Locus Online: New Books, last week June 2006

* Asaro, Catherine : The Dawn Star
(Luna 0373802382, $14.95, 440pp, trade paperback, July 2006)

Romantic fantasy novel set on the world of Aronsdale, follow-up to The Charmed Sphere (2004) and The Misted Cliffs (2005). In this volume Mel Dawnfield struggles to use her magical powers to protect her husband's realm.
• The publisher's site has a description and excerpt.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Asher, Neal : Prador Moon
(Night Shade Books 1-59780-052-X, $14.95, 222pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover art Bob Eggletone)

SF novel, subtitled "a Novel of the Polity", in which human civlization finally contacts aliens -- crablike carnivores called the Prador.
• Asher's website has a brief description; the publisher has a longer description and ordering information.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls the book "enjoyable if violent" and concludes "The Polity novels (Gridlink, etc.) lack the intellectual complexity of the best British space opera by such writers as Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod and Justina Robson, but if you don't mind the gross out (the Prador eat not only their young but also their human enemies), they're invariably a good read."

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Banks, L. A. : The Forsaken
(St. Martin's Griffin 0-312-35235-2, $14.95, 448pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover illustration Vince Natale)

Vampire novel, seventh in the "Vampire Huntress Legend" series following The Damned.
• The series' website has background, web exclusives, and a PDF excerpt. (Note the previous URL for this site, vampirehuntress.com, is corrupt.)
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the PW review: "The story has gotten so complicated it may be difficult for a newcomer to fathom, but readers already enthralled with this sizzling series can look forward to major plot payoffs."

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Betancourt, John Gregory, & Sean Wallace, eds. : Horror: The Best of the Year: 2006 Edition
(Prime Books 0-8095-5648-0, $13.95, 319pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover by Pieter Claesz)

Anthology 17 horror stories first published in 2005, first volume of a new annual series. Authors include Joe Lansdale, Jack Cady, Holly Phillips, Joe Hill, M. Rickert, Clive Barker, Jeff VanderMeer, and Ramsey Campbell.
• The book, under a slightly different title, was originally scheduled to have been published by ibooks.
• Prime Books' site has this description and ordering information.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its May 29th issue, citing stories by Richard Bowes, Caitlin Kiernan, and Joe Hill.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Golds, Arlene : From Dream to Dream
(Baen 141652066X, $25, 308pp, hardcover, June 2006, cover painting Tom Kidd)

Fantasy novel, the author's first novel, about a woman trapped in a dream-world with a mysterious entity who may be her enemy or her one true love.
• Baen's site has this description with links to several chapters.
• Amazon has a brief description but no reader reviews yet.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Greenberg, Martin H., & Kerrie Hughes, eds. : Children of Magic
(DAW 0-7564-0361-8, $7.99, 308pp, mass market paperback, June 2006)

Anthology of 17 original stories about children born with magical gifts. Authors include Alan Dean Foster, Brenda Cooper, Tanya Huff, Sarah B. Hoyt, Jane Lindskold, Louise Marley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Michelle West.
• Amazon has a rave review from Harriet Klausner.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Hartwell, David G., & Kathryn Cramer, eds. : Year's Best SF 11
(HarperCollins/Eos 0-06-087341-8, $7.99, 14+496pp, mass market paperback, June 2006)

Anthology of 31 SF stories first published in 2005, with an introduction by the editors, and introductions to each story. Authors include David Langford, Gardner Dozois, Ken MacLeod, Bruce Sterling, Ted Chiang, Oliver Morton, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Joe Haldeman, and Cory Doctorow.
• The publisher's site has this description and an unidentified excerpt.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Roberts, Adam : Gradisil
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07587-2, £18.99, 458pp, hardcover, March 2006)

SF novel, a multi-generational epic about the colonization and creation of a soveriegn nation of settlements in Low Earth Orbit.
• The author's writing page on his website has considerable background about the origin and inspirations for the novel.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Online reviews include Cheryl Morgan's -- "this is a new Adam Roberts books - you need to read it" -- and Finn Dempster's at Strange Horizons.
• Nick Gevers reviewed the book in the May issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "This is Roberts's best novel to date, and quite conceivably a harbinger of greatness."

(Sat 24 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon • (Directory Entry)

* Ryman, Geoff : The King's Last Song
(UK: HarperCollins 0-00-225988-5, £11.99, 488pp, trade paperback, March 2006)

Associational (non-SF) novel about the theft of an archaeological discovery at Angkor Wat that reveals how a Buddhist ruler brought peace to 12th-century Cambodia.
• The publisher's site has this description with excerpts from reviews.
• The Amazon page has a synopsis and reader reviews.
• Online reviews include Cheryl Morgan's -- "Some of Ryman's work has, of course, been highly speculative, but he doesn't write space opera, and his latest novel, The King's Last Song, qualifies as genre only in that it is in part a historical novel. Nevertheless, it is a very fine book, and a story that very much needed to be told." -- and Abigail Nussbaum's at Strange Horizons.

(Sat 24 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon • (Directory Entry)

* Sagan, Nick : Everfree
(Penguin/Putnam 0-399-15276-8, $25.95, 243pp, hardcover, May 2006)

SF novel, third in a trilogy following Idlewild (2003) and Edenborn (2004), about a group of posthumans who attempt to estabish a collective society following a world-ravaging epidemic.
• The author's site has this page for the book with an description, quotes from reviews, and an excerpt.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews.

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Schatzing, Frank : The Swarm
(HarperCollins/ReganBooks 0-06-081321-1, $24.95, 881pp, hardcover, June 2006)

SF thriller, translated from the German (where it's been a bestseller for two years), about alien invaders who take over oceanic lifeforms and begin attacking humanity.
• The publisher's site has this description -- "Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island's water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. ... The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller."

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

+ Sullivan, Tricia : Maul
(Night Shade Books 1-59780-037-6, $14.95, 274pp, trade paperback, March 2006, cover illustration J.K. Potter) First US edition (UK: Orbit, October 2003)

SF novel about a girl gang running wild in a shopping mall, and a future world run by women.
• The publisher's site has this description -- "Sheri S. Tepper meets Neal Stephenson in this feminist-cyberpunk thriller" -- with quotes from numerous reviews.
• The book, first published in 2003, was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke, James Tiptree Jr., and British SF Association awards.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews, the former calling it a "fantasy that evenhandedly explores gender issues".
• Nick Gevers' Locus Magazine review of the UK edition called it "one of the most innovative, and surely one of the dottiest, novels of 2003."

(Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

* Youmans, Brian, ed. : Best of the Rest 4
(Suddenly Press 0-9670056-2-0, $12, 188pp, trade paperback, June 2006, cover art Ruth Sanderson, cover design Alex von Schlinke)

Anthology of 15 stories first published in small press and online publications in 2005; it's subtitled "The Best Unknown Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2005".
• Authors include Jay Lake, Gene Wolfe, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sarah Monette, and Holly Phillips.
• The book isn't (yet) available from Amazon. The publisher's site has this page listing the contents and sources, and ordering information.

(Wed 28 Jun 2006) • (Directory Entry)

	MONITOR New Books June #3 David Angsten Christopher Barzak et al M. Scott Byrnes Carolyn Ives Gilman Hartwell & Cramer Jessica Inclan Marvin Kaye T.M. Moore Morrison & Keegan Naomi Novik Alyn Rockwood Vandana Singh Jonathan Strahan Cecilia Tan New Books June #2 Neal Asher Mike Ashley Patricia Bray Keith Donohue L. Timmel Duchamp Dave Duncan Tanya Huff E.E. Knight Morgan Llywelyn Paul Malmont Syne Mitchell Kim Newman Jenn Reese Mike Resnick Lilith Saintcrow Al Sarrantonio Charles Stross David Zindell 2006 Archive 2005 Archive Advertisement 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. LINKS Links Portal Bookseller Links Your purchase of books through Amazon.com and Amazon UK links (click on titles or covers) helps support Locus Online Publisher Links E-mail Locus Online		New SF, Fantasy, and Horror books seen : last week June 2006 posted 4 July 2006 * Asaro, Catherine : The Dawn Star (Luna 0373802382, $14.95, 440pp, trade paperback, July 2006) Romantic fantasy novel set on the world of Aronsdale, follow-up to The Charmed Sphere (2004) and The Misted Cliffs (2005). In this volume Mel Dawnfield struggles to use her magical powers to protect her husband's realm. • The publisher's site has a description and excerpt. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Asher, Neal : Prador Moon (Night Shade Books 1-59780-052-X, $14.95, 222pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover art Bob Eggletone) SF novel, subtitled "a Novel of the Polity", in which human civlization finally contacts aliens -- crablike carnivores called the Prador. • Asher's website has a brief description; the publisher has a longer description and ordering information. • Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls the book "enjoyable if violent" and concludes "The Polity novels (Gridlink, etc.) lack the intellectual complexity of the best British space opera by such writers as Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod and Justina Robson, but if you don't mind the gross out (the Prador eat not only their young but also their human enemies), they're invariably a good read." (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Banks, L. A. : The Forsaken (St. Martin's Griffin 0-312-35235-2, $14.95, 448pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover illustration Vince Natale) Vampire novel, seventh in the "Vampire Huntress Legend" series following The Damned. • The series' website has background, web exclusives, and a PDF excerpt. (Note the previous URL for this site, vampirehuntress.com, is corrupt.) • The publisher's site has this description. • Amazon has the PW review: "The story has gotten so complicated it may be difficult for a newcomer to fathom, but readers already enthralled with this sizzling series can look forward to major plot payoffs." (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Betancourt, John Gregory, & Sean Wallace, eds. : Horror: The Best of the Year: 2006 Edition (Prime Books 0-8095-5648-0, $13.95, 319pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover by Pieter Claesz) Anthology 17 horror stories first published in 2005, first volume of a new annual series. Authors include Joe Lansdale, Jack Cady, Holly Phillips, Joe Hill, M. Rickert, Clive Barker, Jeff VanderMeer, and Ramsey Campbell. • The book, under a slightly different title, was originally scheduled to have been published by ibooks. • Prime Books' site has this description and ordering information. • Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its May 29th issue, citing stories by Richard Bowes, Caitlin Kiernan, and Joe Hill. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Golds, Arlene : From Dream to Dream (Baen 141652066X, $25, 308pp, hardcover, June 2006, cover painting Tom Kidd) Fantasy novel, the author's first novel, about a woman trapped in a dream-world with a mysterious entity who may be her enemy or her one true love. • Baen's site has this description with links to several chapters. • Amazon has a brief description but no reader reviews yet. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Greenberg, Martin H., & Kerrie Hughes, eds. : Children of Magic (DAW 0-7564-0361-8, $7.99, 308pp, mass market paperback, June 2006) Anthology of 17 original stories about children born with magical gifts. Authors include Alan Dean Foster, Brenda Cooper, Tanya Huff, Sarah B. Hoyt, Jane Lindskold, Louise Marley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Michelle West. • Amazon has a rave review from Harriet Klausner. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Hartwell, David G., & Kathryn Cramer, eds. : Year's Best SF 11 (HarperCollins/Eos 0-06-087341-8, $7.99, 14+496pp, mass market paperback, June 2006) Anthology of 31 SF stories first published in 2005, with an introduction by the editors, and introductions to each story. Authors include David Langford, Gardner Dozois, Ken MacLeod, Bruce Sterling, Ted Chiang, Oliver Morton, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Joe Haldeman, and Cory Doctorow. • The publisher's site has this description and an unidentified excerpt. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Roberts, Adam : Gradisil (UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07587-2, £18.99, 458pp, hardcover, March 2006) SF novel, a multi-generational epic about the colonization and creation of a soveriegn nation of settlements in Low Earth Orbit. • The author's writing page on his website has considerable background about the origin and inspirations for the novel. • The publisher's site has this description. • Online reviews include Cheryl Morgan's -- "this is a new Adam Roberts books - you need to read it" -- and Finn Dempster's at Strange Horizons. • Nick Gevers reviewed the book in the May issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "This is Roberts's best novel to date, and quite conceivably a harbinger of greatness." (Sat 24 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon • (Directory Entry) \| * Ryman, Geoff : The King's Last Song (UK: HarperCollins 0-00-225988-5, £11.99, 488pp, trade paperback, March 2006) Associational (non-SF) novel about the theft of an archaeological discovery at Angkor Wat that reveals how a Buddhist ruler brought peace to 12th-century Cambodia. • The publisher's site has this description with excerpts from reviews. • The Amazon page has a synopsis and reader reviews. • Online reviews include Cheryl Morgan's -- "Some of Ryman's work has, of course, been highly speculative, but he doesn't write space opera, and his latest novel, The King's Last Song, qualifies as genre only in that it is in part a historical novel. Nevertheless, it is a very fine book, and a story that very much needed to be told." -- and Abigail Nussbaum's at Strange Horizons. (Sat 24 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon • (Directory Entry) \| * Sagan, Nick : Everfree (Penguin/Putnam 0-399-15276-8, $25.95, 243pp, hardcover, May 2006) SF novel, third in a trilogy following Idlewild (2003) and Edenborn (2004), about a group of posthumans who attempt to estabish a collective society following a world-ravaging epidemic. • The author's site has this page for the book with an description, quotes from reviews, and an excerpt. • The publisher's site has this description. • Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews. (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Schatzing, Frank : The Swarm (HarperCollins/ReganBooks 0-06-081321-1, $24.95, 881pp, hardcover, June 2006) SF thriller, translated from the German (where it's been a bestseller for two years), about alien invaders who take over oceanic lifeforms and begin attacking humanity. • The publisher's site has this description -- "Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island's water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. ... The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller." (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| + Sullivan, Tricia : Maul (Night Shade Books 1-59780-037-6, $14.95, 274pp, trade paperback, March 2006, cover illustration J.K. Potter) First US edition (UK: Orbit, October 2003) SF novel about a girl gang running wild in a shopping mall, and a future world run by women. • The publisher's site has this description -- "Sheri S. Tepper meets Neal Stephenson in this feminist-cyberpunk thriller" -- with quotes from numerous reviews. • The book, first published in 2003, was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke, James Tiptree Jr., and British SF Association awards. • Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews, the former calling it a "fantasy that evenhandedly explores gender issues". • Nick Gevers' Locus Magazine review of the UK edition called it "one of the most innovative, and surely one of the dottiest, novels of 2003." (Mon 26 Jun 2006) • Purchase this book from Amazon \| BookSense • (Directory Entry) \| * Youmans, Brian, ed. : Best of the Rest 4 (Suddenly Press 0-9670056-2-0, $12, 188pp, trade paperback, June 2006, cover art Ruth Sanderson, cover design Alex von Schlinke) Anthology of 15 stories first published in small press and online publications in 2005; it's subtitled "The Best Unknown Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2005". • Authors include Jay Lake, Gene Wolfe, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sarah Monette, and Holly Phillips. • The book isn't (yet) available from Amazon. The publisher's site has this page listing the contents and sources, and ordering information. (Wed 28 Jun 2006) • (Directory Entry) \| Opening lines: You could very easily meet William. Maybe you've just got off the boat from Phnom Penh and nobody from your hotel is there to meet you. It's miles from the dock to Siem Reap. William strides up and pretends to be the free driver to your hotel. Not only that but he organizes a second motorbike to wobble its way round the ruts with your suitcases. Opening lines: Take this printed page, the very one you are looking at now. Take away all the letters, and all the commas and the dashes, and take away the apostrophes, and leave only the full stops, the colons, the dots over the 'i's. You will have a star map, cartography that describes precisely the sky of my imagination. I want to go there, you'll say. So do I. Opening lines: Nothing in the sky with nothing. No moon, no stars. Just a canopy of black swallowing the light. Lucky break for the fox. Tough break for the hounds. Scentless, this fox. Normally, there's a subdermal transmitter. You implant it--it last for about a month, then dissolves harmlessly into the bloodstream. A month is a decent period to make sure there's no dementia. That's procedure. Procedure hadn't been followed. Opening lines: Juan Narciso Ucañan went to his fate that Wednesday, and no one even noticed. A few weeks later the circumstances surrounding his sudden disappearance sent shockwaves around the globe, but Ucañan's name wasn't mentioned. He was one of many. Too many. What he'd experienced in the early hours of that morning had been going on elsewhere all over the world. The parallels were striking--once you knew what had happened, and only Ucañan did. Previous New Books: June #3
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