The SF Site: New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Changeling Hearts
Simon Harding
PAN paperback
Contemporary Fantasy-Horror novel set in the UK as the denizens of a fantasy otherworld come pouring into the small town of Clove.

The Scrying Game
Andrew Harman
Legend paperback
More Pratchett-style lunacy from the author of The Sorcerer's Appendix and 101 Damnations. Harman has built up quite a following among our readers.

101 Damnations
Andrew Harman
Legend paperback
From the author of A Sorcerer's Appendix and the Frogs of War. Funny fantasy àla Pratchett and Holt.

Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (Cthulhu Cycle Book #5)
Daniel Harms
Chaosium trade paper
Chaosium's excellent Cthulhu fiction line nicely compliments their Call of Cthulhu gaming publications, which more than anything else has been responsible for the recent deluge of all things Cthulhuian. This handy volume, first published in 1995, is an excellent reference guide to the sprawling, multi-tentacled body of work that is Cthulhu fiction. You need it. "When H.P. Lovecraft first created the Cthulhu Mythos it was little more than a collection of obscure terms and unpronounceable names. Since that time in the late 1920s and 1930s, with the inclusion of other authors and their additions to the body of lore, the depth and detail of the Mythos has grown... This release is an important guide to the Cthulhu Mythos, including every detail inhumanly possible, arranged in an alphabetic format and extensively cross-referenced."

Wolf's Bane
Tara K. Harper
Del Rey paperback
Fifth adventure in Harper's popular Tales of the Wolves series. "Through her telepathic bond with wolves, Dion the Wolfwalker alone held the secret healing power of the ancients. But now dark forces were destroying all she held dear, and her only hope of saving herself--and the wolves--lay with the mysterious and deadly beings of the sky."

Grayheart
Tara K. Harper
Del Rey paperback
Volume four in the Tales of the Wolves series that moves beyond the original trilogy with a new Wolfwalker and her cub.

Cataract
Tara K. Harper
Del Rey paperback
This is the sequel to Cat Scratch Fever.

I Who Have Never Known Men
Jacqueline Harpman
Avon/EOS (paperback, 206 pages, $3.99 US/$3.99 Canada)
Publication date: June 10, 1998
Admit it -- it's a catchy title. This is the first of Belgian Jacqueline Harpman's novels to be translated from French, and it's a chilling and surreal work of post-apocalypse fiction. It is a time after some great (and only distantly comprehended) disaster. Forty women, including one child, are kept alive in an underground bunker and watched over by mute, whip-toting male guards. When one day a siren sounds and the guards flee, the women are suddenly free... free to explore a world that they do not remember, and which may or may not be Earth. Note special introductory price.

Accidental Creatures
Anne Harris
Tor (hardcover, 287 pages, $23.95 US/$33.95 Canada)
Publication date: July 9, 1998
Helix has always been a little... different. When she arrives in Vattown -- a rough squatters village where vat divers live and die, mutated by exposure to the toxic liquids they swim to harvest biopolymers for megacorp GeneSys -- she quickly becomes a diver herself. But unlike those around her, Helix finds herself drawn to the deadly contents of the vats. And when she ventures into that toxic sea, she feels an irresistible urge to remove her protective suit. Helix is about to discover one of the darkest secrets GeneSys has, one that may bring the great corp to its knees... and which certain people would do anything to conceal. An SF thriller by the author of the next-gen lesbian cyberpunk novel The Nature of Smoke.

The Nature of Smoke
Anne Harris
Tor trade paper
Reprint of an exciting debut novel of the near future. When Magnolia flees from her life in the slums of Detroit she finds herself in New York, where she nearly becomes the victim of a snuff broadcast. Her dynamic escape and revenge is broadcast live, and is enough to catch the attention of the mysterious Dr. Remus Rahul, who brings Magnolia into his organization. His hope is to use her as a template for his latest creation -- a new and superior line of androids. But Magnolia has other plans, and is more resourceful than even Rahul may think.

The City of Exile
Deborah Turner Harris
Ace
The co-author (with Katherine Kurtz) of the Adept series brings us the conclusion to the historical fantasy saga that began with Caledon of the Mists and The Queen of Ashes. Queen Mhairi of Caledon and her great enemy, King Edwin of Beringar, arrive at the City of Exile to end their bitter war. For the sake of peace Mhairi is prepared to give up the Anchorstone... but her opponents have other ideas.

Art: Dennis Lyall

Stars & Stripes Forever
Harry Harrison
Del Rey (hardcover, 338 pages, $24.95 US/$35 Can)
Publication date: November 8, 1998
Why is it that nearly half of alternate histories on the market deal revolve around the U.S. Civil War? Is it a conspiracy? Are all the others wars boring? Or is there something more sinister as work? "On November 8, 1861, in the Bahama Channel close to Cuba, a U.S. navy warship stopped a British packet and seized two Confederate emissaries on their way to England. England responded with rage. The looming crisis was defused... but what if fate had intervened, and Britain seized the opportunity to attack and conquer a crippled, war-torn America? Ulysses S. Grant is poised for an attack that could smash open the South's defenses. But then disaster strikes: English troops have invaded from Canada. With most of the Northern troops withdrawn to fight the new enemy, General William Tecumseh Sherman and his weakened army stand alone against the Confederates. At sea, the wooden American navy faces the threat of the British iron battleship H.M.S. Warrior. As Queen Victoria and her prime minister, Lord Palmerston, seek total destruction, Confederate president Jefferson Davis and President Lincoln must make crucial decisions under fierce pressure. Stars and Stripes Forever asks -- and then fascinatingly answers -- a central question: Could a divided, bloodied America have defeated England, or would the United States have ceased to exist for all time?"

The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell
Harry Harrison
Tor hard cover
Wow. With a title like that, what more can you say? Another enjoyable romp with the Rat. Slippery Jim diGriz has lost his wife on a pleasure planet in the Temple of Eternal Truth. With the help of his twin sons and a "sexy superspy" he heads out to the rescue--and wind up in hell. Satan better watch his back.

King and Emperor
Harry Harrison
Tor
Third and concluding volume of the Hammer and the Cross series. In a period of the Dark Ages that never was, Shef, a visionary and warrior whose accomplishments have changed the course of history, must face the reborn strength of the Roman Empire itself.

One King's Way
Harry Harrison and John Holm
Tor paperback
Alternate history where the Vikings conquered Britain-- sequel to The Hammer and the Cross.

Signs of Life
M. John Harrison
St. Martin's hard cover
A mainstream novel with a fantasy twist from the British SF writer, author of A Storm of Wings. At a friend's wedding Mick Rose, a drifter who's fallen into a shady waste-disposal job, falls for Isobel Avens, who dreams of flying. As Mick's business expands Isobel's dreams begin to fade, and soon she flies into the arms of one of his clients, where she undergoes mysterious--and illegal--treatments.

Society of the Mind
Eric. L. Harry
HarperPaperbacks paperback
An electronics billionaire offers Harvard psychology professor Laura Aldrich $1 million for one week of work. How do you psychoanalyze a computer anyway?

Mars Underground
William K. Hartmann
Tor hard cover
A rather timely novel of near-future Mars colonization. When a famous biologist and diehard stationed at an international Mars research station -- the man who's lived on the red planet longer than any other -- disappears in the Martian desert, it's cause enough for alarm. But the mystery of his disappearance soon gives way to a much greater puzzle: evidence that humanity is not the first sentient race to set foot on Mars.

Books Edited by David Hartwell

World of Darkness: Dark Tyrants
edited by Rob Hatch
White Wolf trade paper
From the author of A World of Darkness : Strange Things on Heaven and Earth comes an original anthology inspired by White Wolf's World of Darkness line.

Birthright: War
Simon Hawke
TSR trade paper
Latest in the Birthright series of novels that began with The Iron Throne and Greatheart, War is an epic of ambition and conflict that offers a glimpse at the Anuirean power struggle after the death of the Emperor Michael Roele.

The Ambivalent Magician
Simon Hawke
Warner Aspect paperback
Dr. Marvin Brewster of The Reluctant Sorcerer is back, trapped in a parallel universe with his runesword dwarfkabob. The only problem is that the evil wizard he is destined to defeat is already engaged in a battle of wills with the author of the tale, Simon Hawke.

Starlight 1
Patrick Nielsen Hayden, ed.
Tor hard cover and trade paper
Hayden is quoted as saying "Short fiction is the R&D laboratory in which SF constantly reinvents itself--where SF writers take chances, kick out the jams. It's no accident that short fiction has been crucial to each period of major ferment and invention in the modern history of the field. It is, if you will, the garage rock of SF". First in a new original anthology series.

Ronin
R. A. Heeley
Llewellyn (trade paperback)
Darkness and Light Book 2; the sequel to Lilith.

Books by Robert A. Heinlein

The Stones of Stiga (The Shunlar Chronicles, Book 3)
Carol Heller
Avon Eos (paperback, 308 pages, $5.99/$7.99 Can)
Publication date: June 8, 1999
Sequel to The Gates of Vensunor and The Sands of Kalaven. "Separated for nearly two years, Shunlar has returned to her former lover. Ranth, to present him with their son. Forces have conspired to sunder the deep bonds that once existed between them, and Shunlar now believes that she loves another. But she has greater problems to contend with than her own troubled heart. Someone has carved spells of death into Ranth's body, and foul treachery and war threaten the desert city of Kalaven. If any are to be saved, the secret of the dragons must finally be revealed and what is dead and forgotten must rise again and bring forth life. For the power to answer all questions lies deep within the ruins of a deserted city, locked inside the Stones of Stiga."

The Sands of Kalaven (The Shunlar Chronicles, Book 2)
Carol Heller
Avon/EOS (paperback, 276 pages, $5.99 US/$7.99 Canada)
Publication date: June 10, 1998
Sequel to Heller's 1997 fantasy debut, The Gates of Vensunor. "The divine oracle predicts ill for Shunlar and Ranth, young lovers who are on separate missions of discovery into their clouded, magic-filled pasts. Shunlar, who has dragon's blood coursing through her veins, is racked by frightening dreams --and though the stunning warrior is unaware of it, she now harbors strange and perilous new powers. Shunlar's path leads to the desert sands of Kalaven, where she will face an unexpected destiny."

The Gates of Vensunor
Carol Heller
AvoNova paperback
A first novel, and Book One of the Shunlar Chronicles. In ancient days the magic city of Vensunor was founded -- a place where scholcars and students of the mystical arts were welcomed. But over the ages the vision of Vensunor has become polluted... and evil now reigns in the city.

Star Wars: The Magic of Myth
Mary Henderson
Bantam Spectra trade paper and hardcover
A handsome tribute volume, simultaneously released in hardcover and trade paperback, which ties in with the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum major Star Wars exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the movies. This lavishly illustrated volume explores the mythological, historical, and cultural influences behind George Lucas's masterpiece. 500+ photos & illustrations.

The Incredible Hulk: Abominations
Jason Henderson
Boulevard
From the author of The Iron Thane and The Spawn of Loki comes a new novel featuring one of the Hulk's strongest foes. The Abomination has allied himself with URSA, a cartel dedicated to restoring the glory of the old Soviet Empire. But the Abomination is interested in only one thing: vengeance. And he'll stop at nothing to get it.

Phil Hefferman

Standing Wave
Howard V. Hendrix
Ace (paperback, 386 pages, $6.50 US/$8.99 Can)
Publication date: September, 1998
Hendrix's first novel was Lightpaths, one of the most intriguing original paperbacks of last year. The tale of an orbiting space station/habitat, it was simultaneously a return to classic SF themes and something highly original. Now he revisits that world for a tale of alien contact. "In the near future, humanity will encounter a vast new intelligence. It is virtually immeasurable. It is beyond alien -- and it is coming. Hendrix unleashes an electrifying new novel that returns to the universe he created in his national bestselling debut, Lightpaths."

Quest For a Maid
Frances Mary Hendry
FSG/Sunburst trade paper
A grand 13th-Century adventure of heroism, witchcraft, and compelling historical detail, now in its seventeenth printing. Meg's sister Inge is a witch, and the spell she uses to kill King Alexander of Scotland triggers an upheaval which may destroy the entire country. When Meg herself is chosen to make the dangerous journey which will return the rightful Queen, she finds herself opposing her sister's will... and in the process discovering more inner strength than anyone could have expected. An ALA Notable book.

Portent
James Herbert
HarperPrism
Light vs. dark in an epic struggle. Can two children save a world falling apart around them? According to the London Sunday Times, it "delivers a breathtaking finish, its dazzling special effects conveyed with the panache of a literary Steven Spielberg."

'48
James Herbert
HarperPrism hard cover
Newest novel of horror from the author of Fluke, Haunted, and Moon. It's three years after the Allies went down to bitter defeat in World War II. Hitler has hit London with V2 rockets holding a deadly virus. Only those with AB negative blood -- 3% of the population -- survive, and roving gangs of dying Blackshirts roam the city like vampires, looking for fresh supplies of AB-negative blood to prolong their own lives. And in the bowels of the broken city a deadly treason propels a handful of survivors into a cataclysmic clash with the forces of evil.

Full Spectrum 5
Jennifer Hershey, Tom Dupree, and Janna Silverstein, ed.
Bantam Spectra paperback
Fifth in the series of cutting-edge speculative fiction that includes stories by such authors as Neal Stephenson, Jonathan Lethem, Lisa Mason and Karen Joy Fowler.

A Point of Honor
Dorothy J. Heydt
DAW paperback
What appears to be a first novel from Dorothy J. Heydt; a fast-paced, well-written book of Virtual Reality and the Middle Ages. If you're a fan of virtual reality, the Middle Ages and chase scenes, this may be what you've been looking for.

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