New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Recently arrived new books include a new Young Wizards novel from Diane Duane, a new Repairman Jack novel from F. Paul Wilson, a new Rigante novel from David Gemmell, and the first new novel in half a decade from Meredith Ann Pierce.

Books are listed alphabetically by author. Only books received are noted. Where available, links to SF Site reviews and book excerpts are provided.

New Arrivals: 16 - 31 May 2001

This Shoal of Space
John Argo
Clocktower Books (345 pages, trade)
Publication date: June 2001
Clocktower Books is well-established as a publisher of e-books; now they're also making some of their titles available in print (print-on-demand). This one is from the author of Pioneers. "Mary-Shane MacLemore is a young reporter on a small-town daily newspaper in San Tomas, California, whose everyday appearance belies the fact that it is a shoal of eternity... Along comes the story of a lifetime -- mysterious murders at the zoo, strange signals from under the ocean, Government planes circling overhead, cultists meeting in the cemetery... and she's still on the run from a disastrous first marriage to a violent and scary man who may be dead in this dimension, but he seems to be riding his motorcycle in a few others."

Longtusk
Stephen Baxter
Eos, HarperCollins (trade, 320 pages, $15 US/$22.95 Can)
Publication date: June 2001
As with Silverhair, this novel is the author's attempt to portray the mammoth in as realistic and accurate a manner as possible while allowing for a certain anthropomorphic mentality to make their story understandable to humans. Although ostensibly aimed at children, it is not written in a condescending manner and is enjoyable for both children and adults, who can each find something in this coming-of-age story.

Review by Steven H Silver.

Brandon Totman

Pavane for a Cyber-Princess
Bruce Boston
Miniature Sun Press (15 pages, chapbook, $7 US for signed lettered - 26 copies; $5 US for signed numbered - 150 copies)
Publication date: March 2001
This is a new poem from the Grand Master (awarded by the Science Fiction Poetry Association), whose work has appeared in various notable genre magazines and anthologies over the years. Boston obviously has a great love of the language, and he has the skill to make it dance. Pavane for a Cyber-Princess is a pure delight to the ear.

Paula Lewis

Priestess of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson
Voyager, HarperCollins (382 pages, mass market reprint, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: 21 May 2001
Paperback reprint of last year's conclusion to the Avalon series by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of The Mists of Avalon, The Lady of Avalon and The Forest House, co-authored by Diana Paxson, author of such Arthurian novels as The White Raven and Hallowed Isle.

Dave McKean

The Heidelberg Cylinder
Jonathan Carroll
Mobius New Media (75 pages, hardcover)
Publication date: October 2000
A short work from the author of such delights as Land of Laughs, Kissing the Beehive, Marriage of Sticks and, most recently, The Wooden Sea. Plus there's a very cool, very disturbing Dave McKean cover (click on the cover image to see a larger image).

John Harris

The Space Trilogy
Arthur C. Clarke
Millennium, Victor Gollancz (576 pages, trade, £7.99 UK)
Publication date: 10 May 2001
Omnibus edition of three early novels: Islands in the Sky (1952), Earthlight (1955) and The Sands of Mars (1951). "Three different future worlds from the Master, showing his imagination in full flight."

Cliff Nielsen

The Wizard's Dilemma (Young Wizards, Book 5
Diane Duane
Harcourt Children's Books (hardcover, 416 pages, $17 US)
Publication date: June 2001
Previous books in the Young Wizards series are, in order: So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad. Some things can't be fixed by wizardry -- cancer, for example. So when Nita's mother develops an incurable cancer "the situation looks hopeless... until Nita enters a Faustian bargain with the Lone Power, the source of all death in the universe, the one evil that Nita has spent her entire life fighting."

Cliff Nielsen

So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, Book 1)
Diane Duane
Magic Carpet Books, Harcourt (386 pages, mass market reprint, $6.50 US)
Publication date: June 2001
With the publication of the new Young Wizards novel, Magic Carpet has re-packaged and re-issued the first 4 volumes, starting with this one, where Nita stumbles upon an unusual career path in -- of all things -- a book.

Cliff Nielsen

Deep Wizardry (Young Wizards, Book 2)
Diane Duane
Magic Carpet Books, Harcourt (371 pages, mass market reprint, $6.50 US)
Publication date: June 2001
In the second volume, "Nita and Kit come to the aid of a fellow wizard. Only, this wizard is a whale, and she needs the two teens to join a group of whales and dolphins in an ancient underwater ritual."

Cliff Nielsen

High Wizardry (Young Wizards, Book 3)
Diane Duane
Magic Carpet Books, Harcourt (353 pages, mass market reprint, $6.50 US)
Publication date: June 2001
This time Nita and Kit find themselves chasing Nita's bratty, brainy little sister Dairine halfway across the galaxy. For Dairine has recently joined the ranks of wizardry, and her Ordeal (her novice adventure) is quite the ordeal!

Cliff Nielsen

A Wizard Abroad (Young Wizards, Book 4)
Diane Duane
Magic Carpet Books, Harcourt (356 pages, mass market reprint, $6.50 US)
Publication date: June 2001
When Nita's parents send her to visit her eccentric aunt in Ireland, she "soon finds herself and a host of Irish wizards battling creatures from a nightmare Ireland -- a realm where humankind is the stuff of tales and storybooks, and where the legends and monsters of Irish mythology are a deadly reality."

Review by Todd Richmond.

Geoff Taylor

Krondor: Tear of the Gods
Raymond E. Feist
Voyager, HarperCollins (372 pages, trade, £10.99 UK)
Publication date: 4 June 2001
What is astonishing is the ambition that it took the author to actually insert the tale within his well-known series. In effect, he rewrote history. But, he's done so almost seamlessly, to the point where it's possible to read the saga in chronological or published order without any major continuity flaws. Sure there may be anomalies, but it would take a careful reader to really notice them.

Review by Wayne MacLaurin.

John Bolton

Ravenheart
David Gemmell
Bantam Press (384 pages, trade, £9.99 UK/$22.95 Can)
Publication date: May 2001
Here's a new novel of the Rigante from one of Britain's best writers of epic fantasy. It follows Sword in the Storm and Midnight Falcon, and takes place 800 years after King Connavar and his illegitimate son, Bane, saw their victory over the invading army of Stone. This novel is the story of two men: "Jaim Grymauch, the giant Rigante fighter, a man haunted by his failure to save the friend he loved from betrayal, and Kaelin Ring, a youth whose deadly talents will earn him the enmity of all Varlish. One will become Ravenheart, an outlaw leader whose daring exploits will inspire the Rigante. The other will forge a legend and light the fires of rebellion. The Wyrd knows that ultimately all hopes will rest on a third man..."

Wizard Sword
William Hill
Otter Creek Press (hardcover, 800 pages, $29.95 US)
Publication date: May 2001
First epic fantasy in the sword and sorcery vein from the author of The Magic Bicycle, The Vampire Hunters, California Ghosting and other novels. "When university student Brin Williams finds the sentient Sword of Power, he loses his memory, but gains magical powers and discovers he is the Chosen One. Guided by the living sword, Brin journeys to Elan, where he becomes entangled in a battle of Dream Makers. Contrary to the living blade's wishes, Brin saves a wise-cracking and rock 'n roll-loving miniature dragon. With the humour of Durgie, the love of a frolicking dryad named Shawna, and the help of a lively Elfanian, Brin begins to remember his past, discover the sword's dark history, fear and distrust its machinations..."

Rob Alexander

Dance of Knives
Donna McMahon
Tor (416 pages, hardcover, $25.95 US/$36.95 Can)
Publication date: May 2001
First novel from a new Canadian author, long active as a journalist, reviewer and SF convention organizer. "Vancouver in the 22nd century is a vibrant seaport despite the global economic collapse and massive sea level rise that have transformed the Pacific Northwest. A city of stark contrasts, Vancouver is divided between its prospering Guild citizens and the starving descendents of American refugees who fled ecological catastrophe and political chaos decades ago..."

Rafal Oblinski

Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood
Meredith Ann Pierce
Viking (hardcover, 185 pages, $16.99 US/$24.99 Can)
Publication date: 21 May 2001
First novel in 5 years from the author of the Darkangel Trilogy, the Firebringer Trilogy and The Woman Who Loved Reindeer. This is a YA fantasy, about the changes and the journeys of Hannah, "a healer who lives in the Tanglewood, a drab girl who, for reasons unknown to her, unnerves the villagers who come for salves and charms. But when she challenges the magician who has held her captive for longer than she can remember..."

Chris Moore

Revelation Space
Alastair Reynolds
Millennium, Victor Gollancz (550 pages, mass market reprint, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: 10 May 2001

Ace (480 pages, hardcover, $23.95 US) first US edition
Publication date: June 2001
The novel centres on Dan Sylveste, an archaeologist studying the remains of an extinct, bird-like alien race. His past is tied to the crew of the Infinity, who need information stored in Sylveste's head. Events lead to a large, heavily defended artifact orbiting around a neutron star, which seems to hold all the answers. Along the way there are kidnappings, political revolutions, betrayals, and intrigue.

Review by Greg L. Johnson.

Scott Idleman

White Light
Rudy Rucker
Four Walls Eight Windows (269 pages, trade, $13.95 US)
Publication date: 21 May 2001
Originally published in 1980 and hailed one of the more influential works in the development of cyberpunk. Felix Rayman is a professor of mathematics who is frustrated by his indifferent students and his contemplation of the infinite. "Then one day he loses his grip on reality altogether and slips headfirst into a multidimensional universe beyond the limits of time and space -- the place of White Light. With a jumbo-sized beetle by his side, Felix sets out on a journey like no other in contemporary science fiction."

Review by Peter D. Tillman.

Nick Paul

Trinidad Blue
Peter Torbay
eLandre Productions (e-book)
Publication date: May 2001
SF action-adventure techno-thriller available on CD. "Set in the Star Wars labs of the West Coast, and reaching its climax in fabled land-of-the-morning, exotic Bali. Code-named 'Tacit Trinidad,' Kestrel Corporation's new warbird technology was flawless. Its implementation would mean world dominance, for good... or for evil. But terrorists set the deadly weapons amok, as Nick Paul races to intercept a crypto-hacker group known only as Escuro Lado, before they can upload the launch codes to the highest bidder."

Read an excerpt.

J.H. Williams III,
Mick Gray & Jeremy Cox

Ancient Fire (Danger Boy #1)
Mark London Williams
Tricycle Press (169 pages, trade, $5.95 US)
Publication date: 2001
First in a new series for young readers, featuring time-travelling Eli Sands. He's a typical kid who likes baseball and video games. "So what's he doing in the middle of a burning city in ancient Egypt? Standing next to a highly evolved dinosaur from another planet? It all has to do with DARPA and the time sphere experiments. After the first 'accident,' Eli's mother disappears. After the second, Eli earns the corny codename Danger Boy. Now it's his mission to save his world and his family from a fatal disease that has slipped through time."

Harry O. Morris

Hosts: A Repairman Jack Novel
F. Paul Wilson
Gauntlet (cloth hardcover, 366 pages, $50 US)
Publication date: May 2001
Previous Repairman Jack novels are The Tomb, Legacies, Conspiracies and All the Rage. This time, "Jack finds himself pursued by an overzealous tabloid reporter who could destroy his desire for anonymity. And Hosts introduces Jack's sister whom he hasn't seen in years. While vulnerable, she possesses strength that seems to run in the family. A miracle drug that cures her lover's brain tumor has side-effects that threaten world-wide chaos."

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