Christopher Barzak, The Love We Share Without Knowing (Bantam Dec 2008)

The lives of foreigners and locals in Japan are explored in "meditative concern with the complex relationships of love, death, family, and community..." by this "remarkably talented author.... While there's enough magic... to satisfy most fantasy readers, the real magic is in that tapestry." [Gary K. Wolfe]

Ray Bradbury, Summer Morning, Summer Night (Subterranean Press Oct 2008)

Bradbury returns to one of his most memorable settings, Green Town, Illinois, with this magical collection of 27 stories and vignettes — 17 original. Previously published in the UK by PS Publishing (2007).

Lillian Stewart Carl & Martin H. Greenberg, The Vorkosigan Companion (Baen Dec 2008)

This guide to Bujold's SF includes 17 essays (one by Bujold herself) on everything from the writing and publishing of the works to the fans who read them, with a lengthy concordance, novel summaries, interviews, timelines, genealogies, and more.

Istvan Jr. Csicsery-Ronay, The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (Wesleyan University Press Nov 2008)

A noted SF critic explores SF's appeal to the general public, finding seven significant "cognitive attractions" that have helped give SF its increasing role in popular culture and ways of thinking.

Peter F. Hamilton, The Temporal Void (Macmillan UK Oct 2008)

The spectacular space opera of the Commonwealth Saga continues in this second volume in the Void trilogy, with revelation of the Void's true nature to satisfy readers while the stage is set for the final volume.

William Heaney, The Memoirs of a Master Forger (Gollancz Oct 2008)

William Heaney is the narrator of this offbeat fantasy by Graham Joyce about frauds, demons, and books both fake and real. In college, Heaney puts together a fake guide to demons for a joke, only to have it discovered by someone else and published as How to Make Friends with Demons — the title chosen by Night Shade Books for the US edition, to be published 1/09 as by Joyce. "While there is a fair amount of good-humored comedy here, there's also a touching romance, a tonally dead-on family drama, a satire of social service bureaucracies, and a bit of a college novel.... It's the sort of non-fantasy fantasy that Joyce readers will appreciate, the sort of writing that is increasingly coming to make genre irrelevant." [Gary K. Wolfe]

Jack McDevitt, The Devil's Eye (Ace Nov 2008)

The latest far-future SF mystery featuring antiquities dealer Alex Benedict finds him investigating why a mind-wiped writer left him a fortune and a plea for help.

Cherie Priest, Fathom (Tor Dec 2008)

Ancient gods, an undead pirate, a religious cult, and two very different teenaged girls all get caught up in a water witch's plot to awaken Leviathan in 1930s Florida in this strikingly different dark fantasy.

Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves (Gollancz Oct 2008)

Geralt the witcher returns in this fantasy novel, his second book to be translated to English from a hit Polish series. This time, Geralt protects a royal girl developing unusual powers, in the process learning much about magic and politics in this refreshingly unsentimental, Slavic-influenced fantasy world. "Have you long since overdosed on elves, gnomes, and ogres?...Well, Andrzej Sapkowski just might change your mind." [Faren Miller]

Ken Scholes, Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys (Fairwood Press Dec 2008)

This first collection from a notable new author gathers 17 stories, with commentary on the origins of each by Scholes. "Not many short fiction writers grab my attention as strongly.... The range is remarkable... go check out this astonishing book." [Faren Miller]

Michael Swanwick, The Best of Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press Oct 2008)

This collection of 21 stories presents the pick of the crop from an influential writer; the chronological order in which the stories are presented points out Swanwick's efforts to "liberate genre materials from genre formulas.... It's almost a cliché to claim there's not a weak story in this book, but the only complaints Swanwick's readers are likely to voice is that too much got left out." [Gary K. Wolfe]

Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden & Stephen R. Bissette, Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman (St. Martin's Press Nov 2008)

Gaiman's writing career is chronicled in this non-fiction guide, covering works including comics, poetry, fiction, screenplays, and non-fiction, with detailed descriptions and numerous quotes and samples, including a previously unpublished essay. Interviews with Gaiman and some of his collaborators, biographical material, and tidbits of trivia help round out this entertaining picture of one of modern fantasy's major players and his work.