Baker, Kage : Mendoza in Hollywood
(Tor 0-765-31530-0, $15.95, 334pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover by Paul Youll)
(First edition: Harcourt, February 2000)

SF novel in Baker's "Company" series about a mysterious organization of time travelers. This is the third book in the series, following In the Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote.
• Tor previously issued a mass-market paperback edition in 2001.
• The author's website has this description of the book, and an excerpt.
• Amazon has a review by Therese Littleton: "Kage Baker's style and wit make her novels among the best reads in science fiction today. Mendoza in Hollywood, the third book in the Company series (10 are planned) is simply delightful..."

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Butcher, Jim : Dead Beat
(Roc 0-451-46091-X, $7.99, 427pp, mass market paperback, May 2006)
(First edition: Penguin/Roc, May 2005)

Fantasy novel, seventh in the "Dresden Chronicles" about a crime-solving wizard in Chicago. The eighth book in the series, Proven Guilty, has just appeared in hardcover, and on bestseller lists.
• The author's website has this page about the book, with links to three sample chapters.
• Carolyn Cushman wrote last year in Locus Magazine: "The plot is all over the place, including sub-plots involving a demon, the Wild Hunt, and the ongoing war between the vampires and the White Council, but it's a fun romp, with a rousing final battle that shouldn't be missed."

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Cunningham, Michael : Specimen Days
(Picador 0-312-42502-3, $14, 336pp, trade paperback, May 2006)
(First edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2005)

Literary novel with SF and fantasy elements (by the author of The Hours), set in New York City in the early 20th century, early 21st century, and mid-22nd century, in three novellas sharing parallel themes and characters, informed by the spirit of poet Walt Whitman.
• The publisher's site has this description with quotes from reviews.
• Locus Magazine reviewer Tim Pratt wrote last year "This is a novel of overlapping textures, and there's an element of the virtuoso show-off in the way Cunningham adroitly adopts the techniques of historical, thriller, and SF writing... [T]his is a novel about many things: the calamitous changes technology can bring; the necessity of art in a difficult world; the changing nature of New York as an emblematic US city; the myth and narrative of America; and many other things besides. Specimen Days has flaws, but those flaws are largely offset by the scale of its ambitions."

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Douglass, Sara : Pilgrim
(Tor 0-765-34279-0, $7.99, 639pp, mass market paperback, May 2006)
(First edition: Australia: HarperCollins Australia, 1997)

Fantasy novel, designated Book Five of The Wayfarer Redemption. It was preceded by Sinner and will be followed by Crusader from Tor in August. A novel in another Douglass series, Druid's Sword, has just been published in hardcover by Tor.
• The author's website has this detailed synopsis and an excerpt.

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Drake, David, Eric Flint & James Baen, eds. : The World Turned Upside Down
(Baen 1-4165-2068-6, $15, 743pp, trade paperback, June 2006)
(First edition: Baen, January 2005)

Anthology of 29 stories, originally published from 1933 to 1967, chosen by the three editors as those stories that "had the most impact on us as teenagers and got us interested in science fiction in the first place".
• Authors include Arthur C. Clarke, A.E. van Vogt, Fritz Leiber, John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Tom Godwin, and Theodore Sturgeon.
• Baen's site has this description, with copyright information at the bottom listing the stories included. There are links to the Preface and to 7 of the stories, apparently the complete texts, including Heinlein's "The Menace from Earth" and Clarke's "Rescue Party".

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Farmer, Nancy : The Sea of Trolls
(Simon Pulse 0-689-86746-8, $8.99, 459pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover illustration Tim O'Brien)
(First edition: Simon & Schuster/Atheneum, August 2004)

YA fantasy novel, set in the 9th century, about a brother and sister enslaved by berserkers.
• The publisher's site has this description, with an excerpt and a reading guide.
• The excerpts from Farmer's interview in the January '04 Locus include a paragraph about this book.
• Locus reviewer Carolyn Cushman called the book a "this striking young-adult historical fantasy" whose characters' "lively adventures include encounters with dragons, trolls, and the norns themselves, all with some interesting twists and occasional touches of humor that help alleviate some of the grimmer aspects of the Norse legends Farmer so vividly brings to life."

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Niven, Larry, & Brenda Cooper : Building Harlequin's Moon
(Tor 0-765-35129-3, $7.99, 501pp, mass market paperback, April 2006, cover art Stephan Martiniere)
(First edition: Tor, June 2005)

SF novel about interstellar colonists who terraform a moon in an inhospitable solar system in order to manufacture fuel for their ship.
• Cooper has a webpage and writes a blog.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Niven and Cooper provide complicated characters, particularly the AI, which struggle with realistic moral dilemmas. If the novel loses a bit of its emotional credibility in a compressed climax, it errs on the side of telling a rich story completely in a single volume."

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Stross, Charles : The Hidden Family
(Tor 0-765-35205-2, $7.99, 309pp, mass market paperback, May 2006)
(First edition: Tor, June 2005)

Fantasy novel, second in The Merchant Princes following The Family Trade (2004), with third volume The Clan Corporate just published in hardcover. In this volume, biotech journalist Miriam Beckstein is eager to bring modern economic and scientific ideas to the alternate worlds controlled by members of her Clan.
• Locus Magazine reviewer Nick Gevers called the book "a festival of ideas in action, fast moving and often very funny, but underpinned by a rigorous logical strategy."

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Williamson, Jack : The Stonehenge Gate
(Tor 0-765-34795-4, $6.99, 316pp, mass market paperback, May 2006, cover by John Harris)
(First edition: Tor, August 2005)

SF novel about four friends from Eastern New Mexico University who discover gateways in the Sahara that lead to other worlds.
• The novel was serialized in Analog magazine in 2005. A recent statement from Williamson that he's done writing suggests this may be his final novel
• Last November Locus Magazine reviewer Russell Letson wrote "The Stonehenge Gate really does seem to be a considerably evolved version of the SF that Williamson started working at nearly 80 years ago: the perspective of huge swathes of space and time; the construction of wonders and mysteries to match the scale of the settings; the confrontation with the darkness in human nature; the attempt to understand and accommodate or work around our irrational and destructive sides. In fact, I'd venture to assert that this interpenetration of the cosmic, the social, and the personal is just what Williamson has been working at for much of his long and thoughtful career."

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Wolfe, Gene : Starwater Strains
(Orb 0-765-31203-4, $15.95, 352pp, trade paperback, May 2006)
(First edition: Tor, August 2005)

Collection of 25 stories, a mixture of SF and fantasy works. Titles include "Golden City Far", which won the Locus Award as best novella of 2004 and which was a World Fantasy Award finalist; "Pulp Cover", which placed #2 in the Locus poll for best short story; and 2001 novella "Viewpoint".
• Wolfe's introduction describes the inspirations for the stories.
• Locus Magazine reviewer Nick Gevers called it "a significant and deeply rewarding book."

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