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New Books August #3
Daniel Abraham
Terry Brooks
Pete Butler
Conyers & Sunseri
Julie E. Czerneda
Jessica Draper
David Lynn Golemon
Shirley Hiter
Matthew Jarpe
Richard Kadrey
Tom Kratman
Doris Lessing
Nathalie Mallet
Henry Melton
Stephenie Meyer
Ringo & Taylor
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Gary Westfahl

New Books August #2
Justin Allen
Keri Arthur
Rachel Caine
Jeff Carlson
Ted Chiang
Datlow & Windling
Jennifer Fallon
Mark J. Ferrari
Steven Gould
Paula Guran
Lilith Saintcrow
Brandon Sanderson
Karl Schroeder
VanderMeer & VanderMeer

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 : early September 2007
posted 16 September 2007

* Barzak, Christopher : One for Sorrow
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-38436-9, $12, 308pp, trade paperback, September 2007)

Fantasy novel, the first novel by the author of Nebula Award nominated novelette "The Language of Moths". It's about a 15-year-old boy who becomes attached to the ghost of another boy whose body he finds in the woods.
• Bantam's site has this description, with blurbs by Karen Joy Fowler, Kelly Link, and Scott Westerfeld, and an excerpt.
• The author's website has this page for the book and the story Dead Boy Found that was the basis for this novel.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls the book "well-intentioned and morbid", and concludes "The macabre tone won't work for readers looking for another Lovely Bones, but the novel's approach to familiar material is refreshing."

(Mon 10 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Bradbury, Ray : Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99
(HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-113156-3, $24.95, 209pp, hardcover, September 2007, jacket illustration Tim O'Brien)

Collection of two novellas, both original to this book but begun decades ago.
• The first, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing", concerns a rural Arizona town and was originally conceived as a screenplay for Katharine Hepburn; the second, "Leviathan '99", is a science fictional version of Melville's Moby Dick.
• The publisher's site has this description with a "Browse Inside" function including an excerpt.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its July 30th issue: "This slim volume eloquently displays two sides of the venerated Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) with two highly contrasting tales of the fantastic. ... Bradbury's brief summaries of each novella's decades-long path to completion invoke the extraordinary length of one of the most distinguished careers in speculative fiction."

(Thu 6 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Clegg, Douglas : The Queen of Wolves
(Ace 978-0-441-01523-8, $23.95, 314pp, hardcover, September 2007, jacket illustration Judy York)

Dark fantasy novel, conclusion of "The Vampyricon" following The Priest of Blood (2005) and The Lady of Serpents (2006), concerning a medieval soldier-turned-vampire.
• Series website The Vampyricon has this page about the book, with an excerpt and a YouTube video clip of the trailer for the second book.
• Amazon has posts from the author, and the Publishers Weekly review, which calls the trilogy "majestic" and which concludes: "Clegg crafts a fitting finale ornamented with prose that modulates between the sensual and regal and that distinguishes his series as one of the more memorable modern vampire epics."

(Wed 29 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Frost, P. R. : Moon in the Mirror
(DAW 978-0-7564-0424-6, $24.95, 389pp, hardcover, September 2007, jacket painting Donato Giancola)

Supernatural romance/mystery novel about a fantasy writer who fights demons, sequel to Hounding the Moon (2006). In this book Tess Noncoiré is haunted by her late husband's ghost.
• The author's webpage has excerpts from both her first and second books, plus a bio.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Fans of Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley are most likely to enjoy this slightly screwball fantasy adventure leavened with touches of soap opera."
• Carolyn Cushman reviews it in the September issue of Locus Magazine: "The plotting and pacing have their sloppy moments; Tess isn't the most decisive demon slayer, and spends way too much time pondering the various mysteries in her life without doing much about them. Fortunately, the absurd situations and mounting chaos keep things moving and plenty of fun."

(Wed 29 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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+ Gentle, Mary : Ilario: The Stone Golem
(Eos 978-0-06-134498-5, $14.95, 361pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover illustration Cliff Nielsen) First US edition (UK: Orion/Gollancz, November 2006)

Alternate history fantasy novel set in Carthage, concerning a hermaphrodite named Ilario who is taken into slavery, second volume following Ilario: The Lion's Eye.
• The HarperCollins site has this description with an excerpt.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its August 13th issue: "Medieval alternate historians rarely conceive such wondrously convincing intrigue as Gentle has in this second installment of the First History series..."
• Nick Gevers reviewed the earlier book in the February '07 issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "here is (probably) literature's most extended examination ever of hermaphroditism from the inside, in all its complications, confusions, and epiphanies. The extraordinary gender sensitivity and flexibility Ilario embodies, novel shades of sexuality at every turn, and new angles on plain old heterosexuality in the bargain -- factor all that in, and Ilario is the foremost SF/fantasy novel of gender in quite a while."

(Wed 29 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Jones, William, ed. : High Seas Cthulhu
(Elder Signs Press 978-1-934501-02-3, $15.95, 328pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover art Steven Gilberts)

Anthology of 20 stories in which "swashbuckling adventure meets the mythos" of H.P. Lovecraft. One story, by Paul Melniczek, is a reprint; the other 19 stories are original. Authors include Darrell Schweitzer, Alan Dean Foster, John Shirley, Tim Curran, and Gerard Houarner.
• The publisher's site has a description and the complete table of contents.
• Amazon has a post by the editor (who's also editor of Dark Wisdom magazine), with a link to his blog posts about the origin and framework of the anthology.

(Fri 7 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Link, Kelly, & Gavin J. Grant, eds. : The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49913-4, $14.95, 20+387pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover illustration and design Jacob McMurray)

Anthology of 49 stories and nonfiction pieces from the first 19 issues of semi-annual small press magazine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.
• Authors include Kelly Link, Nalo Hopkinson, Karen Joy Fowler, Ray Vukcevich, Jeffrey Ford, Theodora Goss, Jan Lars Jensen, James Sallis, and John Kessel. There are also nonfiction advice columns by Gwenda Bond.
• The introduction is by Dan Chaon. The editors provide a preface and contributor notes.
• Del Rey's site has this description.
• Online reviews include this one by Steven H Silver and this Bookgasm review by Rod Lott.

(Mon 10 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* McAllister, Bruce : The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories
(Golden Gryphon Press 1-930846-49-5, $24.95, 10+306pp, hardcover, October 2007, jacket painting John Picacio)

Collection of 17 stories, first published from 1963 to 2006, with an introduction by Harry Harrison and an afterword by Barry N. Malzberg.
• Stories include 1987 Hugo and Nebula nominated novelette "Dream Baby", basis for McAllister's later novel of that name, and this year's Hugo nominated short story "Kin".
• Golden Gryphon's site has this page for the book, with a description, blurbs from Gregory Benford, Nancy Kress, and Michael Bishop, and the complete table of contents.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "How far would a person go to protect a loved one? That question is at the heart of many of the 17 stories in McAllister's career-spanning collection. ... McAllister's haunting work will enthrall any reader who appreciates thoughtful, evocative science fiction."

(Sat 1 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Roberson, Chris : Set the Seas on Fire
(BL Publishing/Solaris US 978-1-84416-488-2, $15, 380pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover by Darius Hinks)

SF adventure novel, follow-up to Paragaea (2006), about a Napolean-era English frigate lost in the South Pacific.
• The publisher's site has this description and a PDF sample chapter.
• The author's website notes that this book "is a substantially expanded version of the novel previously published in a POD edition under this title." The site for the earlier book includes character biographies, a map, and excerpts.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Roberson delivers a fairly standard but well-crafted adventure story for most of the book before delving into the supernatural. The novel is a good bet for adventure fans who want more than your average Horatio Hornblower clone."

(Wed 29 Aug 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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* Roberts, Adam : Splinter
(BL Publishing/Solaris US 978-1-84416-490-5, $15, 252pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover by Darius Hinks)

SF novel about a man whose father supports a cult awaiting the imminent destruction of Earth -- and about an asteroid that shatters the Earth and leaves him and other survivors on a splinter of the original planet.
• The book includes a 24-page afterword on the writing of the novel.
• The publisher's description notes that the novel is inspired by Jules Verne's "Off on a Comet", and offers a free download of that work, as well as a PDF sample chapter of Roberts' novel.
• The author's website has this page about the book, with an extract of much of the afterword, and an extract of the novel.
• In this Guardian blog, Roberts argues that Jules Verne deserves a better translation service.
• UK SF Book News has this interview with the author about the book.

(Mon 10 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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+ Ruckley, Brian : Winterbirth
(Orbit 978-0-316-06769-0, $14.99, 541pp, trade paperback, September 2007, cover illustration Gene Mollica)

Fantasy novel, first in "The Godless World" trilogy, set on a world where the Thanes of the True Bloods' winter festival is interrupted by an attack by ancient foes.
• This is the first US edition; the first edition was published in October 2006 by Orbit UK.
• The publisher's site has this extract.
• The author's site has this synopsis with quotes from reviews, cover images of foreign editions, and an excerpt.
• Amazon has posts from the author, and the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it an "outstanding fantasy debut", and concludes "The author's unapologetically stark yet darkly poetic narrative displays a refreshing lack of stereotypical genre conventions, ensuring a fervent audience of epic fantasy fans looking for something innovative in a genre that can be anything but."

(Fri 7 Sep 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

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