New and Notable Books
Ray Bradbury, One More for the Road (Morrow 4/02) The celebrated author returns with this collection of 25 stories, 17 brand new, with an afterword discussing his relationship with metaphors, and the writing of some of the stories.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity (Baen 5/02) Miles Vorkosigan’s honeymoon is interrupted by a crisis in Quaddiespace in this latest action-packed adventure in Bujold’s award-winning series.
Phil Hale, Goad: The Many Moods of Phil Hale (Donald M. Grant 4/02) Intense, disturbing imagery dominates in this vivid pictorial presentation of Hale’s art, from dynamic drawings to finished paintings and photos.
Karen L. Hellekson, The Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (McFarland 9/01) A non-fiction exploration of Smith’s work, particularly notable for Hellekson’s extensive research in the special manuscript collection at the University of Kansas, which includes works both published and unpublished, and related personal papers and correspondence.
Caitlín R. Kiernan, In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers (Subterranean Press 4/02) This dark fantasy novella, a Southern Gothic prequel to Threshold, sees the young woman Dancy Flammarion, a self-avowed monster hunter, kidnapped and held captive by the ladies of the Stephens Ward Tea League and Society of Resurrectionists. A tantalizing mix of elegant writing and grotesque characters managed ‘‘with style, grace, and assured aplomb’’ (Edward Bryant).
Fritz Leiber, Smoke Ghost & Other Apparitions (Midnight House 4/02) Eighteen stories of the supernatural and macabre from a master are collected in this second volume in a series bringing both the best and some rare examples of Leiber’s work back into print. There is one previously unpublished story in this volume.
Paul McAuley, Whole Wide World (Tor 5/02) This near-future SF police thriller rigorously explores issues of information technology and privacy through a taut tale of a discredited Detective-Inspector trying to redeem himself by solving a murder broadcast over the web.
Alastair Reynolds, Chasm City (Ace 4/02) Reynolds takes space opera to a higher level in this tale of a professional soldier pursuing a killer to a city horribly transformed by a biotech/nanotech plague. Set seven years earlier in the same world as Revelation Space.
Karl Schroeder, Permanence (Tor 5/02) The discovery of an alien spaceship on the frontiers of human space provides excitement - and the background for exploration of weightier issues in this involving and entertaining, high-concept space opera.
Sharon Shinn, Jenna Starborn (Ace 4/02) Jane Eyre is retold as a far-future tale of a girl, a ‘‘half-citizen’’ no longer wanted by the woman who commissioned her birth, who decides to make her own way in the world; ‘‘a deft science-fictional tribute to one of the first great Romantic novels’’ (Faren Miller).
Carol Ann Sima, The Mermaid That Came Between Them (Coffee House Press 4/02) Relationships in many shapes and forms are explored in this quirky erotic fantasy of a New York novelist and his son caught up with a menopausal mermaid determined to have a child.
Dan Simmons, Worlds Enough & Time (Subterranean Press 3/02) From a master of fiction long and short comes this collection of five novellas in various genres, including Locus Award winner ‘‘Children of the Helix’’ and the new ‘‘The End of Gravity’’, a story in the form of a film treatment. Simmons provides extended introductions to each tale.
Jeff VanderMeer & Forrest Aguirre, Leviathan Three (Ministry of Whimsy Press 7/02) The third volume in this acclaimed annual slipstream anthology series weighs in with 27 stories, only four previously published, by authors including Michael Moorcock, Jeffrey Ford, and Carol Emshwiller.
Ian Watson, The Great Escape (Golden Gryphon 5/02) Watson’s trademark eclectic mix of SF and fantasy enlivens the 19 stories in this collection, while his introduction discusses the appeal of ‘‘strangeness,’’ the nature of human consciousness, and the art of storytelling.
Liz Williams, Empire of Bones (Bantam Spectra 4/02) Social issues including caste systems and colonialism are explored in this complex SF novel. An Indian woman hears prophetic voices that turn out to come from an alien empire that long ago seeded Earth with genetic material, and will now either assimilate the planet - or destroy it.
Gene Wolfe & Neil Gaiman, A Walking Tour of the Shambles (American Fantasy Press 4/02) An amusing, fictional guide to a very strange Chicago neighborhood, described in vividly weird detail by the potent talents of Wolfe & Gaiman (or Gaiman & Wolfe; two versions are available).
John C. Wright, The Golden Age (Tor 4/02) Wonders of the post-human far future and SFnal homages and in-jokes fill this highly impressive first novel of a young man with missing memories that may threaten social stability.
