* Asher, Neal : The Departure
(UK: Tor UK 978-0-230-70873-0, £17.99, 352pp, hardcover, September 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Mon 5 Sep 2011
• Owner #1

SF novel, first of a new series about Alan Saul, the “Owner”, a character from three stories in the author’s first collection The Engineer, and concerning an orbital habitat called Argus Station that maintains an oppressive control over Earth.
• The PanMacmillan site has this description.
• The Amazon UK page also has the book description, and rather mixed reader reviews.
• Russell Letson reviews it in the October 2011 issue of Locus Magazine: “I hold that we return to writers hoping for More Of The Same, Only Different. (I do, anyway.) In Asher’s case, The Same would include vivid, graphic violence; widescreen special-effects sequences; ruthless, damaged, more-than- or not-exactly-human heroes and villains; a main setting that is a dire, unforgiving generator of danger, misery, and oppression, up to and including torture and mass murder; and a high-stakes conflict that ends (relatively) well for the damaged, etc., (relatively) good guys, though they wind up standing among smoking ruins.”

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* Baxter, Stephen : Bronze Summer
(UK: Gollancz 978-0575089228, £18.99, 432pp, hardcover, September 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 15 Sep 2011
• Northland Saga #2

Alternate history novel, second of a trilogy following Stone Spring (2010), set 10,000 in the past among tribes living on the land that then connected Britain to Europe, concerning a tsunami that threatens them and a plan to build a wall against the flood.
• The publisher’s site has this description.
• The Amazon UK page provides a preview via its “Look Inside” function.

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* Deas, Stephen : The Warlock’s Shadow
(UK: Gollancz 978-0575094512, £16.99, 304pp, hardcover, October 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 20 Oct 2011
• Thief-Taker #2

Fantasy novel, second in a series following The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice (2010).
• Gollancz’ site has this description.
• The author’s site has this first chapter ‘taster’.

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* Hamilton, Peter F. : Manhattan in Reverse
(UK: Macmillan UK 978-0230750302, £17.99, 320pp, hardcover, October 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Fri 7 Oct 2011

Collection of 7 stories, including the novella “Watching Trees Grow” previously published by PS Publishing.
• The Amazon.com page (though not the Amazon UK page), has two detailed reader reviews, and a “Look Inside” preview function.
• Macmillan’s Australian site (though not apparently its UK site) has this description.

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* Priest, Christopher : The Islanders
(UK: Gollancz 978-0-575-07004-2, £12.99, 339pp, hardcover, September 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 22 Sep 2011

SF novel set in the Dream Archipelago (setting of several earlier Priest works), a “chinese puzzle of a novel” arranged as a “Gazetteer of Islands” of some three dozen short and long chapters.
• Gollancz’ site has this description with quotes from reviews.
• Amazon UK’s page provides a preview via its “Look Inside” function.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews it in the October 2011 issue of Locus Magazine: “[A]ttentive use of mystery-reading skills might not be a bad way to approach The Islanders, since often a minor detail in one chapter, such as a smudge on a hand, is later revealed as highly significant, as in a Gene Wolfe novel. But like Wolfe, Priest is not satisfied with a catalogue of ingenious narrative tricks; his prose is supple, elegant, and seductive, his insights about memory and perception tantalizing, his skill at visualizing the radically different land and seascapes of the islands endlessly compelling.”

(Tue 11 Oct 2011)
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* Roberts, Adam : By Light Alone
(UK: Gollancz 978-0-575-08364-6, £18.99, 407pp, hardcover, August 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 18 Aug 2011

Science fiction novel in which people have been genetically engineered to photosynthesize sunlight, eliminating the need for food.
• Gollancz’ site has this description for the paperback edition.
• Amazon.com’s page for the book has three lengthy and positive reader reviews.
• Gwyneth Jones reviewed it for Guardian;
David Barnett reviewed it for The Independent: “By Light Alone is unashamedly SF, and would that half the supposed ‘literary’ novels on the shelves today were as well written, thoughtful and intelligent as this.”

(Sat 15 Oct 2011)
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* Wooding, Chris : The Iron Jackal
(UK: Gollancz 978-0575098060, £18.99, 480pp, hardcover, October 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Thu 20 Oct 2011
• Tales of the Ketty Jay #3

Fantasy steampunk novel, third in a series following Retribution Falls (UK 2009, US 2011) and The Black Lung Captain (UK 2010, US 2011), about sky pirates.
• Gollancz’ site has this description.
• Amazon UK’s “Look Inside” function provides an excerpt.

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• (Directory Entry)