New SF, Fantasy, and Horror books seen : February 2005 Week #1

Fantasy novel, third book in "The Bridge of D'Arnath" series, set in a realm where sorcery has been banished, following Son of Avonar and Guardians of the Keep.
• The author's site has a page about the series, with an excerpt. One more volume is indicated: Daughter of Ancients, due in September.
• Amazon has reader reviews.

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Collection of four stories, two of them novel-length, set in the universe of the author's "Black Jewels" trilogy (available in an omnibus edition).
• The author's website displays the front and back cover, and provides an excerpt.
• Carolyn Cushman's review in the February issue of Locus says the final story, "the meat of the matter for fans of the series, finally tells how Jaenelle recovers from the events of the trilogy, and learns what her new Jewel, Twilight's Dawn, can do. It oddly ends up being another romance, sort of a twisted Regency, and quite rewarding for anyone following the series."

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Fantasy novel, third in the "Winds of the Forelands" tetralogy, following Rules of Ascension (2002) and Seeds of Betrayal (2003), about war between the magical Qirsi and the ruling Eandi.
• The author's webpage has this page about the book, with some lengthy excerpts.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review.

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Fantasy novel, book one of "The Crowthistle Chronicles", about a young man who sets off to see the world and seek out the truth about his father.
• The author's website has a 'movie overview' of her books, and information about her background.
• Amazon has the PW review: "If Tolkien wrote romance, the result might be something like the first volume of Australian author Dart-Thornton's new fantasy trilogy..." and "The goblet brimmeth over with elements typical of epic fantasy (sorcerers, monsters, magic jewels, untold treasures, etc.) and of the currently fashionable subgenre of paranormal romance (otherworldly amour, supernatural goings-on, great looks, good hair, etc.); the brew will undoubtedly prove popular."

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Surrealist/fantasy novel about a lake that suddenly appears in the middle of Los Angeles, and a woman who's afraid its presence threatens her young son.
• The publisher's site has this description, and an excerpt.
• Amazon reprints the Booklist review by Michele Leber: "Erickson's stock in trade is duality, surrealism, and lyrical language, and so it is in this tale that loops back and forth through the twentieth century."
• Faren Miller reviews the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, detailing why "This isn't an easy book to get into" but concluding "Eventually, many of the nagging questions of history and motivation which the previous sectional leaps between decades had left dangling get answered, so the SFnal time scheme can work as it should - as a comment on our world and its possible futures."

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Fantasy novel, second book of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series projected to be 10 volumes in length.
• The series' website, www.malazanempire.com, has background on the author and the books.
• A hardcover edition is also available.
• US publication of this series lags behind publication in the UK, where the fifth volume, Midnight Tides, appeared in March 2004. See the Amazon UK page for the present volume for a review by David Langford.

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SF novel, a first novel, in which alien artifacts called Stations enable humans to jump throughout the galaxy, leading to the discovery of a primitive sentient race.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Rick Kleffel reviewed it for The Agony Column -- " 'Angel Stations' is dense and involving, puzzling and perplexing. It's unabashed science fiction, with an almost 'Golden Age' feel to it, but a very modern density, the culture-shock that makes science fiction so enjoyable." -- and interviewed the author.
• The author writes a blog, White Screen of Despair.

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SF novel, eighth and final volume in the "Deathstalker" series. It involves the planet-devouring Terror, a usurper emperior, and a rebellion in the emperor's city.
• The Publisher's Weekly review on Amazon remarks "This listing of major plot threads doesn't begin to suggest the full story's feverish complexity" and concludes that the author "knows the action is so far over the top that it almost slips into farce, but he usually manages to keep his balance, arms waving frantically, right on the edge."
• The previous volume, Deathstalker Return, just appeared in paperback (description).

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Humorous dark fantasy novel about a witch who's quit her bounty hunter job to form her own agency; sequel to Dead Witch Walking.
• The author's website has this excerpt.
• Carolyn Cushman reviewed it in the November '04 Locus: "It's a fun mystery set in an interesting contemporary world where supernatural beings live out in the open, if not totally accepted."

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Fantasy novel set in 1966 Britain about the adopted daughter of a Midlands witchwoman who helps out local girls in trouble.
• The publisher's site has this brief description. The US edition from Atria is due this month.
• Rick Kleffel posted this review: "Joyce writes a novel that offers an almost handcrafted feel. Readers who encounter 'The Limits of Enchantment' will find that every detail is attended to; every word has earned its place in the novel. It's why he's able to pack so much life into such a short space."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, saying it is "as solid, balanced, and finely tuned as anything Joyce has written, and that is tantamount to saying it's about as finely tuned as any recent fiction we have."

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SF novel, third in the Nulapeiron trilogy following Paradox (2000) and Context (2002), about a world of subterranean cities threatened by an Anomaly that has absorbed billions of humans and aliens into itself.
• The publisher has this description with excerpts from reviews.

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SF novel, sequel to Marrow (2000), set on a ship so enormous it contains an entire planet, also related to 2004 novella Mere. Now the Great Ship approaches a dark nebula inhabited by a god-like entity.
• Reed's webpage has the book's description, as well as a complete bibliography.
• The UK publisher's site has a brief description. The US edition from Tor is due in April.
• Nick Gevers reviews the book in the February issue of Locus.

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SF novel set in the 24th century about the discovery of a "vast hyperspatial labyrinth" called Geodesica. The sequel, Geodesica: Descent is due in February 2006.
• The author's website has this brief description.

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If I could tell you this in a single sitting then you might believe all of it, even the strangest part. Even the part about what I found in the hedgerow. If I could unwind this story in a single spool, or peel it like an apple the way Mammy would with her penknife in one unbroken coil, juice a-glistening on the blade, then you might bite in without objection.

I have no voice that explains where I began, no mouth to tell why I was imagined or how I was assembled, and I have no idea who deserves thanks for my simple existence, or even if thanks are appropriate... I recall absolutely nothing about my exceptionally murky origins... but I know that for a long cold while I was perfectly mute and only slightly more conscious than stone, sliding through the emptiest, blackest reaches of space, my only persistent thought telling me that I was to do nothing for now but wait... wait for something wondrous, or something very awful... wait for some little event or a knowing voice that would help answer those questions that I could barely ask of myself...

Space twisted briefly around the probe as it emerged only a few thousand light years from the Galactic Core, the very weave and warp of the universe briefly exposed in a burst of exotic particles that destroyed themselves in minuscule flashes of energy. The probe was tiny, small enough to balance on the fingertip of one of the scientists who had designed it, a compact and powerful bundle of molecular circuitry that stored information on the deep quantum level, recording and collating everything it saw or detected.

A lean figure, wrapped in a long cape, stood atop a slender footbridge spanning Gelshania Boulevard. It was an hour before dawnshift. High above the boulevard, attached to the baroque, ornate panels of the concave ceiling, bronze-and-platinum glowclusters shone dimly, as if sleeping. Down below, the boulevard's floor was of polished butter-yellow metal. At this hour, only a few servitors walked there, carrying out their errands.