January Publications

Veteran SF editor Gardner Dozois, who selects stories for the Year's Best Science Fiction series, does it again, this time with an anthology focused on future incarnations of humanity, in Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Form. Poul Anderson, Joanna Russ, Roger Zelazny and Liz Williams contribute their visions of the next dominant life form. (St. Martin's Griffin, $17.95 paper 464p ISBN 0-312-27569-2)

SF doyenne Andre Norton presents The Gates to Witch World, the first hardcover edition of the first three novels in her popular 1960s Witch World series: Witch World, Web of the Witch World and Year of the Unicorn. Elected a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, and a recipient of the World Fantasy Convention's Life Achievement Award, the prolific Norton is at the top of her game in these stories of Simon Tregarth, a fugitive who slips out of the earthly dimension into a magical world. (Tor, $27.95 464p ISBN 0-765-30050-8)

Jordan Stump offers a new translation of The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne's late 19th-century classic about five men and a dog who are stranded on a deserted island for several years. Caleb Carr provides an engaging introduction to this rich combination of mystery, science fiction and commentary on the human condition. (Modern Library, $23.95 660p ISBN 0-679-64236-6)

Cecile and Zac are young and in love, but her past trauma and his overactive fantasy life prove to be more powerful than either had let themselves believe in Jennifer Barlow's first book, Hamlet Dreams. When Zac gets trapped in his fantasy and goes into a coma, Cecile feels irresistibly pulled toward a mysterious stranger who offers her comfort, and she and Zac find themselves at the mercy of unearthly forces. (Aardwolf [www.aardwolfpress.com], $13.95paper 224p ISBN 0-9706225-1-1)

The Earthlings are the unwanted aliens in Stan Nichols's Bodyguard of Lightning, first in a series about the mythic Orc race. After humans have raped and pillaged Maras Mantia, the beleaguered elves, dwarves and other creatures of the land find themselves looking to the decimated Orcs to fight back and stop the human scourge. (Gollancz [Sterling dist.], $14.95 paper 304p ISBN 1-85778-557-5)

Alice Riley has always been different: she can stay underwater for an hour, she has webbed toes, her hair needs daily trimming and she is a loner, in bestselling author Deborah Smith's (A Place to Call Home) Alice at Heart. When at age 34 an accident opens up a telepathic communication between her and a strange man, her long lost aunts pick up the signals and summon Alice and the stranger to their island home, where love and dark secrets abound. (Bellebooks [www.bellebooks.com], $14.95 paper 236p ISBN 0-9673035-2-4)

Human unicorns, vampires, death's minions, she devils, gargoyles, God's heralds, Tarzan, ghoul queens and dragons fill the colorful, often dark pages of Offerings: The Art of Brom. Acclaimed fantasy artist Gerald Brom has contributed to the aesthetic of novels by E.R. Burroughs, DC comics, games like Doom II and movies including Galaxy Quest and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. (Paper Tiger [Sterling dist.], $29.95 128p ISBN 1-85585-918-1)

December Publication

With the release of The Fellowship of the Rings in movie theaters this December, Tolkien enthusiasts might consider Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: FromThe HobbitThroughThe Lord of the Ringsand Beyond as essential to their viewing pleasure as popcorn. For anyone who's ever wondered "who's Beren?," "where's the Great Shelf?" or "what's the Council of Gondor?," this A—Z reference describes every person, locates every place and explains everything in Tolkien's saga. (Ballantine, $12.95 paper 569p ISBN 0-345-44976-7)