Buffalito Buffet

Starting with 2001’s “Buffalo Dogs,” this collection reprints all seven of Schoen’s short stories featuring the Amazing Conroy, a hypnotist turned entrepreneur, and his pet buffalito, Reggie (last seen in 2011’s Buffalito Contingency), along with the all-new “Barry’s Tale.” The emphasis is on sly humor and social chicanery as Conroy uses hypnotism, subterfuge, and old-fashioned people skills to interact with a universe teeming with oddball aliens and their oft-confusing customs. He breaks an alien monopoly on buffalitos, dog-sized creatures that eat anything and fart pure oxygen; learns the secret of the galaxy’s greatest recluse; gets caught up in a murder; gambles for extremely high stakes; and pursues a legendary culinary delicacy. Schoen is clearly in his element and there’s a pleasant preposterousness to the whole thing, like a series of good-natured tall tales that end too soon. (Nov.)