Yesterday, the May SFBC package started to go into the mail. Those of you who are members will see it in your mailboxes in a week to ten days (sooner, if you live close to central Pennsylvania), but, for now, they should all be up online. Let's see if they are...

Selections: 

• The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien; I could call this "long-awaited," but, really, this isn't a book anyone expected. Tolkien's son and literary heir Christopher Tolkien has assembled a complete, novel-length version of one of the three "Great Tales" that Tolkien worked on over his entire life, using bits and pieces of a massive number of different fragmentary versions of the same tale to form a whole -- they're all Tolkien's words, but it took Christopher Tolkien to put them together in a way we could all read and appreciate them.
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, thankfully, doesn't require as much explanation: it's a neat near-future SF novel involving both radio communication with intelligent aliens and rejuvenation treatments.

Alternates:

• Tales of Mars is the fourth and last of our omnibus collecting Edgar Rice Burroughs's entire "Barsoom" saga; this book includes Llana of Gathol and John Carter of Mars
• Spindrift by Allen Steel is a new standalone SF novel related to his "Coyote" books
• Breakaway by Joel Shepherd is the sequel to Crossover, and continues the adventures of android soldier Cassandra Kresnov
• Deadly Game by Christine Feehan, a paranormal romance in the "GhostWalkers" series
• No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong is the new novel in her loose "Women of the Otherworld" series; this one features the necromancer Jaime Vegas
• Physik is the third in the "Septimus Heap" young adult fantasy series by Angie Sage
• Soul Eater is also the third in a series, this time Michelle Paver's pre-historical fantasy "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness"
• And Long-Time Listener, First-Time Werewolf is an omnibus of the first three "Kitty" contemporary fantasy novels from Carrie Vaughn, about a young woman who's both a radio talk-show host and a werewolf...

Altiverse:

The Superhero Book and The Supervillain Book, both by Gina Misiroglu, are great, fun-to-browse reference books covering hundreds of super-powered folks, good and evil, from all kids of media.

Supernatural Romance Flyer:

• Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands
• Dead Sexy by Amanda Ashley
• Bled Dry by Erin McCarthy
• Night Lost by S.L. Viehl

Other Places:

• Whoosh Boom Splat by William Gustelle, a guide to building all manner of projectile shooters, from a potato cannons to simple jet engines
• Death by Black Hole by Neil de Grasse Tyson, a collection of essays by the director of the Hayden Planetarium