* Asher, Neal : Line War
(UK: Tor UK 1-4050-5501-4, £17.99, 503pp, hardcover, April 2008, jacket illustration Steve Rawlings)

SF novel, latest in the ongoing Polity series that began with Gridlinked in 2001. In this book agent Ian Cormac investigates seemingly indiscriminate attacks by an AI entity on Polity worlds.
• The author's books page has the dust jacket description, as does the UK publisher's site.
• This Fantasy Book Critic interview with Asher discusses how this title is intended to be the conclusion of the Ian Cormac sequence.

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* Battis, Jes : Night Child
(Ace 978-0-441-01602-0, $6.99, 292pp, mass market paperback, June 2008, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Fantasy novel, the author's first novel, about an Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver's Mystical Crime Lab investigating the unusual circumstances in a vampire's death.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• The author's website includes this excerpt and quotes from reviews. He also writes blog Occult Special Investigator.

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* Dantec, Maurice G. : Cosmos Incorporated
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49993-6, $15, 448pp, trade paperback, May 2008)

Dystopian SF novel set in a future when UniWorld monitors all of humanity via a vast computer metastructure. Translated from the French by Tina A. Kover.
• Del Rey's description calls this "the first major English translation of one of France's most admired writers"; it was first published in France in 2006. Del Rey also has an excerpt.
• Faren Miller reviews the book in the May issue of Locus Magazine, calling it "an exercise in metafiction, metaphysics, philosophy, and dystopian SF that I found maddening and compelling in about equal measure, but despite the aggravations I kept on reading without regret."

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+ Fallon, Jennifer : The Immortal Prince
(Tor 978-0-7653-1682-0, $27.95, 512pp, hardcover, May 2008, jacket art Cliff Nielsen)

Fantasy novel, first in new series The Tide Lords, about a murderer who survives his own hanging and proclaims himself to be the legendary Immortal Prince. The book was first published in Australia in 2007.
• Tor's website has this description.
• The author's site has this page for the series with forthcoming titles, including the second and third volumes, already published in Australia.
• The Publishers Weekly review called it a "complex saga" that "intertwines several vividly realized plots"; the review concludes "With snappy dialogue and deft characterizations, especially of her sympathetically drawn canine Crasii, Fallon neatly pulls the story threads together into a multihued tapestry of myth, deceit and ambition."

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* Golden, Christopher, & Tim Lebbon : Mind the Gap
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-38469-7, $12, 370pp, trade paperback, June 2008, cover art Stephan Martiniere)

Fantasy novel about a teenaged girl pursued by mysterious "Uncles" into the Underground tunnels of London. It's the first novel in the Hidden Cities series.
• Bantam's site has description and an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes "Occasional gaps in the story logic are easy to miss amid the super-fast pacing and creepy touches that give this teen adventure plenty of character."

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* Jones, William : The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson
(Chaosium 978-1568822204, $14.95, 238pp, trade paperback, April 2008, cover art Steven Gilberts)

Collection of 10 inter-related stories, subtitled "Horripilating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos", about a man who comes into possession of a manuscript from his great grandfather. The author provides a foreword and an afteerword. Four of the stories were previously published, and slightly reworked for this edition.
• The publisher's site has this order page with a description.
• Amazon has a long reader review by Matthew T. Carpenter

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* Koontz, Dean : Odd Hours
(Bantam 978-0-553-80705-9, $27, 352pp, hardcover, May 2008, cover by Tom Hallman)

Horror novel, the fourth Odd Thomas novel following Odd Thomas (2003), Forever Odd (2005), and Brother Odd (2006), about a young man who can see spirits of the dead. In this book Odd tangles with local thugs and a terrorist conspiracy.
• The author's site has this page for the book. Bantam's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has an short "exclusive essay" by Koontz, "Destiny and Odd Hours".
• The Publishers Weekly review began "Quirky humor and an endearing narrative voice lift bestseller Koontz's winning fourth Odd Thomas novel..."

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* Kress, Nancy : Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories
(Golden Gryphon Press 978-1-930846-50-0, $24.95, 11+324pp, hardcover, May 2008, jacket art Thomas Canty)

Collection of 13 stories, first published from 2000 to 2006, including the title story, which placed 2nd in that year's Locus Poll for best short story; "Savior", shortlisted for the Sturgeon Award; and "My Mother, Dancing", a Nebula Award finalist.
• Mike Resnick provides a Foreword.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed the book in the April issue of Locus Magazine. He particular admires the final two stories, "Mirror Image" and "My Mother, Dancing", which he says are "both conceptually and technically stunning". Wolfe concludes that like those stories and "the best of the other stories here, [they] suggest that Kress can reach beyond mastery of technique, and generate provocative and complex art as well. She may be a master mechanic, but she also knows who to populate her stories with."

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* Ruckley, Brian : Bloodheir
(Orbit 978-0-316-06770-6, $14.99, 520pp, trade paperback, June 2008, cover illustration Gene Mollica)

Fantasy novel, middle book of "The Godless World" trilogy following Winterbirth (2007), about war between the clans of the Black Road and the True Bloods.
• The author's site has this synopsis.
• The Publishers Weekly review warns that "New readers will be utterly lost and fans left impatient for book three."

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* Stevenson, Jennifer : The Brass Bed
(Ballantine 978-0-345-48688-4, $6.99, 299pp, mass market paperback, April 2008)

Paranormal romance novel, first of a series, about a consumer affairs fraud investigator who checks out a possible sex therapy scam and discovers the attentions of a 200-year-old sex demon.
• Ballantine's site has this description.
• The author's website has this excerpt. She writes blog Smoking Pigeon Sighted in Rogers Park.

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* Stevenson, Jennifer : The Velvet Chair
(Ballantine 978-0-345-48669-1, $6.99, 305pp, mass market paperback, May 2008)

Paranormal romance novel, second in the series about Chicago fraud investigator Jewel Heiss, after The Brass Bed. This book concerns a swindler selling beauty via a "Venus Machine".
• Ballantine's site has this description.
• The third book is due next month - The Bearskin Rug.

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* Williams, David J. : The Mirrored Heavens
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-38541-0, $12, 409pp, trade paperback, June 2008, cover art Paul Youll)

Military/dystopian science fiction novel, the author's first novel, about 22nd-century counterintelligence agents searching for the insurgent group Autumn Rain, that claims responsibility for the destruction of the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition-build Space Elevator.
• Bantam's site has this description, with blurbs from Stephen Baxter, Nancy Kress, Peter Watts, and others, an excerpt, and a video trailer.
• Official book site http://www.autumnrain2110.com/ has background, excerpts, and a blog.
• Amazon also has blog posts by the author.

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