* Allred, Katherine : Close Encounters
(Eos 978-0-06-167242-2, $7.99, 356pp, mass market paperback, April 2009)

SF novel, subtitled "An Alien Affairs Novel" and so apparently first of a series, about genetically-engineered special agent Kiera Smith. In this book she tries to protect the Buri race from a galactic trade conglomerate.
• Eos' site has this description with a "browse inside" feature. The author bio indicates she's written seven previous novels and is a member of the Romance Writers of America.
• The author's site includes a book trailer.
• Amazon has a review by Harriet Klausner.

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* Austen, Jane, & Seth Grahame-Smith : Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!
(Quirk Books 978-1594743344, $12.95, 319pp, trade paperback, May 2009)

"Mash-up" novel that expands Austen's original with new scenes about zombies.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• The book has been generally well-received -- Entertainment Weekly gave it an A- -- though some of Amazon's reviewers gave it a single star apparently in objection to the very idea.
• The idea inspired this April Fool's story.
• Amazon's "look inside" feature includes an excerpt.

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* Beckett, Chris : Marcher
(Cosmos Books 9780843961973, $6.99, 304pp, mass market paperback, December 2008, cover art Ian Field-Richards)

SF novel about an immigration officer dealing with migrants, or "shifters", from other dimensions.
• It's partly a fix-up of stories including the title story from 2001 and earlier stories "The Welfare Man" (1993) and its sequel "The Welfare Man Retires" (2000).
• The author's site has this cover image and description.
• Niall Harrison reviewed the book for Strange Horizons: "Beckett is able to invoke the pluralizing, decentralizing elements of many-worlds theory without, despite what the over-enthusiastic blurb may lead you to expect, turning his narrative into a world-hopping adventure. This, I think, is why Marcher is a significant contribution to its subgenre..."

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* Berry, Jedediah : The Manual of Detection
(Penguin 978-1-59420-211-7, $25.95, 278pp, hardcover, February 2009)

Surrealistic fantasy/mystery novel, about a clerk in an unnamed city investigating a series of murders committed in people's dreams. It's the first novel by the author, who works as an editor for Small Beer Press.
• The publisher's site has this description and an excerpt.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which says the book "reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster" and concludes "this cerebral novel, with its sly winks at traditional whodunits and inspired portrait of the bureaucratic and paranoid Agency, will appeal to mystery readers and nongenre fans alike."
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the April issue of Locus Magazine: "At its best, it's a small classic of that small tradition of genuinely surrealistic mysteries ... alternating anarchic comedy with ingenious philosophical conundra and occasional passages of hauntingly evocative imagery (a feral traveling carnival, a parade of somnambulists carrying bags of alarm clocks through night-time streets, a bedroom set up in a clearing in the woods...)".

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* Chance, Karen : Curse the Dawn
(Onyx 978-0451412706, $7.99, 386pp, mass market paperback, April 2009)

Dark fantasy novel, fourth in a series following Touch the Dark (2006), Claimed by Shadow (2007), and Embrace the Night (2008), about clairvoyant Cassandra Palmer.
• The publisher's site has no description at all. The author's site has this page about the book and an excerpt.
• Amazon has mostly enthusiastic reader reviews.

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* D'Amato, Brian : In the Courts of the Sun
(Dutton 978-0-525-95051-6, $29.95, 684pp, hardcover, March 2009)

SF/fantasy novel about a man who travels in time to try to prevent the end of the world in 2012, as predicted by the Mayan codex.
• The publisher's site has this description: "A mind-bending, time-bending, zeitgeist-defining novel about the days leading up to December 21, 2012...."
• Amazon has the Booklist review, which notes a resemblance to Robert Silverberg's Up the Line -- "a richly detailed, intellectually stimulating adventure through time..." -- and mixed reader reviews.

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* Datlow, Ellen, ed. : Nebula Awards Showcase 2009
(Roc 978-0-451-46255-8, $16, 436pp, trade paperback, April 2009)

Anthology of winners and runners-up for the Nebula Awards presented in 2008 for works first published in 2006 and 2007.
• Contents include winning stories "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang, and "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler, plus an excerpt from winning novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
• Included nominated stories are by David D. Levine, Geoff Ryman, Lucius Shepard, Kij Johnson, Jennifer Pelland, and Andy Duncan.
• Also included are Rhysling and Dwarf Stars Award winners for poetry by Jane Yolen, Rich Ristow, and Mike Allen.
• Other features are essays by Barry N. Malzberg, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Howard Waldrop, Tim Lucas, Kim Newman (about Grand Master Award recipient Michael Moorcock), Gwenda Bond (about YA fiction and the Andre Norton Award), Ellen Asher, and Joe R. Lansdale (about Author Emeritus Ardath Mayhar). There's also a story by Moorcock, "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius".
• The publisher's site has this brief description of the book.

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* Griffin, Kate : A Madness of Angels
(Orbit US 978-0-316-04125-6, $19.99, 458pp, hardcover, April 2009)

Urban fantasy novel, subtitled "Or, the Resurrection of Matthew Swift", about a young London sorcerer who wakes up two years after his death, determined to bring vengeance upon his killer.
• Griffin is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, author of YA novels.
• The author's website has this description of the book, with images of both the UK and US edition covers.
• Amazon's "look inside" feature includes an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review says "Griffin's lush prose and chatty dialogue, modeled after the best work of other modern British fantasy writers, create a wonderful ambience but often diffuse the tension, leaving readers to make their own way through the uncomplicated plot."

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+ Hamilton, Peter F. : The Temporal Void
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-49655-3, $28, 713pp, hardcover, April 2009) First US edition (UK: Macmillan UK, October 2008)

Far future SF novel, second volume of a trilogy that began with The Dreaming Void (2008), about humanity's quest for transcendence inside a black hole Void at the center of the galaxy.
• Del Rey's website has this description and an excerpt.
• The author's website includes a description plus a map of Makkrathan and a chapter 1 sample.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "vastly satisfying" and which concludes "Fusing elements of hard SF with adventure fantasy tropes, Hamilton has singlehandedly raised the bar for grand-scale speculative storytelling."

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* Holland, Steve : Sci-Fi Art: A Graphic History
(Collins Design 978-0-06-168489-0, $24.95, 192pp, trade paperback, March 2009, cover art Oliver Frey)

Nonfiction survey of SF art, with a foreword by Brian Aldiss and chapters written by Holland, Alex Summersby, Steve White, Toby Weidmann, Adrian Faulkner, and Tim Murray.
• The first half of the book covers the "foundations of SF art" and book and magazine cover art, highlighting J.J. Grandville, Jules Verne's illustrators, Frank R. Paul, the pulps, Frank Kelly Freas, Richard Powers, John Schoenherr, Chris Foss, and many others; the second half of the book covers comics books, concept art (highlighting Chesley Bonestell, David A. Hardy, Syd Mead, H.R. Giger, Star Trek, and Star Wars), cinema art (film posters, A Scanner Darkly), and other media (video games, Halo, record sleeves, toys).
• The publisher's site has this description with a "browse inside" function.

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* Kollin, Dani, & Eytan Kollin : The Unincorporated Man
(Tor 978-0-7653-1899-2, $25.95, 479pp, hardcover, April 2009)

SF novel about a 21st-century tycoon brought out of cryogenic sleep into a 24th-century society in which everyone is incorporated at birth.
• Tor's website describes it as "A novel of social transformation in the tradition of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land" and has this description with blurbs from Gregory Benford, Robert J. Sawyer, and Kage Baker.
• The is the first novel by the authors, brothers who live in southern California.
• Amazon's "look inside" feature includes an excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review says "The Kollin brothers keep the plot moving briskly despite the high proportion of talk to action. Their cerebral style will especially appeal to readers nostalgic for science fiction's early years."

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* McKenna, Juliet E. : Irons in the Fire
(UK: Solaris 978-1-84416-620-6, £12.99, 523pp, trade paperback, April 2009, cover art David Palumbo)

Epic fantasy novel, first of a series, about the aftermath of civil war in the country of Lescar.
• The publisher's site has this description: "Full of rich characters and high adventure, this new trilogy marks the next stage in the career of this popular writer."
• The author's website has a page about The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, with a description and notes that the series is related to The Tales of Einarinn and to PS Publishing novella Turns & Chances.

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* Nagle, Pati : The Betrayal
(Ballantine Del Rey 978-0-345-50385-5, $7.99, 373pp, mass market paperback, April 2009, cover illustration Craig White)

Fantasy novel about the magical aelven, whose vampiric Clan Darkshore has been exiled for their practice of drinking human blood.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Series website Aelven has sample chapters, a map, cast of characters, deleted scenes, etc.
• Amazon's "look inside" feature has an excerpt.

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* Pinkwater, Daniel M. : The Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There
(Houghton Mifflin 978-0-618-59445-0, $16, 245pp, hardcover, February 2009)

Young adult fantasy novel, sequel to The Neddiad (2007), about Iggy Birnbaum and her search for the missing ghosts of Los Angeles.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• Book site The Yggyssey has an author introduction, information about the book, and the text of the book with new chapters being added weekly.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews the book in the April issue of Locus Magazine: "Pinkwater characteristically doesn't go to much length about anything; with his various goofy asides parodying everything from experimental schools to Hollywood mythology to fantasy epics, it's a wonder he gets us through a plot at all, let alone generate the kind of narrative suspense that turns his novels into one-sitting reads. At times he seems singlehandedly out to restore attention deficit disorder to its rightful place in the youthful imagination, and that's not altogether a bad thing."

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* Strout, Anton : Deader Still
(Ace 978-0-441-01691-4, $7.99, 303pp, mass market paperback, March 2009, cover art Don Sipley)

Urban fantasy novel about an agent of New York City's Department of Extraordinary Affairs, Simon Canderous, who has the power of psychometry, the ability to divine the history of an object by touching it. It follows Dead to Me (2008). In this book, a boat full of dead lawyers is found in the Hudson River.
• The publisher's site has this description and an interview with the author.
• The author's website has descriptions of both books.
• Amazon has mostly positive reader reviews.

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* Wells, Jaye : Red-Headed Stepchild
(Orbit 978-0-316-03776-1, $7.99, 328pp, mass market paperback, April 2009, cover illustration Craig White)

Urban fantasy novel, first of a three-book series and the author's first novel, about half-vampire, half-mage Sabina Kane, an assassin for her vampire rulers.
• The author's website has this description along with an author profile, a blog, and an official drink and playlist for the book.
• The parent publisher's site has this description with a link to an OpenBook BookBrowse Reader excerpt.
• Amazon has posts by the author, and reader reviews.

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* Zebrowski, George : Empties
(Golden Gryphon Press 978-1-930846-59-3, $24.95, 165pp, hardcover, May 2009, jacket illustration and design Thomas Canty)

Short SF novel about a detective faced with an impossible crime -- murder victims whose brains have been removed from their skulls -- who begins to question his sanity.
• The publisher's site has this description with an image of the wraparound dust jacket, which features blurbs from James Morrow and Howard Waldrop.

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