This month, fans of acclaimed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury receive a long-awaited treat: more than 50 years after he created the Elliots, a novel about this very peculiar family is being published by Avon Books. From the Dust Returned: A Family Remembrance is like many of Bradbury’s books actually a collection of short stories disguised as a novel. The first story, Homecoming, was published in Mademoiselle in 1946. The editors liked the story so much they used it as the centerpiece of a special Halloween issue and commissioned Charles Addams (of The Addams Family) to illustrate it. Bradbury and Addams hoped to produce a book about the family, but (amazingly) no one was interested at the time.

There’s been nothing quite like the Elliot family then or since. Perhaps because, as Bradbury says, They’re all related to my family. There’s Uncle Einar who can fly; Great Grandmere, the mummy; Cecy, who lies in the attic and travels all over the world; and Tim, the foundling child, who grows up among them and whose job it is to keep the family records. Bradbury is the author of many acclaimed novels (such as Fahrenheit 451) and short story collections (The Illustrated Man). Among his many awards, last year the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Even though he is recognized as the dean of American science fiction writers, Bradbury isn’t sitting still. He’s working on screenplays for two of his books and has a collection of stories coming out next spring.

Do you ever wonder if we are living in the last great age of freedom? Credit card companies, merchants, utilities, insurers and the government have always collected data on citizens, but the databases weren’t linked. With the explosion of the Internet, surveillance cameras, global positioning satellites and supercomputers, those days are over. John Twelve Hawks’ tautly strung and disquieting page-turner, The Traveler, drops us into a dystopian near future where information technology (which he calls the Grid ) threatens personal freedom though the average citizen doesn’t realize it. A shadowy group called the Tabula has focused for years on integrating all the data and assuming the role of puppet master to the masses. As Tabula plan architect General Nash says, most of us would gladly give up a little privacy in exchange for security. Sound familiar? Certain gifted individuals, called Travelers, have the ability to escape their bodies and travel to other planes; they also tend to introduce new and unsettling ideas into society, making them the Tabula’s natural adversary. Historically, Travelers were protected from the Tabula by a ronin-like group called Harlequins. Two brothers, descended from a Traveler, appear on the scene, as does one of the few remaining Harlequins, and the race is on. If either brother possesses the gift and can be turned to the dark side, the Tabula could achieve their hegemony. The stakes couldn’t be higher should the Tabula accomplish their goal, 1984 would collide with Brave New World in an ugly union. The Traveleris the latest major acquisition for The Da Vinci Code editor Jason Kaufman, and it offers readers the same winning combination of breakneck pacing and paranoia-inducing conspiracy theory. Twelve Hawks is a pseudonym for an author who jealously guards his privacy he uses a satellite phone so his calls can’t be traced and won’t pose for publicity photos. Pitting brother against brother, Tabula against Harlequin and freedom versus security this anonymous writer has concocted a brilliant, if alarming, summer read. Thane Tierney is a record executive in Los Angeles.

Sheri S. Tepper returns to her favorite themes human overpopulation and man’s inhumanity to man and all other creatures in her latest novel, The Companions. Tepper has rung similar warning bells in previous novels, including the wonderful The Gate to Women’s Country, where men and women live separately, and The Family Tree, where humanity pays a horrible price for exerting dominion over animals. Here, Tepper puts us into a future where the Earth is so overpopulated that the few remaining animal species are being killed off to provide more space for people. Paul Delis is one of the top linguists on Earth. Despite personality quirks for which he would probably be jailed in our time, he is well regarded and often hired for prestigious jobs far from Earth. His sister, Jewel, whom he regards as hardly more than his personal maid, is an “arkist” part of a secretive group attempting to ship the remaining Earth species to other planets. Jewel travels widely with Paul, and her natural empathy with animals and aliens enables her to become the conduit for a number of interstellar diplomatic treaties. The best parts of The Companions focus on the eons-old relationship between dogs and humans. Tepper looks at the widely held supposition that dogs adapted to living with humanity and, in a lovely fictive twist, turns that theory on its head.

The Companions is packed with challenging ideas, strong and strange characters, and enough alien diplomacy, treachery and war to keep the reader intensely interested in the future world Tepper creates. Gavin J. Grant writes from Northampton, Massachusetts.

Greg Bear’s 28th novel, the near-future thriller Darwin’s Children, is a direct sequel to his Darwin’s Radio (1999), although familiarity with the prequel is not necessary to enjoy the ride offered here.

Ten years have passed since a new human virus produced a generation of children markedly different from their parents. The new children can communicate using freckle-like marks on their faces, and they’re developing a new language and perhaps even new ways of living. Most of the new children have been taken from their families and placed in government schools. Some of these schools have been contracted out to private companies with more experience guarding prisoners than children. The schools have quickly become more akin to concentration camps, and as the children approach puberty, the government becomes afraid that another virus may be unleashed on the public. All remaining new children are ordered imprisoned. When the second virus appears, however, it is a defensive virus released by adult humans that kills 20 percent of the new children.

Bear explains viruses and all the science in the book in clear, comprehensible language that makes for fascinating reading. Despite the global nature of the virus, Bear focuses on the extreme and fearful reaction by the government, parents and the people of the U.S. One surprise in the novel occurs when two characters encounter something they think of as God. It is a presence that envelops them in feelings of acceptance and love but, frustratingly, neither can control any aspect of it. Where Bear is going with this will have to wait for a future novel.

Bear has become one of science fiction’s most consistent producers of thrills and chills, and with Darwin’s Children his strong imagination and writing skills come together in a combination that has all the hallmarks of future bestsellerdom. Gavin J. Grant is a freelance writer and reviewer in Northampton, Massachusetts.