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Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
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Stellar All Stars
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Judas Horse by April Smith
The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw
Bonk by Mary Roach
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Starred Reviews
Speculative Fiction Stars 2005
April 2, 2008
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine unless otherwise noted. Titles are arranged by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author.
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- Memories of Ice: Book Three of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Author: Erickson, Steven
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0765314320 Date: 2005
PW
The ravaged continent of Genabackis has given birth to a terrifying new empire: the Pannion Domin. Like a tide of corrupted blood, it seethes across the land, devouring all. In its path stands an uneasy alliance: Onearm's army and Whiskeyjack's Bridgeburners alongside their enemies of old--the forces of the Warlord Caladan Brood, Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii mages, and the Rhivi people of the plains.
But ancient undead clans are also gathering; the T'lan Imass have risen. For it would seem something altogether darker and more malign threatens this world. Rumors abound that the Crippled God is now unchained and intent on a terrible revenge.
Marking the return of many characters from Gardens of the Moon and introducing a host of remarkable new players, Memories of Ice is both a momentous new chapter in Steven Erikson's magnificent epic fantasy and a triumph of storytelling. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 9.26.05 - Viriconium
Author: Harrison, M. John
Publisher: Spectra $ 16 ISBN: 0553383159 Date: 2005Kirkus
Out of print in the United States for more than two decades, four early fantasy works by the award-winning author of Light are gathered for this omnibus edition. Includes The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, The Floating Gods, and Viriconium Nights.
Updated 9.17.05 - Dragon's Eye
Author: Hetley, James A.
Publisher: Ace $ 14 ISBN: 0441013287 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 11.2.05 - Salem's Lot
Author: King, Stephen
Publisher: Doubleday $ 35 ISBN: 0385516487 Date: 2005LJ
With the addition of fifty pages of material deleted from the 1975 manuscript, an introduction by King, and two short stories related to the novel, this edition represents the text as the author envisioned it. Includes lavishly creepy photographs by Jerry Uelsmann.
Updated 10.3.05 - Learning the World: Or, the New Intelligence: A Scientific Romance
Author: MacLeod, Ken
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765313316 Date: 2005PW
Humanity has spread to every star within 500 light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life.
The ancient starship "But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four hundred year journey. For its long-lived inhabitants, the centuries have been busy. Now a younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst.
Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system's Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark. On Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system's outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It's only a comet. His physicist colleague Orro takes time off from trying to invent a flying-machine to calculate the comet's trajectory. Something is very odd about that comet's path. They are not the only ones for whom the world has changed. "We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday. We have to start learning the world all over again." - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 10.3.05 - Counting Heads
Author: Marusek, David
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312670 Date: 2005PW
Counting Heads is David Marusek's extraordinary launch as an SF novelist: The year is 2134, and the Information Age has given rise to the Boutique Economy in which mass production and mass consumption are rendered obsolete. Life extension therapies have increased the human lifespan by centuries. Loyal mentars (artificial intelligence) and robots do most of society's work. The Boutique Economy has made redundant ninety-nine percent of the world's fifteen billion human inhabitants. The world would be a much better place if they all simply went away.
Counting Heads arrives as a science fiction novel like a bolt of electricity, galvanizing readers with an entirely new vision of the future. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 9.26.05 - Seeker
Author: McDevitt, Jack
Publisher: Ace $24.95 ISBN: 0441013295 Date: 2005PW
Thousands of years after an entire colony disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from one of the colony's ships. The discovery raises more questions than answers and draws him into the very heart of danger.
Updated 10.11.05 - The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl
Author: Pratt, Tim
Publisher: Spectra $ 12 ISBN: 0553383388 Date: 2005Booklist
"Tim Pratt's The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is a two-fisted meta-fiction of old west mythos and modern day--sharp writing, cool characters, fascinating ideas, and the courage to have fun."--Jeffrey Ford, author of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 12.29.05 - Fifty Degrees Below
Author: Robinson, Kim Stanley
Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553803123 Date: 2005PW
The award-winning author continues his groundbreaking trilogy, begun in Forty Signs of Rain, with this second novel, set in a near-future Washington, D.C., and inspired by headline-making scientific and environmental research.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults | Alex Awards Read Alikes: Palwick
Updated 10.11.05 - End of the Beginning
Author: Turtledove, Harry
Publisher: NAL $ 25.95 ISBN: 0451216687 Date: 2005Kirkus
From a "New York Times" bestselling author--and "the maven of alternate history" ("San Diego Union-Tribune")--comes the thrilling follow-up to Days of Infamy.
Updated 9.17.05 - At All Costs
Author: Weber, David
Publisher: Baen $ 26 ISBN: 1416509119 Date: 2005Booklist
Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet and prevent the Republic from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance.
Updated 11.2.05 - Orphans of Chaos
Author: Wright, John C.
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311313 Date: 2005Kirkus
John C. Wright burst onto the SF scene with the Golden Age trilogy. His next project was the ambitious fantasy sequence, "The Last Guardians of Everness.
Wright's new fantasy is a tale about five orphans raised in a strict British boarding school who begin to discover that they may not be human beings. The students at the school do not age, while the world around them does.
The children begin to make sinister discoveries about themselves. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter around him; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls where none had previously been; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the inexplicable universe: and they should not be able to co-exist under the same laws of nature. Why is it that they can? - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 8.8.05
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- Children of the Serpent Gate: Book 3: The Tears of Artamon
Author: Ash, Sarah
Publisher: Spectra $ 23 ISBN: 0553382128 Date: 2005PW
The author of Prisoner of the Iron Tower delivers the triumphant conclusion to her unique and much-lauded fantasy saga.
Updated 8.15.05 - The Algebraist
Author: Banks, Iain M.
Publisher: Nightshade $ 24.95 ISBN: 1597800260 Date: 2005PW
It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year. The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilization. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars. Seconded to a military-religious order he's barely heard of - part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony - Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer - a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 8.22.05 - Bear Daughter
Author: Berman, Judith
Publisher: Ace $ 16 ISBN: 0441013228 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 9.17.05 - Numbers Don't Lie
Author: Bisson, Terry
Publisher: Tachyon $ 14.95 ISBN: 1892391325 Date: 2005PW
Originally published in "Asimov's Science Fiction as the short stories "The Edge of the Universe," "Get Me to the Church on Time," and "The Hole in the Hole," this inventive and quirky novel combines the stories, featuring the inspired adventures of Wilson Wu, a jack-of-all-trades who uses his eclectic background to solve a variety of wacky futuristic dilemmas. An Ivy League graduate, Wu is a rock musician, a Volvo mechanic, a trial lawyer, a camel driver, an aeronautics engineer, an entomological meteorologist, and, most importantly, a math wizard with a formula for every occasion. A godsend for his friends and the universe, Wu uses his eclectic skill set to prevent the imminent collapse of the universe, guarantee good weather for an Alabama wedding, and tow an abandoned lunar rover from the surface of the moon to a junkyard in Brooklyn. Irreverent and inventive, these adventures exemplify Bisson's smart, hilarious, and satirical style that has earned him Hugo and Nebula awards and comparisons to Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 10.31.05 - Fledgling
Author: Butler, Octavia E.
Publisher: Seven Stories $ 24.95 ISBN: 1583226907 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
Butler's first new novel in seven years is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire.
Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 10.24.05 - Glass Soup
Author: Carroll, Jonathan
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311798 Date: 2005LJBooklist
Beginning two months after the end of White Apples, Glass Soup continues the story of Vincent and Isabelle, a 21st century Orpheus and Eurydice--with a twist.
Updated 9.17.05 - Anansi Boys
Author: Gaiman, Neil
Publisher: Morrow $ 26.95 ISBN: 006051518x Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spirit of rebellion able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. When he dies on a karaoke stage, things get very interesting for Charlie.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Legendary Characters | Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens | Alex Award Read Alikes: Gaiman
Updated 8.15.05 - Lord of the Silver Bow: Troy
Author: Gemmell, David
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345458354 Date: 2005KirkusLJPW
This re-imagined Trojan War is the beginning of an epic trilogy. Readers will be introduced to Aeneas, Lord of the Silver Bow, a feared warrior who surrenders his heart to Andromache, who is betrothed to Hektor.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Legendary Characters | Trojan War
Updated 8.8.05 - The Town That Forgot How to Breathe
Author: Harvey, Kenneth J.
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312342225 Date: 2005PW
Described by some reviewers as a mix between Stephen King and Annie Proulx, Harvey's compulsively readable novel is a profound allegorical tale of the effects of globalization on culture and personal histories.
Updated 8.8.05 - Already Dead: A Joe Pitt Casebook
Author: Huston, Charlie
Publisher: Del Rey $ 12.95 ISBN: 034547824x Date: 2005PW
The daughter of a prominent New York family is missing, and her Vampyre fascination makes Joe Pitt--private detective and Vampyre--the man for this most dangerous job.
Suggested Reading: Vampires | Cross Genres
Updated 10.11.05 - Knife of Dreams
Author: Jordan, Robert
Publisher: Tor $ 29.95 ISBN: 0312873077 Date: 2005PW
"The Wheel of Time" turns, and Robert Jordan delivers the 11th volume of his extraordinary masterwork of fantasy. The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable. All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, when Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanity's only hope.
Updated 10.11.05 - Son of a Witch
Author: Maguire, Gregory
Publisher: Regan $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060548932 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Ten years after the publication of Wicked, the author returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when Dorothy killed the Witch.
Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 7.7.05 - The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
Author: Moers, Walter
Publisher: Overlook $ 26.95 ISBN: 1585677248 Date: 2005PWLJ
Captain Bluebear tells the story of his first 13-1/2 lives spent on the mysterious continent of Zamonia, where intelligence is an infectious disease, water flows uphill, and dangers lie in wait for him around every corner.
Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 8.2.05 - Woken Furies
Author: Morgan, Richard K.
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345479718 Date: 2005Booklist
Richard K. Morgan has received widespread praise for his astounding twenty-fifth-century novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs, and has established a growing legion of fans. Mixing classic noir sensibilities with a searing futuristic vision of an age when death is nearly meaningless, Morgan returns to his saga of betrayal, mystery, and revenge, as Takeshi Kovacs, in one fatal moment, joins forces with a mysterious woman who may have the power to shatter Harlan's World forever. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 9.17.05 - The Necessary Beggar
Author: Palwick, Susan
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 076531097x Date: 2005BooklistPWLJ
A compelling new contemporary fantasy novel from the award-winning author of Flying in Place.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens | Alex Award Read Alikes: Palwick
Updated 10.24.05 - Thud !
Author: Pratchett, Terry
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060815221 Date: 2005PW
Scheduled for simultaneous publication in the United States and the United Kingdom, this new work by bestselling author Pratchett delivers the trademark insight and humor of "one of the more significant contemporary English language satirists" ("Publishers Weekly").
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Alex Award Read Alikes: Gaiman
Updated 8.22.05 - Bronze
Author: Reed, Kit
Publisher: Nightshade $ 24.95 ISBN: 1597800082 Date: 2005PW
Jude Atkins travels to South Carolina to meet Peter Benedict, a wealthy and successful painter she met on the Internet, and who she thinks she loves. What should be a normal courtship becomes a twisted descent into a dark family legacy in which art threatens life. The Benedict family's secret and the dark ambitions of the beautiful, sinister sculptor Ava Benedict, Peter's mother, threaten to engulf Jude, Peter, and everything they hold dear. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 10.11.05 - Poison Study
Author: Snyder, Maria V.
Publisher: Luna $ 19.95 ISBN: 0373802307 Date: 2005PW
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace--and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster.
Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens | Cross Genres
Updated 10.11.05
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- Joplin's Ghost
Author: Due, Tananarive
Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743449037 Date: 2005PW
An acclaimed suspense writer's latest chilling tale examines how the daughter of a musician and jazz club owner finds her life changed when she becomes haunted by the ghost of Scott Joplin.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Ghosts | Music
Updated 7.25.05 - Looking for Jake
Author: Mieville, China
Publisher: Del Rey $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345476077 Date: 2005Booklist
From the award-winning author of Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council comes a collection of 15 short stories, four of them new, including a groundbreaking work in graphic-novel form.
Updated 8.15.05 - Strange Itineraries
Author: Powers, Tim
Publisher: Tachyon $ 15.95 ISBN: 1892391236 Date: 2005PW
Ghosts, accidental time travel, a secret clan of immortals, and Maxwell's Demon are all subjects in this complete collection of short stories by Tim Powers. Elusive and evocative, these stories are excursions into strange and dangerous worlds and are as colorful and inventive as Powers's novels. A pioneer of the popular "Steampunk" genre of speculative fiction, his complex and tightly researched "secret histories" blend with compelling fantastical elements to create some of today's most memorable modern science fiction. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 7.25.05 - The Protector's War
Author: Stirling, S.M.
Publisher: Roc $ 24.95 ISBN: 0451460464 Date: 2005LJ
The sequel to Dies the Fire opens 10 years after technology has been rendered inoperable, and two leaders have built two thriving communities in Oregon. Now the armies of the totalitarian Protectorate are preparing to wage war over the priceless farmland.
Updated 10.3.05 - Once Upon a Time (She Said)
Author: Yolen, Jane
Publisher: NESFA $ 26 ISBN: 1886778612 Date: 2005LJ
Updated 10.3.05
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- Necklace of Kisses
Author: Block, Francesca Lia
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 21.95 ISBN: 0060777516 Date: 2005PWLJ
The author of the phenomenal Weetzie Bat series delivers this latest installment that follows the charming and lovable Weetzie through a life-altering journey, facing adult problems in sparkling LA--complete with fawns, angels, and mermaids--where anything is possible, even true love.
Updated 7.12.05 - Dean Koontz' Frankenstein: Book Two: City of Night
Author: Koontz, Dean, Kevin J. Anderson, Ed Gorman
Publisher: Bantam $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0553587897 Date: 2005Booklist
From the celebrated imagination of Dean Koontz comes the second book in this four-part re-imagining of the classic story that brings the 200-year-old "monster," a literate, mysterious loner, to modern day New Orleans on the trail of his creator.
Updated 8.15.05 - Dark Mirror: Book One of the Bridei Chronicles
Author: Marillier, Juliet
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0765309955 Date: 2005PW
In the first book of the Bridei Chronicles, a young nobleman fostered at the home of a powerful druid saves a baby left on the doorstep by the fairie folk.
Updated 6.6.05 - Melusine
Author: Monette, Sarah
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 0441012868 Date: 2005PWBooklist
Melusine is a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption. It is here that wizard Felix Harrowgate and cat-burglar Mildmay the Fox will find their destines intertwined in a world of sensuality and savagery.
Updated 8.15.05 - Watch on the Rhine
Author: Ringo, John & Tom Kratman
Publisher: Baen $ 25 ISBN: 0743499182 Date: 2005PW
In this action-packed offshoot adventure of the bestselling Posleen War series that began with Gust Front, the Posleen Invaders face the reconstituted Waffen SS in this brutal and unbiased look at the inner workings of the Waffen SS.
Suggested Reading: Alien Invasions
Updated 7.18.05 - Singer of Souls
Author: Stemple, Adam
Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0765311704 Date: 2005Booklist
Leaving his life of petty crime and drug abuse behind in Minneapolis, guitarist Douglas flees to Edinburgh, Scotland. Tempted by drugs once again, Douglas stumbles--and soon he can see the fey folk who invisibly share Edinburgh's ancient streets in all their beauty and terrifying cruelty.
Updated 8.15.05 - Settling Accounts
Author: Turtledove, Harry
Publisher: Del Rey $ 26.95 ISBN: 0345457242 Date: 2005Booklist
In the second book of his Settling Accounts trilogy, Turtledove returns to the story of a North American continent, separated into two bitterly opposed nations, that stands on the verge of exploding once again.
Updated 5.20.05 Starwater Strains
Author: Wolfe, Gene
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765312026 Date: 2005PW
Wolfe follows his acclaimed all-fantasy short story collection, Innocents Aboard, with this volume of 25 stories that amply demonstrate his range, excellence, and mastery of the form that has traditionally been the heart of the field.
Updated 6.29.05
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- Magic Street
Author: Card, Orson Scott
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345416899 Date: 2005PW
Mack Street was born too soon, abandoned by an unknown mother in a Los Angeles park. It was a miracle he survived, and a miracle he reached his teen years, but what his foster mother never realized was that when he stared off in space he was seeing other people's dreams.
Updated 6.3.05 - Shadowfall: Book One of the Godslayer Chronicles
Author: Clemens, James
Publisher: Roc $ 24.95 ISBN: 0451459946 Date: 2005LJ
For 4,000 years, the gods have kept the peace--until the goddess Meeryn was murdered. Now, the only witness--and suspect--is the crippled, former knight Tylar, who must find the true the killer, or be killed himself.For 4,000 years, the gods have kept the peace--until the goddess Meeryn was murdered. Now, the only witness--and suspect--is the crippled, former knight Tylar, who must find the true the killer, or be killed himself. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 6.29.05 - The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty Second Annual Collection
Author: Dozois, Gardner
Publisher: St Martins $ 35 ISBN: 0312336594 Date: 2005PW
Updated 6.20.05 - A Mankind Witch
Author: Freer, Dave
Publisher: Baen $ 25 ISBN: 0743499131 Date: 2005PW
In an alternate world where magic works, the Holy Roman Empire still rules Europe, and the time of the Renaissance has come with very different results. When a sacred relic is stolen, Signy, the older stepsister to King Vortenbras is accused. Her only partisan, the Corsair-Captain Cair, knows the truth and is determined to rescue her.
Suggested Reading: Alternate Worlds
Updated 6.13.05 - Attack of the Jazz Giants
Author: Frost, Gregory
Publisher: Golden Gryphon $ 25.95 ISBN: 1930846347 Date: 2005PW
Updated 5.16.05 - The Traveler: Book 1: The Fourth Realm Trilogy
Author: Hawks, John Twelve
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 038551428x Date: 2005PW
In this stunningly suspenseful first novel, reminiscent of George Orwell and Philip Pullman, John Twelve Hawks has created a vividly imagined world that runs parallel to our own. Moving at lightning speed from the back alleys of Prague to the underworld of Los Angeles to a guarded research facility in New York, The Traveler goes beneath the surface to give us new insights on history and our own lives.
Updated 5.9.05 - Magic for Beginners
Author: Link, Kelly
Publisher: Small Beer $ 24 ISBN: 1931520151 Date: 2005PW
Cult favorite Kelly Link unfurls a second engaging, funny, and magical selection of stories, with riffs on marriage, cannons, convenience stories, superheroes, zombies, and apocalyptic poker parties.
Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens | Zombies
Updated 6.6.05 - Olympos
Author: Simmons, Dan
Publisher: Eos $ 25.95 ISBN: 0380978946 Date: 2005PWLJ
The author of the Hyperion Cantos delivers his epic-concluding companion to Ilium--the novel that "sets new standards for SF in the new century" (author Peter F. Hamilton").
Updated 7.12.05 - Accelerando
Author: Stross, Charles
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 0441012841 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
For three generations, the Macz family has struggled to cope with the rampant technological achievements that have rendered humans near obsolete. Mankind's end encroaches even closer when something starts to dismantle the nine planets of the solar system in an effort to annihilate all biological lifeforms.
Updated 7.12.05
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- The Hallowed Hunt
Author: Bujold, Lois McMaster
Publisher: Eos $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060574623 Date: 2005PW
From the award-winning author of Paladin of Souls comes the third novel in her enthusiastically received epic historical fantasy.
Updated 5.2.05 - The Tyranny of the Night: Book One of the Instrumentalities of the Night
Author: Cook, Glen
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765306840 Date: 2005LJ
In this launch of a sweeping new fantasy series from the author of the Black Company novels, an uneasy truce exists between two great powers who are waiting for a spark to renew an ancient conflict.
Updated 6.29.05 - The Historian
Author: Kostova, Elizabeth
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316011770 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
In this riveting debut novel, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could--the quest to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.25.05 - Dogs in the Moonlight
Author: Lake, Jay
Publisher: Wildwood $ 29.95 ISBN: 1930997566 Date: 2005PW
Updated 2.14.05 - The White Wolf's Son: The Albino in the Middle March
Author: Moorcock, Michael
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446577022 Date: 2005PW
The multiple award-winning author of The Dream Thief's Daughter and The Skrayling Tree delivers a stirring new novel in his beloved Elric the Eternal Champion saga.
Updated 5.23.05 - Stolen Magic
Author: Putney, Mary Jo
Publisher: Del Rey $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345476891 Date: 2005Booklist
Entwining fantasy with historical romance, Stolen Magic introduces Simon Malmain, Earl of Falconer, who continues the story line begun in A Kiss of Fate.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
Updated 5.9.05
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- Godplayers
Author: Broderick, Damien
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1560256702 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 4.22.05 - Dead Beat: A Novel of the Dresden Files
Author: Butcher, Jim
Publisher: Roc $ 23.95 ISBN: 0451460278 Date: 2005LJ
In his first hardcover adventure in the national bestselling series, Harry Dresden must save Chicago from black magic and necromancy--all in a day's work for the city's only professional wizard.
Suggested Reading: Cross Genres | Adult Books for Young Adults | Alex Award Read Alikes: Martinez
Updated 4.19.05 - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Author: Doctorow, Cory
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312786 Date: 2005PW
One of the leading voices of next-generation SF and author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom returns with a miraculous novel of secrets, lies, magic, and Internet connectivity, set on the streets of modern-day Toronto.
Suggested Reading: Internet Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - The Rivers of War
Author: Flint, Eric
Publisher: Del Rey $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345465679 Date: 2005PW
Updated 4.25.05 - Dead as a Doornail
Author: Harris, Charlaine
Publisher: Ace $ 22.95 ISBN: 0441012795 Date: 2005PW
Sookie Stackhouse discovers that her brother Jason is about to turn into a were-panther for the first time. But her concern becomes fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population in this "New York Times" bestseller.
Updated 5.24.06 - The Moon Witch
Author: Jones, Linda Winstead
Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425201295 Date: 2005Booklist
In this second novel of the fanciful Sisters of the Sun trilogy, middle Fyne sister Juliet is kidnapped by the Emperor's men--only to be rescued by a man whose animal instincts tell him he's found the only woman to call his own.
Updated 5.9.05 - Child of a Rainless Year
Author: Lindskold, Jane
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765309378 Date: 2005Booklist
Shot through with magic and the atmosphere of the Southwest, this stand-alone contemporary fantasy has all the storytelling vigor of Lindskold's popular Firekeeper series.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults | Alex Award Read Alikes: Palwick
Updated 5.9.05 - Gil's All Fright Diner
Author: Martinez, A. Lee
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311437 Date: 2005PW
Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes! Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer . . . - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Zombies
Updated 3.21.05 - The House of Storms
Author: MacLeod, Ian R.
Publisher: Ace $ 24.95 ISBN: 0441012809 Date: 2005PW
The author of The Light Ages returns to "gritty alternate London" ("Publishers Weekly" starred review).
Updated 4.19.05 - Once Upon a Summer Day
Author: McKiernan, Dennis L.
Publisher: Roc $ 23.95 ISBN: 045146012x Date: 2005Booklist
The enchanting follow-up to Once Upon a Winter's Night from the million-copy bestselling author.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.25.05
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- Lords of Grass and Thunder
Author: Benjamin, Curt
Publisher: Daw $ 24.95 ISBN: 0756401976 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 4.22.05 - The Overnight
Author: Campbell, Ramsey
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312999 Date: 2005PW
After a series of strange mishaps and lots of misfortune, a desperate bookstore manager musters his staff for an overnight inventory. But when the last customers leave and the staff is sealed in, they find out this bookstore is no haven--it is the doorway to a hell unlike any other.
Updated 3.14.05 - The Carpet Makers
Author: Eschback, Andreas
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765305933 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
With an Introduction by Orson Scott Card, this imaginative work is by Andreas Eschbach, "incontestably the shooting star of the German SF scene" ("Heyne Science Fiction Yearbook").
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.21.05 - The Well of Stars
Author: Reed, Robert
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765308606 Date: 2005Kirkus PW
In The Well of Stars, Hugo award-nominated author Robert Reed pens a stunning sequel to his acclaimed novel Marrow.
Updated 2.23.05 - Mystic and Rider
Author: Shinn, Sharon
Publisher: Ace $ 23.95 ISBN: 0441012469 Date: 2005Booklist
The "inventive" ("Library Journal") national bestselling author of the Samaria novels returns with the first book in a stunning new fantasy saga.
Updated 3.16.05 - Spin
Author: Wilson, Robert
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765309386 Date: 2005PW
In this spectacular new SF novel of immense scope, an artificial, alien barrier is placed around the Earth, the moon and stars disappear, and scientists discover that time is passing faster outside the barrier than it is on the planet.
Updated 2.1.05
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- Shadow of the Giant
Author: Card, Orson Scott
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312857586 Date: 2005PW
"The complexity and serious treatment of the book's young protagonists will attract many sophisticated YA readers, while Card's impeccable prose, fast pacing and political intrigue will appeal to adult fans of spy novels, thrillers, and science fiction."--Publishers Weekly (starred review).
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.21.05 - Deadhouse Gates: Book Two of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Author: Erickson, Steven
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765310023 Date: 2005Booklist
Set in a world ravaged by dark, uncontrollable magic, the second novel of Erikson's epic fantasy begins as the seer Sha'ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising of fanaticism and bloodlust that will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known.
Updated 3.3.05 - Phantom Nights
Author: Farris, John
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765307782 Date: 2005Kirkus
Dubbed "a legend among thriller novelists" (Dean Koontz), Farris returns with a chilling gothic tale set in the Jim Crow South of the 1950s. After a 14-year-old boy sets out to avenge the brutal death of his black nurse, she becomes trapped in a netherworld by the force of the boy's will and his need for revenge.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.5.05 - The Rose of the World
Author: Fisher, Jude
Publisher: Daw $ 23.95 ISBN: 0756401879 Date: 2005Booklist
Filled with magic and quests, war and deception, fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and a most dynamic heroine, the Fool's Gold trilogy concludes. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 2.7.05 - A Secret Atlas: Book One in the Age of Discovery Trilogy
Author: Stackpole, Michael A.
Publisher: Spectra $ 15 ISBN: 0553382373 Date: 2005LJ
The author of bestselling Star Wars novels follows his acclaimed original Dragon Crown War Cycle with the first in a dazzling new trilogy. Stackpole's original fantasy novels have won fans and acclaim from coast to coast.
Updated 2.16.05 - Angel of Forgetfulness
Author: Stern, Steve
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033871 Date: 2005Booklist
This time-defying odyssey from the 1960s to the Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the 20th century features a detour through heaven on the wings of a derelict angel.
Suggested Reading: Time Changes
Updated 2.7.05 - The Mysteries
Author: Tuttle, Lisa
Publisher: Spectra $ 21 ISBN: 0553382969 Date: 2005PW
From award-winning author Lisa Tuttle comes a riveting novel that combines the contemporary story of one man's search for a missing young woman with history's most enduring legends of the disappeared.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
Updated 1.19.05 - The White Mare; The Dalraida Trilogy, Book One
Author: Watson, Jules
Publisher: Overlook $ 24.95 ISBN: 1585676209 Date: 2005Kirkus
From an exciting new talent, this sweeping historical fantasy epic enchants readers with Celtic magic and a fight for freedom.
Updated 1.11.05
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- The Meq
Author: Cash, Steve
Publisher: Del Rey $ 13.95 ISBN: 0345470923 Date: 2005Booklist
When his parents die suddenly, leaving him alone with only a clue to his true heritage as a member of the non-human Meq race, 12-year-old Zianno begins a search to unravel the mystery of his people, and to stop the evil Meq Known as the "Fleur-du-Mal."
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.2.04 - Heir of Stone
Author: Farrell, S.L.
Publisher: DAW $ 23.95 ISBN: 0756402549 Date: 2005Booklist
Set a generation after Mage of Clouds, this installment finds the oldest of Meriel's children, Sevei, and her twin brother, Kayne, reaching adulthood. But their world is about to be turned upside down when all of their widely scattered family are simultaneously attacked.
Updated 1.18.05 - Prodigal Son
Author: Koontz, Dean and Kevin J. Anderson
Publisher: Bantam $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0553587889 Date: 2005Booklist
The "New York Times" bestselling author brilliantly re-imagines the classic story in a mesmerizing original four-part series that brings the 200-year-old "creature," a literate, mysterious loner, to modern day New Orleans on the trail of his creator and the serial killer he has spawned.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.18.05 - Tales
Author: Lovecraft, H.P.
Publisher: Library of America $ 35 ISBN: 1931082723 Date: 2005PW
The visionary master of cosmic horror joins The Library of America with this collection of classic stories of the strange and fantastic.
Updated 1.3.05 - Dragonsblood
Author: McCaffrey, Todd
Publisher: Del Rey $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345441249 Date: 2005PWLJ
The dragons of Pern are dying . . . and the only person who can save them hasbeen dead for over 400 Turns. This new fantasy is written by Anne McCaffrey'sson, Todd, heir to the literary world of Pern.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 12.2704 - Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Author: Reynolds, Alistair
Publisher: Ace $ 22.95 ISBN: 0441012388 Date: 2005PW
The award-winning author returns to the Revelation Space universe, with two novellas of interstellar exploration.
Updated 11.29.04
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- The Life of the World To Come
Author: Baker, Kage
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765311321 Date: 2004Kirkus
In the newest novel of the Company series, a time-traveling botanist is stranded 150,000 years in the past. Grieving for the lover she lost twice, Mendoza meets a reincarnation of her love again.
Suggested Reading: Time Travel
Updated 10.08.04 - In the Palace of Repose
Author: Phillips, Holly
Publisher: Wildside $ 29.95 ISBN: 1894815580 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 2.7.05 - Behemoth: Seppuku
Author: Watts, Peter
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311720 Date: 2004PW
Updated 12.27.04
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Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
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