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NEWS : Monitor Listing



New Books: 1st week April
Katherine Allred
Austen & Grahame-Smith
Chris Beckett
Jedediah Berry
Karen Chance
Brian D'Amato
Ellen Datlow
Kate Griffin
Peter F. Hamilton
Steve Holland
Kollin & Kollin
Juliet E. McKenna
Pati Nagle
Daniel M. Pinkwater
Anton Strout
Jaye Wells
George Zebrowski

New Books: late March
Taylor Anderson
Lois McMaster Bujold
Rachel Caine
Adam-Troy Castro
Czerneda & St. Martin
Gordon Dahlquist
Charles de Lint
Eric Flint
Jo Graham
Greenberg & Coleman
Tom Lloyd
John Meaney
L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Kenneth Oppel
Margaret Ronald
Kris Saknussemm
Kari Sperring
Allen Steele
Matthew Sturges
Catherynne M. Valente
Jules Watson

2009 Monitor Listings Archive

2009 Books Directories



KEY

This page lists selected newly published SFFH books seen by Locus Online (independently from the listings compiled by Locus Magazine).

Review copies received will be listed (though reprints and reissues are on other pages), but not galleys or advance reading copies. Selections, some based only on bookstore sightings, are at the discretion of Locus Online.

* = first edition
+ = first US edition
Date with publisher info is official publication month;
Date in parentheses at paragraph end is date seen or received.

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New SF/F/H books: second week April 2009
posted 21 April 2009

* Abé, Shana : Treasure Keeper
(Bantam 978-0-553-80685-4, $22, 310pp, hardcover, April 2009, jacket illustration Juliana Kolesova)

Fantasy romance novel set in the world of the author's The Dream Thief (2007), about drádon, magic-users in 1766 England.
• The author's website has this description with quotes from reviews. Bantam's site has this description, with an interactive reader including an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "...Abé neatly evokes the adolescent frustration of fending off overcautious elders and feeling distant from one's society."

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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+ Beckett, Bernard : Genesis
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 978-0547225494, $20, 150pp, hardcover, April 2009)

Dystopian novel set in a future society based on Plato's Republic, survivors of the Last War, where a student in history makes encounters unsettling questions of science and philosophy.
• The book was published in New Zealand in 2006, and is due next month in the UK.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has its own "Best of the Month, April 2009" review by Mari Malcolm, which says the book plays homage to predecessors Asimov, Clarke, and Dick, and says it "reads like a thriller to the last word, propelled by the power of ideas longing to be unleashed."
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes "Though the trappings of Beckett's dystopian society feel perhaps too Brave New World, the rigorous narrative and crushing final twist bring a welcome freshness to a familiar setup."

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bradbury, Ray : We'll Always Have Paris
(Morrow 978-0-06-167013-8, $24.99, 210pp, hardcover, February 2009)

Collection of 21 stories and one poem, all previously unpublished, and according to Bradbury's introduction, written over the coures of his life.
• The publisher's site has this description, with its "browse inside" feature.
• Amazon has the Booklist review by Carl Hays, who concludes "Perhaps the volume's standout, however, is 'Fly Away Home,' a story about the loneliness encountered by Mars' first astronauts that could have easily been an outtake from The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury fans can only hope there are more like it still in his archives."
• The Publishers Weekly review says the collection "finds humor and tenderness in unexpected encounters. ... Though many of these feel like they've been sitting in a drawer for decades, Bradbury's fans will find his fiction still open to experimentation."

(Wed 15 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bryan, Kathleen : The Last Paladin
(Tor 978-0-7653-1330-0, $15.95, 272pp, trade paperback, March 2009, cover art Donato Giancola)

Fantasy novel, third in "The War of the Rose" trilogy following The Serpent and the Rose (2007) and The Golden Rose, about a duchess forced into marriage despite her magical bond with a young knight.
• Tor's website has this description.
• Amazon's page for the book has the Publishers Weekly review: "Bryan raises the stakes without descending into melodrama, highlighting the heroism of patience and making the Serpent more complicated than a standard Dark Lord..."

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Campbell, Alan : God of Clocks
(Ballantine Spectra 978-0-553-38418-5, $25, 367pp, hardcover, May 2009, jacket art Stephen Youll)

Fantasy novel, third volume of the "Deepgate Codex" trilogy following Scar Night (2006) and Iron Angel (2008), concerning war in a city called Deepgate that is suspended over a bottomless abyss.
• Bantam's site has this description with an interactive book preview feature including an excerpt.
• The author's website has background and a link to his blog.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which concludes "Campbell's experience in video game design is evident in the relentless pacing and highly imaginative settings as well as his meticulous attention to detail in the many fight sequences. Readers will thrill to the hellishly dark imagery and labyrinthine plot lines."

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Duncan, Dave : The Alchemist's Pursuit
(Ace 978-0-441-01678-5, $15, 310pp, trade paperback, March 2009, cover art Jim Griffin)

Fantasy novel, third in the series following The Alchemist's Apprentice and The Alchemist's Code (2008), about an alchemist named Nostradamus in an alternate 17th-century Venice. This book concerns a serial killer targeting Venice's prostitutes.
• Duncan's website has excerpt.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "outstanding"; "Duncan neatly blends a vision of magical Venice with an engrossing whodunit."

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Frei, Max : The Stranger
(Overlook 978-1-59020-065-0, $29.95, 544pp, hardcover, April 2009)

Fantasy novel, first book in "The Labyrinths of Echo", about a man whose dreams give him access to an otherworldly city of magicians.
• First published in Russia in 1996, this edition is translated by Polly Gannon.
• The publisher's site has the book description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which says the book was "first published to wide acclaim in Russia" and which concludes "Gannon's translation preserves the book's quintessentially Russian wit and makes it easily accessible to English-speaking fantasy mystery fans."

(Fri 10 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Gevers, Nick, & Jay Lake, eds. : Other Earths
(DAW 978-0-7564-0546-5, $7.99, 308pp, mass market paperback, April 2009)

Anthology of 11 original stories set in alternate histories.
• Authors are Robert Charles Wilson, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Theodora Goss, Gene Wolfe, Jeff VanderMeer, Liz Williams, Greg van Eekhout, Paul Park, Lucius Shepard, and Benjamin Rosenbaum. The editors provide an introduction.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls out stories by Reynolds, Baxter, Goss, and Wilson.
• Rich Horton and Gardner Dozois both review the book in the April issue of Locus Magazine. Dozois calls Wilson's story "one of the best stories of the year to date"; Horton agrees with the Wilson and adds the Goss.

(Wed 15 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Irvine, Alexander C. : Buyout
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49433-7, $14, 12+319pp, trade paperback, April 2009, cover illustration Larry Rostant)

Near-future SF novel set in Los Angeles about a program to cut prison costs by paying convicts millions of dollars to undergo voluntary execution.
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "neat, high-concept thriller" and concludes "This well-written, suspenseful and just slightly absurdist novel will appeal strongly to fans of classic dystopian science fiction with a smooth modern twist."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed the book in the March issue of Locus Magazine: "What finally sold me on the novel, and what gives it a terrific final chapter, is less the policy issues and the criminal conspiracies, which are never entirely convincing, than a few memorable characters."

(Wed 15 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Rawn, Melanie : Fire Raiser
(Tor 978-0-7653-1533-5, $24.95, 351pp, hardcover, April 2009)

Fantasy novel about members of a family of magicians in rural Virginia returning home, where a serial arsonist is burning down churches.
• Tor's site has this description.
• Amazon has its "look inside" feature, with an excerpt, and the Publishers Weekly review.

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Rich, Mark : The Sound of Dead Hands Clapping
(Gothic Press 978-0-913045-17-6, $8, 72pp, chapbook, April 2009, cover art Mark Rich)

Chapbook collection of six stories, all first published in various small press publications.
• The publisher's site has this page for the book.
• Amazon's page for the book has its "look inside" feature with the table of contents and an excerpt.

(Sat 11 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Sawyer, Robert J. : WWW: Wake
(Ace 978-0-441-01679-2, $24.95, 9+356pp, hardcover, April 2009)

SF novel, first a trilogy, about an experimental treatment that enables a blind teenager to perceive the emerging consciousness of the World Wide Web.
• It was first serialized in Analog from November 2008 through March 2009.
• Sawyer's site has this page about the book, with the first several chapters of text, the cover text, a discussion guide, an audio of the author reading the first chapter, and much else.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "wildly thought-provoking"; "The thematic diversity -- and profundity -- makes this one of Sawyer's strongest works to date."

(Wed 15 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* White, Tony : Albertopolis Disparu
(UK: Science Museum no isbn, 8pp, chapbook, 2009)

Chapbook short story published as by "Anonymous" and subtitled "an introduction to James Colvin's Terminal Session".
• It's published by the Science Museum in London, where White was writer in residence in 2008, and is available for free while stocks last to visitors of the museum's Listening Post gallery.
• The museum's site has this page with background on the story and a complete PDF version of the book.

(Mon 13 Apr 2009) • (Directory Entry)

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* Williamson, Michael Z. : Contact with Chaos
(Baen 978-1-416-59154-2, $24, 323pp, hardcover, April 2009, cover painting Kurt Miller)

SF novel in the author's "Freehold" sequence, following Better to Beg Forgiveness (2007), about first contact with intelligent aliens, and the divergent reactions of Freehold, the UN, and other human factions.
• Baen's site has this description with links to several chapter excerpts.
• The author's site also has a description: "The whole thing was turning into a cross between a Marx Brothers farce and a Kafkaesque nightmare, with a potential for Greek tragedy."
• Amazon has favorable reader reviews.

(Fri 17 Apr 2009) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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© 2009 by Locus Publications. All rights reserved.