Secrets of the Wee Free Men and Discworld: The Myths and Legends of Terry Pratchett's Multiverse
by Linda Washington
Published 2008 by St. Martin's Griffin

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780312372439

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A fascinating guide to the international bestselling Discworld series and the award-winning "The Wee Free Men"--soon to be a major motion picture

Before J. K. Rowling became the best-selling author in Britain, Terry Pratchett wore that hat. With over 45 million books sold, Pratchett is an international phenomenon. His brainchild is the Discworld series--novels he began as parodies of other works like "Macbeth, Faust," and "The Arabian Nights," "The Wee Free Men," one of Pratchett's most popular novels, will be made into a movie by "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi. It's the story of 9-year-old wannabe witch Tiffany Aching, who unites with the Nac Mac Feegle (6-inch-tall blue men who like to fight and love to drink) to free her brother from an evil fairy queen.

A fun, interactive guide that will explore the land of Discword, "Secrets of "The Wee Free" Men and Discworld "is filled with sidebars, mythology trivia, and includes a bio of the fascinating author Terry Pratchett, and an in-depth analysis of his work. This unofficial guide is a great resource for readers of "The Wee Free Men" and the other books of the Discworld series.

07/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-This fan-fueled guide to all things Pratchett compares and contrasts the contents of the "Discworld" series with references to popular culture and not-so-well-known science and history. Written in a humorous style with footnotes (in tribute to Pratchett), this is mainly a work for and by devotees of the 35-plus novels. Chapters are themed based on origins of the Discworld or a comparison to other works including the mystery genre and theater. Characters are discussed in depth, including Death, the witches, and wizards. Spoiler warnings are given as major plot points are divulged along the way. Wikipedia and other online sources are heavily relied upon for quotes and references. The book suggests a larger focus on the juvenile series that begins with The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins, 2003), but its audience is really well-versed Pratchett readers.-Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library

Grantville Gazette IV: Sequels to 1632
by Eric Flint
Published 2008 by Baen Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416555544

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After the West Virginia town of Grantville was unceremoniously hurled back through time to the 1630s, the 17th century would never be the same. This new and indispensable volume is ideal for the many followers of the 1632 series.

Marsbound
by Joe Haldeman
Published 2008 by Ace Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780441015955

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Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime--they're going to Mars, in this novel from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of "The Accidental Time Machine" and "Old Twentieth."

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/16/2008

Hugo and Nebula-winner Haldeman infuses this yarn with his teen narrator's intelligent curiosity. Carmen Dula, part of the first human colony on Mars, looks like a typical young adult heroine: distanced from her parents, irritated by her bratty younger sibling and beset by tyrannical colony administrator Dargo Solingen. Then she accidentally discovers real Martians living in an underground city and has to convince Solingen that her story is true. When the Martians reveal a terrible threat to life on Earth, it's up to Carmen and her friends to save the day. Recalling Robert A. Heinlein's Red Planet and Podkayne of Mars, Haldeman updates the Martian setting while keeping faith in his characters' ability to respond to unexpected challenges. (Aug.)

Mage-Guard of Hamor
by L. E., Jr. Modesitt
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765319272

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Acclaimed author Modesitt continues his new Recluce story in this second of two volumes set mostly on the continent of Hamor, far across the sea from Recluce, where the story began. This is the story of how Rahl gains more knowledge, power, and self-control.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 05/12/2008

Thick as it is, the 15th Recluce novel is actually just the second half of the story that began with Natural Ordermage (2007), in which young Rahl was exiled from Recluce because he couldn't control his passions or considerable magical talents. Now on the much larger island of Hamor, where magicians work for the government, he resentfully receives the protection and training he needs from older mage-guard Taryl, who never seems satisfied even with Rahl's best efforts. More serious tests follow when the emperor's brother leads a revolt and Rahl is sent off with the troops. As he endures a long military campaign-with readers feeling they've slogged along with him through detailed descriptions of crops, architecture and weather-Rahl realizes that order isn't quite the same thing as good, and chaos isn't necessarily evil. Watching him learn to work within this complicated system and decide what's important makes the dolorous trek worthwhile. (July)

Zoe's Tale
by John Scalzi
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765316981

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A return to the bestselling Old Man's War universe, "Zoe's Tale" features oneof the most appealing characters in the series.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/23/2008

In the touching fourth novel set in the Old Man's War universe, Scalzi revisits the events of 2007's The Last Colony from the perspective of Zoë, adopted daughter of previous protagonists Jane Sagan and John Perry. Jane and John are drafted to help found the new human colony of Roanoke, struggling against a manipulative and deceitful homeworld government, native werewolf-like creatures and a league of aliens intent on preventing all space expansion and willing to eradicate the colony if needed. Meanwhile, teenage Zoë focuses more on her poetic boyfriend, Enzo; her sarcastic best friend, Gretchen; and her bodyguards, a pair of aliens from a race called the Obin who worship and protect Zoë because of a scientific breakthrough made by her late biological father. Readers of the previous books will find this mostly a rehash, but engaging character development and Scalzi's sharp ear for dialogue will draw in new readers, particularly young adults. (Aug.)

The Risen Empire
by Scott Westerfeld
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780765319982

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"The Risen Empire" is the first great space opera of the 21st century.

"The action moves with the pace of a well-executed military operation; a fascinating clash of supertechnologies. This story has everything: combat, intrigue, politics, and even an undead cat collection." -John C. Wright

The undead Emperor has ruled his mighty interstellar empire of eighty human worlds for sixteen hundred years. Because he can grant a form of eternal life, creating an elite known as the Risen, his power has been absolute. He is worshipped as a living god. No one can touch him.

Not until the Rix, machine-augmented humans who worship AI minds of planetary extent. The Rix are cool, relentless fanatics, whose only goal is to propagate such AIs throughout the galaxy. They seek to end the Emperor's tyranny, and replace it with an eternal cybernetic dynasty. They begin by taking hostage the Child Empress, his sister, who is eternally a little girl. Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Frigate Lynx is tasked with her rescue.

Separated by light years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist Senator Nara Oxham must each, in their own way, face the challenge of the Rix, as they hold the fate of the empire in their hands.

From the acclaimed author of "Fine Prey," "Polymorph," and "Evolution's Darling" (Philip K. Dick Award special citation and a "New York Times" Notable Book) comes a sweeping epic, Succession, which begins in "The Risen Empire,"

Implied Spaces
by Walter Jon Williams
Published 2008 by Night Shade Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781597801256

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Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself. Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmesssa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 05/05/2008

In this grandly scaled space opera from bestseller Williams (Hardwired), swashbuckling computer scientist Aristide explores pretechnological "pocket" universes in search of interesting "implied spaces," the unintended regions that come into existence between deliberately designed structures. Then he uncovers evidence of a dark collective that's kidnapping people and sending them to pockets where a virus co-opts their minds and turns them into willing spies and assassins. Evidence implicates one of the Eleven planet-sized quantum computers, somehow corrupted in spite of its "Asimovian safeguards." Armed with a wormhole-edged broadsword and accompanied by his sidekick, Bitsy, an avatar of one of the Eleven in the form of a talking cat, Aristide finds himself hunted, brainwashed, killed and resurrected more than once before he learns the truth. Williams tells the tale with enthusiasm and a crisp, dry wit well suited to this entertaining blend of high adventure, intrigue and postsingularity technology. (July)

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent
by Galen Beckett
Published 2008 by Bantam Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780553589825

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In a unique new fantasy series, newcomer Beckett introduces readers to a world of magic and revolution, where secrets lurk under the rigid conventions of high society.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/02/2008

Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and H.P. Lovecraft collide in Beckett's periodically entertaining debut. Young Ivy Lockwell, the unmarried daughter of a family stricken with poverty after her magician father went mad, travels from her home in Invarel, a mirror of Austen-era London, to become a governess at the country estate of Heathcrest, a Bronte-analogue complete with mysterious Rochester stand-in, Mr. Quent. As a woman, she is forbidden to perform magic and consoles herself with the study of magical history, discovering an ancient story still working its will on the world. Treading a fine line between homage and unoriginality, Invarel occasionally sparkles with descriptions of illusionist shows and quasi-fascist government activity, but Heathcrest is lifted part and parcel from Jane Eyre, and Beckett relies too much on references to that work to fuel emotional arcs and reader attachment. (Aug.)

Saturn's Children: A Space Opera
by Charles Stross
Published 2008 by Ace Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780441015948

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Freya Nakamichi 47 is a femmebot, one of the last of her kind. With no humans left to pay for the pleasures she provides, she agrees to transport a mysterious package from Mercury to Mars. Unfortunately, there are some humanoids who will stop at nothing to possess the contents of the package.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 05/12/2008

Sex oozes from every page of this erotic futuristic thriller. In a far-future class-driven android society, most of the populace are slave-chipped and owned by wealthy "aristos." When low-caste but unenslaved android Freya offends an aristo and needs to get off-world, she takes a courier position with the mysterious Jeeves Corporation, but the job turns out to have dangers of its own. Designed as a pleasure-module, Freya isn't quite as obsolete as she could be, as androids have sex with each other incessantly. Hugo-winner Stross (Halting State) has a deep message of how android slavery recapitulates humanity's past mistakes, but he struggles to make it heard over the moans and gunshots. Readers nostalgic for the SF of the '60s will find much that's familiar (including Freya's jumpsuit-clad form on the cover), but that doesn't quite compensate for the flaws. (July)

Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show
by Edmund R. Schubert
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780765320001

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Bestselling writer Card founded the online magazine "Intergalactic Medicine Show" in 2006. This collection showcases the zine's science fiction and fantasy from new talents and well-known writers from the past year.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/02/2008

The first collection of short stories from online magazine Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show (www.oscims.comIGMS has as much promise as the newcomers it showcases. (Aug.)

Mars Life
by Ben Bova
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765317872

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Jamie Waterman has discovered the fact that an intelligent race lived on Mars 65 million years ago. Now the exploration of Mars is under threat of extinction, as the ultraconservative New Morality movement gains control of the U.S. government and cuts off all funding for the Mars program.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/16/2008

Multiple Hugo-winner Bova pens a gripping and convincing conclusion to the story begun in Mars (1992) and Return to Mars (1999). Jamie Waterman, who discovered cliff dwellings during his first trip to Mars, is struggling to acquire funding for continued research on the long-dead Martians, but his efforts are severely compromised by the increasing influence of religious fundamentalists. Their rise coincides with a global environmental crisis, giving the U.S. government another rationale for shifting resources away from Waterman's work. Even the discovery of a Martian fossil can't ensure the project's viability, and Waterman and his wife return to the red planet in a last-ditch effort to keep the exploration going. Bova deftly captures the excitement of scientific discovery and planetary exploration. This compelling story, balancing action and plausible political intrigue, will easily be enjoyed by both fans and newcomers. (Aug.)

1633
by David Weber
Published 2002 by Baen Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780743435420

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Hurled back in time to the Thirty Years War, West Virginian coal miners, led by Mike Stearns, ally with the King of Sweden to form the Confederated Principalities of Europe. Cardinal Richelieu, ruler of France, is bent on their destruction. As the greatest naval war in history erupts, Mike's "native" wife is trapped in Amsterdam, and his sister is imprisoned in the Tower of London. Sequel to "1632."

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 08/05/2002

In this worthy sequel to the well-received 1632 (2000), about a small West Virginia coal-mining town transported back in time to the Germany of the Thirty Years War, original author Flint and coauthor Weber resist the temptation to use modern technology to impose a Pax Americana, instead allowing their transportees just enough high tech to prevail if they can win allies like Sweden's King Gustavus Adolphus. Most of the current book deals with coalition building, as the visitors from the future attempt to remake their new world into one safe for democracy despite opposition from such as Cardinal Richelieu. History books from a now-hypothetical future and antibiotics prove to be more potent than their limited supply of modern firearms, but the most powerful weapons of the new "United States" are its ideas, which now infect the millions of Germans ground under the heels of their princes. Ordinary Germans develop a new faith in themselves and their future when the Americans show them that they can do anything, even fly. Flint, a former union organizer, is particularly skilled at showing how the new converts can make even the "old Americans" uncomfortable in their zeal to achieve the blessings of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," while Weber helps smooth out characters who were stereotypes in the first book. This is a thoughtful and exciting look at just how powerful are the ideals we sometimes take for granted, and is highly recommended as a reminder of how we can look to others when at our best. (Aug.) FYI: Weber is also the coauthor with Steve White of The Shiva Option (Forecasts, Jan. 28), while Flint is also the coauthor with David Drake of The Tyrant (Forecasts, Mar. 25).

12/01/2002 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A sequel to 1632 (Baen, 2000), this book continues the saga of a West Virginia town hurled by a mysterious time vortex into the middle of Germany during the Thirty Years' War. The residents, led by Mike Stearns and his 17th-century wife Rebecca, attempt to introduce modern American values like freedom of speech to the people. The story recounts their attempts to build an air force (with biplanes powered by automobile motors) and a navy (which includes a few speedboats that happened to have been in town) to challenge the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and the armed forces of France, Spain, and England, but the end result has as much to do with individual heroism as technology. Cleanly written, with an enormous cast of interesting characters, this novel is panoramic in scope. The contrast between the societies of Grantville and Europe allows the authors to examine the virtues of American values and show how the Bill of Rights, though closer to their time than ours, is the most revolutionary difference between the two societies. The ways in which modern knowledge is used without a technological base are fascinating and well researched, as is the real historical information that helps create the background world. Throughout, there is constant action and the hint of danger to characters readers care about.-Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA

The Clone Wars
by Karen Traviss
Published 2008 by Del Rey Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345508980

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A new era of "Star Wars" begins when "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" premieres as an all-new feature film--followed by the television series debut. This tie-in book goes far beyond novelizing the TV episodes: it adds depth and color to the story and characters.

Pirate Sun
by Karl Schroeder
Published 2008 by Tor Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780765315458

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Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of "Sun of Suns" and "Queen of Candesce,"

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees through the sky to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. And perhaps even to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera, who he has not seen since she fled with the key to the artificial sun at the center of Virga, Candesce.

Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard SF space opera.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/09/2008

This fast-paced virtuoso exercise in world-building is the third novel (after 2007's Queen of Candesce) set in Virga, a 5,000-mile wide balloon with a central artificial "sun" and many nations clustered around their own smaller suns. Admiral Chaison Fanning, imprisoned for a daring raid that foiled an attack on his home nation of Slipstream, is rescued by his wife, Venera, but finds he's now regarded as a traitor. Fighting alongside Antaea Argyre, a mysterious woman from the dark far edges of Virga, Fanning learns more about the universe outside and the powers of Candesce, the central sun. Virga is wonderfully imagined, with itinerant gravity sellers, floating farms in nets of dirt, and battles in which one town invades another as buildings smash together and people gather at windows with homemade weapons. The intrigue surrounding a brewing revolution and the threat of invading forces carry readers quickly through this adventure and on to the next installment. (Aug.)

Echoes and Refractions
by Geoff Trowbridge
Published 2008 by Star Trek

Paperback, English. ISBN: 9781416571810

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What began as the exploration of one "Star Trek" parallel universe explodes with the introduction of three new alternate realities, where history takes a different turn at key moments in time.

The Gypsy Morph
by Terry Brooks
Published 2008 by Del Rey Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345484147

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Jacket Notes:

"The Gypsy Morph" represents the shattering conclusion to the "New York Times"-bestselling Genesis of Shannara trilogy.

The Force Unleashed
by Sean Williams
Published 2008 by Del Rey Books

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780345499028

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Jacket Notes:

Based on the latest blockbuster video game "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed," created under the direction of George Lucas, this official tie-in novel is set during the largely unexplored era between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope." The novel covers all the events of the game and provides fans with a more in-depth story than from the game alone.