By Peter S. Beagle Subterranean Press, $35.00, 104 pages A bow and arrow-wielding mercenary confronts painful memories and an ancient evil in Return, a new Innkeeper’s World story from the pen of mythopoeia, Hugo and Nebula Award winner and two-time World Fantasy Award best novel nominee Peter S. Beagle. Soukyan, the narrator, has long been [...]
By Kristine Kathryn Rusch Golden Gryphon Press, $24.95, 316 pages Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories collects nine tales by award winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Perhaps best known for her novella of space-faring treasure archaeologists and treasure hunters, “Diving into the Wreck” (which appears in this collection), this compilation shows the unique versatility and [...]
Sacramento Book Review has a staff of more than 100 book reviewers from around the country. Contact us if you’re interested in becoming a book reviewer. Axie Barclay Ax is a Michigan writer with a cow-habit. When she’s not milking cows, making disgruntled noises at what disgusting thing the heeler dogs dredge up, riding horses, [...]
By John Scalzi with illustrations by Gahan Wilson Subterranean Press, $18.00, 32 pages Judge Sn Goes Golfing is the hilarious chapbook by the Hugo and John W. Campbell award-winning author John Scalzi. Set in the world of his popular The Android’s Dream novel, the story tells the tale of how Judge Nugan Bufan Sn – [...]
By Peter V. Brett Random House, $26.00, 608 pages In this sequel to the popular epic fantasy The Warded Man, the legend of the hero Arlen Bales takes a backseat as two other characters capture our imagination. There is Jardir, the pseudo-hero and king who leads violent, stereotypical desert folk against the tranquil “green lands.” [...]
By Robert A. Heinlein Baen Books, $7.99, 227 pages But few outside of Robert Heinlein’s devotees know that many of his works were aimed at, and market to, children before they became popular among adults too. Between Planets is one such novel . At one time serialized in altered format in the magazine Boy’s Life, [...]
By Esther Friesner Baen, $7.99, 407 pages In this anthology, editor Esther Friesner has collected twenty-one hilarious stories of werewolves in suburbia. Soccer moms, angst-ridden teenagers, mid-life crisis dads, annoying little boys, and even a hardboiled detective find their way into these very funny stories. Of particular note are: Jody Lynn Nye’s “Howl,” which gives [...]
By Jay Lake Tor, $26.95, 368 pages Sex, politics, religion and magic are the tools of control of the city of Copper Downs in Jay Lake’s memoir-style fantasy. A heroic fantasy with a dash of steampunk, Green follows the story of the titular character as she relates her tale from her first memory of a [...]
By John Joseph Adams Prime Books, $14.95, 379 pages For this anthology of twenty-four stories, editor John Joseph Adams tasked some of the brightest luminaries of speculative fiction to write stories of vast, galaxy-spanning empires and the people that live in them. From a rare Lois McMaster Bujold short story about the professions that arise [...]
By Marie Brennan Orbit, $14.99, 438 pages Award-winning author and professional folklorist Marie Brennan brings together a tumultuous time in English history with its ancient folklore of elfinkind to fabricate a novel that is historical in context and wonderfully fanciful in its content. Set in the period of English history between 1639 and 1666, the [...]
By Jeffrey Ford Golden Gryphon Press, $14.95, 319 pages In this collection of fourteen stories, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner Jeffrey Ford uses his personal experiences to create tales of myth and wonder. From the World Fantasy Award winner “Botch Town,” in which a model city becomes a metaphor for glimpses into a changing [...]
By Isaac Asimov Tor, $23.95, 239 pages In this story of a far-flung humanity, the planet Florina is subjugated by the planet Sark. But when a Spatio-analyst learns that the world of Florina is soon to be extinct, a web of political intrigue that will change the relationship between Florina and Sark begins. The story [...]
By Andre Norton Baen, $14.00, 518 pages In this collection of four novels set in the same universe by a SFWA Grand Master, the author repeatedly reflects on the great clash of civilizations and personal identity. In The Sioux Spaceman, Kade Whitehawk must bring his knowledge of plains culture into the far reaches of space [...]
Edited by Yanni Kuznia Subterranean Press, $20.00, 133 pages In this collection of four novellas, four women whose fantasy writing repeatedly tops the charts return to their worlds to tell stories about women with strength of character. Each tale presents a different facet of feminine heroism. In the humorous urban fantasy “Zen and the Art [...]
By Gene Wolfe Tor, $29.95, 544 pages In this retrospective of Wolfe’s short fiction, the author himself chooses the works that he considers to be his finest ever. In a career spanning over thirty years and many Hugo and Nebula awards, that is no mean feat. Wolfe showcases his trademark first person perspective of the [...]
By Elizabeth Bear Tor, $24.95, 368 pages This Norse mythology-based novel is much like the Renshai novels of Mickey Zucker Reichert in its premise. In All the Windwracked Stars, the Valkyrie Muire has abandoned her brothers and sisters to die on the battlefield of Ragnarok. Forced by immortality to live through the age of man, [...]
