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Table of Contents

New & Notable Books


previous
New & Notable Books
April

Ben Aaronovitch
Poul Anderson
Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear
Kristen Britain
Stephen Deas
Tom Holt
Richard Matheson
K.J. Parker
Norman Partridge
Jonathan Strahan
Charles Stross





 

John Barnes, Daybreak Zero (Ace Mar 2011)

The world tries to pick up the pieces despite the continuing anti-technology attacks of the Daybreak conspiracy -- so devastatingly successful in Directive 51 ... in this harrowing post-apocalyptic sequel. "Barnes is a great proponent of the power of demographics as well as of memes, as well as a fine deviser of dire, comprehensive apocalyptic scenarios...I find the punch packed by this vision undiminished even in a mid-trilogy volume." [Russell Letson]



Terry Bisson, TVA Baby (PM Press Apr 2011)

The ever-entertaining Bisson's fourth collection gathers 13 stories from the last decade, with notes on each by the author.



Alex Bledsoe, Dark Jenny (Tor Apr 2011)

Freelance sword and medieval detective Eddie LaCrosse returns for his third fantasy mystery, this time in a tale that draws on and transfigures Arthurian legend, while mixing comedy and darker tones. "In this crude 'Grand Bruan', where the heroes, villains, and magicians of the old tale can appear in wildly different guises (perhaps most of all its version of Merlin, who'd be unrecognizable aside from a few subtle allusions), both magic and tragedy still have a place." [Faren Miller]



Cory Doctorow, With a Little Help (Sweet Home Grindstone Press Dec 2010)

Doctorow's experiment in do-it-yourself publishing collects 12 previously uncollected stories, one original. Agent Russell Galen discusses new publishing models in his afterword.



Philip José Farmer, Up the Bright River (Subterranean Press Jan 2011)

The latest collection from Grand Master Farmer, edited by Locus's own Gary K. Wolfe, offers 16 stories, including three Riverworld stories not previously collected. "This volume shows the range of Farmer's imagination over four decades, from straight SF, through various nightmares and comedies, to the last three Riverworld stories." [Russell Letson]



Daniel Fox, Hidden Cities (Del Rey Apr 2011)

This third volume in the critically acclaimed trilogy -- Moshui, the Books of Stone and Water -- set in a magical version of feudal China, brings a conclusion to this complex tale of characters great and small caught up in violence, treachery, and magic in a land torn by rebellion and threatened by an angry, and now unbound, dragon.



Kate Griffin, The Neon Court (Orbit Mar 2011)

The third urban fantasy featuring Matthew Swift in a magical London. "Unlike writers whose series seem to lose more depth and purpose with each novel, Griffin retains an extraordinary eloquence that mingles a strong sense of place with imagery from every level of city life, transformed into unique entities and forms of magic." [Faren Miller]



Andrea Hairston, Redwood and Wildfire (Aqueduct Press Feb 2011)

Murder, magic, and the transformative power of music are just a few of the things touched on in this vivid historical fantasy novel about two dreamers, an Irish-Seminole man and a hoodoo queen, who leave their backwoods Georgia home for the bright lights of Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century.



Joe R. Lansdale, ed., Crucified Dreams (Tachyon Publications Mar 2011)

Lansdale gathers 19 dark or edgy stories by a stellar roster of authors known for pushing limits, including Lucius Shepard, Michael Bishop, Karen Joy Fowler, Stephen King, and Octavia E. Butler.



Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wild Girls (PM Press May 2011)

The latest volume in PM Press's Outspoken Authors series spotlights Le Guin with a newly revised version of the title story, two essays (one new), four poems, and a lively interview conducted by Terry Bisson.



Will McIntosh, Soft Apocalypse (Night Shade Books Apr 2011)

A former sociology major watches the slow collapse of society in this near-future SF novel. Expanded from the eponymous story, this is the first novel from an author getting attention for his short fiction. "A first novel that's compelling, credible, and relentless, whose best and most disturbing moments with stay with the reader for a long time." [Gary K. Wolfe].



Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear (DAW Mar 2011)

The magician/musician Kvothe returns in this much-anticipated second book in the Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, following the Rothfuss' acclaimed first novel The Name of the Wind. Was the four-year wait between books worth it? "I'd anwer that with an emphatic yes, crediting Rothfuss's undiminished ability to transmute what looks like just another 'doorstop fantasy' into a narrative far more fluid and unexpected than the norm... [it] fairly leaps off the page." [Faren Miller]



Kris Saknussemm, Enigmatic Pilot: A Tall Tale Too True (Del Rey Apr 2011)

This historical fantasy novel, subtitled A Tall Tale Too True, mixes satire and secret history as it follows a family with a phenomenally gifted six-year-old son moving from Ohio to Texas in 1844. "Almost more amazing than any of the amazing events detailed [here] is to contemplate that they somehow fit into the anarchic framework of his brilliant first novel, Zanesville. Either volume, by itself, would have to be counted as a masterpiece of historical derangement... but the two of them together ratchet up the stakes and the accomplishment to rarefied heights." [Paul Witcover]



Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless (Tor Apr 2011)

Valente tackles Russian folklore and the Russian Revolution in this tale of a young woman carried off by Koschei the Deathless. "It is [Valente's] deep understanding of myth that allows her to use this fraught material without cheapening it or herself; what we cannot process through reason alone necessarily requires the mediation of myth... and art. Valente gives us both in this jewel of a novel." [Paul Witcover]



Dan Wells, I Don't Want to Kill You (Tor Apr 2011)

The fascinating John Wayne Cleaver has gone from a teen obsessed with serial killers in I Am Not a Serial Killer to a dedicated killer of killers ready to challenge a demon in this climactic third volume in a gripping trilogy.




May 2011 Issue
New & Notable Books

posted 5 May 2011




may cover
Cover Design: Arnie Fenner



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