31 January 2003

Anderson, Poul Mother of Kings
(Tor 0-765-34502-1, $7.99, 611pp, January 2003, cover art Charles Keegan)
Tenth century fantasy of Scandinavian history and legend, telling the epic story of witch-queen Gunnhild, and the determination that eventually made her Queen of England and Norway. A Locus New & Notable Book for November 2001 in its hardcover edition. Amazon has PW, Library Journal, and reader reviews.
• First published by Tor, September 2001
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Chalker, Jack Melchior's Fire
(Baen 0-7434-3583-4, $7.99, 295pp, January 2003, cover art Bob Eggleton)
SF novel, Tales of the Three Kings II, about explorers searching for "the fabled worlds of the Three Kings, the lost El Dorado of the galaxy"; the Baen website has this blurb for the hardcover edition, with links to excerpts. Author's website: http://www.jackchalker.com/.
• First published by Baen, June 2001
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Constantine, Storm The Way of Light
(Tor 0-312-87367-0, $17.95, 493pp, trade paperback, January 2003, cover art Doug Beekman)
Fantasy novel, third volume in "The Chronicles of Magravandias" trilogy that began with Sea Dragon Heir and The Way of Light. Reviewed by Jennifer A. Hall in the January '02 Locus, who remarked "the series' strong characters have enough life left in them to carry more books." The first US edition was by Tor, January 2002. A Locus New & Notable Book for February 2002. Amazon has the PW review. The author's website has this page, with an excerpt, about the book.
• First published by Orion/Gollancz (UK), June 2001
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Datlow, Ellen, & Terri Windling, eds Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers
(HarperCollins/Eos 0-06-105782-7, $7.99, 14+404pp, November 2002)
First mass-market paperback (apparently) of an anthology of 22 original stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Edward Bryant, Michael Swanwick, Pat Murphy, Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Ellen Kushner, and others, that first appeared in 1998.
• First published by HarperPrism, October 1998
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King, Stephen Everything's Eventual
(Pocket 0-7434-5735-8, $7.99, 22+583pp, January 2003)
Collection of 14 stories, including two making their first appearances in print: the e-book ''Riding the Bullet'' and audio story ''1408''. A Locus New & Notable Book for May 2002. Amazon has several editorial and reader reviews.
• First published by Simon & Schuster/Scribner, March 2002
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Lumley, Brian The Whisperer and Other Voices
(Tor 0-312-87802-8, $14.95, 333pp, trade paperback, February 2003, cover art Bob Eggleton)
Collection of 9 dark fantasy stories, including novel-length "The Return of the Deep Ones" (serialized in Fantasy Book, 1984), plus an introduction. The book was a nominee for the Bram Stoker Award in 2002. The Amazon page has the PW review. Lumley's website has this page about the book.
• First published by Tor, February 2001
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MacLeod, Ken Dark Light
(Tor 0-765-34496-3, $6.99, 325pp, January 2003, cover art Stephan Martiniere)
Second book in the author's current "Engines of Light" trilogy; the third has just been published in hardcover (see New Books). A Locus New & Notable Book for February 2002 in its hardcover edition.
• First published by Little Brown/Orbit (UK), November 2001
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Marillier, Juliet Child of the Prophecy
(Tor 0-312-87036-1, 528pp, trade paperback, January 2003)
Fantasy novel, third in the Sevenwaters trilogy, about a young woman raised to be the prophesied destroyer of the Sevenwaters clan. A Locus New & Notable Book for April 2002, in its hardcover edition. Amazon has Cynthia Ward's review, plus other editorial and reader reviews. The author's official site has this page about the book, with links to reviews and an excerpt.
• First published by (UK),
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McCarthy, Wil The Collapsium
(Bantam 0-553-58443-X, 399pp, December 2002)
Hard Sf novel about a technique for instantaneous matter transmission, with appendices including a glossary, technical notes (with equations), and prose discussions of the book's various speculative premises (collapsium, wellstone, etc.). It was a Nebula Award nominee in 2002. The Amazon page has reviews from PW and Booklist, the latter with the comment "McCarthy's latest reads as if Terry Pratchett at his zaniest and Larry Niven at his best had collaborated." The follow-up novel, The Wellstone, is due in March.
• First published by Ballantine Del Rey, August 2000
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Oltion, Jerry Abandon in Place
(Tor 0-312-87316-6, $14.95, 363pp, trade paperback, February 2003, cover art Vincent Di Fate)
SF novel, based on the author's Nebula Award-winning novella, about phantom Saturn V rockets that launch toward the moon following Neil Armstrong's death. The sequel, The Getaway Special, was published in hardcover in December 2001.
• First published by Tor, November 2000
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Sarrantonio, Al, ed Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction
(Penguin/Roc 0-451-45904-0, $7.99, 665pp, December 2002)
Anthology of 30 original stories by Dan Simmons, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, Thomas M. Disch, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Elizabeth Hand, Larry Niven, Gene Wolfe, and others. Though not quite up to its "Dangerous Visions for the new millennium" billing, it was nevertheless one of the most important original anthologies of 2001, with several stories nominated for award and polls, and one of them winning: Elizabeth Hand's "Cleopatra Brimstone", winner of an International Horror Guild Award. F. Brett Cox reviewed the book for Locus Online last February. The Amazon page has a review by Cynthia Ward.
• First published by Roc, 2001
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Stirling, S.M. The Peshawar Lancers
(Roc 0-451-45873-7, 482pp, January 2003)
Alternate history SF novel in which meteors struck Earth in 1878. The Amazon page has PW and Library Journal reviews, and reader reviews.
• First published by Penguin/Roc, January 2002
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Weber, David The Excalibur Alternative
(Baen 0-7434-3584-2, $7.99, 346pp, January 2003, cover art Patrick Turner)
Sf adventure novel in which "aliens of the Federation abduct 14th-century Englishmen to serve as mercenaries on planets where only low-tech weaponry is legal", according to the PW review on Amazon, which also has enthusiastic reader reviews. Baen's site has this blurb with links to excerpts.
• First published by Baen, January 2002
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Wurts, Janny Peril's Gate
(HarperCollins/Eos 0-06-105467-4, $7.99, 940pp, January 2003, cover illustration Janny Wurts)
Fantasy novel, volume 6 in the "Wars of Light and Shadow" series. The author's website has this excerpt.
• First published by Voyager (UK), 2001
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