August-September 2003

SF novel that presumes the Earth has been moving for millennia through some sort of galactic force field that inhibits brain power, and what happens when it emerges--humans, and animals, suddenly become vastly more intelligent. This was Anderson's first adult SF novel, and remains one his most famous. The publisher's site has this page.
(Sun 31 Aug 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, Bear's third published novel, about a Japanese sailor kidnapped by aliens during World War II and found centuries later by human explorers. The publisher's site has this page.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, Bear's first novel, about humans exploring the mysteries of a vast planet dotted with massive obelisks.
(Fri 15 Aug 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel set in an alternate 19th-century America where folk magic really works; first in the "The Tales of Alvin Maker" series. This is a special low-price edition, anticipating the publication in November of the long-awaited 6th Alvin Maker book, The Crystal City. This first in the series was a Hugo nominee, and winner of the Locus (for fantasy novel), Mythopoeic, and Ditmar awards.
(Mon 15 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Dark fantasy novel about a man who passes from the ordinary world of London Above to the shadow city of London Below, where he joins a dangerous quest. It's actually a novelization of a British TV series written by Gaiman, and in this form was Gaiman's first published novel. Gaiman's website has this page, with an excerpt, and covers of international editions.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF time travel novel in which the protagonist inherits a 'time belt' and uses it to profit from horse races, meet future and alternate versions of himself, play with history, etc. It was Gerrold's first hardcover book, and was very popular, a Hugo and Nebula nominee for best novel, though it's quite short, perhaps only novella length. This edition has an introduction by Robert J. Sawyer, an author's note about coming out, and an afterword by philosopher Geoffrey Klempner. The author's website has this page about the book, with an excerpt.
(Thu 17 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Collection of 10 stories (3 of them collaborations), including Gibson's early cyberpunk stories that appeared in the years just before Neuromancer: "Johnny Mnemonic", "The Gernsback Continuum", "Hinterlands", "New Rose Hotel", and the title story among them.
(Wed 13 Aug 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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30th anniversary edition of classic humorous fantasy novel, with a new introduction by the author, a reading group guide, and text following the 1998 Ballantine 25th-Anniversary edition, including the "long-lost" first chapter to the sequel, "Buttercup's Baby".
(Wed 13 Aug 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Military SF novel, about war between humanity and alien Taurans, in which protagonist William Mandella sees centuries pass on Earth between engagements with the enemy via relativistic slower-than-light spaceflight. Haldeman's first novel, based on his experience in Vietnam. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Amazon has a review by Craig E. Engler.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, originally published for 'young adults', generally considered the best of Heinlein's series of dozen-plus 'juveniles'; it's about spunky teenagers captured by aliens, and humanity put on trial before an intergalactic court. It's one of Connie Willis's favorite SF novels, and was included by David Pringle among his 100 best SF novels (as of 1984).
(Sat 26 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel about a mysterious forest where various archetypes, legends, and myths coexist. Winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the World Fantasy Award, and one of David Pringle's 100 best fantasy novels (as of 1988).
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Anthology of stories from small press Fantasy Tales magazine, published from 1977 to 1991, winner of multiple World Fantasy and British Fantasy awards. Stories included here are by Charles L. Grant, Kim Newman, Richard Christian Matheson, Karl Edward Wagner, and Fritz Leiber, as well as Clive Barker's British Fantasy Award winner "The Forbidden" and Dennis Etchison's British Fantasy Award and World Fantasy Award winner "The Dark Country".
(Thu 17 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel, first in the "Dark Tower" series. This one was a fix-up novel, composed of 5 novelettes first published in F&SF, and in this edition is "revised and expanded throughout", with a new introduction and foreword, but retaining the color plates by Michael Whelan from the 1982 Donald M. Grant limited edition. This new edition is accompanied by new hardcover editions of the second through fourth Dark Tower novels -- The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and Wizard and Glass -- which have also been reissued in trade paperback and mass market paperback editions (follow Amazon links to find those). This campaign is all in preparation of the long-awaited concluding volumes of the series, of which the next is Wolves of the Calla, due November 4th.
(Fri 1 Aug 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, about a physicist who travels from an anarchist utopia on the planet Anarres to the capitalist homeworld of Urras. A highly respected work, one of those SF novels popular among readers who don't normally care for SF. Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Short SF novel, first published as a novella in the 1978 anthology Millennial Women, now repackaged as a young adult novel. Reader reviews on Amazon are quite mixed!
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel about a man who discovers that his dreams change reality. It's atypical for Le Guin, more aligned with the themes of Philip K. Dick, but an enduringly popular novel that has inspired two TV adaptations. It was winner of the Locus Award, and a Hugo and Nebula nominee (placing 2nd in each case, to different books). Amazon has a review by Cynthia Ward.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, part of the Hainish series that includes classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Winner of the Locus Award for best novel of the year.
(Mon 15 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Omnibus of two hard SF novels about humans who live in freefall within a toroidal gas cloud circling a star, in which trees grow into massive shapes resembling integral signs. The Integral Trees was a Hugo and Nebula nominee, and won the Locus Award for novel. Niven's website has this page about the book.
(Sat 26 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Neo-Victorian SF novel, in which a poor girl gets hold of a stolen interactive teaching device intended for the upper-classes only. Winner of the Hugo and Locus awards.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, Stephenson's breakthrough novel, and still his most popular novel -- it has 510 reader reviews at Amazon, twice as many as for the award-winning The Diamond Age. These editions with new covers seem timed to coincide with the release of Stephenson's new novel Quicksilver, even though it's from a different publisher.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel pre-Snow Crash, which Amazon notes " some readers find .. Even more fun than Neal Stephenson's defining 1990s cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash." Also just reissued along with other early novel The Big U, though Amazon's links haven't quite kept up with these latest editions.
(Fri 26 Sep 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Omnibus of two Vance novellas, "The Dragon Masters" and "The Last Castle", though neither the front cover nor the Amazon description indicate that this is anything but an edition of the title story. Anyway, "The Dragon Masters" won a Hugo (for best short fiction -- not as a novel, as the book description implies), and "The Last Castle" won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as best novelette/ novella respectively. This ibooks edition notes that it was prepared with the assistance of the Vance Integral Edition project, and thus can be considered to contain definitive texts of both stories. The publisher's page says that this is the "first of ibooks' definitive reissues of his work". A retrospective review by Lawrence Person will be posted shortly here at Locus Online.
(Wed 23 Jul 2003) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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You see, I had this space suit.

The trap had closed at sundown. In the last red light, the rabbit had battered himself against its walls until fear and numbness ached home and he crouched shaken by the flutterings of his own heart. Otherwise there was no motion in him as night and the stars came. But when the moon rose, its light was caught icily in his great eyes, and he looked through shadows to the forest.

The apartments of Joaz Banbeck, carved deep from the heart of a limestone crag, consisted of five principal chambers, on five different levels. At the top were the reliquarium and a formal council chamber: the first a room of somber magnificence housing the various archives, trophies and mementos of the Banbecks; the second a long narrow hall, with dark wainscoting chest-high and a white plaster vault above, extending the entire width of the crag, so that balconies overlooked Banbeck Vale at one end and Kergan's Way at the other.