UK November Releases by John Berlyne
Check out theses and other titles at: Amazon UK

As the year slowly draws to an end, genre releases in the UK march on as strong as ever.

Before passing on to you the usual run down of this months delicacies, a word first about a UK small press venture, PS Publishing, recently nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Based up in Yorkshire, this outfit is run by writer and anthologist Peter Crowther, and has been drawing some of the biggest names in the business into their catalogue of specially commissioned novellas. There have been original works by Graham Joyce, Kim Newman, Michael Marshall Smith, James Lovegrove, Paul McAuley, Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Ian MacDonald. The success of these works by big name authors has allowed Crowther to promote the work of up and coming writers - the novella "Naming of Parts" by Tim Lebbon, a British writer fast making a name for himself, won the British Fantasy award for best short fiction. Recent releases from PS Publishing include works by Eric Brown, Conrad Williams, Adam Roberts and Tracey Knight and this month see the release of the anthology Infinity Plus One edited by Keith Brooke and Nick Gevers. This collection of stories that first appeared on the Infinity Plus web site is a showcase of some of the best writers working in the field - both established and up-and-coming. In this volume you'll find stories by Kim Stanley Robinson, Michael Swanwick, Garry Kilworth, Mary Gentle and many others. The release is limited to only 500 hard cover copies, is priced at £45.00 and is signed by all the contributors. No bad for something that will inevitably become highly sought after on the collectibles market! The same fate no doubt awaits this month's other PS Publishing release - Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds. This novella by one of British SF's leading lights is released both in trade paperback and hard cover. Both editions are signed by Reynolds, with the HC also by Stephen Baxter who wrote the introduction. 

HarperCollins this month are understandably flooding the market with J.R.R.Tolkien works - both by and about the great man - in an effort to prepare the public (and cash in on) for The Lord of The Rings film release. The same, of course, is happening all over the world with Harry Potter merchandise - though I have yet to see Hobbit pajamas that glow in the dark!! The Voyager imprint this month only offers mass market reprints of previous titles with the re-release of The Light of Other Days by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke, Wolf King by Alice Borchardt (who happens to be the sister of Anne Rice - watch out for the debut work from Anne Rice's son Christopher entitled A Density of Souls - due in paperback from Pan Macmillan in January 2002) and finally Jan Seigel's The Dragon Charmer - a wonderful book reviewed on this site previously (Dragon Charmer Review). The third book in Seigel's enchanting trilogy will be called Witch's Honour and is expected to be released next March. There are no November releases from the Voyager Classics imprint, but more are due next month.

Orbit leads this month with the release of the new novel by Ken Macleod. Dark Light - Engines of Light: Book Two continues Macleod's latest hard SF series and further confirms him as one of our most important writers. The book is released in hard cover, priced at £16.99. Cosmonaut Keep, Macleod's previous novel receives it's mass market release simultaneously. Price £6.99. Lots of good stuff for fantasy fans too this month from Orbit. A handsome hard cover omnibus of works by David Gemmel is released. Drenai Tales, Volume One contains three classic Gemmel novels, Legend, The King Beyond the Gate and Waylander and is priced at £20.00. A C Format is also released priced at £12.99. Look out for Volume Two due to be released in January. Winter's Heart, the ninth book in Robert Jordan's hugely popular and successful The Wheel Of Time series is published in mass market (priced at £7.99). 

Thraxis author Martin Scott recently did his first ever Thraxas signing at London's Forbidden Planet.

This month also sees the publication of a brand new Thraxas novel - Thraxas and the Sorcerers (see my review this issue) by Martin Scott. These books are a personal favorite of mine and I heartily recommend them. The entire series which includes the original Thraxas (which won the World Fantasy Award), Thraxas and the Warrior Monks, Thraxas at the Races, and Thraxas and the Elvish Isles receives a well deserved reissue complete with a brand new cover design. All these titles are priced at £5.99. 

Gollancz this month sees the resolution of Tom Arden's "critically acclaimed flamboyant 18th Century fantasy series". Empress of the Endless Dream is the concluding volume in the books of The Orokon series and is issued in hard cover priced £17.99. The fourth book, Sisterhood of the Blue Storm receives its mass market release simultaneously. It is priced at £6.99. British writer Simon R. Green has a new fantasy novel out this month entitled Drinking Midnight Wine. This is issued in both hard cover (£16.99) and as a trade paperback (£9.99). Mass market releases also this month for Elizabeth Haydon whose very successful fantasy novels Rhapsody and Prophesy are both published at £6.99. Valery Leith (aka Tricia Sullivan) has the third title in her Everien series published this month, The Way of the Rose is issued in both trade paperback (£9.99) and hard cover (£16.99). The Riddled Night, the previous book in this series receives a mass market publication priced at £6.99. More classics too from Gollancz as they continue their various Masterworks series. Phillip K. Dick's superb Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said becomes the 46th title in the SF Masterworks series and number 23 in the Fantasy Masterworks series is The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt. Both these are trade paperback releases priced at £6.99.

Earthlight this month is proud to be publishing Ray Bradbury's From The Dust Returned. This is a smart looking hard cover priced at £16.99. They also reissue Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine's Silverheart in mass market paperback. This edition is priced at £6.99. Be sure to check out Earthlight's web site for their forthcoming schedule @ www.earthlight.co.uk.

Transworld offers some interesting humorous fantasy stuff this month. The unstoppable (and long may it remain so) Terry Pratchett has a new young adult title out entitled The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - this is a hard cover priced at £12.99 issued by Doubleday. This story set in the Discworld universe is also released as an audiobook priced at £9.99 - sorry! I don't know who the reader is. Doubleday also release a new novel by another celebrated British funny fantasist. Robert Rankin's The Fandom of the Operator is issued in hard cover priced at £16.99. Transworld's Corgi imprint releases Rankin's previous novel in mass market paperback - you'll find Web Site Story priced at £5.99. Also from Corgi comes the mass market edition of Terry Pratchett's The Truth (reviewed here previously), priced £5.99 and the mass market release of Nanny Ogg's Cookbook - "A useful and improving Almanack of Information including Nourishing Recipes from Discworld." This is priced at £7.99.

                             More next month, - John Berlyne

© 2001 Ernest Lilley / SFRevu