* Clemens, James Wit'ch Star
(Del Rey 0-345-44245-8, $24.95, 12+526pp, hc, December 2002, jacket illustration Michael Dringenberg, jacket design David Stevenson)
Fantasy novel, fifth and final book in the cycle of Alasean Histories, or "The Banned and the Banished" as described in the Locus Index. The author's website has this excerpt, as well as latest news. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
* Crichton, Michael Prey
(HarperCollins 0-06-621412-2, $26.95, 13+367pp, hc, November 2002, cover design Will Staehle)
Crichton does nanotechnology, giving it his familiar alarmist if-anything-can-go-wrong, it-will-go-wrong treatment, judging from the reviews; Slate offers this Summary Judgment entry, noting critics' disdain for his cardboard literary qualities while admiring the book's undeniable page-turnable suspense. The book begins with an Introduction, "Artificial Evolution in the Twenty-first Century", and ends with a 3-page bibliography. Film rights have already been sold to Twentieth Century Fox. The author's website, www.michaelcrichton.net, has this section about the book, with links to research sites, a contest, and more. The publisher has this page. The Amazon page has the Publishers Weekly review. You can buy the e-book from Fictionwise.com; it has extras not available in print. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
* Dann, Jack, & Gardner Dozois, eds Beyond Flesh
(Ace 0-441-00999-9, $6.5, 11+260pp, pb, December 2002, cover art Jan Franz/Gettyimages, cover design Rita Frangie)
SF anthology, latest (the 25th or so) in the editors' long-running series of themed anthologies, most with one-word titles. This volume has 10 stories on the theme of "when human consciousness is no longer restricted to the prison of the flesh", including one classic (from 1957) story by Poul Anderson, "Call Me Joe"; a 1986 story by Pat Cadigan, "Pretty Boy Crossover"; a typically brilliant story by Greg Egan, "Learning to Be Me" from 1990; and 7 others, all first published in the past 5 years, by Michael Swanwick, Stephen Baxter, Ian R. MacLeod, Paul J. McAuley, Geoffrey A. Landis, Michael Cassutt, and Robert Reed. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
* Parks, Richard The Ogre's Wife
(Obscura Press 0-9659569-5-4, $18.95, 270pp, tpb, August 2002, cover art review copy)
Collection of 15 stories, first published in Realms of Fantasy, Asimov's, SF Age ["The Ogre's Wife", which won the magazine's short story readers' poll in 1996], and other publications; one story, "Doing Time in the Wild Hunt", is original. There's an introduction by Parke Godwin. The back cover quotes Charles de Lint's review in the August [not July] F&SF: "an absolute treasure of a collection, one that I know I will return to again and again." The author's webpage is here. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
* Tatar, Maria, ed The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales
(Norton 0-393-05163-3, $35, 21+445pp, hc, October 2002)
Lavish collection of 26 classic fairy tales, newly translated by Tatar, by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and others, accompanied by illustrations, many from the original editions. The publisher has this page about the book; the Amazon page has the Booklist review. Borders has included it on its Best SF & Fantasy of 2002 list. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
* Turtledove, Harry Advance and Retreat
(Baen 0-7434-3576-1, $27, 324pp, hc, December 2002, cover art Tom Kidd)
Alternate history novel blurbed "the North shall rise again!"; the publisher's site has this description with links to several chapter excerpts. (Tue 26 Nov 2002)
• Purchase this book from Amazon
• Purchase this book via BookSense
Last week: 13 - 19 Nov
Latter week: 4 - 12 Nov
Previous week: 25 Oct - 3 Nov
Prior week: 18 - 24 Oct
Before that: 11 - 17 Oct
Even earlier: 4 - 10 Oct
Even earlier than that: 1 - 3 Oct
