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Starred Reviews
Speculative Fiction Stars 2007
April 2, 2008
Annotations are from Advance, the
Ingram Book Magazine unless otherwise noted. Titles are arranged by approximate date
of publication, then alphabetically by author.
December
November
October
September
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January
- Half the Blood of Brooklyn
Author: Huston, Charlie
Publisher: Ballantine $ 13.95 ISBN: 9780345495877 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 10.31.07
December
November
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September
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January
- Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure
Author: Chabon, Michael
Publisher: Del Rey $ 21.95 ISBN: 9780345501745 Date: 2007
Kirkus
PW
LJ
This rollicking saga by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is set 1,000 years ago along the ancient Silk Road, and tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soul mates.
Updated 10.23.07
- God of the Razor
Author: Lansdale, Joe R.
Publisher: Subterranean $ 40 ISBN: 9781596061156 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 9.24.07
- Heart of Stone
Author: Murphy, C.E.
Publisher: Luna $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780373802920 Date: 2007
LJ
The first title in The Negotiator series. Attorney Margrit Knight has found the perfect man--except he is a gargoyle wanted for murder. When Alban Kround comes to Margrit for help to help clear his name, he reveals he is one of a handful of Old Races--gargoyles, vampires, selkies, and djinn--left living in the human world.
Updated 10.23.07
- Devices and Desires; Engineer Trilogy
Author: Parker, K. J.
Publisher: Orbit $ 12.99 ISBN: 9780316003384 Date: 2007
Kirkus
A remarkable new voice in fantasy fiction pens an exquisitely crafted tale of revenge in The Engineer Trilogy, which follows an embittered hero who takes up arms against his enemies using the only weapons he has left to him: his ingenuity and his passion.
Updated 8.27.07
- Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story
Author: Powers, Kim
Publisher: Da Capo $ 25 ISBN: 9780786720330 Date: 2007
LJ
They were children growing up next door to each other--she, a tomboy in overalls; he, a summer visitor from New Orleans, always dressed in immaculate white linen. Twenty-five years later he had taken New York's literary world by storm, while she struggled to put pen to paper and sweat out the story of her childhood. He was Truman Capote; she was Harper Lee. They would reunite in the desolate plains of Kansas to create In Cold Blood. And they would start talk of an even greater, unspoken mystery and crime: What happened between them--and who really wrote To Kill a Mockingbrid? How did two innocents from a backwoods Southern town go on to such fame, and why did they stop speaking to each other shortly after? Kim Powers has conjured a sort of death-bed confession from Capote, in which he picks up the phone to Harper Lee one last time to tell her he is being haunted--a tale she doesn't believe, until she is forced to. What do the ghosts of the Clutters want, as they appear one by one to confess their secrets and their anger to the most unlikely mediums of Capote and Lee? Capote in Kansas is an unforgettable "what might have been"--a fantasia of ghosts seeking resolve and revenge, murder in the heart (and the heartlands), and memories and regret for a past that was, that will never be again. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.23.07
- Reader and Raelynx
Author: Shinn, Sharon
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780441014699 Date: 2007
Kirkus
In this novel of secret sorceries and forbidden desires, the mystic Cammon must put aside his personal feelings for Princess Amalie while he reads the souls of her suitors. But Cammon begins to suspect that Amalie possesses magic powers--a revelation which could put her life in danger.
Updated 9.24.07
- The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice
Author: Valente, Catherynne
Publisher: Spectra $ 14 ISBN: 9780553384048 Date: 2007
Kirkus
LJ
Catherynne M. Valente enchanted readers with her spellbinding In the Night Garden. Now she continues to weave her storytelling magic in a new book of Orphan's Tales--an epic of the fantastic and the exotic, the monstrous and mysterious, that will transport you far away from the everyday....
Her name and origins are unknown, but the endless tales inked upon this orphan's eyelids weave a spell over all who listen to her read her secret history. And who can resist the stories she tells? From the Lake of the Dead and the City of Marrow to the artists who remain behind in a ghost city of spice, here are stories of hedgehog warriors and winged skeletons, loyal leopards and sparrow calligraphers. Nothing is too fantastic, anything can happen, but you'll never guess what comes next in these intimately linked adventures of firebirds and djinn, singing manticores, mutilated unicorns, and women made entirely of glass and gears. Graced with the magical illustrations of Michael Kaluta, In the Cities of Coins and Spice is a book of dreams and wonders unlike any you've ever encountered. Open it anywhere and you will fall under its spell. For here the story never ends and the magic is only beginning.... - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.23.07
December
November
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- God's Demon
Author: Barlowe, Wayne
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765309853 Date: 2007
Booklist
Lucifer's War, which damned legions of angels to Hell, is an ancient and bitter memory shrouded in the smoke and ash of the Inferno. The Fallen, those banished demons who escaped the full wrath of Heaven, have established a limitless and oppressive kingdom within the fiery confines of Hell. Lucifer has not been seen since the Fall and the mantle of rulership has been passed to the horrific Prince Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies. The Demon's Major, Heaven's former warriors, have become the ruling class. They are the equivalent to landed lords, each owing allegiance to the de facto ruler of Hell. They reign over their fiefdoms, tormenting the damned souls and adding to their wealth.
One Demon Major, however, who has not forgotten his former life in Heaven. The powerful Lord Sargatanas is restless. For millennia Sargatanas has ruled dutifully but unenthusiastically, building his city, Adamantinarx, into the model of an Infernal metropolis. But he has never forgotten what he lost in the Fall--proximity to God. He is sickened by what he has become. Now, with a small event--a confrontation with one of the damned souls--he makes a decision that will reverberate through every being in Hell. Sargatanas decides to attempt the impossible, to rebel, to endeavor to go Home and bring with him "anyone" who chooses to follow . . . be they demon or soul. He will stake everything on this chance for redemption. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.2.07
- A Companion to Wolves
Author: Bear, Elizabeth and Sarah Monette
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765318169 Date: 2007
PW
A Companion to Wolves is the story of a young nobleman, Isolfr, who is chosen to become a wolfcarl--a warrior who is bonded to a fighting wolf. Isolfr is deeply drawn to the wolves, and though as his fathers heir he can refuse the call, he chooses to accept it.
Updated 8.20.07
- The Sword-Edged Blonde
Author: Bledsoe, Alex
Publisher: Nightshade $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781597801126 Date: 2007
PW
It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, a slightly shopworn sword jockey with a talent for discretion and detection, is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.23.07
- The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007
Author: Datlow, Ellen
Publisher: St Martins $ 35 ISBN: 9780312369439 Date: 2007
Kirkus
Updated 8.27.07
- Fatal Revenant
Author: Donaldson, Stephen R.
Publisher: Putnam $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780399154461 Date: 2007
LJ
Linden Avery, who loved Thomas Covenant and watched him die, has returned to the Land in search of her kidnapped son, Jeremiah. Fulfilling her destiny will call for a terrible leap of faith: Can she give up everything she thinks had been restored to her, for the sake of the Land?
Updated 9.24.07
- Servant: The Awakening
Author: Foster, L.L.
Publisher: Berkely $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780425218747 Date: 2007
Booklist
Gabrielle Cody has the ability to see the demons as they really are--and she has the responsibility to destroy them. She can't allow anyone to get in her way, even the magnetic Detective Luther Cross. This first novel of a new urban paranormal series is by "New York Times" bestselling author Lori Foster, written under the pen name L.L. Foster.
Updated 10.2.07
- Nova Swing
Author: Harrison, M. John
Publisher: Bantam $ 16 ISBN: 9780553385014 Date: 2007
PW
Part broken love story, part noir, part far-reaching science fiction, this long awaited sequel to Harrisons groundbreaking Light is poised to break out as the science fiction novel of the year.
Updated 8.27.07
- 20th Century Ghosts
Author: Hill, Joe
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061147975 Date: 2007
LJ
This award-winning collection of short fiction by the "New York Times" bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box leads readers into a maze filled with exits into a vast country of the surreal. Available for the first time in the U.S., this volume includes an exclusive bonus story.
Updated 10.23.07
- Reserved for the Cat
Author: Lackey, Mercedes
Publisher: Daw $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780756403621 Date: 2007
LJ
In 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her mind to mind. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cats advice to impersonate a famous Russian ballerina.
Updated 10.23.07
- Virus
Author: Langan, Sarah
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780060872915 Date: 2007
PW
In Langan's stunning follow-up to her first novel The Keeper, an ancient but still contagious plague that transforms its victims into something inhuman is unleashed upon the small community of Corpus Christi, Maine, and the malevolence will not rest until it has devoured every living soul.
Updated 8.20.07
- Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling
Author: Sterling, Bruce
Publisher: Sunterranean $ 38 ISBN: 9781596061132 Date: 2007
PW
Polemicist, provocateur, futurist, and visionary in residence, Bruce Sterling has been personally sharpening the cutting edge of science fiction for more than 30 years. From tales of The Shaper/Mechanist to Leggy Starlitz to his Chattanooga Stories, this anthology spans the gamut of Sterling's works from 1976 to 2007.
Updated 8.7.07
- Halting State
Author: Stross, Charles
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780441014989 Date: 2007
Kirkus
PW
In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. The investigation seems pointless, but she soon realizes that the virtual world may have a devastating effect in the real one--and that someone is about to launch an attack upon both.
Updated 8.27.07
- The Winds of Marble Arch
Author: Willis, Connie
Publisher: Subterranean $ 40 ISBN: 9781596061101 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 7.16.07
December
November
October
September
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January
- Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band is Playing & Leviathan '99
Author: Bradbury, Ray
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061131561 Date: 2007
PW
Two never-before-published works of short fiction by one of America's finest writers are included in a single volume: "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" is classic Bradbury fantasy and "Leviathan 99" presents a science-fictional homage to Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
Updated 8.7.07
- The Elves of Cintra
Author: Brooks, Terry
Publisher: Del Rey $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780345484116 Date: 2007
PW
Armageddons Children, the first book in The Genesis of Shannara series, galvanized readers by revealing a link between our world and that of Shannara. Now the trilogy continues in this novel that explores the origins of an alternate world.
Updated 8.7.07
- Inferno
Author: Datlow, Ellen (edt)
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765315588 Date: 2007
PW
Award-winning editor Datlow presents 20 original tales of terror from some of the most powerful voices in the horror genre. In this aptly titled anthology, each contributor approaches fear in a different way, but all of the stories characters toil within their own hell.
Updated 10.23.07
- The Book of Joby
Author: Ferrari, Mark
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780765316868 Date: 2007
Booklist
"A grand eschatological epic that rings heretofore undreamt changes on the eternal drama of a blameless man caught in a cosmic wager between Lucifer and the Creator." – James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder
Updated 8.20.07
- Ilario: The Stone Gollem - Book 2
Author: Gentle, Mary
Publisher: Eos $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780061344985 Date: 2007
PW
Booklist
The dramatic conclusion to Ilario: The Lion's Eye! Fleeing a surprise treacherous murder attempt, the former King's Freak and would-be painter Ilario has run to Carthage, the city-state under perpetual darkness, in search of freedom. But strange plots are afoot, and a tenuous, complicated alliance with a bookseller-turned-spy will lead Ilario from the shrouded land into tense negotiations and intrigues in seductive, mercurial Venice, from a fraught return to Iberia to a final confrontation with family . . . and destiny.
Updated 8.20.07
- Sandworms of Dune
Author: Herbert, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 9780765312938 Date: 2007
Kirkus
Based directly on Herbert's final outline, Sandworms of Dune answers the long-debated, urgent questions of Dune fans: the origin of the Honored Matres, the tantalizing future of the planet Arrakis, the final revelation of the Kwisatz Haderach, and the resolution to the war between Man and Machine.
Updated 8.7.07
- Driven
Author: Kenin, Eve
Publisher: Shomi $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780505527097 Date: 2007
PW
Raina Bowen is in the race for her life, battling rival truckers, ice pirates, and a deadly maniac with a very personal vendetta. And the gorgeous guy whos hijacked her co-pilot's seat isn't helping by seducing her with every glance.
Updated 8.7.07
- Baltimore: Or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
Author: Mignola, Mike and Christopher Golden
Publisher: Spectra $ 25 ISBN: 9780553804713 Date: 2007
Booklist
Reminiscent of the illustrated tales of old, here is a lyrical, atmospheric novel of the paranormal--and a chilling allegory for the nature of war. When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlefields of World War I, the world is forever changed.
Updated 8.20.07
- Empire of Ivory
Author: Novik, Naomi
Publisher: Del Rey $ 7.99 ISBN: 9780345496874 Date: 2007
Booklist
Novik presents another thrilling airborne adventure in the Hugo Award-nominated, bestsellling Napoleonic War-era series, featuring the fighting dragon Temeraire and Captain Will Laurence
Updated 9.24.07
- Winterbirth - Godless World #1
Author: Ruckley, Brian
Publisher: Orbit $ 14.99 ISBN: 9780316067690 Date: 2007
PW
An uneasy truce exists between the thanes of the True Bloods. Now, as another winter approaches, the armies of the Black Road march south. For some, war brings a swift and violent death. But one man is following a path that will awaken a terrible power in him--and his legacy will be written in blood.
Updated 8.7.07
- Queen of Candesce: Book 2 of Virga
Author: Schroeder, Karl
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765315441 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 7.9.07
- The Dog Said Bow-Wow
Author: Swanwick, Michael
Publisher: Tachyon $ 14.95 ISBN: 9781892391520 Date: 2007
PW
Science fiction and fantasy's most adept short-story author reinvents some classic themes in an engaging collection that includes three of his Hugo award– winning stories. These smart expansions of traditional themes summon dinosaurs, dragons, peril in space, myths, faeries, and time travel, each undergoing artful alchemy to create serious genre literature that is playful, original, and clever. Comprising 16 imaginative and mischievous adventures, including the previously unpublished novelette, "The Skysailor's Tale", this adroit gathering makes a collection to truly revel in. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.7.07
- Axis
Author: Wilson, Robert Charles
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765309396 Date: 2007
PW
In the sequel to the Hugo Award-winning Spin, Wilson takes readers to the "world next door"--the planet engineered by the mysterious Hypotheticals to support human life. But as humans colonize this new world they, predictably, fiercely exploiting its resources.
Updated 8.7.07
- Steps Through the Mist
Author: Zivkovic, Zoran
Publisher: Aio $ 23.95 ISBN: 9781933083100 Date: 2007
PW
Five women in various stages of life— all connected by a mysterious, obscuring mist— face the deterministic trap of fate in this mosaic novel. A freshman at a girl’ s boarding school gains the strange ability to share other people’ s dreams, whereas a young woman in a straitjacket desperately tries to select a very particular future from among countless possibilities. A middle-aged skier refuses to be a puppet on a string, while a mature fortune-teller experiences a faltering faith in her trade, and when an elderly woman’ s precious alarm clock suddenly breaks, she suffers a vivid and troubling encounter with her past. An enticing mix of the ordinary with the surreal and the mundane with the sublime, these tales quietly twist trusted concepts. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.7.07
December
November
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- The Accidental Time Machine
Author: Haldeman, Joe
Publisher: Berkley $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780441014996 Date: 2007
PW
From the winner of the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel comes this provocative story of a man who stumbles upon the discovery of a lifetime. When a laboratory calibrator turns into a time machine, lab assistant Matt Fuller has nothing to lose by taking the trip himself--or so he thinks.
Updated 6.11.07
- King's Property
Author: Howell, Morgan
Publisher: Del Rey $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780345496508 Date: 2007
Booklist
This novel launches an exciting, new back-to-back epic fantasy trilogy that chronicles the adventures of a woman abducted into slavery, who rises to become leader of her captors army, and ultimately queen of their realm.
Updated 8.20.07
- Red Seas Under Red Skies
Author: Lynch, Scott
Publisher: Spectra $ 23 ISBN: 9780553804683 Date: 2007
Booklist
The acclaimed author of The Lies of Locke Lamora returns with a dazzling new tale as wily con artist Lamora takes the exotic city of Tal Verrar by storm.
Updated 8.20.07
- Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future
Author: Resnick, Mike
Publisher: Pyr $ 15 ISBN: 9781591025467 Date: 2007
LJ
In the year 6303, Duncan Rojas receives a most unusual visitor. The last of the Masai, Mandaka searches for the tusks of a legendary elephant. Through the quest, Rojas catches a glimpse of the elusive power of Africa and the magic surrounding the greatest hunting trophy ever taken.
Updated 8.20.07
December
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- The Sons of Heaven: The Company
Author: Baker, Kage
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765317469 Date: 2007
Kirkus
This is the Kage Baker novel everyone has been waiting for: the conclusion to the story of Mendoza and The Company. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.11.07
- The Imago Sequence
Author: Barron, Laird
Publisher: Nightshade $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781597800884 Date: 2007
PW
Booklist
The title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Probiscus" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19 . In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 9.24.07
- Territory
Author: Bull, Emma
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312857356 Date: 2007
PW
Bull, author of the popular War for the Oaks and co-author of the historical fantasy classic "Freedom and Necessity," has written her first solo novel in 12 years--a magical tale of the shootout at the O.K. Corral.
Updated 5.31.07 - The Devil You Know
Author: Carey, Mike
Publisher: Grand Central $ 24.99 ISBN: 9780446580304 Date: 2007
Kirkus
PW
Felix Castor used to cast out demons for a living in London. But in a time when the supernatural realm is in upheaval, his skills are in renewed demand. With old debts to pay, Castor is left with no choice but to accept one final, well-paying assignment: a seemingly simple exorcism.
Updated 6.1.07 - The Year's Best Science Fiction
Author: Dozois, Gardner
Publisher: Griffin $ I35 SBN: 9780312363345 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 5.31.07 - Acacia
Author: Durham, David Anthony
Publisher: Doubleday $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780385506069 Date: 2007
PW
Kirkus
Booklist
ACACIA is a thrilling work of literary imagination that creates an all-enveloping and mythic world that will carry readers away. It is a timeless tale of heroism and betrayal, of treachery and revenge, of primal wrongs and ultimate redemption. David Durham has reimagined the epic narrative for our time in a book that will surely mark his breakthrough to a wide audience. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.31.07 - Ilario: The Lion's Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One
Author: Gentle, Mary
Publisher: Eos $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780060821838 Date: 2007
PW
Abandoned and alone, the fosterling Ilario grows up as the King's Freak, surrounded by all the pomp, intrigue, and danger of the Iberian court. Fleeing a failed treacherous attack, Ilario crosses the sea to Carthage, where the mysterious Penitence shrouds the sky in darkness. There, a strange and awful destiny awaits the would-be painter, one that spans continents and kingdoms.
Filled with intrigue, sex, and mystery, Ilario: The Lion's Eye is a stunning tale of secret histories and self-discovery. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 6.4.07 - Mainspring
Author: Lake, Jay
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765317087 Date: 2007
Booklist
In Lakes first trade novel, he has envisioned a clockwork solar system, where a young clockmakers apprentice is visited by the Archangel Gabriel. He is told that he must take the Key Perilous and rewind the Mainspring of the Earth. It is running down, and disaster will ensue if its not rewound.
Updated 5.21.07 - The Execution Channel
Author: MacLeod, Ken
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765313324 Date: 2007
PW
It's after 9/11. After the bombing. After the Iraq war. After 7/7. After the Iran war. After the nukes. After the flu. After the Straits. After Rosyth. In a world just down the road from our own, on-line bloggers vie with old-line political operatives and new-style police to determine just where reality lies.
James Travis is a British patriot and a French spy. On the day the Big One hits, Travis and his daughter must strive to make sense of the nuclear bombing of Scotland and the political repercussions of a series of terrorist attacks. With the information war in full swing, the only truth they have is what they're able to see with their own eyes. They know that everything else is--or may be--a lie.
- Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.1.07 - Whispers in the Night
Author: Massey, Brandon
Publisher: Dafina $ 14 ISBN: 9780758217417 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 5.11.07 - Bitterwood
Author: Maxey, James
Publisher: Solaris $ 7.99 ISBN: 9781844164875 Date: 2007
PW
Bitterwood has spent the past twenty years hunting down dragons, one at a time. But he is getting old and the hate that he has carried in his heart since a group of dragon-soldiers killed his family is beginning to fade. When he kills the royal prince dragon, the king decides the only retribution is genocide of the human race. Bitterwood is forced to enter the Free City, the grand trap designed to eradicate mankind, with thousands of others. Can he lead from within, or can a select few dragons unite to stop the king's madness from becoming reality. Full of rich characters and drama, this is an amazingly astute vision of our own culture by way of a feudal kingdom where dragons rule, and humans are used as workers or pets. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.11.07 - Wired
Author: Maverick, Liz
Publisher: Shomi $ 6.99 ISBN: 9780505527240 Date: 2007
PW
When a young woman learns that whole time lines and identites can be changed by the two mortal enemies who accost her on the street, she must decide who and what she wants to beand which man to trust and love.
Updated 5.31.07 - Thirteen
Author: Morgan, Richard K.
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780345485250 Date: 2007
PW
Booklist
From the award-winning author of Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Market Forces comes this near-future thriller featuring a hit man who has lost his desire to kill. Unfortunately, certain government officials dont want to let him off the hook that easily.
Updated 5.31.07 - SFWA European Hall of Fame: Sixteen Contemporary Science Fiction Classics from the Continent
Author: Morrow, James (edt)
Publisher: Tor $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780765315366 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 3.15.07 - The Servants
Author: Smith, Michael Marshall
Publisher: Earthling $ 30 ISBN: 9780979505409 Date: 2007
PW
Things are unreliable. Things break. Things fall apart. Even at 11 years old, Mark knows this all too well.
By the time he moves out of London to a wintery seaside town, things are already bad. His mother is sick, and Mark doesn’t get along with his new stepfather. Although he finds an ally in an elderly neighbor, it still doesn’t feel like home, and shadows are soon gathering as things slowly start to get worse.
Mark knows he has to do something, but he doesn’t know what. And the only people who might be able to help him . . . may not exist.A modern fantasy novel from the International Horror Guild award-winning author of SPARES and the STRAW MEN trilogy. The first original novel by Smith in almost a decade! - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.21.07 - Best American Fantasy
Author: VanderMeer, Ann and Jeff (edt)
Publisher: Prime $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780809562800 Date: 2007
PW
prestigious new anthology series, Best American Fantasy is guest edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, with Matthew Cheney serving as the series editor. This inaugural volume showcases the best North American fantasy short fiction from the preceding year. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.31.07 - Asimov's Science Fiction 30th Aniversary Anthology
Author: Williams, Sheila (edt)
Publisher: Tachyon $ 14.95 ISBN: 9781892391476 Date: 2007
PW
This wide-ranging collection represents the breadth of science fiction writing published in the most significant and enduring magazine in the field during the past three decades. Slipstream authors such as Jonathan Lethem, James Patrick Kelly, and Kelly Link mingle with classic authors like Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Connie Willis along with the young turks of the field--Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, and Stephen Baxter. Featuring a well-balanced overview of both the classic and the contemporary, the book contains memorable stories from highly respected contributors to the science fiction genre such as Isaac Asimov's "Robot Dreams," Bruce Sterling's "Dinner in Audoghast," Jonathan Lethem's "The Happy Man," Ursula LeGuin's "Ether, OR," and Octavia E. Butler's "Speech Sounds." - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.31.07
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- Blaze: A Posthumous Novel
Author: Bachman, Richard/Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 9781416554844 Date: 2007
Booklist
Richard Bachman was Stephen Kings other writing name for his non-supernatural work before he finally hit it big with Carrie. The manuscript of Blaze sat in a university library until King rewrote it decades later.
Updated 5.21.07 - Kushiel's Justice
Author: Carey, Jacqueline
Publisher: Grand Central $ 26.99 ISBN: 9780446500036 Date: 2007
Booklist
LJ
Set in the same Renaissance world as Jacqueline Careys "New York Times" bestselling Kashiels Legacy trilogy, the second exciting book in this heroic fantasy trilogy is the highly anticipated follow-up to Kashiels Scion.
Updated 5.21.07 - The Darkness of the Light
Author: David, Peter
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765311733 Date: 2007
PW
The first novel of the uniquely exciting Hidden Earth trilogy from author David, a creative force in television and a bestselling author of comics and novels.
Updated 5.1.07
- Water Logic: An Elemental Logic Novel
Author: Marks, Laurie J.
Publisher: Small Beer $ 16 ISBN: 9781931520232 Date: 2007
Booklist
By water logic, a cow doctor becomes a politician. A soldier becomes a flower farmer. A lost book contains a lost future. The patterns of history are made and unmade.
mid assassinations, rebellions, and the pyres of too many dead, a new government forms in the land of Shaftal-a government of soldiers and farmers, scholars and elemental talents, all weary of war and longing for peace. But some cannot forget their losses, and some cannot imagine a place for themselves in an enemy land. Before memory, before recorded history, something happened that now must be remembered. Zanja na'Tarwein, the crosser of boundaries, born in fire and wedded to earth, has fallen under the ice. Now, by water logic, the logic of patterns repeated, of laughter and music, the lost must be found-or the found may forever be lost.
- Publisher Marketing
Updated 7.11.07
- Worshipping Small Gods
Author: Parks, Richard
Publisher: Prime $ 29.95 ISBN: 9780809557462 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 5.31.07 - Maledictus
Author: Robins, Lane
Publisher: Del Rey $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780345495730 Date: 2007
LJ
Robins's debut novel is a dark fantasy marked by obsession, betrayal, and vengeance set against the political machinations of a decadent aristocracy and their scheming courtiers.
Updated 5.1.07 - Harvest of Changelings
Author: Rochelle, Warren
Publisher: Golden Gryphon $ 24.95 ISBN: 9781930846463 Date: 2007
PW
Although the familiar themes of fantasy are present in this novel, the characters are not princes or sorcerers but ordinary people with seemingly ordinary lives. Ben Tyson, a librarian, met and loved Valeria, a fairy woman; but her death left Ben to raise their child, Malachi, alone. The two of them lived a fairly ordinary life until Malachi turned 10 and began to manifest previously unknown powers. Now the lords of Fairy have called home the changelings they left in the universe generations ago, waking up long-dormant DNA and changeling blood. More than a straightforward fantasy novel, this tale's underlining current deals with people that are different--physically, mentally, and in their choice of lifestyle. The fairy children are seen as outsiders to mainstream culture, and as they become aware of each other they must unite to overcome the apathy and prejudice of humans, as well as the evil Fomorii, before it is too late. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.1.07 - The Margarets
Author: Tepper, Sheri S.
Publisher: Eos $ 26.95 ISBN: 9780061170652 Date: 2007
PW
A breathtaking futuristic tale from the author of The Companions and The Visitor. Her novels are the old-fashioned kind . . . the kind that wrap you in their embrace, that take over your life, that make the world disappear--Village Voice Literary Supplement.
Updated 5.21.07
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- In War Times
Author: Goonan, Kathleen Ann
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765313553 Date: 2007
PW
Booklist
Kirkus
Sam Dance is a young enlisted soldier in 1941 when his older brother Keenan is killed at Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, Sam promises that he will do anything he can to stop the war.
Sam is seduced by a mysterious female physicist that is teaching one of his courses, and given her plans for a device that will end the war, perhaps even end the human predilection for war forever. But the device does something less, and more, than that.
After his training, Sam is sent throughout Europe to solve both theoretical and practical problems for the Allies. He spends his free time playing jazz, and trying to construct the strange device. It's only much later that he discovers that it worked, but in a way that he could have never imagined.
- Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.15.07
- 1634: The Baltic War
Author: Flint, Eric and David Weber
Publisher: Baen $ 26 ISBN: 9781416521020 Date: 2007
Booklist
"New York Times" bestselling authors David Weber and Eric Flint continue their Ring of Fire series--the saga of the residents of an entire West Virginia town who have been hurled back in time and their epic struggle for freedom and justice against the tyrannies of the 17th century.
Updated 8.20.07
- Brasyl
Author: MacDonald, Ian
Publisher: Pyr $ 25 ISBN: 9781591025436 Date: 2007
PW
Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part Sci-Fi, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.
Updated 3.30.07 - Getting to Know You
Author: Marusek, David
Publisher: Subterranean $ 25 ISBN: 9781596060883
Date: 2007
PW
The debut collection by one of today's hottest sf writers. "(David) Marusek . . . may have a relatively modest body of work (just ten short stories in print over the span of 13 years), but each of these pieces has so far proven to be as concentrated and potent as a dwarf star.S--Dave Itzkoff, "The New York Times"
Updated 2.12.07
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- White Night: Dresden Files
Author: Butcher, Jim
Publisher: Roc $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780451461407 Date: 2007
Booklist
PW
Professional wizard Harry Dresden is investigating a series of deaths when he uncovers a conspiracy within the White Council of Wizards that threatens not only him, but those closest to him.
Updated 3.2.07 - The Silver Ship and the Sea
Author: Cooper, Brenda
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765315977 Date: 2007
Booklist
The colony planet Fremont is joyous, riotous, and very wild. It's grasses can cut your arms and legs to ribbons, the rinds of its precious fruit can skewer your thumbs, and some of the predators are bigger than humans. Meteors fall from the sky and volcanoes erupt. Fremont is verdant, rich, beautiful, and dangerous.
Chelo Lee, her brother Joseph, and four other young children have been abandoned on the colony planet. Unfortunate events have left them orphaned in a human colony that abhors genetic engineering--and these six young people are genetically enhanced.
With no one to turn to, Chelo and the others must now learn how to use their distinct skills to make this unwelcome planet home, or find a way off it. They have few tools--an old crazy woman who wonders the edges of town, spouting out cryptic messages; their appreciation and affection for each other; a good dose of curiosity; and that abandoned silver space ship that sits locked and alone in the middle of the vast grass plain.
- Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.15.07 - You Don't Scare Me
Author: Farris, John
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780312850647 Date: 2007
Kirkus
Chase Emrick was 14 when her mother married Crow Tillman, a man Chase disliked. One terrifying night of horror proved what she already knew--Crow was pure evil. Now ten years' dead, he still haunts Chase. There is only one way to get him to stop: she must first die.
Updated 2.12.07 - The Assassin King Symphony of Ages #6
Author: Haydon, Elizabeth
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765305657 Date: 2007
PW
Cataclysm, both large and small, await in this sixth volume of the "USA Today" bestselling fantasy series, The Symphony of Ages. A twisting, fast-moving tale, The Assassin King promises endless surprises. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.25.06 - Bright of the Sky: Entire and the Rose, book 1
Author: Kenyon, Kay
Publisher: Pyr $ 25 ISBN: 9781591025412 Date: 2007
PW
Kenyon has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a landlocked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme.
Updated 3.30.07 - The Name of the Wind: Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One
Author: Rothfuss, Patrick
Publisher: Daw $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780756404079 Date: 2007
LJ
PW
This powerful debut novel follows the story of Kvothe, the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.
Updated 1.17.07 - Rollback
Author: Sawyer, Robert J.
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780765311085 Date: 2007
PW
LJ
From Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sawyer comes a novel that explores morals and ethics on both human and cosmic scales.
Updated 7.1.07 - Spindrift
Author: Steele, Allen
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780441014712 Date: 2007
PW
In the year 2344, the Galileo's shuttle returns to Earth carrying three expedition members, who appear to be the same age they were when they departed. They report that they have made contact with an alien race--and have come face to face with the most apocalyptic force in the galaxy.
Updated 2.5.07 - Deadstock
Author: Thomas, Jeffrey
Publisher: Solaris $ 7.99 ISBN: 9781844164479 Date: 2007
PW
At an abandoned apartment complex with a dark history in Punktown, a crime-ridden metropolis on the colony world Oasis, a tough street gang and a band of mutant squatters have been trapped inside by bioengineered life forms mindlessly bent on destroying them like vermin.
Updated 3.30.07
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- The Serpent and the Rose
Author: Byran, Kathleen
Publisher: Tor $ 14.95 ISBN: 9780765313287 Date: 2007
Kirkus
A remarkable new voice in fantasy begins an epic of the war between Order and Chaos in the first volume in the War of the Roses series.
Updated 1.11.06 - The Alchemist's Apprentice
Author: Duncan, Dave
Publisher: Ace $ 14 ISBN: 9780441014798 Date: 2007
Kirkus
To the legendary clairvoyant Nostradamus, the future is forever in motion. But for young swordsman Alfeo Zeno, the present is hard enough to contend with. After a series of unfortunate events, Alfeo must unravel a web of magic and murder if he is to have any future of his own.
Updated 1.11.06 - Command Decision
Author: Moon, Elizabeth
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780345491596 Date: 2007
Kirkus
The fourth book in the Vatta's War series from Nebula Award-winner Moon continues the action-packed militaristic story of Kylara Vatta, who must bring together a ragtag group of traders into a cohesive force who must strike back at their foes.
Updated 11.27.06 - The New Moon's Arms
Author: Hopkinson, Nalo
Publisher: Warner $ 23.99 ISBN: 9780446576918 Date: 2007
Kirkus
The acclaimed author of The Salt Roads and Skin Folk pens a breakthrough, mainstream novel about the wrath of love and family relationships.
Updated 11.13.06 - Gradisil
Author: Roberts, Adam
Publisher: Pyr $ 15 ISBN: 9781591025382 Date: 2007
Booklist
An epic space opera of family revenge and the birth of a nation. A new breed of adventurer has slipped the bonds of gravity and begun a fresh life in orbit, free from interference by government, free from the petty concerns of earth.
Updated 3.2.07 - The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year
Author: Strahan, Jonathan (edt)
Publisher: Nightshade $ 19.95 ISBN: 9781597800686 Date: 2007
PW
For the first time ever, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has assembled the best science fiction and the best fantasy stories of the year in one volume. More than just two books for the price of one, this book brings together over 200,000 words of the best genre fiction anywhere. Strahan's critical eye and keen editorial instincts have served him well for earlier best of the year round-ups in the Best Short Novels, Science Fiction: Best of and Fantasy: Best of series, and this is his most impressive effort yet. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 3.5.07
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- From the Notebooks of Doctor Brain
Author: Faust, Minister
Publisher: Del Rey $ 13.95 ISBN: 9780345466372 Date: 2007
PW
"Faust has pretty much invented his own genre. He's totally original, full of surprises."
-Richard K. Morgan, author of Altered Carbon - Publisher Marketing
Updated 12.6.06 - Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present
Author: Doctorow, Cory
Publisher: Thunders Mouth $ 15.95 ISBN: 9781560259817 Date: 2007
Booklist
Have you ever wondered what it’ s like to get bitten by a zombie? To live through a bioweapon attack? To have every aspect of your life governed by invisible ants?
In Cory Doctorow's collection of novellas, he wields his formidable experience in technology and computing to give us mindbending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology — and its various uses — run amok. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.1.07 - The Dead Fathers Club
Author: Haig, Matt
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 9780670038336 Date: 2007
PW
Kirkus
Booklist
Eleven-year-old Philip Noble has a big problem. It all begins when his dad appears as a ghost at his own funeral and introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club. Philip learns the truth about ghosts: the only people who end up ghosts are MURDERED. So begins Philip's quest to avenge his dad. Hilariously funny, it is full of poignant insights into the strange workings of the world seen through the eyes of a child.
Updated 12.1.06 - Saffron and Brimstone: Srange Stories
Author: Hand, Elizabeth
Publisher: M $ 14.95 ISBN: 9781595820969 Date: 2007
LJ
Updated 11.1.06 - Heart-Shaped Box
Author: Hill, Joe
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780061147937 Date: 2007
LJ
Sooner or later the dead catch up, as Judas Coyne buys a ghost for sale on the Internet. This pulse-pounding supernatural thriller is a remarkable debut novel from a blazing new talent.
Updated 12.27.06 - Ysabel
Author: Kay, Guy Gavriel
Publisher: Roc $ 24.95 ISBN: 9780451461292 Date: 2007
PW
The ancient structure of Saint-Saveur Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence is a perfect subject for a celebrated photographer, and a perfect place for the photographer's son, Ned Marriner, to lose himself while his father works. But the cathedral isn't the empty edifice it appears to be.
Updated 11.27.06 - The Fate of Mice
Author: Palwick, Susan
Publisher: Tachyon $ 14.95 ISBN: 9781892391421 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 1.27.07 - The White Tyger
Author: Park, Paul
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 9780765315298 Date: 2007
PW
Updated 11.13.06
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- Brass Man
Author: Asher, Neal
Publisher: Tor $ 14.95 ISBN: 0765317311 Date: 2007
Kirkus
From the Philip K. Dick Award nominee author of Cowl, an adrenaline-powered new SF adventure: Brass Man. Neal Asher returns to his trademark Polity future setting, in a sequel to Gridlinked.- Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.16.06 - Scar Night
Author: Campbell, Alan
Publisher: Spectra $ 22 ISBN: 9780553384161 Date: 2007
PW
Suspended by chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss, the ancient city of Deepgate is home to a young angel, an assassin, and a psychotic murderer hungry for revenge— or redemption. But soon a shocking betrayal will unite all three in a desperate quest....
The last of his line, Dill is descended from legendary Battle-archons who once defended the city. Forbidden to fly and untrained even to wield the great sword inherited from his forebears, he has become a figurehead for a dying tradition. Now he lives a sheltered existence in one of Deepgate’ s crumbling temple spires under the watchful eye of the Presbyter who rules the city.
Spine assassin Rachel Hael has better things to do than oversee the Presbyter’s angel. Each dark moon she must fight for her life among the city chains, hunting an immortal predator with a taste for blood.
But when a traitor brings enemies to Deepgate’ s doorstep, Dill and Rachel are forced into an uneasy alliance with the city’ s oldest and most dangerous foe. They must journey down into the uncharted chasm to save their sprawling metropolis— and themselves— from annihilation. Once they descend however, they learn that what lies below is far more sinister than what they’ ve been taught to expect. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.31.06 - Bottomfeeder
Author: Fingerman, B.H.
Publisher: M $ 12.95 ISBN: 9781595820976 Date: 2007
Booklist
A man can go missing in New York City. A life can disappear, teeth can sharpen, skin gcan o pale, eyes can reject the sun. People can be human one day, a vampire the next. Set in the Gotham of prostitutes, junkies, and lonely hearts, Bottomfeeder tells the story of Philip, a smart-ass in a dead-end job, whose life takes an unusual turn after he tangles with a vampire. Now, spurred by a bloodlust stronger than his humanity, he haunts the abandoned streets alone, trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy while looking for prey.
Like his entertaining, empathetic comics and graphic novels, Bottomfeeder displays Fingerman's unerring ear for dialogue and spot-on portrayal of New York's urban subculture -- drawn here in words rather than images -- that have won him legions of fans.
Updated 12.6.06
- Fangland
Author: Marks, John
Publisher: Penguin $ 25.95 ISBN: 9781594201172 Date: 2007
PW
LJ
An acclaimed novelist and former producer for CBS's "60 Minutes" reinvents the Dracula epic in the halls of a certain television newsmagazine. Written in the form of diary entries, e-mails, therapy journals, and other artifacts of early 21st-century American professional-class life, this vampire novel is a biting commentary on the way we live and work now.
Updated 12.28.06
- No Dominion
Author: Huston, Charlie
Publisher: Del Rey $ 13.95 ISBN: 9780345478252 Date: 2007
PW
Joe Pitt's life sucks. He hasn't had a case or a job in God knows how long and his stashes are running on empty. What stashes? The only ones that count to a guy like Joe: blood and money. The money he uses to buy blood; the blood he drinks. Hey, buddy, it's that or your neck-you want to choose? The only way to lay his hands on both is to take a gig with the local Vampyre Clan. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 10.23.06 - The Terror
Author: Simmons, Dan
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780316017442 Date: 2007
Kirkus
PW
LJ
Based on the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during the Sir John Franklin Expedition in 1845.
Updated 12.29.06
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