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by Henry Leon Lazarus

November is not only a great month for falling leaves, it is also the month of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention, Nov (12-14), at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Philadelphia. With Katherine Kurtz, author of the Dernyi series, and artist Jill Bauman as guests of honor it promises to be a great convention. Philcon has always devoted itself to writing and many New York editors and agents attend. My agent, George Scithers is always there and hopefully he will have finally gone over my novel for the final time and sent it out. I have a number of fun and readable novels to mention this month and all should be available at the convention.

Lawrence Watt-Evans (who has been a guest at the convention) has a great tale of Dragon Weather (hard from Tor) which mixes a little Count of Monte Cristo with a puzzle about dragons. In his world if a man drinks dragon venom mixed with blood he stays young. Arlien's village is destroyed by dragons (with him drinking the mixture) and he is sold to the mines by the looters. When he escapes as an adult he sets off on revenge after attaining riches. There's also a nice puzzle about dragon young to add to the mix.

Frank Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson do the impossible and bring the universe of Dune: House Atreides (hard from Bantam) to life in the tale of young Duke Leto dealing with Harkonan plots. I especially liked the way the two authors filled in Dune's past with details like Pardot Keyne's great plan for Dune and how he sold it to the fremen, and how Duncan Idaho got his great hatred for Harkonans. There are two more of these coming.

Miles Vorkosigan learns that love is not a Civil Campaign (hard from Baen) in the latest tale by Lois McMaster Bujold (who's also been a guest at Philcon). This is a delightfully droll tale of politics and love as Miles bumbles his way to love at the same time as arrangements for the Emperor's wedding are being made.

Eric S. Nylund outdoes himself in the sequel to Signal to Noise (paper) in which Jack Potter destroyed the earth by selling alien technology leaving himself stranded on the moon. A Signal Shattered (hard from Avon Eos) has him learning more about that technology to somehow outwit the aliens and find a new future for humanity.

Dave Duncan has a second tale of the King's Blades. When the Lord of the Fire Lands (hard from Avon Eos) is murdered his son hides in the school for Blades. Discovered he is given one of the Blades, his friend Wasp, and together they have to return home to discover the murderer and regain the kingship. The Baels are based on Norsemen and have the same attitude towards fighting, drinking, and whenching which makes them interesting and fun to read about.

Julie E. Czerneda borrows an urban legend when she continues the tale of Sira, telepath and teleport who is too powerful for her clan. Sira's ovaries are cut from her and she and her husband go hunting for her eggs before someone can clone copies of her in Ties of Power (paper from DAW). I especially liked the alien Drapsk who have an unusual social and sexual relationship and who need Sira's help. The feather-headed aliens and both amusing and adorable. C. J. Cherryh has the fourth book of her Foreigner series. Precursor (hard From DAW) finally gets Bren into space and widens the eventual confrontation. This is a long series and not worth entering in the middle.

Bruce Boxleitner has a great pilot about a man with amnesia, who was a warden protecting earth from aliens, roaming the old west. Frontier Earth (hard from Ace) introduces him and puts him at the Gunfight for the OK Corral. I would really enjoy this television series and I hope Mr. Boxleitner can sell it. Tanith Lee has a second in her tale of an alternate Venice, this time retelling the Joan of Arc story with an innocent girl who can send fire against Venice's enemies, Saint Joan (hard from Overlook)

Hal Clement (who is always at Philcon) has the best thing he's written in years, Half Life (hard from Tor). Numerous diseases have crippled humanity so an expedition is sent to Titan to look for alternate life forms to help understand the human problem. His description of exploring Titan by people on the edge of death is fascinating but I wish his solution to the human problem was better. In Architects of Humanity (hard from Tor) Brian Stableford shows a humanity on the verge of true immortality and by using a murder mystery, gives a hint of how long lived humans might think about their long lives and who might remember them. In this case the killer uses genetically modified flowers to kill and taunts the police lieutenant and a competing flower designer while he kills one old friend after another.

There are two episodes of long-running, humorous series this month. Terry Pratchett has another Disc World novel filled with his typical British humor. In Carpe Jugulum (hard from HarperPrism) Vampires are invited to Lancre castle and refuse to leave, taking over the kingdom and are not effected by religious objects or garlic. Only the three witches can stop them. Piers Anthony has another pun-filled saga of Xanth. Xone of Contention (hard fromTor) sends two mortals from our time to Xanth who are soon on quest, trading with two from Xanth who soon are being chased by the Demon Earth (it's a bit complicated since one of them is the Demon Xanth.)

Finally we have Stephen E. Lawhead's Avalon which has a young Englishman as the reincarnated Arthur and the unknown heir to the throne which the English are about to rid themselves of. While the political part is fun, the Authurian part lacks believability.

Star Trek fans will want the newest Star Trek Encyclopedia (Trade from Pocket) which is 128 pages thicker.

Collections include: Alien Abductions (ed by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers, paper from DAW); Armageddons (ed by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozios, paper from Ace); Present Lives Past Tense about downloading famous people (ed by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, trade from Ace); and the reprint of Starlight 2 (ed by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, trade from Tor)

Reprints include Bruce Sterling's comedic, Distraction (Bantam Spectra) about near future politics and odd science; Raymond E. Feist's novelization of the game based on his universe, Krondor the Betrayal (Avon Eos) which didn't work for me; and Lois McMaster Bujold's Cordelia's Honor (Baen) which contains two great novels about Mile's mother.

TSet your calendars to August 30 to September 3, 2001 when the World Science Fiction comes to Philadelphia for the first time in fifty years. It was invented here in 1936.