August Publications

From steampunk to space opera to humanist sci-fi, from Arthur Conan Doyle to The Six Million Dollar Man, and from implants to teleportation, George Mann navigates genre-benders, numerous media, neologisms and common terms, thrills, disappointments and traditions in The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Entries in this comprehensive reference guide include several descriptive and factual paragraphs, cross-references, suggested reading and bibliographic information. Mann, editor of Ottaker's science fiction magazine, defines his variegated, evolving subject (e.g., what differentiates SF from fantasy?) while remaining flexible and forward-thinking. (Carroll & Graf, $12.95 paper 608p ISBN 0-7867-0887-5)

The 14 complete scripts in Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts: Volume One, edited by Stanley Wiater, will be great fun for fans and scriptwriters. In the episode called "Invaders," tiny spacemen land at a desolate farmhouse and the lone occupant fights them off; in "A World of Difference," a man finds that his life is actually a movie in the process of being filmed. A second volume will follow in a year. (Edge [www.gauntletpress.com], $16.95 paper 396p ISBN 1-887368-42-6)

Lovecraftians will hail the publication of H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time, edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. Based on the handwritten manuscript that surfaced in 1995 after being lost for 60 years, this edition of Lovecraft's classic tale of time travel and mind transference restores the text as closely as scholarly possible to HPL's original. The editors provide a thorough introduction, annotations and textual notes.(Hippocampus [www.hippocampuspress], $15 paper 136p ISBN 0-9673215-3-0)

Twelve science fiction writers create situations "where erotic needs and society's rules conflict or interact" in Sextopia: Stories of Sex and Society, edited by Cecilia Tan (Black Feathers). In Eric Del Carlo's imagined future, "carnality has been bred out," but the occasional riot born of suppressed needs is quelled by sex soldiers; Suzy McKee Charnas's heroine sculpts a wooden man from a tree, and is gratified when he saves her life and bestows another favor or two. (Circlet, $14.95 paper 192p ISBN 1-885865-31-7) Transported from his quotidian life into a world he has dreamed, the other-dimensional island Zuralia, young Jonathan Spencer discovers love, danger and his own burgeoning world-creating powers. Soon he has to draw on all his powers if he is to save Zuralia and Earth from an evil enchantress and her world-eating minion in Alfred Tella's (Sundered Soul) Zuralia Dreaming. (Creative Arts, $14.95 paper 248p ISBN 0-88739-378-0)

Gods and mortals alike succumb to gambling fever aboard the Peace of Boona on its yearly baccarat cruise, and would-be lovers Max and Eleanor, children of two of the game's celebrated fixtures, are alternately seduced and repulsed by the frenzy. From up above, Kronos, Apollo and other celestial powerhouses dabble in earthly matters as the Titan Argus competes with the mortal D.A. Holon for the strumpet La Petite's love in Mark Broderick's madcap first book, Baccarat: Nine Lives South of Boona. (Creative Arts, $15.95 paper 246p ISBN 0-88739-365-9)

In Canadian author Ed Greenwood's (Silverfall) latest tome in the Elminster series, Elminster in Hell, the Forgotten Realms wizard descends into Auvernus for his greatest battle yet, with his own mind the prize. (Wizards of the Coast, $24.95 346p ISBN 0-7869-1875-6) Renowned cover artist Tim White presents 105 of his fantasy paintings in Chiaroscuro, showcasing his impressive breadth of style: futuristic land- and spacescapes, urban and pastoral, peopled and unpeopled; humans, aliens and winged, four-footed, scaled and mechanized creatures; scenes of beauty, devastation, horror and, always, wonder. Paintings include the cover from Clive Barker's Weaveworld and Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. (Paper Tiger [www.papertiger.co.uk], $21.95 paper 144p ISBN 1-85028-072-X)