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From this issue:

Table of Contents

Locus Bestsellers

New & Notable Books

History/Fantasy Roundtable excerpts

Mary Robinette Kowal interview excerpts


previous
New & Notable Books
July

John Joseph Adams
Poul Anderson
Stephen Baxter
William J. Burling
C.J. Cherryh
John Clute
John Crowley
Datlow & Windling
Dennis Etchison
Greer Gilman
Hartwell & Cramer
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
China Miéville
Rudy Rucker





 

Bob Booth, The Big Book of Necon (Cemetery Dance Aug 2009)

Necon — the Northeast Regional Fantasy and Horror Convention — may be small, but it gets some big name attendees, and this volume celebrates almost 30 years of its existence with essays, art, poems, and 36 stories by authors including Stephen King, Jonathan Carroll, Neil Gaiman, and Ramsey Campbell. "Excellent stories make this a notable non-theme horror anthology by any standard.... I mean it as the highest possible praise when I say that this book will likely inspire some of its readers to purchase a membership to a future Necon to see what the in-jokes, innuendos, and bad puns are all about." [Stefan Dziemianowicz]



Tobias S. Buckell, Tides from the New Worlds (Wyrm Publishing Feb 2009)

The first collection from one of the field’s hottest new authors, this presents 21 stories, one new.



Philip K. Dick, VALIS and Later Novels (Library of America Aug 2009)

The third and final in the series of Dick omnibuses from the highly respected Library of America, edited and with notes by Jonathan Lethem, this volume gathers four novels: A Maze of Death, VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.



Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds., The New Space Opera 2 (Eos Jul 2009)

The second installment in this anthology series presents 19 all-new stories without repeating any authors from the previous volume, a "fresh slate" that includes Robert Charles Wilson, Cory Doctorow, Garth Nix, Bruce Sterling, and Elizabeth Moon. "It more than earns your attention." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Gardner Dozois, ed., The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-sixth Annual Collection (St. Martin's Jul 2009)

Still the heavyweight champ among the year’s bests, this volume weighs in with 30 stories from 2008 by authors including Paolo Bacigalupi, Jay Lake, Greg Egan, and Geoff Ryman — plus Dozois’s usual invaluable in-depth commentary on the year in SF.



David Langford, Starcombing (Cosmos Books Jun 2009)

The latest non-fiction collection from multiple Hugo award-winning writer Langford gathers 85 insightful and frequently humorous items — columns, essays, reviews, and more — from the last nine years.



Farah Mendlesohn, The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction (McFarland Oct 2009)

Noted critic Mendlesohn looks at SF for young readers, exploring the ways the conventions of YA and children’s literature and SF affect each other.



Sarah Micklem, Wildfire (Scribner Jul 2009)

The second volume in the Firethorn medieval fantasy trilogy finds the eponymous protagonist following her lover to war when she is struck by lightning and left with strange symptoms and new powers. This powerful but dark middle book is an "uncompromising take on the old big-book multi-volume epic fantasy, told by a viewpoint character with a highly personal voice." [Faren Miller]



Bradford Morrow & Brian Evenson, eds., Conjunctions:52: Betwixt the Between: Impossible Realism (Bard College Jun 2009)

Bard College’s respected literary journal’s 52nd volume takes a look at boundary-breaking fantastic fiction — slipstream, fabulist, etc. — with 25 original stories by an impressive roster of authors including Elizabeth Hand, Joyce Carol Oates, China Miéville, Jonathan Carroll, James Morrow, and Jeff VanderMeer.



Robert Silverberg, Other Spaces, Other Times (NonStop Press May 2009)

Silverberg discusses his life and career in this semi-autobiographical collection of essays, lavishly illustrated with photos and cover reproductions, many in full color; a bibliography of Silverberg’s SF and non-fiction is included.



Robert Silverberg, Trips: The Collected Stories, Volume Four (Subterranean Press May 2009)

The latest volume in the series collects 14 stories from a turning point in Silverberg’s career, a time of experimention discussed in the author’s introduction and comments on each story.



Michael Swanwick, Hope-In-the-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees (Temporary Culture Jul 2009)

Swanwick brings his entertainingly witty brand of scholarship to this critical biography of Hope Mirrlees, author of Lud-in-the-Mist. A glossary of various terms and names from the novel is included. "Swanwick has been impressively assidous in his research... [he] details all this with intelligence, wit, and sympathy, but without adulation." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Liz Williams, The Shadow Pavilion (Night Shade Books Jun 2009)

Williams’ popular Detective Inspector Chen returns in his fourth futuristic dark fantasy mystery, searching for his missing partner, trapped in an unfamiliar Indian Hell, while an assassin targets the new emperor of Heaven. "Williams comes up with a wonderfully devious version of the happy ending." [Faren Miller]



Robert Charles Wilson, Julian Comstock (Tor Jun 2009)

Wilson expands his Julian: A Christmas Story (PS Publishing 2006) in this SF novel of a young man whose heroic adventures, increasing popularity, and heretical belief in science bring him trouble from the powers-that-be. "Beautifully written, populated with engaging and sympathetic, if conflicted characters, and unlike anything else he’s done to date." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Roger Zelazny, This Mortal Mountain: Volume 3 of the Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny; Last Exit to Babylon: Volume 4 of the Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (NESFA Press Jul 2009)

The latest volumes in an ambitious series collecting all of Zelazny’s poems and stories, these present works from the late ’60s through early ’80s, including a combined 53 stories, 62 poems, and 16 non-fiction pieces — plus commentary by Zelazny himself (where available), annotations by the editors, and parts three and four of a serialized biography by Christopher S. Kovacs.




August 2009 Issue
New & Notable Books

posted 17 August 2009




Cover Design: Arnie Fenner



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