Locus Online
MONITOR
2004 Archive

New Books Nov. #3
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
G.O. Clark
Marcos Donnelly
Cathy & Arnie Fenner
Jonathan Lethem
Jane Lindskold
L.A. Marzulli
Spider Robinson
Charles Stross
Jack Vance

New Books Nov. #2
Jacqueline Carey
Keith R.A. DeCandido
David Drake
David & Leigh Eddings
Eric Flint
Tamara Siler Jones
Oisin McGann
Christopher Moore
Jean Rabe
Leigh Richards
Joel Rosenberg
Robert Silverberg
Lisa Smedman
Gene Wolfe


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This page lists selected newly published SFFH books seen by Locus Online (independently from the listings compiled by Locus Magazine).

Review copies received will be listed (though reprints and reissues are on other pages), but not galleys or advance reading copies. Selections, some based only on bookstore sightings, are at the discretion of Locus Online.

Key:
* = first edition
+ = first US edition
Date with publisher info is official publication month;
Date in parentheses at paragraph end is date seen or received.


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Notable new SF, Fantasy, and Horror books seen : November 2004 Week #4


* Budz, Mark : Crache
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58659-9, $6.99, 368pp, mass market paperback, December 2004, cover illustration Stephen Youll)

SF novel, the author's second; follow-up to last year's Clade though not precisely a sequel. It's set in a gengineered ecology on the asteroid of Mymercia that's suffering a catastrophic biosystem failure.
• The author's website has a description and a short excerpt. The publisher's site has the same description and a longer excerpt.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, which compares the author to William Gibson, and concludes "Budz's unusual wordplay draws variously on the scientific rationality of Asimov, the drug-addled hangover visions of William Burroughs and the playful spirit of Dr. Seuss. Budz may be poised to become hard SF's next superstar."
• Gary K. Wolfe's review will appear in the January 2005 issue of Locus Magazine.
• The title is pronounced "crash".
(Wed 24 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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(Harper Design International 0-06-072433-1, $24.95, 160pp, trade paperback, November 2004)

Nonfiction guide to creating digital SF art, with sections on world-building, cities, creatures, vehicles, etc., and techniques such as modelling, textures, and lighting. Includes a Gallery of artworks by David Ho, Ian Grainger, Slawek Wojtowicz, Dariusz Jasiczak, and others, plus an index, list of sources, and artist contacts.
• Amazon has a description from the publisher's site. This review on Psionic's 3D Game Resources has a more detailed description of the contents.
• The author previously published Digital Fantasy Painting.
(Wed 10 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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* Courtenay Grimwood, Jon : Stamping Butterflies
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07613-5, £12.99, 390pp, hardcover, November 2004)

SF novel, partly a near-future thriller about the attempted assassination in Marrakech of the US president by a mysterious vagrant dubbed Prisoner Zero. Two other narrative strands interweave, one set in the 1970s, the other in the far future.
• The author's website has this description. The publisher's site has this description, a pdf extract, and excerpts from reviews.
• Cheryl Morgan's Emerald City review says "Stamping Butterflies is a novel that spans vast gulfs of both space and time with a tiny pair of wings."
• Gary K. Wolfe's review appeared in the November issue of Locus: "Grimwood's acute sense of setting is very much his own, and the manner in which he eventually links the tales is both ingenious, clearly science fictional, and, in the end, quite moving. ... [H]is most ambitious novel to date, and perhaps his best."
(Tue 30 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon

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+ Di Filippo, Paul : Fuzzy Dice
(ibooks 0-7434-9822-4, $11.95, 296pp, trade paperback, October 2004, cover art Todd Schorr)
First US edition (UK: PS Publishing, July 2003).

Satiric SF novel about a failed writer given the chance to travel through quantum wormholes to alternate earths, courtesy an odd alien. Introduction by Rudy Rucker. This is the first US edition.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Di Filippo keeps the proceedings lively with satiric winks at our own world and a profusion of comically apt pop culture references ranging from Charles Dickens to Yellow Submarine."
• Jonathan Strahan's review, from the September '03 issue of Locus Magazine, said "it's like Tom Robbins's college classic Even Cowgirls Get the Blues recast in the hands of gonzo mathematician Rudy Rucker as a kind of ontological day trip."
(Thu 18 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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+ Fallon, Jennifer : Treason Keep
(Tor 0-765-30987-4, $25.95, 492pp, hardcover, November 2004, jacket art Paul Youll)
First US edition (Australia: Voyager, 2001).

Fantasy novel, book two of the Hythrun Chronicles, following Medalon (Australia 2000; US April 2004). The third and fourth volumes, Harshini and Wolfblade, have been published in Australia, and the series will extend to six volumes altogether.
• The author's site has a companion to the series, with maps, a glossary, a description of each book.
• Tor's site has this page about the author within its 'Women in Fantasy' section, with a biography and an excerpt from the first book.
(Thu 18 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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(Phobos Books 0972002650, $14.95, 13+214pp, trade paperback, October 2004, cover art Kim McCarthy)

Anthology of 12 original stories by winners of the 3rd annual Phobos Fiction Contest. Introduction by John Ordover.
• The Phobos website has a description, though the page about the book isn't yet populated.
• Winners of the contest were announced in March, while David Barr Kirtley's site lists the table of contents.
(Thu 18 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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* Reynolds, Alastair : Century Rain
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07436-1, £14.99, 506pp, hardcover, November 2004)

SF novel about a future archaeologist, 300 years in the future, who discovers a portal back to mid-20th century Earth. It's a standalone novel, not related to any of Reynolds' previous books.
• The publisher's site has this description.
The Agony Column has this exclusive excerpt.
Locus' interview with Reynolds, in its August 2003 issue, is excerpted here.
• The US edition is coming in June 2005 from Ace.
(Tue 30 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon

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* Sarrantonio, Al : Hallows Eve
(Leisure 0843951753, $6.99, 326pp, mass market paperback, October 2004)

Horror novel, sequel to Orangefield (2001), concerning Samhain, the scheming Lord of Death, in a small pumpkin-farming community.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the PW review, which calls it a "lackluster sequel" but adds "The author casts his dark fable with crusty rustics on sabbatical from a Stephen King novel, and he sketches the town vividly with imagery as crisp as the first bite of an autumn apple."
• Cemetery Dance Publications released an earlier limited edition. There's an excerpt from the book on the order page.
(Thu 18 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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* Sosnowski, David : Vamped
(Simon & Schuster/Free Press 0-7432-6253-0, $24, 335pp, hardcover, August 2004)

Horror novel set "in an alternate world where vampires are in charge and humans nearly extinct" according to the Publishers Weekly review on the Amazon page.
• The publisher's site has this description, with an excerpt.
• Cynthia Ward reviewed it for SF Weekly, noting "Despite obvious genre content, this novel has received mainstream publication and promotion (it's one of only 20 fiction and nonfiction titles on the Amazon.com Summer 2004 Breakout Books list). Mainstream placement is probably best, since few people read fantasy or horror to relive or discover the terrors of child-raising."
(Thu 18 Nov 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Opening lines:
The cross weighs on Fola. Even in the micro-g of the asteroid it seems to exert a downward pull. The sensation is more mental than physical. She knows that. The slave-pherions that bound her to the Jesuettes have been cut out with chemical scalpels. But her mind still registers the weight of the cross the way it would the phantom pain of a severed limb.
Opening lines:
Beijing outraged…

Someone had taken the fate of the world and tossed it onto a chair and somebody else had dumped it under a table, where it remained until a thin, grey-haired tramp picked up the paper, wiped off the worst of the grime and spread it out.

41 degrees in Cairo. Snow in Cape Town. Russia’s president-for-life had just re-invaded Chechnya, the Chinese navy was blockading Taiwan and the current occupant of the White House had announced his intention to become the first president since Truman to visit North Africa.
Opening lines:
Here's a tip:

When you give the world one last chance to save your life, be specific about the how. A selection of A, B, or C would be good, along with a couple of "nots" -- to clarify the answers you don't want. This is especially important if you're a vampire and don't really need to have your life saved, unless...



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