February Publications

Swords and Sorcerers: Stories from the World of Fantasy and Adventure, edited by Clint Willis, offers 19 chapters or excerpts from longer works as well as individual tales by a wide range of classic and modern authors, including Lord Dunsany, T.H. White, J.M. Barrie and Bernard Cornwell. Those familiar only with Tolkien and Harry Potter will discover a rich literary tradition in these pages. (Thunder's Mouth, $17.95 paper 364p ISBN 0-56025-415-7)

In Echo and Narcissus, Mark Siegel's debut dark fantasy, a singer and her songwriter companion plunge into the seamier side of the New Orleans music world, but the real test comes later in L.A., where they must contend with the supernatural. Blurbs from Tim Powers, Paul di Filippo and Edward Bryant should secure more than usual attention for this first novel. (Aardwolf [www.aardwolfpress.com], $14.95 paper 256p ISBN 0-9706225-2-X)

Charles Douglas Hayes, self-taught philosopher and self-help book author (Beyond the American Dream), combines several genres—thriller, historical, SF—in his ambitious first novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, in which the U.S. president is set to reveal a new technology capable of showing the past in real time. Literary allusions to everyone from Herman Melville to Ayn Rand abound. (Autodidactic [www.autodidactic.com], $24.95 378p ISBN 0-9621979-5-5)

The Mighty Orinoco (1898), Jules Verne's novel of scientific adventure along Venezuela's Orinoco River, appears in its first English translation, along with an introduction and notes by Walter James Miller. Translated by Stanford L. Luce and edited by Arthur B. Evans, the text includes all the illustrations from the original French edition. (Wesleyan Univ., $29.95 440p ISBN 0-8195-6511-3)

John Grant (co-editor with John Clute of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy) and artist Bob Eggleton (co-creator with Nigel Suckling of Greetings from Earth), both Hugo Award winners, pool their talents in Dragonhenge, an illustrated collection of eight tales and a "Proem" that celebrate the ancient dragon civilization. (Paper Tiger [Sterling dist.], $29.95 128p ISBN 1-85585-972-6)