Bishop, Anne : Dreams Made Flesh
(Roc 0-451-46070-7, $7.99, 439pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Roc, January 2005)

Collection of four stories, two of them novel-length, set in the universe of the author's "Black Jewels" trilogy (available in an omnibus edition).
• The author's website displays the front and back cover, and provides an excerpt.
• Amazon's search inside feature includes the first page excerpt, Statistically Improbable Phrases, Capitalized Phrases, a concordance of the 100 most frequently used words in the book, and text statistics for readability, complexity, and numbers of characters, words, and sentences.

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Bova, Ben : Mercury
(Tor 0-765-34314-2, $6.99, 319pp, mass market paperback, March 2006, cover art John Harris)
(First edition: UK: Hodder & Stoughton, February 2005)

SF novel, latest in Bova's ongoing series about human exploration of the solar system (following novels about Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn), concerning an ambitious scheme to build a staging area on Mercury for lauching ships into deep space, with a love triangle and a revenge plot adding human interest.
• The new work page on Bova's site quotes a passage from the book.

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Card, Orson Scott : Shadow of the Giant
(Tor 0-812-57139-8, $7.99, 371pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Tor, March 2005)

SF novel, fourth in the sequence of novels paralleling Card's Hugo and Nebula award winning Ender's Game (1985) and its sequels -- following Ender's Shadow (1999), Shadow of the Hegemon (2001), and Shadow Puppets (2002).
• Tor has this page about the book, with a description and history, and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review: "Card's latest installment in his Shadow subseries ..., does a superlative job of dramatically portraying the maturing process of child into adult."
• Included on Locus's 2005 Recommended Reading List.

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Drake, David : Master of the Cauldron
(Tor 0-812-56170-8, $7.99, 490pp, mass market paperback, March 2006, cover art Donato Giancola)
(First edition: Tor, November 2004)

Fantasy novel, sixth volume in the "Lord of the Isles" saga.
• Drake's website isn't up-to-date about this book, but includes a bibliography of past works.
• Though the publisher of this book is Tor, Baen's website has a description page with links to excerpts.
• Amazon has the Booklist review by Roland Green, which concludes "The audience for this kind of fantasy saga should prove large and ongoing, and for this volume, at least, it will be well deserved", and all the 'inside this book' feature and statistics described above...

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Eschbach, Andreas : The Carpet Makers
(Tor 0-765-31490-8, $14.95, 300pp, trade paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Tor, April 2005)

SF novel, the first by this German SF writer to appear in English (originally published as Die Haarteppichknüpfer in 1995), translated by Doryl Jensen. It's about a planet where weavers make carpets out of human hair, each carpet taking a lifetime, for a far away emperor.
• Amazon has reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and the suite of 'inside this book' features.
• The author's website, www.andreaseschbach.de, has an English version.
• John Clute reviewed it for Science Fiction Weekly.
• Gary K. Wolfe's Locus Magazine review called it "a considerable achievement, and one that suggests the presence of a world-class SF voice that we ought to know about."
• The book is included in the SF Novel category of Locus's 2005 Recommended Reading List.

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Howard, Madeline : The Hidden Stars: Book One of the Rune of Unmaking
(Eos 0-06-057589-1, $7.99, 381pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Eos, October 2004)

Fantasy novel, first of a trilogy about "magic and power, hidden birthrights and prophecies", according to the publisher's description.
• The publisher also has this excerpt.
• Amazon has the PW review, which says that despite "names like Éireamhóine and Baillébachlein", "Classical fantasy elements, such as the eternal war between Light and Dark and the royal-born savior adopted by ignorant strangers, share space with a surprisingly original setting and story."

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Marcellas, Diana : Twilight Rising, Serpent's Dream
(Tor 0-812-56179-1, $7.99, 468pp, mass market paperback, March 2006, cover art Tristan Elwell)
(First edition: Tor, August 2004)

Fantasy novel, sequel to Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea (2001) and The Sea Lark's Song (2002), about a young shari'a witch who discovers she is not the last of her kind.
• Amazon has a description, and the suite of 'search inside' features and statistics.

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Morgan, Richard K. : Altered Carbon
(Ballantine Del Rey 0-345-45769-2, $7.99, 526pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: UK: Orion/Gollancz, February 2002)

Mass market edition of Morgan's debut novel, an SF noir mystery set in the 25th century.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "fast-paced, densely textured, impressive first novel is an intriguing hybrid of William Gibson's Neuromancer and Norman Spinrad's Deus X."
• The US first edition, a trade paperback, was winner of the 2004 Philip K. Dick Award.

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Ringo, John, & Julie Cochrane : Cally's War
(Baen 1-416-52052-X, $7.99, 468pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Baen, October 2004)

Military SF novel, fifth in Ringo's "Posleen War" series that began with A Hymn Before Battle (2000).
• Baen's site has this description with links to chapter excerpts.
• Amazon has reader reviews.

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Stackpole, Michael A. : A Secret Atlas
(Bantam Spectra 0-553-58663-7, $6.99, 604pp, mass market paperback, February 2006)
(First edition: Bantam Spectra, March 2005)

Fantasy novel, first in the "Age of Discovery" series, about royal cartographers used by the principality of Nalenyr to build an empire.
• Bantam's site has this description, with an excerpt.
• The author's website provides an mp3 download of the author reading Chapter One. There's also a glossary and pronunciation guide.
• The second novel in the series, Cartomancy, has just appeared in hardcover.

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Stephenson, Neal : King of the Vagabonds
(HarperTorch 0-06-083317-3, $7.99, 377pp, mass market paperback, March 2006)
(First edition: Morrow, September 2003)

Mass market edition of the second third of Stephenson's hardcover novel Quicksilver, here dubbed "The Baroque Cycle #2", second of what will be a total of 8 mass market editions of Stephenson's entire "Baroque Cycle" sequence. The final third of Quicksilver is due in April, to be published as Odalisque.
• Quicksilver won the 2004 Arthur C. Clarke Award as best SF novel published that year in the UK.

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Stevermer, Caroline : A Scholar of Magics
(Starscape 0-765-35346-6, $5.99, 426pp, trade paperback, March 2006, cover art Tom Kidd)
(First edition: Tor, April 2004)

Fantasy novel, sequel to A College of Magics (1994), set at a college that teaches magic in an alternate Edwardian England.
• The Caroline Stevermer and Patricia C. Wrede page has information on the author and a list of earlier books.
• This trade paperback edition, economically priced for young readers, includes a Reader's Guide.
• Amazon has the full suite of "inside this book" features -- a first page excerpt, Statistically Improbable Phrases, Capitalized Phrases, a concordance of the 100 most frequently used words in the book, and text statistics for readability, complexity, and numbers of characters, words, and sentences.

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