Burning Up
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Susan Andersen, HQN, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-373-77498-2 9780373774982
Clichés and a hoary premise take all the fun out of Andersen's new contemporary romance. Macy O'James, "Sugarville's celebrity tramp," leaves a career of making sexy music videos in L.A. and returns to her tiny Washington State hometown to care for her injured cousin. Fire chief Gabriel Donovan lives at Macy's aunt and uncle's boarding house, where he's heard plenty of gossip about Macy and her wild ways. When scorching sexual tension ignites between Gabe and Macy, it also sparks a series of bitter fights as he tries to rein her in. Macy also has to contend with her high school nemesis, now the mayor's wife, who continues to hold a grudge. Experienced romance readers will be able to predict every turn of the plot: Andersen (Skintight) writes with an accomplished, confident hand, but with nothing new to say. (Sept.)
The Secret History of Fantasy
Edited by Peter S. Breagle, Tachyon (IPG, dist.), $15.95 paper (432p) ISBN 978-1-892391-99-5 9781892391995
Disparaging the commodification of fantasy, Beagle (The Last Unicorn) uses 19 stories and two essays to demonstrate that unique works of imagination are still appearing on both sides of the ostensible "separation of fantasy from actual literature." The all-star cast includes genre powerhouses (Maureen F. McHugh, Terry Bisson), mainstream favorites (Yann Martel, T.C. Boyle), and incorrigible line-straddlers (Jonathan Lethem, Stephen Millhauser). Concluding essays by Ursula Le Guin and David Hartwell can seem strident in their condemnation of "nostalgic, conservative, pastoral, and optimistic" epic fantasy. But in tales like Millhauser's "The Barnum Museum," which itself encapsulates the entire discussion of how to view the literature of the fantastic, there is a sense of frivolity and freedom that permits this anthology to "elude the mundane, and to achieve... beauty and exaltation." (Sept.)
The Skin Map
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Stephen R. Lawhead, Thomas Nelson, $24.99 (426p) ISBN 978-1-59554-804-7 9781595548047
A promising tale of interdimensional voyaging disintegrates rapidly into a clunky and incoherent mess. Londoner Kit Livingstone and his unpleasant girlfriend, Wilhelmina, are separated and sent back to an alternate 17th-century England. There Kit's great-grandfather Cosimo reveals secretive time travelers are racing the evil Lord Archelaeus Burleigh to locate a map holding an earthshaking secret. Stranded when Cosimo vanishes into a portal, Kit falls in with the beautiful Lady Fayth while Wilhelmina struggles to survive on her own in Prague. Lawhead (The Endless Knot) has come up with plenty of clever concepts and colorful settings, but they can't compensate for thinly drawn, incompetent characters and the lack of a coherent story line. (Sept.)
Bearers of the Black Staff
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Terry Brooks, Del Rey, $27 (384p) ISBN 978-0-345-48417-8 9780345484178
The horrors of a war-ravaged world again invade a hard-won peace in Brooks's intense follow-up to 2008's The Gypsy Morph. Five hundred years have passed since Hawk led a tattered band of survivors into a valley protected by a magical barrier. Now the wall has been breached by demons. The last known Knight of the Word, Sider Ament, wields a powerful black staff that he hopes to pass to a new leader. After rescuing talented teen Trackers Panterra Qu and Prue Liss, Sider asks them to warn the Children of Hawk. Unfortunately, their council leaders don't share Sider's certainty of an impending invasion. While Sider explores the other side of the barrier, the young Trackers find help from Arborlon Elves in this superlative Tolkien-style fantasy tweaked with a contemporary vibe. (Sept.)
The Sky That Wraps
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Jay Lake, Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $40 (408p) ISBN 978-1-59606-266-5 9781596062665
Lake's sixth collection offers 25 tales written since 2007's The River Knows Its Own. The collection is bookended by popular favorites: the haunting "The American Dead" and "The Sky That Wraps the World Round, past the Blue and into the Black," a moody meditation on mistakes and the end of the universe. One of Lake's strengths is his ability to channel classic writers and styles, such as the heroic fantasy of Robert E. Howard in "The Leopard's Paw," Cordwainer Smith in the baroque "The Man with One Bright Eye," pulp SF in "Lehr, Rex," and space opera adventure in "To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves." Fans of Lake's novels will especially appreciate the tie-ins to Green, Mainspring, and Trial of Flowers, while the diversity of settings and styles makes this a nice introduction to Lake's stylish craftsmanship. (Sept.)
Journeys
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Ian R. MacLeod, Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $40 (232p) ISBN 978-1-59606-297-9 9781596062979
MacLeod's fourth collection (after 2006's Past Magic) contains mostly fantasies in which departures from consensus reality go entirely unexplained, told from within the imaginary world rather than our own. In the novella "The Hob Carpet," a young aristocrat of a cruel half-Egyptian, half-Aztec empire discovers the human side of the markedly inferior "hobs" who are used as slaves, furniture, and sacrifice fodder. "The Master Miller's Tale" is set in a quasi-medieval, altered England in which one buys wind from magicians. More outrageously, in "The Second Journey of the Magus," Jesus refuses to submit to crucifixion, throws himself off the Temple, summons legions of angels to his aid, and establishes a frightening Kingdom of God on Earth. MacLeod's stately, magisterial grace and richly textured prose may prove too much for readers looking for a quick fix, but the patient will be rewarded. (Sept.)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
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Charles Yu, Pantheon, $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-307-37920-7 9780307379207
Yu uses futuristic ideas to explore a mundane theme: writing about the self and the moment in Tristram Shandy–esque digressions. The protagonist, who shares the author's name, spends most of the story interacting with entities that either mirror him (TAMMY, an operating system who reflects his personality) or don't exist (Ed, a "weird ontological entity" in the shape of a dog; Phil, a programmed supervisor who thinks he's human). The conclusion tries to mitigate character-Yu's risk-averse solipsism, but is too quick and abstract to really counter the rest of the book's emotional weight. Mainstream readers will be baffled by the highly nonlinear Oedipal time travel plot, but the passive, self-obsessed protagonist is straight out of the mainstream fiction that many SF fans love to hate, leaving this book without an audience. (Sept.)
Salute the Dark
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Adrian Tchaikovsky, Pyr, $16 paper (324p) ISBN 978-1-61614-239-1 9781616142391
Tchaikovsky's fourth Shadows of the Apt installment is that rarest of gems in series fantasy: an intermediate book in which genuinely decisive events occur. Despite the best efforts of resistance leader Stenwald and his allies, the Wasp Empire seems fated to conquer the entire known world, forcibly assimilating the other insect-themed kinden into their brutal society. The empire faces its own doom in the form of vampiric sorcerer Uctebri, whose possession of the Shadow Box allows him to covertly dominate the empire's ruler. Vast armies clash, but in the end the conflicts are determined by individual choices. Tchaikovsky tests all his characters in the full knowledge that many will fail, some heroically and others in despair. Readers who like their military fantasy to come with real consequences will be completely enthralled. (Sept.)
Hawk of May
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Gillian Bradshaw, Sourcebooks Landmark, $14.99 paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-4022-4070-6 9781402240706
Bradshaw's Hopwood-winning series starter returns to shelves 30 years after its original release. Gwalchmai, aka the legendary warrior Gawain, tells the story of how he came to King Arthur's court. In boyhood, he studied sorcery with his mother, Morgawse, nearly falling under the spell of darkness before devoting himself to the light. He believes the powers of good want him to follow Arthur, but his path is blocked first by enemy Saxons and then by the king's own rejection. Bradshaw paints a Roman Arthur, determined to rebuild the fallen empire, against a backdrop of Irish mythology. Gwalchmai is an honest narrator who allows hindsight to creep in only rarely; his voice is simple and earnest. Written when the author was a teen, this engaging and enchanting retelling of the Arthur legend will appeal to adults and younger readers alike. (Sept.)
Mob Rules
Cameron Haley, Luna, $14.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-373-80320-0 9780373803200
Haley's zippy debut introduces Domino Riley, the tough, streetwise lieutenant to 6,000-year-old gang boss Shanar Rashan. ("The LAPD thought he was Turkish. He was actually Sumerian.") When Domino investigates the grisly murder of a low-ranking graffiti mage, a conversation with the victim's ghost reveals that this is no standard gangland rivalry and the sorcerous gang world shadowing the real world is not the only magical game in town. In order to protect her relationship with Rashan's handsome son, Domino is forced to break the careful balance of mob rules, putting herself in increasing danger. A wise-ass jinn in a TV set, a hippie Vietnam vet werewolf, and a warrior-princess piskie round out the highly entertaining cast. Much of the story is series setup, but fast pacing, pungent wit, surprise twists, thoughtful discussions of morality, and escalating, cinematic battles keep the pages turning. (Sept.)
