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Table of Contents

New & Notable Books


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New & Notable Books
July

Kevin J. Anderson
James P. Blaylock
James S.A. Corey
Ellen Datlow
Lisa Goldstein
Hartwell & Cramer
Hobb & Lindholm
Graham Joyce
Rudy Rucker
William Schafer
Robert Silverberg
Lavie Tidhar
Kurt Vonnegut
Liz Williams





 

Gail Carriger, Heartless (Orbit US Jul 2011)

The vastly amusing thrills continue in this fourth novel of the Parasol Protectorate series, a steampunk comedy of manners featuring Alexia Tarabotti, now pregnant with a baby whose magical potential has the supernatural population of London in a tizzy, even as Alexia rushes to stop a rumored royal assassination. "If its mad (foux) scientist seems very French and its eldest vampire toujours gai in another sense, such frivolity is just the icing on a masterfully complex cake." [Faren Miller]



Ellen Datlow, ed., Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (St. Martin's Griffin Jul 2011)

Noted editor Datlow demonstrates the varied nature of modern "urban fantasy" in this selection of 20 all-new stories by an impressive roster of authors including Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Holly Black, Peter S. Beagle, Naomi Novik, John Crowley, Lucius Shepard, and Elizabeth Bear.



Gardner Dozois, ed., The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-eighth Annual Collection (St. Martin's Griffin Jul 2011)

The heavyweight champ among the year's bests weighs in with 33 stories from 2010 by authors including Robert Reed, Ian Macleod, Cory Doctorow, Pat Cadigan, and Joe Haldeman; plus Dozois's invaluable in-depth look at the year in SF.



Greg Egan, The Clockwork Rocket (Night Shade Books Jul 2011)

This first book in the Orthogonal series introduces a fascinating world where the physics of light are fascinatingly different, following a girl who grows up to be a brilliant scientist whose plans for a generation spaceship might save her planet from a deadly collision. "Egan has probably done as much as any SF writer to uncover a kind of chilly Euclidian beauty in the pure mathematics of space-time, but he can still surprise us with the comparatively far simpler story of a girl who became a hero." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Daryl Gregory, Raising Stony Mayhall (Del Rey Jul 2011)

This unusual novel "should add to Daryl Gregory's reputation as a dazzling innovator, despite being set in an alternate history whose starting point comes from the realm of pulpish horror: the zombie invasion in Night of the Living Dead, taken as literal truth in an alternate history that begins in the '60s." [Faren Miller]



Karen Haber, Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art (Rockport Jun 2011)

Locus's own Karen Haber examines the use of traditional and digital techniques in fantasy art in this lavishly illustrated book featuring final and preparatory works by 28 artists from around the world, including James Gurney, Kinuko Y. Craft, John Picacio, Bruce Jensen, Charles Vess, Petar Meseldzija, Greg Spalenka, and Shaun Tan.



Rich Horton, ed., The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2011 Edition (Prime Books Jun 2011)

Horton's pick of the best short fiction for 2010 presents 28 stories by authors including Elizabeth Hand, Charles Yu, Adam-Troy Castro, Neil Gaiman, Robert Reed, K.J. Parker, and Gene Wolfe.



Kelly Laymon, Steve Gerlach & Richard Chizmar, eds., In Laymon's Terms (Cemetery Dance Jul 2011)

Master of horror Richard Laymon gets a powerful tribute in this hefty anthology, packed with 40 original stories (and 45 appreciations) by writers including Norman Partridge, Tom Piccirilli, Robert Morrish, and Edward Lee; all topped off by a selection of "Fan Favorites and Rarities" including six stories by Laymon himself.



Brian Lumley, The Fly-By-Nights (Subterranean Press Jun 2011)

Survivors in a post-apocalypse world must seek a new sanctuary, which means facing the vampiric fly-by-nights that infest the radioactive wasteland of the surface world. "Lumley does tell a rousing tale of war with vampires, one that benefits from convincing military details... Any fan of his Necroscope novels will find this book a welcome follow-up." [Stefan Dziemianowicz]



Lydia Millet, The Fires Beneath the Sea (Big Mouth House Jun 2011)

Three siblings search for their missing mother, a quest that takes them to ancient places and even under the sea in this first book in the Dissenters middle-grade fantasy series from a critically acclaimed author.



Mark Charan Newton, City of Ruin (Spectra Jul 2011)

The action moves to the decaying northern city of Villiren, where internal politics hamper preparation for invasion, for this second book in the Legends of the Red Sun, an atypical science fantasy series gaining critical acclaim. First published in the UK by Tor UK (6/09).



Allen Steele, Hex (Ace Jun 2011)

Steele continues his exploration of the Coyote Universe with this novel of an exploration team from Coyote, sent to examine a habitable world offered them by enigmatic aliens, only to find it is actually a giant artifact. "It's not just the vast setting of Hex that is promising, it's the universe that it implies, a setting in which Coyote's Heinleinian space frontiersmen will confront situations and entities out of Stapledon or Banks or Robert Reed." [Russell Letson]



Shaun Tan, Lost & Found (Levine Apr 2011)

Three of the best – and often hard-to-find in the US – picture books from award-winning author/artist Tan are collected in this oversized omnibus: The Red Tree, The Lost Thing (inspiration for the Oscar-winning short film), and The Rabbits (text by John Marsden).



Rick Wilber, ed., Future Media (Tachyon Publications Jul 2011)

The possible futures of the mass media are explored in this selection of eight stories, four novel excerpts, and 12 non-fiction pieces, from seminal works like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 to more recent works by authors like Joe Haldeman, James Patrick Kelly, and Cory Doctorow.



Robert Charles Wilson, Vortex (Tor Jul 2011)

The SF trilogy begun in Spin and Axis concludes with a narrative split between the ongoing story and the far-future end of the Earth. "As a conclusion to one of the most important series in recent SF it does not disappoint, and attains moments of true brilliance." [Gary K. Wolfe]




August 2011 Issue
New & Notable Books

posted 3 August 2011




august cover
Cover Design: Arnie Fenner



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