Kage Baker, The Graveyard Game (Harcourt 2/01) The fourth novel of the Company, and its less-than-ethical efforts to collect the lost treasures of the past through the efforts of immortal cyborgs. In this sequel to Mendoza in Hollywood, Mendoza’s friends Lewis and Joseph realize in 1996 that she’s missing, and their two-century undercover search for her reveals some dark secrets about the Company and its plans for its cyborg employees when they reach the year 2355.

Stephen Baxter, Manifold: Space (Del Rey 1/01) Space explorer Reid Malenfant goes through an alien gateway for a fascinating grand tour of the universe, while back in the Solar System mankind is spreading out among the planets and encountering aliens. In typical Baxter style, spectacular ideas are spread throughout a plot that spans millennia in this near-standalone alternate-world sequel to Manifold: Time.

James P. Blaylock, Thirteen Phantasms (Edgewood Press 12/00) Blaylock finds wonder in unexpected places in this collection of 16 diverse and distinctive fantasy stories, ranging from contemporary to neo-Victorian - including two World Fantasy Award winners.

Jonathan Carroll, The Wooden Sea (Tor 2/01) Things only get weirder for police chief Frannie McCabe as a dead dog keeps turning up in the small town of Crane’s View, New York, in this third novel in the loose trilogy begun in Kissing the Beehive and The Marriage of Sticks. A quirky mix of the homespun and the darkly surreal in Carroll’s distinctive, but unpredictable, genre-bending style.

Kara Dalkey, Genpei (Tor 1/01) This historical fantasy, of Japan’s great war at the end of the Heian period, is a sweeping military epic told in non-genre style; Dalkey does an impressive job of capturing the flavor of the period military epics on which the novel is based.

Jack Dann & Janeen Webb, eds., Dreaming Down-Under (Tor 1/01) Finally available in the US, this World Fantasy Award-winning anthology of 31 original stories showcases the sort of Australian SF and fantasy that caused Harlan Ellison to call this the ‘‘Golden Age of Australian science fiction’’.

Michael Flynn, Falling Stars (Tor 2/01) The near-future, hard SF Future History sequence begun in Firestar wraps up spectacularly with a grand battle to save Earth from collision with asteroids, with wealthy heiress Mariesa van Huyten once again leading the way, fighting to unite all those involved in space, despite political differences and financial conflicts.

Jeffrey Ford, The Beyond (Eos 1/01) Former physiognomist Cley travels into the fantastic wilderness outside the City in a strikingly twisted allegorical journey towards salvation. The final novel in the trilogy begun in the World Fantasy Award-winning novel, The Physiognomy.

Patrick O’Leary, Other Voices, Other Doors (Fairwood Press 1/01) O’Leary’s ‘‘quirky versatility and hidden depths’’ (Faren Miller) are strikingly displayed in this fascinating collection of eight stories, nine non-fiction ‘‘meditations’’, and 28 poems.

Tim Powers, Declare (Morrow 1/01) A quiet professor of literature is dragged back into the world of espionage in the 1960s in this earnest but thoroughly entertaining mix of spy story, secret history, and flamboyant fantasy. ‘‘...not only Powers’s most ambitious novel to date, but it may well be his best...’’ - Gary K. Wolfe. This is the first trade edition.

Garyn G. Roberts, The Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Prentice Hall 1/01) SF’s past and present are represented in detail in this comprehensive teaching anthology, which covers fantasy, horror, and SF from their 19th-century roots to the present, with a selection of classic stories that should make this rewarding reading for both students and fans.

Sean Russell, The One Kingdom (Eos 2/01) Young men from a remote village stumble into conflicts arising out of ancient history in this first book of ‘‘The Swans’ War’’, an intense and sometimes quirky epic that embraces, and then transcends, the usual conventions of heroic fantasy.

Richard Paul Russo, Ship of Fools (Ace 1/01) Science fiction and mystery combine in this tale of a lost generation ship whose inhabitants have almost no knowledge of where they’re from or where they’re going. Mystery and religious conflict are sparked when strange transmissions lead to a colony world where the inhabitants have all died - and an alien ship.

James H. Schmitz, Trigger & Friends (Baen 1/01) The third of four volumes in ‘‘The Complete Federation of the Hub’’, this is something of a prequel to the second volume, going back to fill in the background of Schmitz’s other popular heroine, the sharpshooting Trigger Argee, as she tangles with bureaucrats, bad guys, and the alien Old Galactics - classic SF adventures including the novel Legend.

Gene Wolfe, Return to the Whorl (Tor 2/01) Complex plot lines, grand themes, literary allusions, and space opera are interwoven brilliantly in this last volume of ‘‘The Book of the Short Sun’’ trilogy, sequel to ‘‘Book of the New Sun’’. Wolfe manages to both baffle and enlighten as confused (and sometimes dead) narrator Horn’s quest for the legendary leader Patera Silk finally comes to an end.