Sci-Fi Fan Letter Issue 14

The World's Biggest Bookstore's Science Fiction and Fantasy Newsletter Issue 14 October 2007

Hominid
By Robert J. Sawyer.

In the Hugo Award winning first book in the Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy, Robert J. Sawyer posits an alternate Earth where Neanderthals rose to sentience while our forebears went the way of the dodo. A modern day Neanderthal physicist, through a freak quantum accident, finds himself trapped in our world's Northern Ontario surrounded by strange, thin, hairless apes. As the two cultures learn to bridge their differences, the ramifications of this event is seen on both Earths. Sawyer manages to combine the qualities of "Planet of the Apes", Clan of the Cave Bear, "Stargate" and Perry Mason into an imaginative work of speculative fiction.

-Leeman

***Meet Canadian Science Fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and several winners of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest at the World’s Biggest Bookstore Tuesday Novembr 6th at 6 pm. ***

Lord of the Fading Lands
By: C. L. Wilson
If you enjoy the blend of romance and fantasy employed by LUNA books, then you will love this new book by Dorchester Publishing: Lord of the Fading Lands.
C.L. Wilson’s city of Celieria is impeccably detailed and populated with an interesting and yet wholly realistic cast of characters.
The Fey Truthspeaker is coming for her annual visit, and this year the Feyreisen, King of the Fey, is accompanying her. He is searching for the woman whom their oracle showed could save the dying tairen, magical winged cats, whose fates are intertwined with those of his people.
Little does he realize that this woman is his shei’tani, his soul-mate, and that she is already unwillingly betrothed to another. As if that weren’t enough, the Eld, mages and ancient enemy of the Fey, are plotting once more.
This debut will draw you into a magical weave of spirit and air that won’t release you until the last word is read.

-Jessica Strider

Poltergeist
By: Kat Richardson
Harper Blaine was an ordinary small-time PI on a case that went wrong when she was killed. She was medically dead for two minutes and when medical technology brought her back, she discovered something different about herself: she was able to see the unseen and to walk within the veil separating the past from the present and the normal from the paranormal. It is a power she does not want, especially as it seems to attract all sorts of trouble, including her most recent case centering around a research group that has created an artificial poltergeist that seems to have a penchant for murder.
What can I say about the Greywalker novels? The covers are intriguing, and that alone was enough to get me to pick up the books. But what about the actual stories themselves?
With Greywalker, there was something about the book that kept drawing me back no matter how many times I put it down and went to something else. I decided to reserve judgment until I read a second book. Now a second book has come out, Poltergeist, and this time I read it from start to finish without going to something else. Kat Richardson is an author to keep an eye on. She gets better and better with each book.

- Mel

Dreams of Inan: Stealing Life
By: Antony Johnston
If Nicco Salarum had been more careful during his bank heist he wouldn’t have gotten caught and thereby gone into debt to the local mob boss, Wallus Bazhanka, for getting him out of jail. He wouldn’t have gone further into debt by deciding to dump Bazhanka’s cargo rather than kill a man. And so he wouldn’t have taken the wizard Xandus’s job to steal Governor Werrdun of Hurrundan’s necklace of office during his visit to Azbantha. Which would have been good for Nicco. Because stealing the necklace is just the start of his troubles.
Dreams of Inan is a new series by Abaddon Books, where magic and technology are both highly developed though not equally or universally accepted.
A unique idea with a lot of potential, keep your eyes peeled for the next book in this series.

-Jessica Strider

Coming in November
Hardcover:
War Hammer: With Only Death - Dan Abnett
Prador Moon - Neal Asher
High King’s Tomb - Kristen Britain
Genesis - Paul Chafe
Fallowblade - Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Confessor - Terry Goodkind
Carnifex - Tom Kratman
Cauldron - Jack McDevitt
Sagittarius Command - R.M. Meluch
Reader & Raelynx - Sharon Shinn
Better to Beg Forgiveness - Michael Willamson
Pirate Freedom - Gene Wolfe

Trade Paperback:
Sky Coyote - Kage Baker
Tesseracts 11 - Cory Doctorow & Holly Phillips
Eifelheim - Michael Flynn
Heart of Stone - C.E. Murphy
Evil for Evil - K.J. Parker
Killswitch - Joel Shepherd
Elemental Magic- Sharon Shinn
Star Trek: Blood Will Tell - Scott Tipton

Mass Market Paperback:
War Hammer: Armour of Contempt - Dan Abnett
Star Wars: Fury - Aaron Allston
Cursor’s Fury - Jim Butcher
Empire - Orson Scott Card
Pearls - Deborah Chester
Tower of Fear - Glen Cook
Weatherwitch - Cecilia Dart-Thornton
Grantville Gazette Vol III - Eric Flint
Forgotten Realms: Neversfall - Ed Gentry
Prodigal - Marc Giller
Wizards, Inc. - Martin Greenberg & M. Coleman
Assassin King - Elizabeth Haydon
People of the Dark - Robert Howard
Forgotten Realms: Crypt of the Moaning Diamond - Rosemary Jones
Dragon Lance: Black Talon - Richard Knaak
Crystal Dragon - Sharon Lee
Dragon’s Fire - Anne McCaffrey & Todd McCaffrey
Dragon Lance: Secret of Pax Tharkas - Douglas Niles
Star Born - Andre Norton
Cracked Throne - Joshua Palmatier
Choosers of the Slain - John Ringo
Sixty Days & Counting - Kim Stanley Robinson
War Hammer: Hour of the Daemon - Aaron Rosenberg
Saint City Sinners - Lilith Saintcrow
War Hammer: Descent of Angels - Mitchel Scanlon
War Hammer: Desert Raiders - Lucien Soulban
Wolf Who Rules - Wen Spencer
Watcher - Jeanne Stein
Dragon Lance: Warroir’s Bones - Stephen Sullivan
Star Trek: Sword of Democles - Geoffrey Thorne
Dragonfrigate Wizard Halcyon Blithe - James Ward