Locus Online: New Books Listings April 1999

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Reviews in this month's Locus Magazine

Linked titles can be browsed (or ordered) from Amazon.com Books.

April 1999

This page lists selected new SF/F/H (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) books published this month as seen in bookstores or received (by Locus Online) as review copies. This listing is independent of the comprehensive Books Received listings in Locus Magazine, which are accumulated as the online Locus Index.

Key: * = first edition, + = first US edition. Date with publisher info is official publication month; date in parentheses at paragraph end is date seen or received.

* Black, Edwin Format C: (Brookline Books 0-57129-078-8, $24.95, 402pp, hc, February 1999) Millennial novel, thriller style. (Tue 6 Apr 1999)

* Brin, David Foundation's Triumph (HarperPrism 0-06-105241-8, $25.00, 328pp, hc, May 1999, cover by Jean Targete) Third and concluding novel in the Second Foundation Trilogy, following books by Gregory Benford and Greg Bear. (Fri 9 Apr 1999)

* Card, Orson Scott Enchantment (Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-41687-2, $25.00, 390pp, hc, April 1999, cover by Greg Spalenka) Fantasy novel about a Russian Jew who emigrates to America in the 1970s, becomes an anthropologist, and tries to understand a strange experience he had in the Russian forest as a boy. Reviewed by Faren Miller in the April Locus: ''The extreme effects of culture clash and shock often prove to be very funny, and there's a whiplash of comedy driving through the grim and gritty scenes, the perceptive comments on serious moral questions.'' (Sat 3 Apr 1999)

* Champetier, Joël The Dragon's Eye (Tor 0-312-86882-0, $23.95, 296pp, hc, May 1999) First English-language translation of a novel by former editor of the Canadian magazine Solaris, and winner of the Prix Boreal; this is a revision of a 1991 novel in French. (Fri 23 Apr 1999)

* Dikkers, Scott, ed The Onion Presents Our Dumb Century (Three Rivers Press 0-609-80461-8, $15.00, 10+164pp, tpb, 1999) Fiction? How about, an original anthology of alternate history vignettes cast as a collection of newspaper front pages from 1900 to 2000? Anyone familiar with The Onion's brand of satire will recognize the style immediately, and this is all new material. Several headlines have SF/F/H angles to them: ''Nation Escapes Depression through Fanciful Works of H.P. Lovecraft'' reads a 1937 headline; ''Science Fiction Writers Have the Bomb!'' is news in 1957. And Harlan Ellison is quoted on page 108. (Wed 14 Apr 1999)

* Erickson, Steve The Sea Came in at Midnight (Avon Bard 0-380-97766-4, $23.00, 259pp, hc, April 1999) Millennial novel, literary style. (Tue 6 Apr 1999)

* Feintuch, David Patriarch's Hope (Warner Aspect 0-446-52458-1, $24.00, 488pp, hc, May 1999, cover by Steve Youll) Sf novel, 6th in the Nicholas Seafort series. (Wed 28 Apr 1999)

Frank, Pat Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics 0-06-093139-6, $10.00, 323pp, tpb, April 1999) Reprint (Lippincott 1959). Classic, if somewhat dated, novel about a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath. (Tue 20 Apr 1999)

* Goodkind, Terry Soul of the Fire (Tor 0-312-89054-0, $27.95, 508pp, hc, April 1999, cover by Keith Parkinson) Fantasy novel, 5th book in ''The Sword of Truth''. (Wed 28 Apr 1999)

+ Hobb, Robin Mad Ship (Bantam Spectra 0-553-10333-4, $24.95, 647pp, hc, April 1999, cover by Stephen Youll) First US edition (UK: HarperCollins/Voyager March 1999). Fantasy novel, 2nd in a trilogy following Ship of Magic (1998). (Fri 9 Apr 1999)

* King, Stephen The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Scribner 0-684-86762-1, $16.95, 224pp, hc, April 1999) Horror novel with echoes, according to Amazon, of Lord of the Flies. (Tue 6 Apr 1999)

* Pellegrino, Charles, & George Zebrowski Star Trek The Next Generation #50: Dyson Sphere (Pocket 0-671-54173-0, $6.5, 235pp, pb, April 1999) Tie-in novel, with lengthy afterwords and a bibliography about dyson spheres, (Sat 3 Apr 1999)

* Priest, Christopher eXistenZ (HarperEntertainment 0-06-102027-3, $6.5, 278pp, pb, May 1999) Last month it was Pat Cadigan's Lost in Space tie-in novel; now here is Christopher Priest's novelization of David Cronenberg's new film (which opens April 23rd). We're looking forward to Gene Wolfe's treatment of the new Wild Wild West movie. (Joke! Though that would be an interesting book...) (Tue 20 Apr 1999)

* Robinson, Frank M. Waiting (Forge 0-312-86652-6, $23.95, 303pp, hc, April 1999) SF thriller novel, reviewed by Ed Bryant in the February Locus and Gary K. Wolfe in the January Locus; both compare it to the author's 1956 classic The Power. (Fri 9 Apr 1999)

* Rushdie, Salman The Ground Beneath Her Feet (Henry Holt 0-8050-5308-5, $27.5, 575pp, hc, May 1999) Rushdie's new novel, getting mostly very good reviews, remakes the myth of Orpheus in the world of rock-n-roll. (Tue 13 Apr 1999)

* Tepper, Sheri S. Singer from the Sea (Avon Eos 0-380-97480-0, $24.00, 426pp, hc, April 1999, cover by J.K. Potter) SF novel, reviewed by Gary K. Wolfe in the April Locus: ''There is enough invention and passion in the novel's concluding chapters that Tepper's loyal readers will not feel cheated, and as always Tepper's plot moves along with efficiency and panache toward a well-conceived payoff. At the same time, there's much here that may seem overfamiliar, from Tepper's previous fiction, from classic eco-feminist rhetoric, and from the racks of romance novels in the drugstore.'' (Tue 20 Apr 1999)

* Turtledove, Harry Into the Darkness (Tor 0-312-86895-2, $27.5, 540pp, hc, April 1999, cover by Bob Eggleton) Fantasy novel, ''a story of a world war in a world where magic works''. (Wed 28 Apr 1999)

* Willis, Connie, ed Nebula Awards 33 (Harcourt Brace 0-15-100372-6, $26.00, 13+272pp, hc /tpb, April 1999, cover by Joseph Drivas) The annual Nebula Awards anthology includes winning stories by Jane Yolen, Nancy Kress, and Jerry Oltion, plus works by Grand Master Poul Anderson and Author Emeritus Nelson Bond, runners-up by James Patrick Kelly, Gregory Feeley, etc.; plus winners of the Rhysling poetry award and several essays about the year 1997. Editor Willis loses the tedious survey of the year's movies that's appeared in past volumes -- ironically, considering SFWA's recent decision to reinstate a Nebula Award for best dramatic script. (Tue 13 Apr 1999)

Wolfe, Gene Free Live Free (Orb 0-312-86836-7, $15.95, 403pp, tpb, February 1999) Reprint (Mark V. Ziesing 1984). SF novel; this edition follows the revised 1985 Gollancz and Tor editions, with a chronology at the end. (Tue 20 Apr 1999)

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