Libraries are showing demand for Dan Simmons’ historical novel with a supernatural twist, Black Hills, which is also picking up positive early reviews. Holds are averaging 4:1 on this tale of about a Sioux man who communes with the spirit of George Armstrong Custer for 50 years after his death in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Booklist praises Hugo award-winner Simmons as “equally adept at horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery.”

Publishers Weekly also lauds “his ability to create complex characters and pair them with suspenseful situations, [which] stands almost unmatched among his contemporaries.”

Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B+, finding that “some passages of Black Hills sink into tourist-pamphlet minutiae, [but] Simmons (Drood) keeps the tale buoyant with his evocative prose and storytelling muscle.”

Black Hills Dan Simmons Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2010-02-24) ISBN / EAN: 031600698X / 9780316006989

Audio: Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781600247866; $39.98
BBC Audio; UNABR; 9781607883463; $129.99
Large Print: Little, Brown; pbk; 9780316073998; $25.99
Audio and ebook available from OverDrive

Other Fiction Titles Going on Sale Next Week

Danielle Steel‘s Big Girl (Delacorte), about an unconventional beauty, has holds of up to 7:1 in libraries we checked.

Kim Harrison‘s Black Magic Sanction (Eos) is the eighth title in her urban fantasy series, Robin Morgan/ Hollows. Holds are in the 4:1 range at many libraries we checked.

J.D. Robb‘s Fantasy in Death (Penguin), the 30th book in the bestelling Death series featuring NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas, has predictably high holds.

Robert Parker‘s Split Image (Putnam) is the latest title in the Spenser series, following the author’s death last month.  Holds are high in the libraries we checked. [According to The Age (Australia), there are several more Spenser novels coming.]

Thriller fans are driving strong library demand for two titles coming next week, from Tom Dorsey and Kay Hooper – and early reviews favor Dorsey.

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey is the most-requested title to be released next week, with strong holds of 6:1 or more in libraries we checked. It features homicidal yet discerning anti-hero Serge Storms and his drug-addicted sidekick as they seek rough justice amid the revelry of spring break. Booklist says: “All of Dorsey’s books offer belly laughs, but this one seems a cut above.”

Gator A-Go-Go Tim Dorsey Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061432717 / 9780061432712

Large Print available from HarperLuxe on 02/01/2010

• $24.99; ISBN: 9780061945670

Blood Ties by Kay Hooper has holds of at least 1:1, and as high as 7:1 at one library. Publishers Weekly was not very impressed:

Too many interchangeable doll-like victims and a by-the-numbers plot mar bestseller Hooper’s conclusion to her paranormal thriller trilogy that began with Blood Dreams and Blood Sins.

Blood Ties: A Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Novel Kay Hooper Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2010-01-26) ISBN / EAN: 0553804863 / 9780553804867

Audio available from Brilliance

• CD (9 discs): $87.97; ISBN 9781423333142
• MP3: $39.97; ISBN: 9781423333166

Large Print from Random House

• $26; ISBN 9780739377567

More Major Fiction Releases Next Week:

The Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb (Eos/Harper), the first in a two-volume fantasy “mini-series” by veteran fantasist Hobb that Booklist calls as “good as it is massive.”

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd (Morrow) is the first in a new thriller series by debut author Boyd. Publisher Morrow is backing its high hopes for the book with a 150,000 first printing.

Three Days Before the Shooting . . . by Ralph Ellison; only half the ibraries we checked have ordered this novel that Ellison left unfinished after his death, his second after Invisible Man.