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MONITOR

Jan-Feb
Herbie Brennan
Jack Dann
Gardner Dozois
Harlan Ellison
Diana Wynne Jones
Henry Kuttner
Keith Laumer
Jonathan Lethem
George R.R. Martin
Andre Norton
Mary Rosenblum

December
Neal Asher
Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler
Robert A. Heinlein
Fritz Leiber
Dan Simmons
Cordwainer Smith
Bruce Sterling
Patrick Suskind
Vernor Vinge
Martha Wells
Walter Jon Williams

2007 Monitor Archive

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This page compiles selected classic and otherwise-notable SFFH works newly available in any edition, hardcover or paperback.

For recent books just reprinted in paperback, see New in Paperback.

These lists are compiled independently of Locus Magazine's Books Received listings; publishers may send review copies to the Locus Online address on this page.

Date with publisher info is official publication month;
Date in parentheses at paragraph end is date seen or received.

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Books seen March 2007
posted 9 April 2007

* Anderson, Poul : To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories
(Baen 1-416-52113-5, $14, 501pp, trade paperback, March 2007, cover art Bob Eggleton)

Collection of two short novels and 5 stories. The title story, serialized in Galaxy in 1967, is about a runaway starship that experiences relativistic effects as it gets closer and closer to to the speed of light -- though not mentioned in the book's description, it was the basis for Anderson's classic hard SF novel Tau Zero, published in 1970. The second novel, After Doomsday, was published as a book in 1962 and earlier in Galaxy as "The Day After Doomsday"; it's about human explorers returning to Earth to find it devestated by aliens.
• The five stories are Hugo Award winner "No Truce with Kings", "Progress", "Un-Man", "The Big Rain", and "Epilogue".
• Baen's site has this description and the entire text of the title story (some 27,600 words).

(Wed 14 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bova, Ben : The Sam Gunn Omnibus
(Tor 0-765-31617-X, $29.95, 704pp, hardcover, February 2007, cover art Vincent di Fate)

Collection of 19 stories about space entrepreneur Sam Gunn, including the contents of two earlier collections, Sam Gunn, Unlimited (1992) and Sam Gunn Forever (1998), plus two new stories and four not previously collected, rearranged for this edition with new bridging material.
• Tor's website has this description -- "A man with the ego (and stature) of a Napoleon, the business acumen of a P. T. Barnum, and the raging hormones of a teenage boy, Sam is the finest astronaut NASA ever trained...and dumped." -- and excerpts from reviews.
• Amazon has the same description, and a review by Harriet Klausner.

(Wed 7 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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Cook, Glen : Passage at Arms
(Night Shade Books 1597800678, $14.95, 231pp, trade paperback, March 2007, cover art John Berkey)

Military SF novel about the human crew of a trans-hyperdrive 'climber' ship as it engages in war with the alien Ulat. It was first published by Popular Library/Questar in 1985.
• Night Shade Books' site has this description... "Passage at Arms tells the intimate, detailed and harrowing story of a climber crew and its captain during a critical juncture of the war. Cook combines speculative technology with a canny and realistic portrait of men at war and the stresses they face in combat. Passage at Arms is (or should be!) one of the classic novels of military science fiction."
• The Locus Index to Science Fiction has this description by Faren Miller of the original edition: "Taut, convincingly gritty sf novel narrated by a war correspondent in the future. Recommended."

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Dann, Jack, & Gardner Dozois, eds. : Dangerous Games
(Ace 978-0-441-01490-3, $7.99, 11+276pp, mass market paperback, April 2007, cover art AXB Group)

Anthology of 11 stories about high-risk games of the future, first published from 1958 to 2005.
• Authors are Robert Sheckley ("The Prize of Peril"), Cory Doctorow ("Anda's Game"), Kate Wilhelm, Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge, Jonathan Lethem, Gwyneth Jones, William Browning Spencer, Alan Steele, Terry Dowling, and Jason Stoddard ("Winning Mars").

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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de Lint, Charles : Memory & Dream
(Orb 0-765-31678-1, $15.95, 400pp, trade paperback, February 2007, cover art John Howe)

Contemporary urban fantasy novel, first published by Tor in 1994, set in the fictional town of Newford, about an artist whose paintings bring to life magical creatures.
• Tor's website has this description with excerpts from reviews.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Library Journal reviews of the original edition; PW said the author's "multi-voiced, time-shifting narrative (the story spans 20 years) beautifully evokes a sense of creative community, making it almost possible to believe that the rarified aesthetic atmosphere might well be capable of conjuring up a spirit or two."

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* McKillip, Patricia A. : Cygnet
(Ace 0-441-01483-6, $15, 406pp, trade paperback, March 2007, cover illustration John Howe)

Omnibus of two fantasy novels, The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991) and The Cygnet and the Firebird (1993), about a young man's quest to save his family.
• Amazon has a reader review by top-10 reviewer E.A. Solinas, who calls it "the story of a sorcerous family and the mysterious forces that shape their world" with "the intoxicating mixture of unique magic, invisible dragons, and McKillip's shimmering prose".
• Green Man Review has this review by Sara Sutterfield Winn: "The Cygnet series is a pair of books worthy of McKillip's reputation for the numinous and lovely. Both are full of magic, though they are as different as two sides of the same golden coin...."

(Wed 7 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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Panshin, Alexei : Rite of Passage
(Fairwood Press 0-978-9078-2-5, $16.99, 255pp, trade paperback, February 2007, cover art Cory and Catska Ench)
(First edition: Ace Special, July 1968)

SF novel about a young girl aboard a starship that tests its children by sending them on a month-long trial to survive in the wilds of a colony planet.
• The novel won the 1969 Nebula Award (over PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, among others), and has long been regarded as an homage to the 'juvenile' novels of Robert A. Heinlein, about whom Panshin wrote a book-length study.
• The publisher's website has this order page and description.
• Amazon has the same description, and numerous 4 and 5-star reader reviews.

(Tue 20 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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Powers, Tim : Expiration Date
(Orb 0-765-31752-4, $15.95, 381pp, trade paperback, March 2007, cover art Sara Hayward)
(First edition: UK: HarperCollins UK, March 1995)

Contemporary fantasy novel about a ghost-filled Los Angeles and a young boy who inhales the last breath of Thomas Edison.
• The book forms a loose trilogy with novels Last Call (1992) and Earthquake Weather (1997). It won the 1996 Locus Award as best horror/dark fantasy novel, and was nominated for the World Fantasy and Nebula awards.
• Tor's website has this description with quotes from reviews.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

(Thu 22 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Silverberg, Robert : The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg: To Be Continued
(Subterranean Press 1-59606-061-1, $35, 392pp, hardcover, August 2006)

Collection of 24 stories from the beginnings of Silverberg's career, including "Gorgon Planet", "The Road to Nightfall", "To Be Continued", "Warm Man", "The Iron Chancellor", and "Ozymandias", first published from 1953 to 1958.
• Silverberg's introduction explains that this is the first volume in a new series of collected stories, independent of two earlier attempts in the 1990s, and that this series will publish stories in the order originally written. Silverberg also provides introductions to each story, detailing the circumstances in which they were written and sold.
• Subterranean's website has this order page with the complete table of contents. The second volume, To the Dark Star: 1962-69, is due in June.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Though none of his best-known or award-winning stories are included, these selections, which Silverberg deems the best of his early era, illustrate his apprenticeship and presage the Grand Master he has become."

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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Stephenson, Neal : Snow Crash
(SFBC 978-0-7394-8023-6, $12.99, 454pp, hardcover, February 2007, jacket art Stephan Martiniere)
(First edition: Bantam Spectra, June 1992)

Cyberpunk/comic SF novel set in a future in which people spend most of their lives in cyberspace, about a computer virus called Snow Crash and a pizza delivery boy named Hiro Protagonist.
• This edition is #33 in the Science Fiction Book Club's 50th Anniversary Collection. The club's website has this description. -- "In the near future, Americans excel at only two things: writing software and delivering pizza in less than 30 minutes." -- and a member review.
• Stephenson's website has a description from an earlier Bantam edition: "Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison--a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age..."

(Tue 6 Mar 2007) • (Directory Entry)

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* Vance, Jack, edited by Terry Dowling & Jonathan Strahan : The Jack Vance Treasury
(Subterranean Press 1-59606-077-8, $38, 633pp, hardcover, January 2007, cover by Tom Kidd)

Collection of 18 stories from throughout the author's career, including award winners and classics "The Last Castle", "The Dragon Masters", "The Moon Moth", "The Gift of Gab", "The Men Return", and "The New Prime".
• The book includes a preface by Vance, an appreciation of Vance by George R.R. Martin, and an introduction by the editors. Vance provides afterwords to each story, plus a concluding "Biographical Sketch & Other Facts".
• Subterranean's website has this description and order page, which indicates the trade edition is sold out, with a $125 limited edition still available. The trade edition listed here is still available from Amazon, apparently; click on title or cover image.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Though the dearth of significant female characters makes the collection feel dated, Vance's stylistic bravado and lush, baroque prose create compelling worlds that blur the line between fantasy and far-flung future-world SF."
• Russell Letson's review for Locus Magazine has been posted online: "It's long past time to rediscover Jack Vance -- again. The selection showcases most of Vance's characteristic modes and moods: out-and-out fantasies, science-fantasy, relatively hard science fiction, and that hard-to-categorize variety of fantastic tale that can only be called 'Vancean.'"

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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Vinge, Joan D. : Psion
(Tor 0-765-30340-X, $15.95, 364pp, trade paperback, March 2007)

Young adult SF novel about a half-human, half-alien orphan telepath named Cat.
• This 25th anniversary edition includes related novella "Psiren", first published in New Voices 4 in 1981, plus a new introduction by the author, who followed this book with Catspaw (1988) and Dreamfall (1996).
• Tor's website has this description with an excerpt.

(Wed 28 Mar 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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