New on the shelves are novels from Chris Bunch, Tony Daniel, Alan Dean Foster, Alastair Reynolds, and others; a collection from Kristine Kathryn Rusch; the first new Earthsea book in a decade, from Ursula K. Le Guin; classic reprints from Robert E. Howard, James Blish, Michael Moorcock, Samuel R. Delany, Frederik Pohl -- and a whole lot more besides. Books are listed alphabetically by author. Only books received are noted. Where available, links to SF Site reviews and book excerpts are provided. | |
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Stephen Baxter Victor Gollancz (278 pages, hardcover £16.99 UK; trade £9.99 UK) Publication date: 19 April 2001 Sequel to Silver Hair (Book 1) and Longtusk (Book 2). "Transported as embryos to Mars as part of an effort to revive the species the mammoths were left behind when the Mars colony failed... Icebones is the only one who can ensure the survival of the mammoths; she alone can teach them to inherit their New World --but will she succeed?" Review by Steven H Silver of Longtusk. |
James Blish Victor Gollancz SF Collectors' Edition (trade, £9.99 UK) Publication date: May 2001 This collection of 4 inter-related stories was first published in 1957. "You didn't make an Adapted Man with just a wave of the wand. It involved an elaborate constellation of techniques, known collectively as pantropy, that changed the human pattern in a man's shape and chemistry before he was born. And the pantropists didn't stop there. Education, thoughts, ancestors and the world itself were changed, because the Adapted Men were produced to live and thrive in the alien environments found only in space. They were crucial to a daring plan to colonize the universe." | |||
Britina Bovet Pelican Pond (trade, 176 pages, $14.95 US) Publication date: March 2001 "Many of Earth's people have already been evacuated to other worlds, but to save those who remain, another place is desperately needed. Earth's laws require that the local ruling system approve the request for evacuation. But on Enseha the Hierarchy has been illegally instituted by Earth people, and patriarchal laws still prevail among the natives... well, most of them. Duncan MacEnzie, Lord of the South Land, against all laws and traditions, has trained his daughter, Belinda, as a warrior and raised her to rule..." |
Chris Bunch Warner Aspect (mass market original, 408 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can) Publication date: 1 May 2001 Swashbuckling adventure from the author of The Seer King, The Demon King, The Warrior King and The Empire Stone. "For years the Linyati slavers have raided the coasts of Saros with impunity -- leaving chaos and disarray in their wake. That is until a man of fearless daring, swashbuckling captain Gareth Radnor, takes command of the carrack Steadfast... and of destiny itself." | |||
Jonathan Carroll Victor Gollancz (hardcover, £16.99 UK) Publication date: May 2001 Latest novel from the World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Land of Laughs, The Marriage of Sticks, From the Teeth of Angels, Outside the Dog Museum and several others. One day, Frannie McCabe, the 47-year old police chief of Crane's View, New York, adopts a sickly 3-legged dog. But within a few days, the dog is dead. Frannie's attempts to bury the dog seem to set in motion a series of increasingly surrealistic events. The strangeness starts out small; the buried dog disappears, and needs to be reburied. The dog turns up again, sort of, in an Old Master painting. Review by Rich Horton. |
Elaine Cunningham Wizards of the Coast (mass market original, 320 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can) Publication date: April 2001 Sequel to The Magehound. The 3rd volume, The Wizardwar, is scheduled to appear in March 2002. "The battle of Akhlaur's Swamp is over, and its heroes part ways... Hidden from them both, the Magehound broods. She cannot forgive those who drove her from power, and she will stop at nothing to be avenged. Her bitterness ensures that Akhlaur's Swamp was only the beginning for them all." | |||
Tony Daniel Eos, HarperCollins (hardcover, 437 pages, $26 US/$39.50 Can) Publication date: April 2001 From the author of Earthling, Warpath and the collection The Robot's Twilight Companion. "The human race has extended itself into the far reaches of our solar system -- and, in doing so, has developed into something remarkable and transcendent. The inner system of the Met -- with its worlds connected by a vast living network of cables -- is supported by the repression and enslavement of humanity's progeny, nanotechnological artificial intelligences -- beings whom the tyrant Amés has declared non-human. There is tolerance and sanctuary in the outer system beyond the Jovian frontier. Yet few of the oppressed ever make it past the dictator's well-patrolled boundaries. But the longing for freedom cannot be denied, whatever the risk..." |
Samuel R. Delany Vintage Books, Random House (trade, 816 pages, $18 US/$27 Can) Publication date: 22 May 2001 Reprinted here is Delany's classic (and cult classic) novel, one of the most profound (and difficult) science fiction novels ever published. "Bellona is a city at the dead centre of the United States. Something has happened there... The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. Into this disaster zone comes a young man -- poet, lover, and adventurer -- known only as the Kid. Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and ground-breaking work of American magical realism." Foreword to this edition by William Gibson. | |||
Matthew Farrell EOS, HarperCollins (mass market original, 400 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can) Publication date: 8 May 2001 Here's a first novel of first contact from a new voice in SF. "In the last years of the 21st century, a wormhole -- dubbed Thunder Rift -- opens between our solar system and another. An obvious construction, its existence defies explanation. But after Thunder, came chaos: the energy output of the rift shattered the fragile links that held Earth's high technology together, and the only world young Taria Spears knew collapsed. Years later a huge exploratory ship, Lightbringer, funded by the United Nations, ventures into the rift as it sets off on a mission of discovery..." Review by Hank Luttrell. |
Alan Dean Foster Del Rey, Ballantine (hardcover, 330 pages, $24 US/$36 Can) Publication date: 5 June 2001 After a considerable sabbatical from the novels of Flinx and Pip, Foster has finally returned to his Humanx universe. While delving into his own past, trying to find out about his evolving empathic powers and his increasingly excruciating headaches, Flinx finds some information that leads him into AAnn space, where "the reptilian Aann are more likely to eat human visitors than welcome them. Awaiting Flinx is a planet brimming with hidden dangers and astonishing discoveries. But nothing so dangerous, or so astonishing, as the unexpected return of an old enemy: an enemy as evil as she is beautiful..." | |||
Jon Courtenay Grimwood Earthlight, Simon & Schuster (hardcover, 330 pages, £12.99 UK) Publication date: May 2001 From the author of neoAddix, Lucifer's Dragon, reMix and redRobe. "El Iskandryia is North Africa's most urbane city. A metropolis where cultures meet and clash, and money buys you everything but safety. On the run from a Seattle prison, Ashraf Bey finds himself main suspect in an Iskandryian murder, hated by the woman he was supposed to marry and responsible for the welfare of his 9-year-old cousin... In a world where Germany won the First World War, where the Middle East is still dominated by the Ottoman Empire and where crime goes unpunished, as long as you're a member of the elite... If Ashraf Bey is to survive in Iskandryia he must turn detective to uncover answers to questions about himself and the city that holds him in its embrace. Answers that may be factually accurate but are not necessarily true." |
Robert E. Howard Gollancz, Fantasy Masterworks #16 (trade, 575 pages, £7.99 UK) Publication date: 26 April 2001 This is the second of a definitive two-volume collection of Howard's Conan stories, in chronological order, exactly as he wrote them, and published here as part of the Fantasy Masterworks series from Victor Gollancz. "Conan the Cimmerian: he rose from boy-thief and mercenary to become King of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could oppose the barbarian warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian Age." Review by Georges Dodds of Vol. 1: The People of the Black Circle. | |||
Miller Lau Earthlight, Simon & Schuster (mass market original, 500 pages, £6.999 UK) Publication date: April 2001 Début novel from a new name to watch for. Duncan Talisker has just spent 15 years in prison for murdering 6 young women in Edinburgh. Except he didn't do it. But as soon as he's released, another young woman is killed in the same manner. Meanwhile, "on the world of Sutra an ancient prophecy comes near to fruition, which will lead to further deaths in Scotland. But Talisker is the only one who can complete the cycle of good and evil in the other world which will lead to an entire race coming home..." |
Elfie Leddy Pelican Pond (trade, 520 pages, $21.95 US) Publication date: June 2001 Another first novel. "Tannis MacCrae, a world famous sculptor, must complete a Quest to delve into her former life as Taenacea, Lady of Lianarth, in the 1400s in order to be reunited with her soulmate. The Quest involves reliving portions of Taenacea's life. Tannis learns how her counterpart's actions led to the death of her loved ones and the slaughter of a thousand of her people. Tannis will have to use the knowledge that she gains to make decisions that will either cause history to repeat itself or change its course." |
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