* Ash, Sarah : Tracing the Shadow: Book One of the Alchymist's Legacy
(Bantam Spectra 978-0-553-80519-2, $24, 417pp, hardcover, February 2008, jacket illustration Phillip Heffernan)

Fantasy novel, first of a duology, concerning characters from her Tears of Artamon trilogy, set in a kingdom that has purged itself of its magicians.
• Bantam's site has this description with an excerpt.
• The author's site also has a description and excerpt, along with details of her earlier books.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which cautions "the complex plot and political setting will leave some readers struggling"., as well as a quote from the starred Booklist review: "This challenging, complex fantasy will appeal to readers of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion books."

|

* Ballard, J. G. : Miracles of Life
(UK: HarperCollins/Fourth Estate UK 0-00-727072-0, £14.99, 278pp, hardcover, February 2008)

Autobiography, subtitled "Shanghai to Shepperton", about the author who fictionalized part of his childhood in the novel Empire of the Sun (made into a Steven Spielberg film) and whose other novels include The Crystal World, Crash, The Unlimited Dream Company, and most recently Kingdom Come.
• The publicity surrounding the book notes that Ballard wrote it last year following a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
• The author's site www.jgballard.com has a description and links to reviews and interviews.
• The publisher's site has a description with excerpts from numerous reviews, plus an author profile.
• Online reviews include Guardian's Robert McCrum -- "what this brief, modest and occasionally shattering book only glances at is the extraordinary body of work that has flowed from this remarkable life" -- while Times Online has an excerpt.

|

* Cesar, Lynn : Apricot Brandy
(Juno 978-0-8095-7204-5, $6.99, 300pp, mass market paperback, February 2008, cover art Timothy Lantz)

Dark fantasy novel, the author's first novel, about a woman who discovers her family homestead is the locus of ancient god Xibalba who considers humanity a disease to be destroyed.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• The author's website has additional news, and the back cover blurb by Michael Shea.

|

* Cullen, Brian : Seekers of the Chalice
(Tor 978-0-7653-1473-4, $25.95, 368pp, hardcover, February 2008, jacket art Matt Stewart)

Fantasy novel, first of a trilogy and the author's first novel, based on Irish mythology, about a band of seekers pursuing a stolen chalice in order to return peace to the Ulster kingdom.
• Tor's website has this description and a brief author profile.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly, which notes the author's "obvious understanding and love of myth and legend".

|

* Disch, Thomas M. : The Voyage of the Proteus: An Eyewitness Account of the End of the World
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-150-7, $35, 112pp, hardcover, December 2007)

SF novella concerning Cassandra's abduction by Agamemnon and the author's personal intervention on the boat Proteus to assist her.
• This is a limited edition of 500 signed and numbered copies. The publisher's site has this order page.
• Baen's Webscription service apparently will be offering this title, and already offers some earlier Subterranean Press books, from this order page.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it an "offbeat and somewhat self-indulgent novella".
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed it in the December '07 issue of Locus Magazine, calling it "entertaining but wafer-thin" -- "This is Disch in late Gore Vidal mode, witty and acerbic, offering pointedly irrelevant asides on everything from Brad Pitt to Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse..."

|

* Duchamp, L. Timmel : Blood in the Fruit
(Aqueduct 978-1-933500-15-7, $19, 550pp, trade paperback, January 2008)

SF novel, fourth in the 5-book "Marq'ssan Cycle" following Alanya to Alayna (2005), Renegade (2006), and Tsunami (2007), set in the aftermath of an alien invasion on Earth. This book, set in 2086, concerns events following the Marq'ssan Fleet's return to Earth.
• The publisher's site has this description and a PDF excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which notes that the cycle was originally written in the 1980s, and concludes "Not for the squeamish, this ferocious vision of male depravity and female will to power demonstrates how corrupting the thirst for domination can be -- for both sexes."
• The publisher's site links to Don D'Ammassa's review: "For those willing to invest the time to actually think about what they're reading and work out the implications, it's a treasure house."

|

* Gustainis, Justin : Black Magic Woman
(Solaris 978-1844165414, $15, 336pp, trade paperback, January 2008, cover illustration Chris McGrath)

Supernatural fantasy novel, first of a series about occult investigator Quincey Morris and his witch consultant Libby Chastain. In this book they deal with a family curse that dates back to the Salem witch trials.
• The publisher's website has this description and a PDF sample chapter.
• Amazon has blurbs from Jim Butcher -- "Black Magic Woman is the best manuscript I've ever been asked to read" -- Elain Cunningham, and Simon R. Green.

|

* Martinez, A. Lee : The Automatic Detective
(Tor 978-0-7653-1834-3, $14.95, 317pp, trade paperback, February 2008, cover art Glen Orbik)

SF novel about a misunderstood robot named Mack Megaton trying to earn his citizenship in Empire City.
• Tor's website has this description.
• Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its November 19th issue, which calls it a "delightful, fast-paced mishmash of SF and hard-boiled detective story", and concludes "Eccentric characters, all of whom are clever twists on stereotypes, populate a smart, rocket-fast read with a clever, twisty plot that comes to a satisfying conclusion."

|

* McDermott, J.T. : Last Dragon
(Wizards of the Coast/Discoveries 978-0786948574, $14.95, 390pp, trade paperback, February 2008)

Fantasy novel, one of the first original novels in Wizards of the Coast's new Discoveries books that are "independent of any of its established shared world lines" (from the April 2007 press release).
• The novel concerns a woman's search for her grandfather, who killed her family and everyone in their village.
• The publisher's site has this description, which calls it "a literary fantasy novel in the tradition of Gene Wolfe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez."
• The author's blog includes links to his work online.

|

* Melko, Paul : Singularity's Ring
(Tor 978-0-7653-1777-3, $24.95, 316pp, hardcover, February 2008, jacket art Daniel Dociu)

SF novel, the author's first novel, in which 90% of humanity has left Earth following a Singularity event, and the 10% who remain include a 'pod' individual of five teenagers named Apollo Papadopulos in training to become a starship captain.
• Tor's website has this description, with blurbs from Charles Stross, Robert J. Sawyer, and Brenda Cooper.
• The book is a 'SCI FI Essential' book, in association with Scifi.com, which has this page for the book with a long excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which says "This superior debut initially resembles a straightforward YA adventure but abruptly veers into much stranger territory."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, analyzing the book as a descendant of Sturgeon's More Than Human, concluding "Melko's skill both in story and setting is undeniable ... There's more than enough invention and imaginative courage here to suggest that Melko may be at the beginning of an auspicious career."

|

* Ringo, John, & Travis Taylor : Manxome Foe
(Baen 978-1416555216, $25, 341pp, hardcover, February 2008, cover by Kurt Miller)

SF novel, sequel to Into the Looking Glass (2005) and Vorpal Blade (2007), in which the ship Vorpal Blade responds to an alien attack on a colony world.
• Baen's site has this description with links to several chapters.
• Amazon has several reader reviews, with titles including "Modern Space Opera Done Right" and "Now THAT'S Science Fiction".

|

* Roberson, Chris : The Dragon's Nine Sons
(Solaris 978-1-84416-524-7, $7.99, 429pp, mass market paperback, February 2008, cover art Chris Moore)

SF novel set in a future Celestial Empire in which Chinese and Mexican cultures engage in interplanetary war.
• The publishers's site has this description, with a PDF sample chapter, and preview chapters of another Celestial Empire novel, Three Unbroken, being posted weekly.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which notes that "Tight, fully resolved character arcs leave few direct openings for the epic series the book supposedly begins..."
• Russell Letson reviews the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, noting that it's set some 30 years following the events of The Voyage of Night Shining White and also noting (as did PW) this book's similarity to The Dirty Dozen. Letson writes "The narrative voice and emotional stance of this book remind me strongly of L. Sprague de Camp -- discursive, explanatory, and rather cool ... Character, character relationships, and cultural background are at least as compelling as the melodramatic action in the foreground."

|

* VanderMeer, Ann, & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. : The New Weird
(Tachyon Publications 978-1-892391-55-1, $14.95, 18+414pp, trade paperback, March 2008)

Anthology of 15 stories showcasing the dark fantasy subgenre dubbed the "new weird", by M. John Harrison, Clive Barker, Michael Moorcock, China Miéville, Jeffrey Ford, Steph Swainston, and others, plus several essays, by Michael Cisco, K.J. Bishop, and others, and then a round-robin story "Festival Lives" by Paul Di Filippo, Cat Rambo, Sarah Monette, Daniel Abraham, Felix Gilman, Hal Duncan, and Conrad Williams.
• The publisher's site has this description, plus a sneek peak of a portion of "Festival Lives".
• Amazon has Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its December 24th issue, which says that the editors "ably demonstrate the sheer breadth of the New Weird fantasy subgenre in this powerful anthology of short fiction and critical essays", and concludes "This extremely ambitious anthology will define the New Weird much as Bruce Sterling's landmark Mirrorshades anthology defined cyberpunk."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the February issue of Locus Magazine, tracing the movement's roots and discussing the contents in detail, e.g. "One thing that becomes clear ... is the urban focus of most New Weird fiction, and how this view of urban life radically differs from what is sometimes called urban fantasy in the hands of Charles de Lint or Megan Lindholm... M. John Harrison’s 1984 Viriconium tale 'The Luck in the Head' ... captures brilliantly most of what the VanderMeers talk about in their New Weird definition -- the shifting urban landscape, the particularity of character and place, the precise use of language, the dreamlike grotesquerie, the sharp political undertones, the subverting of expectation."

|

* Vaughn, Carrie : Kitty and the Silver Bullet
(Grand Central 978-0446618755, $6.99, 326pp, mass market paperback, January 2008)

Fantasy novel, fourth in the series following Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005) and Kitty Goes to Washington (2006) and Kitty Takes a Holiday (2007), about werewolf radio talk show host Kitty Norville. In this book, Kitty returns to Denver when her mother falls ill, and encounters a war between the city's two oldest vampires.
• Warner's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Carolyn Cushman reviews it in the January issue of Locus Magazine: "It's an absorbing, hard-hitting adventure that manages to sneak in some heartwarming moments that fans should appreciate."

|

* Willett, Edward : Marseguro
(DAW 978-0756404642, $7.99, 292pp, mass market paperback, February 2008, cover art Steve Stone)

SF novel in which refugees from a worldwide disaster on Earth flee to a distant water planet called Marseguro.
• The publisher's website has this brief description.
• The author's blog points to this page about the book, with excerpts from reviews, and a long excerpt. Also: a Youtube video trailer, and a book giveaway contest each week during February.
• The author was interviewed by Jeff VanderMeer about the cover of this book and other topics.

|

* Willis, Connie : All Seated on the Ground
(Subterranean Press 978-1-59606-161-3, $20, 126pp, hardcover, December 2007, jacket illustration J. K. Potter)

SF novella about aliens who land on Earth, but stand motionless, uncommunicative, until a local choir singing a Christmas carol prompts them all to sit down.
• This book publication is nominally simultaneous with the story's publication in the December '07 issue of Asimov's SF Magazine.
• The publisher's site has this description and order page.
• Locus Magazine's New and Notable Books for February calls it "a delightful romp with a message of peace and good will -- and good manners."

|

* Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn : Saint-Germain: Memoirs
(Elder Signs Press 978-1-934501-01-6, $14.95, 251pp, trade paperback, February 2008)

Collection of five stories, two of them apparently original to this book (the three reprints from anthologies published from 2003 to 2007), about Yarbro's vampire Saint-Germain, subject of numerous novels and other stories beginning with Hotel Transylvania in 1978.
• The introduction is by Sharon Russell, and there's an afterword by the author about the history of the series.
• The publisher's site has this short description.
• The author's site has a Saint-Germain chronology and the series by publication date.

|