SF/Fantasy/Horror Notes

"As a writer I'm all over the place," says horror maverick Jack Ketchum (the pseudonym of Dallas Mayr) with typical understatement in his introduction to Peaceable Kingdom, a collection of 32 shorter fictional works from the past decade. You never know what you'll get when you pick up a Ketchum story (the contents range from the "ice-cold" to the "almost cuddly" and include a western, a vampire tale and the Stoker-winning "Gone" and "The Box"), but you can be sure you'll always be surprised—and scared. (Subterranean [www.subterraneanpress.com], $40 400p ISBN 1-931081-68-9)

The Lords of Dûs, by Hugo winner and HWA past president Lawrence Watt-Evans,collects all four novels (The Lure of the Basilisk, etc.) in the series featuring Garth of Ordunin, first published by Del Rey, that established Lawrence's reputation in the fantasy field. This omnibus volume includes updated appendices from the original Del Rey and later Wildside editions. (Wildside [www.wildsidepress.com], $49.95 684p ISBN 1-58715-665-2)

Ever wonder how two authors collaborate on a story? Now you can see the process in action in Pride, the tale of a divorced mother of three who remarries a man who wants his own children, by Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson. The text includes facsimiles of the senior Matheson's first handwritten draft, his son's first typewritten draft with corrections and notes, and the teleplay collaboration that combines elements of both. That this is the first new short story from Richard Matheson since the 1970s is an added bonus. (Edge [www.gauntletpress. com], $30 32p ISBN 1-887368-63-9)

In time for the release of the second installment in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comes Tolkien scholar Douglas A. Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit: Revised and Expanded Edition. Anderson has incorporated much new information unearthed since the book first appeared in 1988. National author tour. (Houghton Mifflin, $28 416p ISBN 0-618-16816-8)

Hobbit fans, especially those who missed last year's first edition, will also welcome Greg and Tim Hildebrandt—The Tolkien Years: Expanded Edition, by Gregory Hildebrandt Jr. The author, son of Greg and nephew of Tim, has added 12 new pages of dazzling illustrations, as well as a pullout poster. (Watson-Guptil, $24.95 paper 144p ISBN 0-8230-5105-6)

Those who prefer traditional fairies with shapely figures will snap up British artist Brian Froud's Lady Cottington's Fairy Album, the sequel to Froud's Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. A CD, Faeries: A Musical Companion to the Art of Brian Froud, will be released simultaneously. West Coast author tour. (Abrams, $25 64p ISBN 0-8109-3294-6)