in time to make itself come true? Am I crazy? What is really going on? Over the course of 8,000 pages, PKD confronted these- and many other questions- that plagued him in the wake of his mystical experiences. While PKD fans have longed for years to take a peek at his monumental work, very few people have been granted access, but those people have now brought us this wonderfully abridged version (only 900-odd pages!), allowing us to see what was really going on in that brilliant, weird mind of his.

Maybe.