Anthony, Piers : Stork Naked
(Tor 978-0-765-34312-3, $6.99, 334pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Tor, October 2006)

Humorous fantasy novel, 30th in the popular, pun-filled "Xanth" series. This one concerns an Adult Conspiracy that prevents too-young Surprise Golem from having her baby delivered by Stymy Stork.
• The next volume in the series, Air Apparent, is due this month in hardcover.
• Tor's website has this description, with a text excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which comments "Hardcore Xanth fans will enjoy the pun-filled journey, but other readers may raise their eyebrows at how often the Adult Conspiracy fails to protect teenage girls from sexual activity."

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Butler, S. C. : Reiffen's Choice
(Tor 978-0-765-35371-9, $6.99, 463pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Tor, September 2006)

Young-adult SF novel, the author's first novel and first in the "Stoneways Trilogy", about a 12-year-old heir to two thrones.
• Tor's website has this page about the book, with an excerpt. The next volume in the series, Queen Ferris, is due in hardcover in November.
• Series website valingstoneways.com has a map, links to excerpts, etc.

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Chafe, Paul : Destiny's Forge
(Baen 978-1-416-55507-0, $7.99, 963pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Baen, July 2006)

SF novel set in Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars universe, about humanity's ongoing war with violent feline aliens.
• Baen's site has this description and links to excerpts.
• Book site destinysforge.com has links to excerpts and to background on the series and the book.

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Clarke, Susanna, illustrated by Charles Vess : The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
(Bloomsbury 978-1-59691-3837, $13.95, 235pp, trade paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Bloomsbury, October 2006)

Collection of 8 stories, most set in the same world as the author's best-selling and prize-winning novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. One story, "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner", is original to this book.
• It's currently a finalist for this year's World Fantasy Awards.
• The publisher's site has this description.

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Dietz, William C. : Logos Run
(Ace 978-0-441-01536-8, $7.99, 357pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Ace, October 2006)

SF novel, sequel to Runner (2005), about an interstellar courier. In this book an AI called Logos is sent to a mysterious backwater planet.
• The author's website has this description.
• Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.

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Elliott, Kate : Spirit Gate
(Tor 978-0-765-34930-9, $7.99, 718pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Tor, October 2006)

Fantasy novel, first book in a projected seven-volume series "Crossroads", about a land called the Hundred whose Guardians and peace-keepers have disappeared.
• The next volume, Shadow Gate, is due in April, 2008.
• The author's official site links to this page about the series.

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Gaiman, Neil : Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
(HarperPerennial 978-0-06-125202-0, $14.95, 360pp, trade paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: HarperCollins/Morrow, October 2006)

Collection of 31 stories and poems, most first published in various anthologies and magazines over the past decade. One story is original to this volume, "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". It won this year's Locus Award as Best Short Story.
• Other titles include Hugo and Locus award winner "A Study in Emerald", and Locus Award winners "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire", "Closing Time", "October in the Chair", and "Sunbird".
• Gaiman's long introduction provides background on the writing of each story. This paperback edition has 16 pages of 'extras' at the end, including an interview with Gaiman.
• Gaiman's webpage for the book has a description and a link to an audio excerpt.

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MacLeod, Ian R. : The House of Storms
(Ace 978-0-441-01539-9, $7.99, 468pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: UK: Simon & Schuster UK, February 2005)

Alternate history SF novel, a stand-alone sequel to The Light Ages (2003), set in a Dickensian England in which the discovery of 'aether' has brought about a different kind of industrial revolution, set a century after the earlier book.
• This is the first mass market paperback edition; there was a trade paperback edition in August, 2006.
• The author's website (note new URL) has been updated with news about works in progress, reading, etc.
• Nick Gevers' 2005 review in Locus Magazine said the book was "unfailingly elegant, full of brilliantly realized English landscapes, deftly sensitive characterizations, luminously reworked fairy tales, and poetic elegies to lives and opportunities lost...."

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Marusek, David : Counting Heads
(Tor 978-0-765-31754-4, $14.95, 336pp, trade paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Tor, November 2005)

SF novel about life on Earth in 2134, in which the 'Boutique Economy' provides nanotech fabrication, expanded life-spans, and robots to do all the work, thus rendering 99% of the human population redundant.
• The book was a Campbell Award finalist and placed #3 in the website has this page about the book, and a link to his blog, with reports about progress on his second novel.
• Gary K. Wolfe's review in Locus Magazine said: "it's a delight to report that the novel is as rich and astonishing and humanly engaged as that initial story ["We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy"] ... a moving tale of compassion and survival, and almost certainly the most impressive and significant first novel the SF field will see this year."

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Ringo, John : Princess of Wands
(Baen 978-1-416-57386-9, $7.99, 408pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Baen, January 2006)

Fantasy novel, first in a new series, about a small town Mississippi homemaker who encounters various kinds of alien evils.
• Baen's site has this description, with the blurb "Desperate Housewives Meet Killer Demons!", links to several chapters, and a note that "As this book was being prepared for print, Hurricane Katrina came ashore and utterly destroyed many of the sites included in the story. It can only be hoped, at this time, that those scenes will someday return to us."
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which notes that the book "is less a novel than three linked episodes", in which the "second and longest episode, a roman … clef about a necromancer slaying attendees at a science fiction convention, will chiefly delight those in on the joke".

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Stirling, S. M. : The Sky People
(Tor 978-0-765-35376-4, $6.99, 309pp, mass market paperback, October 2007)
(First edition: Tor, November 2006)

Alternate history novel in which Venus and Mars -- having been terraformed by aliens -- are exactly as depicted in early SF. This book is set on Venus; the sequel, In the Halls of the Crimson Kings, set on Mars, is due in May 2008.
• Tor's website has this description, with an excerpt.
• Stirling's site also has a description, and sample chapters.

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