New and Notable Books
Steven Barnes, Charisma (Tor 6/02) High-risk children are imprinted with the mind pattern of a highly successful black man – one with a dark secret – in this powerful, thought-provoking thriller.
Paul Barnett, ed., Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery (Sterling/Paper Tiger 7/02) From Paper Tiger's online magazine The Paper Snarl come these illustrated interviews with 25 artists including Jim Burns, Bob Eggleton, and Frank Kelly Freas. [Paper Tiger Online Fantasy Art Gallery]
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others (Tor 7/02) One of SF's most remarkable new talents, Chiang explores the relationships between language and reality in these eleven stories, including two Nebula winners. ''It is unlikely that a more important, or more elegantly and economically written, story collection will appear this year, or for some years to come.'' [Gary K. Wolfe]
I.F. Clarke, ed., British Future Fiction 1700-1914 (Pickering & Chatto 2001) Eight volumes provide 22 hard-to-find works of early SF, with introductions, notes, and bibliographic details. A valuable tool for scholars interested in the history of the field.
Peter Crowther, Mars Probes (DAW 6/02) Science fiction's romance with Mars rekindles in this excellent original anthology of 16 stories by an all-star roster of authors including Stephen Baxter, Gene Wolfe, Brian Aldiss, and Michael Moorcock.
Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (St. Martin's 7/02) The heavyweight among the year's best anthologies weighs in with 26 stories, and Dozois's annual summation of the field. The most important anthology series in the field.
Jude Fisher, Sorcery Rising (DAW 6/02) A vast Medieval fair provides a colorful background for this complex tale of intrigue and magic, the first volume of what promises to be an epic series, ''Fool's Gold''.
Neil Gaiman, Adventures in the Dream Trade (NESFA 2/02) This collection from one of the field's brightest stars gathers five stories, five poems, and assorted non-fiction pieces.
Alexander C. Irvine, A Scattering of Jades (Tor 7/02) Fantasy mixes with secret history in this boisterously complex tale of secret Aztec cults in 1830s New York City. An outstanding first novel.
Justine Larbalestier, The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction (Wesleyan University Press 6/02) The role of women and feminism in the shaping of SF is explored in this critical work, focusing on the mid-1920s to the present, drawing on fiction, non-fiction, and even fanzines.
Patrick Lucanio & Gary Coville, Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945-1962 (McFarland 10/02) A critical, in-depth examination of the influence of SF, both written and in media, on popular culture.
Anne McCaffrey, Freedom's Ransom (Ace 6/02) The colony world of Botany seeks to develop interstellar trade in this fourth volume of the popular ''Freedom'' series.
Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson, Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Putnam 6/02) Two noted fantasy authors each provide three new stories about water and magic, including one story set in McKinley's land of Damar.
China Miéville, The Scar (Del Rey 5/02) Miéville returns to the world, but not the city, of Perdido Street Station. A rich, baroque tale of floating cities, weird creatures, and strange twists of time and space.
Scott Nicholson, The Red Church (Pinnacle 6/02) A haunted church in the Appalachians provides the focus for an exploration of faith and human nature in this non-standard dark fantasy novel. An impressive first novel by a Writers of the Future winner.
Paul Park, If Lions Could Speak and Other Stories (Cosmos Books 10/02) The first collection from an acclaimed author, this brings together 13 stories, one appearing here for the first time.
Frank M. Robinson, Through My Glasses Darkly (KaCSFFS Press 6/02) Five stories by an under-appreciated author – a ''writer's writer'' – are collected in this volume, published in conjunction with his appearance as Guest of Honor at ConQuest 33.
Stanley Schmidt, Argonaut (Tor 7/02) Aliens seeking to learn about Earth flood it with nanotech bugs in this unusually optimistic near-future SF novel.
Robert Silverberg, The Longest Way Home (Eos 7/02) A young man of privilege is stranded when rebellion leaves him far from home and surrounded by enemies, on a planet inhabited by both humans and aliens. An unconventional tale of growing up by one of SF's masters.
Byron R. Tetrick & Martin H. Greenberg, eds., In the Shadow of the Wall (Cumberland House 6/02) This anthology gathers eleven original fantastic stories involving the Vietnam war, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the ''Wall''), by authors including Orson Scott Card, Barry N. Malzberg, and Michael Swanwick.
