CHECK IT OUT

With Harry Potter mania now in full swing and Hobbit devotees eagerly

awaiting Hollywood’s version of “Lord of the Rings,” fantasy fans might

wonder: Who will be the next J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien?

Candidates might include Tim Powers, winner of the best novel award at

the 2001 World Fantasy Convention for “Declare.” With a blend of

supernatural suspense and espionage thrills, the reigning king of

historical fantasy rewrites Cold War history in his eleventh novel.

On center stage is professor Andrew Hale, drawn back into Her

Majesty’s Secret Service in 1963. In resuming a mission to topple the

Communist regime before Moscow marshals otherworldly forces, the retired

Oxford lecturer is driven toward a deadly confrontation on Mt. Ararat.

Sharing World Fantasy Convention 2001 best novel honors with Powers is

Sean Stewart for “Galveston.” Set on an island that was flooded by a

tidal wave of magic during Mardi Gras 2004, Stewart’s seventh saga paints

a vivid picture of a post-apocalyptic world. Twenty years after the

deluge, technology is unreliable, a city is awash in endless carnival

revelry and three eccentric characters are vying for control of the

populace.

On a whimsical par with Tolkien and Rowling is Midori Snyder’s “The

Innamorati,” honored with the 2001 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for adult

literature. In an allegorical fantasy about the quest for identity and

the masks we present to others, Snyder sends her characters through a

maze said to rid them of personal demons.

The venturing pilgrims include a stuttering actor, a mask maker unable

to make masks, a siren in silent exile from the sea and a poet who lost

his voice when he discovered his wife’s infidelity.

Readers interested in getting in on the ground floor of a new fantasy

series won’t want to miss “To The King A Daughter,” from beloved writer

Andre Norton and coauthor Sasha Miller. In this first volume of “The

Cycle of Oak, Yew, Ash and Rowan,” fans of Norton’s classic “Witch World”

stories will find familiar terrain in a tale of a crumbling kingdom

besieged by dark forces.

Reality’s darkest forces are those that strip us of the powers of

imagination and the ability to believe in what we can’t see, suggests

legendary fantasist Ray Bradbury in “From the Dust Returned: A Family

Remembrance.”

In his first novel of the 21st century, the author of such

masterpieces as “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451” completes

the story of the Elliotts, a family of strange nocturnal creatures living

in a grand, gabled farmhouse in northern Illinois.

Introduced over a half-century ago in a story called “Homecoming,” the

clan is gathering for a reunion in Bradbury’s newest work. Their maker

will be on hand at 7 p.m.Tuesday at the Newport Beach Central Library to

discuss a genre he has raised to rarefied heights and to sign copies of

his books.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Claudia Peterman. All titles may be reserved from home or office

computers by accessing the catalog at https://www.newportbeachlibrary.org.