* Baxter, Stephen Phase Space
(UK: HarperCollins/Voyager 0-00-225769-6, £17.99, 426pp, hc, August 2002)
Collection of 25 stories thematically linked to Baxter's "Manifold" trilogy of novels -- Time, Space, and Origin (1999-2001); the book is subtitled "Stories from the Manifold and Elsewhere". The novels explored alternative explanations to Fermi's Paradox, and the stories, originally published over the past 5 years, explore ideas directly or indirectly related to the novels. Highlights include "Glass Earth, Inc.", "Moon-Calf", "Huddle" (a Locus Award winner), "Sheena 5", "War Birds", and "The Gravity Mine". Two stories, "The We Who Sing" and "Touching Centauri", are credited to other sources in 2002 but don't seem to have appeared yet; this book may be their first appearances.
Jonathan Strahan reviewed the book in the September issue of Locus Magazine, calling it "one of the most provocative and interesting SF collections of the year". The Amazon UK page has a synopsis and reader review. (Tue 8 Oct 2002)
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* Gardner, James Alan Trapped
(HarperCollins/Eos 0-380-81330-0, $6.99, 382pp, pb, October 2002)
SF novel, a stand-alone novel but related to Gardner's earlier "Festina Ramos" novels (including Ascending, 2001; Hunted, 2000; Vigilant, 1999, and Expendable, 1997); the story concerns a science teacher at a private school dealing with a murdered student. The book was reviewed in the August issue of Locus by both Carolyn Cushman and Alyx Dellamonica; Cushman concluding that it is a "fun, rousing adventure". The Amazon page has a review by Harriet Klausner. The author's webpage includes a seminar on writing prose. (Tue 8 Oct 2002)
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* Miller, J.C. Worlds Apart
(Xulon Press 1-591601-32-0, $14.99, 282pp, tpb, August 2002)
Christian/SF novel about "five aliens and a handful of humans [who] cross paths, each with a part to play in a divine plan of redemption". Includes passages from the King James Version of the Bible, "used for the purpose of drawing parallels to spiritual truth". The author is described as a "born-again Christian who feels the call to storytelling that provides a spiritual alternative to secular entertainment", according to the back cover, and she has set up this website about the book.
(Tue 8 Oct 2002)
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* Priest, Christopher The Separation
(UK: Scribners 0-7432-2033-1, £10.99, 464pp, tpb, July 2002)
Alternate history SF novel focusing on twin brothers in the years before World War II. The book's release has been underplayed by its publisher, with confusion about whether a hardcover edition even exists (apparently it doesn't); see for example comments in the October Ansible. Reviewers are celebrating the novel anyway. Nick Gevers in the October Locus calls it "a major work of alternate history, masterfully conceived and written, thoughtful, audacious… one of the finest SF novels of 2002". And John Clute in this week's Science Fiction Weekly (after reviewing the book's contentious publication record) calls this one of the "four great novels of World War II in the literature of the fantastic…" (Sat 5 Oct 2002)
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* Roberts, Adam Stone
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07063-3, $16.99, 8+261pp, hc, July 2002, cover illustration Chris Moore)
SF novel, the author's third one-word titled novel after Salt (2000) and On (2001), set in a vast far-future interstellar civilization, and concerning (according to the jacket description) "the universe's last criminal … employed to kill the population of a planet". Nick Gevers, in the October Locus, explains how this is "a wryly melancholic space opera best read as a loose homage to, and satire upon, Iain M. Banks's Culture cycle." The author's website has this excerpt (as well as news of the sale of the next novel, Polystom). (Mon 7 Oct 2002)
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* Williams, Walter Jon Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way
(Del Rey 0-345-42850-1, $25.95, 12+448pp, hc, October 2002)
Walter Jon Williams does Star Wars, in hardcover; reader reviewers on Amazon like it, mostly. Williams's next independent project is The Praxis, first volume of "Dread Empire's Fall", due shortly in the UK and next year in the US from Eos, with two more volumes to follow. (Tue 8 Oct 2002)
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