Bear, Greg :
Blood Music
(SFBC 0-7394-6854-8, $10.99, 246pp, hardcover, May 2006, jacket art Jim Burns)
(First edition: Arbor House, April 1985)
Classic early nanotech novel, based on a Hugo- and Nebula-winning novelette, about a plague of tiny bio-computers that transforms the world.
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This edition is available exclusively from the SF Book Club, whose site has this page with the book flap description.
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An essay by Nicholas Whyte reviews the novelette. The book has its own Wikipedia entry.
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SF Site ran this review by Martin Lewis of an earlier edition: "To this day, it remains the defining novel of 'wet' nanotechnology."
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Dick, Philip K. :
Vintage PKD
(Vintage 1-4000-9607-3, $11.95, 189pp, trade paperback, June 2006)
Sampler collection of excerpts from five novels (The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, and VALIS), three stories ("The Days of Perky Pat", "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts", and "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon"), an essay, "The Lucky Dog Pet Store", and two letters by Dick to Mark Hurst.
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There are no introductions or editorial comments; no book editor is identified.
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The publisher's site has this description.
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Amazon has a brief Publishers Weekly review.
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Graham Sleight's retrospective review column for Locus Magazine's August issue reviews this book and five PKD novels.
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Engdahl, Sylvia Louise :
Journey Between Worlds
(Putnam 0-399-24532-4, $17.99, 230pp, hardcover, May 2006, cover illustration Craig Phillips)
YA novel about a young woman who abandons an ordinary life on Earth to reunite with her father on the Martian colony.
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This is one of 6 YA novels Engdahl wrote from 1970 through 1981, all of which are now back in print. This book, first published by Atheneum in 1970, has been slightly revised for this edition.
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The author's site has this description and an excerpt.
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The Amazon page has a note from the author, and reader reviews.
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Heinlein, Robert A. :
Outward Bound
(SFBC 0-7394-6891-3, $14.99, 586pp, hardcover, June 2006, jacket art Bruce Jensen)
Omnibus of the final three of Heinlein's 14 so-called 'juvenile' novels (that began with Rocket Ship Galileo in 1947) -- Have Space Suit--Will Travel (first published 1958), Starship Troopers (1959), and Podkayne of Mars (1963). This edition includes both endings to Podkayne, the ending as originally published, and the ending Heinlein first wrote.
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This edition is available exclusively from the SF Book Club, whose site has this description. The club has three other omnibus volumes gathering the previous 11 Heinlein 'juvenile' novels, Infinite Possibilities, Four Frontiers, and To the Stars
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Heinlein, Robert A. :
Starship Troopers
(Ace 0-441-01410-0, $14, 279pp, trade paperback, July 2006, cover art Steve Stone)
SF novel about a military recruit as he goes through basic training to fight in a war between humanity and alien 'bugs'.
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Winner of the 1960 Hugo Award for best novel, the book is sometimes grouped with the author's 'juveniles' (as in the above SFBC omnibus), though it marked a change of publisher when originally released (it was rejected by the earlier publisher) and has been controversial for its emphasis on military glory. Nevertheless, it's remained one of Heinlein's most popular novels.
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Wikipedia has this entry for the book with a plot summary, descriptions of characters, and extensive analysis.
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The Heinlein Society website has this concordance for the book.
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Kuttner, Henry & C. L. Moore, edited by David Curtis :
Two-Handed Engine
(SFBC 0-7394-6810-3, $14.99, 914pp, hardcover, May 2006, cover by Richard Powers)
(First edition: Centipede Press, August 2005)
Collection of 37 stories, subtitled "The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore", gathering each author's debut story ("Shambleau" and "The Graveyard Rats" respectively) but focusing on their collaborative stories. Kuttner and Moore were well-known for freely working on each other's stories and publishing them under one or both of their names or various pseudonyms, including Lawrence O'Donnell and Lewis Padgett, so that the extent to which any particular story was written by one or both authors is often unknown.
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Titles include "The Twonky", "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", "Line to Tomorrow", "Clash by Night", "The Proud Robot", "Absalom", "Vintage Season" (winner of a 1999 Locus Online all-time novella poll), and "Private Eye".
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This book club edition is the first modestly-priced reprint of the original limited edition from Centipede Press. The club's website has this description.
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Modesitt, L. E. Jr. :
The Hammer of Darkness
(Tor 0-765-31567-X, $13.95, 288pp, trade paperback, June 2006, cover art Greg Call)
SF novel, first published in 1985 by Avon, about a scholar with ESP banished to a paradise planet, where he learns dangerous truths about the 'gods' who rule over the planets.
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Modesitt's website has a page for the original Avon edition, another page for the later Tor edition, and a third page for this Tor trade edition.
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Amazon has a brief description, and several enthusiastic reader reviews.
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Sheckley, Robert :
Mindswap
(Orb 0-765-31560-2, $14.95, 216pp, mass market paperback, June 2006, cover by John Picacio)
Humorous SF novel about a human college student named Marvin who swaps bodies with a Martian, only to discover that the Martian is a criminal who disappears with Marvin's body.
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It's one of the better novels by Sheckley, whose brand of humor was often cited as an inspiration for Douglas Adams' Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Amazon has a brief description and several enthusiastic reader reviews.
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Shirley, John :
Cellars
(Infrapress 0-9742907-8-5, $15.95, 7+262pp, trade paperback, June 2006)
Horror novel, first published in 1982, about an occult investigator and an ancient evil beneath New York City.
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This edition has an introduction by Edward Lee, and been slightly revised by the author.
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The publisher's site has this description with an excerpt.
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