Locus Online
 
MONITOR

New Books Apr #1
Keri Arthur
Iain Banks
Karen Chance
Leslie Conron
Emily Gee
Roby James
Maria Lima
Barry N. Malzberg
Robert J. Sawyer
Darrell Schweitzer
Sherman & Goss
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Charles Stross

New Books Mar #4
Chaz Brenchley
Stoney Compton
Raymond E. Feist
Christopher Golden
Amanda Hemingway
Tim Lebbon
Julianne Lee
David Lubar
Fiona McIntosh
Ringo & Kratman
Patrick Rothfuss
Angie Sage
Bryan Smith
Allen Steele
Karen Traviss

2007 Archive

2007 Books Directories

Advertisement
KEY

This page lists selected newly published SFFH books seen by Locus Online (independently from the listings compiled by Locus Magazine).

Review copies received will be listed (though reprints and reissues are on other pages), but not galleys or advance reading copies. Selections, some based only on bookstore sightings, are at the discretion of Locus Online.

* = first edition
+ = first US edition
Date with publisher info is official publication month;
Date in parentheses at paragraph end is date seen or received.

LINKS

Links Portal

Bookseller Links

Your purchase of books through Amazon.com and Amazon UK links (click on titles or covers) helps support Locus Online

Publisher Links


 
New SF, Fantasy, and Horror books seen : second week April 2007
posted 22 April 2007

* Alexander, Alma : Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage
(Eos 978-0-06-083955-0, $16.99, 389pp, hardcover, March 2007, jacket art Kamil Vojnar)

Young adult fantasy novel, first of a new series, about Thea, the seventh child of two seventh children, whose expected magical abilities are disappointing.
• The author's website has this page for the series, with the publisher's description of the book.
• The HarperCollins site has the description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Booklist review: "Alexander does an exquisite job of showing Thea's growth, her ability to maintain her own counsel, and her boldness. Although the languid pacing in the middle is appropriate to the action, it does drag the story a bit. But once Thea is at Wandless Academy for the magically challenged, she faces a barrage of experiences, many terrifying. Readers will look forward to finding out how Thea saves her world."

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Cross, Janine : Forged by Fire: Book Three of the Dragon Temple Saga
(Roc 978-0-451-46126-1, $14, 355pp, trade paperback, April 2007, cover art Paul Youll)

Fantasy novel, third in the "Dragon Temple" trilogy following Touched by Venom (2005) and Shadowed by Wings (2006), about a young woman's training to become an apprentice dragonmaster. In this book Zarq Darquel abandons her estate in search of an ancient dragon secret.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "gritty finale to her dystopian feminist fantasy" and concludes "Cross puts her heroine through brutal, fast-paced action sequences in a world resembling the Middle East. Without preaching, the author handles challenging themes of addiction, graphic sexuality, racism, slavery and the oppression of children and women. This concluding installment is for adult readers who like their escapism darker than their reality."

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Gabor, Camille : Nimuar's Loss
(Juno Books 0-8095-5789-4, $12.95, 239pp, trade paperback, March 2007, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Fantasy novel, first in the "Vildecaz Talents", about two daughters of the Duz of Vildecaz, each with special magical talents.
• Juno Books' site has this description with an author profile and an excerpt.

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

+ Haig, Matt : The Dead Fathers Club
(Viking 0-670-03833-6, $23.95, 328pp, hardcover, February 2007, jacket design and illustration Jordan Crane) First US edition (UK: Jonathan Cape, June 2006)

Fantasy ghost novel, a contemporary retelling of Hamlet, about 11-year-old Philip Noble whose dead father appears at his funeral as a ghost, telling Philip he must avenge his murder by Philip's Uncle Alan.
• The publisher's website has this description, which calls it "A ghost story with a twist -- a suspenseful and poignantly funny update of the Hamlet story."
• The author's website has this page about the book, with links to reviews and an audio tour of the book's setting.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review: "The plucky hero impressively navigates the gloomy, pungent waters of retribution, death and guilt, and Haig does an enviable job of leavening a sad premise through the words and actions of a charming, resilient young man."
• Faren Miller reviewed the book in the March issue of Locus Magazine, concluding that the book "leads to a conclusion as tumultuous and powerful as Hamlet's. While that might sound like exaggerated praise, it's remarkable how Haig transforms the melancholic prince into a kid, the Danish court into a blue-collar inn and a schoolyard full of brats, the prince's failed romance into a nearly asexual friendship with all the force of love. Genre fans should also be satisfied, for there's more of the supernatural here than in the original: multiple ghosts from various eras, trapped in horrors not quite as absolute as fate."

(Sat 14 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Larbalestier, Justine : The Magic of Reason
(SFBC 978-0-7394-8206-3, $14.99, 566pp, hardcover, April 2007, jacket art Edward Miller)

Omnibus of three young-adult fantasy novels, Magic or Madness (2005), Magic Lessons (2006), and Magic's Child (2007), about a 15-year-old Australian girl who discovered magic.
• This edition is available exclusively from the Science Fiction Book Club, whose website has this page about the book, with the jacket description.
• The author's website has this page about the series, with links to excerpts, reviews, a glossary, and background.

(Sat 14 Apr 2007) • (Directory Entry)

|

* Nicholson, Scott : They Hunger
(Pinnacle 0-7860-1713-9, $6.99, 383pp, mass market paperback, April 2007)

Horror novel about the FBI's pursuit of an antiabortion bomber, a group of white water rafters, and a gorge in the Appalachian Mountains where vampiric creatures emerge from an underground cavern.
• The author's website has this page for the book, with a synopsis and excerpts from reviews, plus links to a chapter excerpt, Cherokee myths, and the real gorge that inspired the book.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "[T]his vampiric Deliverance moves quickly and assuredly, offering some fine scares along the way."

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Ortiz, Luis : Emshwiller: Infinity X Two
(Nonstop Press 978-1-933065-08-3, $39.95, 173pp, hardcover, April 2007)

Art book/biography of Ed and Carol Emshwiller, the former an artist popular in the 1950s, known for cover illustrations for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and who later worked in experimental cinema, the latter a writer whose works include World Fantasy Award winner The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories, Philip K. Dick Award winner The Mount, and Nebula Award winning short story "I Live with You".
• The book includes over 250 illustrations in color and black & white, and there's an introduction by Carol Emshwiller and a foreword by Alex Eisenstein. Also: notes, a bibliography, an Ed Emwhiller filmography, and an index.
• Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble still list this as available in July, but the book has been published and is available now from Nonstop Press.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, "In this heavily illustrated and meticulously researched survey, Ortiz (Arts Unknown: The Life & Art of Lee Brown Coye) hits the high points of his subject's career, commenting knowledgeably on such topics as the influence of the surreal artists Dal¡ and Tanguy on Emsh's work. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick held Emsh in such high regard he sought his input for 2001: A Space Odyssey...."

(Wed 4 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Owens, Robin D. : Protector of the Flight
(Luna 0-373-80264-1, $14.95, 553pp, trade paperback, February 2007)

Fantasy novel, third in the "Summoning" series following Guardian of Honor and Sorceress of Faith, about a Colorado woman summoned to a parallel Earth in order to train flying horses and their riders in a fight against evil.
• The eHarlequin.com site, parent publisher of the Luna imprint, has this description with a link to an excerpt.
• The author's site notes that there was an earlier e-book in the series (apparently not still available), Song of Marwey, and lists the next title as Keepers of the Flame.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Though most appropriate for romance readers, fans of Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey will appreciate the novel's honorable protagonists and their lively animal companions."

(Sat 14 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Prucher, Jeff : Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
(Oxford University Press 978-0-19-530567-8, $29.95, 31+342pp, hardcover, April 2007, jacket art Alvim Correa)

Nonfiction, a dictionary of words and phrases associated with science fiction literature, criticism, and fandom, many accumulated over the past few years via website SF Citations for OED.
• The book includes a list of contributors, a preface, an introduction by Gene Wolfe, 11 one-page theme entries on 'Expletives & Profanity', 'Space Drives', 'Time Travel', 'Zines', etc., an index of pseudonyms, and bibliographies of works cited.
• The 280 pages of main entries, ranging from actifan and aerocar, big dumb object and biopunk, Dyson sphere and dystopia, frell and frelling, prozine and pseudo-grav, SMOF and soft science fiction, Standard and starbase, widescreen baroque and wirehead, include brief definitions and multiple citations of usage, attempting to document the earliest known usages in print and examples of later usages.
• The Oxford University Press website has this page for the book, with a description and excerpts from reviews.

(Wed 11 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Swan, Eva : The Bone Whistle
(Juno Books 0-8095-5792-4, $12.95, 201pp, trade paperback, February 2007, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Fantasy novel about a young Native American woman whose grandfather's gift of a bone whistle leads her to discover her father's non-human heritage.
• The Juno Books site has this description and an excerpt. The site notes that "Eva Swan is a pseudonym for a writer/editor/artist of Native American descent who currently resides in England."

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|

* Walker, Saskia : The Strangeling
(Juno Books 0-8095-5793-2, $9.95, 175pp, trade paperback, February 2007, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Fantasy/romance novel about a maiden who must mate with a predestined lover in order to undo a curse left by two armies that fought in a mystical forest called the Strangeling.
• Juno Books' site has this description with an author profile, and an excerpt.
• Amazon has several posts by the author.

(Thu 12 Apr 2007) • Purchase this book from Amazon | BookSense • (Directory Entry)

|


  TOP
© 2007 by Locus Publications. All rights reserved.