* Barzak, Christopher : Before and Afterlives
(Lethe Press 978-1-59021-369-8, $15, 229pp, trade paperback, March 2013, cover art Steven Andrew)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-59021-285-1
Nominal Publication Date: Wed 20 Mar 2013

Collection of 17 stories, first published from 1999 to 2011, with one story original to this book.
• Titles include Nebula nominees “The Language of Moths” (2005) and “Map of Seventeen” (2010).
• Lethe Press’ site has this description with blurbs from Jeffrey Ford and M. Rickert.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “Masterfully crafted but emotionally distant, the stories are more to be admired than enjoyed.”
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, noting that these are not horror stories: “That’s not the tradition Barzak works in; instead he treads a delicate line between the paranormal ghost romance and the more nuanced literary tradition that includes Shirley Jackson, Peter S. Beagle, and Robert Nathan, sometimes nearly falling into the sentimentality of the former but – largely on the strength of his luminous prose and acute sense of character – more often coming down solidly in the latter.”

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* Bear, Elizabeth : Shattered Pillars
(Tor 978-0-7653-2755-0, $26.99, 336pp, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781429947770
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Eternal Sky #2

Fantasy novel, second of a trilogy following Range of Ghosts (2012), set on a world resembling central Asia where various kingdoms engage in civil war.
• The publisher’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “The building danger and sense of impossible odds beautifully set up the concluding volume.”

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* Card, Orson Scott : The Gate Thief
(Tor 978-076-532658-4, $24.99, 480pp, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1429947039
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 978-1470839932
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Mither Mages #2

YA fantasy novel, second book in the “Mither Mages” trilogy following The Lost Gate (2011), about Danny North, member of rural family with magical powers.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review notes that “Card’s afterword reveals his struggles with clarifying his unusual and highly complicated world-building, but only the most devoted readers will have sympathy for these creative problems.”

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* Clare, Cassandra : Clockwork Princess
(Simon & Schuster/McElderry 978-1416975908, $19.99, 592pp, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781442431355
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9781442334762
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
The Infernal Devices #3

Young adult fantasy novel, third in “The Infernal Devices” series after Clockwork Angel (2010) and Clockwork Prince (2011), set 150 years before the earlier “Mortal Instruments” series.
• The publisher’s site has this description with a “Browse Inside” feature and an audio excerpt.
• The series has a dedicated site, www.theinfernaldevices.com, with an excerpt.
Entertainment Weekly reviewed it, giving it an A-.

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* Datlow, Ellen, & Terri Windling, eds. : Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells
(Tor 978-0-7653-3227-1, $15.99, 352pp, trade paperback, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1429960915
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013

Anthology of 18 original stories, subtitled “An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy”.
• Authors include Jeffrey Ford, Maureen McHugh, Dale Bailey, Catherynne M. Valente, Jane Yolen, and Theodora Goss. There’s also an introduction by the editors, and lists of recommended reading.
• Macmillan’s site has this description, with an excerpt. There’s also a hardcover edition (9780765332264).
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Fans of steampunk and Austen-inspired fantasies of manners will be completely enraptured by these stories, which show us how Victorians saw themselves and offer an assortment of ways for modern readers to consider the bright lights and gloomy shadows of the past.”

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* Fahy, Warren : Pandemonium
(Tor 978-0-7653-3329-2, $24.99, 306pp, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781466800533
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Fragment #2

SF thriller, sequel to Fragment (2009), about an ecosystem that’s developed in caverns beneath the Ural Mountains, where a Cold War-era city was carved out by slave labor.
• Macmillan’s site has this description with an excerpt.
Publishers Weekly gave the earlier book a starred review: “Fahy’s imaginative debut puts a fresh spin on the survival-of-prehistoric-beasts theme popularized by Jurassic Park.”

(Tue 12 Mar 2013)
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* Ludwigsen, Will : In Search Of and Others
(Lethe Press 978-1-5902127-0-7, $15, 196pp, trade paperback, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-59021-166-3
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 1 Mar 2013

Collection of 15 stories, 6 of them original to this book.
• Jeffrey Ford provides an introduction.
• Lethe Press’ site has this description.
Publishers Weekly gives this a starred review, calling it a “hauntingly beautiful collection” and concluding, “Each story’s concepts remain fully accessible while still challenging the reader, and exquisite craftsmanship makes this a timeless classic for those seeking asylum from formulaic prose.”

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* Morden, Simon : The Curve of the Earth
(Orbit 978-0316220064, $15.99, 387pp, trade paperback, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0316220071
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Samuil Petrovitch #4

Near-future thriller, fourth book about Simon Petrovitch following Philip K. Dick Award-winning trilogy Equations of Life (Apr 2011), Theories of Flight (May 2011), and Degrees of Freedom (June 2011), set in a post-apocalyptic London.
• Parent publisher Hachette’s site this description with a preview function.
• Orbit’s site has these posts about the book, including an interview with the book’s hero.

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* Pettersson, Vicki : The Lost
(Harper Voyager 978-0-06-206465-3, $14.99, 368pp, trade paperback, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780062064134
Audiobook ISBN [link to Amazon]: 9780062269898
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013
Celestial Blues #2

Paranormal romance novel, second in a series following The Taken (2012), about a former private investigator who becomes an angel.
• Harper’s site has this description with a preview function.
Publishers Weekly gives it (as for the previous book) a starred review: “Pettersson impressively deepens and darkens the compelling romance between her complex and irresistibly tormented protagonists. Even minor figures are fascinating, as is the ruthlessly realistic setting.”

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+ Reed, Kit : Son of Destruction
(Severn House 978-0-7278-8232-5, $28.95, 234pp, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781780103563
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 1 Mar 2013

First US edition (UK: Severn House, October 2012)

Paranormal fantasy novel about a journalist who returns to his late mother’s Florida hometown, where three elderly women have apparently died of spontaneous human combustion.
• Severn House’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review comments, “The characters reveal themselves in overlapping chapters that give a convincing picture of community interaction.”
• Gary K. Wolfe’s review from the January issue of Locus Magazine is posted here; “The real strength of the novel is that precarious balancing act – until almost the end, it could still resolve itself in the direction of either John Cheever or Stephen King, but to say more would be an act of mischievous toppling. Suffice to say that the title character is not at all who you think it is, and that the resolution is both satisfying and more than a little haunting.”

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* Taber, Deb : Necessary Ill
(Aqueduct Press 978-1-61976-022-6, $20, hardcover, March 2013)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B00BR915G6
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 1 Mar 2013

SF novel, the author’s first novel, set on a future Earth where factions of “neuts” bio-engineer plagues in order to reduce the impact of humanity on the planet’s resources.
• Aqueduct’s site has this description with quotes from numerous reviews.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides a preview.
Publishers Weekly has this interview with the author.
• Paul Di Filippo just reviewed the book for Locus Online: “It’s a deliberately transgressive offering… Besides pushing lots of hot buttons in a deft, dramatic and calculating manner, Taber’s book strikes me also as a meta-commentary on a certain SF classic and its central trope, a critical reading of an accepted and beloved belief from within the genre.”

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* Toh, EnJoe : Self-Reference Engine
(Haikasoru 978-1421549361, $14.99, 352pp, anth, March 2013)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013

Metafictional SF novel consisting of chapters that the reader is instructed must be read in order.
• It was published in Japan in 2007, and is here translated by Terry Gallagher.
• Haikasoru’s site has this description with an excerpt and links to several blog posts about the book.
Strange Horizons just posted one story or excerpt, A to Z Theory.

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* Walton, David : Quintessence
(Tor 978-0-7653-3090-1, $25.99, 320pp, hardcover, March 2013, jacket art Kekai Kotaki)
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1429992817
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 19 Mar 2013

Alternate history fantasy novel set in a Europe of 500 years ago, where an alchemist pursues the magical substance quintessence on an island at the edge of the world.
• Macmillan’s site has this page for the book, with an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes “Walton (Terminal Mind) reinvents the age of exploration with imaginative detail and a rich bestiary of magical creatures (though, too conveniently, there are no indigenous humans to protest the invasion). Despite some slack pacing at the start and a rushed denouement, the heart of the adventure is consistently entertaining.”

(Tue 12 Mar 2013)
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