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Beagle, Peter S. :
Strange Roads
(DreamHaven Books 978-1-892058-10-2, $15, 69pp, chapbook, March 2008, cover art Lisa Snellings-Clark)
Chapbook collection of three original stories inspired by the artwork of Lisa Snellings-Clark -- follow-up to Gene Wolfe's similar volume Strange Birds two years ago.
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The stories are "King Pelles the Sure", "Spook", and "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel".
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Not available from Amazon; DreamHaven's site has this order page, which indicates that a few signed copied are available.
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Rich Horton recommended the first and third stories in his review in the June issue of Locus Magazine; earlier Nick Gevers recommended the same two stories in the March issue, calling the book "a very worthwhile little volume".
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Chui, Janet, & Jason Erik Lundberg, eds. :
A Field Guide to Surreal Botany
(Two Cranes Press 978-981-08-1017-7, $12, 76pp, trade paperback, July 2008)
Chapbook anthology of 48 short pieces about fictional plant species.
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Contributors include Jay Lake, Steve Berman, Matthew Kressel, Vera Nazarian, Eric Schaller, and Ben Peek, among many others.
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The publisher's page includes a description and a complete table of contents; there's also a Facebook page.
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Feist, Raymond E., & S. M. Stirling :
Jimmy the Hand
(Eos 978-0-06-079294-7, $13.95, 369pp, trade paperback, August 2008)
Fantasy novel, third book in the YA "Legends of the Riftwar" series after Honoured Enemy (with William R. Forstchen) and Murder in LaMut (with Joel Rosenberg). This volume was first published in the UK in 2003.
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In this book Jimmy the Hand, pickpocket, flees the city of Krondor after a run in with the secret police.
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HarperCollins' website has this page with its "browse inside" feature.
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Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "This simple, charming fairy tale will appeal to adult fans of the Riftwar books as well as mature teens who don't mind a bit of romance in their sword-and-sorcery."
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McMullen, Sean :
The Time Engine
(Tor 978-0-7653-1876-3, $27.95, 302pp, hardcover, July 2008, jacket art Julie Bell)
SF novel, fourth in the "Moonworlds" series following The Voyage of the Shadowmoon (2002), Glass Dragons (2004), and Voidfarer (2006), set on Verral, an Earth-sized satellite of a gas giant planet where radiation gives the inhabitants certain magical abilities.
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In this book Wayfarer Inspector Danolarian is abducted by time machine into the future, then the ancient past.
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McMullen's website has a description with a brief excerpt.
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Amazon's "search inside" feature includes an excerpt. The Publishers Weekly review remarks that "New readers may find themselves puzzled, despite plenty of exposition, and much of the humor falls flat, but nonstop action is mostly enough to keep readers turning the pages."
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Nick Gevers reviews the book in the August issue of Locus Magazine, calling the book "engaging but flawed" and concluding "The Time Engine grows from half-baked satire to a tale of some distinction. Predictability segues into genuine astonishment and surprise. With a temporary lapse, this book is still a fitting capstone to a fine tetralogy. Like L. Sprague de Camp in his prime, Sean McMullen is an exotic adventurer of authentic, if wayward, genius."
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Mead, Richelle :
Storm Born
(Zebra 978-1420100969, $6.99, 361pp, mass market paperback, August 2008)
Paranormal fantasy novel, first in the "Dark Swan" series, about "a freelance shaman who battles fey and ghosts and learns she's part of an Otherworldly prophecy to take over the human world".
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The publisher's site has this description and chapter one.
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The author's site has this page for the series, and the same excerpt.
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Amazon has posts from the author, and reader reviews.
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Rosenbaum, Benjamin :
The Ant King and Other Stories
(Small Beer Press 978-193152053-9, $16, 228pp, trade paperback, August 2008, cover painting Brad Holland)
Collection of 17 stories, most first published from 2001 through 2006, with one story, "Sense and Sensibility", appearing here for the first time.
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Reprinted stories include "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes' by Benjamin Rosenbaum", a 2005 Hugo Award nominee; Nebula nominee "Embracing-the-New"; Sturgeon Award finalist "Start the Clock"; Hugo, Sturgeon, and British SF Association finalist "The House Beyond Your Sky"; and World Fantasy Award finalist "A Siege of Cranes".
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The publisher's page for the book has the table of contents, with links to several story texts online, quotes from reviews, and a link to a free download of the entire book.
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Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "this collection is a surrealistic wonderland".
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Nick Gevers and Rich Horton both review it in the August issue of Locus Magazine; Horton calls it "quite possibly the collection of the year, certainly the best first collection of the year"; Gevers says the book "allows a focused assessment of his very considerable, highly concentrated contribution to SF and fantasy."
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Schroeder, Karl :
Pirate Sun
(Tor 978-0-7653-1545-3, $25.95, 318pp, hardcover, August 2008, jacket art Stephan Martiniere)
Science fiction novel, third book set in Virga, a miniature cosmos filled with numerous artificial worlds, following Sun of Suns (2006) and Queen of Candesce (2007). (It's not a sequel to the earlier books, but an independent novel set in the same world.)
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In this book Chaison Fanning, a warship admiral, is released from imprisonment and flees to his home city to confront those who betrayed him.
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Tor's website has this description.
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Schroeder's site includes this page for the book, with excerpts from reviews and reactions. His homepage offers free downloads of his first novel Ventus, and links to the first two Virga novels in audiobook format.
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Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it a "virtuoso exercise in world-building".
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Russel Letson reviewed it in the June issue of Locus Magazine: "The world itself remains a delight, a source of seemingly endless invention: all manner of means of zero-gee locomotion (human-powered wings, jet-powered catamarans - rowboats, for godsake), environmental formations and events (freefall forests pointing in all directions; floods-as-giant-water-blobs), combat skills (real stiletto heels), and architectures (the bowl-shaped city of Stonecloud, grown and sculpted by its citizens into a giant topiary theatre)."
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Sinclair, Linnea :
Shades of Dark
(Bantam 978-0-553-58965-8, $6.99, 410pp, mass market paperback, August 2008)
Space opera romance novel, sequel to Gabriel's Ghost (2005), about a patrol ship captain and her renegade lover.
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Bantam's site has this description, and an excerpt.
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Amazon has the starred Publishers Weekly review, from its June 30th issue: "The pace might be slow for SF fans, with long interpersonal conversations and erotic encounters outweighing the few bits of action and political intrigue, but the smashing climax will please everyone."
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Zahn, Timothy :
Dragon and Liberator
(Starscape 978-0-765-31419-2, $17.95, 364pp, hardcover, June 2008, jacket art Jon Foster)
Young adult SF novel, final book in the "Dragonback" series following Dragon and Thief (2003), Dragon and Soldier (2004), Dragon and Slave (2005), Dragon and Herdsman (2006), and Dragon and Judge (2007), about a 14-year-old boy whose dragon companion hides itself as a tattoo on the boy's back.
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In this book the boy Jack Morgan and and the dragon Draycos face a villain whose Death weapon could eradicate the dragon race.
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The publisher's website has this description and an excerpt.
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Amazon's 'search inside' feature includes an excerpt.
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