Notable new SF, Fantasy, and Horror books seen, 19 - 31 July

Fantasy novel, first volume in a trilogy about Guinevere. The author is Anne Rice's sister. PW gave it a starred review. Amazon has a reader review from Harriet Klausner. The publisher's website has this excerpt.
(Fri 18 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel, a new novel in Bradley's long-running Darkover series, written by Ross after Bradley's death; sequel to The Fall of Neskaya (2001) and second in a trilogy. Amazon has the PW review, and several enthusiastic reader reviews. The publisher has this rather minimal page about the book.
(Fri 18 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel, concerning alternate world Crusaders and Arabian Nights; first volume of the "Outremer" series, originally published in the UK as the first half of The Tower of the King's Daughter. Amazon has reader reviews; 4 stars from Harriet. The author's website links to a separate URL, http://www.outremer.co.uk/, about the series, with links to background sources, maps, cover images, etc.
(Fri 18 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel, eighth book in the "Sword of Truth" series that began with Wizard's First Rule (1994); the previous book was The Pillars of Creation (2001). The author's official website has links to news and reviews. Publisher Tor may be the leading SF publisher, but its website lags far behind others, Baen and Eos especially; this series page is long out of date, though the site also retains this interview. The new book has been on Amazon bestseller lists, starting as a not-yet-published pre-order title, since early June. The Amazon page (click title or image) has reader reviews.
(Tue 22 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Novelization of the recent film, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Mostow, John Brancato & Michael Ferris. The official movie site is http://www.terminator3.com/. The Amazon page has reader reviews of the book. Also in a simultaneous paperback edition.
(Thu 24 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF thriller concerning, among other things, "the discovery of a physical law that defines good and evil" (!), by the author of previous thriller Millennium Rising (1999, reprinted in paperback as Judgment Day; an excerpt from that is here). The author's website http://www.janejensen.com/ (NOT http://www.janejensen.net/, a site apparently belonging to a singer with the same name) has this page about the book, with a link to this excerpt.
(Tue 29 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Anthology of 16 original stories by female authors "who have taken up the challenge of envisioning the future as men would see it", according to the cover blurb. It's not, as one might think at first glance, reprint stories by women first published under male pseudonyms -- as Cynthia Ward's review on Amazon, and Harriet's reader review, similarly acknowledge. Authors include Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Laura Resnick, Leslie What, Severna Park, Mercedes Lackey, Jennifer Roberson, and Janis Ian -- whose songs form the basis of another anthology of original stories, coming out next month: Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian (also from DAW). Janis Ian's website is http://www.janisian.com/; Resnick's is here.
(Tue 22 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, latest in Robinson's long-running series of stories and novels about a Key West bar called Callahan's Place, dating back to "The Guy with the Eyes" in the February 1973 Analog, where "oddball patrons routinely tickle the space-time continuum and occasionally save the universe" in the words of the Publishers Weekly review, which is reproduced on the Amazon page, along with that from Booklist; PW calls it a "frothy concoction in Hugo-winner Robinson's (Callahan's Key) multivolume tall tale". Robinson's official website, http://www.spiderrobinson.com/, has this description and this excerpt. Robinson has a story in the Mike Resnick/Janis Ian anthology mentioned above, and is doing the introduction to the recently announced recovered first novel by Robert Heinlein, For Us, the Living.
(Fri 18 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, Simmons' return to the grandiose space opera mode of his acclaimed, award-winning Hyperion series; it's the first of two books recapitulating The Iliad (of course -- with Simmons not ruling out further volumes based on The Odyssey). Gary K. Wolfe's review in the June Locus Magazine notes "Not only do we get what appears to be a page-by-page reconstruction of The Iliad — set partly on Mars, with its conveniently named Mons Olympus, and partly on a depopulated far future Earth — but we also get healthy doses of The Tempest, Robert Browning, Tennyson, Proust, and even H.G. Wells, whose The Time Machine turns out to play a larger role in the emerging tapestry of quantum realities and heroic adventure than we might at first suspect." He concludes the book is "one of the most enjoyable, and likely one of the most important, SF novels to appear so far this year." John Clute reviewed the book for SF Weekly. Amazon has a review by Jeremy Pugh, and the PW review. A 4-page Dramatis Personae concludes the book. Simmons' official website has a tour schedule, a link to Locus Online, and information about his next book, crime thriller Hard as Nails.
(Tue 22 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, the author's first since his Campbell Award winning The Chronoliths. It concerns scientists, using a new technology to observe lobsterlike aliens [depicted on the cover] on another planet, who are abruptly isolated by a military cordon. The Amazon page has the PW review, which calls it "a superior SF thriller notable for credible characters and a well-crafted plot". Gary K. Wolfe reviews the novel in the July issue of Locus Magazine.
(Tue 22 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Denton Wyle was seriously reexamining his choices. His fingers were wrapped like living clamps around a pole, his blond hair dribbled water down his patrician nose, and his back pressed hard against the cabin of the rescue ship as sea spray slapped him on the cheeks like an outraged Englishman and the deck beneath his feet pitched like a bucking bronco.

He was on a ship, in a storm, smack dab in the Bermuda Triangle.

No pity
for the hurt
no plight
for the poor
no pain
in doing nothing.
No soul
only body
no sight
only seeing
no sense
in doing nothing.
No fear
but ourselves
no fight
but our own
no fate
but what we make.

—Gina Hagberg-Ballinger

Rage.

Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles, of Peleus' son, murderous, man-killer, fated to die, sing of the rage that cost the Achaeans so many good men and sent so many vital, hearty souls down to the dreary House of Death.