* Armstrong, Kelley : No Humans Involved
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-80508-6, $20, 342pp, hardcover, May 2007)

Supernatural fantasy novel, seventh in the "Women of the Otherworld" series following Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, Haunted, and Broken, and the first in hardcover. In this book, a necromancer's attempt to raise the ghost of Marilyn Monroe reveals a cult of serial-killers who've murdered six children.
• Bantam's site has this description, and an excerpt.
• The author's website has this page about the book, with a description and links to excerpts.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Armstrong deftly juggles such creatures as werewolves, witches, demons and ghosts with real-life issues."

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* Arthur, Keri : Dangerous Games
(Dell Spectra 0-553-58959-8, $6.99, 356pp, mass market paperback, April 2007)

Urban fantasy novel, fourth in a series following Full Moon Rising (2006), Kissing Sin (Feb. '07), and Tempting Evil (March '07) about Riley Jenson, a half-vampire, half-werewolf guardian who protects humans from various supernatural races. In this one Riley investigates a nightclub that's being targeted by an unknown killer.
• Bantam Dell's site has this description and an excerpt.
• The author's website has this page about the book, and an excerpt.

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* Black, Holly : Ironside
(Simon & Schuster/McElderry 0-689-86820-0, $16.99, 323pp, hardcover, May 2007)

Young adult fantasy novel, subtitled "A Modern Faerie Tale", follow-up to Tithe (2002) and Valiant (2005). In this book the changeling Kaye returns to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart.
• The previous volume, Valiant, won SFWA's Andre Norton Award in 2006.
• The publisher's site has this description and a Chapter One excerpt.
• Black's website has this page about the book, with a link to a Chapter 2 excerpt.
• Amazon has the publisher's description and Chapter One excerpt.

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* Carman, Patrick : The House of Power
(Little, Brown 978-0-316-16670-6, $16.99, 330pp, hardcover, April 2007, cover art Phillip Straub)

Young adult fantasy novel, first book in "Atherton" series, about an 11-year-old boy in a three-tiered world who discovers a book written for him.
• The publisher's site has this description and a link to series website Atherton, with sections for parents and educators and for kids, with videos, downloads, etc.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes "With subtlety, Carman delivers a strong message; he constructs a world in which water is precious above all, and tampering with nature always ends badly. The author occasionally breaks out of the narrative to address readers directly, and these intrusions mar the flow of what is otherwise a fluid and compelling fantasy and mystery."

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* Chabon, Michael : The Yiddish Policemen's Union
(HarperCollins 978-0-00-714982-7, $26.95, 414pp, hardcover, May 2007)

Alternate history novel about a homicide detective in Sitka, Alaska, a district established as a temporary homeland for Jews following World War II and now about to revert to Alaskan control.
• HarperCollins' site has this description, with links to its Browse Inside feature and to an audio excerpt.
• The book has been widely reviewed, mostly very positively. Amazon has the signed Publishers Weekly by Jess Walter, who says "It is -- deep breath now-a murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller, so perhaps it's no surprise that, in the back half of the book, the moving parts become unwieldy; Chabon is juggling narrative chainsaws here."
• Chabon's website links to his tour schedule for the book.
• Strange Horizons ran this review by Lisa Goldstein, which concludes "Can Chabon write science fiction well enough to create a believable alternate world? The Yiddish Policemen's Union might not be rigorous enough for purists; I'm not quite sure how Marilyn Monroe got to be a First Lady in this timeline, or why an atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin. For myself, though, Chabon is completely convincing. The style and setting and characters all work brilliantly to complement each other: Sitka Settlement becomes a character in its own right. The Yiddish Policemen's Union is one of the best books, in any genre, I've read in a while."

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* Crace, Jim : The Pesthouse
(Doubleday/Nan A. Talese 978-0-385-52075-1, $24.95, 255pp, hardcover, May 2007)

Post-apocalyptic novel by a mainstream author, in which the US has suffered an eco-catastrophe and survivors make their way east to board ships for the promised land of Europe.
• Doubleday's site has this description with an author Q&A and a Chapter One excerpt.
• Crace's website excerpts the prologue.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which concludes "Less crushing than Cormac McCarthy's The Road and less over-the-top than Matthew Sharpe's Jamestown (to name two recent postapocalyptos), Crace's fable is an engrossing, if not completely convincing, outline of the shape of things to come."
• The New Yorker ran this review by Joyce Carol Oates.

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* Gunn, David : Death's Head
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49827-4, $24.95, 345pp, hardcover, May 2007, jacket illustration David Stevenson)

Military SF novel, the author's first novel, about a far-future assassin with extra-human abilities who's drafted into the elite enforcers of a tyrant.
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt. There's also a note about the author: "Smartly dressed, resourceful, and discreet, David Gunn has undertaken assignments in Central America, the Middle East, and Russia (among numerous other places)...."
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "hilarious far-future shoot-'em-up featuring a flawless antihero" and concludes "Some may accuse Gunn of autobiographical wish-fulfillment that would make a fan-fic author blush, and Sven's adventures read almost like a novelization of a movie or video game. Those looking for hard-bitten military SF will be disappointed. Those who love schlock that stops just short of parody will be delighted."

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* Hunter, Erin : Warriors: Power of Three: The Sight
(HarperCollins 0-06-089201-3, $16.99, 363pp, hardcover, May 2007, jacket art Wayne McLoughlin)

Young adult animal fantasy novel about cats, first in a new series following two earlier 6-book series about the Warrior Cats.
• Series website Warriors has pages for the characters and clans, for the earlier books, and about the authors, Cherith Baldry, Kate Cary, and Victoria Holmes -- the first two alternate writing the books, while Holmes "comes up with the story ideas and makes sure the books stay consistent".
• HarperCollins' site has this description and a text excerpt.
• The book debuted this past week at #1 on New York Times' children's chapter book list, and #13 on the combined USA Today bestseller list.

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* Landy, Derek : Skulduggery Pleasant
(HarperCollins 0-06-123115-0, $17.99, 392pp, hardcover, May 2007)

Young adult fantasy novel about a 12-year-old girl who inherits the estate of her horror writer uncle, whose friend Skulduggery Pleasant, an ambulatory skeleton, introduces her to a magical world.
• HarperCollins' site has this description with its Browse Inside feature.
• Carolyn Cushman reviewed the book in the March '07 issue of Locus Magazine: "It's a fun and quirky mix of magic, mystery, and lots of humor as Stephanie and Skulduggery trade quips while battling bad guys and saving the world from ancient evil."

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* Martinez, A. Lee : The Nameless Witch
(Tor 978-0-765-31868-8, $12.95, 320pp, trade paperback, May 2007, cover art Jeff Soto)

Humorous fantasy novel, the author's third novel, about a witch who hides her eternal youth and a White Knight who arrives to fend off a horde of goblins.
• Tor's website has this page for the book -- "A tale of vengeance, true love, and cannibalism." -- with an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "quest spoof" that's "disappointing" compared to "the marvelous effervescence that buoyed Martinez's debut, Gil's All Fright Diner."

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+ Rogers, Cameron : The Music of Razors
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49319-4, $13.95, 314pp, trade paperback, May 2007)

Fantasy novel, first published by Penguin Australia in 2001 and now apparently revised, about a 4-year-old boy haunted by a monster in his closet, and a 19th century Boston doctor who falls in with a confidence artist.
• The author's site has this page for the book, with blurbs from Neil Gaiman, Jeffrey Ford, and others, and links to mp3 readings.
• Del Rey's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "inventive but disappointing".
• Jonathan Strahan reviewed the original edition in the July 2001 issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "Rogers's ability to build a world filled with plausible characters is impressive. Dark, disturbing, and filled with moments of real charm and magic, The Music of Razors is the best first novel I've seen this year."

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* Selznick, Brian : The Invention of Hugo Cabret
(Scholastic Press 0-439-81378-6, $22.99, 533pp, hardcover, March 2007, jacket art Brian Selznick)

Associational young adult graphic novel set in 1931 about a boy who maintains the clocks in a Paris train station and his eventual encounter with early film director Georges (A Trip to the Moon) Méliès.
• The book mixes text with illustrations, the latter at times advancing the narrative in cinematic fashion; the text itself claims its length to be 26,159 words.
• Scholastic's website has this description.
• Amazon has a letter from the author, an exclusive 'deleted scene', and the starred Publishers Weekly review: "Here is a true masterpiece -- an artful blending of narrative, illustration and cinematic technique, for a story as tantalizing as it is touching."
• The book has been on bestseller lists since its publication in March; currently it ranks #3 on the New York Times children's chapter book list in its 14th week.

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* Shirley, John : Living Shadows: Stories: New and Preowned
(Prime Books 0-8095-5786-X, $14.95, 351pp, trade paperback, May 2007, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Collection of 20 stories, 19 of them originally published in various anthologies and magazines from 1973 to 2007, with one story, "The Sewing Room", original to this book. The author provides an introduction.
• Prime Books' site has this description.
• Contents include Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild finalist "What Would You Do For Love?" (1998), and "Blind Eye", a collaboration with Edgar Allan Poe from 2006 anthology Poe's Lighthouse.
• The Agony Column posted an audio interview (scroll down) with Shirley about this book and his latest novel The Other End.

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* Vaughn, Carrie : Long-Time Listener, First-Time Werewolf
(SFBC 978-0-7394-8276-6, $14.99, 645pp, hardcover, April 2007, jacket art Gordon Crabb)

Omnibus of three humorous fantasy novels about a werewolf radio talk show host -- Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005), Kitty Goes to Washington (2006), and Kitty Takes a Holiday (2007), all first published in paperback by Warner Books.
• The author's website still has the text of the first Kitty adventure, Dr. Kitty Solves All Your Love Problems, from Weird Tales, Summer 2001.
• This omnibus is an exclusive edition from the Science Fiction Book Club, whose site has this description with several members' reviews. SFBC editor Andrew Wheeler has this post with an author's note from Carrie Vaughn.

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