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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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Starred Reviews

Speculative Fiction Stars

April 2, 2008

1998: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Starred Review Titles

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Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine unless otherwise noted. Titles are arranged by approximate date of publication, then alphbetically by author.

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December

• Mission Child
  Author: McHugh, Maureen
  Publisher: Eos $ 20 ISBN: 0380974568 Date: 1998
  BL
  With her debut novel China Mountain Zhang -- a New York Times Notable Book of the Year -- Maureen F. McHugh established herself as a major writer of humanist sf, one of the most distinctive and talented to emerge this decade. She reaffirms her mastery with a brilliantly imagined and slyly subversive tale of personal and planetary transformation; the story of an exemplary young woman's awakening on a world hauntingly similar to, yet far distant in space and time from our own. - Publisher Marketing.

November

• Starfarers
  Author: Anderson, Poul
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312860374 Date: 1998
  PW
  One of science fiction's most treasured visionaries tells the story of an expedition into the far reaches of the galaxy, where answers to mankind's greatest questions await.
• Parable of the Talents
  Author: Butler, Octavia
  Publisher: Seven Stories $ 24.95 ISBN: 1888363819 Date: 1998
  PW LJ
  In this long-awaited novel, Butler revisits familiar themes to tell of a society in 2032 whose very fabric has been torn, and where the basic physical and emotional needs of people seem almost impossible to meet.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Dystopian Stars
• The Gilded Chain: A Tale of the King's Blades
  Author: Duncan, Dave
  Publisher: Eos $ 23 ISBN: 0380974606 Date: 1998
  PW
  The first volume in a swashbuckling new fantasy adventure - a magical Three Musketeers saga by an acknowledged master of the genre.
• Starlight 2
  Author: Hayden, Patrick Nielsen (ed)
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 03128681842 Date: 1998
  PW
  The World Fantasy Award-winning original anthology series returns in its second volume, featuring more of the strongest, most entertaining, most provocative SF and fantasy stories anywhere. Contributors include Jonathan Lethem, Ellen Kushner, David Langford, Susanna Clarke, Ted Chiang, and others.
• The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time Book 8)
  Author: Jordan, Robert
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312857691 Date: 1998
  PW
  The eighth book in the New York Times bestselling Wheel of Time series, called by the Chicago Sun-Times: "a fantasy tale seldom equaled and still more seldom surpassed in English." With the Seanchan invasion in possession of Ebou Dar, Nynaeve, Elayne, and Aviedha head for Caemlyn and Elyane's rightful throne, but discover an enemy worse than the Seanchan.
• Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959
  Author: Newman, Kim
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 22.95 ISBN: 0786705582 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  Continuing this popular vampire history with the heroes, heroines and villians from Anno Dracula, Newman presents an entertainingly chilling alternate 20th century, where high society is run by the undead and romance mixes with the bloodiest horror.
  Suggested Reading: Alternate History Stars
  
• Hogfather: A Novel of Discworld
  Author: Pratchett, Terry
  Publisher: Harper Prism $ 24 ISBN: 0061050466 Date: 1998
  PW
  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, of maybe not, in this brilliant Discworld novel of the holiday season turned upside down by Death (the character, not the condition). Suggested Reading: If You Like Douglas Adams
  
• Playing God
  Author: Zettle, Sarah
  Publisher: Aspect $ 22 ISBN: 0446523224 Date: 1998
  PW
  From a bright new star comes a fast-paced galactic adventure with the depth and complexity of Frank Herbert's bestselling Dune series.

October

• Zombie Lover
  Author: Anthony, Piers
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312866909 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  A ghoulishly delightful Xanth escapade from the master of mischievous merriment. Brianna, a beautiful young black girl has a distracting dilemma: she has unwittingly attracted the affections of King Xeth, ruler of Xanth's zombies, who yearns to make her the Queen of the Dead.
• Future on Ice
  Author: Card, Orson Scott
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312866941 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  The long-awaited companion volume to Future on Fire, this anthology is designed to freeze readers in their tracks and change the way they think. Here are early stories from widely varied and immensely talented authors who have since shattered the face of science fiction.
• Piercing the Darkness : Uncovering the Vampires in America Today
  Author: Ramsland, Katherine
  Publisher: Harper Prism $ 24.00 ISBN: 0061050628 Date: 1998
  PW
  Nonfiction.
  
• Legends : Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy
  Author: Silverberg, Robert (Edt)/ Jordan, Robert/ Goodkind, Terry/ Card, Orson
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312867875 Date: 1998
  Kirkus PW BL
  The greatest collection of original fantasy short novels ever - 11 of the most famous bestselling writers of epic fantasy tell new and original tales set in their bestselling worlds. Featured are works by Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card, Ursula K. LeGuin, George R.R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, Raymond E. Feist, and, of course, the master of the macabre, Stephen King.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• Echoes of Honor : Conquer Hell--Or Die
  Author: Weber, David
  Publisher: Baen Books $ 24.00 ISBN: 0671878921 Date: 1998
  Kirkus PW BL
  Stunned and infuriated by the execution of Commodore Honor Harrington, who had been at forefront of the war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven, the Manticorian Alliance vows revenge. Now, the war is about to enter a phase of unprecedented ferocity... and the Alliance is on the short end of the stick.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• Mind Changer: Sector General Series
  Author: White, James
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312866631 Date: 1998
  PW
  he space station hospital known as Sector General has seen its share of challenges. But in a terrifying new development, the fearsome Dr. O'Mara--the chief psychologist who left his figurative toothmarks on most of the facility's senior residents--has been promoted to the head of the hospital. Publishers Weekly calls this one "White's finest performance!"

September

• The Best of Crank
  Author: Cholfin, Bryan (Edt)
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312867409 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  
• Deepdrive
  Author: Jablokov, Alexander
  Publisher: Eos $ 14 ISBN: Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  The twenty-first-century solar system is a smaller, more crowded place. Eleven extraterrestrial races have settled the planets and moons, sometimes interacting with human beings, sometimes ignoring them altogether in pursuit of their own enigmatic ends. On Venus, the massive Bgarth tunnel tirelesly beneath the soil, transforming the planet in strange and unpredictable ways. On Mercury, insectoid Gunners fire their isotopic cannon into the heart of the Sun for reasons no one can fathom. And on Earth, human clans struggle to possess the eggs of the Ulanyi, whose powerful placental minds confer social and political prominence. -Publisher Marketing.
• Bloom
  Author: McCarthy, Wil
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345408578 Date: 1998
  BL
  Driven across the galaxy by their own technology gone awry, humans seek refuge on scattered moons and asteroid belts. Now that same technology--a great ravenous bloom of biomatter--threatens to consume even those distant harbors of existence.
• The Ghost of the Revelator
  Author: Modesitt, L. E.
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312864264 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  Johann Eschbach, former secret agent now university professor, and his wife find a life- threatening danger and international intrigue in an invitation to visit the country of Deseret. The only thing that might save them lies in the physical nature of ghosts, and the secret Johann knows about that nature.
• The Children Star
  Author: Slonczewski, Joan
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867166 Date: 1998
  PW
  A triumphant return to the universe of A Door into Ocean and Daughter of Elysium, this brilliant new hard SF adventure tells the story of a greedy corporation, whose plan to terraform a planet will signal the end for a simple colony of orphans.

August

• Knight of the Word
  Author: Brooks, Terry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25.95 ISBN: Date: 1998
  PW
  The sequel to Running with the Demon. John Ross inherited the daunting legacy of the first Knight of the Word eight centuries ago: to combat the demonic evil of the Void. His faith shattered by unspeakable violence, Ross tries to build a normal life. When the demons of the Void trail him to Seattle, his only hope is a college student who wields an extraordinary magic all her own.
• Bending the Landscape : Original Gay and Lesbian Writing
  Author: Griffith, Nicola (Edt)/ Pagel, Stephen (Editor)
  Publisher: Overlook Pr $ 23.95 ISBN: 0879518561 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  
• Bag of Bones
  Author: King, Stephen
  Publisher: Scribner $ 28 ISBN: 0684853507 Date: 1998
  Kirkus PW
  Stephen King, master of heart-stopping, page-turning suspense, now brings readers his most gripping and unforgettable novel to date - a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire of natural and supernatural forces.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars | Ghostly Stars
• Beaker's Dozen
  Author: Kress, Nancy
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312865376 Date: 1998
  PW
  Kress's best short stories of the decade are collected here for the first time, including many award nominees, and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella, "Beggars in Spain".
• Antartica
  Author: Robinson, Kim Stanley
  Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553100637 Date: 1998
  Kirkus LJ PW BL
  Beneath its ice and frozen wastes, Antarctica contains great riches of mineral wealth. Antarctica tells the story of the greedy conflict of nations and political extremists who battle for control of the planet's final frontier.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• The Alien Years
  Author: Silverberg, Robert
  Publisher: Harper Prism $ 24 ISBN: 0061050350 Date: 1998
  PW
  This major science fiction epic by an award-winning author tells the story of a California family and its struggle against a chillingly powerful alien presence.
• Irrational Fears
  Author: Spencer, William Browning
  Publisher: White Wolf Pub $ 19.99 ISBN: 1565049152 Date: 1998
  PW
  Browning's latest incursion into horror and humor finds his oddball characters passionately contending with chaos, self-help, alcoholism, recovery, and - of course - real monsters.
• Six Moon Dance
  Author: Tepper, Sheri S.
  Publisher: Eos $ 23 ISBN: 0380974797 Date: 1998
  PW LJ Kirkus
  A nationally treasured fantasist returns with a wondrous and original tale of an imperiled distant world with a cruelly devastating past - and a future that depends on reviving dead mysteries and dancing.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars

July

• The Innamorati
  Author: Snyder, Midori
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: Date: 1998
  PW
  Four companions, the innamorati, journey across a richly imagined Renaissance Italy to meet at the front of a great labyrinth. Here, their adventures grow ever more baroque, comical, and magical, until they achieve the heart of the Maze - and, perhaps, their hearts' desires.

June

• Komarr : A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure
  Author: Bujold, Lois McMaster
  Publisher: Baen Books $ 22.00 ISBN: 0671878778 Date: 1998
  Booklist PW
  Komarr could be a garden - with a thousand years of work - or an uninhabitable wasteland, if the terraforming fails. Now the sole mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor sends his newest Imperial Auditor, Lord Miles Vorkosigan, to find out why.
• Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur
  Author: Cornwell, Bernard
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312185758 Date: 1998
  PW
  The best Arthurian fiction since Gillian Bradshaw, if not Mary Stewart herself" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), Excalibur offers a brilliant conclusion to Cornwell's popular Arthurian trilogy.
• Bhagavati (Blood of the Goddess, 3)
  Author: Dalkey, Kara
  Publisher: Tor Books $24.95 ISBN: 031286003x Date: 1998
  PW
  A young English apothecary's apprentice, sent to collect rare herbs in Africa and India, is shipwrecked off a Portuguese colony and captured by forces of the Inquisition. He saves his life (temporarily, at least) by pretending to know the source of a mysterious powder that can restore life to the dead.
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: 15th Annual Collection
  Author: Dozois, Gardner, ed
  Publisher: St Martins $29.95 ISBN: 0312187793 Date: 1998
  PW
  
• Child of the River : The First Book of Confluence (Confluence Trilogy, No 1)
  Author: McAuley, Paul J.
  Publisher: Eos (T) $ 14.00 ISBN: 0380975157 Date: 1998
  Kirkus PW
  Book #1 in a sweeping new SF epic set in a world where nothing is as it seems. In all of Confluence, Yama is the only surviving member of an illustrious ancient bloodline - both blessed and cursed with awesome powers and immense responsibility. For Yama's destiny is the destiny of his world.
• The Great War
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25 ISBN: 034540615x Date: 1998
  BL
  The United States sides with Germany, while the Confederate States ally with Britain and France in this alternate history of WWI - the stunning sequel to How Few Remain.
  Suggested Reading: Alternate History Stars
• Darwinia
  Author: Wilson, Robert Charles
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312860382 Date: 1998
  PW
  A breathtaking science fiction novel of a very different 20th century - haunted, wonderful, and strange. In 1912, history was changed by the Miracle, when the old world of Europe was replaced by Darwinia, a strange world of nightmarish jungle and antediluvian monsters.
  Suggested Reading: Alternate History Stars

May

• Flanders : A Novel
  Author: Anthony, Patricia
  Publisher: Ace Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 0441005284 Date: 1998
  BL PW
  
• O Pioneer
  Author: Pohl, Frederik
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312861648 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  An immigrant to the colony world of Tupelo, a strange planet inhabited by colonists from five different alien species, Giyt Evesham uncovers a plot threatening to tear the colony apart. Now he must be willing to sacrifice his life and newfound happiness to stop it.
  Suggested Reading: Internet Stars
• The Undesirables
  Author: Smith, Mary C.
  Publisher: Black Heron Pr $ 24.95 ISBN: 0930773470 Date: 1998
  BL Kirkus
  

April

• Dragon's Winter
  Author: Lynn, Elizabeth A.
  Publisher: Ace Books $ 21.95 ISBN: 0441005020 Date: 1998
  PW
  Since his twin's theft of his talisman, Karadur Atani can never become a dragon king. Instead, his dragon's heart remains imprisoned in the body of a broken man. But when his brother returns, cloaked in a veil of black magic, Karadur Atani will fight for his birthright--once and for all.
• Moonfall
  Author: McDevitt, Jack
  Publisher: Harper Prism $ 24 ISBN: 0061050369 Date: 1998
  BL
  It's 2024. Humankind is poised to launch the first manned mission to Mars--until astronomers find something unexpected in the skies. Something deadly. A comet is hurtling toward our solar system on a collision course with the moon. If it strikes, the moon will be gone, and the debris will rain down on Earth itself, causing tidal waves, killer storms, perhaps the end of human life on Earth. Humankind has five days to escape extinction.

March

• Ship of Magic
  Author: Hobb, Robin
  Publisher: Bantam $23.95 ISBN: 0553103245 Date: 1998
  BL
  From the author of the Farseer trilogy, hailed as "superb" by Kirkus Reviews, comes a brand-new adventure set in that same acclaimed world. After losing inheritance of her family's newly quickened liveship, the Vivacia, to her brother, Althea Vestrit is thrust into the center of a conflict she never wanted as she attempts to get the ship back.
• Hand of Prophecy
  Author: Park, Severna
  Publisher: Eos $ 14.00 ISBN: 0380976390 Date: 1998
  PW
  Frenna, a slave on a frontier planet, escapes carrying a valuable secret - three doses of a drug that can cure The virus that has enslaved her people for decades. Abandoned on a violent world, Frenna is pressed into service as a medic. There Frenna becomes involved in an underground movement to free her fellow slaves and them must decide who will be The beneficiaries of her precious doses of The life-saving drug.
• Kirinyaga : A Fable of Utopia
  Author: Resnick, Michael D.
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25.00 ISBN: 0345417011 Date: 1998
  BL PW
  In a provocative new collection of award-winning stories linked together to form a novel, Resnick tells The tale of Koriba - a black man from Kenya - who founds a utopian society on the terraformed planetoid of Kirinyaga, modeled on his native country as it was before European influence.
• Pandora : New Tales of the Vampires
  Author: Rice, Anne
  Publisher: Knopf $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375401598 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  
• Children of God
  Author: Russell, Mary Doria
  Publisher: Villard $23.95 ISBN: 067945635x Date: 1998
  LJ
  From the acclaimed author The Sparrow comes a new, extraordinarily imaginative novel featuring Father Emilio Sandoz and his quest for The secret of God's immortal plan.

February

• In the Garden of Iden : A Novel of the Company
  Author: Baker, Kage
  Publisher: Harcourt Brace $ 23.00 ISBN: 0151002991 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of arts and extinct forms of life. It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company. Mendoza is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. Her quest is jeopardized by Nicholas Harpole, who stirs unfamiliar emotions within her about her future--with a man she will long outlive.
  Suggested Reading: Immortalism
  
• Cosm
  Author: Benford, Gregory
  Publisher: Eos $ 23 ISBN: 0380974355 Date: 1998
  PW
  After an accident in a brilliant young physicist's most ambitious experiment, a wondrous sphere appears that opens a vista on an entirely different universe. Soon the forces of academia, government, theology, and the mass media battle for control of a mysterious new reality. COSM explores ideas at the frontier of understanding, and poses profound questions about Creation, human destiny, and the riddle of godhood.
• Someplace to Be Flying
  Author: De Lint, Charles
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312858493 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  Lily is a photojournalist, pursuing rumors of magical "animal people" living in the ruins of Newford's slums. Hank has always lived in those slums, creating a life and a family of friends in the places where upright citizens fear to tread. When Hank and Lily's lives collide, they discover the strange truth of the "animal people", who were the First People to walk this earth, and who walk among us even today: Coyote the Trickster, Jackdaw the Storyteller, Fox, Cuckoos, Raven, and the Crow Girls.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
• Diaspora : A Novel
  Author: Egan, Greg
  Publisher: Harper Prism $ 23.00 ISBN: 0061052817 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  Centuries into the future, when an unexpected and powerful radiation storm from a nearby supernova wipes out the remnants of "flesher" humanity, a group of adventurous digital intelligences sets out to explore the cosmos in search of other lifeforms and a safe haven from material dangers.
• The Nano Flower
  Author: Hamilton, Peter F.
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312865805 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  At first no one noticed when the flower was delivered to Julia Evans, owner of Event Horizon, but this flower has genes of millions of years in advance of terrestrial DNA. Where did the plant come from? Greg Mandel, telepathic investigator, must find out - before the Nano flower blooms.
• The Tooth Fairy
  Author: Joyce, Graham
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 22.95 ISBN: 031286261X Date: 1998
  BL Kirkus PW
  The award-winning author of Requiem returns with a blackly comic, disturbingly erotic tale of an ordinary boy named Sam - and the unearthly being only he can see. Is she real - or is she just a figment of his turbulent imagination? All Sam knows, as he grows from childhood to adolescence, is that she is never very far away.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars | All Stars | Legendary Characters
• Fogheart
  Author: Tessier, Thomas
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312180985 Date: 1998
  LJ
  "A beautiful young woman with psychic powers. Tw couples with terrible secrets. Visitations from the spirit world. It sounds like the stuff of a cheap shocker, but Thomas Tessier's novel is that rare thing, a clever and well-written horror story." The Times (London).
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars

January

• To Say Nothing of the Dog : How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last
  Author: Willis, Connie
  Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (T) $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553099957 Date: 1998
  BL Also listed on 1997 stars lists
  It is 1888 and Ned Henry is shuttling between the 1940s and modern day, researching Coventry Cathedral for a patron who wants to rebuild it. But when the time continuum is disrupted, Ned must scramble to set things right.
  Suggested Reading: Time Travel Stars | If You Like Douglas Adams

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