New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

There's plenty of good reading out there, with new novels from Steven Brust, J. Gregory Keyes, Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross, Dennis L. McKiernan; a new anthology from Martin H. Greenberg & Alexander Potter; Gardner Dozois's annual Year's Best anthology; and a new autobiography from Piers Anthony. All this and plenty more...

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: 1 - 15 July 2001

Phil Howe

Behind Time
Lynn Abbey
Ace (mass market, $6.50 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Follow-on novel to Out of Time, from an author who is probably best known as the co-editor of the Thieves' World series. "Emma Merrigan was living the most ordinary of lives. But then her long-lost mother, Eleanor, gave her access to another world -- and to powers she never dreamed she could possess. Now Eleanor lies in a coma, her soul trapped n an unimaginable hell, her nightmarish screams a testament to her torment. She is haunted by her secrets, consumed by her memories. She is lost somewhere deep in the darkness -- and it's up to Emma to find her."

Darrell K. Sweet

How Precious Was That While
Piers Anthony
Tor (hardcover, $25.95 US/$36.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
This is an autobiography of one of fantasy's most prolific and bestselling authors -- actually, it's volume 2 of his autobiography, picking up where he left off in Bio of an Ogre (1989, from Ace). The present book "focuses on the past 15 years of Anthony's career as well as a few revealing episodes from his early years. As with the previous volume, Anthony writes frankly about his fellow writers, editors and fans."

Braldt Bralds

The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Del Rey (trade, $16.95 US/$25.95 Can)
Publication date: May 2001
Bradley's modern-classic retelling of Arthurian legend, told from the perspective of Morgan le Fey, hasn't been out of print since it first appeared in the early 1980s. The TNT mini-series has sparked the latest re-release, adding a little more mileage to the distinctive Braldt Bralds cover art.

Romas Kukalis

The Fall of Neskaya (The Clingfire Trilogy, Book 1)
Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross
DAW (hardcover, $24.95 US/$34.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
First in a new series set in Bradley's Darkover world during the era of the Hundred Kingdoms.

Stephen Hickman

Issola
Steven Brust
Tor (hardcover, $23.95 US/$34.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
In this latest addition to his bestselling series "Brust returns to the world of Vlad for a tale that sheds long-delayed light on the very fundamentals of Dragaera and its origins. A most improbably party tracks down Vlad Taltos, the sometime assassin currently on the run from his former associates. Lady Teldra, the infinitely charming chatelaine of Castle Black has come to enlist Vlad's help. His friends Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera e'Kieron have vanished, and neither sorcery nor telepathy can find them."

Tales from the Cloud Walking Country
Marie Campbell
University of Georgia Press (trade)
Publication date: 2000
First published in 1958 by Indiana University Press. "Assembled here are 78 stories and 6 of the 'ballad-singingest, tale-tellingest' residents of the eastern Kentucky mountain country. Based on stories rooted in European traditions from German fairy tales to Irish hero stories to Greek myths, the tales had been handed down through generations of telling before Marie Campbell collected them in the late 1920s and early 1930s."

Ashley Wood

Babylon 5: Summoning Light (The Passing of the Techno-Mages, Book 2)
Jeanne Cavelos
Del Rey (mass market, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Sequel to Casting Shadows, and based on the immensely popular TV series created by J. Michael Straczynski. "The explosive space epic continues, as the techno-mages come face-to-face with the devastating evil of the Shadows..." The third book in the series, Invoking Darkness, is forthcoming from Del Rey.

Cliff Nielson

Vanishing Acts
edited by Ellen Datlow
Tor (trade, $14.95 US/$21.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
In hardcover from Tor last summer, this SF anthology includes reprinted stories by Suzy McKee Charnas, Avram Davidson, Karen Joy Fowler, and Bruce McAllister plus 12 new stories from Joe Haldeman, Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDowell, Brian Stableford, Ted Chiang, and others. As the title suggests, each of these stories deals with the issue of endangered species -- "interpreted to include in some cases the human race."

Fred Gambino

The Astrologer: Wayward Moon
Denny DeMartino
Ace (mass market, $6.50 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Second in The Astrologer series, following Heart of Stone. "In the year 2130, the discovery of zero-point gravity changed everything. Now, the afterlife is no longer a mystery. Interplanetary travel is possible -- and increasingly popular. And forensic astrologers like Philipa Cyprion are solving crimes by way of the stars..."

Chris Moore

Valis
Philip K. Dick
Gollancz, SF Masterworks #43 (trade, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: July 2001
First published in 1981, only a year before his death. "It began with a blinding light. A divine revelation from a mysterious intelligence that called itself VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System). And with that, the fabric of reality was torn apart and laid bare so that anything seemed possible but nothing seemed quite right. It was madness, pure and simple. But what if it were true?"

The Year's Best Science Fiction: 18th Annual Collection
edited by Gardner Dozois
St. Martin's Griffin (640 pages, hardcover $29.95 US/$39.95 Can; trade $18.95 US/$26.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Once again, Gardner Dozois has tackled the overwhelming job of combing through the various genre magazines and anthologies to find the best science fiction of the year. Selections for the best short SF works of 2000 include stories from Ian McDonald, Michael Swanwick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Paul J. McAuley, Severna Park, Peter F. Hamilton, Lucius Shepard, Stephen Baxter, Brian Stableford, Steven Utley, Robert Charles Wilson, Nancy Kress and others.

Review by Charlene Brusso of last year's 17th Annual Collection.

The Queen's Necklace
Teresa Edgerton
Eos, HarperCollins (trade, 592 pages, $15 US/$22.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
A novel of fantasy, romance, suspense and court intrigue. "Centuries ago, humanity threw off the yoke of its Goblin masters and secreted the memories of their enslavers -- and their ensorcelled, bejeweled devices of power -- in the creation of a hundred kingdoms. Today, many believe Goblins are no more than myths. But the ancient Maglore are merely waiting, conspiring to regain domination by stealing -- gem by precious gem -- the enchanted stones long hidden by their former slaves. Now Wilrowan Blackheart, valiant Captain of the Queen's Guard, must put an end to the Maglore menace... or risk losing humanity's freedom forever."

Jody Lee

Assassin Fantastic
edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Alexander Potter
DAW (mass market, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
The latest of Greenberg's fantastic anthologies features 15 original stories of trained assassins from some of the biggest names in fantasy, "including: Mickey Zucker Reichert's first new story about the assassin Nightfall since the publication of her bestselling The Legend of Nightfall; a story about Tanya Huff's brother and sister assassins, Bannon and Vree, her protagonists in Fifth Quarter; and a tale about Michelle West's Kallandras, who has appeared in all of her novels, and who, with this story, finally reveals some, if not all, of his mysterious past." Other contributors include Stephen Leigh, Fiona Patton, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Rosemary Edghill, Jane Lindskold, P.N. Elrod, Josepha Sherman, and others.

Chuck Farris and the Tower of Darkness
Lois Gresh & Danny Gresh
ECW Press (trade, $6.95 US/$8.95 Can)
Publication date: 2001
Highly acclaimed author Lois Gresh has teamed up with her 12-year-old son Danny to write an unauthorized PlayStation2 novel. 13-year-old Chuck Farris has a new PlayStation2 with 5 new games. "After Chuck beats the first game, something strange happens to him. The next day in math class, Chuck realizes he's turned into the video game superhero! And so it goes. Every time Chuck beats a video game, he turns into the real-life superhero. At first, it's great... but being a video game superhero gets Chuck into trouble, too -- with his mother, his teachers, the principal, the basketball coach. It's hard to tame a superhero. When you've got power, you wanna use it!"

Gullah Folktales from the Georgia Coast
Charles Colcock Jones, Jr.
University of Georgia Press (trade reprint)
Publication date: 2000
Originally published in 1888 under the title Negro Myths from the Georgia Coast, this book has been largely out of print and unavailable for well over a century. "Jones saw the stories as a coastal variation of Joel Chandler Harris's inland dialect tales and sought to preserve their unique language and character... The tales range from the humorous to the instructional and include stories of the 'sperits,' Daddy Jupiter's 'vision,' a dying bullfrog's last wish, and others about how 'buh rabbit gained sense' and 'why the turkey buzzard won't eat crabs.'" Also included (at the end of the book) is a handy glossary of 19th-century Gullah words.

Terese Nielsen

The Shadows of God (The Age of Unreason, Book 4)
J. Gregory Keyes
Del Rey (trade, $15 US/$23 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Previous books in this series are, in order, Newton's Cannon, A Calculus of Angels and Empire of Unreason. "As the ruthless forces of Russia lay waste to the New World, English troops make landfall in the east, determined to reconquer the colonies. Trapped in between lies a motley collection of Native Americans, ex-slaves, and refugees of the European catastrophe, led by [Benjamin] Franklin and the Choctaw shaman Red Shoes. In that struggle, Red Shoes may prove his most potent ally... and his most dangerous threat."

Review by S. Kay Elmore of Newton's Cannon.

Jerry Vanderstelt

The Glasswrights' Progress
Mindy L. Klasky
Roc (mass market, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Two years after the action of The Glasswrights' Apprentice, Rani Trader is rebuilding the Glasswrights' Guild. "But a betrayal from within the castle itself snares Rani in a deadly web of deception and intrigue. Across the ocean the bloodthirsty King Sin-Hazar plans to take Morenia by any means necessary. And he is well prepared to do so, for his army is like none other. They are utterly dedicated. They are eerily obedient. They are entirely children..."

Review by Steven H Silver of The Glasswrights' Apprentice.

John Sullivan

King Kelson's Bride
Katherine Kurtz
Ace (mass market, $7.50 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
First published in hardcover last summer, this is a triumphant return to the magical Medieval realm of Gwynedd in the first Deryni novel since The Bastard Prince (1994). It begins with the coming of age of King Liam of Torenth. Although Torenth and Gwynedd are mortal enemies, Liam has been living as a squire at Kelson's court. When the boy attains his majority, it is time for Kelson to undertake an embassy to return Liam to his own land...

Review by Steven H Silver.

Paul Robinson

Son of the Sword
J. Ardian Lee
Ace (trade, $14 US/$20 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Debut fantasy novel of romance, swordplay and time travel. Dylan Matheson is a relatively ordinary guy, with an interest in martial arts, swordfighting and all things Scottish. Then one day at a Medieval Fair he picks up an ancient broadsword and is instantly transported to a hillside in Scotland hundreds of years into the past, the victim of an ancient spell designed "to find a hero to help the Scots in their struggles against the English..."

Judy York

Eccentric Circles
Rebecca Lickiss
Ace (mass market, $5.99 US/$8.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
In this debut novel, Piper Dickerson inherits her grandmother's Victorian cottage, full of books and manuscripts. "But what the will didn't specify is that the back door... is the gateway to a magical adventure beyond her wildest dreams. And it is also a gateway to something darker -- as Piper discovers the truth about her grandmother's death, and the evil she must face to save two worlds..."

Wolf's Brother
Megan Lindholm
Voyager, HarperCollins (mass market, £5.99 UK)
Publication date: July 2001
Second part of a two-book sequence, originally published in 1988, from the author who is perhaps better known as Robin Hobb. The first part, also republished by Voyager, is The Reindeer People.

Running on Instinct
N.M. Luiken
Forge (hardcover, $25.95 US/$36.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Nicole Luiken, author of several YA novels, now offers her first adult thriller with elements of the supernatural. "Four seemingly separate lives, each torn apart by violence and danger, inexorably drawn together by fate and circumstance... Unless they can unravel the mystery of a barely remembered nursery rhyme, they'll have little chance to survive."

Once Upon A Winter's Night
Dennis L. McKiernan
Roc (hardcover, $23.95 US/$33.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
From the author of the Mithgar series, comes this retelling of a fairy tale called "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," freely adapted and enlarged by the author.

Chris E. Lewallen

The Serpent's Tale
edited by Gregory McNamee
University of Georgia Press (trade)
Publication date: 2000
Subtitled "Snakes in Folklore and Literature," this is a collection of "some 50 diverse and unusual accounts of serpents from cultures across time and around the globe: snakes that talk, jump, and dance; snakes that transform into other creatures; snakes that just... watch."

Judy York

Flightless Falcon
Mickey Zucker Reichert
DAW (mass market, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
Reprint of the July 2000 DAW hardcover from the author of the Renshai books. The survivor of a mine collapse now lives with a phobia of going underground, making him unfit or the only job he knows. "Left with no other choice, Tamison was forced to do what once would have been unimaginable to him. Either he would steal food or see his dear family starve. Caught in the act, Tamison is sentenced to a chain gang. And when he is finally released, he discovers that his family has vanished, sending him on a daunting, treacherous quest to reclaim them -- and reclaim his life."

The Stochastic Man
Robert Silverberg
Gollancz SF Collectors' Edition (trade, £10.99 UK)
Publication date: July 2001
First published in 1975. "Lew Nichols is in the business of stochastic prediction. A mixture of sophisticated analysis and inspired guesswork, it is the nearest man can get o predicting the future." Or is it? Nichols is in the employ of a presidential candidate when he encounters a man who not only knows the future, but is willing to teach Nichols to see it too.

Fred Gambino

Alien Taste
Wen Spencer
Roc (mass market, $6.50 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
"Ukiah Oregon isn't your average man. He's not even your average human..." Abandoned as a child and raised by wolves, his heightened sense of smell and taste make him a superb tracker. And his photographic memory comes in handy, too. But when he draws the attention of a violent and secretive gang of killers known as the Pack, he discovers "a bond of brotherhood, blood... and destiny."

Bob Warner

First Landing
Robert Zubrin
Ace (hardcover, $21.95 US/$30.99 Can)
Publication date: July 2001
In this first novel from the renowned astronautical engineer and Mars visionary, "the first exploratory mission to Mars is stranded, and a small group of scientists is left to survive, Robinson Crusoe-style, in a cramped environment on a hostile world..."

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