* Anderson, Kevin J. : The Ashes of Worlds
(Orbit 978-0-316-00757-3, $25.99, 17+491pp, hardcover, July 2008)

SF novel, final volume in the "Saga of Seven Suns" series following Hidden Empire, A Forest of Stars, Horizon Storms, Scattered Suns, Of Fire and Night, and Metal Swarm, concerning interstellar war among humans, renegade robots, and various alien races.
• Anderson's website has this description, with a link to an excerpt.
• Amazon has two 5-star reader reviews.

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* Asaro, Catherine : The Night Bird
(Luna 978-0-373-80268-5, $14.95, 571pp, trade paperback, July 2008)

Romantic fantasy novel set on the world of Aronsdale, fifth book in the "Lost Continent" series following The Charmed Sphere (2004), The Misted Cliffs (2005), The Dawn Star (2006), and The Fire Opal (2007). In this book, a woman is abducted from her family's dairy farm by Jazid nomad invaders and falls in love with the Jazid prince regent.
• The publisher's site has a description and excerpt.
• Amazon also has an excerpt. The Publisher's Weekly review concludes "this rousing adventure of forbidden love, daredevil exploits and magic will captivate readers who like a little fantasy and politics in their romance."

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* Bates, Paul L. : Dreamer
(Five Star 978-1-59414-642-8, $25.95, 327pp, hardcover, June 2008)

Dystopian SF novel, a "companion/sequel" to 2005 novel Imprint, about a barmaid whose vivid dreams intermix with reality, and her lover and employer who joins resistance to the government of the last city on a dying world.
• The publisher has this order page for the book.
• Bookslut has this interview with Bates about the earlier book.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Simpleminded barmaid Jennie Height's journey to understand herself and her strange precognitive dreams dominates the narrative, wrapping around a core of dissent and power struggles..."
• (Listing here based on ARC received in April; final edition now available per Amazon.)

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+ Baxter, Stephen : Weaver
(Ace 978-0-4410-1592-4, $24.95, 321pp, hardcover, July 2008) First US edition (UK: Gollancz, February 2008)

Historical SF novel, final volume of the "Time's Tapestry" saga, following Emperor, Conqueror, and Navigator, concerning mysterious prophecies that may be manipulating the course of history. This volume is set during World War II, as Germany invades England.
• The publisher's site has a description from the dust jacket.
• Locus Magazine ran reviews by Gary K. Wolfe in its March issue and by Nick Gevers in June. Wolfe notes "Weaver is a single tale set in a single place: England between 1940 and 1943. As such, it achieves a coherence and a level of suspense that makes it qualitatively different from the earlier volumes, and easily the best novel as a novel." And Wolfe concludes, "in the end the Time's Tapestry series evokes the same wondrous questions as the best alternate history tales, and does so on as broad an historical canvas as we've ever seen: is time malleable? Are we living in the wrong history? Do our choices matter?"

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* Bear, Elizabeth : Ink and Steel
(Roc 978-0-451-46209-1, $14, 12+427pp, trade paperback, July 2008)

Fantasy novel in the author's "Promethean Age" series about war between Faerie and the iron world, a prequel to Blood and Iron (2006) and Whiskey and Water (2007). This book concerns Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare, and will be continued in Hell and Earth, to be published in August.
• The author's site has this page about the series, listing two forthcoming titles and noting "The four novels listed at the top of the page are only the beginning of the vast mad edifice I hope someday to construct. ..."
• Publishers Weekly's starred review, from its May 19th issue, said "Copious quotes and intelligent speculation about their lives and works mark this sensitive and sensual look at the two supreme playwrights of the English Renaissance."

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* Chaviano, Daina : The Island of Eternal Love
(Riverhead 978-1-59448-992-1, $25.95, 315pp, hardcover, June 2008)

Literary fantasy novel by a Cuban novelist, first published in 2006 as La isla de los amores infinitos, about a Cuban-born Miami journalist, pursuing reports of a phantom house, who meets an old woman, Amalia, who tells stories of three families from Africa, Spain, and China.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Replete with romance, clashing cultures and bloodshed, Amalia's story also has its share of auras, fairy music and imps (including Martinico, who haunts the women in Amalia's family)..."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviewed the book in the June issue of Locus Magazine, concluding "The fantastic is never far from the surface, and when the true nature of the house -- and of Amalia -- become apparent in the end, it's a resolution that should satisfy readers of literate fantasy while co-opting those who might try to argue that Magic Realism isn't really fantasy. It's a rich, moving, musical novel, which has already won the Best Spanish Language Book prize in the 2007 Florida Book Awards, and that only makes you wonder where the English versions are of the rest of Chaviano's works."

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* David, James F. : The Book of Summer
(Tor 978-0-7653-5147-0, $7.99, 423pp, mass market paperback, June 2008)

Christian SF novel, sequel to Judgment Day (2005), set on a colony planet founded by a Christian sect and concerning a slave rebellion, an escaped slave named Summer Lund, and a refugee she encounters in the forest.
• Tor's website has a description: "Continuing the exodus he began in Judgment Day, James F. David brings us new, exciting tales of faith and redemption and the benefits of adhering to the teachings of Christianity, even as Earth is destroyed and we begin to inhabit the far-reaching universe."
• Amazon has Harriet Klausner's 5-star review.

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* Kress, Nancy : Dogs
(Tachyon Publications 978-1-892391-78-0, $14.95, 280pp, trade paperback, July 2008)

Contemporary SF thriller in which dogs in a rural Maryland town suddenly turn savage and attack everyone, including their owners, focusing on an ex-FBI agent living in the town who is implicated in the plague by terrorist intel chatter.
• The publisher's site has this description, plus a Dogs Photo Contest.
• The new books page on Kress' website has a description and links to the first two chapters.
• The Publishers Weekly review says "Kress brings her thorough knowledge of genetics and biology to bear in this nicely creepy thriller."

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* Park, Ed : Personal Days
(Random House 978-0-8129-7857-5, $13, 241pp, trade paperback, May 2008)

Associational novel, the author's first novel, about workers in an unnamed New York office -- noted here since Park is currently the regular SF reviewer for the Los Angeles Times.
• The author's website has a description and quotes from reviews.
• The publisher's site has this description -- "Rich with Orwellian doublespeak, filled with sabotage and romance, this astonishing literary debut is at once a comic delight and a narrative tour de force. It's a novel for anyone who has ever worked in an office and wondered: 'Where does the time go? Where does the life go? And whose banana is in the fridge?' " -- and quotes from reviews.

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* Stross, Charles : Saturn's Children
(Ace 978-0-441-01594-8, $24.95, 323pp, hardcover, July 2008, jacket illustration Joe Williamsen)

Far future SF novel about a concubine femmebot named Freya in an android society that has succeeded humanity's extinction.
• The publisher's site has this brief description.
• Stross discussed the novel in his March issue interview: "So I set out to write a modern late-period Heinlein novel. You've got to play by the Heinlein rules. To be canonical, it has to have a red-headed heroine with a nipple that goes 'spung.' This was a first and obvious anchor point..."
• The Publishers Weekly review says "Sex oozes from every page of this erotic futuristic thriller."
• Russell Letson reviews the book in the upcoming August issue of Locus Magazine: "Charles Stross dedicates Saturn's Children to the memories of Asimov and Heinlein -- so why did I keep thinking of Futurama and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" Letson concludes "I'm happy to report that the book grabbed me (not without long reflections SF-tropes-as-metaphors) and finally convinced me that, as with Futurama, there is heart as well as smarts behind the jokes."

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* Van Name, Mark L. : Slanted Jack
(Baen 978-1-4165-5549-0, $24, 388pp, hardcover, July 2008, cover art Stephen Hickman)

Military SF novel, sequel to One Jump Ahead (2007), which won the Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award for best first novel of the year. In this book, nano-enhanced warrior Jon Moore and his AI tank Lobo encounter a con man named Slanted Jack.
• Baen's site has this description, with links to several chapters.
• The Publishers Weekly review says "Van Name's flare for witty dialogue, breakneck pacing and nonstop action compensate for the narrative inadequacies and make this high-powered sequel to 2007's One Jump Ahead an undeniable page-turner."

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* VanderMeer, Jeff : Secret Lives
(Prime Books 978-0-8095-1088-7, $35, 128pp, hardcover, July 2008, cover art Terry Rentzepis)

Collection of 37 stories about the secret lives of ordinary people, all based on real people.
• The publisher's site has this description: "The secret lives of librarians, doctors, lawyers, university students, bank tellers, sex shop clerks, and dozens of others are revealed for the first time. Ordered by profession, these short-short stories (500 to 2,000 words in length) range from the hilarious to the somber, the absurd to the revelatory."
• VanderMeer has this post about the background of the book. This post includes a YouTube video by Jeff about the book.
• Amazon has a mistitled entry for the book (click on title or cover here) but the preferred bookseller is Ziesing Books, because the book idea originated with them. It's a limited, signed edition of 1000 copies.

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* Williams, Walter Jon : Implied Spaces
(Night Shade Books 978-1-59780-125-6, $24.95, 265pp, hardcover, July 2008, cover art Dan Dos Santos)

Far future post-singularity SF space opera novel, concerning gaps in the architected universe called "implied spaces" and a computer scientist/swordsman named Aristide who explores the worlds created there.
• The publisher's site has this order page with the dust jacket description and blurbs from Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross, and S.M. Stirling, and an excerpt available from its downloads page. The book was first announced as an April publication, but has been delayed until this month.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes "Williams tells the tale with enthusiasm and a crisp, dry wit well suited to this entertaining blend of high adventure, intrigue and postsingularity technology."
• Locus reviews Paul Witcover and Rich Horton posted online reviews at Sci Fi Weekly (A-) and SF Site respectively; Horton concludes that the book "is very much mature SF, building on the ideas the field has been addressing in the past decade or more, and quite nicely so. Recommended."
• Locus Magazine reviewers Gary K. Wolfe and Russell Letson covered the book in their May and June issue columns respectively; Wolfe calls it a "a galloping tour of various SF and fantasy subgenres" and notes "Williams is asking what good the singularity is purely as a literary device -- what possibilities does it open up for the SF novelist, and how do these possibilities relate to earlier traditions? Williams's answer is interesting and often delightful, if not always fully worked out, and his angle of approach harks back to classic ludenic SF writers like Zelazny and Farmer..."

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