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REVIEWS :
New & Notable Books



October 2008

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Sept New & Notable
Michael Andre-Driussi
Stephen Baxter
Elizabeth Bear
Greg Bear
Galen Beckett
Jenny Davidson
David Louis Edelman
Greg Egan
Gregory Frost
Rich Horton
James Patrick Kelly
William Schafer
Ekaterina Sedia
Charles Stross
Walter Jon Williams
Gene Wolfe

August New & Notable
Daniel Abraham
Scott Bakker
Francesca Lia Block
John F. Carr
Thomas M. Disch
Gardner Dozois
Greg Egan
Flint & Resnick
Gaiman & Russell
Hartwell & Cramer
Jay Lake
John Meaney
Naomi Novik
Alastair Reynolds
Leslie What


Locus Issues Archive

2008 Books Directories



LINKS
 

New & Notable Books: October 2008
posted 10 October 2008

John Joseph Adams, ed., Seeds of Change (Prime Books Aug 2008)

Paradigm shifts — moments of great change, whether scientific, cultural, political — are the focus for this original anthology of nine stories by authors including Jay Lake, Ken MacLeod, Mark Budz, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, and Tobias S. Buckell.



Stephen Baxter, Flood (Gollancz Jul 2008)

The flooding goes well beyond global warming in this SF novel of an inexorable inundation that over decades reaches truly Biblical proportions, leaving humanity scrambling to survive. The first of two volumes, to be followed, naturally, by Ark. "Baxter seems out to reinvent the classic disaster tale on its own terms...presented with spectacle and efficient pacing, Flood is a pretty effective entertainment." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Elizabeth Bear, Hell and Earth (Roc Aug 2008)

The second book in the Elizabethan fantasy duology begun in Ink and Steel (part of the Promethean Age series) finds Will Shakespeare feeling inadequate as he tries to cope with intrigues of both mortals and Faery. The duology makes "... a rich stew of heresy, faith, myth, literature, fairy tales, magic, and adventure... some of the year’s most artful, witty, and moving works of fantasy." [Faren Miller]



Tobias S. Buckell, Sly Mongoose (Tor Aug 2008)

An alien intelligence invades the domed cities high about the surface of the planet Chilo, where miners work in the deadly atmosphere like divers in pressure suits. Yet another in the multicultural SF series set in the world of Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin.



Daina Chaviano, The Island of Eternal Love (Riverhead Jun 2008)

This multigenerational tale of Cuban families is the first novel by a noted Cuban author to be translated into English. A Cuban journalist in Miami listens to an old woman’s stories of a haunted house and three families, tracing Cuba’s multicultural heritage in the process. "It’s a rich, moving, musical novel, which has already won the Best Spanish Language Book prize in the 2007 Florida Book Awards, and that only makes you wonder where the English versions are of the rest of Chaviano’s works." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium (Ballantine Del Rey Sep 2008)

People are randomly possessed by "demons" — archetypal or mythical personalities, or even comic-book characters — in this impressive first novel, a quirky contemporary fantasy set in a world where such demons started appearing in the 1950s. "... An unusually strong debut... Gregory’s appropriation of pop-cultural icons is shrewed, amusing, and... often surprisingly poignant." [Paul Witcover]



Joe Haldeman, Marsbound (Ace Aug 2008)

Colonization and first contact meet on Mars in this Heinleinian coming-of-age story from one of the SF’s masters. Adolescent Carmen Dula finds colony life frustrating — until she stumbles on aliens who give her a message for the human interlopers.



Marvin Kaye, ed., The Ghost Quartet (Tor Sep 2008)

The latest anthology of novellas from noted editor Kaye brings four new ghost stories from literary luminaries Brian Lumley, Orson Scott Card, Tanith Lee, and Kaye himself.



Benjamin Rosenbaum, The Ant King and Other Stories (Small Beer Press Aug 2008)

Rosenbaum displays an impressive range from traditional to the surreal in this collection of 17 stories, one new. "If pure intellectual play and conceptual legerdemain are your hankerings, this volume is splendid entertainment... Benjamin Rosenbaum is a consummate skater of the glittering surfaces of SF and fantasy, and [this] is a fine showcase of the ingenious figures he traces." [Nick Gevers] "Quite possibly the collection of the year, certainly the best first collection of the year." [Rich Horton]



John Scalzi, Zoe's Tale (Tor Aug 2008)

Scalzi returns to the Old Man’s War universe for this SF novel, a standalone YA running parallel to events of The Last Colony, following teenaged Zoe’s adventures on the new colony world of Roanoke.



Karl Schroeder, Pirate Sun (Tor Aug 2008)

The third novel in the Virga series, a post-singularity pirate adventure in the man-made worlds contained within the Virga sphere, finds Admiral Chaison Fanning escaping from his enemy captors in a series of wild adventures, "But it’s not all hidden panels and trapdoors and hairbreadth escapes and swordfights. The world itself remains a delight, a source of seemingly endless invention." [Russell Letson]



Lucius Shepard, The Best of Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press Aug 2008)

A hefty retrospective of the works of one of SF’s most noted writers of short fiction, this collection presents 17 stories, mostly award nominees, plus one Rhysling award-winning poem.



Ysabeau S. Wilce, Flora's Dare (Harcourt Sep 2008)

Flora’s efforts to learn magic against her father’s wishes take her out of her magical mansion into war-torn Califa, where she encounters strange monsters, earthquakes, and more in this young-adult fantasy novel, sequel to the critically acclaimed Flora Segunda.



Jack Williamson, Gateway to Paradise: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Six (Haffner Press Aug 2008)

The latest volume in this ambitious and authoritative collection of works by SF Grand Master Williamson features ten stories from 1940-41, plus four non-fiction pieces.



© 2008 by Locus Publications. All rights reserved.