Ben Aaronovitch, Midnight Riot (Ballantine Del Rey Feb 2011)

A young London police officer is recruited by a detective who specializes in investigating supernatural crime, and together they try to solve a series of baffling murders... where the only eyewitness is a ghost. This debut is "not a conventional urban fantasy... [and] could provide both entertainment and sweet relief for readers allergic to cliché." [Faren Miller]

Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes (Orbit US Feb 2011)

A standalone novel set in the world of the author's First Law trilogy offers several viewpoints on the same three-day battle in a blood-soaked tale of ambition, betrayal, war — and the terrible forces that transform ordinary people into "heroes."

John Joseph Adams, ed., Brave New Worlds (Night Shade Books Jan 2011)

Accomplished anthologist Adams has collected 33 stories of dystopian menace, with classics by Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Shirley Jackson, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and others, plus more recent stories by the likes of Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias S. Buckell, and Charles Coleman Finlay. Ross Lockhart provides an extensive bibliography of recommended dystopian and utopian fiction.

Kage Baker, Nell Gwynne's Scarlet Spy (Subterranean Press Oct 2010)

This slim collection of two stories in the late author's sprawling Company series reprints her novella The Women of Nell Gwynne's along with an original novelette, "The Bohemian Astrobleme", both set in a steampunk version of early Victorian London.

Elizabeth Bear, The Sea Thy Mistress (Tor Feb 2011)

The third novel in the Edda of Burdens series, following All the Windwracked Stars and By the Mountain Bound, continues Bear's exploration and reimagining of Norse mythology as the evil goddess Heythe seeks to finally destroy the world of Valdyrgard.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood, The Fallen Blade (Orbit US Jan 2011)

Courtenay Grimwood tries his hand at historical fantasy in the first book of his colorful and compelling new Assassini trilogy, which takes place among the scheming factions of an alternate 15th-century Venice populated by secret assassins, werewolves, and vampires.

Paul Di Filippo, A Princess of the Linear Jungle (PS Publishing Aug 2010)

Di Filippo returns to the bizarre setting of novella A Year in the Linear City — a narrow but infinitely long world constrained on one side by impassable railroad tracks and on the other by an uncrossable river — with an Edgar Rice Burroughs-flavored journey to the deadly Jungle Blocks, inhabited by strange savages and ruled by their mysterious, unseen queen.

Terry Dowling, Clowns at Midnight (PS Publishing Oct 2010)

This debut novel by Australia's premier dark fantasy story writer concerns a middle-aged author who suffers from coulrophobia: an intense terror of clowns. As he tries to overcome his fear, a series of mysterious and sinister events threaten his sanity — and his life. "At novel length, Dowling can work his peculiar magics in an almost symphonic form, changing tempos and moods." [Faren Miller]

Scott Edelman, What Will Come After (PS Publishing May 2010)

Collects all nine of the author's zombie stories, most with a distinctly literary slant, including Shakespearean-style play A Plague on Both Your Houses; "Tell Me Like You Done Before", a zombie sequel to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; and the metafictional title story, about the tragic zombification of a writer named Scott Edelman. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a more literary and literate collection of tales about the living dead." [Tim Pratt]

Glen Hirshberg, The Book of Bunk (Earthling Jan 2011)

Penniless Paul Dent takes a job with the Federal Writers' Project in 1936, traveling from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to gather material about the mountain towns of North Carolina, where stories within stories unfold in a heady and beguiling mixture of history, fantasy, and folklore.

Christopher S. Kovacs, The Ides of Octember: A Pictorial Bibliography of Roger Zelazny (NESFA Dec 2010)

An impressively researched and cross-indexed complete bibliography of English-language works by and about Zelazny (and his various pseudonyms), including unpublished manuscripts and "phantom titles," plus full lists of his awards, interviews, and adaptations of his work, extensively illustrated with b&w covers of books and magazines. An invaluable resource for Zelazny scholars and collectors.

Cherie Priest, Bloodshot (Spectra Feb 2011)

Having previously tackled Southern Gothic and steampunk, Priest branches out again in a new urban fantasy mystery series featuring Raylene Pendle — also known as Cheshire Red — a notorious thief and vampire whose latest job sends her on a thrilling, fast-paced race across the United States.

Robert Silverberg, Musings and Meditations (NonStop Press Feb 2011)

Silverberg's second essay collection, subtitled "Reflections on Science Fiction, Science, and Other Matters", brings together 76 essays by the prolific grand master, most written between 1996-2010. Includes a foreword by the author, "Reflections of an Opinion-Monger", about his own history as a reviewer and essayist. "There are not many people you can talk to who remember what he remembers, and fewer who remember it with such acuity, charm, and... graceful even-handedness." [Gary K. Wolfe]

Peter Straub, The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories (Subterranean Press Aug 2010)

Collects four stories related to Straub's harrowing Blue Rose trilogy (Koko, Mystery, and The Throat): "Blue Rose", "The Juniper Tree", "Bunny Is Good Bread", and World Fantasy Award winner "The Ghost Village". Also includes an interview with the author, conducted by Bill Sheehan, about writing the stories and their place in the trilogy. "A fertile hybrid of realistic and supernatural fiction — it's sensational, psychological in a Dostoevsky-like way. " [Paul Witcover]

Walter Jon Williams, Deep State (Orbit US Feb 2011)

Dagmar Shaw, game designer and heroine of This Is Not a Game, returns in another near-future technothriller about alternate reality games that bleed into real-world intrigue — this time turning Dagmar's skills at social engineering against a group of corrupt military officials in Turkey.