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New Books Jul #4
Catherine Asaro
Jasper Fforde
Sheila Finch
Eric Flint
Violette Malan
McCaffrey & Scarborough
Sarah Monette
Rabe & Greenberg
Will Shetterly
Sherwood Smith
Michael A. Stackpole
Steph Swainston

New Books Jul #3
Gardner Dozois
Helfers & Greenberg
Kristin Landon
Ursula K. Le Guin
Perry & Perry
Mary Jo Putney
J.K. Rowling
Theodore Sturgeon
Harry Turtledove
Larriane Wills
Peter Wright

2007 Archive

2007 Books Directories

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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.

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New SF/F/H books seen : first week August 2007
posted 10 August 2007

+ Baxter, Stephen : Conqueror
(Ace 0-441-01496-8, $24.95, 302pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket illustration Chris Shamwana) First US edition (UK: Orion/Gollancz, February 2007)

Historical SF novel, second in the "Time's Tapestry" trilogy, following Emperor and to be followed by Navigator, about a prophecy that affects four centuries of Roman and British families.
• The publisher's site has a description.
• Nick Gevers reviewed the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine: "Baxter is accomplishing something special here, rather as Mary Gentle did in 1610: an anti-alternate history, which casts off numerous interesting counterfactual echoes while remaining essentially a well-researched, accurate, excitingly told, orthodox historical novel. Time's Tapestry is SF, and not."

(Fri 27 Jul 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bear, Elizabeth : Undertow
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58905-9, $6.99, 332pp, mass market paperback, August 2007, cover art Cliff Nielsen)

SF novel about an assassin trying to redeem himself on a frontier planet ruled by a tyrannical family.
• The author's website describes it on her standalone novels page along with last year's Carnival -- calling them very different books about "intrigue, spies, ancient alien technology, and what happens when a trio of borderline personalities decide to save the universe."
• Bantam's site has this description, and an excerpt.
• Online reviews include Paul Di Filippo's at Sci Fi Weekly, comparing the book to early Martin and to Poul Anderson, and Rick Kleffel's in The Agony Column (scroll down): " 'Undertow' is the kind of novel that deftly defies categorization while neatly fitting into lots of categories."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bova, Ben : The Aftermath
(Tor 978-0-7653-0414-8, $24.95, 396pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket art Stephan Martiniere)

SF novel, fourth in the "Asteroid Wars" series following The Precipice (2001), The Rock Rats (2002), and The Silent War (2004). It's about an ore-carrier captain who becomes involved in a military attack.
• Tor's website has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "a bewildering attempt to exploit loose ends."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bray, Patricia : The Sea Change
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58877-X, $6.99, 326pp, mass market paperback, August 2007, cover illustration Steve Stone)

Fantasy novel, second in the "Chronicles of Josan" following The First Betrayal (2006), about a monk whose soul is shifted into the body of a rebellious prince now suspected of slaughtering the royal family.
• Bantam's site has this description and an excerpt.
• The author's site has a description and excerpt.
• Amazon has several posts from the author, including an interview.

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Budz, Mark : Till Human Voices Wake Us
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58851-6, $6.99, 386pp, mass market paperback, August 2007)

SF novel about three people -- a pirate radio broadcaster, a Depression-era architect, and a posthuman space traveler -- whose lives intersect.
• Bantam's site has this description.
• The author's official site has this page for the book, with an excerpt.
• Online reviews include Ernest Lilley's at SFRevu, which says the book "manages the neat trick of being excellent Hard SF while grappling with the evolution of the narrative. Mark Budz has mapped the tools of Hard SF onto an Esherian surface for his story to follow, rewarding the reader with a change through which their own world view will be tilted a few degrees in return."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Flint, Eric, & Dave Freer : Pyramid Power
(Baen 1-416-52130-5, $24, 369pp, hardcover, August 2007, cover illustration Bob Eggleton)

Fantasy novel, sequel to Flint's Pyramid Scheme (2001), about an alien artifact that sends people back to various mythological pasts. This book concerns a strike force assembled to rescue a VIP stranded in Classical Greece.
• Baen's Webscription site has this description with links to several chapters.

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Gibson, William : Spook Country
(Putnam 978-0-399-15430-0, $25.95, 371pp, hardcover, August 2007)

High-tech contemporary thriller, loose sequel to the author's previous novel Pattern Recognition (2003), and like it set in the present. It concerns a reporter for a magazine that doesn't exist researching an art form that exists only in virtual reality, a shadowy agent pursuing a Cuban-Chinese criminal named Tito, and a mysterious cargo container ship that appears and disappears on the Global Positioning Network.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• The author's official site has this page for the book, with the description, quotes from reviews, and a video interview with Gibson, in which he describes the book as about "cultural changes in the United States" since 9/11.
• Wikipedia has this page for the book. Slate's Summary Judgment (scroll down) summarizes the many mainstream reviews of the book: "Art, commerce, and surveillance converge in this dark novel about our paranoid post-9/11 times, which critics are praising highly in -- alas -- largely incoherent reviews."
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its June 18th issue: "Compelling characters and crisp action sequences, plus the author's trademark metaphoric language, help make this one of Gibson's best."
• Russell Letson reviewed it in the July issue of Locus Magazine: "Gibson is not quite leaving science fiction behind, but he is certainly emphasizing here the other side of his literary heritage -- the tale of high-energy and low-life crime and intrigue. What drives Spook Country is not the notion of locative art (though it is both an enabling device for the McGuffin hunt and a crucial metaphor) but the assembly of the puzzle pieces, the converging pursuits, and the fun that comes when the characters finally collide -- and, even more, that we care about the fates of those characters."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Haldeman, Joe : The Accidental Time Machine
(Ace 978-0-441-01499-6, $23.95, 278pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket art Craig White)

SF novel about a research assistant at MIT who discovers that a device to calibration quantum forces is being sent forward into time.
• The publisher's site has this brief description.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its June 11th issue, which says "Haldeman's skillful writing makes this unusually thoughtful and picaresque tale shine", and concludes "Rather than being a riff on H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, this novel is closer in tone to Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, another charming yarn about a young man who's forced out of a boring rut. Producing prose that feels this effortless must be hard work, but Haldeman (Camouflage) never breaks a sweat."
• Russell Letson reviews the book in the August issue of Locus Magazine, in the context of Haldeman as an heir to Robert A. Heinlein; "Starting with The Forever War, he has displayed a Heinleinesque grasp of the craft while diverging from many of the social and political attitudes of many hard-core Heinleinists (if not always Heinlein himself)." Letson's review concludes that the book is "more evidence that Joe Haldeman has become a better writer, line by line and scene by scene, than his very able ancestor."

(Fri 27 Jul 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Herbert, Brian, & Kevin J. Anderson : Sandworms of Dune
(Tor 978-0-7653-1293-8, $27.95, 494pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket art Stephen Youll)

SF novel, the eighth collaboration by Brian Herbert, son of original Dune author Frank Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson. This is the second half of the rumored "Dune 7" novel, preceded last year by Hunters of Dune, based on an outline by Frank Herbert for a sequel to his last Dune novel Chapterhouse: Dune.
• Tor's website has this page with a description and excerpt.
• The official Dune website has a blog, tour schedule, and background on the earlier novels. Wikipedia has this entry for the book.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review -- "The lengthy climax relies on at least four consecutive deus ex machina bailouts, eventually devolving into sheer fairy tale optimism. Series fans will argue the novel's merits for years; others will be underwhelmed." -- and reader reviews.

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Kenyon, Sherrilyn : Devil May Cry
(St. Martin's 978-0-312-36950-7, $19.95, 308pp, hardcover, August 2007)

Supernatural romance novel, 11th volume in the bestselling "Dark-Hunters" series, following last year's Dark Side of the Moon. This book concerns a Sumerian fertility god, Sin, now running a Las Vegas casino and intent on revenge against Artemis.
• The author's site has this page for the book, with ordering links and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which concludes "It's just another day's work for the immortals, who act a lot like ordinary quarrelsome people with way cool superpowers. Though readers may need a scorecard to keep up with the cast, this series puts a contemporary spin on classical mythology that an increasing number of fans have found irresistible."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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+ Lynch, Scott : Red Seas Under Red Skies
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-80468-3, $23, 558pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket art Steve Stone)

Fantasy novel, second in the "Gentleman Bastard" sequence following the author's first novel The Lies of Locke Lamora. In this book the thief Locke and his sidekick plot against an exclusive gambling house where cheating means death.
• The publisher's site has this description, and an excerpt.
• The author's site has a list of the next five titles in the series, and this page with an excerpt from the first book and maps of the world.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which says the book "is charming, unpredictable and fast on its feet and stands surprisingly well on its own given its convoluted plot."
Locus Magazine published reviews by Nick Gevers in its July issue, and Faren Miller in August. Gevers compares the books to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series, though he concludes that "Lynch writes very well, but seems to have one eye on screenplay adaptation, an understandable aspiration, but a disincentive to the sort of pervasive elegance Leiber usually achieved. ..."

(Tue 31 Jul 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Paxson, Diana L. : Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon
(Viking 978-0-670-03870-1, $25.95, 394pp, hardcover, August 2007, jacket art Steve Stone)

Historical fantasy novel by Paxson, a prequel to The Forest House (1993) by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Paxson, about Druid priestesses in 1st century Roman Britain. This book concerns the formation of the Society of the Ravens.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "stirring", and concludes "Paxson's bright fusion of fact and myth is a fine tribute to Bradley and the real-world triumphs and tragedy of Boudica."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Richardson, Kat : Poltergeist
(Roc 978-0-451-46150-6, $14, 341pp, trade paperback, August 2007)

Urban fantasy novel, follow-up to the author's first novel Greywalker, about a Seattle PI Harper Blaine, who wakes up two minutes after being killed, able to move between our world and the other side. In this book Harper discovers that a research group has created an actual poltergeist.
• The author's website has this description with quotes from reviews, and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Richardson's view of the paranormal has a nice technological twist and features intriguing historical notes that lift this whodunit a cut above the average supernatural thriller."
• Carolyn Cushman reviews the book in the August issue of Locus Magazine: "Harper's charmingly stubborn, the liminal world of the grey is fascinating, and some of the peripheral characters are intriguing in their own right, adding up to make this one of the most interesting in the latest crop of supernatural mystery series."

(Fri 27 Jul 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Slattery, Brian Francis : Spaceman Blues
(Tor 978-0-765-31610-3, $22.95, 219pp, hardcover, August 2007)

SF novel, the author's first novel, about a New York city party animal who disappears and his friends who try to find out why.
• Tor's website has this description -- "Painted in browns and grays and sparked by sudden fires, Spaceman Blues is a literary retro-pulp science-fiction-mystery-superhero novel, the debut of a true voice of the future, and a cult classic in the making" -- quotes from reviews, and an excerpt.
• The author's website has this page with a brief description, excerpts from reviews, and praise from Harlan Ellison, Jay Lake, Jeff VanderMeer, and others, and a chapter 1 excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly, which concludes "The story itself doesn't make much sense, but Slattery has a grand time showing off the colorful underground culture of cockfights, raves and endless intoxication that keeps things moving in his hallucinatory vision of New York."

(Tue 7 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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