You didn't think I could get four days into the new year without new books coming into the house, did you?

It's the bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe -- born on the very same day as Abraham Lincoln, oddly enough, which makes those of us who read alternate history do some funny thinking. A number of books are coming out in recognition of Poe's continuing influence on both mystery and dark fantasy, and last night I picked up two of them.

First, from the mystery side of things, I picked up On a Raven's Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Stuart A. Kaminsky and presented by The Mystery Writers of America. Poe or his work are central to all the stories, which are all original to this collection. I confess I am looking forward to reading the stories by some authors (Thomas H. Cook and S.J. Rozan, for instance) more than others (Mary Higgins Clark and Dorothy Salisbury Davis have never been high on my list), I think this will provide some interesting and, if I'm lucky, chilling reading.

Even more to my taste is Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow, one of the finest editors the horror genre has ever produced. This volume is touted as "19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe," and it, too, contains all original tales. I'm eager to read what John Langan, M. Rickert, Glen Hirshberg, Gregory Frost, Laird Barron, Melanie Tem and all the rest have to say -- there isn't an author here whose story I'm not looking forward to. This book is definitely on top of the teetering pile of "to be read" volumes.

Finally, Amazon came through for me on January 2 with my first new volume of the year, Eclipse Two, edited by Jonathan Strahan. Again, all new stories, again, by many favorites: Margo Lanagan, Peter Beagle, Jeffrey Ford, Richard Parks and Ted Chiang among them.

We're living in a Golden Age of short fiction in the speculative fiction arena. I thank John Kessel for having pointed that out to me a few years ago at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts; I've been reveling in short stories ever since, including his. These three books are going to be a fine way to start the year.