* Boston, Bruce : Flashing the Dark
(Sam's Dot 1-933556-23-4, $9.95, 100pp, trade paperback, April 2006, cover illustration Marge Simon)

Collection of 40 short-short 'flash fiction' stories, all previously published in online and print 'zines ranging from Weird Tales to The Fortean Bureau. Two are in collaboration with Marge Simon. Titles include "Curse of the Avalanche's Husband", "The Telltale Stomach", "The Cathedral of Lost Faces", "Shaggy Flea Story", "Children of the Mutant Rain Forest", and "The Elongated Years".
• Boston's website has this page about the book, with a brief description, blurbs, and a link to a review.
• Order direct from the publisher.

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* Carey, Jacqueline : Kushiel's Scion
(Warner 0-446-50002-X, $26.95, 12+753pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket illustration John Jude Palencar)

Historical fantasy novel in the author's Kushiel Legacy series, first of a new trilogy following the initial trilogy of Kushiel's Dart (2001), Kushiel's Chosen (2002), and Kushiel's Avatar (2003), set in the Renaissance world of Terre d'Ange. This volume follows Imriel, a prince of the blood who was a sex slave as a boy, as he grows into adulthood.
• Carey's website has this synopsis.
• Amazon has starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist; the former concludes "Credible and gripping, this is heroic fantasy at its finest" while the latter's Paula Luedtke finishes with "Carey continues thoughtfully and respectfully re-envisioning S&M in images of beauty, power, and eroticism firmly rooted in the sacred. Intelligent, sexy, heartbreakingly human, Carey at her intoxicating best."
• Faren Miller reviews the book in the June issue of Locus Magazine: "Haunted by sex and death, permeated with ambiguity, uncertainty, and tentative knowledge, it's also a grand adventure."

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* Cash, Steve : Time Dancers
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-47093-1, $14.95, 394pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover design and illustration David Stevenson)

Fantasy novel about a race of near-immortals who remain 12 years old until they meet another of their kind. Second in a trilogy, following The Meq (UK 2003; Ballantine Del Rey 2005).
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt.
• The Amazon page has the review from Publishers Weekly: "Like The Meq, the tale is a whirlwind of historical detail and name-dropping, mostly related to the 20th century, from Babe Ruth's home runs to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Though some of the coincidental connections are unlikely to the point of absurdity, they provide a good anchor for the times."

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* David, Peter : Fall of Knight
(Ace 0-441-01402-X, $24.95, 347pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket illustration Tristan Elwell)

Humorous fantasy novel, third in a trilogy following Knight Life (2002) and One Knight Only (2003), about King Arthur in modern day Manhattan.
• Amazon has the PW and Booklist reviews, the latter concluding "The conclusion of David's trilogy of modern-day Arthurian yarns unfolds like an ideal basis for a collaborative movie by Frank Capra and -Steven Spielberg."

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* Gunn, James : Inside Science Fiction, Second Edition
(Scarecrow Press 0-8108-5714-8, $35, 8+251pp, trade paperback, April 2006)

Nonfiction collection of 23 essays about the SF field and the author's relationship with it. Topics include teaching SF, SF in film and TV (including the author's experiences with the TV series based on his novel The Immortals), and SF and the real world.
• This edition is expanded from the first, 1992 edition, which had 18 essays. Includes a bibliography and index.
• The publisher's site has this description with a link to the complete table of contents.

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+ Hemingway, Amanda : The Sword of Straw
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-46080-4, $12.95, 320pp, trade paperback, April 2006, cover illustration Christopher Gibbs)

Young adult fantasy novel, second in the "Sangreal" trilogy following The Greenstone Grail (2004), about a teenage boy who can dream himself into other worlds.
• This book was first published in the UK by HarperCollins Voyager in 2005 as The Traitor's Sword.
• The publisher's site has this description and excerpt.
• The author also writes under the pseudonym Jan Siegel. Locus interviewed her in March 2002 -- excerpt.
• Faren Miller reviewed the book in the May issue of Locus Magazine, calling the first volume "a witty, SF-tinged fantasy that's quite aware of both its influences and its competition" and concluding "These books should delight kids of all ages."

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* Kenyon, Sherrilyn : Dark Side of the Moon
(St. Martin's 0-312-35743-5, $19.95, 322pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket art Craig White)

Supernatural romance novel, latest in the bestselling "Dark-Hunters" series and the first volume to appear in hardcover. In this book the Dark-Hunters move from New Orleans to Seattle to continue battling Daimons.
• The series has this website with profiles of the characters, a FAQ, news, message board, and much more, including an excerpt from the new book.
• Amazon has PW and Booklist reviews; the latter comments that Kenyon "is one of the defining authors of the new wave of paranormal romance, in which the good guys wear black and the bad guys are often colored in shades of gray, a refreshing moral ambiguity that is highlighted in this book."
• Carolyn Cushman reviews the book in the upcoming July issue of Locus Magazine.

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* Reed, Kit : The Baby Merchant
(Tor 0-765-31550-2, $24.95, 334pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket art and design Shelley Eshkar)

Near-future SF thriller about a man who supplies babies to low-fertility couples, and a pregnant young artist on the run from the father of her child.
• Reed's website has a description and blurbs, plus links to the prologue at Infinity Plus and to chapter one at wesleyan.edu.
• There's also a link to a radio interview.
• Amazon has the PW and Booklist reviews, the latter's Regina Schroeder concluding "Reed writes a fast-paced thriller with a consummate sense of style, even when gruesomely describing pregnancy and limning the mental state of a woman who wants to be pregnant and can't be."

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* Reginald, Robert : Trilobite Dreams
(Ariadne Press 0-57241-133-3, $14.95, 128pp, trade paperback, February 2006)

Nonfiction, a memoir in the form of 23 short essays about the author's career and background as an academic, librarian, and writer. It's subtitled "Or, The Autodidact's Tale: A Romance of Autobiography".
• Includes an introduction, afterword, and index.
• The family's website has this page with a brief description.

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+ Reynolds, Alastair : Pushing Ice
(Ace 0-441-01401-1, $25.95, 457pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket illustration Chris Moore) First US edition (UK: Gollancz, October 2005)

SF novel set in 2057, in which comet miners pursue Saturn's moon Janus, which has revealed itself to be an alien spacecraft that has set off on a high-speed course for Spica.
• Reynolds' site has this description; "Although the book touches on similar themes to some of the earlier ones -- space exploration, alien intelligence, nanotechnology -- I hope that it does so in a crunchier, grittier, more contemporary fashion."
• Amazon has the PW review, which says that Reynolds "has a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel."
• Nick Gevers reviewed the book last November in Locus Magazine: "Pushing Ice is hard SF of a grand, traditional sort, a trifle formulaic because of that, but unquestionably a gripping and well-told tale, and with a profounder artistry implicit in its structure."

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* Saunders, George : In Persuasion Nation
(Riverhead 1-59448-922-X, $23.95, 228pp, hardcover, April 2006)

Collection of 12 mainstream stories, some with fantasy elements, first published in The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's, and McSweeney's. A couple have attracted genre attention, including "Jon", "The Red Bow", and "CommComm".
• The publisher has set up Welcome to Persuasion Nation!, with the table of contents, quotes from reviews, info on the author, downloads, a photo challenge, etc.
• Amazon has PW and Booklist reviews, the latter beginning "The most unnerving fiction boldly envisions the dire consequences of our most hubristic tendencies: our bottomless greed, maniacal competitiveness, hyper-materialism, environmental obliviousness, spiritual callousness, and fear of being different. Following in the footsteps of Orwell, Bradbury, and Atwood, Saunders writes shrewd, off-the-charts speculative fiction, leading a coterie of similarly inclined short story writers that includes Scott Bradfield, Judy Budnitz, and David Foster Wallace. ..."

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* Trotter, William H. : Warrener's Beastie
(Carroll & Graf 1-78671-328-3, $17.95, 686pp, trade paperback, July 2006)

SF/fantasy novel about a middle-aged man who joins an expedition to search for a mythical Norse sea creature.
• The author is a Civil War historian and occasional horror writer, with one Bram Stoker nomination to his credit.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has an enthusiastic review from PW, which concludes "Immensely entertaining, this sprawling adventure straddles the lines between sci-fi, fantasy and thriller and will find a readership in each camp."
• Faren Miller reviews it in the upcoming July isue of Locus Magazine: "And then the action really cranks up, in a final sequence of crises and climaxes where elements of Melville, Lovecraft and Nordic myths and sagas come together with more than a literal bang - simultaneously obsessive, berserk, cthonic, marine and volcanic! ... . Fabulism at its finest."

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