* Bradley, Marion Zimmer, & Deborah J. Ross : The Alton Gift
(DAW 978-0-7564-0019-4, $25.95, 466pp, hardcover, June 2007, jacket painting Romas Kukalis)

Fantasy novel, first volume of the "Children of Kings" trilogy set in Bradley's Darkover universe. It follows the authors' earlier "Clingfire" trilogy: The Fall of Neskaya (2002), Zandru's Forge (2003), and A Flame in Hali (2004). The volumes concerns a disease called trailman's fever that threatens the population of Darkover.
• DAW's website has a brief description.
• The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust website has this updated page listing MZB's works, which indicates yet two more titles that were in work at the time of MZB's death.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Though a slow start and arcane historical references might dissuade new readers, the teasing resolution will excite anticipation in those familiar with the memorable land of the Bloody Sun."

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* Brown, Eric : Helix
(Solaris 978-1844164721, $7.99, 526pp, mass market paperback, June 2007, cover art Dominic Harman)

SF/space opera novel about a group of humans who crash-land on a desolate planet.
• The Solaris site has this description -- "...Daylight brings the discovery that the planet is merely one of thousands arranged in a vast spiral wound around a central sun. The group set off to discover a more habitable Earth-like world, encountering bizarre alien races on the way..." -- and a PDF sample chapter.
• Brown notes on his website that this is "the longest novel I've written to date".
• Amazon has reader reviews.

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* Carey, Jacqueline : Kushiel's Justice
(Warner 978-0-446-50003-6, $26.99, 703pp, hardcover, June 2007)

Fantasy novel, fifth in the series overall and second in the "Imriel" trilogy following Kushiel's Scion (2006). This volume concerns the affair between Prince Imriel and his cousin Sidonie.
• Warner's site has this description with an excerpt.
• Carey's website has links to excerpts of the first two chapters.
• The Publishers Weekly review notes that "Carey's infamous explicit sex scenes now portray Imriel's illicit and often violent affair with Sidonie..." and concludes "Imriel serves well as protagonist, however, and events are clearly building to what promises to be a spectacular climax in the sixth volume."

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* Carwyn, Giles, & Todd Fahnestock : Mistress of Winter
(Eos 0-06-082977-x, $25.95, 481pp, hardcover, May 2007, jacket illustration Thomas Thiemeyer)

Fantasy novel, second in a series following Heir of Autumn (2006).
• HarperCollins' site has this description with its 'Browse Inside' feature including an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews: "another tangle of convoluted plots, age-old grudges and old-fashioned empire building seasoned with plenty of sex and violence."

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* Durham, David Anthony : Acacia
(Doubleday 978-0-385-50606-9, $26.95, 576pp, hardcover, June 2007)

Fantasy novel, first book in the "War with the Mein" trilogy, about the four children of the assassinated ruler of Acacia, an idyllic island empire founded on drug trafficking and slave trade, who vow to avenge their father's death.
• Doubleday's site has this description with an excerpt and an author Q&A, which discusses his love of fantasy fiction and his position as an African American fantasy writer.
• The author has previously written historical novels. His website includes excerpts from this and his previous novels.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its April 2nd issue: "In this sprawling and vividly imagined fantasy, historical novelist Durham (Pride of Carthage) chronicles the downfall and reinvention of the Akaran Dynasty, whose empire, called Acacia, was built on conquest, slaving and drug trade. ... Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic and populated by complicated personalities grappling with issues of freedom and oppression."
• Nick Gevers reviews it in the June issue of Locus Magazine: "Here the social relevance and complex characterization of contemporary fiction fuse very effectively with the broad-canvas exoticism and excitement of high fantasy, in a notable and knowledgeable genre debut. ... The War with the Mein, or the first third of it, is a political novel of large impact, as radical a rewriting of Martin as Martin himself has performed on Tolkien. Rarely has medieval epic been quite this pertinent."

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* Greenberg, Martin H., & Brittiany A. Koren, eds. : Places to Be, People to Kill
(DAW 978-0-7564-0417-8, $7.99, 309pp, mass market paperback, June 2007)

Anthology of 12 original SF stories about assassins. Authors include Tanya Huff, Jean Rabe, John Helfers, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ed Gorman, and John Marco.
• DAW's website has this listing. "Assassins -- are they born or made? Do they choose this role out of necessity, because they are forced to, or because they enjoy killling? And what do they do in their spare time? These are just a few of the questions answered in this all-original collection of twelve tales..."

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* Hartwell, David G., & Kathryn Cramer, eds. : Year's Best SF 12
(Eos 978-0-06-125208-2, $7.99, 12+484pp, mass market paperback, June 2007)

Anthology of 26 SF stories first published in 2006, with an introduction by the editors, and introductions to each story. Authors include Nancy Kress, Terry Bisson, Cory Doctorow, Gardner R. Dozois, Rudy Rucker, Joe Haldeman, Michael Flynn (Hugo-nominated "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth"), Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Ian R. MacLeod, and Robert Reed.
• The publisher's site has this description with a 'Browse Inside' feature including the introduction and the first few pages of Nancy Kress' "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls".
• Amazon has the book description, and posts by co-editor Cramer.

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* Horton, Rich, ed. : Science Fiction: The Best of the Year: 2007 Edition
(Cosmos Books 0-8439-5904-5, $7.99, 476pp, mass market paperback, June 2007, cover art Bob Eggleton)

Anthology of 12 science fiction stories first published in 2006, the second annual volume from the Locus Magazine short fiction reviewer, who provides an introduction and notes about the contributors at the end of the book.
• Authors include Christopher Rowe, Robert Charles Wilson, Walter Jon Williams, Benjaman Rosenbaum, and Robert Reed.
• Note that though announced as a trade paperback, this is a mass-market paperback edition. There's nothing yet on the publisher's site about the book.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which notes that "inspired selections" include those by Robert Reed, Carolyn Ives Gilman, and Ann Leckie.

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* Lake, Jay : Mainspring
(Tor 978-0-765-31708-7, $24.95, 320pp, hardcover, June 2007, jacket art Stephan Martiniere)

Science fantasy novel set in a 19th century clockwork universe, about a clockmaker's apprentice tasked with rewinding the Mainspring of the World.
• Tor's website has this description, with cover blurbs by Greg Bear, Cory Doctorow, and Hal Duncan.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "He must deal with dark magicians, monstrous winged savages, mechanical men and other wonders during his epic journey, which takes him over the wall and into a land of wonders. The author of more than 200 short stories, Lake demonstrates his enormously fertile imagination in this unusual book, marred only by some sluggish pacing."
• Nick Gevers reviews the book in the June issue of Locus Magazine, calling it "a fantasy as brilliant as The War with the Mein, but with metaphysics and individual redemption at its core rather than statecraft" and comparing it to Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, "combining the immense narrative appeal of the grand travel-among-wonders yarn with deep mystical reflection: breadth and depth in winning picaresque union."

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* Mackay, Scott : Phytosphere
(Roc 978-0-451-46158-2, $6.99, 376pp, mass market paperback, June 2007)

SF novel about an alien race that blankets the Earth in a 'phytosphere' that blocks sunlight, and rival efforts on the Earth and Moon to defeat it.
• The author's website has a description and ordering links.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which says that Mackay "manages to breathe life into the tired alien-invasion genre" and concludes "While the resolution is anything but unexpected, Mackay churns up enough high-tech intrigue and old-fashioned suspense to make a fresh read."

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* Marusek, David : Getting to Know You
(Subterranean 978-1-59606-088-3, $25, 297pp, hardcover, April 2007, jacket illustration Mark A. Nelson)

Collection of 10 stories -- all of the stories Marusek has published to date -- including Sturgeon Award winner "The Wedding Album", "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy", "Getting to Know You", "Cabbages and Kales, Or, How We Downsized North America", and "Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz". Five of the ten stories are indicated as 'sketches' for the author's novel Counting Heads.
• Subterranean's website has this order page, with blurbs from NYT's Dave Itzkoff, Locus's Mark R. Kelly, and Cory Doctorow. The page indicates the trade edition is sold out, though Amazon (click here on title or cover image) has it in stock.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its February 12th issue: "Marusek's "shiny ideas" -- cloned laborers, electronic "proxies," the "boutique economy" -- sparkle, but these assured stories also draw on core SF themes: in the face of change, what does it mean to be human, and where do we draw the line between helping ourselves and hurting others?"
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed it in the April issue of Locus Magazine: "When you start comparing a writer to Cordwainer Smith and David Bunch, it's just another way of saying you can't compare him to any other writer at all."

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* Robins, Lane : Maledicte
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49573-0, $14.95, 434pp, trade paperback, May 2007)

Fantasy novel, the author's debut novel, about a nobleman named Maledicte who is actually a woman named Miranda, a street urchin intent on reclaiming a lost lover.
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "This complex protagonist becomes both a pawn and a power in a darkly original world of doubted gods and declining civilization. Robins is a fantasist with a future."
• Faren Miller reviewed it in the May issue of Locus Magazine: "a genuine page-turner with some tricks up its sleeve ... it's as dashing as a swashbuckler and twisted as tragic opera, keenly aware of political forces while it chronicles the path of a truly dangerous obsession."

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