* Barnes, Steven : Great Sky Woman
(Ballantine One World 0-345-45900-8, $24.95, 347pp, hardcover, July 2006, jacket illustration Glenn Harrington)

Historical fantasy novel about the Ibandi tribe, living the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, who appeal for help from Father Sky at the top of the mountain for help against an invading tribe.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Barnes' blog is Dar Kush.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly and Booklist reviews; the former concludes "it's daringly epic in scope and written with an undeniably rich appreciation for historical legend and human ties."

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+ Buckley-Archer, Linda : Gideon the Cutpurse
(Simon & Schuster 1-4169-1525-7, $17.95, 404pp, hardcover, July 2006)

Young adult SF novel, first of a series, about an anti-gravity experiment that sends two kids back to 1763 England, where a stranger named Gideon offers them help.
• The series has its own website, with music, multimedia, background on the author, and a separate site thegideontrilogy with a synopsis and excerpt, and more.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has a School Library Journal review by Melissa Moore of Union University Library in Jackson, TN, who says "This wonderfully rich and complex novel, written in lyrical and vivid language, is destined to be a classic."
• Carolyn Cushman's review in the May issue of Locus Magazine said "Older readers may find some of the historical details over-familiar ... but it's still a fun adventure with plenty of period color for younger readers."

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* Chance, Karen : Touch the Dark
(Roc 0-451-46093-6, $6.99, 307pp, mass market paperback, June 2006)

Dark fantasy novel about a young woman who flees the vampire who raised her, then is forced to appeal to the vampire Senate for protection. First in a series.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Booklist review, which calls it "Exciting and inventive, with definite series potential."
• Carolyn Cushman's review in the July issue of Locus Magazine concludes "a very promising start to a new series, and an exceptionally entertaining first novel."

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* Cole, Allan, & Nick Perumov : Lords of Terror
(Zumaya Otherworlds 1-55410-285-5, $17.99, 350pp, trade paperback, May 2006, cover art Martine Jardin)

SF novel in which the American/Russian Cold War is still alive a thousand years from now, concerning an incident in which an American cruise ship is blown up by a Russian battle station.
• The press release describes this as the first-ever collaboration between an American and a Russian writer.
• Cole's website has this excerpt.
• Amazon has reader reviews, and its 'search inside' feature with an excerpt.

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+ De Pierres, Marianne : Code Noir
(Roc 0-451-46100-2, $6.99, 308pp, mass market paperback, July 2006, cover by Larry Rostant)

Cyberpunk SF novel, second in the "Parrish Plessis" series following Nylon Angel, about a "one woman arsenal, fighting for a better way."
• The UK edition was published by Orbit in 2004.
• The author's website has this page about the series, with covers images from various editions of this and forthcoming volumes, and quotes from reviews.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

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* Flewelling, Lynn : The Oracle's Queen
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58345-X, $7.5, 557pp, mass market paperback, July 2006, cover art John Jude Palencar)

Fantasy novel, third book in the "Tamir" trilogy following The Bone Doll's Twin and Hidden Warrior, about the rightful heir returning to a kingdom run by a usurper king.
• Bantam's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has several reader reviews.

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+ Goodkind, Terry : Phantom
(Tor 0-765-30524-0, $29.95, 587pp, hardcover, July 2006, jacket art Keith Parkinson) First US edition (UK: HarperCollins/Voyager, June 2006)

Fantasy novel, tenth in the "Sword of Truth" series that began with Wizard's First Rule (1994), and second volume in the "Chainfire" trilogy that began with last year's Chainfire and that will conclude the entire series.
• The author's website has this excerpt.

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* Goss, Theodora : In the Forest of Forgetting
(Prime Books 0-8095-5691-X, $24.95, 14+255pp, hardcover, May 2006, cover art Virginia Lee)

Collection of 16 fantasy stories, 2 of them original to this volume, with an introduction by Terri Windling. Titles include "The Rose in Twelve Petals", "Sleeping with Bears", and "Pip and the Fairies".
• The author has this website for the book, with a table of contents and excerpts, author background, and excerpts from reviews.
• Amazon has reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist; the former says "Goss's collection of 16 gothic stories possesses a spare, surprising beauty, though her modern-day characters, like those in fairy tales, are constrained by the hard lessons she sets out to teach."
• Locus Magazine published reviews by Gary K. Wolfe in its January issue, and by Nick Gevers in its March issue; Wolfe wrote "In the relatively short space of three years or so, and entirely on the basis of short fiction and poetry, Theodora Goss has begun building an impressive reputation as one of the more distinctive, graceful, and haunting new voices in fantasy."

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* Keyes, Greg : The Blood Knight
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-44068-4, $25.95, 495pp, hardcover, July 2006, jacket illustration Stephen Youll)

Fantasy novel, third in "The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" following The Briar King and The Charnal Prince.
• Del Rey's site has this description and excerpt.
• The author's site also has a description and excerpt, plus a description of the final book in the series, The Born Queen.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "sophisticated and intelligent high fantasy epic."

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* Lumley, Brian : Necroscope: The Touch
(Tor 0-765-31609-9, $25.95, 445pp, hardcover, June 2006, cover art Bob Eggleton)

Horror novel in the Necroscope series, the 15th book in the series overall, which began with Necroscope (1986), about people who can communicate with the dead.
• Wikipedia has this entry about the series.
• This book introduces a new hero fighting aliens attempting to destroy Earth.
• The author's site has this page about the series, with links to pages for five sub-series and further links to descriptions of each book.
• Amazon has PW and Booklist reviews; the former concludes "Billed as horror, this unpretentious SF adventure provides plenty of fun in the classic pulp tradition".

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* Maines, Rebecca : Ex Cathedra
(Twilight Tales 0-9779856-0-1, $12, 165pp, trade paperback, June 2006, cover by Teresa La Loggia)

Collection of 11 stories, 4 of them original to this volume, and others previously published, including one ("The Canterbury Path") published in F&SF in 1995 as by Pamela D. Hodgson.
• The publisher has this page about the book, listing the contents and blurbs from James Patrick Kelly, Cory Doctorow, and others.
• The author writes blog Re:Mained, subtitled "postcards from the religious left".
• The publisher has this excerpt from "Sarah, Who Speaks to the Lord".

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* Turtledove, Harry : Settling Accounts: The Grapple
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-45725-0, $26.95, 616pp, hardcover, August 2006, jacket illustration Big Dot Design)

Alternate-history novel, third in the trilogy following Settling Accounts: Return Engagement (2004) and Settling Accounts: Drive to the East (2005, just out in paperback, in which the Conferderate States of America takes on Nazi Germany's role in World War II, with former slaves put into concentration camps.
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has reviews from PW and Booklist; the latter's Roland Green concludes "Turtledove is hanging the notion of American exceptionalism out to dry and underlining how much luck the U.S. has needed to accomplish even as much as it has in preserving democracy, making peace among races, and not having its soldiers slaughtered by the millions and its cities wrecked by the score. A profoundly thoughtful masterpiece of alternate history."

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+ Winterson, Jeanette : Tanglewreck
(Bloomsbury USA 1-58234-919-3, $16.95, 415pp, hardcover, August 2006, jacket illustration Paul Young) First US edition (UK: Bloomsbury, July 2006)

Young adult SF novel about time warps disrupting London, and an 11-year-old girl whose aunt has a mysterious clock called the Timekeeper.
• This is the author's first YA novel; her previous books include Weight, reviewed last year by Claude Lalumière for Locus Online.
• The author's website has a description and excerpt.
• UK's Guardian ran this review by Geraldine Bedell: "Winterson's wit holds the novel together, along with the appealingly resourceful character of Silver and the pacing of the plot. This is a lightened-up Winterson, who has written a book that is very funny and which holds you, enchanted, right through to the bittersweet ending."

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