After star gates that enable travel to systems many light years away have been discovered, Earth searches for an effective way of fighting the Fallers, a xenopathic race that is trying to eradicate humans. When a world is found that is home to a humanoid race of aliens who share reality and cannot “see” anyone who the shared reality has found to be a criminal, the humans send a mission there ostensibly to establish contact and diplomatic ties but in reality to investigate the smallest moon of the planet that may be a weapon left by the vanished race that left the star gates behind. The Worlders society is vividly depicted allowing the reader to see the emotions expressed through their bald scalps and the social manners relating to their neck fur. The scientific extrapolation dealing with probability devices and the sociological structures of the aliens are fascinating.

Bilbo Baggins through time and space! This joyful romp through time and space takes norbit, Bailey Beldon from the comforts of his hollowed out asteroid to the ends of the universe when the Farr clone commandeers him to be part of their expedition to find wormhole maps after he finds one sent back by one of their sibs. Murphy has written a rollicking entertaining space opera version of the Hobbit that stands as a tribute to Tolkein’s work. Mobius strips, pirates, powerful drink, clones, and adventure abound as the tone deaf but courageous little miner proves to be a hero.

State trooper Liam Campbell and the love of his life, bush pilot, Wyanet Chouinard become enmeshed in the hunt for a serial killer on the loose in the back country of a late Alaskan summer. Terrific!

Thirteen year old Glory has only one friend, another parentless teen who lives in the rooming house her grandmother runs just outside the town of Turnback, across from the fair grounds. She is extremely shy because of a large birthmark on her face but really wants another girl to talk to. When the carnival comes to town she watches Marvalene who also turns out to be thirteen and thinks that all town kids hate her because she is a carnie. In three days the two become best friends and uncover secrets they never knew about themselves. A kinder gentler type of old fashioned problem novel.

Paula Candler, a federal judge and the first lady, is above reproach. Her husband won the presidency on their integrity and partnership. It seems impossible that a Mafioso, accused of murdering another federal judge, could find something to hold over her head but Tony Remalli’s sleazy lawyer and his sexy private investigator have found something that could conceivably bring down the presidency. A terrific read!

This smashing debut novel by a sparkling new talent is a journey into the psyche of a dead girl and the young reporter who resembles her. One evening Olivia and a couple fellow journalists are talking about how far they have gone to get a story. At the time Olivia has no inkling that she will shortly be going so far over the edge in her quest for the truth in a story she is writing that she may not make it back. While this is a crime story with plenty of detection it is not a mystery. At its center is not who did it or why it was done but who the victim really was.

Corey is captain of the St. Philip’s basketball team that has the talent to make all city but when Noah joins the team everything falls apart. Could Noah really be so evil as to attempt to ruin lives in return for a place on the team? Brilliantly thoughtful! A terrific YA novel examining the importance of friendship, family, and winning. The subtext of Beth’s impending wedding and Renee’s on-line activities add to the perfection making this a novel not just for basketball fans or boys but for all readers.

Fifteen year old Emma is dismayed when her parents find her a job caring for an elderly neighbor because she is loathe to leave the side of her ailing sister, Summer. Emma, who was born with the name Winter, doesn’t look like the rest of her family and with her practical nature has little in common with her unconventional parents. Her mother is running a honey business having inherited a farm and hives from her estranged grandfather. Emma’s father, an artist, is building a henge in a farm field. Having never dreamed before, Emma finds herself exploring two other worlds that seem very real but in which the people and dogs don’t see her. Her job with the elderly neighbor consists of taking him lunch then keeping him company by playing an absorbingly bizarre game somewhat similar to chess.

Kip finds it easy to maintain interest in even the most boring of classes by placing bets on when the teacher will next belch. In fact he is willing to wager on almost anything and he usually wins. He feels like he has a good grip on the world. He has a great job working for his uncle and his mother works a couple of jobs to make sure that there will be enough money for him to go to a good college. When falls in love with a beautiful girl it is not just her that he is attracted to but her father, King, a stage magician who is a master gambler. King introduces Kip to betting on horse races and provides him with entree to a casino. He also finagles Kip into an untenable position.

Kip is a much more sympathetic and well rounded character than Denn Doyle in Pete Hautman’s Stone Cold, another fatherless teen gambler, but they have in common the same addiction.

Ellie Haskell thinks she has some time to continue with her redecorating of the family home when her husband and kids go off to a theme family camp for a few days but she is contacted by a woman she had met as a girl who lives in the Old Vicarage and claims to have a message from Ellie’s grandmother. Like Kinsey Millhone in Sue Grafton’s terrific alphabet series, Ellie finds out secrets about her ancestry and finds long lost relatives. As always, Cannell spins an entertaining tale, especially welcome to read on the first day after the exhaustion of a daughter’s wedding!

Cerinthe has traveled to Faranor from her remote island home to audition for the Royal School for Dancers as a way to fulfill her mother’s last wish. Feeling guilty about her inability to save her mother’s life, Cerinthe has turned away from her interest in healing and focused everything on her dancing. Problems with a manipulatively cruel fellow student eventually drive her to realize her true calling and become at peace with the Sea Maid again. Great fantasy world building and a beautifully plotted coming of age tale make this a contender for classic status. Calhoun, author of last year’s excellent Firegold, has proven that she has the right stuff!

Eight original stories by Avi, Richard Peck, Natalie Babbitt, Michael Cadnum, Madeleine L'Engle, Janet Taylor Lisle, Nancy Springer, and Rita Williams-Garcia. Uneven quality but entertaining nonetheless.

On Prokaryon, a planet heavily laced with arsenic, a small religious order of both humans and AIs strive to create a colony with orphaned children rescued from a plague ridden planet. The highly structured ecosystem indicates that there must be intelligent life on the planet but what could it be? An avaricious corporation sees profit in sterilizing the planet and terraforming it but that would annihilate native sentient life as well as spelling an end to the Spirit Brethren colony. Slonczewski has created the most believable of alien life forms I’ve ever read. Tepper’s slime creatures in Raising the Stones were also extremely alien but did not have the scientific explanations provided by Slonczewski. Her aliens not only have a totally different biological basis than humans, with triple strand DNA but live at a totally different pace. This is stunning SF, not to be missed.

Fantasy/Young Adult/Magic
Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery/Epic
Rowling, J. K.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Listening Library 0807282588

Jim Dale does an incredibly fabulous job of reading the fourth Harry Potter book in this unabridged recording. His voice works magic in taking the listener into the world of witches and wizards. In this installment Harry is entered in the Triwizard Tournament that thrusts him into deep danger as Voldemort takes action against him. Because of the tournament there is no Quidditch at Hogwarts this year but Harry does get to attend the Quidditch World Cup with his friends the Weasleys. Each volume of Harry Potter is better than the last. The only bad thing about finishing Goblet of Fire is having to wait for the next book.

Romance/Contemporary
The Lawman Gets Lucky (Duets)
Linz, Cathie
Harlequin Books 0373440928

Annie Benton, the “new” school teacher in Bliss, Colorado goes to sheriff Reno Best for help in finding her missing brother but he is much more interested in his lunch. Reno does have to step in when Annie gets herself into trouble after she launches her own investigation. Linz can always be depended on to provide an enjoyable quick read especially hitting the spot on a blazing summer day.

YA/Fantasy
Fantasy/Alternate Worlds
Firegold
Calhoun, Dia
Winslow 1890817287pb 1890817104hc

Jonathon lives in the valley but is marked as an outcast by the blue eyes that label him as a "loony blue" because all residents of the agrarian valley have brown eyes. Each year his orchardist father ventures into the Red Mountains in quest of the legendary firegold apples. When Jonathon is thirteen years old his father returns from his sojourn with one of the fabled horses of the Dalriada that leads to the death of his beloved mother. When the people of the valley blame his Dalriada blood for a blight and try to kill him his father takes him to the grandmother he never knew he had where he discovers that his mother was half Dalriada. Ending up with the Dalriada he discovers that it is hard to hate everyone of another people when they become known as individuals. All Dalriada must go on a quest their 14th year, returning with their own magical steed or dying in the process. Jonathon's journey brings his dual heritage together in a satisfying and hopeful climax. First time novelist Calhoun writes with lyrical intensity bringing a land and a boy divided into vivid focus.

Science Fiction/ Adventure/ Romance
Two-Bit Heroes
Egan, Doris
DAW 0886775000

The incredibly talented Doris Egan who wrote City of Diamond under the name Jane Emerson continues the tale of Theodora started in The Gate of Ivory. Theodora, an anthropology scholar, from a technological planet is finally getting used to the way magic is used on Ivory and has fallen in love with a nobleman with whom she has embarked on a complicated and lengthy marriage ritual. On a political reconnaissance mission they are kidnapped by a band of outlaws. When Theodora tells their leader the legend of Robin Hood she inadvertently starts a revolution. Unfortunately this is now out of print but thanks to public libraries it is still available. Egan/Emerson, unfortunately for readers, is devoting much of her time to writing for television. Hopefully she will reward her fans with a new book soon.

Science Fiction/Detection
Tangled Up in Blue
Vinge, Joan D.
Tor 0312871961

Set on the planet Tiamat in the city Carbuncle, the same world as Vinge’s classic, Hugo award winning Snow Queen, this noirish mystery tells the story of Hegemonic Police officer Nyx LaisTree who is the sole survivor of a massacre in a warehouse. Exposed as one of the infamous nameday vigilantes, he is stripped of his badge but not his need for justice. Teaming up with Devony, a shapeshifter who is much more than she seems, they find out why his partner and his friends were murdered. This is very different than Vinge’s other Tiamaten books but is truly fascinating.

Science Fiction/ Romance
Promised Land
Willis, Connie and Cynthia Felice
Ace 0441005438

Delanna Milleflores stops by the planet Keramos to settle her mother's estate on the backwater planet while on her way to a career after graduating from an upscale boarding school. Unfortunately upon landing she discovers that unbeknownst to her she is married to country bumpkin Sonny Tanner (who is really intelligent, diligent, kind, and talented) because of Keramos's weird laws and an unbreakable will. Travelling over 5,000 miles to the orchard plantation jointly owned with the Tanner family Delanna has adventures and becomes a target of the planet's gossip network. Her pet Cleo, who is not a bug, and the indigenous fire monkeys play a role. As she makes her home at Milleflores she comes to realize that Sonny has sacrificed her whole life to provide her with taken for granted luxuries at school while her mother impoverished the plantation and was a world class complainer. A sweet romance that is reminiscent of some of Heinlein's 1950s stuff. Willis-lite but charming , entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Science Fiction/ Detection/ Bioengineering
Chimera
Shetterly, Will
Tor 0312866305

Max Maxwell is one of those tough talking P.I.s immersed in a plot that will remind you of some of the best hard boiled crime fiction. The setting is the future and slavery has returned. The new slaves are chimera, sometimes disparagingly called critters, who are human but are derived from animal genes forced to wear tattoos of their animal antecedents on their foreheads. Just when Max thinks he has a poker hand that can't lose a beautiful woman intrudes on the game asking him to take a case. The ante goes up, she covers his bet, he loses and is stuck with her for a client which wouldn't be bad except that he discovers that she is really a jaguar chimera disguised as a real human. Her mentor, a famous scientist, has been killed and she is the prime suspect. Before all is said and done Max and Zoe Domingo will expose corruption in high places and Max will have down and dirty relations with a machine.

Shetterly is always good for a great read creating worlds so true one is surprised to venture out and see that they are not real . Max displays a level of angst not seen before in Shetterly's always well crafted work. Readers who liked S. Andrew Swann's SF detective series featuring Nohar Rajasthan (descended from tiger stock) should be clamoring for this. Hopefully this is just the first book featuring Max and Zoe.

Romance/Historical/Scotland/Love and Laughter
The Bride and the Beast
Teresa Medeiros
Random 0553801252

I read this one sometime back and reviewed it for Booklist. It was such a delight that I find myself frequently recommending it. If it were made into a movie, I would cast Camryn Manheim in the lead role. Click on the ISBN to read my Booklist review on Amazon.com.

Crime/Amateur Detective/Woman Detective
The Trouble with Harriet
Cannell, Dorothy
Penguin 0140291822

Not normally a huge fan of cozy mysteries, I must confess Haskell series usually fits the bill. This time around Ellie and her handsome husband Ben are due to embark on a romantic vacation to Paris but Ellie's long absent father, Morley, shows up with an extremely ugly piece of pottery containing the ashes of his lady love Harriet, met recently on a sojourn to Germany. As the community readies for a play written by the wife of the dotty new vicar strangers appear on the scene and some of the folks seam very familiar to Morley from both Germany and an assault en route to Ellie's. Freddy's kleptomaniac mum also makes an appearance and a contribution to the solving of the mystery. Good fun.

YA/Contemporary/Problem
Define “Normal”
Peters, Julie Anne
Little, Brown 0316706310

Antonia is a ya ya. She does everything right from getting excellent grades to taking care of her two younger brothers and keeping the secret of her mother's retreat into severe clinical depression a secret. In her attempt at perfection she signs up to be a peer counselor at school and to her great dismay is assigned to work with Jazz, of the black lipstick, colorfully dyed hair, piercings, tattoos, and artfully ripped clothes. When talking about things they want to do, Antonia lets slip that she really wants to learn how to swim and Jazz, who is rich and has her own indoor pool invites her home to learn how. Returning home after the swimming lesson Antonia who has distanced herself so far from her friends she didn't even know of the death of Tamara's sister, finds she has no one to call but Jazz when she discovers that during her absence her mother took her brothers to a motel near the airport and then totally lost it. Going into foster care, Antonia finds Jazz to be a lifeline as she tries to help her connect with her mother and realize that sometimes her rebellion hurts herself more than anyone else. A sweet tale of two girls who despise each other until they discover that outward appearances are meaningless.

A good depiction of foster care and case workers is to be noted.

Science Fiction/ More than Human/ Psionic Powers/ Near Future
Doors of Death and Life
Clough, Brenda W.
Tor 0312870647

Not reading the fly leaf, I started into this unaware that it was a sequel but was quickly sucked in by the artful portrayal of family relationships. Rob Lewis has the ability to manipulate people's minds, to make them do anything he wants them to do. His friend Edwin Barbarossa, an astronaut, is immortal through a gift given to him by Rob in How Like a God . When Edwin is the only survivor of a shuttle mishap and ends up blamed for murdering his crew mates, Rob effects a rescue. A fascinating combination of domesticity, science fiction, fantasy, philosophy, and power politics.