May 2004

YA SF novel set in an underground city more than two centuries after civilization collapsed.
• Carolyn Cushman, in last year's review in Locus Magazine, remarked "Experienced SF readers will find the plot predictable, but clothed in enough quirkily distinctive details to keep it entertaining, worthwhile reading."
• The sequel, The People of the Sparks, just appeared in hardcover.
(Wed 26 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

SF novel, concerning an outdated space-sailing ship re-equipped with up-to-date engines and working menial jobs as an interplanetary freighter.
• Amazon (click on title or cover image) has a review by Cynthia Ward.
• Nick Gevers' review last year in Locus Magazine called it a "big and ambitious" novel in the Heinlein mode: "the master's lively, slangy, bustling tales of working stiffs in space have often been imitated, but rarely as eloquently as this."
(Tue 18 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Fantasy novel, eighth book in the "Sword of Truth" series that began with Wizard's First Rule (1994); the previous book was The Pillars of Creation (2001).
• The author's official website has links to news and reviews.
• The book ranked for several months on Locus' bestseller list last year. Amazon has reader reviews.
(Wed 9 Jun 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Fantasy novel set in the years after World War II about a family with seven grown daughters and their various offspring. This paperback edition includes a readers guide.
• Winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award for best novel.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review.
• Faren Miller's review in the March 2003 Locus commented "What sets this book apart from standard fantasy [...] is a quality also seen in Shakespeare: the awareness that comedy, tragedy, mundane, and magic are all parts of one great whole and needn't be estranged from one another in order to tell a tale."
(Tue 1 Jun 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

SF novel about a musician in the late 21st century whose husband and daughter are killed by third-world have-not terrorists.
• The author's website has this page about the book, with a link to excerpts from reviews.
• Alyx Dellamonica's review in the February '03 Locus said the book "offers a palette of emotions and reactions, including unexpected moments of brightness and splashes of romantic sensibility."
(Tue 18 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Hard SF novel about a young woman's quest for a missing brother in a far future world beset by out-of-control technology.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews.
• Gary K. Wolfe's review last year in Locus Magazine described it as one those novels that seems to be fantasy, but which resolves into traditional SF, concluding the book "may be her strongest novel, in purely narrative terms, to date."
(Wed 9 Jun 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Literary fantasy novel, a surprise bestseller by a first-time author, about a man diagnosed with "Chrono-Displacement Disorder": he becomes unstuck in time.
• Faren Miller's review in the December '03 Locus concluded that the book "may ultimately be a love story, but it could only have been created by a sophisticated writer well acquainted with the best of both speculative and realistic fiction, and capable of forging them into something new."
(Thu 27 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Young-adult humorous fantasy novel, Pratchett's second YA novel set in his Discworld universe after The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (2001).
• It's about "a nine-year-old girl growing up ona sheep farm who doesn't quite fit in and knows it" according to Jonathan Strahan's review in the March 2003 Locus Magazine. Carolyn Cushman's review in the same issue called it "a lovely romp for Pratchett fans of all ages".
• US website www.terrypratchettbooks.com/ has a contest to win free signed copies, while Pratchett website The L-Space Web has this page of mostly pre-publication quotes and comments about the book.
(Thu 27 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Far future SF novel, sequel to Revelation Space.
• Jonathan Strahan's review in the July 2002 Locus sets Reynolds's "Conjoiner/Demarchist" future history in the context of past SF future histories, from E.E. Smith to Asimov to Banks, and called this book "clearly one of the year's major science fiction novels".
• David Langford's review on the Amazon UK page calls it "a hugely enjoyable and ambitious interstellar epic, a must-read for fans of SF that operates on a truly colossal scale."
• The Amazon US page has the reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.
(Wed 9 Jun 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|

Fantasy novel, the third novel by the 2002 winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, set in the same world as earlier novels The King's Peace (2000) and The King's Name (2001), though it's not necessary to have read those two to read this one.
• Amazon has reviews from PW and Booklist.
(Tue 18 May 2004) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense

|