New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Recent arrivals include brand new titles from Katherine Kurtz, F. Paul Wilson, Martha Wells, Eve Forward, Storm Constantine, William C. Dietz, Douglas Niles, Mickey Zucker Reichert, and 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: 15 - 30 June 2000
Part II

Chris Moore

Bloom
Wil McCarthy
Millennium (mass market reprint, 310 pages, £6.99 UK/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: May 2000
When this was first published in 1998, SF Site's Guest Reviewer Mark Sumner was of the opinion that nothing in the SF/fantasy field stirs more excitement than the emergence of a new, honest-to-Asimov science fiction writer who aspires to the mantle of a Clarke, or seeks a place among the "Killer B's." In his earlier work, Wil McCarthy hinted (strongly) that he was a contender for the pantheon of the hardware gods. With Bloom, he assures his ascension. "In the late 21st century, man-made, self replicating organisms called mycora -- smaller than bacteria -- mutate and sweep across the globe in a chain reaction so swift and deadly there is no time to do anything but flee from an Earth destroyed by the science created to sustain it. How can the remnants of humanity, clinging to the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter hope to overcome something which, if it obeys the laws of physics, will overwhelm the cosmos."

Review by Mark Sumner.

This is the Way the World Ends
James Morrow
Victor Gollancz (trade, 319 pages, £9.99 UK)
Publication date: May 2000
Part of the Collectors' Edition SF reprints: this one is the 1986 satire of total annihilation, from the author of Towing Jehovah, The Eternal Footman and The Continent of Lies. "When George Paxman, a contented tombstone engraver in a quiet Massachusetts backwater, is offered a bargain, he doesn't hesitate for long. The deal is that his beloved daughter gets an otherwise unaffordable anti-radiation scopas suit to protect her. And all George has to do is sign a document admitting that, as a passive citizen who did nothing to stop it, he has a degree of guilt for any nuclear war that breaks out. George signs on the dotted line. And then the unthinkable happens. The world and everyone in it -- with or without a scopas suit -- is destroyed in a nuclear armageddon. Except for George and five others. And now George must face prosecution. His accusers are those who will never now be born, and his crime is having done nothing to stop a nuclear conflagration."

Jean Pierre Target

Circle at Centre: Book One of the Seven Circles Trilogy
Douglas Niles
Ace Fantasy (trade, 390 pages, $13 US/$19 Can)
Publication date: June 2000
The first book of a new trilogy from one of the co-creators of the Dragonlance series and the author of the Watershed Trilogy. "In the realm of the Seven Circles, harmony has reigned since time immemorial, but that's about to change. Disaffected members of all the races are gathering into a force that may spell the doom of the Seven Circles. Strangers to brutality and warfare, these inhabitants need a champion who can teach them to defend themselves. For this, they recruit warriors from a world where only the strong survive -- a primitive world where life lasts only as long as you can fight for it -- a world called Earth."

Chris Moore

Man Plus
Frederik Pohl
Millennium (trade, 217 pages, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: May 2000
This novel of cyborg technology won the Nebula in 1976; the next year Pohl won the Nebula again for his now classic novel, Gateway. He is the author of countless other novels and short stories since the 1950s. "Ill luck made Roger Torraway the subject of the Man Plus Program, but it was deliberate biological engineering which turned him into a monster -- a machine perfectly adapted to survive on Mars. For according to computer predictions, Mars is humankind's only alternative to extinction. But beneath his monstrous exterior, Torraway still carries a man's capacity for suffering."

Josh Kirby

Eric
Terry Pratchett
Millennium (mass market reprint, 160 pages, £4.99 UK/$7.99 Can)
Publication date: 11 May 2000
This Discworld novel was first published in 1990. "Eric is the Discworld's only Demonology hacker. Trouble is, he's no good at it. All he wants it the usual three wishes -- you know: to live forever, rule the world and have the most beautiful woman in the world fall in love with him. What else? But what Eric didn't bargain for is Rincewind and Rincewind's hostile travel accessory, the Luggage. All he wanted was a tractable demon; instead he got the most incompetent wizard in the universe. And with them on his side Eric is bound to make another wish -- this time that he'd never been born..."

Judy York

Flightless Falcon
Mickey Zucker Reichert
DAW (hardcover, 323 pages, $23.95 US/$33.99 Can)
Publication date: 10 July 2000
From the author of the Renshai books comes an all-new fantasy. "Tamison had been a miner until the cave-in that took the lives of his brother and father, and trapped him behind a wall of rubble cut off from light and life for what seemed like eternity. When he was finally rescued, Tamison was so traumatized by the experience that he was left with a paralyzing fear of venturing underground. But as the years passed, he rebuilt his life, started a family, and searched for work everywhere he could. But, work was nowhere to be found. 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."

Gordon Crabb

Spirit Fox
Mickey Zucker Reichert and Jennifer Wingert
Millennium (mass market reprint, 386 pages, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: May 2000
"Kiarda was destined to be spirit-linked to a fox, sharing thought, emotion and even physical sensation, but when the cub was destroyed at the moment both it and Kiarda were being born, its spirit has nowhere to go but into the infant girl's own body. And now, though all the dwellers of the Marchlands are at risk, the Mages have singled out for total annihilation the magic-gifted healers and the spirit-linked. Targeted for destruction, what chance does Kiarda have?"

Orbitsville
Bob Shaw
Victor Gollancz (trade, 187 pages, £9.99 UK)
Publication date: May 2000
Victor Gollancz Collectors' Edition SF. First published in 1975 (by Gollancz), this novel sparked a number of sequels and was one of the first books to make use of the Dyson Sphere. "When the young son of Elizabeth Lindstrom, the autocratic president of Starflight, falls to his death, Vance Garamond, a flickerwing commander, is the obvious target for Elizabeth's grief and anger. She is not a forgiving employer and Garamond has no choice but to flee. But fleeing Elizabeth's wrath means leaving the Solar System behind forever and hiding somewhere in deep space. Pursued remorselessly by Earth's space fleet, the 'somewhere' that Garamond discovers is an unimaginably vast, alien-built, spherical structure which could just change the destiny of the human race."

The Martyring
Thomas Sullivan
Tor (trade, 255 pages, $13.95 US/$19.95 Can)
Publication date: June 2000
This gothic-flavoured crime novel was first published in 1998 in hardcover, and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. "Kurt seeks to become worthy of the Hauptmann dynasty. Through his family he is heir to the mystery of creating stained glass that sings the glory of God, and to other arcane heritages. One of the family secrets is a path to divinity that runs through darkness as well as light. Another is the family's bond of blood, its own and that of its enemies. What is the strangeness in Uncle Detlef, head of the stained glass studio? Why has he descended from his cathedral roofs to steeplejack the perils of a secular world? Why do the family's holy rites seem perverse? Most of all, why are men getting killed in bizarre, archaic ways here in south Florida? As Kurt gropes toward the truth, so does the tough and cynical cop, Jack Skelote. What lies before them is a limbo of murdered martyrs, unblessed, unholy, and unburied."

Adrian Chesterman

Singer From the Sea
Sheri S. Tepper
Victor Gollancz (426 pages, trade £9.99 UK / hardcover £16.99 UK)
Publication date: 18 May 2000
Returning to a common theme, Tepper explores the consequences of mankind inserting itself into an alien world and running afoul of the complex and interwoven alien ecosystems. In this case, the world of Haven is only one of many settled after good ol' Earth got used up. But on Haven the mysterious "batfly fever" selectively targets, and kills, nursing women. The result is that women have a limited life expectancy while men, and the men of the aristocracy in particular, live a very, very long time.

Review by Robert Francis.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora
edited by Sheree R. Thomas
Aspect, Warner Books (hardcover, 448 pages, $24.95 US/$34.95 Can)
Publication date: July 2000
As well as being a writer and poet in her own right, Sheree R. Thomas is the editor of the literary journal Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora. Who better, then, to edit this collection of more than a century of fantastic fiction from time-honoured and nascent names of the African diaspora, including W.E.B. Du Bois, George S. Schuyler, Samuel R. Delany, Charles W. Chestnutt, Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia Butler, Steven Barnes, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed and many more. "Astonishing, compelling, erotic, and profound stories of worlds within and beyond abound in this landmark anthology."

Donato Giancola

Wheel of the Infinite
Martha Wells
Avon Eos (hardcover, 368 pages, $24 US/$36.50 Can)
Publication date: June 2000
Her last novel, The Death of the Necromancer, was voted the #2 book of 1998 by SF Site readers and #3 by SF Site contributors. And in spite of the fact that her new book is only her 4th novel, I think she's one of the best fantasy writers to hit the scene in the past 10 years. The setting of Wheel of the Infinite is a wondrously exotic world, strongly reminiscent of Southeast Asia. More specifically, it evokes the glorious civilization of Cambodia in the 12th and 13th centuries, with occasional whiffs of inspiration from Tibet and India. The story follows Maskelle, the Voice of the Adversary, and her companions/allies in their encounters with strange insurgents from another world, murderous water spirits, possessed corpses, cursed puppets, murdered priests, magical assassins and a scheming courtier.

Harry O. Morris

All the Rage
F. Paul Wilson
Gauntlet Publications (cloth hardcover, 380 pages, $50 US)
Publication date: 25 June 2000
A new Repairman Jack novel to compliment The Tomb, Legacies and Conspiracies. "The hot new substance that's sweeping the city goes by many names, but its most common street handle is Berzerk. Not just for all-night raves, it's worming its way into daily life at all levels. Used in just the right amount, it enhances performance in any field; but take too much and you veer into mindless murderous rage. The street folk don't call it Berzerk for nothing. As Jack tracks Berzerk through a maze of legal and illegal pharmaceuticals, he makes an enemy of high-profile hood Milos Dragovic. Soon Dragovic's goons are threatening those Jack holds most dear. And when Jack uncovers the terrifying truth behind Berzerk's ultimate source, he realizes that a maleficent force far greater than Milos Dragovic is at work..."

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