UK APRIL 2002 Releases by John Berlyne Check out more titles at

UK APRIL 2002 Releases by John Berlyne
Check out more titles at: Amazon UK

Top of the pile this month has to be The Scar, the new novel by the celebrated British author China Miiville. Published in hard cover at £17.99, this one is set to rock the establishment just as its predecessor Perdido Street Station did. Check out my review and the exclusive interview with the author elsewhere in this issue.

SFRevu April 2002 Feature: China Miéville Interview / Scar by China Miéville

The other reviews of UK books in this April edition of SFRevu both feature titles from Simon & Schuster imprint Earthlight. Under the editorial guidance of John Jarrold, Earthlight has amassed an impressive stable of talent and now publish authors from a number of countries. Two of Earthlight's best home-grown writers have their new titles published this month. Jon Courtney-Grimwood's Pashazade (reviewed here previously review) receives its mass market release (priced at £6.99) to coincide with the hard cover release of sequel Effendi (priced at £12.99 reviewed this month). Pashazade was highly acclaimed upon its release and was recently up for the British Science Fiction Association Award for best novel of 2001. Though it did not win (the prize went to Alastair Reynolds's superb Chasm City - see the review here) there remains another potential accolade waiting in the wings as Pashazade is also up for this year's Arthur C. Clarke award which will be given in May. Effendi looks like it may well follow suit.

Whereas Courtney-Grimwood already had a profile when he was published by Earthlight, Miller Lau is very much a Jarrold discovery, and a worthy one at that. Dark Thane, published in paperback at £7.99, is the sequel to Talisker and will appeal to anyone who loved Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (See Iain Elmsley's review in this issue). Earthlight's other releases for April include David Farland's The Sum of all Men (paperback, £6.99,) Through the Darkness by Harry Turtledove (paperback, £6.99) and Richard Calder's Lord Soho (paperback £6.99).

David Gemmell fans, (of which there are many) receive the final novel in the Rigante series this month, courtesy of Transworld. Stormrider is released in hard cover priced at £16.99. Gemmel's previous Rigante novel, Ravenheart is also released in mass market paperback by Transworld's Corgi imprint priced at £6.99. From Corgi also comes fantasy with a comic twist in the form of the mass market release of The Fandom of the Operator by Robert Rankin (£5.99).

April is a big month for HarperCollins here in the UK with Greg Bear's new novel Vitals published in hard cover, £16.99. Also released is the final volume in Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters Trilogy. Like the two previous novels, Child of the Prophesy is a beautifully written Celtic fantasy and this author is very definitely one to watch (See EJ McClure's SFReview). A large format trade paperback, Child of the Prophecy is priced at £11.99. The HarperCollins Voyager imprint releases the second volume in Eric Van Lustbader's The Pearl Saga series. The Veil of a Thousand Tears is published in both trade paperback (£11.99) and hard cover (£17.99). Other Voyager releases include The Broken Chalice, volume two in Jane Welch's the Book of Mann series - this is a paperback original priced at £6.99 - and the mass market edition of Julian May's Sagittarius Whorl, priced at £6.99.

My pick of the HarperCollins books for April is a first fantasy novel by an author well known to science fiction readers. In Sorcerer's Treason, Sarah Zettel shows she can deftly turn her hand to this genre and in doing so provides us with a book of crafty politics, courtly intrigue and ingenious magic. Sorcerer's Treason will appeal very much to fans of Robin Hobb's work and, I think, reader's who enjoyed Vonda N, McIntyre's Nebula award winning The Moon and The Sun. It is released in both hard cover (at £17.99) and trade paperback (£9.99) and is well worth a look.

The Voyager Classics series continues this month with four more releases. Clive Barker's Imajica (£8.99), Counter-Clock World by Philip K. Dick (£7.99), The Diamond Throne by David Eddings (£7.99) and Stephen R. Donaldson's The Illearth War (£7.99) are all mass market paperbacks.

Prelude to Dune : House Corrino by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson is published in mass market paperback at £6.99 by the New English Library.

Robert Jordan fans get one helluva fix this month with Orbit's re-release of the entire Wheel of Time series (to date) in smart new mass market paperback editions. The Eye of the World is priced at £6.99, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords, The Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart are all £7.99.

There is more high fantasy from Orbit in the form of the new J.V.Jones's novel A Fortress of Grey Ice, the second volume in The Book of Loss series. This is issued in hard cover priced at £17.99. Storm of Wings : Dragonmaster Book One hails the start of a new trilogy by the hugely popular Chris Bunch and is released as a trade paperback priced at £9.99 and L.E.Modesitt gives us the eleventh book in his Saga of Recluce series entitled Scion of Cyador. This is a mass market paperback priced at £7.99. Orbit redress the balance slightly with a single April concession to science fiction readers in the form of the mass market paperback release of Appleseed by British critic turned author John Clute (£6.99) (reviewed by Ernest Lilley when first released in hardcover).

PS Publishing continue to develop and expand under the steady hand of Peter Crowther, adding new titles to their list at an impressive rate. This month sees the release of a brand new Ramsey Campbell supernatural novel, The Darkest Part of the Woods. This is a limited hard cover released at £35.00 (£55.00 for the slipcased edition). Also from PS, two more novellas, Blood Fellows, a new work from Steven Erikson set in the world of his Malazan novels and A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo. Both of these are limited releases in both soft and hard cover (at £8.00 and £25.00) and feature introductions by Stephen Donaldson and Michael Bishop respectively. All copes are signed by the authors, with the hard covers additionally signed by the introducer.

Gollancz have a modest if mixed bag for April, consisting mainly of reprints. Worlds by Joe Haldeman and The Jonah Kit by Ian Watson are both published as trade trade paperbacks in the Gollancz Collector's Editions series priced at £9.99. Gene Wolfe's novel Peace joins the Fantasy Masterworks series as title no £28 and Eon by Greg Bear becomes the fiftieth title in the SF Masterworks series. Both are trade paperbacks priced at £6.99. The final title from Gollancz this month is The Wyrdest Link : A Discworld Quiz Book written by David Langford. This is a paperback priced at £6.99.

More in May.

-- John Berlyne

UK Associate Editor www.sfrevu.com
john.berlyne@sfrevu.com