The SF Site: New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy

The titles are sorted alphabetically by authors' last name. Links have been added to lead to related articles, excerpts, and other Web pages which might prove of interest. The cover thumbnail is a link to a larger version. A More button leads to further titles for this letter.

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Witchcraft
Jill Michaels
Zebra paperback
Lady Eva is Queen of the Coven of the Dark Dream. With each act of sacrifice her followers perform, her powers grow. But what she most needs can only be obtained from the child of a white witch. Molly Daniels is a descendant of witches, and when her daughter Daphne is taken Molly discovers the true nature of evil.

Sister to the Rain (The Rosie Lavine Mysteries, Book Two)
Melisa Michaels
Roc (paperback, 320 pages, $5.99 US/$7.99 Can)
Publication date: October 1, 1998
The sequel to the "elf punk" novel Cold Iron -- in which California private investigator Rosie Lavine was hired to protect the lead singer of an elfrock band -- sees Rosie and her partner Shannon Arthur once again becoming entangled in the affairs of elves. "After her tragic mishandling of the Cold Iron case, private investigator Rosie Lavine is putting her life back together and questioning her love affair with ex-Cold Iron member Killer. To distract her from her personal life, she agrees to uncover the identity of a mischief-maker in a small artists' community. But this case only increases Rosie's anxiety as one of the artists is her former lover, whose father she was forced to kill in self-defense. As she wrestles with her conflicting emotions, the trouble within the community turns deadly, and suddenly Rosie has a murderer to catch...." From the author of Skirmish and Through the Eyes of the Dead .

Cold Iron
Melisa Michaels
Penguin/Roc
Urban fantasy of the punk elves variety. Rosie Lavine is a private investigator hired to protect the lead singer of an elf-rock band. But she's not prepared for the dark secret of the Fairie magic behind their music. Now she's got an act of her own to perform, one that may be the only chance to get out of this mess with her skin intact.

[Forgotten Realms] War in Tethyr
Victor Milan
TSR paperback
It's volume two of The Nobles after King Pinch.

Ingenious Pain
Andrew Miller
Harcourt Brace hard cover
James Dyer is a man with a brilliant talent and a heart of ice. He also is a freak of nature, a man impervious to pain since his birth in 18th-century England. At first on display as a freak in county fairs, Dyer eventually turns to medicine. As a surgeon he excels, and his inability to feel either physical pain or empathy for it in others only enhances his skill with a knife. As he cuts his way to fame he finally arrives in Russia, where he comes face to face with the mystery of his own abilities -- and an opportunity at last to learn compassion. First US release.

Ladylord
Sasha Miller
Tor paperback
Lady Javere is the favoured child of the Qai, Lord of the Third Province. On his deathbed he names her his "son" and heir to rule after him. But to do so Javere must accomplish an impossible task set for her by the First Lord--a "fool's errand" from which she is unlikely to return.

Drawn to the Grave
Mary Ann Mitchell
Leisure
Debut novel from Mary Ann Mitchell, based on her cult-classic short story "The Hyacinth Girl." "Beverly thought she had found something special with Carl, until she realized that he had stolen from her. But he hadn't just taken her money or her property--he had stolen her very life. Suddenly, she was helpless and alone, able only to watch in growing despair as her flesh began to decay and each day transformed her more and more into a corpse--a corpse without the release of death."

Art: ChoppingBlock

Proxies
Laura J. Mixon
Tor (hardcover, 444 pages, $24.95 US/$34.95 Can)
Publication date: September 10, 1998
Laura Mixon (whose previous title was her debut novel, Glass Houses) is just the latest example of that alarming new trend: the talent-hoarding family. Her husband is Steven Gould, author of Helm, Jumper, and Wildside. Like other husband-and-wife author teams (such as John Barnes & Kara Dalkey, or Nancy Kress & Charles Sheffield) and author families (Mike & Laura Resnick, Steve and Melanie Tem), they're just exacerbating the current talent disparity -- not to mention that they're undoubtably breeding a super-race of next generation uber-authors. I'm telling you, something's going on, and it's creepy. "A broad, fascinating SF novel of murder, intrigue, family loyalty, and humanity's first steps to the stars, set in an immensely plausible near-future American Southwest scorched by global warming."

Books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

Star Wars: Junior Jedi Knights #4: Anakin's Quest
Rebecca Moesta
Boulevard trade paper
No, no, not that Anakin (although I'd love to read the adventures of the young Darth Vader, too). This one is Luke Skywalker's nephew, and he's been having terrible dreams of a secret cave on Dagobah. The latest young adult volume from the co-author of

More Amazing Stories
edited by Kim Mohan
Tor: hard cover
"Amazing Stories," the first and longest-running SF magazine in history, ceased publication in 1996 -- until Wizards of the Coast, TSR's new owners, recently announced plans to revive it. Now its editor has assembled the stories intended for the final issue, along with several classic reprints, into a handsome hardcover volume. Includes work by Don Webb, Eleanor Arnason, Robert Silverberg, and a classic Philip K. Dick story from the '50s.

Independence Day: Silent Zone
Stephen Molstad
HarperPrism
A follow-up to the huge media spectacle of last year. "Where did the aliens come from, and why did they choose Earth? What about Roswell and Area 51? How could such a huge government coverup be possible? This book confronts these questions in a chilling story which reveals generations of conspiracy, denial, and danger." We're ready to believe.

The Blood of the Covenant
Brent Monahan
St. Martin's Press
The sequel to The Book of Common Dread, an understated but effective horror novel from 1995. "Princeton University librarians Simon Penn and Frederika Vanderveen have rescued an ancient document from dark, destructive forces. But to reveal its dread prophecy they must decipher a dead vampire's diaries, locked away in Switzerland. Stalking the pair across Europe is the high prince of the night, and soon--if he can regain the scrolls --the first of a terrifying new breed who will consume humanity."

The Bell Witch: An American Haunting
Brent Monahan
St. Martin's Press hard cover
From the author of the often-chilling The Book of Common Dread and The Blood of the Covenent comes a new novel of horror.

Photo: Phil Banko

Night of Broken Souls
Thomas F. Monteleone
Warner Aspect (reprint, paperback, 435 pages, $6.50 US/$8.50 Can)
Publication date: October, 1998 (First Printing 1997)
Latest horror-thriller by the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Blood of the Lamb and The Resurrectionist. "An apocalyptic thriller in the grand tradition of Dean Koontz. When psychiatrist Michael Keating notices a strange trend in which people all over the globe are experiencing vivid -- and chillingly accurate -- past-life memories of dying during the Nazi Holocaust, he calls on the assistance of an orthodox rabbi to help him investigate the phenomenon, only to discover that these people are being stalked by a vicious killer."

The Resurrectionist
Thomas F. Monteleone
Warner paperback
An up-and-coming politician discovers his unique ability to raise the dead after a plane crash in the Florida Everglades. Now the opposition can't have that, can they?

Once a Hero
Elizabeth Moon
Baen hard cover
Esme Suisa didn't ask to become the youngest and lowest ranking member of Fleet ever to win a major battle. But when fate and mutiny turn Esme into a hero, what she wants from life has very little to do with what life wants from her. From the author of Remnant Population, also from Baen.

Remnant Population
Elizabeth Moon
Baen paperback
Ofelia refuses to be relocated, and finds herself happily alone on an abandoned planet. But nothing lasts, and new settlers arrive. When previously hidden, stone-age aliens slaughter the newcomers, only Ofelia can save the aliens from Earth's wrath. Moon's latest, Once a Hero, is out this month as well.

Books by Michael Moorcock

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Christopher Moore
Sphere (hardcover, 304 pages, $23 US)
Publication date: April, 1999
Christopher Moore is the author of Practical Demonkeeping and Bloodsucking Fiends. He doesn't write science fiction, not really. But he writes weird stuff and we like him, so he's here. "It's September in Pine Cove, California, where the tourists have finally decamped for the season, the sun is slanting through the trees, and the local psychiatrist has just decided to switch everyone from antidepressants to placebos without telling them. Suddenly, business is booming at the Head of the Slug Saloon, where a melancholy blues man from the Mississippi Delta has settled in for the winter. Unfortunately for the town's newly minted blues fans, however, a colossal sea beast is also drawn to the sound of the slide guitar. When a tanker truck explodes at the local gas station, it's the first sign that all hell is about to break loose in Pine Cove."

Island of the Sequined Love Nun
Christopher Moore
Avon Books hard cover
What else could you execpt from the ever-inventive Moore, author of Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue, and Bloodsucking Fiends? Corporate pilot Tucker Case is a geek in a cool guy's body, but he'll need more than looks to get him out of trouble when a transvestite navigator takes him over shark-infested waters right into a typhoon. Washing up half dead on an island of cannibals who call themselves the Shark People, he finds himself in the middle of a cargo cult involving Dr. Curtis and his sexpot wife, the sequined love nun, who are selling the organs of Shark People to a Japanese firm. Original and very funny.

Jirel of Joiry
C.L. Moore
Ace
Sometimes titled Black God's Shadow, this collection of Moore's stories of the "fiery warrior woman" Jirel reprints the 1930's-vintage tales from the great pulp magazine Weird Tales, including "Black God's Kiss" and "The Dark Land." Alone and with her husband, Henry Kuttner, Moore wrote some of the classics of the field, including Earth's Last Citadel and Judgement Night.

Forgotten Realms: Errand of Mercy
Roger Moore
TSR paperback
The latest fantasy from the former editor of Dragon magazine, fourth in the Double Diamond Triangle Saga (which includes The Abduction and The Paladins). Lord Piergeiron's paladins arrive in the Utter east in pursuit of the kidnappers who took his wife-to-be. There they are welcomed by the king, who is willing to aid their quest if they will but perform a service for him.

Bring the Jubilee
Ward Moore
Del Rey trade paperback
Del Rey brings a neglected alternate history classic back into print with Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee. The Confederacy won the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution fizzled, and the U.S. remained a nation of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, and highwaymen. By the 1920s the Union is a backwater dominated by the superpower Confederate States. Hodgins Backmaker is an ineffectual scholar of American history, sent back in time back to witness the battle of Gettysburg -- and face a decision that could shake history.

Jeff Barson

Leopard Lord
Alanna Morland
Ace (paperback, 260 pages, $5.99 US/$7.99 Can)
Publication date: March 1, 1999
A romantic fantasy from a debut author. Quality genre romances are a tough find on the shelves these days -- let's hope this one delivers. It certainly has promise, with a cast and stage properties that include were-leopards, dueling deities, and the pursuit of true love. Varian is the heir to Leopard's Gard, a barony whose mountainous lands form a barrier between the populous countries of the south and the northern wastelands controlled by an evil, nameless god. For fifty years Leopard's Gard has suffered from brutal rulers, under a series of barons in league with a dark power, and it looks like Varian's legacy will dictate his actions as well. In desperation he makes a terrible bargain: that the woman he marries will be a gift to the dark god, in exchange for his land's freedom. But Varian didn't count on falling in love...

[Babylon 5] Clark's Law (#4)
Jim Mortimore
Dell paperback
A mass murderer arrives on the station and in an accident loses his identity. Will Sheridan carry out orders to execute the felon who has no memories of his deeds?

Duane O. Myers

The First Casualty
Mike Moscoe
Ace (paperback, 325 pages, $5.99/$7.99 Can)
Publication date: January 1, 1999
Mike Moscoe debuted with an ambitious splash -- the first novel in a sprawling SF series, the Lost Millennium Trilogy, which was completed last year. His first work outside that span is a novel of intrigue and interplanetary war. Asteroid Miner Mary Rodrigo and freighter owner Mattin Abeeb fight on the same side, as new draftees of the Society of Humanity, fighting to defend a planet they've never even set foot on: Earth. Ray Longknife and Senior pilot Rita Nuu are career soldiers on the opposite side. All four are about to discover something shattering: the truth about this grand and terrible conflict.

Second Fire (The Lost Millennium, Vol. 2)
Michael Moscoe
Ace
It is 4,000 BC, and to save the People of the Badger from extinction Lt. Launa O'Brian and Captain Jack Walking Bear have no choice but to teach them the art of war. For the survival of this wise and peaceful tribe may well be civilization's only hope to erase the brutal history that lies ahead for the human race.

First Dawn
Mike Moscoe
Ace paperback
Volume one of the Lost Millennium, a designer plague threatens Earth and two 21st century soldiers travel back in time to win a war that was lost six thousand years ago.

Mars Attack #2: War Dogs of the Golden Horde
Ray W. Murill Ballantine Del Rey paperback
There are books you buy for the plot, there are books you buy for the author, and then there are books you buy 'cause, well, you just gotta have every book with the phrase "war dogs" in the title. Inspired by the Tim Burton film. And a lot of old 50's drive-in movies, we can safely assume.

For the Emperor
Christine W. Murphy
Hard Shell Word Factory electronic book
Hard Shell Word Factory is an ambitious and energetic new company at the very forefront of modern publishing -- producing electronic books from emerging authors in a variety of genres. Their books are available for download or in disk form, with marketing and production values far above much of the competition. They've provided us with three of their latest titles, all from relative newcomers, but each looks worthy of your attention. "Jameelah is a rebel in a far future galaxy, opposed to an Evil Emperor -- and Alec is a Triden officer, face to face with an Imsada terrorist. When the two find themselves together in a runaway escape pod, their lives begin to intertwine in ways that surprise them both."

Nadya
Pat Murphy
Tor hard cover
Another departure from the acclaimed author of The Falling Woman and The City, Not Long After, this one follows the adventures of the title character on the Missouri frontier in the 1830's, before and after the Change that sets her apart.

Cat Raise the Dead
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
HarperPrism
The third Joe Grey novel, for cat lovers who love mysteries. This time kidnappers are a paw in a seniors' home, and the Animal Therapy cuddle kitty is on the job!

Cat under Fire
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Harperprism paperback

Cat on the Edge
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
HarperPrism paperback
A mystery novel with a touch of whimsy as its told from the perspective of the only witness to the crime--the cat's. Nothing new in that, but it looks pretty precious to a cat- lover (alas not moi).

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