March 2003

Barnes, Steven Lion's Blood
(Warner Aspect 0-446-61221-9, $6.99, 602pp, pb, February 2003, cover illustration Jean-Pierre Tipples)
Reprint (Warner Aspect February 2002). Alternate history novel "of Slavery and Freedom in an Alternate America", set in a world where Europe never came to power and America is colonized by Africans and Vikings--the reviews, by Faren Miller and Alyx Dellamonica in the March 2002 Locus, compared it to Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. Amazon has a review by Cynthia Ward. The book is on Locus's 2002 Recommended Reading List.
(Seen Tue 11 Feb 2003)
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Bear, Greg Darwin's Radio
(Ballantine 0-345-45981-4, $14.95, 430pp, tpb, March 2003)
Reprint (UK: HarperCollins May 1999). Trade paperback edition of Bear's Nebula Award winning novel, about an apparent plague causing miscarriages that turns out to be a long-dormant DNA mechanism for triggering human evolution. First published in 1999, with a mass market paperback edition in 2000, it won the Nebula in 2001 (the "2000 Nebula for Best Novel" by SFWA's nomenclature). This trade paperback edition comes in prelude of the hardcover publication in April of the sequel, Darwin's Children, already reviewed by Gary K. Wolfe in the March 2003 Locus, and by Nick Gevers in the upcoming April issue.
(Seen Thu 27 Feb 2003)
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Broderick, Damien Transcension
(Tor 0-765-30370-1, $14.95, 348pp, tpb, March 2003)
Reprint (Tor February 2002). SF novel examining issues that Broderick considered in his 2001 nonfiction The Spike (his term for what Vernor Vinge calls the 'singularity'), concerning the pace of technological progress and what will happen to humanity when technologies become indistinguishable from magic. Gary K. Wolfe, in his review in the February 2002 Locus Magazine, described it as "a classic SF fable of discovery using very contemporary ideas of virtuality, artificial intelligence, and information theory. ... Sometimes caustically witty, sometimes surprisingly elegant in its prose, sometimes haunting familiar". Amazon has a review by Cynthia Ward, and the PW review. It's on Locus's 2002 Recommended Reading List, and was just nominated for the Ditmar Award.
(Seen Fri 7 Mar 2003)
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Carey, Jacqueline Kushiel's Chosen
(Tor 0-765-34504-8, $7.99, 15+687pp, pb, March 2003)
Reprint (Tor April 2002). Another book on Locus's 2002 Recommended Reading List, this is the sequel to Kushiel's Dart, winner of the Locus Award for best First Novel of 2001. Amazon has a review by Roz Genessee, and the PW review.
(Seen Tue 11 Mar 2003)
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Clute, John Appleseed
(Tor 0-765-30379-5, $14.95, 337pp, tpb, February 2003, cover art Shelley Eshkar)
Reprint (UK: Little Brown/Orbit April 2001). SF novel by Hugo Award-winning encyclopedist and critic; far-future post-modern space opera, with dazzling but challenging language. Neil Gaiman calls it "compulsively reader space opera"; M. John Harrison, "a comprehensive re-imagining of space opera". Amazon has reviews by Roz Genessee and PW.
(Seen Mon 17 Feb 2003)
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Fforde, Jasper The Eyre Affair
(Penguin 0142001805, $14, 374pp, tpb, 2003)
Reprint (Hodder Headline/Hodder & Stoughton July 2001). Set in an alternate history where the Crimean War is in its 131st year and everyone reads literature, a plucky heroine and an evil mastermind are swept up in a crisis triggered by the disappearance of a minor character from Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. Combining murder, mayhem, time travel, fantasy, literary in-jokes, and despicable violence, Fforde has created "an exhilarating, unlikely, and ultimately delightful tale" that is "easily one of the strongest debuts in years", wrote Jonathan Strahan in the August 2001 Locus. The sequel is Lost in a Good Book, just reviewed at Salon by Laura Miller, who reviewed the first book here.
(Seen Tue 4 Mar 2003)
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Herbert, James Once…
(Tor 0-765-34350-9, $7.99, 461pp, pb, January 2003)
Reprint (Macmillan UK September 2001). Horror novel, subtitled "A Scary Tale of Faerefolkis & Evildoers, of Lovers & Erotic Passion, of Horror & Belief. Written Only for Adults". It ranked on UK bestseller lists for several weeks in its original hardcover edition. The Amazon page reprints the PW review, and has a review by Roz Genessee.
(Seen Thu 6 Mar 2003)
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Hogan, James P. Martian Knightlife
(Baen 0-7434-3591-5, $6.99, 378pp, pb, February 2003)
Reprint (Baen November 2001). SF mystery involving the consequences of a teleportation experiment gone wrong. Amazon has the PW and reader reviews. Baen's site has this blurb, with links to excerpts.
(Seen Tue 4 Feb 2003)
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Kress, Nancy Probability Sun
(Tor 0-765-34355-X, $6.99, 347pp, pb, February 2003)
Reprint (Tor July 2001). SF novel, third in the trilogy that began with Probability Moon and Probability Sun, all set on the world of her Nebula Award-winning novelette "The Flowers of Aulit Prison". This book concerns humanity's war with aliens, and the use of super-weapons that threaten the fabric of space-time. Cynthia Ward's review on Amazon calls it "literary hard SF".
(Seen Tue 4 Feb 2003)
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Le Guin, Ursula K. The Birthday of the World and other stories
(Perennial 0-06-050906-6, $13.95, 13+362pp, tpb, March 2003)
Reprint (HarperCollins March 2002). Collection of eight SF stories including six stories set in Le Guin’s Hainish worlds, and original novella "Paradises Lost"; both the book and the novella are on Locus's 2002 Recommended Reading List. Amazon has the PW review. Reviewing the book in the March 2002 Locus, Nick Gevers described it as "Substantial, thoughtful, threaded with anthropological hypotheses passionately advocated and artfully defended…"
(Seen Tue 11 Mar 2003)
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O'Leary, Patrick The Impossible Bird
(Tor 0-765-30339-6, $14.95, 65pp, tpb, March 2003)
Reprint (Tor January 2002). SF novel, on Locus's 2002 Recommended Reading List, about two brothers who discover a world "where hunger and poverty do not exist--a world where there are no deadlines, no anger, and sex is the most amazing experience you have ever had in your life". Gary K. Wolfe's review in the December 2001 Locus said it is "a novel that risks profound silliness to achieve profound wisdom".
(Seen Fri 7 Mar 2003)
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Shinn, Sharon Jenna Starborn
(Ace 0-441-01029-6, $7.99, 369pp, pb, March 2003)
Reprint (Ace April 2002). First mass market edition of a novel listed among Locus's New and Notable Books for June 2002; a science-fictional retelling of Jane Eyre. Amazon has reviews from PW and others of the original edition; PW notes the book's intended appeal to a female audience, and its thematic similarity to Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair.
(Seen Tue 4 Mar 2003)
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Swanwick, Michael Bones of the Earth
(HarperTorch 0-380-81289-4, $7.5, 383pp, pb, March 2003)
Reprint (HarperCollins/Eos March 2002). Time travel novel with dinosaurs, one of the more popular novels of 2002; see Locus Online's Guide to the Best of 2002. The Amazon page has PW, Booklist, and reader reviews; no less than 4 enthusiastic Locus reviewers covered it.
(Seen Thu 6 Mar 2003)
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Williamson, Jack Terraforming Earth
(Tor 0-765-34497-1, $6.99, 342pp, pb, February 2003, cover art Stephan Martiniere)
Reprint (Tor June 2001). SF novel about efforts by cloned survivors on the Moon to terraform (a term coined by Williamson over 50 years ago!) an Earth that has been destroyed by a meteor impact. Co-winner of the 2002 John W. Campbell Memorial Award; placed 13th among SF novels on last year's Locus poll. The Amazon site has the PW and other reviews.
(Seen Tue 11 Feb 2003)
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