Reviewing the Mail 2/11: Trade SFF

There has been a surge of books into the Hornswoggler mailbox this past week, so "Reviewing the Mail" has been divided, like Gaul, into three parts. (This may be a persistent change, or not, depending on whether the flood continues.) This first post will focus on new or upcoming Science Fiction and Fantasy books in hardcover and trade paperback; the following posts will look at mass-market books and comics.

Michael Swanwick is one of the great fantasy writers of our time, and The Iron Dragon's Daughter is one of his best novels -- inasmuch as one can compare books like Jack Faust, Stations of the Tide, and Vacuum Flowers to each other. So I was really excited to hear that he was returning to the world of Iron Dragon, and now I have The Dragons of Babel in my hands. Even more exciting personally, Babel grew out of Swanwick's great novella "King Dragon," originally written for Marvin Kaye's anthology The Dragon Quintet and published by a certain operation to which I used to be attached. It has a gorgeous Stephan Martiniere cover, it was published about three weeks ago, and it's almost certainly one of the great fantasy novels of 2008 -- so go get it, already. (And, if you don't believe me, the back-cover quotes are from Gene Wolfe, Kage Baker, Jane Yolen, and Vernor Vinge -- who know whereof they speak.)

I've only read a couple of Dave Duncan's books, but he's always impressed me with his deep humanity, sometimes expressed in humor and sometimes expressed in drama. The Alchemist's Code is the second in a series that appears to lean towards the witty side -- it's set in an alternate Venice and the hero is the celebrated clairyvoyant Filippo Nostradamu. This one is publishing March 4th in trade paperback, so you've got a little time to save your shekels and start bugging your local book-purveyor.

The Queen's Bastard is a book a know less about: it's by C.E. Murphy and may be that author's first fantasy novel. C.E. is described as the author of the Walker Papers series, which I don't know. I was going to guess that "C.E." hid a male writer -- since Queen's Bastard is about a young woman in a medieval secondary-world -- but a quick Google proved me wrong.

The Unnatural Inquirer is the eighth book in the "Nightside" series, which means that it's almost time for a certain Special Fabulous Book Club to try to do a third omnibus (memo to any members of the current regime who may be lurking here). My ex-boss, the irreplaceable Ellen Asher, was a big fan of these books, which take the usual urban fantasy mixture (a little supernatural, a little mystery, usually more than a little romance), remix it for a male protagonist and set it all on the "Nightside" of London. (China Mieville's recent novel Un Lun Dun has a similar premise, probably conceived independently.) In the Nightside books, John Taylor is a PI mostly working the supernatural side of London, and, in this book, he's looking for supposed proof of the Afterlife for a supernatural scandal sheet. (Which I wish Green had called The Moon, though that might have been too subtle for most Americans.) The Unnatural Inquirer is already in stores, and was published by Ace.

Navigator is the third in Stephen Baxter's series Time's Tapestry, which, from what I've seen, is the very least alternate history I know of. This one covers the Norman Conquest through 1492, with rebellion in England and clashes between Islam and Christendom the major themes. Has anyone out there read this series closely enough to explain what keeps these from being historical novels? (I often like historical novels; I'm just wondering.) Ace published Navigator in January in hardcover.

Debatable Space is a first novel, a space opera, and a book with space pirates in it. From a quick glance through it, Debatable Space also has more than its share of typographical tricks. So I think it's clear that Philip Palmer (whose novel this is) does not plan to swim with the current and write something just like everybody else. I find that exceptionally encouraging. Orbit published Debatable Space (on this side of the pond) in trade paperback in January.

Bloodheir is also from Orbit, though it's not published yet -- it's coming in June in trade paperback. Bloodheir is the sequel to Winterbirth, which means -- for those of you who have been keeping track of such things -- that it's by Brian Ruckley. It looks like bloody, pseudo-Viking epic fantasy of the George Martin variety, but it's only just over 500 pages, and so will cause less damage to reader's wrists.

Last for this post is Iain M. Banks's eagerly awaited new Culture novel, Matter. The cover is striking, but I still doubt if it will be any help to bring in SF readers who don't already know Banks. And, given his track record in the States over the years, assuming everyone already knows Banks is a dangerous strategy. Of course, I only care because Banks should be more widely read here: he writes smart, literate space opera and has the knack of writing stories about people that illuminate larger issues. He's precisely the kind of writer the Mundane SF types think shouldn't exist -- unabashedly science fictional, and able to keep his politics behind the fiction, instead of tediously up front. Matter is also Banks's fattest book in a while, so all those of you who buy books by weight -- and I have to again admit that I don't understand you at all -- should be very happy. Matter is also published by Orbit (in the US and UK), and the official date is February. You can probably find it now, in fact.