Tachyon Publications has posted the Table of Contents for their Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology (edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel), and it's a killer line-up:

• Introduction: Hacking Cyberpunk by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
• Introduction: Kessel-Sterling Correspondence by John Kessel
• Bruce Sterling "Bicycle Repairman"
• Gwyneth Jones "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland"
• Jonathan Lethem "How We Got Into Town and Out Again"
• Greg Egan "Yeyuka"
• Pat Cadigan "The Final Remake of The Return of Little Latin Larry"
• William Gibson "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City"
• David Marusek "The Wedding Album"
• Walter Jon Williams "Daddy’s World"
• Michael Swanwick "The Dog Said Bow-Wow"
• Charles Stross "Lobsters"
• Paul Di Filippo "What’s Up, Tiger Lily"
• Christopher Rowe “The Voluntary State”
• Elizabeth Bear “Two Dreams on Trains”
• Paolo Bacigalupi "The Calorie Man"
• Mary Rosenblum "Search Engine"
• Cory Doctorow "When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth"

That second "introduction" is actually a series of letters between Bruce Sterling and John Kessel starting in 1985, which sounds like it's about the heart of the cyberpunk-humanist split. I hadn't even suspected such a thing existed, and I can't wait to read it myself.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted their most recent list of new books sees, this time covering the second week of May. Notable titles on that list include the Jack Dann-Gardner Dozois original anthology Wizards and the SFBC original anthology Alien Crimes edited by Mike Resnick (which you can only buy from us...so click that link).

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tobias Buckell continues to post from his second novel, Ragamuffin (all in all, the first third of it will eventually be available on-line). Four chapters are up now, and you can get to them all from here.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Locus Online has posted a list of new editions of classic SFF books that they've seen recently, including the SFBC omnibus Tales of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the new Library of America Four Novels of the 1960s by Philip K. Dick, the SFBC 50th Anniversary Collection edition of Mary Gentle's Rats and Gargoyles, and more.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted their usual weekly list of newly published books that they've seen, which includes Kelley Armstrong's No Humans Involved, Keri Arthur's Dangerous Games, Holly Black's Ironside, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, David Gunn's Death's Head, the exclusive SFBC omnibus Long-Time Listener, First Time Werewolf by Carrie Vaughn, and more.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The June magazine started to wend its way into the mail-stream yesterday, and that means it's time for me to announce all of the new books that are contained within it. So, without further ado...

Selections:

• The Last Colony by John Scalzi; the completion of a loose trilogy with Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades, in which our heroes lead a new colony and much more of the background is revealed.
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, a great debut fantasy novel about the life story of a very interesting character with a compelling voice.

Alternates:

• Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold; our "50th Anniversary Collection" continues with this gripping Hugo Award-winning entry in the "Vorkosigan" series.
• Best Short Novels: 2007, edited by Jonathan Strahan; if I could make any book required reading for club members, it would be this series...
• Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, beginning a new alternate-historical WWII series by the authors of Gettysburg.
• Wizard Under Fire by Jim Butcher; our fourth omnibus collecting the great "Dresden Files" contemporary fantasy series (which many of you may recognize from the Sci-Fi Channel TV show) includes Proven Guilty and the brand-new novel White Night.
• A Fate Worse Than Dragons by John Moore is the newest funny fantasy from a modern master, with brave knights boldly searching for dragons to be slain, princesses to be saved, and toast to be buttered.
• The Dream-Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon; a new book in a spin-off from her "Dark Hunter" series
• Sword of the Deceiver by Sarah Zettel; a new tale of Isavalta

Other New Books:

• How to Cheat at Everything by Simon Lovell; a very useful book, but don't think you'll be invited to my poker night if I see you've bought it!
• Scourge of the Seas by Angus Konstam; a history of pirates! (And who doesn't love pirates?)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online sees all and knows all...and they have just seen some new books during the last week of April, including John Scalzi's The Last Colony, Eric Flint and David Weber's 1634: The Baltic War, and several more.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, that's another month down. And what do we have to show for it? I don't know about you, but, for myself and the other SFBC editors, here's what we've been busy digging up for you:

• Fantasy Art Now! by Martin McKenna, a world-wide collection of great new art from lots and lots of different artists (many of whom I was previously unfamiliar with).
• Imaginistix by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, the new book from the First Couple of Fantasy Art.
• Settling Accounts: In at the Death by Harry Turtledove, which finishes up his alternate WWII saga (and, I think, the whole mega-series that started with How Few Remain).
• The Devil's Rose by Brom, another heavily illustrated -- and disturbing -- novel from the well-known artist and author of The Plucker.
• Firefly: The Official Companion, Volume Two by Joss Whedon is pretty self-explanatory.
• Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, the collection of a futuristic Batman story by one of the most interesting comics creators working today
• Flinx of the Commonwealth by Alan Dean Foster, an omnibus of the. first three novels (by internal chronology) of the popular and long-running SF adventure series.
• The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald, a great first SF novel
• Warlord by Jennifer Fallon, finale of the "Hythrun" epic fantasy trilogy.
• Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, second half (after Hunters of Dune) of the story Herbert & Anderson wrote from Frank Herbert's long-lost notes for "Dune #7."
• Deepwood by Jennifer Roberson, continuing the story from Karavans.
• The Company They Keep by Kage Baker, our fourth omnibus collecting the brilliant "Company" series; this one gathers up the big finish -- The Machine's Child and The Sons of Heaven -- and should be required reading for anyone who likes SF at all.
• A Fortress in Shadow by Glen Cook is the second omnibus of the "Dread" empire novels from Night Shade Books -- this one collects the two prequels.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volume I by Joss Whedon and many others, a giant collection of Buffy comics.
• The Star Wars Vault by Stephen Sansweet, an amazing book about the history of Star Wars that includes replicas of all sorts of paraphernalia and ephemera -- including fold-outs, letters that pull out of envelopes, and other cool stuff.

And some books that other clubs recently bought that we've scheduled:

• The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, the betselling detective story set in an alternate history where the post-WWII Jewish homeland was established in Alaska.
• The Society of S by Susan Hubbard, a novel about a young woman who discovers that there's something...different...about her family.
• Master of Dragons by Angela Knight, a sequel to Master of Swords in the ongoing paranormal romance series.
• Wolf Empire by Scott Ian Barry, a photographic look at the lives of wolves.
• Knight:A Noble Guide to Young Squires by Dugald Steer, a historically-accurate book about knighthood for younger readers.

These are mostly the new books for our August magazine, which members will see in mid-July. And we're still busy buying -- I made offers on two things yesterday, and made one deal...but that'll have to wait for next month...

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Chapter Feeds has the beginning of David Farland's new "Runelords" novel, Sons of the Oak, available online.

Tobias Buckell is posting the first third of his new novel Ragamuffin in installments as a teaser: here's the first chapter. (Or you can buy the whole book from the SFBC in about a month.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted a listing of the new books they've seen in the third week of April, which includes the belated US trade edition of Greg Bear's Quantico, Jim Butcher's White Night (also available in the SFBC omnibus Wizard Under Fire), Sandra McDonald's The Outback Stars (coming soon as a SFBC selection), Joel Shepherd's Breakaway, and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Hurin.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chapter Feeds has the beginning of Joan D. Vinge's classic novel Psion available now.

Lou Anders lists the massive number of sample chapters available for Pyr books, including titles by Jack Dann, Sean Williams, Chris Roberson, Ian McDonald, Joel Shepherd, and Justina Robson.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online had two new lists of recently published books over the weekend:

• their usual weekly listing of new books received, including Matt Haig's The Dead Fathers Club, the SFBC omnibus The Magic of Reason by Justine Larbalestier, and more
• and a listing of new paperbacks seen in April, including John Barnes's The Armies of Memory, Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Scion, Raymond E. Feist's Flight of the Nighthawks, Peter F. Hamilton's Judas Unchained, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Sean MicMullen's Voidfarer, John Ringo's Into the Looking Glass, and Jennifer Roberson's Karavans.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, the May SFBC package started to go into the mail. Those of you who are members will see it in your mailboxes in a week to ten days (sooner, if you live close to central Pennsylvania), but, for now, they should all be up online. Let's see if they are...

Selections: 

• The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien; I could call this "long-awaited," but, really, this isn't a book anyone expected. Tolkien's son and literary heir Christopher Tolkien has assembled a complete, novel-length version of one of the three "Great Tales" that Tolkien worked on over his entire life, using bits and pieces of a massive number of different fragmentary versions of the same tale to form a whole -- they're all Tolkien's words, but it took Christopher Tolkien to put them together in a way we could all read and appreciate them.
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, thankfully, doesn't require as much explanation: it's a neat near-future SF novel involving both radio communication with intelligent aliens and rejuvenation treatments.

Alternates:

• Tales of Mars is the fourth and last of our omnibus collecting Edgar Rice Burroughs's entire "Barsoom" saga; this book includes Llana of Gathol and John Carter of Mars
• Spindrift by Allen Steel is a new standalone SF novel related to his "Coyote" books
• Breakaway by Joel Shepherd is the sequel to Crossover, and continues the adventures of android soldier Cassandra Kresnov
• Deadly Game by Christine Feehan, a paranormal romance in the "GhostWalkers" series
• No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong is the new novel in her loose "Women of the Otherworld" series; this one features the necromancer Jaime Vegas
• Physik is the third in the "Septimus Heap" young adult fantasy series by Angie Sage
• Soul Eater is also the third in a series, this time Michelle Paver's pre-historical fantasy "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness"
• And Long-Time Listener, First-Time Werewolf is an omnibus of the first three "Kitty" contemporary fantasy novels from Carrie Vaughn, about a young woman who's both a radio talk-show host and a werewolf...

Altiverse:

The Superhero Book and The Supervillain Book, both by Gina Misiroglu, are great, fun-to-browse reference books covering hundreds of super-powered folks, good and evil, from all kids of media.

Supernatural Romance Flyer:

• Bite Me If You Can by Lynsay Sands
• Dead Sexy by Amanda Ashley
• Bled Dry by Erin McCarthy
• Night Lost by S.L. Viehl

Other Places:

• Whoosh Boom Splat by William Gustelle, a guide to building all manner of projectile shooters, from a potato cannons to simple jet engines
• Death by Black Hole by Neil de Grasse Tyson, a collection of essays by the director of the Hayden Planetarium

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Locus Online has posted another list of recently-published books that they've seen, including Keri Arthur's Tempting Evil, the Leslie Conron-edited Irish Fireside Tales (a bookclub exclusive), Robert J. Sawyer's Rollback, and the SFBC omnibus On Her Majesty's Occult Service by Charles Stross.

Update: SF Site has posted a very similar list, covering roughly the same time period, including links to the books that they have reviewed.

Update 2: And, from the other side of the pond, The UK SF Book News Network has also posted a list of recent books that they've seen.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has another list of new books this week, including Raymond E. Feist's Into a Dark Realm, Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind, and Allen Steele's Spindrift.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online yesterday posted a list of new editions of classic SFF books, including Ben Bova's The Sam Gunn Omnibus, Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage (in a new trade edition -- the first in a generation -- from Fairwood Press), The Jack Vance Treasury, and the SFBC 50th Anniversary Edition of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted another of their roughly-weekly listings of new books that they've seen, covering the end of March and including Justine Larbalestier's Magic's Child (also available in the SFBC omnibus The Magic of Reason), Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet, and Justina Robson's Keeping It Real.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chapter Feeds has the first chapter of Elizabeth Haydon's The Assassin King available now.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been busy as usual, reading and thinking about books, and these are the things we've finalized over the past month:

• Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, a novel of super-heroics that Altiverse editor Jay Franco has been raving about (and that I still need to find time to read myself)
• The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, their latest anthology of great new stories based on mythic tales, for readers of all ages
• Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey, the middle book in the second seductive trilogy
• Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss, the big pivotal middle book in the "Legacy of the Force" series, where everything changes
• The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois, the 800-pound gorilla of SF, full of amazing stories (not to mention astounding and incredible ones) 
• Wizards edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, an original anthology of stories about magic, with a great line-up of writers starting with Neil Gaiman and running through Orson Scott Card
• Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan, a gritty near-future thriller of genetics and identity from the author of the Takeshi Kovacs novels
• 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber, the latest novel in the Ring of Fire series
• The Beast Within: The Art of Ken Barr by Ken Barr, a collection of the art of a master of comics covers
• The Alton Gift by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross, first in a new Darkover trilogy
• Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen, collecting the critically acclaimed epic fantasy comics series...about sword-slinging mice

And there are also a number of books our sister clubs have bought that we'll be featuring to SFBC members:

• Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, a near-future satire from the author of Thank You for Smoking
• Dead Sexy by Tate Halliway, a frothy paranormal romance about a witch
• Kiss of Midnight and Kiss of Crimson by Lara Adrian, two books in another paranormal romance series
• The Hazards of Space Travel by Neil F. Comins, which is about just what it says it is
• Anti Gravity by Steve Mirsky, a collection of the popular column from Scientific American
• MacArthur's War by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson, an alternate history novel about the invasion of Japan
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, translated by Anthea Bell, a mystery novel in which a flock of sheep solve the murder of their shepherd
• The Monk by Matthew Lewis, the classic Gothic novel, in a new edition with an introduction by Stephen King
• 101 Outer Space Projects for the Evil Genius by Dave Prochnow, a book of hands-on projects for the space buff
• The Arabian Nights, Volumes I and II translated by Hussain Haddawy, a large recent translation of the Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night
• Blaze by Richard Bachman, a recently-discovered, very early novel by the late master of horror

Those books will be coming up in the SFBC's Summer and July mailings, mostly (with a few later than that) -- they'll start mailing in late May. Happy reading!

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Locus Online's new list over the weekend detailed the new paperback reprints they'd seen over the past month, including Ben Bova's Titan, Douglas Clegg's Mordred, Bastard Son, Julie E. Czerneda's Regeneration, Steven Erikson's House of Chains, Craig Shaw Gardner's Battlestar Galactica: The Cylons' Secret, David Keck's In the Eye of Heaven, and James Morrow's The Last Witchfinder.

(But all those books I just mentioned are also still available from the SFBC -- and, if you're not a member, you can get five books of your choice for a dollar each by joining.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spring is here, spring is here. Spring is skittles, spring is beer.

But Spring is also an issue of the SFBC's magazine (which old-timers like me will remember used to be called "Things to Come," but goes without a magazine-style title these days), and that has new books in it. That Spring magazine started mailing yesterday, and the new books in it are...

Selections:

• Alien Crimes edited by Mike Resnick, another great SFBC original, with six new novellas that you won't find anywhere else
• Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson, fifth in the gargantuanly entertaining "Malazan Book of the Fallen" epic fantasy series

Alternates:

• Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle, a great but little-talked-about novel of strange magics and cities that we're bringing back as part of our 50th Anniversary Collection
• Star Trek: Vulcan's Soul by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, an omnibus collecting a trilogy about Vulcan's mysterious past...and uncertain future
• The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper, the first solo SF novel by the co-author (with Larry Niven) of Building Harlequin's Moon
• Jack Knife by Virginia Baker, a time-travel serial-killer novel
• Into a Dark Realm by Raymond E. Feist, the newest tale from Midkemia
• You Suck by Christopher Moore, a humorous novel about vampires that's a sequel to Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends
• The Magic of Reason by Justine Larbalestier, collecting all three acclaimed, wonderful "Reason Cansino" novels into one handy volume

Other Places:

• Kissing Sin, Tempting Evil, and Dangerous Games by Keri Arthur; three books in a contemporary fantasy-romance series with supernatural creatures
• Hollow Earth by David Standish, a heavily illustrated guide to one of mankind's weirdest ideas, in all of its manifestations
• Space Invaders by Michel Van Pelt and Distant Worlds by Peter Bond; two books about robot space probes

And I hope you can find something of interest amongst all of that stuff.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The covers for the US and UK editions of J.K. Rowling's seventh and final "Harry Potter" book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, were released today. (I got them from Publishers Weekly, myself.)

Here they are:

(The US cover looks pretty good to my eye, but I can't say anything printable about my reaction to the UK cover.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday a big box arrived at the SFBC Fortress of Solitude, bearing hot-off-the-presses copies of our newest original anthology, Mike Resnick's Alien Crimes.

(We only publish three or four really original books a year, so I hope you'll forgive us if we get excited about them.)

Alien Crimes is a companion to Resnick's previous anthology, Down These Dark Spaceways; while Spaceways had stories about private detectives in SFnal settings, Crimes features police and other official investigators.

Alien Crimes contains six brand-new novellas by some of the best writers in the business:

• “Nothing Personal” by Pat Cadigan
• “A Locked-Planet Mystery” by Mike Resnick
• “Hoxbomb” by Harry Turtledove
• “End of the World” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• “Dark Heaven” by Gregory Benford
• “Womb of Every World” by Walter Jon Williams

We're pretty busy right now sending Alien Crimes to the contributors and to reviewers, but, if you want your own copy, just click on that link and you can get it (and four other books) for a buck each by joining the SFBC. You're not going to see a deal like that anywhere else...and you're not going to see Alien Crimes anywhere else, either.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Locus Online has posted another list of recently-published SFF books that they've seen, covering mid-March and including Brenda Cooper's The Silver Ship and the Sea and Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a YouTube clip (embedded on the linked page) John Scalzi's novels The Android's Dream and Old Man's War promote themselves, and engage in a bit of gentle rivalry.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scholastic has announced that the US first printing of the seventh and last "Harry Potter" book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be twelve million. This is an increase over the last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had a comparatively paltry first printing of 10.8 million.

Deathly Hallows will publish July 21st, and Scholastic has planned a multi-million-dollar publicity campaign, so that even hermits who live under rocks will not be able to avoid knowing about the new book.

[fuller story in The Washington Post]

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publishers Weekly reports today that Jonathan Lethem has offered the film rights to his new novel, You Don't Love Me Yet, for free to the filmmaker who makes "the best pitch." Lethem wants 2% of the film's final budget (possibly only to be paid after a distribution deal is in place), and for the film's ancilliary rights to be released into the public domain five years after the movie is made. 

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sean Wallace has released the table of contents for Horror: The Best of the Year: 2007 Edition, which he co-edits with John Betancourt.

And those included stories are:

• "Hallucigenia," Laird Barron
• "Everything is Better with Zombies," Hannah Wolf Bowen
• "Immortal Forms," Albert Cowdrey
• "La Profounde," Terry Dowling
• "The Virgin Butcher," Brenna Yovanoff Graham
• "The Saffron Hunters," Elizabeth Hand
• "Girl with the Lute," Samantha Henderson
• "The Muldoon," Glen Hirshberg
• "Raphael," Stephen Graham Jones
• "Lydia's Body," Vylar Kaftan
• "Pony," Caitlin Kiernan
• "A Pig's Whisper," Margo Lanagan
• "The Changeling," Sarah Langan
• "The Moment of Joy Before," Claudia O'Keefe
• "The Novel of the Holocaust," Stewart O'Nan
• "Journey into the Kingdom," M. Rickert
• "My Travels with Al-Qaeda," Lavie Tidhar words.
• "It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks," Paul Tremblay
• "Sob in the Silence," Gene Wolfe

Update, 3/13: Wallace has re-posted the table of contents; the Joyce Carol Oates story "Babysitter" is no longer included.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Locus Online has posted their weekly list of newly published genre books; among the titles of interest the first week of March are Tad Williams's Shadowplay and new books by Anne Bishop, Carol Emshwiller, and Diana Wynne Jones.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The April SFBC magazine went into the mail yesterday, so I should now be able to link to all of the new books. Let's see if they all work...

Selections:

• On Her Majesty's Occult Service, a great 2-in-1 of my favorite Charlie Stross series (The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue), under a neat John Picacio cover
• Shadowplay, second in the current epic fantasy series by the amazing Tad Williams

Alternates:

• Moonsinger, an omnibus (originally put together by Baen Books) of two Andre Norton classics: Moon of Three Rings and Exiles of the Stars
• Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Exile by Aaron Allston, fourth in the current sub-series