Joan Aiken, The Witch of Clatteringshaws
(Random House/Delacorte Jan 2005)
Readers saddened by Aiken’s death in early 2004 will be glad to find some closure with this 11th installment of the Alternate England series begun in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, as Dido Twite seeks a missing heir to replace reluctant Simon as king of England.
Mike Ashley & Eric Brown, eds., The Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures
(Carroll & Graf Mar 2005)
The spirit of classic Verne adventures lives on in this anthology of 23 new sequels, prequels, and related steampunk stories by some of SF’s best-known authors, including Stephen Baxter, Ian Watson, Paul Di Filippo, Richard A. Lupoff, James Lovegrove, and Peter Crowther.
J. G. Ballard, J.G. Ballard: Quotes
(RE/Search Nov 2004)
Pithy and provocative observations by Ballard on topics from past to future - including the media, arts, sex, and death - are gathered in this book of quotes culled from books, articles, and interviews.
Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
(Tor Mar 2005)
The concluding third volume in the Shadow series (parallel to the acclaimed Ender series) finds global politics in center stage as Bean uses what’s left of his short life to find his missing children and help build peace on Earth.
C. J. Cherryh, Destroyer
(DAW Feb 2005)
The first volume in a new sequence, seventh overall in the acclaimed Foreigner series about a human representative to the volatile alien atevi. The starship Phoenix returns home after a two-year rescue mission, only to find war has broken out among the atevi.
Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Pashazade
(Bantam Spectra Mar 2005)
An SF hard-boiled mystery set in a near-future alternate world in which the Ottoman Empire never collapsed, the first volume in the critically acclaimed Arabesk trilogy, finally available in the US.
Karen Haber & Jonathan Strahan, eds., Fantasy: The Best of 2004
(ibooks Feb 2005)
The early bird Year’s Best anthology covers 2004 fantasy with 11 stories by authors including Neil Gaiman, Michael Swanwick, Tim Powers, and Jay Lake.
Karen Haber & Jonathan Strahan, eds., Science Fiction: The Best of 2004
(ibooks Feb 2005)
The editors present 13 stories chosen as 2004’s Year’s Best SF, by authors including Gene Wolfe, Joe Haldeman, Stephen Baxter, and Jeff VanderMeer.
Graham Joyce, The Limits of Enchantment
(Simon & Schuster/Atria Feb 2005)
A solid coming-of-age novel with just a touch of the fantastic, about a modern young woman in mid-’60s England apprenticed to her grandmother, a traditional midwife and herbalist.
Tanith Lee, Metallic Love
(Bantam Spectra Mar 2005)
Lee re-explores romance with her own special style in this long-awaited sequel to 1982’s The Silver Metal Lover, in which a street-smart orphan from the slums falls for an updated version of the robot Silver.
Richard K. Morgan, Market Forces
(Ballantine Del Rey Mar 2005)
Economic manipulation gets brutal in this near-future SF novel in which speculators invest in wars and corporate gladiators battle for market dominance in custom cars.
Theodore Sturgeon, The Man Who Lost the Sea: Volume X: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
(North Atlantic Jan 2005)
The latest (and apparently last) volume in this valuable series covers Sturgeon’s short fiction from 1957-1960 with 13 stories, two not previously collected.
Lisa Tuttle, The Mysteries
(Bantam Spectra Mar 2005)
Tuttle gives Celtic fantasy a distinctive twist in this uncanny contemporary dark fantasy/thriller about an American PI looking into mysterious disappearances in Britain.
Paul Witcover, Tumbling After
(HarperCollins/Eos Mar 2005)
Reality and fantasy blur in this complex novel of twins with strange powers and the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game they play, alternating with the story of a young person in a parallel world seemingly derived from the game.
John C. Wright, Mists of Everness
(Tor Mar 2005)
The second volume of The War of the Dreaming brings a thrilling conclusion to the fantasy adventures begun in The Last Guardian of Everness with its manic mix of elements out of pulp adventure, myth, Arthurian legend, and Shakespeare: ‘‘…a delirious, delicious mishmash of myth and mid-rash, for those who enjoy cavorting in such.’’ [Damien Broderick]
