The Children of the Sky is Vernor Vinge’s sequel to his iconic book A Fire Upon the Deep, which was first released almost twenty years ago (that sentence makes me feel kind of old…alas).  Another Vinge book, A Deepness in the Sky, is set in the same universe but is largely unrelated to the other two, and there have been various other related works as well.  Children is the first direct sequel though, set in the ten years following the […]

The Fear Principle, the first book in the Fear series by B. A. Chepaitis, was first published in 1998 under the name Barbara Chepaitis.  The books in this science fiction series are being reprinted, and the first two of the four books were re-released recently.  The titles that come after The Fear Principle are as follows, respectively: The Fear of God, Learning Fear, and A Lunatic Fear. The Planetoids were developed in response to what became known as the “Killing […]

Passion Play, a fantasy debut novel by Beth Bernobich, won Best Epic Fantasy in the 2010 RT Reviewer’s Choice Awards and was long-listed for both the 2010 Tiptree Award and the 2011 British Fantasy Awards.  It is the first book in the Erythandra series and will be followed by The Queen’s Hunt (in 2012), Allegiance, and The Edge of the Empire.  “River of Souls,” a short story set in the same world, is available for free on Tor.com. As the […]

Dragonsbane is the first novel in the Winterlands series by Barbara Hambly.  Originally released in the 1980s, Dragonsbane has been out of print for a while now, but it was recently re-released as an ebook along with several other books by Hambly.  The rest of the books in the Winterlands series are as follows: Dragonshadow, Knight of the Demon Queen, and Dragonstar. Gareth is on a quest: to find Lord Aversin, the only man alive who has ever successfully slain […]

Eon by Alison Goodman has been published as both an adult and a young adult novel in different parts of the world.  This novel has received several awards and honors: it is the winner of the Aurealis Award, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Locus Recommended Reading Selection, a James Tiptree, Jr., Award Finalist, a CBCA Notable Book, and a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year.  It has also been published under several different titles: Eon, […]

Deathless by Catherynne Valente is a more modernized retelling of the Russian folktale about the death of Koschei the Deathless, often known as “The Death of the Immortal Koschei” or “Marya Morevna.”  It’s set in Stalinist Russia and is mainly about the aforementioned Marya Morevna, the woman who was sought after by both Koschei and Ivan in the story.  Deathless was released in hardcover toward the end of March and is also available as an ebook. When she was six […]