April 2003

YA fantasy novel, about a boy named Cosmo Curtroy from Australia who is sent to school in England, and who learns there is a curse on his family. The publisher has this page about the book. Amazon has sample pages and readers reviews.
(Thu 20 Mar 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF collection of 14 stories, comprising the "Colonization" series, by a mainstay of Astounding/Analog, where these stories first appeared from the late '50s to the late '60s. Three of the stories appeared in altered form as Strangers in Paradise (1969). This volume has an introduction by David Weber, and a preface and afterword by editor Eric Flint. The Baen site has this description, with links to excerpts. The cover quotes The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, but the full quote, referring to a couple of his later, "representative" novels, is "Archaic, simplistic, insistently readable..." Flint's afterword promises more to come. Front and back cover blurbs are by David Weber.
(Fri 28 Mar 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF collection of 3 stories and 1 speech. The stories all feature females, thus the title; they are "Scattershot" (from Universe 8, 1978); "Hardfought", a Nebula Award-winning novella (first published in Asimov's magazine, 1983); and "Sisters" (an original from Bear's 1989 collection Tangents). The speech is Bear's Guest of Honor speech at the Millennium Philcon, the 2001 World SF Convention, beginning on page 199 (there's no ToC), filling 34 pages. The cover image shown on Amazon (and on Bear's site, for that matter), is not the final version, which is scanned and shown here.
(Fri 21 Mar 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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YA SF novel, Book One of the Obernewtyn Chronicles, concerning a telepathic misfit in a post-holocaust society, by an Australian author. A Locus Magazine New and Notable book in October 1999, upon its first US publication. The Amazon page has sample pages, a review by Cynthia Ward, the PW review, and reader reviews. The carmody-online site has this review.
(Thu 20 Mar 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Collection of 15 stories by one of SF's New Wave prodigies of the 1960s, including almost all of Delany's published short fiction from 1965 to 1988 excluding only those stories in his "Neveryon" series, a collaboration with Harlan Ellison, and short novels "The Ballad of Beta-2" and "Empire Star" (which have been separately issued as books). As such it contains the entire contents of his first, 1971 collection Driftglass, with such classic stories as "The Star Pit", title story "Driftglass", Nebula Award-winning "Aye, and Gomorrah", and Hugo and Nebula-winning "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones"; plus the extra stories, and introduction "Of Doubts and Dreams" (presented here as an Afterword), from his 1981 collection Distant Stars [except for Empire Star]. The Amazon page has sample pages, and a Booklist review by Ray Olson.
(Wed 9 Apr 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Collection of 8 stories and short novel (139 pages) The Survivors (1958), with a preface and afterword by Barry Malzberg, another afterword by David Drake, and story notes by editor Eric Flint. Baen's site has this description, with links to excerpts. The title story, "The Cold Equations" (1954), is Godwin's claim to fame, a famous, controversial, and ruthlessly rational story about a spaceship pilot who must eject a female stowaway in order to survive and complete his mission. Drake's and Malzberg's afterwords explore the genesis of the story, which was based on a a 1952 comic book. Ironically, perhaps, the story's theme would be hard to guess based on the bodacious-babe cover illustration on this Baen edition.
(Thu 3 Apr 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Horror novel, about a strange Massachusetts town where new resident Daniel Dreeme hears talk of "old gods" and "the place called Dagon". It's known for having been highly spoken of by H.P. Lovecraft in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature", reflecting themes of HPL's own work. This edition has an Introduction by Larry Creasy, and an afterword by S.T. Joshi. The publisher's page has a brief description of the book.
(Wed 16 Apr 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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YA SF novel, about colonists on the planet Xilan met by a new expedition from Earth with plans to recolonize. The publisher's site has this page about the book. The Amazon page has a 4-star reader review.
(Wed 16 Apr 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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YA fantasy novel, the Scot author's first novel, about a young woman who goes in search of the legendary Dragon Isle. The Amazon page has sample pages, reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and reader reviews. A sequel, The Lesser Kindred, was published in 2000. The author's site has some background, a biography, music, etc.
(Mon 31 Mar 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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YA fantasy novel, sequel to Black Unicorn (1991) and Gold Unicorn (1994). Amazon has reader reviews, including one that says the book is "the best book that I have ever read".
(Mon 7 Apr 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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He was not alone.

There was nothing to indicate the fact but the white hand of the tiny gauge on the board before him. The control room was empty but for himself; there was no sound other than the murmur of the drives--but the white hand had moved. It had been on zero when the little ship was launched from the Stardust; now, an hour later, it had crept up. There was something in the supplies closet across the room, it was saying, some kind of a body that radiated heat.

Sometimes I go down to the port, splashing sand with my stiff foot at the end of my stiff leg locked in my stiff hip, with the useless arm a-swinging, to get wet all over again, drink in the dives with cronies ashore, feeling old, broken, sorry for myself, laughing louder and louder. The third of my face that was burned away in the accident was patched with skin grafts from my chest, so what's left of my mouth distorts all loud sounds; sloppy sartorial reconstruction. Also I have a hairy chest. Chest hair does not look like beard hair, and it gorws all up under my right eye. And: my beard is red, my chest hair brown, while the thatch curling down over neck and ears is sun-streaked to white here, darkened to bronze there, 'midst general blondness.