But first I want to tell you about a great new book I read recently:

• 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Victor Gollancz, hc, 328 pages, October 2005, UK)
      Too often I find a novel is like a gorgeous but unwieldy kite; colourful, interesting and showing promise initially -- but the author proves entirely incapable of getting the thing off the ground. Not so here. 9Tail Fox is one of those rare novels where the author has a really cool idea, and actually manages to make it soar. The protagonist is a cop in San Francisco's Chinatown. During an investigation he is murdered. Then he wakes up in someone else's body. Now he has a chance to finish the case he was on, and find out who murdered him and why. This may be Grimwood's best work yet, and it's certainly going to feature high on my personal top 10 list for 2005.

(Books are listed alphabetically by author. Only books received are noted.)

SF Site Review

The Fall of Lucifer: Chronicles of Brothers, Book 1 by Wendy Alec
Realms (trade, 292 pages)
Publication date: 7 October 2005, USA

Cry of the Newborn: The Ascendants of Estorea, Book 1 by James Barclay
Victor Gollancz (trade, 819 pages)
Publication date: 20 October 2005, UK

King Kong is Back! edited by David Brin with Leah Wilson
BenBella Books (trade, 216 pages)
Publication date: November 2005, USA & Canada

Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
SF Masterworks #62, Gollancz (trade, 203 pages)
Publication date: November 2005, UK
    First published in 1954.

The Skyborn by Paul Collins
Starscape, Tom Doherty Associates (hc, 271 pages)
Publication date: 9 November 2005, USA & Canada

The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie, Notkin, Jeffrey D. Smith
Tachyon (trade, 272 pages)
Publication date (forthcoming): February 2006, USA
SF Site Review of The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1

Barry Trotter and the Dead Horse by Michael Gerber
Gollancz (mm, 306 pages)
Publication date: November 2005, UK
    From the author of Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody and Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel.

Shadow over Kiriath: Legends of the Guardian-King, Book 3 by Karen Hancock
Bethany House (trade, 464 pages)
Publication date: 2005, USA

Off the Main Sequence: The Other Science Fiction Stories by Robert A. Heinlein, edited by Andrew Wheeler
Science Fiction Book Club (hc, 738 pages)
Publication date: 4 November 2005, USA

A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4 by George R.R. Martin
Bantam Books (hc, 774 pages)
Publication date: 15 November 2005, USA & Canada
SF Site Review of Book 3, A Storm of Swords

Return to Olympus by John R. Mason
Golden Apple (trade, 202 pages)
Publication date (forthcoming): 7 January 2006, UK

The Ademian Line by Erna Olinger
FictionSpin (hc, 302 pages)
Publication date: May 2005, USA & Canada

The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson
Disney Editions (hc, 325 pages)
Publication date: October 2005, USA & Canada

Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Gollancz (trade, 532 pages)
Publication date: 3 October 2005, UK
SF Site Review

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
Victor Gollancz (hc, 458 pages)
Publication date: 1 November 2005, UK

Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer
Tor (trade, 349 pages)
Publication date: 9 November 2005, USA & Canada
SF Site Review

The Begum's Millions by Jules Verne, translated by Stanford L. Luce, edited by Arthur B. Evans
Wesleyan University Press (hc, 262 pages)
Publication date: 30 November 2005, USA
    First published in 1879 as Les Cinq cent millions de la Bégum.

City of Heroes: Web of Arachnos by Robert Weinberg
CDS Books (mm, 377 pages)
Publication date: October 2005, USA & Canada

Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins
Gollancz (mm, 435 pages)
Publication date: 13 October 2005, UK

Taken Liberty Steven H. Wilson
Firebringer Press (trade, 268 pages)
Publication date (forthcoming): 15 February 2006, USA

Magazines

Cthulhu Sex, Vol. 2, #22, USA & Canada
Contributors to this issue include: C.J. Henderson, Lynne den Hartog, Sean Kilpatrick, Jeffrey M. Somogyi, David Williams, Chris Ringler, G. Allen Wilbanks, John Sunseri,Adam P. Knave, Patrick Thomas, and others.

Interzone, #201, December 2005, UK
Contributors to this issue include: Richard Calder, Paul Di Filippo, Elizabeth Bear, Lauren McLaughlin, Jessica Reisman, and others.