Against All Things Ending
show more
Stephen R. Donaldson, Putnam, $29.95 (624p) ISBN 978-0-399-15678-6 9780399156786
The unreservedly emo penultimate installment in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (after 2007's Fatal Revenant) follows Linden Avery as she struggles to rescue her adopted son, Jeremiah, from the Despiser and forestall the Worm at the World's End, which she awoke by yanking her love, Covenant, free of the Arch of Time. While an introductory plot summary does yeoman service bringing new readers up to speed, it may be hard for them to keep so many characters straight—or care about them—when most of their development took place in previous volumes published decades ago. The focus is on Linden rather than Covenant, whose passive and distracted presence mostly gives others something to react to, but that won't matter to Covenant's large and loyal following, for whom Donaldson delivers all the self-loathing, despair, guilt, pain, and stubborn determination they could ask for. (Oct.)
Passion Play
show more
Beth Bernobich, Tor, $24.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2217-3 9780765322173
Bernobich lays the groundwork for a trilogy, but leaves all her plot threads untied in this fantasy debut with a Renaissance Europe feel. The flower of a wealthy mercantile family, 16-year-old Therez Zhalina hates living at home, suffering as her father and grandmother fight, her mother cringes before her father's rages, and her brother withdraws. When she discovers that her father has picked out a cruel and power-hungry man to be her husband, she panics and runs away. Her trials during her flight are perhaps the most realistic in this coming-of-age tale packed with magic and politics. Therez, now called Ilse, quickly outgrows her naïveté and finds her salvation when she meets Raul Kosenmark, an exiled prince trying to save the world that rejected him. Just as she gets embroiled in Raul's intrigues and secrets and the story starts going somewhere, the book ends. Readers will be frustrated—and impatient for a sequel. (Oct.)
Out of the Dark
show more
David Weber, Tor, $25.99 (512p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2412-2 9780765324122
Expanded from a short story that first appeared in George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois's anthology Warriors, this trilogy kickoff blends elements of military science fiction and dark fantasy. In the very near future, Earth has been targeted for colonization by a galactic empire known as the Hegemony. Deemed "lunatic local sentients" by a survey team that witnessed King Henry V and his troops slaughtering the French at Agincourt, humankind has essentially been written off as bloodthirsty, expendable barbarians. When the Hegemony's henchmen, the doglike Shongairi, show up to conquer Earth, the resistance is beyond anything they had ever imagined, especially when vampires appear to help the humans. Weber pulls off this conceit in audacious style with a focus on military-powered action that will thrill fans of his Honor Harrington series, and he keeps the pedal to the metal right up to the almost unbelievable conclusion. (Oct.)
Stars' End: The Starfishers Trilogy, Vol. 3
show more
Glen Cook, Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (262p) ISBN 978-1-59780-169-0 9781597801690
Framed as the final book in the Starfishers series, this space opera is better read as the second half of the preceding volume, Starfishers. Moyshe BenRabi, former Confederation agent from despised backwater Earth, has abandoned his old allegiances, hoping for a better life among the Starfishers. Unfortunately for BenRabi, not only do the interstellar nomads face a serious threat from the predators haunting the spaces between the stars, but the Starfishers' alliance with the ancient starfish has given the voyagers a monopoly on the material needed for interstellar communication, which the Confederation cannot tolerate. BenRabi's increasingly fragile mental state and deteriorating social network are mirrored by the doom overshadowing civilization. Now nearly 30 years old, this work is short by modern standards, giving the fast-paced story a compressed urgency with moments of genuine grandeur. (Oct.)
Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas
show more
Edited by Todd James Pierce and Jarret Keene, Univ. of Nevada, $20 paper (184p) ISBN 978-0-87417-828-9 9780874178289
The 14 contributors to this insubstantial anthology, most of whom lack science fiction publishing credentials, bypass focused extrapolation in favor of satire, surrealism, and vaguely hinted catastrophes. The best of the lot is Chris Niles's "Sin's Last Stand," in which Las Vegas is finally overwhelmed by the tyranny of the religious right, sort of like The Handmaid's Tale condensed to 12 pages. Felicia Campbell's "4/18" destroys Vegas with a mysterious toxin that freezes gamblers, revelers, and debauchees in place forever. Vu Tran's "Kubla Khan" is genuinely haunting, and there is even a parody of Harlan Ellison in C.J. Mosher's "A Girl and Her Cat," but longtime SF readers looking for a richness of ideas won't find it here. (Oct.)
Blasphemy
show more
Mike Resnick, Golden Gryphon, $24.95 (349p) ISBN 978-1-930846-64-7 9781930846647
In five stories and two short novels, Hugo and Nebula winner Resnick "examines our tendency to believe in various authoritarian systems, to accept them at their word, and to behave accordingly. And he doesn't approve," says Jack McDevitt in the introduction. Offerings include the humorous alternate Genesis story of "Genesis: The Rejected Canon"; the flustering of the Almighty in "God and Mr. Slatterman"; evil on a planet of Satanists and Wiccans in "Walpurgis III"; and a decadent, sacrilegious Jesus in "The Branch." Resnick (The Buntline Special) is irreverent, funny, and deeply concerned with revealing what he views as unthinking slavishness to the Christian deity and fictitious religion. The juxtaposition of grotesque violence, explicit sex, and cheerful blasphemy may be off-putting to some readers, but others will enjoy the often funny, usually shocking, sometimes didactic examination of religious beliefs. (Oct.)
The Last Song of Orpheus
show more
Robert Silverberg, Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $25 (136p) ISBN 978-1-59606-310-5 9781596063105
SFWA Grand Master Silverberg (Roma Eterna) makes an all too rare appearance with his longest tale in a decade, a powerful retelling of the myth of Orpheus. Born to the muse Calliope, dedicated to Apollo, and destined to be king of Thrace, Orpheus was the greatest musician of the ancient world. The story of his epic journey to the underworld takes up only the first part of Silverberg's novella. The rest recounts his time in Egypt studying the pharaohs, his voyage with Jason and the Argonauts to bring back the Golden Fleece, and his eventual return to Thrace to meet his foretold death. Silverberg hews closely to the source material, with language elevated in the manner of a good translation of Homer. Though it's not the literary SF that has won Silverberg much of his fame, readers who love ancient myths will find much to admire. (Oct.)
Clowns at Midnight
show more
Terry Dowling, PS Publishing (www.pspublishing.co.uk), $40 (260p) ISBN 978-1-848630-85-7 9781848630857
Dowling (Amberjack) falters in this creepy novel, which loses its frisson of horror in an excess of information. Writer David Leeton is house-sitting in remote southeastern Australia, recuperating from a broken relationship and trying to cure his pathological fear of clowns. Shortly after his arrival in Starbreak Fell, he begins encountering mysterious objects that trigger his clown fear. Some neighbors from Sardinia offer to help him discover the truth behind the strange happenings, but everything seems to lead back to ancient rites practiced on their ancestral home. While Dowling manages to justify David's analytical approach to his fears, the analysis—perhaps stemming from the book's origins in Dowling's doctoral thesis—distances the reader from the character and undermines the emotional resonance necessary to be horrified by the climax. (Oct.)
Loco Motive: A Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery
show more
Mary Daheim, Morrow, $23.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-135156-3 9780061351563
In Daheim's plodding 25th Bed-and-Breakfast mystery (after 2008's Vi Agra Falls), innkeeper and librarian Judith McMonigle Flynn takes a cross-country train trip with bumpy results. After aging daredevil Wee Willie Weevil performs a stunt that goes awry at Judith's Hillside Manor B&B in Seattle, Wash., his female assistant, Pepper Gundy, goes off in a huff, promising a lawsuit. Judith and cousin Serena "Renie" Jones soon board Amtrak's Empire Builder train to Boston, planning a mini-vacation with their husbands, Joe and Bill, who are flying to Beantown (Renie's afraid of planes). Surprisingly, they discover the injured Willie, Pepper, and another assistant also onboard. Problems escalate after a helpful train attendant vanishes, a train-stopping accident occurs, and Willie is found dead in a sleeping car compartment. The convoluted plotting and irksome characters may leave new readers cold, but faithful fans will savor this latest challenge for the B&B Nancy Drew. (Sept.)
Corpse in Waiting
show more
Margaret Duffy, Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6922-7 9780727869227
Marital tensions arise at the outset of British author Duffy's solid 14th Ingrid Langley and Patrick Gillard mystery (after 2009's Souvenirs of a Murder) when the couple, colleagues in the Serious Organized Crime Agency, take a badly needed holiday to nearby Bath. There, at a party in the Roman baths, they run into an old flame of Patrick's, Alexandra Nightingale, who invites Patrick to join her on a house-hunting tour. A jealous Ingrid insists on going, too. To Alexandra's chagrin, Ingrid, a successful novelist, discovers the perfect house for her own writing needs. On opening a cupboard, however, Ingrid finds herself "eyeball to partially empty sockets with someone's head." Ingrid and Patrick soon get on the trail of various nefarious characters, including the murdered woman, her nephew, and mobsters. Gun battles, car chases, and close shaves help build suspense. The solution to the murder comes almost as an afterthought. (Oct.)
