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

UK May 2002 Releases by John Berlyne
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May is a genuinely modest month it seems with publishers carefully watching the sales of the big March and April releases and preparing for the battle over our summer reading. May therefore, has a kind of interim feel about it, but that said, here are the highlights of what is out in the UK this month.

The exception to the above is the publication by Macmillan of The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams, the world famous British humorist who died so suddenly last year. Pieced together from the author's hard drive, this book contains ten chapters of what would have been the third Dirk Gently novel. It also contains various bits of non-fiction by the author and comments and introductory pieces from various other contributors. This is a hardback release priced at £16.99. Pan issue the mass market paperback edition of Once, the latest novel by British Horror master James Herbert. This is priced at £6.99.

HarperCollins/Voyager further the cause of Kim Stanley Robinson here in the UK this month with the release of a new short story collection, Vineland The Dream and Other Stories. This paperback original, priced at £6.99, features some superb tales and follows on from the recent release of KSR's latest novel, which has been very warmly received on both sides of the Atlantic. It is noteworthy that all the HarperCollins May releases are from overseas writers. The mass market release of Honoured Enemy by Raymond E.Feist and William Forstchen is released in mass market paperback priced at £6.99. This is the first book in the Legends of Riftwar series. Book two is due for release next month. Megan Lindholm (aka Robin Hobb) seems to have a book a month published by HarperCollins at the moment. This latest, The Limbreth Gate is a paperback priced at £6.99.

New English Library release the mass market paperback edition of Harry Turtledoves' American Empire: Blood and Iron. A must for fans of the alternate histories of this author, described by the Chicago Sun-Times as "The Wizard of If"! This release is priced at £7.99

From Gollancz there is Infinities edited by Peter Crowther. This is the third collection of novellas previously published in limited editions by Crowther's PS Publishing outfit. Containing the superb Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds (reviewed here previously), A Writer's Life by Eric Brown, Ken MacLoed's The Human Front and Park Polar by Adam Roberts, this volume offers what amounts to some of the finest work currently around in British SF. A smart and stylish hardcover, it is priced at a very reasonable £12.99. Highly recommended.

Gollancz also publish The Velocity Gospel, the new book by the ever-so-slightly-off-the-wall British writer Steve Aylett. This is a trade paperback priced at £9.99. Also in trade paperback (with an accompanying hard cover release priced at £16.99) is Robert Silverberg's fantasy The Longest Way Home priced at £10.99. In mass market paperback, Jonathan Carroll's The Wooden Sea is released priced at £6.99, as is The Mistress of the Catacombs, the fourth novel in David Drakes Lord of the Isles saga. At £5.99 comes the mass market release of Bold As Love by Gwyneth Jones. This is one to watch following it's nomination for both the BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke awards. The final Gollancz release is John Ford's The Dragon Waiting, which at £6.99 becomes the 29th title in the Fantasy Masterworks series.

Earthlight is all fantasy this May. Inquisition is the second book by Anselm Audley, the young genre prodigy discovered by John Jarrold. Published in trade paperback at £10.00, it follows on from the novel Heresy, which receives its mass market edition this month, priced at £6.99. Not to be outdone in the Lord of the Rings grand cash in, Earthlight publish Meditations on Middle Earth, a collection of new writings on the Tolkein worlds by such luminaries as Ursula K. Le Guin, George R.R. Martin, Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb and may others. The volume is edited by Karen Haber and is a trade paperback, priced at £10.00.

Transworld/Bantam Press UK have one only offering - but a rather good one at that. The Standing Dead is Ricardo Pinto's second novel in The Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy. This is a hard cover priced at £17.99. Be sure to check out Iain Emsley's review in this issue.

Orbit have the most exciting releases this month, bringing us, amongst others the brand new Brian Aldiss novel. Super State is "a novel of future Europe" and is published in hard cover at £16.99. Two other new novels are also published by Orbit this month, Thraxas and the Dance of Death by Martin Scott (regular SFRevu visitors will know this series of books is a particular favorite of mine - check out my reviews and author interview) is a paperback original priced at £5.99. The other new work is Pattern by K.J.Parker, another of Orbit's up and coming fantasy writers. This is a large format trade paperback priced at £10.99 and is published alongside the mass market edition of Shadow, the previous book in The Scavenger Trilogy. It is priced at £6.99. Finally from Orbit comes David Brin's Kiln People, published earlier in the year in the US, where it received excellent reviews, including one by SFRevu Editor Ernest Lilley. This is a trade paperback priced at £10.99.

More next month.

-- John Berlyne

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