November Publications

In Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century, SF heavyweight Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game) presents an anthology of 20th-century visions of the 21st century, recounting in his introduction the inception, evolution and ascendance of the genre—all during the last century. Contributors include such luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, as well as some lesser-knowns. (Ace, $24.95 436p ISBN 0-441-00864-X)

From Robert Asprin's humorous Myth Adventures series comes Myth-ion Improbable, hot on the heels of Myth Directions, starring dimensions travelers Skeeve, Aahz and Tanda, who wants a cut to support her shopping habit. When green, scaly Pervect Aahz realizes that his apprentice Skeeve's silly treasure map is the real McCoy, they race across space and time, helped and hindered by a Shifter who also wants in on the goods. (Meisha Merlin [www.meishamerlin.com], $25 208p ISBN 1-892065-54-1)

In Being Gardner Dozois, an interview by Michael Swanwick, one of today's leading SF authors, provides fascinating and amusing insights into Dozois's award-winning short fiction from the 1960s on. While an introduction would have been helpful, the book does include a bibliography of first publications. (Old Earth [Pathway, dist.;www.pathwaybooks.com,], $25 242p ISBN 1-882968-20-4)

After an earthquake in Los Angeles, the five occupants of a subway car are thrust into a bizarre extraterrestrial challenge in which they must earn credits in order to regain their own dimension, in Mondo Fax's Buying Time: A Jaunt in Time and Space. Divided by age, gender, class, sexual orientation and race, the group bonds during their trials and adventures amid intergalactic game shows and mysterious enemies. (Mondo Fax [P.O. Box 2904, Santa Clarita, Calif. 91350], $11.95 paper 310p ISBN 0-971009-50-3)

In Lyskarion: Song of the Wind, J.A. Cullum's first effort, the last Great Wizard, Cormor, insists that his people must train all the children with magical potential in order to avoid a terrible war among the nine races on Tamar. The book's ensemble cast—sea-folk, shape-shifters, nobility and members of many other racial and class groups—must learn to coexist. (EDGE [www.edgewebsite.com], $13.95 paper 352p ISBN 1-894063-02-3)

Twentieth-century Scot Stevie Ross finds herself transported to the future, where aliens called the Zavrintai rule the world in Lizzy Shannon's debut, Tempest Raised. It turns out Stevie is a crucial bargaining chip in the revolutionary war, and when she's kidnapped by her lover's archnemesis, she realizes she can have a hand in the peace-making process. (AmErica[www.publishamerica.com], $19.95 232p ISBN 1-58851-028-X)

A small coastal town in California is more than it appears in John Argo's (Pioneers) This Shoal of Space, a story of covert intergalactic invaders and enigmatic humans who seem normal on the surface. Mary-Shane, a young widowed mother and journalist, investigates some murders at the zoo and winds up uncovering extraterrestrial mysteries with a dangerously personal twist. (Clocktower [www.clocktowerbooks.com], $21.25 350p ISBN 0-7433-0084-X)

Entities: The Selected Novels of Eric Frank Russell features five erudite novels, including Wasp and Sinister Barrier, plus three short stories. The late British Hugo winner deals, often humorously, in interplanetary colonies, aliens invisible to the human eye, intergalactic war and human foibles. Cover art by Hugo winner Bob Eggleton. (NESFA [www.nesfa.org/press], $29 692p ISBN 1-886778-33-7)

Renowned SF illustrator Fred Gambino presents Ground Zero, a collection of his spacescapes and portraits (mostly digital, some acrylic) that have adorned the covers of books by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and other leading lights. With the author's brief anecdotal descriptions of his artistic processes and essays by SF writers like Elizabeth Moon and David Brin, this volume will please cognoscenti. (Paper Tiger [www.papertiger.co.uk], $29.95 112p ISBN 1-85585-891-6)

October Publications

New breeds of outlaw—simulation pirates, reality synthesizers, hackers of enormous skill—populate Pat Cadigan's Synners, a harrowing vision of human interaction with technology. The only two-time winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Cadigan (Dervish Is Digital) delivers a cyberpunk thriller that vividly blurs the divide between reality and virtual reality. (Four Walls Eight Windows, $13.95 paper 436p ISBN 1-56858-185-8)

SF and mystery maven Marvin Kaye (The Incredible Umbrella) presents The Ultimate Halloween, an anthology of ghoulish stories by authors past (Edith Wharton, H.P. Lovecraft) and present (John Gregory Betancourt, Terry McGarry). Many of the pieces, such as Al Sarrantonio's "Pumpkin Head" and Terry Kaye's "The Witch Who Hated Halloween," draw on traditional themes, making the book a sure sell in October. (ibooks [www.ibooksinc.com], $12.95 paper 336p ISBN 0-7437-2396-8)

Mark W. Tiedemann (Chimera) offers Realtime, an SF thriller about a successful isolationist movement, a terrible economic depression and a floundering federal government in 2050. FBI Special Agent Reva Cassonare and Treasury Department Special Agent Grant Voczek have to overcome their bureaucratic differences to solve the murder of a Treasury agent, in the process discovering corruption and systematic brutality. (ibooks, $14.95 paper 436p ISBN 0-7434-2393-3)

It's 1942, and an alien spacecraft lands on Nazi turf in Marvel Comics honcho Stan Lee's The Alien Factor, written with Stan Timmons. As the Nazis try to harness the alien power, the Allies send in a suicide mission to prevent the German army from augmenting its destructive prowess. (ibooks, $24.95 290p ISBN 0-7434-3475-7)