SF/Fantasy

Fresh out of college, Griffen McCandless meets with his wealthy uncle to discuss his employment "potential" only to discover the family secret: both he and his sister, Valerie, along with their uncle, are more than human. They are, in fact, nearly purebred dragons and, as such, they have inherited the highly political, cutthroat world of dragon society. Opting out of the "game," Griffen takes his sister to New Orleans, where he becomes involved in a small-time illegal gambling racket, something he excelled at in college. But other dragons, as well as a legendary slayer of dragons known as "the George," are stalking him. The prolific author of the "Myth" and "Phule's Company" series as well as a contributor to the long-running "Thieves' World" series, Asprin tackles a new kind of comic fantasy, a little more serious and hard-boiled than previous books. Featuring a likable rake and plenty of action and quirky humor, this series opener belongs in most adult and YA fantasy collections.

Following years of success with launches of the space shuttle and the building of a space station, NASA attempts to build a permanent base on the moon. But a third shuttle disaster delivers the agency's command to a former director, yet even his expertise cannot halt the constant "cost-cutting measures." When the seismic forces of the moon fight back, the colonists can only hope to survive. Using his knowledge as a lunar and planetary scientist, Binder, the author of the nonfiction title Lunar Prospector: Against All Odds, has written a credible, blow-by-blow account of what building a station on the moon might be like. For large sf collections.

Humans on the planet Argo have long used the alien technology left by the world's former inhabitants, called Argonauts. When a group of archaeologists accidentally triggers a doomsday weapon that must be deactivated or it will destroy the human colony, the planet sends out a ship and crew on a desperate mission—to find the ancient trading race who had created the weapon for the Argonauts. Brotherton, the author of Star Dragon and an astronomy professor, writes convincingly of a distant future, crafting personal stories out of an oversize adventure. A good selection for most sf collections.

As tension between the Republic of Cinnabar and the rival Alliance mount, the RCN (Republic of Cinnabar Navy) sends its best commander, Daniel Leary, and his espionage expert and friend, Adele Mundy, to assist the peoples of the Bagarian cluster in their revolt against the Alliance. Using the latest technology as well as their own inventiveness, Leary and Mundy pull out all the stops to help the rebels, only to discover that the movement's worst enemy lies within. Continuing his RCN space opera (With the Lightnings; Lt. Leary, Commanding; The Far Side of the Stars; The Way to Glory; Some Golden Harbor), Drake maintains his high story-crafting standards and demonstrates his military expertise. Patterned in part on Patrick O'Brien's Aubry/Maturin series, Drake's latest novel features the same crew-based camaraderie, especially under fire, and belongs in most libraries.

The prophet and clairvoyant Nostradamus occasionally accepts commissions to use his psychic talents to find runaway daughters and other tragedies of the nobles. When Venice's Council of Ten hires him to find a spy, however, he must call upon the skills of Alfeo Zeno, his noble-born apprentice and master swordsman, little knowing that he is sending Zeno to almost certain death. This sequel to The Alchemist's Apprentice continues Duncan's fantasy "biography" of the legendary prophet, focusing as well on his young apprentice, who represents the liveliness and richness of the Italian Renaissance. This should appeal to fans of historical fantasy and belongs in most libraries.

In order to prevent war from ravaging his beloved world of Midkemia, master sorcerer Pug and his Conclave of Shadows have journeyed into the belly of the beast—the Dasati homeworld, where they encounter a stranger named Bek who may hold the key to Midkemia's survival. In Midkemia, the captive Lady Miranda struggles to escape the Dasati invaders so that she can bring back vital information that can help her world prevail. Feist's latest addition to his ongoing chronicle, and the conclusion of the Darkwar Saga, investigates a realm of brutal invaders and their resisters in a tale that joins familiar characters with new ones to flesh out a fascinating and richly visual world. A consummate storyteller, Feist has a large following among fans of epic fantasy. Recommended for most fantasy collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/07.]

The mysterious brown-robed Danisoba have a monopoly on magic in the world, snatching infants who show magical promise to raise as their own. A young woman, Kestrel, has kept her powers hidden, signing on as quartermaster of a pirate ship, where water dampens her magic and hides her from the Danisoba. When her captain and father figure is arrested and Kestrel herself falls prey to an unknown pursuer, she must escape, gather her crew, and take her destiny into her own hands. Massey's first novel combines a young woman's coming-of-age tale with a swashbuckling pirate adventure that moves at a swift pace and sets the stage for future outings with its feisty, resourceful heroine. A good choice for fans of fantasy adventure in general and pirate tales in particular. For most libraries.

Enlisted man Chief Terry Myell and his wife, Lt. Commander Jodenny Scott, tread the boundaries of their "mixed" marriage carefully, bringing their combined talents to their current assignment on the planet Fortune. Team Space, of which they are members, has been exploring an interplanetary transportation alternative to spaceships, an alien artifact known as the Wondjina Spheres that link places and times. When these spheres shut down mysteriously, the task falls to Jodenny and Terry to find out how to make them work—in spite of the changes to the status quo their actions might cause. McDonald's sequel to The Outback Stars vividly depicts a future in which humans have abandoned a polluted Earth for the relative purity of space colonization. Ably combining military adventure with mystery and political intrigue, with strange artifacts thrown in for good measure, this fast-paced story should appeal to military sf as well as hard sf fans.

The "urban setting" is a castle and its surrounding village in Forrest Aguirre's "Andretto Walks the King's Way," while in Greg van Eekhout's "Ghost Market," a special kind of undercover agent tracks down unusual contraband. Together with 18 other stories of cities and their people, this vital collection pushes the envelope of the urban fantasy genre, reaching beyond the standards made popular by Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff, and Jim Butcher to create an ever expanding definition of the term. Including tales by Cat Rambo, Steve Berman, and other new and familiar genre writers, this collection belongs in most libraries.

With the magic soul stone gem bound to his brow or clutched in his hand, Branson Garibond is the legendary blade master and rogue known as The Highwayman; without it, the body-deforming maladies afflicting him since birth seize control, and he becomes the pitiful stuttering creature ridiculed as the Stork. Searching for healing and his long-lost father, Brandon falls into a trap that forces him into a war he does not wish to fight. Set in the same world as his Demon Wars Saga (The Demon Awakens; The Demon Spirit; The Demon Apostle; Ascendance; Transcendance; Immortalis; Mortalis) but depicting an earlier, cruder time in the realm of Corona, this series opener and companion to The Highwayman explores a time when the Abellican Church was just beginning. With each book, Salvatore continues to hone his storytelling talent. Fans of martial fantasy should enjoy his vivid depictions of combat. This strong addition to the author's growing body of work belongs in most libraries and will most likely be in demand.

Having survived her time as a poison taster and discovered her talent for magic, as recounted in the award-winning Poison Study and Magic Study, Yelena Zaltana realizes that she possesses the rarest of magics—that of Soulfinder. When this is made public, the young mage becomes the center of controversy, caught between those among the four Master Magicians who see her usefulness and those who want her dead. As her country prepares for possible war with neighboring Ixia, Yelena and her Ixian lover, Valek, seek to prevent a needless conflict while protecting Yelena from her enemies. Snyder's latest addition to her fantasy saga resolves several major plot threads but opens the door to the possibility of future novels in the series. A strong, resourceful heroine and an intriguing cast of supporting human and animal characters make this a fine addition to most libraries.

A young woman's life changes after a gypsy reads her palm in Irene Radford's "More to Truth Than Proof." In Kate Paulk's "Raining the Wild Hunt," a newly independent victim of spousal abuse confronts her worst fears when she aids an elflord fleeing from Wild Hunt. The 20 original stories by such fantasy authors as Laura Resnick, Harry Turtledove, and Eric Flint explore the many forms that magic might take in the modern world. From the magic of cats ("The Star Cats" by Charles Edgar Quinn) to a mirror that once belonged to a legendary magician ("Houdini's Mirror" by Russell Davis), these selections demonstrate a broad appeal for fans of modern-day fantasy.

When ex-marine and trauma victim Scott Stewart finds an infant on his doorstep, his psychic visions reveal that the child's safety depends upon his actions. Enemies from the world of Faerie, who already claimed his brother Douglas, lead him to cross between the worlds, accompanied by his sister Bridie, an ex-cop with a taste for killing, particularly when her quarry deserves it. Stemple's sequel to Singer of Souls tells the tale of a unique trio of siblings and their magical heritage. Fans of urban fantasy with Celtic and Native American trappings will enjoy the references to song charms and true names. A good addition to most fantasy collections. [Stemple is the son of fantasy author Jane Yolen.—Ed.]

In the distant future, Mars is a colony of Earth, and Lt. Patricia Podkayne is a third-generation Martian with something to prove. As a member of the Music, Arts, and Drama Division of the Martian Navy, she accepts an assignment as an entertainer on the planet Europa, not realizing that trouble is brewing on that world. Three-time Hugo Award winner Varley's style of future sf is immediate and gritty, filled with realistic details and believable characters. His conclusion to a trilogy begun with Red Lightning and Red Thunder demonstrates his skill as both raconteur and master of science-based fiction.

This is a barely veiled revisiting of the Peter Pan story—The Boy and Gwenny live in The Anyplace, with their pixie friend Fiddlefix and their nemesis Captain Hack (and his twin sister, Captain Slash). Paul Dear, a young boy in modern-day London, can talk to The Boy through his mirror, but his mother has never been the same since his week-old sister Bonnie died, and she refuses to listen to his fancies. A doctor gives him pills that seem to keep him from seeing The Boy, so he decides to escape to The Anyplace and find his mother a new baby. Adventure ensues. But the problem with this tale by an author of Star Trek: The Next Generation novelizations is that it can't decide what it wants to be. Is it an adult novel? A children's book? A dashing tale of adventure? A commentary on a beloved classic? An exploration of what it means to grow up? The book tries to be all of these things but doesn't really succeed at any of them, and David's rather forced imitation of the narration in the original Peter Pan doesn't help. Not recommended.—Jenne Bergstrom, San Diego Cty. Lib.

Sigler has taken an active and original approach to getting his books published, building up a readership with blogs and podcast versions of his writing, then using that momentum to secure a book deal. This novel doesn't suffer from any sense of gimmickry, though, despite its noticeably short, podcast-friendly chapters. It's a solid example of the technically minded sf horror Sigler aims to produce. Former football star Perry Dawsey becomes infected with a malevolent, sentient parasite. Meanwhile, a cast of standard characters—a hardened CIA operative near the end of his career, a beautiful researcher still finding her assertiveness, and so on—works to discover the cause of the strange, triangular growths that appear to turn their victims into raging killers. For public libraries.—Fred Baerkircher, Twinsburg P.L., OH

A compilation of relatively obscure short stories, fantasy and folk tales, poems, and other imaginative texts by authors ranging from Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott to Stevenson, Chesterton, and Tolkien, this volume offers an interesting though necessarily idiosyncratic collection of work that may have influenced C.S. Lewis. As Lewis, a literary scholar and intellectual, was one of the best-read writers of his time, any one-volume anthology would be inherently incapable of providing an adequate or even representative selection of stories, poems, and other texts that he may well have read. Yet this volume still offers a glimpse at the textual environment Lewis inhabited and loved and would therefore be exceptionally useful in a class on Lewis—or just for someone interested in Lewis's work. It also would provide an attractive anthology for younger readers, especially those interested in fantasy (exemplified in the stories by Owen Barfield and William Morris). The collection, which claims to offer background material for both modern fantasy and science fiction, ultimately emphasizes the former over the latter. Recommended for larger fantasy and literature collections.—Roger Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA