Asaro, Catherine, ed. : Irresistible Forces
(Signet 0-451-21724-1, $7.99, 348pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: NAL, February 2004)

Anthology of 6 original SF/fantasy romance stories. Authors are Lois McMaster Bujold, Mary Jo Putney, Catherine Asaro, Deb Stover, Jo Beverly, and Jennifer Roberson.
• Bujold's novella "Winterfair Gifts", a Miles Vorkosigan story, was a Hugo Award nominee.
• Amazon has 46 mixed reader reviews.
• Carolyn Cushman's Locus Magazine review called Bujold's story the "pièce de résistance" and concluded that the book is "a very entertaining selection for fans who enjoy a little romance in their SF and fantasy."

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Bear, Greg : Sleepside: The Collected Fantasies of Greg Bear
(ibooks 1-59687-144-X, $11.95, 293pp, trade paperback, October 2005, cover by M. Pastawa)
(First edition: ibooks, October 2004)

Collection of 9 fantasy stories, all first gathered in Tor's 2002 volume The Collected Stories, reprinted here from ibooks' 2004 hardcover edition. Contents include "Sleepside Story," "Dead Run," (basis for a 1986 Twilight Zone episode), and Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominee "Petra."
• The publisher's site has this description for the earlier hardcover edition.

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Lackey, Mercedes, Eric Flint & Dave Freer : The Wizard of Karres
(Baen 1-4165-0926-7, $7.99, 447pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Baen, August 2004)

SF novel, sequel to the popular 1966 novel by James H. Schmitz, The Witches of Karres.
• Baen's site has this description with links to the first several chapters.
• Carolyn Cushman's review last year in Locus Magazine called it "a pretty decent sequel to a real SF classic."

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Meluch, R. M. : The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1
(DAW 0-7564-0320-0, $6.99, 375pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: DAW, January 2005)

Military SF novel, first of a series, about 25th century humanity facing an alien threat called the Hive. The second book in the series, Wolf Star: Tour of the Merrimack #2, just appeared in hardcover.
• The author's website provides this excerpt.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review: "...the true joy of this outstanding effort, her first novel since 1992's The Queen's Squadron and the first of a new series, lies in its inspired use of current speculation on the origins of the universe, quantum singularities and even the old chestnut of time travel."

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Modesitt, L. E. Jr. : Ordermaster
(Tor 0-765-35089-0, $7.99, 593pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Tor, January 2005)

Fantasy novel, 13th book in the Saga of Recluce, sequel to last year's Wellspring of Chaos (2004).
• Amazon has the book description. The author's website has background on the previous books in the series.

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Reynolds, Alastair : Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
(Ace 0-441-01278-7, $7.99, 296pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Ace, January 2005)

Collection of two novellas, "Diamond Dogs" (PS Publishing, 2001), and "Turquoise Days" (Golden Gryphon, 2002), both set in the Revelation Space universe.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review: "Reynolds's allegory: if humans embrace science and technology so fervently that body and soul sacrifice themselves to overweening greed, humans will eventually perish in bitter suicide; instead, abandon selfish individuality, immerse the soul in the warm sea of homecoming where minds meet and meld into oneness, and survive, changed forever."

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Sawyer, Robert J. : Mindscan
(Tor 0-765-34975-2, $6.99, 370pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Tor, April 2005)

SF novel about uploading human consciousness into machines.
• Sawyer's website has this page about the book, with quotes from reviews and links to opening chapters, a typical passage, a reading group guide, dustjacket scans and text, and background material.
• Tor's website has a description of the book, an excerpt, and an author bio.

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Scalzi, John : Old Man's War
(Tor 0-765-31524-6, $12.95, 316pp, mass market paperback, January 2006, cover by John Harris)
(First edition: Tor, January 2005)

SF novel about a future military service in which 75-year-olds are given new bodies and one-way-tickets to interstellar combat. The author's first novel.
• The author has a preview page for the book, with Q&As, a Chapter Nine excerpt, and an essay on writing. Scalzi also writes online journal Whatever.
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review: "Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master."
• Russell Letson wrote last year in Locus Magazine that, despite "a series of assumptions and contrivances that almost had me tossing the book aside", "once I got past those (in both temporal and emotional senses), I found a competent and sometimes ingenious interstellar-military adventure with hints of intriguing possibilities in the books that will follow".

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Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann : Cleopatra 7.2
(Ace 0-441-01254-X, $7.99, 321pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Ace, December 2004)

SF thriller, sequel to Channeling Cleopatra (2002), concerning archaeologists who blend ancient DNA with their own to create new versions of Cleopatra with the aim to restore Egypt's glory.
• Amazon has reader reviews, including Harriet Klausner's, who describes this as a "fascinating often humorous work of speculative fiction".

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Shepard, Lucius : A Handbook of American Prayer
(Thunder's Mouth Press 1-56025-793-8, $15.95, 263pp, trade paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Thunder's Mouth, September 2004)

Fantasy novel about a ex-convict who become a national celebrity after his prayers in prison are (perhaps) actually answered.
• Amazon has the starred PW review: "This well-paced meditation on the nature of faith and our national obsession with the cult of celebrity finds Shepard at the height of his powers: poetic and pugnacious; metaphysical, yet down and dirty as a back-alley brawl."
• Nick Gevers review in Locus Magazine said "Shepard's critique here is of America now, of the country's superstitions and fads, social evils and ideological stupidities, above all of its fixation on facile celebrity; his emphasis is on how to evade these quicksands and live happily in the interstices or elsewhere."

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Stross, Charles : The Atrocity Archives
(Ace 0-441-01365-1, $14, 345pp, trade paperback, January 2006, cover art Mark Frederickson)
(First edition: Golden Gryphon Press, May 2004)

Collection consisting of Stross' first novel "The Atrocity Archive", and sequel novella "The Concrete Jungle", about British intelligence agents battling Lovecraftian monstrosities, which won a Hugo Award as best novella of 2004.
• The book also has an introduction by Ken MacLeod, an afterword by the author "Inside the Fear Factory", and a Glossary of "Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Organisations".
• The hardcover publisher's site has this description along with the complete text of "The Concrete Jungle" in PDF or HTML, and links to numerous reviews of the book, several from Locus Magazine.

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Turtledove, Harry : Homeward Bound
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-45847-8, $7.99, 648pp, mass market paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Ballantine Del Rey, January 2005)

Alternate history SF novel, conclusion of the "Worldwar" and "Colonization" series about lizard-like aliens who invaded Earth during World War II.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the PW review: "The author dramatizes the old "nature versus nurture" argument through the moving stories of a human woman raised from birth by the lizards and of two aliens raised as humans. Fans will be pleased that room remains for a sequel."

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Tuttle, Lisa : The Mysteries
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58734-X, $12, 347pp, trade paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: Bantam Spectra, March 2005)

Fantasy novel about a private investigator whose searches for missing persons lead to encounters with Faerie legends.
• The publisher's site has this description and excerpt.
• Damien Broderick wrote in Locus Magazine last year that "Tuttle is brave in attempting something very difficult to carry off, perhaps opening pathways to a renewal of urban fantasy superior to rote medieval trilogies. Give the book a try."

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