Benford, Gregory : The Sunborn
(Warner 0-446-53058-1, $6.99, 436pp, mass market paperback, February 2006, cover by Don Dixon)
(First edition: Warner Aspect, March 2005)

Hard SF novel about astronauts investigating life on Pluto, follow-up to The Martian Race (1999) involving the two astronauts from that book.
• Warner's site has this description of the hardcover edition, and an excerpt.
• Gary K. Wolfe's review last year in Locus Magazine said "When Benford describes all this as an old-fashioned interplanetary tale, he's more accurate than he may have intended. The story indeed offers many of the delights of the classic space adventure, but also seems old-fashioned in the way it imagines the future..."

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Cherryh, C. J. : Destroyer
(DAW 0-7564-0333-2, $7.99, 406pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: DAW, February 2005)

SF novel in the ongoing "Foreigner" series, seventh overall and first in a new trilogy following previous volume Explorer (2002), concerning humans and the alien atevi.
• The next book in the series, Pretender, is due next month in hardcover.
• Russell Letson wrote last year in Locus Magazine that "Destroyer is filled with the usual close observation of human and atevi manners (Jane Austen with shooting?) as well as some of Cherryh's best writing. If you have not read the first six books, it is worth the effort to start now, not only for their own considerable pleasures but to eventually arrive here."

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Dart-Thornton, Cecilia : The Iron Tree
(Tor 0-765-35054-8, $7.99, 426pp, mass market paperback, February 2006, cover art Julek Heller)
(First edition: Tor, February 2005)

Fantasy novel, book one of "The Crowthistle Chronicles", about a young man who sets off to see the world and seek out the truth about his father. The book includes a glossary and a map.
• The second book in the series, The Well of Tears, has just been published in hardcover.
• The author's website has this page about the book.
• Amazon's search inside feature includes an excerpt; Amazon's page also has the PW review: "If Tolkien wrote romance, the result might be something like the first volume of Australian author Dart-Thornton's new fantasy trilogy..."

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Datlow, Ellen, & Terri Windling, eds. : The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm
(Penguin/Firebird 0-1424-0406-3, $9.99, 528pp, trade paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Viking, August 2004)

Anthology of 20 stories, poems, and songs, all but one of them original to this book, about faeries (or similar creatures)Authors include Neil Gaiman, Gregory Maguire, Delia Sherman, Patricia A. McKillip, Gregory Frost. Introduction by Terri Windling.
• Datlow's website excerpts reviews of this book and others.
• The book was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, and two of the stories won awards, Jeffrey Ford's "The Annals of Eelin-Ok" the Fountain Award, Kelly Link's "The Faery Handbag" the Hugo and Locus Awards.

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Douglass, Sara : Darkwitch Rising
(Tor 0-765-34444-0, $7.99, 736pp, mass market paperback, January 2006, cover art Luis Royo)
(First edition: Tor, May 2005)

Fantasy novel, third in the "Troy Game" series following Hades' Daughter (2003) and God's Concubine (2004). This volume is set in 17th century England.
• The author's website has this page describing the series and this page about this particular book, including a summary and links to various historical sites used in the book.

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Elliott, Kate : In the Ruins
(DAW 0-7564-0268-9, $7.99, 606pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: DAW, August 2005)

Fantasy novel, sixth in the author's "Crown of Stars" series, following King's Dragon (1997), Prince of Dogs (1998), The Burning Stone (1999), Child of Flame (2000), and The Gathering Storm (2003). The first book was a 1998 Nebula Award finalist.
• The final volume in the series, Crown of Stars, has just appeared in hardcover.
• The author's site has this page about the series, including links to maps, excerpts, and a cast of characters listing.

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Erikson, Steven : Deadhouse Gates
(Tor 0-765-34879-9, $7.99, 843pp, mass market paperback, February 2006, cover art Steve Stone)
(First edition: UK: Bantam, September 2000)

Fantasy novel, second book of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series projected to be 10 volumes in length.
• The book includes maps, a cast of characters, and a glossary.
• The series' website, www.malazanempire.com, has background on the author and the books.
• Tor published the first US edition in 2005 simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback; this reprint is the first US mass market paperback. Note that currently both Amazon and Barnes & Noble show an incorrect cover for the book with this ISBN.
• Tor's website has a Steven Erikson section with this page about the book, including the maps and an excerpt.
• Amazon has Roland Green's starred Booklist review: "Erikson is making his dark characters and grisly battles very much his own, however, and fantasy readers with a strong appetite for world building and action ought to enjoy his efforts."

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Fforde, Jasper : The Big Over Easy
(SFBC 0-7394-6432-9, $10.99, 383pp, trade paperback, 2006, jacket illustration Tom Gauld)
(First edition: Penguin/Viking, August 2005)

Fantasy novel, subtitled "A Nursery Crime", a police procedural alternate reality story about the Nursery Crimes division in Reading, England, where detectives investigate the fall of Humpty Dumpty.
• The book has its own website, with a description and numerous extra features, including a photo tour of Reading, and a forum.
• This book club edition is the first paperback edition. The club's website has this club review.

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Hendrix, Howard V. : The Labyrinth Key
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-45597-5, $6.99, 425pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Ballantine Del Rey, April 2004)

Near-future SF thriller concerning a race between the US and China to build a quantum computer.
• Amazon has its own review by Cynthia Ward, who compares this to secret history novels by Dan Brown and Neal Stephenson, and its 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.
• The author's website, www.howardvhendrix.com, has this description of the book.

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King, Stephen : The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
(Pocket 1-416-51693-X, $9.99, 19+931pp, mass market paperback, January 2006, cover by Cliff Neilsen)
(First edition: Donald M. Grant, November 2003)

Fantasy novel, fifth in "The Dark Tower" series.
• Following earlier hardcover and trade paperback editions, this mass market edition is noticeably taller but no wider than standard mass market format, a new variant format shared with the Stephenson edition listed below.
• The official Dark Tower website has music, art, a glossary, character list, etc.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.
• Bill Sheehan's review in the November 2003 Locus Magazine called it "One of the strongest entries yet in what will surely be a master storyteller's magnum opus."

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Lackey, Mercedes, & James Mallory : To Light a Candle
(Tor 0-765-34142-5, $7.99, 856pp, mass market paperback, January 2006, cover art Todd Lockwood)
(First edition: Tor, October 2004)

Fantasy novel, second in the "Obsidian" trilogy following The Outstretched Shadow (2003), set in "a complex new fantasy world populated by humans, centaurs, elves, talking unicorns, and demons" according to the book description on Amazon.
• The third volume, When Darkness Falls is due in hardcover in July.
• Lackey's website has this description, with links to several excerpts.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

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McIntosh, Fiona : Myrren's Gift
(HarperCollins/Eos 0-06-074757-9, $7.99, 505pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Australia: HarperCollins Voyager Australia, December 2003)

Fantasy novel, first in the Quickening trilogy, about a young ruler who receives an unusual gift from a witch about to be executed.
• The US edition of the second book in the trilogy, Blood and Memory, appeared last August from Eos; the final book, Bridge of Souls, is due in March.
• The author's website has descriptions of the three books in the trilogy and numerous links to information about the author.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

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Stephenson, Neal : Quicksilver
(HarperTorch 0-06-083316-5, $7.99, 440pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Morrow, September 2003)

First mass market edition of the first novel in Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle", a historical novel with SF elements; this edition is apparently just the first half of the complete novel, in a taller-but-no-wider mass market format shared with Stephen King's book listed above.
• The novel won the 2004 Arthur C. Clarke Award as best SF novel published that year in the UK.

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Strahan, Jonathan, ed. : Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction
(ibooks 1-59687-307-8, $14.95, 13+572pp, trade paperback, January 2006)
(First edition: SFBC, June 2004)

Anthology of nine novellas first published in 2003; this is a reprint of Best Short Novels: 2004 published first by the Science Fiction Book Club.
• Stories include Nebula winner and Hugo nominee "The Green Leopard Plague" by Walter Jon Williams, Sturgeon Award winner and Nebula and Hugo nominee "The Empress of Mars" by Kage Baker, and Nebula and Hugo nominee "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know" by Connie Willis, as well as stories by Terry Bisson, John C. Wright, William Barton, John Meaney, Robert Freeman Wexler, and Lucius Shepard.
• Strahan provides an introduction to the book and to each story.

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Wilson, F. Paul : Gateways
(Tor 0-765-34605-2, $7.99, 435pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Forge, November 2003)

Fantasy/thriller novel in the "Repairman Jack" series about a vigilante hero who deals in the paranormal, this time traveling to Florida to investigate the retirement community where his father lives.
• The series has its own website, www.repairmanjack.com, with descriptions, cross references, character profiles, and this description of the book.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

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Wilson, Robert Charles : Spin
(Tor 0-765-34825-X, $7.99, 454pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Tor, April 2005)

SF novel in which the stars go out -- Earth having been enclosed within a barrier, or membrane, to shield it from the effects of differential time passage with respect to the outside universe, by unknown 'Hypotheticals'.
• Tor's site has this description of the book with an excerpt and author bio.
• The novel is on Locus Magazine's 2005 Recommended Reading List. Last year Locus reviewer Nick Gevers called it "many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation.... another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs."
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden just posted this plug for the book, calling it "one of the finest science fiction novels of the last decade".

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