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From this issue:

Table of Contents

New & Notable Books


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New & Notable Books
December

Mike Allen
Iain M. Banks
Peter S. Beagle
Lois McMaster Bujold
Stephen R. Donaldson
Cathy & Arnie Fenner
N.K. Jemisin
Stephen Jones
Jay Lake
Ian R. MacLeod
Ken Scholes
Catherynne M. Valente
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Connie Willis





 

Jon Armstrong, Yarn (Night Shade Books Dec 2010)

A master tailor is asked to create a garment out of an illegal yarn in this SF "fashionpunk" novel, sequel to Grey. "Some books seduce their readers; others ravish them. Yarn... falls into the latter category... as beautifully and auidaciously tailored as the clothing created by its main character." [Paul Witcover]



Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three (Orbit US Nov 2010)

Bear returns to hard SF with this tale of a crewman on a colony ship who wakes without memory in a nightmarish world full of strange creatures and puzzles, which ultimately "involves as compelling and serious a set of moral questions as we’ve come to expect from Bear’s most ambitious and thoughtful SF." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Orson Scott Card, Pathfinder (Simon Pulse Nov 2010)

A young backwoods trapper — brilliant, unusually well educated, and possessed of an unusual talent that lets him see traces of the past — must leave his home and find family he never knew he had in this engrossing young-adult novel that mixes a SF premise with a fantasy-adventure feel.



Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan, eds., Legends of Australian Fantasy (HarperCollins Voyager Australia Jun 2010)

Noted Australian authors provide 11 new fantasy novallas, most set in their popular series, including Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom, Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn, Sean Williams’ Change, Cecilia Dart-Thornton’s Erith, and D.M. Cornish’s Lamplighter/Monster Blood Tattoo.



James Enge, The Wolf Age (Pyr Nov 2010)

Tormented hero Morlock Ambrosius returns in the third book of his sword and sorcery series, wandering far from human civilization in the lands where werewolves rule, and finds himself caught up in their vicious politics — and the machinations of the Strange Gods. "One of [Enge’s] great virtues as a writer is weirdness — he’s not afraid to do the unexpected.... Enge is one of the most engaging of the new sword and sorcery authors." [Tim Pratt]



Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, Towers of Midnight (Tor Nov 2010)

The penultimate book in Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time, ably completed by Sanderson.



Stephen King, Full Dark, No Stars (Scribner Nov 2010)

From the master of horror comes this collection of four all-new novellas, three in the crime/suspense vein, and one dark fantasy. "The contents show King, once again, to be one of our most talented and rewarding storytellers." [Stefan Dziemianowicz]



George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds., Songs of Love and Death (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Nov 2010)

Original anthology of 17 stories of star-crossed love, mingling SF or fantasy and romance. The impressive roster of authors includes Jim Butcher, Neil Gaiman, Peter S. Beagle, Robin Hobb, Tanith Lee, Cecelia Holland, and Carrie Vaughn.



Jack McDevitt, Echo (Ace Nov 2010)

This fifth far-future SF mystery novel featuring Alex Benedict finds the antiquities dealer investigating a mysterious stone tablet that may provide evidence of the existence of an unknown alien species, sending him off on another adventure with "surprises packed inside the surprises. And perhaps the biggest surprise is how McDevitt manages to make the odd coupling of the cozy and the cosmic into effective and moving SF." [Russell Letson]



Richard Parks, On the Banks of the River of Heaven (Prime Books Dec 2010)

Parks’s latest collection presents 14 stories, three new. "These 14 works are superb to the point where it seems both unnecessary and impossible to pick out special gems." [Faren Miller]



M. Rickert, Holiday (Golden Gryphon Press Nov 2010)

The second collection from critically acclaimed writer Rickert offers 11 stories (one new), united by a loose theme of holidays. "An impressively high proportion of her carefullly crafted tales continue to garner considerable discussion and award attention." [Gary K. Wolfe]



Ekaterina Sedia, The House of Discarded Dreams (Prime Books Aug 2010)

An African-American college student moves into a new house full of strange creatures out of African urban legends. The everyday and the surreal mix magically, "presenting the absolutely strange in the same lucid prose as the everyday even when dream threatens to trail off into nightmare.... this book won’t disappoint." [Faren Miller]



Robert Silverberg, The Last Song of Orpheus (Subterranean Press Oct 2010)

Grandmaster Silverberg draws on Greek myth for this fantasy novella, in which the legendary musician Orpheus tells his story — traveling to the underworld to find his lost love, studying in Egypt, adventuring with Jason and the Argonauts — all enhanced by Silverberg’s dry voice and philosophical musing.



Patrick Swenson, ed., The Best of Talebones (Fairwood Press Nov 2010)

Patrick Swenson picks the best 42 stories originally published in his magazine Talebones during its run from 1995-2009. Authors include Jack Cady, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jay Lake, Ray Vukcevich, Tom Piccirilli, and Ken Scholes. "The tone ranges from grisly horror to wry humor, surrealist SF to rampantly pulpish fantasy... they’re evidence of an editor who knows just what he wants... If you can’t stand lyrical prose, this isn’t the book for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s nice." [Faren Miller]



Freda Warrington, Midsummer Night (Tor Nov 2010)

A woman seeking healing in the English countryside finds a place where the unearthly intrudes in this second fantasy novel in the Aetherial Tales series. "While Warrington loves to invoke and explore the emotional, sensuous, difficult tangle of relationships, betrayals, and obsessions of mortals and immortals... beneath all this lies something with the power of myth and the great old tales." [Faren Miller]




January 2011 Issue
New & Notable Books

posted 5 January 2011




january cover
Cover Design: Arnie Fenner



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