Publishers Weekly articles from January 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from January 2006

Clock ticks on ISBN-13: new industry standard just a year away.(Foreword)(Industry Overview)
January 2, 2006... With only one year to go before all newly published books must carry 13-digit ISBNs, rather than the traditional 10 digits, some industry operation managers are worried that their colleagues on the sales and editorial sides are not taking the...

Abraham to lead RH distribution.(Jeff Abraham joins Random House )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Jeff Abraham, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, will move to Random House February 1 as president of its distribution services division. RH currently has 15 distribution clients, with billings of more than $100 million....

Marsh to head author program.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Brenda Marsh, v-p of content and merchandising at B&N.com, has been named v-p of author relations for Barnes & Noble. In the newly created position, Marsh will work on creating new author programs and initiatives.

Backlist up at S&S.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Backlist sales rose 8% in 2005 at Simon & Schuster, according to CEO Jack Romanos's year-end letter to employees. The strong performance will help S&S increase both sales and earnings in the year, Romanos said.

Urda, Zafian up at S&S.(appointment of Gary Urda and Anne Zafian )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Judith Curr has named Gary Urda associate publisher of Atria Books, succeeding the departed Karen Mender. Urda is being promoted from his position as v-p and director of distributor sales and retail marketing at S&S. Anne Zafian, currently...

Book breaks paper.(Foreword)
January 2, 2006... Which is more surprising? That the White House might have pressured the New York Times to hold its story about the Bush administration's approval of civilian eavesdropping, or that the Times's eventual running of the story was prompted by the...

Schupf joins Sirius Satellite.(Hilary Schupf joins Sirius Satellite Radio)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Hilary Schupf has stepped down as director of publicity at Pocket Books to join Sirius Satellite Radio, where she will be senior director, public relations. In that role she'll handle publicity for Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and all of the...

Nash a Miriam Bass winner.(Richard Nash)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull Press, was named the 2005 recipient of the Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing. Nash was singled out for taking a financially struggling independent house and bringing it into the...

War according to Yoo.(Deals)(John Yoo)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Though former DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo has since become a law professor at Cal Berkeley, his influence continues to reverberate in White House policy, most recently in the controversy over phone tapping. He outlined his...

Gravity theory.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Agent Jodie Rhodes has just accepted a preemptive offer for U.S. rights to Canadian physicist John Moffat's A Matter of Grayity, from TJ Kelleher at HarperCollins's Smithsonian imprint, a week after a feverish Canadian auction culminated in a...

For the sake of honesty.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Watergate buffs may recall Egil (Bud) Krogh, who served in the Nixon White House in capacities ranging from deputy counsel to the president to undersecretary of transportation. He subsequently served six months in prison after pleading guilty...

Two books, seven figures.(Deals)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Valerie Borchardt at the Borchardt Agency has just wrapped up an auction involving seven publishers for U.S. rights to two novels by new English author Diane Setterfield on behalf of Vivien Green at Sheil Land. Atria's Emily Bestler won rights...

Honoring Asian-American writers.(Asian American Literary Awards)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 2, 2006... Poet Ishle Yi Park (c.) is flanked by Jessica Hagedorn and Owen Hawk after receiving the poetry prize at the eighth annual Asian American Literary Awards, held at the Asia Society in New York City. Park was one of four authors honored.

Amazon's holiday bestsellers.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Amazon reported that its top-selling books over the holiday period were Harper Trophy's The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set (paperback), The World Is Flat and Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats--A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners.

Pub merger in Finland.(Otava, acquires independent publisher Like)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Finland's second largest media company, Otava, recently acquired the independent publisher Like. The move brings further consolidation to the country's publishing industry, now dominated by three major houses. For Otava, the merger adds edgy...

2005-2006 by the numbers.(Foreword)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... 41%: Increase in e-book sales, through October 2005, according to the AAP $229-$399: Price range for new dedicated e-book reader expected to be announced this month by a major consumer electronics company 2: Number of lawsuits filed against...

Hanks's take on a Texan.(Hollywood Reader)(Tom Hanks )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Tom Hanks starring in this summer's adaptation of The Da Vinci Code? Old news. While director Ron Howard's film of Dan Brown's bestseller is unspooling in theaters, two-time Oscar winner Hanks will likely be headlining and producing an...

Doctor Depp.(Hollywood Reader)(Johnny Depp to actas a doctor in 'Shantaram')(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Also attached to play a deadbeat with (kinda) redeeming qualities in 2006 is Johnny Depp, who will star in an adaptation of Gregory David Roberts's Shantaram (St. Martin's, 2004). The story of an Australian addict who escapes from prison and...

88 keys and more.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Several other book-to-film adaptations greenlit for the coming year include a Halle Berry--produced film of Kathryn Talalay's Composition in Black and White: The Life of Philippa Schuyler (Oxford Univ. Press, 1995), a biopic about 1940s...

Correction.(Hollywood Reader)(Correction Notice)
January 2, 2006... The Vow coauthor Mitzi Miller (Hollywood Reader, Nov. 21) is repped for lit by Victoria Sanders of Victoria Sanders & Associates. e-mail: HollywoodReader@gmail.com

Calendar: Jan. 8-Jan. 14.(Foreword)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
January 2, 2006... 1/8 The new paperback edition of Ben Tyler's steamy gay page-turner, One Night Stand (Kensington), should heat up a chilly winter. PW said, "This is Tyler's best novel yet." 1/9 Avon's The World According to Mimi Smartypants looks...

What are you reading in China?(Foreword)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Gianni Longo, 58 Town planner, New York City * What are you reading? Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong * Where did you get it? My sister-in-law, who lives in Beijing, gave it to me. * What prompted you to read...

NEA rolls out the big read.(Literacy)(National Endowment for the Arts )
January 2, 2006... When the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced last month that it would be piloting a national reading initiative, more than $250,000 was doled out in the name of literacy. Ten communities were selected to participate in the program,...

Staff shuffle at Pippin.(People)(Pippin Properties)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Emily van Beek has been promoted from foreign rights director to literary agent at Pippin Properties. John Sellers has joined the literary agency as associate; most recently he was in the publicity department at Random House.

Guideposts taps the trade market.(Brand Names)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
January 2, 2006... Guideposts, the inspirational resources organization founded 60 years ago by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and his wife, Ruth Stafford Peale, will launch a new imprint this September. The move will be its first foray into the general trade market...

SCB joins the $10 million club.(Distribution)(SCB Distributors)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Following a strong finish to 2005, SCB Distributors co-owner Molly Maguire projects that sales for the Gardenia, Calif.-based company will hit $10 million for the first time since she and her husband, Aaron Silverman, founded it 16 years ago....

NEBA gets Sorenson.(People)(New England Booksellers Association appoints Nan Sorenson )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Nan Sorenson has joined the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) as assistant executive director. Sorenson arrives from Houghton Mifflin.

Crum up at HC.(People)(Erin Crum promoted by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Erin Crum has been promoted from communications manager to director of corporate communications at HarperCollins. She fills the position left vacant by Lisa Herling, who left HC in late fall.

Quinsaat to ProQuest.(People)(appointment of Marilyn Quinsaat by ProQuest Information and Learning )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Marilyn Quinsaat has joined ProQuest Information and Learning as v-p of publishing. Most recently she was senior v-p at CompassLearning.

Lit ventures fund shows the money.(A Capital Idea?)(Literary Ventures Fund )
January 2, 2006... In an effort to adapt the venture capital investment model to literary publishing, the Literary Ventures Fund will announce its first round of financial grants of up to $200,000 to a number of publishers by the end of January. Launched in May...

Storyville: "Tony" Takitani House (D).(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once brought a T-shirt for a dollar in Maui. It read "Tony' Takitani House D." The sound of that name on that T-shirt inspired me to write his life story. When the tale was published his editor at...

Free spirit expands.(People)(Free Spirit Publishing )(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... Free Spirit Publishing has hired three new employees. John Kober, leaving a position as content director at Trend Enterprises, joins as acquisitions director; Ruth Taswell, most recently associate editor at Search Institute, comes on as editor;...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
January 2, 2006... A new year means many things to many people, but to the folks at Sony Pictures--and to zillions of Dan Brown fans--it means there are only 138 days until the May 19 opening of the film version of The Da Vinci Code. If pedigree counts for...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
January 2, 2006... John Grogan enjoyed our item about Marley in the December 5 PW. He quoted it on his Web site, but took issue with our description of his tour as "successful." He wrote: "Uh, did no one tell PW about me arriving in South Florida just in time to...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
January 2, 2006... While The Broker leads the USA Today chart for the week ending December 25 (as it does nationwide), the newspaper's top 150 list for the same week has only 10 adult mass market titles. In the non-holiday season, there are always more than 10...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
January 2, 2006... "But the truth is that the afternoon when I met Mr. Tanaka Ichiro really was the best and the worst of my life. He seemed so fascinating to me, even the fish smell on his hands was a kind of perfume. If I had never known him, I'm sure I would...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
January 2, 2006... The prolific Patterson must never sleep. If listening to Cross's thrilling adventures isn't enough, at www.jamespatterson.com, fans can hear Patterson's radio interviews, read a detailed profile (down to favorite foods) of the characters or do...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
January 2, 2006... AS its title suggests, McCourt's third memoir focuses on his years as a high school teacher in New York City. The author recently revisited his stomping grounds at Stuyvesant High School, where he was interviewed for the school paper. Asked...

Passing the torch: a new generation of indie booksellers prepares to take charge.(Retailing)(Industry Overview)
January 2, 2006... Family-owned businesses, once the soul of Main Street America, are in decline. Countless are the numbers of mom-and-pop hardware stores, drugstores and family-owned bookstores that have given way to Big Business in the last few decades. But one...

PW's 2005 Listen Up Awards.(The Year in Audio)
January 2, 2006... Looking back on the year in audiobooks finds outstanding productions in every category. There was such a wealth of enjoyable and informative audios in 2005 that we found it impossible to limit some of our category winners to the usual five...

Grover Gardner: audiobook narrator of the year.(Q&A)(Interview)
January 2, 2006... It was a stunt when Thomas Edison recorded "Mary Had a Little Lamb" onto a wax cylinder in 1875. Recorded words are an industry now. And yet the triumphant performances are rare--and getting rarer. This year David Case died. Name not ring a...

Jim Dale: children's audiobook narrator of the year.(Q&A)(Interview)
January 2, 2006... Back in 1998, Tony Award winner Jim Dale was approached by Listening Library to narrate a new children's fantasy book by a first-time author named J.K. Rowling. He became the "voice" of Harry Potter and the more than 130 characters in his...

The bad mommy: Ayelet Waldman takes the heat and keeps on writing.(Author Profile)(Interview)
January 2, 2006... Anyone who has read her blog or her Salon.com columns knows Ayelet Waldman is a forceful, opinionated woman who has either the courage or the self-centeredness to write about her life in a way that often reveals her less-flattering traits, as...

Winter chills movie tie-ins.(Movie Tie-ins)
January 2, 2006... This winter, there are more films based on books than usual. Too bad it's also Hollywood's fallow season, when few movies stick around for long. The animated version of Curious George could be a bright spot, sending parents into stores for the...

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living CARRIE TIFFANY. Scribner, $23 (240p) ISBN 0-7432-8637-5 The dusty farms of 1930s Australia are the backdrop for this rich and knowing debut novel about science, love and the limits of progress. The...

Sparkle Life.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Sparkle Life KARA LINDSTROM. Other Press, $24.95 (296p) ISBN 1-59051-232-4 The three 30-something stars of this ambitious debut are not friends but New York film world acquaintances at one degree of separation. Joy and Sara see the same...

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets EVA RICE. Dutton, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-525-94931-3 An impulsive taxi ride with a stranger in 1950s London indelibly changes Penelope Wallace's life in Rice's sparkling debut. At 18, Penelope lives with her...

Beautiful Lies.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * Beautiful Lies LISA UNGER. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $24 (344p) ISBN 0-307-33668-9 After an act of heroism garners instant fame for 30-something New York freelancer Ridley Jones, she receives a faded photo of a man, a familiar-looking woman...

A lab of one's own: PW Talks with Allegra Goodman: Kaaterskill Falls author moves from enclave to autoclave.(Q&A)(Interview)
January 2, 2006... Your novel Intuition (Reviews, Dec. 5) involves a woman cancer lab director and a woman postdoc. Were you working on the book when Larry Summers made his infamous remarks about women and science? I must have been revising it at the time....

18 Seconds.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... 18 Seconds GEORGE D. SHUMAN. Simon & Schuster, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 0-7432-77163 Beautiful, blind Sherry Moore is matter-of-fact when telling two police detectives about her agonizing gift--the ability to see the last 18 seconds of a dead...

Black Swan Green.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * Black Swan Green DAVID MITCHELL. Random, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 1-4000-6379-5 For his fourth novel, two-time Booker Prize finalist Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, etc.) turns to material most writers plumb in their first: the semiautobiographical,...

Secret Society.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Secret Society MIASHA. Touchstone, $12 paper (208p) ISBN 0-7432-8158-6 For Celess and her best friend, Tina, "runnin' game" on dudes with dollars is a full-time occupation. Somewhere just out of their teens, tricked out in Chanel, Chloe...

The Secret Supper.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Secret Supper JAVIER SIERRA, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY ALBERTO MANGUEL. Atria, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 0-7432-8764-9 Set in the late 15th century, Sierra's first book translated into English revolves around a papal inquisitor's...

One Part Angel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... One Part Angel GEORGE SHAFFNER. Algonquin, $23.95 (368p) ISBN 1-56512-457-X Vernon Moore, the mysterious salesman who upended everyone's lives in the quaint town of Ebb, Nebr., in Shaffner's first novel (In the Land of Second Chances)...

Doctors and Nurses.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Doctors & Nurses LUCY ELLMANN. Bloomsbury, $14.95 paper (224p) ISBN 1-59691-102-6 What bizarre comic riffs can the incomparable Ellmann spin from a romantic medical mismatch? Breathtakingly brutal ones, as per usual, for the author of Man...

The American.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The American ANDREW BRITTON. Kensington, $24 (384p) ISBN 0-7582-1333-6 The titular character of 24-year-old Britton's debut thriller is no patriot. Jason March, a blond al-Qaeda operative with a ferocious grudge against the U.S.A., kicks...

Crippen: A Novel of Murder.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * Crippen: A Novel of Murder JOHN BOYNE. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-34358-2 Had Charles Dickens been around to turn his talents to fictionalizing the classic Crippen murder case, the result might well have been close to...

Blood Hunt.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Blood Hunt IAN RANKIN. Little, Brown, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 0-316-00911-3 Admirers of Edgar-winner Rankin's bestselling series featuring Edinburgh's Insp. John Rebus (Fleshmarket Alley, etc.) may be disappointed by this stand-alone suspense...

Samba Dreamers.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Samba Dreamers KATHLEEN DE AZEVEDO. Univ. of Arizona, $17.95 paper (320p) ISBN 08165-2490-4 De Azevedo's vibrant but self-conscious debut novel depicts Brazilians struggling to make a life in 1970s Los Angeles, a story shot through with...

The Enemy Within.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Enemy Within NOEL HYND. Forge, $25.95 (432p) ISBN 0-765-30612-3 In this exhaustive and sometimes exhausting political action thriller, it's 2009, and Secret Service agent Laura Chapman is pulled off her White House detail to identify...

The Night Journal.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Night Journal ELIZABETH CROOK. Viking, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-670-03477-0 At age 37, Meg Mabry, a single, overworked medical engineer, still hasn't found her place in the world, a predicament due in part to her rejection of her heritage....

The Widow's War.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Widow's War SALLY GUNNING. Morrow, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-079157-8 Mystery author Gunning (Fire Water) moves to literary historical with this provocative tale of a whaling widow determined to forge a new life in colonial Cape Cod....

Speak Right On: Dred Scott, a Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Speak Right On: Dred Scott, a Novel MARY E. NEIGHBOUR. Toby, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 1-59264-144-X Neighbour's thoughtful but inert debut novel, a fictionalized biography of Dred Scott, depicts the slave whose suit for freedom was rejected by...

The Witness.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Witness DEE HENDERSON. Tyndale, $13.99 paper (378p) ISBN 1-4143-0812-4 This latest romantic thriller from Henderson (the two series O'Malley and Uncommon Heroes) and her first with Tyndale House has the elements that have made her so...

The Boys and the Bees.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Boys and the Bees JOE BABCOCK. Carroll & Graf, $12.95 paper (144p) ISBN 0-7867-1647-9 This wry account of adolescent same-sex stirrings avoids the flamboyant drag queens, messy crystal meth addiction and suicidal moments of its...

Foul Lines: A Pro Basketball Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Foul Lines: A Pro Basketball Novel JACK MCCALLUM AND L. JON WERTHEIM. Touchstone, $14paper (336p) ISBN 0-7432-8650-2 Years of behind-the-scenes reporting fuel this fast, funny basketball expose from Sports Illustrated writers McCallum and...

Immune Response.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Immune Response STEVE PERRY. Five Star, $25.95 (323p) ISBN 1-59414-448-6 In this sexy medical thriller, Perry (Windowpane) pursues the cure for cancer and AIDS and everything else. Rick "Doc" Scales, an attractive but aging physician's...

Isolation Ward.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Isolation Ward JOSHUA SPANOGLE. Delacorte, $22 (400p) ISBN 0-385-33853-8 Medical thrillers have been rather sickly of late, but Stanford med student Spanogle has applied the paddies and delivered a real jolt of excitement with this debut...

Spin Doctor.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Spin Doctor LESLIE CARROLL. Avon, $12.95 paper (336p) ISBN 0-06-059613-9 Dirty laundry gets cleaned, dried and aired in the newest women-in-the-city soap opera from Carroll (Play Dates), an exuberant ode to friendship among women and the...

Mocky's Revinge.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Mocky's Revinge MARK LOUIS LEHMAN. Little Possum (littlepossumpress.com), $14 (128p) ISBN 0-9770326-2-0 Imagine cartoonist Lynda Barry rewriting Tobacco Road, and you'll have a decent idea of what Lehman, a retired University of Cincinnati...

Song of Ireland.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Song of Ireland JUILENE OSBORNE-MCKNIGHT. Forge, $24.95 (386p) ISBN 0-765-31243-3 This well-researched historical fantasy retells the origins of the Irish, splitting the narrative between Celtic explorers and the mythical Danu, "little...

Cell.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Cell STEPHEN KING. Scribner, $26.95 (384p) ISBN 0-7432-9233-2 What if a pulse sent out f through cell phones turned every person using one of them into a zombie-like killing machine? That's what happens on page six of King's latest, a glib,...

Dead Days of Summer: A Death on Demand Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * Dead Days of Summer: A Death on Demand Mystery CAROLYN HART. Morrow, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-072402-3 Hart pulls out all the stops in the fast-paced 17th installment of her acclaimed Death on Demand cozy series (after 2005's Death of the...

Game of Patience.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Game of Patience SUSANNE ALLEYN. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-312-34363-9 After A Far Better Rest (2000) an homage to Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Alleyn returns to postrevolutionary Paris in her second novel, a...

Borkmann's Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Borkmann's Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery HAKAN NESSER, TRANS. FROM THE SWEDISH BY LAURIE THOMPSON. Pantheon, $22.95 (336p) ISBN 0-375-42196-3 International bestseller Nesser makes his U.S. debut with this classy and rewarding...

The Renegades: A Peter Ashton Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Renegades: A Peter Ashton Novel CLIVE EGLETON. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-34745-6 Egleton's latest thriller (after 2004's Assassination Day) opens with a bloody massacre in a quiet Italian restaurant in a...

The Alpine Recluse: An Emma Lord Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Alpine Recluse: An Emma Lord Mystery MARY DAHEIM. Ballantine, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 0-354-46814-7 Well-drawn characters and a complex crime are a winning combination in Daheim's 18th Emma Lord mystery (after 2005's Alpine Quilt). The...

Good Day in Hell.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Good Day in Hell J.D. RHOADES. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-312-33421-4 At the start of Rhoades's well-crafted second novel to feature Jack Keller (after 2005's The Devil's Right Hand), the North Carolina bounty hunter and...

February publications.(Mystery Notes)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Serious mystery fans will welcome Dreams of Justice: Mysteries as Social Documents, a collection of thematically arranged reviews by Dick Adler, who writes the Crime Watch column for the Chicago Tribune. Adler's essay on the legendary Anthony...

A Shadow in Summer: Book One of the Long Price Quartet.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... A Shadow in Summer: Book One of the Long Price Quartet DANIEL ABRAHAM. Tor $24.95 (336p) ISBN 0-765-31340-9 Gesture and posture convey as much information as spoken words in Abraham's impressive first novel, a fantasy set in a world where...

No Present Like Time.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... * No Present Like Time STEPH SWAINSTON. Eos, $13.95 paper (416p) ISBN 0-06-075388-9 Wonders abound in British author Swainston's polished sequel to The Year of Our War (2005). The Emperor San and his Circle of Immortals strive to protect...

Crystal Rain.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Crystal Rain TOBIAS S. BUCKELL. Tot, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-765-31227-1 John deBrun, an amnesia victim with a hook instead of a left hand, must save his adopted society on the planet Nanaganda by recovering a lost technological artifact, the...

The Lost District and Other Stories.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... The Lost District and Other Stories JOEL LANE. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $14.95 paper (190p) ISBN 1-59780-039-2 Bleak cityscapes dimmed by urban blight and human despair give rise to unique horrors in this virtuoso book of...

Heir of Autumn.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 2, 2006... Heir of Autumn GILES CARWYN AND TODD FAHNESTOCK. Eos, $25.95 (480p) ISBN 0-06-082975-3 Solid characterization helps redeem Carwyn and Fahnestock's overly long and predictable debut fantasy, which chronicles the growth of young Brophy into...