* Duncan, Dave : Against the Light
(Amazon/47North 978-1612182032, $14.95, 484pp, trade paperback, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jan 2012

Fantasy novel about a hierarchy of priests who control the kingdom of Albi, where some inhabitants still worship the old ways of the Earth Mother.
• Duncan’s website has this page for the book with a sample chapter.
• This is one of the first titles published by Amazon.com’s SF publishing program 47North.

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* Hodder, Mark : Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
(Pyr 978-1-61614-535-4, $16, 400pp, trade paperback, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jan 2012
• Burton & Swinburne #3

Steampunk fantasy novel, third in a series following the author’s first novel The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (winner of a Philip K. Dick Award) and The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man.
• In this volume, explorer Sir Richard Burton and poet Algernon Swinburne seek a magic gem and the source of the Nile.
• Pyr’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review advises, “The high stakes derive from the notion of a universe of limited resilience, which can only handle so many time line changes before it cracks. …. Hard SF fans may get impatient, but everyone else will be well entertained.”

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* Lehn, Fiona : The Last Letter
(Aqueduct Press 978-1-933500-86-7, $12, 134pp, trade paperback, December 2011)
• Nominal Publication Date: Wed 24 Oct 2012

SF novella about a biologist trying to save an endangered forest from a voracious parasite.
• Aqueduct’s site has this description with a brief excerpt.
• Amazon’s “Look Inside” function also provides an excerpt.
• Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog had this post by Jeff VanderMeer discussing four titles, including this one: “…perfectly balances the personal and the scientific, working as both a character study and a fascinatingly odd encounter with a foreign ecosystem. As always, Aqueduct Press has done a lovely job of bringing another new author to readers.”

(Fri 20 Jan 2012)
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* Lightman, Alan : Mr g: A Novel About the Creation
(Random House/Pantheon 978-0-307-37999-3, 224pp, hardcover, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jan 2012

Religious fantasy novel, the story of Creation as told by God, who creates time out of boredom with the Void and his bickering Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva.
• The publisher’s description calls it “playful and profound” with “echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago”.
• The Publishers Weekly review calls it a “rumination in the form of a touching, imaginative rendition of God’s creation of the universe” and concludes “the immortal characters are changed by their brush with the enterprising, however doomed, mortals, bringing this elucidating treatment of quantum physics to an affecting, hopeful conclusion.”

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* Rusch, Kristine Kathryn : Boneyards
(Pyr 978-1-61614-543-9, $16, 302pp, trade paperback, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jan 2012
• Boss #3

SF adventure novel, third in a series following Diving Into the Wreck (2009) and City of Ruins (2011) about Boss, an explorer of derelict spacecraft.
• Pyr’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “[Rusch’s] feminist sensibilities will endear this book to readers looking for a light, quick space adventure with strong female protagonists.”

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* Shirley, John : Everything Is Broken
(Prime Books 978-1-60701-292-4, $14.95, 288pp, trade paperback, January 2012)
• Nominal Publication Date: Tue 24 Jan 2012

SF thriller about the impact on a California town called “Freedom” of a tsunami that strikes the west coast of the US.
• Prime’s site has this description.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Shirley’s vision is vivid and horrifying, and it’s a testament to his talent that he makes this very unlikely instant-collapse-of-civilization scenario seem almost plausible.”

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• (Directory Entry)