February-March 2004

Hard SF novel, second in the author's "Galactic Center" series following In the Ocean of Night (reprinted last month). It concerns humanity's first starship searching for interstellar civilizations and finding evidence of malevolent machines whose intent is to destroy organic life.
• The publisher's site has this description and excerpt.
• Ranked #6 on the 1985 Locus Poll for best SF novel.
• This edition follows the 1987 paperback edition, which added a final chapter to tie the novel to the following book in the series, Great Sky River.
(Thu 11 Mar 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel about ecological catastrophe, one of the three futuristic dystopias that are Brunner's best-known work, along with Stand on Zanzibar (1968) and The Shockwave Rider (1975).
• This edition has an introduction by David Brin, and an afterword by John James Bell. The publisher's site has this page with a description and cover blurbs. The book indicates a June '03 publication, but was not seen by Locus Online until now.
• The book was a Nebula nominee, ranked #6 on the 1973 Locus Poll for best novel, and is among the top 10 British SF novels (from 1948-1998) according to this British SF Association poll.
(Wed 24 Mar 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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First paperback edition of Card's reprint anthology of 27 SF stories from the past century, from Edmond Hamilton's "Devolution" (1936) to George Alec Effinger's "One" (1995), with mostly famous stories in between from Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Blish, Sturgeon, Ellison, Silverberg, Pohl, etc. etc. There's a book introduction, and individual story introductions, by Card.
• Card's website has this description. Amazon has a review by Cynthia Ward.
• It ranked #9 in the 2002 Locus Poll for best anthology.
(Wed 24 Mar 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel, first published in a cut version as The Unteleported Man in an Ace Double edition in 1966, partly restored in later editions in 1983 (Berkley) and 1984 (Gollancz in the UK) and now including missing pages found by Paul Williams in 1985; thus, this is apparently the first completely restored edition, and the first edition of the novel under this title in the US. The history of the book is told in an afterword by Paul Williams, which is also posted on the official Philip K. Dick website.
• Despite all that, this is a minor PKD novel, another combination of familiar themes--"life in a security state, conspiracy, and the blurring of reality and illusion", according to the description on the publisher's site.
• David Pringle's Ultimate Guide to SF called it one of PKD's "least satisfactory books", though David Langford is quoted as calling the '84 edition "a strangely hallucinatory experience, far more striking than the original".
(Wed 24 Mar 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Mass market paperback edition of the first complete collection of Garrett's sf/fantasy series about a great detective in a world where magic is, like science, codified; includes 1967 Hugo-nominated novel Too Many Magicians, plus stories first collected in volumes Murder and Magic (1979) and Lord Darcy Investigates (1981). Publisher's page.
• There was an earlier trade paperback edition.
(Tue 3 Feb 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Omnibus of two fantasy novels, The House of the Wolfings (1888) and The Roots of the Mountains (1889), along with introductions by Michael W. Parry discussing the literary links between Morris and Tolkien.
• The publisher's site has this description with excerpts from the introductions.
(Fri 13 Feb 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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First trade paperback edition of Sawyer's 1998 novel about signals from Alpha Centauri that trigger a technological breakthrough. There was an earlier mass market edition, in 1999.
• Amazon.com has a review by Jhana Bach, and the PW review.
• The book was a 1999 Hugo Award nominee.
(Tue 3 Feb 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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SF novel about bikers in a post-apocalyptic America. Minor but popular Zelazny, the novel has been overshadowed by the cheesy 1977 film version starring Jan Michael Vincent.
• Amazon.com has a review by Paul Hughes. A Google search turns up an entry at Adherents.com, a site devoted to compiling religious references, with this description of Zelazny's novel and a detailed list of characters.
• ibooks published a trade paperback edition in 2001.
(Wed 24 Mar 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fantasy novel, sequel to the author's 1980 novel Changeling.
• An Amazon search lets you read passages from several SF/F encyclopedia about this title.
(Fri 13 Feb 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

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Fire boils aft, pushing the ship close to the knife edge of light speed. Its magnetic throats dimple the smooth dipolar field.
—An arrow scratching across the black—
—blue-white exhaust plume of fizzing hydrogen—
—a granite-gray asteroid riding the roaring blowtorch—

Hunted?
By wild animals?
In broad daylight on the Santa Monica freeway? Mad! Mad!

The SubInfo computers owned by Lies Incorporated had been caught in an unnatural act by a service mechanic. SubInfo computer Five had transmitted information which was not a lie.

The tale tells that in times long past there was a dwelling of men beside a great wood. Before it lay a plain, not very great, but which was, as it were, an isle in the sea of woodland, since even when you stood on the flat ground, you could see trees everywhere in the offing, though as for hills, you could scarce say that there were any; only swellings-up of the earth here and there, like the upheavings of the water that one sees at whiles going on amidst the eddies of a swift but deep stream.

The gull swooped by, seemed to hover a moment on unmoving wings.

Hell Tanner flipped his cigar butt at it and scored a lucky hit.