Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds., The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection (St. Martin's Griffin Oct 2007)

The acclaimed annual anthology celebrates its 20th anniversary with the usual bumper crop of exemplary stories and poems published in 2006, along with summations of the year in fiction, comics, media, and music.

Terry Dowling, Rynemonn (coeur de lion Sep 2007)

Noted Australian wordsmith Dowling brings a close to the adventures of Tom Rynosseros in this collection of 11 stories, three original, with extensive bridging material. ‘‘This is the conclusion to the best and most ambitious Australian SF series ever written, and one of the best, ever, period.’’ [Australian SF Reader]

Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds., Spectrum 14: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art (Underwood Books Oct 2007)

The latest opulent art book in the annual series presents more than 450 beautifully reproduced works by over 300 artists.

Matthew Hughes, The Spiral Labyrinth (Night Shade Books Sep 2007)

Freelance discriminator (detective) Henghis Hapthorn finds himself more and more drawn away from science and towards the illogic of magic in this second book in a trilogy begun in Majestrum, set in the far-future world of the Archonate, with its echoes of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. ‘‘Deliriously bizarre exoticism, in colorful, elegant language: the textures of The Spiral Labyrinth are something to savor.’’ [Nick Gevers]

Bruce McAllister, The Girl Who Loved Animals and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press Oct 2007)

McAllister’s long-overdue first collection presents 17 stories from five decades of writing, all in the author’s preferred texts, with notes on the writing of each.

Robin McKinley, Dragonhaven (Putnam Sep 2007)

A boy living on a preserve for endangered dragons accidentally acquires an orphaned baby dragon, and finds it more burden than joy in this alternate-world contemporary fantasy novel, marketed as YA but ‘‘...equally rewarding for adults. It’s an exercise in fantasy subjected to the rigors of science, a close psychological portrait of human and aliens minds, and a helluva good read.’’ [Faren Miller]

Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear, A Companion to Wolves (Tor Oct 2007)

A young nobleman opposes his father to join the wolfhealls, warriors bonded to giant wolves protect a harsh northern land. The authors ‘‘...subvert the telepathic animal companion subgenre so thoroughly that it may never be the same... a brutal and beautiful novel about the meaning of honor.’’ [Publishers Weekly]. ‘‘A vivid and remarkably believable experience of the Nordic fantasy world...’’ [Faren Miller]

Naomi Novik, Empire of Ivory (Ballantine Del Rey Oct 2007)

The fourth book in the acclaimed Temeraire series finds the dragon and his captain searching for a cure for a disease slowly killing England’s dragons, a quest that takes them into the deadly unknown lands in Africa’s interior. ‘‘The payoff is grand, with just the right measure of gritty realism to heighten the impact of the wonder.’’ [Faren Miller]

Deborah Noyes, ed., The Restless Dead (Candlewick Jul 2007)

An original anthology with ten all-new horror stories for young readers, by a stellar roster of authors including Kelly Link, Holly Black, M.T. Anderson, and Annette Curtis Klaus.

Terry Pratchett, Making Money (HarperCollins/Harper Oct 2007)

Moist von Lipwig, the man who reformed the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, now takes on the Royal Mint – and provides plenty of material for economic satire in the latest Discworld novel, full of ‘‘...laugh-out-loud humor, guest appearances by familiar series players, and some lines that rival the best of Oscar Wilde.’’ [Faren Miller]

T. A. Pratt, Blood Engines (Bantam Spectra Oct 2007)

Locus’s own Hugo-winning author Tim Pratt takes a new name for a new alternate-world urban fantasy series, an entertaining romp featuring a kick-ass heroine, a distinctive magic system, and lots of local color as sorcerer Marla Mason hits San Francisco in search of a magic artifact to save the small city she guards from a ruthless rival’s plans.

Cherie Priest, Not Flesh Nor Feathers (Tor Oct 2007)

Reluctant medium Eden Moore returns in her third outing, this time in Chattanooga, where floods free ghosts seeking justice for a forgotten crime. ‘‘The crisis itself seems horrific enough without supernatural trimmings… a fine extended portrait of a city in the midst of disaster, as its citizens try to cope.’’ [Faren Miller]

Robin Roberts, Anne McCaffrey: A Life with Dragons (University Press of Mississippi Sep 2007)

McCaffrey’s life and career are explored in this serious, detailed biography, drawn from interviews with McCaffrey and her friends, family, and colleagues.

Charles Stross, The Merchants' War (Tor Oct 2007)

The fourth book of the multi-dimensional Merchant Princes series finds Miriam Beckstein in hiding from both her Mafia-like Clan and their Noble opponents, while her friends plan revolution, and our world’s United States government is on the Clan’s trail. This volume ‘‘...is every bit as much fun as the earlier books, and maybe just a little tougher.’’ [Russell Letson]

Jo Walton, Ha'Penny (Tor Oct 2007)

Complex politics and questions of terrorists vs. freedom fighters provide the backbone for this alternate history mystery novel, sequel to Farthing, set in an independent England in 1949 where WWII never happened and Hitler still rules Germany.

Scott Westerfeld, Extras (Simon Pulse Oct 2007)

The fourth volume in the trilogy begun in Uglies picks up with a new protagonist, a girl who’s just an ‘‘extra’’ in a society obsessed with web-based celebrity. Satire and and action mix as ‘‘...Westerfeld maintains the energetic level of invention we’d seen in the Uglies series, and again shows his peculiar talent for extrapolating technologies that teens can instantly identify with….’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

Robert Charles Wilson, Axis (Tor Sep 2007)

This SF sequel to the Hugo-winning Spin picks up three decades later on the planet Equatoria, following a boy engineered and raised to be able to converse with the incomprehensible alien Hypotheticals. ‘‘Wilson has chosen depth over expansion, and the result is arguably what a middle novel in a trilogy should be, adding weight and density to the narrative...’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]