Here are some of the science-fiction and fantasy books I'll be reading this summer.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The long-awaited seventh book in the Harry Potter series has a lot of loose ends to resolve and even more hype to live up to. With the debut of the fifth movie coming only days beforehand, there's going to be some serious dissonance going on: a reread of book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, might be in order.
2. Conqueror
Book two in Stephen Baxter's "Time's Tapestry" alternate history series. The first book, which involved a prophecy in Latin being handed down through several generations in Roman Britain, got mixed reviews but showed some promise. The second book moves the story forward into late antiquity, as the prophecy itself becomes endangered.
3. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
Fans of Jasper Fforde's string of disjointed, wordplay-saturdated and frankly bizarre stories will have a lot to look forward to in the fifth book: When a death threat for her fictional self follows the deaths of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, Thursday realizes there's a murderer loose inside the world of fiction.
4. Thirteen
Richard K. Morgan is already known for crafting dark futures for humanity. In Thirteen, Morgan explores issues of race and eugenics without going for the easy answers.
5. New Amsterdam
Elizabeth Bear's well-received novel explores a modern New Amsterdam that's still a Dutch colony and introduces a hardboiled forensic sorceress named Abigail.
6. The Aftermath
Does Ben Bova's Asteroid Wars series really need a book 4? Perhaps there are some loose ends that need tying up. Still, Bova is a master sci-fi worldcrafter whose worst books still contain evocative prose that immerses you in other places. I've been loyal to Bova since The Weathermakers, but lately I've been skimming to find the good stuff.
7. Spook Country
Spook Country takes place in the same mind-twisting not-quite-real today of Pattern Recognition, this time involving an enigmatic un-magazine, virtual reality art, and ineffable black ops machinations. Nobody plays with your head quite like Gibson.
