* Attebery, Brian : Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth
(Oxford University Press 978-0-19-931607-6, £70, 272pp, trade paperback, January 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Thu 23 Jan 2014

Nonfiction study, with notes, bibliography, and an index.
• The publisher’s site has this description with the table of contents. It’s also available as a hardcover (978-019931606).
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the March issue of Locus Magazine, concluding “If there weren’t points you can quibble with, or points you’re tempted to expand upon yourself, the book would hardly have been worth writing, but Attebery is persuasive enough and widely enough read to make this probably the most cogent and wide-ranging discussion of fantasy and myth that has yet appeared.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Barker, Clive : Chiliad: A Meditation
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-595-6, $30, 96pp, hardcover, January 2014, jacket illustration Jon Foster)
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 31 Jan 2014

Fantasy novella consisting of two inter-related stories set 1000 years apart.
• Subterranean’s site has this description indicating both editions are sold out. Amazon also indicates it “temporarily out of stock”.
• The Publishers Weekly review warns that the book “it is neither horror nor a story in any conventional sense. It has the abstraction of nihilistic philosophy, expressed through largely emotionless vignettes.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Berman, Steve, ed. : Handsome Devil: Tales of Seduction and Sin
(Prime Books 978-1-60701-425-6, $15.95, 319pp, trade paperback, March 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Wed 5 Feb 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-60701-430-0

Anthology of 25 stories, a mix of originals and reprints, about infernal males.
• Authors include Pat Cadigan, Elizabeth Hand, Brad Strickland, Richard Bowes, Nick Mamatas, Alex Jeffers, and Tanith Lee.
• Prime’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• Brit Mandelo reviewed the book for Tor.com: “Despite following a very particular theme, it manages to never feel too repetitive or stale. The stories are arranged cleverly to shift tone and focal point just enough between each piece that there are no disjunctions, but also no echoes.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Block, Francesca Lia : Teen Spirit
(HarperTeen 978-0-06-200809-1, $17.99, 240pp, hardcover, February 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 4 Feb 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0062239167

Young adult fantasy novel about a girl who relocates to Beverly Hills after her grandmother dies.
• HarperCollins’ site has this description with a preview function.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “While the spooky goings-on, eerie romance, and magical-hipster Los Angeles setting have broad appeal, the story has even richer treasures in store for readers who dig deeper.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Calhoun, Kenneth : Black Moon
(Hogarth 978-0-8041-3714-0, $24, 288pp, hardcover, March 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 4 Mar 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-0-8041-3715-7

SF novel about a plague of insomnia that takes over the world. It’s the author’s first novel.
• Random House’s site has this description with a preview function.
Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review: “Calhoun’s debut presents one of the most terrifying disaster scenarios of all time, perhaps because it’s somehow plausible: a worldwide insomnia epidemic turns people into the real living dead, making them prone to hallucinations and fits of anger.”
• Jeff VanderMeer reviewed it for the Los Angeles Times, concluding ” “Black Moon” doesn’t quite cohere, but there is promise in some of the prose and promise in the novel’s off-kilter frenetic energy.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Clareson, Thomas D., & Joe Sanders : The Heritage of Heinlein: A Critical Reading of the Fiction
(McFarland 978-0-7864-7498-1, $45, 232pp, trade paperback, January 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 31 Jan 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-4766-1310-9

Nonfiction book, in the publisher’s “Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy” series, with an introduction by Frederik Pohl.
• McFarland’s site has this description with the table of contents.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Edwards, Graham : Talus and the Frozen King
(Solaris 978-1-78108-199-0, $7.99, 416pp, mass market paperback, February 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 25 Mar 2014
UK edition: 978-1781081983 (Thu 10 Apr 2014)

Prehistoric detective story concerning the murder of a king whose six sons are all suspect.
• Solaris’ site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review remarks, “Although flavored with fantasy elements, this work resembles nothing so much as a certain consulting detective and his physician amanuensis transported back to the Neolithic.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Green, Sally : Half Bad
(Viking 978-0670016785, $18.99, 416pp, hardcover, March 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 4 Mar 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9780698143760

Young adult novel, first of a trilogy, about modern day witches and a sixteen-year-old boy who is half white witch and half black witch.
• Penguin’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review: “This grim and thrilling tale, first in a planned trilogy, features understated prose that lets readers’ imaginations fill in the blanks, as well as a well-developed sense of Witch culture.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Lansdale, Joe R. : The Ape Man’s Brother
(Subterranean 978-1-59606-618-2, $20, 104pp, hardcover, February 2014, jacket illustration Ken Laager)
Nominal Publication Date: Fri 31 Jan 2014

Short novel about an ape-man whose orphaned ‘brother’ is rescued from the jungle, after which both are taken off to New York to become celebrities.
• Subterranean’s site has this description.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Lansdale is a master craftsman, and even when he is paying homage to a carefully unnamed famous protagonist from a long string of novels and movies, he adds something new (and often unsavory) to the mix. This brief tale does not overstay its welcome, and Lansdale completists will snatch it up.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Lovegrove, James : Age of Shiva
(Solaris 9781781081815, $8.99, 448pp, mass market paperback, March 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 25 Mar 2014
UK edition: 978-1781081808 (Thu 10 Apr 2014)
Pantheon #6

Military SF novel, sixth in a series following The Age of Ra (2009), The Age of Zeus (2010), Age of Odin (2011), Age of Aztec (2012), and Age of Voodoo (2013), though this is described as a standalone novel.
• This book concerns a group of billionaires creating super-powered beings based on the ten avatars of Vishnu.
• Solaris’ site has this description.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Maurer, Yael : The Science Fiction Dimensions of Salman Rushdie
(McFarland 978-0-7864-7496-7, $40, 212pp, trade paperback, February 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Thu 16 Jan 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 978-1-4766-1402-1

Nonfiction book about the Sfnal aspect of Rushdie’s novels.
• McFarland’s site has this description with a link to the table of contents.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Peek, Ben : Dead Americans and Other Stories
(ChiZine Publications 9781771481717, $16.95, 325pp, trade paperback, February 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 18 Mar 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: 9781771481724

Collection of 10 stories.
• ChiZine’s site has this description with links to samples in various formats.
Publishers Weekly gives this a starred review: “Failure is always an option for Peek’s protagonists, but even if they can never reach the heights to which they aspire, they can at least envision them, a rarity in a field that too often rejects progress. Although Peek’s appropriation of other people’s lives for his own purposes can be disquieting, readers will be seduced by the outrage that drives much of his fiction and Peek’s undeniable skills as a writer.”

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Pratt, T. A. : Bride of Death
(Merry Blacksmith 978-0615954349, $13.95, 238pp, trade paperback, January 2014, cover art Lindsey Look)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 14 Jan 2014
Ebook ISBN [link to Amazon Kindle edition]: B00GHYJ97S
Marla Mason #7

Urban fantasy novel, seventh in the Marla Mason series that began with Blood Engines (2007), about a kick-ass sorcerer.
• The publisher’s site has this description.
• The series site has links and descriptions about earlier books and free stories.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function provides previews.

• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Simon, Marge, & Mary Turzillo : Sweet Poison
(Dark Renaissance 978-1-937128-86-9, $14.95, 121pp, trade paperback, March 2014, cover art M. Wayne Miller)

Collection of 60 poems by Simon or Turzillo, some of them consisting of ‘call and response’ on a particular theme. About a third are reprints; the others are originals.
• The publisher’s site has this description with blurbs by Ann K. Schwader, James Dorr, and John Amen.

(Fri 14 Feb 2014)
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)


* Slusser, George : Gregory Benford
(University of Illinois Press 978-0-252-07980-1, $23, 198pp, trade paperback, January 2014)
Nominal Publication Date: Tue 7 Jan 2014

Nonfiction study of the work of Gregory Benford, the third in the publisher’s “Modern Masters of Science Fiction” series (after volumes about John Brunner and William Gibson).
• The book includes an interview with Benford, a short bibliography, notes, and an index.
• The University Press’s site has this description with a Google preview.
• There is also a hardcover edition (978-0-252-03822-8, $85).

(Mon 10 Feb 2014)
• Purchase this book from Amazon | Indiebound
• (Directory Entry)