* Abbey, Lynn : Rifkind's Challenge
(Tor 0-765-31346-4, $24.95, 303pp, hardcover, August 2006, jacket art Julie Bell)

Fantasy novel about a chieftain's daughter who survives the massacre of her clan and takes up both sword and sorcery. This is the belated third volume of the series that began with Abbey's first two published novels, Daughter of the Bright Moon (1979) and The Black Flame (1980).
• Abbey's website has this background and excerpt, along with similar pages for previous books in the series.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature also has an excerpt.

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+ Ballantyne, Tony : Recursion
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58928-8, $6.99, 406pp, mass market paperback, September 2006, cover art John Blackford) First US edition (UK: Macmillan/Tor UK, July 2004)

SF novel about a 23rd-century terraforming project that gets out of control, the development of artificial intelligence a hundred years earlier, and a mental patient in 2051 who hears voices.
• This is Ballantyne's first novel, published originally in the UK in 2004. Second novel Capacity was published last year in the UK and will be published in January 2007 by Bantam Spectra; third novel Divergence is due from Tor UK also in January 2007.
• The author's website has this description plus additional pages about the concept of recursion.
• Amazon has the Booklist review: "Overflowing with provocative ideas, Ballantyne's debut displays enviable mastery of both suspenseful storytelling and technological extrapolation. Mark him as a writer of considerable promise."
• Russell Letson reviews the book in the September issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "Recursion is ambitious in theme as well as structure, taking on questions of authentic humanity; of social control and autonomy (echoing Jack Williamson in The Humanoids); questions of what it means to dominate - and transform - one's environment; and of what it means (and what it costs) for a society to get what it thinks it wants."

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* Ballard, J. G. : Kingdom Come
(UK: HarperCollins/Fourth Estate 0-00-723246-2, £17.99, 280pp, hardcover, September 2006)

Dystopian novel about consumerism in contemporary society, concerning an unemployed advertising executive, Richard Pearson, as he investigates a vast shopping mall, Metro-Centre, where his father was victim of a deranged mental patient on a shooting spree.
• The UK publisher's site has this description with excerpts from reviews.
• This UK edition is available directly from Amazon US.
• The Times (of London) ran this review by M. John Harrison: "It is difficult to overstate how far ahead of his time Ballard seemed to readers in 1956. But now that history has caught up and passed the old motorist, his late vision - of consumption as Fascism out of uniform, or at least as a precondition for the full-blown, full-dress kind - seems simultaneously unassuming and cranky. If you accept the vision, Kingdom Come makes the usual kind of Ballardian sense."
• Also online is this Independent profile of Ballard and his new novel.

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* Courtenay Grimwood, Jon : End of the World Blues
(UK: Orion/Gollancz 0-575-07616-x, £12.99, 343pp, hardcover, August 2006)

SF novel, a thriller about a British former Gulf War soldier running a biker bar in Tokyo.
• The author's website has this brief description.
• Infinity Plus has this excerpt and this interview with the author about writing the book.
• Paul Kincaid has this review at SF Site, exploring the elaborate scenario, comparing the book to the author's previous novels Stamping Butterflies and 9tail Fox, and concluding "in the final analysis, End of the World Blues is Grimwood's best novel by far."
• Charles N. Brown cited the book in his editorial in the July issue of Locus Magazine: "another fine addition to his oeuvre. ... Another heady mixture with fascinating characters."
• This UK edition is available directly from Amazon US.

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+ Courtenay Grimwood, Jon : Stamping Butterflies
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-38377-9, $12, 362pp, trade paperback, September 2006) First US edition (UK: Orion/Gollancz, November 2004)

SF novel, partly a near-future thriller about the attempted assassination in Marrakech of the US president by a mysterious vagrant dubbed Prisoner Zero. Two other narrative strands intervene, one set in the 1970s, the other in the far future.
• The author's website has this description.
• Bantam's website has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.
• Gary K. Wolfe's review November 2004 issue of Locus said "Grimwood's acute sense of setting is very much his own, and the manner in which he eventually links the tales is both ingenious, clearly science fictional, and, in the end, quite moving. ... [H]is most ambitious novel to date, and perhaps his best."

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* Dichario, Nick : A Small and Remarkable Life
(Red Deer Press/Robert J. Sawyer Books 0-88995-342-2, $16.95, 238pp, trade paperback, September 2006)

SF novel, the author's first novel, a first-contact story about a young alien stranded on Earth in 1845, in the Adirondack Mountains.
• Introduction by Mike Resnick. There's also a hardcover edition.
• The author's page for the book has links to the introduction and an excerpt.
• The publisher's site has this description with a link to a PDF sample chapter.
• Amazon quotes a review from SciFiDimensions: "No lie, this is one small and remarkable book, powerful, full of unexpected story twists, suffused with a strange alien light and replete with a pathos that had this reviewer reaching for his tissue box within the first 15 pages."

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* Drake, David : Some Golden Harbor
(Baen 1-4165-2080-5, $25, 373pp, hardcover, September 2006, cover illustration Stephen Hickman)

Military SF novel, fifth in the "RCN" series following With the Lightnings, Lt. Leary, Commanding, The Far Side of the Stars, and The Way to Glory.
• Baen's Webscriptions site has this description with links to several chapters.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review -- "Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell fans as well as military SF readers will be well rewarded." -- and several reader reviews, including one by S.M. Stirling: "This series is proof that space opera doesn't have to be either dumb or written in High Ironic mode. It's intelligent, with strong characterization and a gorgeous setting that nevertheless works as a human society. Read on!"

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* Edelman, David Louis : Infoquake
(Prometheus/Pyr 1-59102-442-0, $15, 421pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover design David Stevenson)

SF novel, the author's first novel and first of the "Jump 225" trilogy, about technology to program the human body called 'bio/logics', a corporate drive to release a new technology called MultiReal, and the threat of an 'infoquake' that would disrupt everything and send the world back to the Dark Ages.
• Pyr's website has this description with excerpts from reviews.
• The author's site has this page about the book, with links to excerpts, a glossary, a timeline, background articles, and the author's inspiration.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Bursting with invention and panache, this novel will hook readers for the story's next installment."

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* Frost, P. R. : Hounding the Moon
(DAW 0-7564-0389-8, $24.95, 370pp, hardcover, September 2006, jacket painting Donato Giancola)

Supernatural romance/mystery novel about a fantasy writer who fights demons. It's the author's first novel.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the PW review: "Readers who crave the fantasy equivalent of a summer movie will welcome Frost's debut..."
• Carolyn Cushman reviews it in the September issue of Locus Magazine: "At times, this seems a little contrived and derivative, but at its best, this is a fun, fannish romp full of sarcastic quips and supernatural action."

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* Greenberg, Martin H., & Brittiany A. Koren, eds. : Fantasy Gone Wrong
(DAW 0-7564-0380-4, $7.99, 309pp, mass market paperback, September 2006)

Anthology of 16 original stories. Authors include Brian Stableford, Esther M. Friesner, Fiona Patton, Devon Monk, and Janny Wurts.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "In this delightful anthology, 16 authors take traditional fantasy premises and color them ironic. ... Almost without fail, the results are entertaining, amusing and original, and remarkably self-contained."

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+ Le Guin, Ursula K. : Voices
(Harcourt 0-15-205678-5, $17, 341pp, hardcover, September 2006, jacket illustration Larry Rostant) First US edition (UK: Orion, May 2006)

Young adult fantasy novel, second book in the "Annals of the Western Shore" following Gifts (2004), set in a once peaceful city conquered by men who "believe reading and writing to be evil acts, punishable by death".
• Harcourt has this site for the book, with an interview, excerpt, and a contest to win a copy of the book.
• The earlier UK edition, published in May by Orion, is available directly from Amazon US.
• Amazon has the starred School Library Journal review: "While her prose is simple and unadorned, Le Guin's superior narrative voice and storytelling power make even small moments ring with truth, and often with beauty."
• Faren Miller reviews it in the September issue of Locus Magazine: "While belief in the supernatural can fossilize into political systems driven by prejudice, full of dogmatism and fear-mongering, Le Guin also offers an alternate vision, a kind of wisdom in touch with nature and magic, balance and change. But it won't come easy."

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* Lee, Julianne : Knight Tenebrae
(Ace 0-441-01439-9, $7.99, 356pp, mass market paperback, September 2006, cover art Judy York)

Time travel novel about an American fighter jet discovered in Scotland's Firth of Clyde, and a subsequent jet crash that strands a reporter and a Navy pilot in 14th century Scotland.
• The author's site has a description and sample chapters.

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* Skelton, Matthew : Endymion Spring
(Delacorte 0-385-73380-1, $17.95, 392pp, hardcover, August 2006)

Young adult fantasy novel about the discovery of a book that is key to the world's knowledge, with connections to Gutenberg's original printing press.
• The book, a debut novel, was subject of a bidding war among publishers, and is being compared to The Da Vinci Code and The Golden Compass.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has reviews from School Library Journal and Booklist -- the latter says "Once the buzz surrounding this heavily promoted fantasy subsides, look for it primarily in the hands of bibliophiles who enjoyed Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (2003) and Inkspell (2005)." -- and mixed reader reviews.

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* Wilhelm, Kate : Sleight of Hand
(Mira 0-7783-2340-4, $24.95, 360pp, hardcover, September 2006)

Mystery novel, eighth in the author's series about DA Barbara Holloway (which began with SF/mystery novel Death Qualified, 1991). This book is about a Las Vegas entertainer accused of stealing a valuable gold antique.
• The publisher's site has this description with a link to an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "The fast-paced plot, marred only by Barbara's inability to deal effectively with her relationship with her boyfriend, leads to an exciting trial with closing arguments sure to delight any legal-thriller fan."

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