(From the February 1997 Locus.)
Linked titles can be ordered from 
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Voyage, Stephen Baxter (HarperPrism 1/97, $23.00, hc) SF novel of an alternate space program – the way it should have been – leading to the first manned landing on Mars.
Acts of Conscience, William Barton (Warner Aspect 1/97 $12.99, tp) An ordinary 26th-century man must represent the entire human race in a struggle for survival in this powerful SF novel.
Love in Vein II, Poppy Z. Brite & Martin H. Greenberg, eds. (HarperPrism 1/97, $12.00, tp) New original anthology of erotic dark fantasies by Neil Gaiman, Pat Califia, Lucy Taylor, and many more.
Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (Tor 1/97, $22.95, hc) This sophisticated literary SF novel is both feminist and darkly provocative.
Modern Classics of Fantasy, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's 1/97, $35.00, hc) This massive, and impressive, anthology of work from the '30s through the '90s, by such noted writers as Leiber, Vance, Zelazny, Waldrop, Beagle, Charnas, and many more, is one of the best surveys of the literature. There is also a fine introduction about fantasy.
Jed the Dead, Alan Dean Foster (Ace 1/97, $5.99, pb) Amusing SF novel of a Texas country guy and an alien corpse as unexpected traveling companions.
Blue Limbo, Terence M. Green (Tor 1/97, $22.95, hc) Gripping SF thriller/police procedural of a burned-out cop in near-future Toronto.
American Gothic Tales, Joyce Carol Oates, ed. (Penguin/Plume 1/97, $14.95, tp) Anthology ranging from Poe and Melville to Rice and King, along with many great names in both the literary and the genre fields.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Charles Sheffield (Bantam Spectra 1/97, $13.95, tp) Epic Stapledonian hard-SF novel of a cryogenically preserved man's tour of the far future, from here to the Eschaton. Some of the concepts are as startling as anything in Stapledon.
Thessalonica, Harry Turtledove (Baen 1/97, $5.99, pb) Here Turtledove takes on fantasy in the manner of Thomas Burnett Swann, featuring a Christian shoemaker in an ancient world beset by both Greek gods and pagan demons.
City on Fire, Walter Jon Williams (HarperPrism 1/97, $22.00, hc) Urban fantasy novel of a world city powered by Plasm, sequel to Metropolitan.
Myth, Magic, and Mystery: One Hundred Years of American Children's Book Illustration, Hearn, Clark, & Clark (Roberts Rinehart 1/97, $29.95, tp) Not just an art book (with numerous b&w and full-color illustrations), but also a history of the past century in the field, examining the literature as well as its illustrators.
Jules Verne: An Exploratory Biography, Herbert R. Lottman (St. Martin's 1/97, $26.95, hc) A revisionist biography of the SF founder shows him as a much more complex man than we thought.
Michael Parkes, John Russell Taylor (Steltman 1/97, $19.95, tp) Sumptuous gathering of the subtle, often erotic/fantastic lithographs and sculpture of Parkes, with biographical material and a brief history of his career.
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Exhaustive Scholar's and Collector's Descriptive Bibliography, Robert B. Zeuschner (McFarland 1/97, $46.50, hc) An updating, through 1996, of the 1964 Heins bibliography. A must for Burroughs collectors.
reprints:
The Final Encyclopedia, Vol. One, Gordon R. Dickson (Tor 1/97, $25.95, hc) This revised and corrected version of the first half of the 1984 major novel in the ''Childe Cycle'' is one of Dickson's most provocative works.
In Search of Wonder, Damon Knight (Advent 1/97, $20.00, hc) Expanded, revised third edition of a classic gathering of essays on the SF field, with six new essays, including autobiography, coverage of Clarion, and a piece on writing SF.
