Neal Asher, Prador Moon (Night Shade Books May 2006)

Asher delves into the origins of the Prador War, long before his main Polity sequence, in this far-future space opera of first contact and war with the implacably paranoid, crab-like Prador. ‘‘…something I really enjoy: a roller-coaster with opinions, an Entertainment that includes a universe of discourse as well as chases, escapes, and blowing stuff up.’’ [Russell Letson]

Elizabeth Bear, The Chains That You Refuse (Night Shade Books May 2006)

The debut collection for Bear – winner of the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Locus Award-winning novelist, and one of the most distinctive new voices in SF – features two poems and 20 stories, four original, in a wide-ranging mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Scion (Warner Jun 2006)

The Kushiel series continues with this first volume in a new trilogy following Imriel, the adopted son of the former courtesan Phèdre, as he makes his way in a world of intrigue, manipulation, and twisted sensuous desires. ‘‘Haunted by sex and death, permeated with ambiguity, uncertainty, and tentative knowledge, it’s also a grand adventure.’’ [Faren Miller]

Charles de Lint, Widdershins (Tor May 2006)

Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell finally start to realize their feelings for each other – in the middle of a conflict between the North American spirits and the immigrant fairy folk – in this latest contemporary fantasy in the acclaimed Newford series.

R. Garcia y Robertson, Firebird (Tor May 2006)

A witch’s adolescent slave girl falls in love with a foreign knight and helps free her land from a curse by returning a firebird egg to its nest in this spellbinding adult fairy-tale adventure in Russian style.

David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds., Year's Best SF 11 (HarperCollins/Eos Jun 2006)

Hartwell & Cramer present their choice of the best genre SF (no fantasy) from 2005, with 31 stories by authors including Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, and Cory Doctorow.

Paul Malmont, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (Simon & Schuster Jun 2006)

Walter Gibson, Lester Dent, and L. Ron Hubbard investigate the strange death of H.P. Lovecraft in this wonderful pulp-style mystery adventure, full of pulp writers, Chinese gangsters, and more. Full of fascinating trivia for pulp fans and written in high pulp style, it’s ‘‘exhilarating, and for those who’ve never heard of Dent or Gibson, it’s a fair approximations of what all the fuss was about.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

Kim Newman, The Man from the Diogenes Club (MonkeyBrain Books Jun 2006)

This collects eight stories, one original, of 1970s supernatural sleuth and spy Richard Jepperson. Newman’s customary array of literary and pop-cultural references include influences ranging from H.P. Lovecraft to The Avengers and James Bond.

Naomi Novik, Black Powder War (Ballantine Del Rey Jun 2006)

The high adventure continues in the third volume in the Temeraire historical fantasy, as the dragon and his crew hurry overland from China to bring valuable dragon eggs back from Istanbul, maintaining the spirit of Patrick O’Brian’s naval adventures while adding air combat and venturing into regions no ship could sail.

Tim Powers, Three Days to Never (Subterranean Press Jul 2006)

Powers’s newest novel has all the weird historical connections, density of ideas, and offbeat action we’ve come to expect, as various secret societies vie to acquire a time machine (devised by Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin) from a father and daughter who have no idea what they’ve inherited. ‘‘A powerful work, as tense a narrative and complete a morality tale as fantasy produces.’’ [Nick Gevers]

Jack Seabrook, Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney (McFarland Jul 2006)

An in-depth analysis of Finney’s work including Time and Again and The Body Snatchers, including some of Finney’s own correspondence for added insight, and a complete bibliography.

Sharon Shinn, The Dream-Maker's Magic (Viking May 2006)

Two abused young people help each other survive in their small village, only to find their friendship threatened when one turns out to be the kingdom’s new Dream-Maker, with the strange talent to sometimes make dreams come true by his mere presence. A tale of friendship, self-determination, and small magics, this is a largely standalone conclusion to the charmingly different young-adult fantasy trilogy begun in The Safe-Keeper’s Secret.

Charles Stross, The Clan Corporate (Tor May 2006)

The third book of Stross’s fascinating alternate-world fantasy series The Merchant Princes finds American-raised Miriam Beckstein suffering serious setbacks in her plan to convert her world-hopping Clan from smuggling to peaceful capitalism, with chaos caused by both reactionary elements in the Clan and the paranoid US military’s plans to attack the Clan on its own ground.

Tricia Sullivan, Maul (Night Shade Books 2006)

Sullivan’s bizarre, cutting-edge Clarke Award-nominated SF novel of consumerism, violence, virtual reality, and epidemiology is finally available in the US, three years after its first publication by Orbit in the UK. ‘‘The mayhem is vastly entertaining.’’ [Nick Gevers]

Scott Westerfeld, Specials (Simon Pulse Jun 2006)

The dystopian adventure comes to a gripping conclusion in this third volume in the provocative young-adult SF trilogy begun in Uglies and Pretties, set in a world where everyone is made pretty – and complacent – on their 16th birthday. Tally is unwillingly transformed into a Special, one of the government’s surgically enhanced enforcers, and sent to capture the rebels who were her former allies.