While Galileo Preys
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Joshua Corin, Mira, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2811-7 9780778328117
Sexist overtones mar this otherwise enjoyable thriller. Housewife Esme Stuart closed the door on her promising FBI career when she married Rafe Stuart and moved to idyllic Long Island. Eight years later, their harmonious marriage begins to unravel. When a sniper racks up 14 kills in Atlanta and six more in Texas, injuring Esme's former boss, Esme immediately books a flight to Amarillo, Tex., and joins the hunt for the killer despite Rafe's protests. Her choice and the case's fallout may irreparably damage her perfect life. Esme's daughter, Sophie, exists solely so Rafe can chide Esme for neglecting her, and Corin (Nuclear Winter Wonderland) makes it clear that only Esme's career choices are to blame for her unhappiness, but even readers who dislike this moral will be enthralled by faultless action scenes. (Sept.)
The Way of Kings: Book One of the Stormlight Archive
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Brandon Sanderson, Tor, $27.99 (1,008p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2635-5 9780765326355
This massive tome is the first of a 10-part epic fantasy series from relative newcomer Sanderson (Mistborn), best known for his efforts to complete the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. In a storm-swept world where history has dwindled into myth, self-serving aristocrats squabble over mystical weapons that render their bearers immune to mundane attacks. The ambitious scholar Shallan learns unexpected truths about the present, the virtuous aristocrat Dalinar reclaims the lost past, and the bitter and broken slave Kaladin gains unwanted power. Race-related plot themes may raise some eyebrows, and there's no hope for anything resembling a conclusion in this introductory volume, but Sanderson's fondness for misleading the reader and his talent for feeding out revelations and action scenes at just the right pace will keep epic fantasy fans intrigued and hoping for redemptive future installments. (Sept.)
Haunted Legends
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Edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas, Tor, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2300-2 9780765323002
Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound) and Mamatas (Spicy Slipstream Stories) collect 20 original stories based on ghost legends from around the world. A few famous figures appear (such as the mysterious hitchhiker in Kaaron Warren's "That Girl" and Gary A. Braunbeck's "Return to Mariabronn"), and lesser-known regional tales inspire two top-notch stories: Jeffery Ford's intriguing "Down Atsion Road," set in southern New Jersey, and Laird Barron's incredibly creepy "The Redfield Girls," about a haunted lake in Washington State. International entries include Ekaterina Sedia's disturbing "Tin Cans," about girls murdered by Stalin aide Lavrenty Beria, and Catherynne M. Valente's "15 Panels Depicting the Sadness of the Baku and the Jotai," a whimsical and dreamy foray into Japanese myth. Another standout is the riveting "The Folding Man" by Joe Lansdale, featuring a mysterious, murderous pack of nuns. Only a few weak choices feel more like rehashings than retellings. (Sept.)
The Waters Rising
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Sheri S. Tepper, Eos, $26.99 (512p) ISBN 978-0-06-195887-8 9780061958878
The Earth of this futuristic fable is still scarred by the "Big Kill," the disastrous crescendo of our civilization that all but obliterated terrestrial life. Now a new threat has appeared in the form of rising sea levels, a process that appears unbounded by such petty concerns as a plausible source for all that water. Xulai, initially an unimportant and expendable young girl, encounters a specter from the days of Big Kill, an entity bent on preventing Xulai from realizing her potential role in the salvation of humanity. "Ecofeminist" Tepper (The Margarets) balances pointed criticisms of our era with a calamity that appears to owe far more to Genesis than to science, but the writing is slick and carefully crafted, Xulai has plenty of pluck, and her companions possess a nearly ideal mixture of virtues, flaws, and enthusiasm for redemptive sacrifice. (Sept.)
The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Vol. 3: The Saturn Game
Edited by Rick Katze, NESFA (www.nesfa.org/press), $29 (512p) ISBN 978-1-886778-89-4 9781886778894
The third volume of works by SFWA Grand Master Anderson includes 18 masterful short stories (which have collectively won three Hugos and a Nebula), seven limericks, and two untitled songs. Anderson's tremendous range is on display in the paranormal fantasy "Operation Salamander," which combines college football, werewolves, and magical fire in an action-packed tale; the libertarian "Robin Hood's Barn," which observes mankind's need for new frontiers; "Sam Hall," in which a man destroys a government by inventing a folk hero; "A Tragedy of Errors," the sometimes funny tale of Roan Tom, a gruff pirate space captain; and the Sherlock Holmes pastiche "Eve Times Four." Anderson imbues his works with political philosophy, gun-slinging, and emotional depth, mixing hard science with superior world-building and intelligent storytelling. (Sept.)
Dust
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Joan Frances Turner, Ace, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-441-01928-1 9780441019281
Turner offers an original variation on the near-ubiquitous zombie theme in her debut novel, but her concept doesn't really coalesce by book's end. Rather than being mindless, drooling, shambling monsters, the undead can communicate with each other, struggle for leadership, and form emotional attachments when they're not chowing down on raw meat. Jessica Anne Porter, undead these nine years, is vehemently opposed to the word "zombie," which she considers racist. She belongs to a zombie gang called the Fly-by-Nights that battles other gangs over Wisconsin territory. The inevitable gore ("the nauseating, liquid softness of her brains [felt like] scrambled eggs under my pounding fist"), and the main activities of daily unliving ("nothing to do but eat raw flesh and sleep too much and fight about nothing") don't offer much for readers to connect with. (Sept.)
Sweet Potato Pie and Other Surrealities
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Lawrence M. Schoen, Hadley Rille (Ingram, dist.), $15.95 paper (236p) ISBN 978-0-9827256-2-7 9780982725627
Schoen (Buffalito Destiny) has perfected an unusual art form: the lo-cal snack of speculative fiction. Like the 10 poems that show various supernatural monsters menacing school children, most of the 24 stories are simultaneously cute and forgettable; each has barely enough room to introduce its zippy idea, let alone develop it. In "Fries with That," a fast-food restaurant manager explains the advantages of hiring zombies for the late-night shift. In "The Novice," a noncharismatic vampire discovers that he can attract unwitting blood donors at a role-playing–game convention. In "Thirst for Knowledge," a cultured vampire assumes the identity of a college professor and selects students for his private wine cellar. More impressive and entertaining are a couple of longer pieces: "The Sky's the Limit," a deft Damon Runyon pastiche, and "Golem Summer," whose animated characters will make readers smile. (Sept.)
Best Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction
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Edited by Cecilia Tan and Bethany Zaiatz, Circlet (SCB, dist.), $19.95 paper (296p) ISBN 978-1-885865-61-8 9781885865618
Circlet Press publisher Tan (Best Fantastic Erotica) and debut editor Zaiatz present a variety of erotic tales both sensual and brutal. In Helen E.H. Madden's "Alienated," humans learn about true emotional intimacy through alien sex. Two time travelers reconnect in their old age in Grant Carrington's "Younger than Springtime," a three-page tale and the strongest in the collection. Maya Kaathryn Bonhoff's "The Boy Who Loved Clouds" reveals the connection between love and creativity as a disillusioned writer rediscovers his passion for stories. The relationships are as varied as the settings, and the best stories are those with a strong emotional core. Readers looking for lighthearted fun, romance, or fantasy fodder may be put off by an early run of more dispassionate encounters. (Sept.)
A Cup of Normal
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Devon Monk, Fairwood (www.fairwoodpress.com), $16.99 paper (264p) ISBN 978-0-9820730-9-4 9780982073094
Urban fantasist Monk (Magic on the Storm) has collected a delicious sampling of her short fiction, including four stories original to this volume. In "Dusi," the gorgon Medusa has survived into modern times, making her living selling remarkably detailed wildlife statuary and longing for love. In "That Saturday," a little girl steals a neighbor's supernaturally endowed lawn ornament. In "Ducks in a Row," a story that feels like early Bradbury (but perhaps with more teeth), a child abuse survivor gives a cheating carnival operator his comeuppance. In "Here After Life" a man in spirit form joins four younger versions of himself outside the hospital where he is presumably dying. Featuring quirky, well-developed protagonists whose decisions have significant moral consequences, these stories also show a strong sense of place. Sometimes funny, sometimes dark, often both, they are varied in form and invariably rewarding. (Sept.)
The Scorpion's Bite: A Lily Sampson Mystery
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Aileen G. Baron, Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1-59058-753-9; $14.95 paper ISBN 978-1-59058-755-3
Set in 1943, Baron's third mystery featuring archeologist Lily Sampson (after 2006's The Torch of Tangier) will appeal more to romance readers than history buffs. OSS founder Wild Bill Donovan, whom Lily assisted in Torch with the Allied invasion of North Africa, sends her to Palestine, where she hooks up with Gideon Weil, the hunky director of the American School in Jerusalem. As the pair begin an archeological survey of Trans-Jordan, their Bedouin guide vanishes, only to turn up murdered. After the authorities arrest Gideon, Lily must clear Gideon's name—and keep him from being maimed by a primitive ritual designed to identify the guilty. Sampson also gets involved in a plot to attack an oil pipeline supplying the Nazis, but she makes an unconvincing action heroine. The prose is passable at best ("It takes a year, two sometimes, to recover from a loss. Everyone must grieve in their own way"). (Aug.)
