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Hotlists 2008
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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
Speculatve Fiction Stars
September 9, 2008
2000: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror Starred Review Titles
A list of books which received at least one starred review
(indicating
a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist
- BL, Publisher's Weekly
- PW, Kirkus,
and Library
Journal - LJ.Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine unless otherwise noted. Titles are arranged by approximate date
of publication, then alphabetically by author.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
December
- Ghosts
and Grisly Things
Author: Campbell, Ramsey
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867581 Date: 2000
PW
Ghosts and Grisly Things is a chilling collection of the best of Ramsey Campbell's recent short fiction, most of it never before available in the United States in any form.
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars - The Last Hot Time
Author: Ford, John M.
Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312855451 Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
By turns brutal and delicate, murderous and metaphysical, The Last Hot Time is a fantasy novel unlike any other, a brilliant dance of genres and storylines leading to a thoroughly unusual conclusion. This is the first new novel in seven years from a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award. - Tropic of Creation
Author: Kenyon, Kay
Publisher: Spectra $ 5.99 ISBN: 0553580264 Date: 2000
Kirkus
After a prolonged war between the humans and the ahtra, an uneasy peace reigns. But it will soon be challenged by the discovery of the ahtra's greatest weakness. This discovery could either annihilate the fragile alliance, or cast it into new forms that no one could possibly predict. - A Storm of Swords
Author: Martin, George R. R.
Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553106635 Date: 2000
PW - Ventus
Author: Schroeder, Karl
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 031287197X Date: 2000
Kirkus Booklist
Ventus is a large-scale hard SF adventure novel in the tradition of Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, and Arthur C. Clarke. Karl Schroeder, a physicist and writer, is a winner of Canada's Aurora Award. His novel The Claus Effect, written in collaboration with David Nickle, was called the best first fantasy of the year by Science Fiction Chronicle, and now his first SF novel launches a major career in SF.
In the far future an artificial intelligence of godlike power goes rogue. It is finally destroyed but only after terrifying struggles. And it has already sent out seeds of itself throughout the galaxy. - Jacket copy. - Zeitgeist: A Novel of Metamorphis
Author: Sterling, Bruce
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553104934 Date: 2000
Kirkus
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
November
- The Walking
Author: Little, Bentley
Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0451201744 Date: 2000
PW
Across the country, the dead have risen and they're on a mission. No one knows why they are walking or where they are going and no one can stop them. The Bram Stoker Award-winning writer and author of The Store, The Ignored, and The Town is "a master of the macabre" (Stephen King).
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars | Zombies - Embraces: Dark Erotica
Author: Guran, Pamela
Publisher: Venus or Vixen $ 14.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0967363810 Date: 2000
PW - The
Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
Author: Jones, Stephen (ed)
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 11.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0786707925 Date: 2000
PW
Now in its eleventh year, this winner of the World Fantasy Award and the International Horror Critics Guild Award again showcases the finest talents writing contemporary horror fiction -- established masters as well as new voices -- and presents its lively review of the past year in the field of fear and terror.
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars - Outlaw School
Author: Ore, Rebecca
Publisher: Eos $ 13.50 (trade paper) ISBN: 0380792508 Date: 2000
Kirkus - The Truth
Author: Pratchett, Terry
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24 ISBN: 0380978954 Date: 2000
PW
In this 25th novel of the popular "Discworld" series, Pratchett takes readers to the strange and magical metropolis of Ankh-Morpork. There, young William de Worde has decided to start the city's first newspaper and is plunged into the harrowing career of investigative journalism in this satirical send-up of the Fourth Estate. - Marrow
Author: Reed, Robert
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312868014 Date: 2000
Kirkus
The Ship that travels the universe is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets. Now one of those secrets has been discovered: At the center of the Ship is a planet. When a Ship team is sent to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship--or bring doom to everyone on board? - The Fresco
Author: Tepper, Sheri S.
Publisher: Eos $ 24 ISBN: 0380978792 Date: 2000
PW
Plain-spoken, 36-year-old bookstore manager Benita Alvarez-Shipton is greeted by a pair of aliens who ask her to transmit their message of peace to Washington. But they also come with a warning about another alien race: predators with their attention focused on Earth, who may have already made their first "visit". - The Grand Ellipse
Author: Volsky, Paula
Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553108042 Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
Around the World in Eighty Days meets romantic fantasy in this masterful tale that is part grand adventure, part fantastic, travelogue -- and easily one of the most unique stories of the season.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
October
- The Touch
Author: Altman, Steve
Publisher: Pocket $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0743407156 Date: 2000PW
- Dance for Emilia
Author: Beagle, Peter S.
Publisher: Roc $ 14.95 ISBN: 0451458001 Date: 2000
PW
Even lifelong friendships can outlast death--or can they? Award-winning author Peter S. Beagle presents a deeply personal story of dreams abandoned and recovered, friends loved and lost, and the strength it takes to let go.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
September
- Dark Sleeper
Author: Barlough, Jeffrey E.
Publisher: Ace $ 14.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0441007309 Date: 2000
PW
In a fog-shrouded Victorian town, a metaphysics professor investigates a series of strange sightings--from phantom ships to creatures long extinct. What he uncovers is an ancient, mystical evil intent on destroying every person in the town. A debut novel.
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars - Ship of Destiny
Author: Hobb, Robin
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553103237 Date: 2000
PW Booklist
Hobb brings the epic tale of the Liveship Traders - begun in Ship of Magic and Mad Ship - to its triumphant conclusion. It is a world in dire straits: Bingtown is in flames, victim of the growing war with Chalced. Althea and Brashen, aboard the Paragon, are finding their blinded Liveship increasingly unstable and unpredictable. And in the midst of the chaos arises a dragon powerful enough to forge the world as she sees fit, be it for destruction, or redemption. - The Telling
Author: LeGuin, Ursula K.
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151005672 Date: 2000
LJ PW
The bestselling author of The Left Hand of Darkness delivers the latest novel in the Hainish Cycle. Sutty, an observer from Earth, has been assigned to a new world in which past beliefs are outlawed and every citizen must be a producer-consumer. Sutty discovers the remnants of a banned religion and a hidden culture and learns a lot about herself.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
August
- Daemonomania
Author: Crowley, John
Publisher: Bantam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553100041 Date: 2000
PW
Daemonomania, set in the same realm of infinite possibility as Aegypt and Love and Sleep, continues the tale of four people who live, as we do, in a world where time, space, and matter might undergo seizures or spasms that usher in new ages. The last time the world passed through such a gateway--in Elizabethan England--magic was replaced by science. Perhaps next time magic--in a new and unimaginable form--will return. - The Year's Best Fantasy and
Horror
Author: Datlow, Ellen (ed)
Publisher: St Martins $ 29.95 ISBN: 0312262744 Date: 2000
PW
Highly acclaimed for collecting the finest short fiction in fantasy and horror, the World Fantasy Award-winning annual series continues its eclectic and always interesting tradition with this 13th volume. Highlights of this year's edition include Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Robert Girardi, Patricia McKillip, Delia Sherman, Michael Marshall Smith, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gene Wolfe, and many others, along with year-end wrap-ups in publishing, movies, and comics.
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars - The Miocene Arrow
Author: McMullan, Sean
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 031287054x Date: 2000
Booklist
As war looms, ultra-light American diesel gunwings can hold their own against Australian human-powered battle computers and a tram-based net. But they are helpless against the ultimate doomsday machine: The Miocene Arrow. - Breakthroughs
Author: Turtledove, Harry
Publisher: Del Rey $ 26.00 ISBN: 0345405633 Date: 2000
Booklist
Hailed by USA Today as "the master of Alternate History", Harry Turtledove has re-created the War to End All Wars--a World War I where the Confederate States of America and the United States of America are on opposite sides, and all the viciousness of modern combat comes to the shores of North America. Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars - Mortalis
Author: Savatore, R.A.
Publisher: del Rey $ 22.95 ISBN: 0345430395 Date: 2000
Booklist
The bestselling author of the DemonWars trilogy returns to that world with his most ambitious novel to date: a tale of grief, despair, and hope set in the magical land of Corona. The heroic woman known as Pony must now undertake a pilgrimage that will test her powers and her faith as they have never been tested before. - Brain Plague
Author: Slonczewski, Joan
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867182 Date: 2000
Kirkus
An intelligent microbe race that can live symbiotically in other intelligent beings is colonizing the human race throughout the civilized universe. This new novel in the famous Elysium cycle is the story of one woman's psychological and moral struggle to adjust to having an ambitious colony of microbes living permanently in her own head. - Ghost Music: And Other
Stories
Author: Tessier, Thomas
Publisher: Cemetery Dance $ 40 ISBN: 1881475778 Date: 2000
PW - The Perseids and Other Stories
Author: Wilson, Robert Charles
Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312873743 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Beginning with The Perseids, winner of Canada's national SF award, this collection of short science fiction showcases Wilson's suppleness and strength. Also included are the acclaimed Hugo Award finalist, Divided by Infinity, and three new stories written specifically for this collection. - In Green's Jungle
Author: Wolfe, Gene
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312873158 Date: 2000
PW
In Green's Jungles is the second volume, after On Blue's Waters, of Wolfe's ambitious SF trilogy, The Book of the Short Sun. It is again narrated by Horn, who has embarked on a quest from his home on the planet Blue in search of the heroic leader Patera Silk.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
July
- The Year's Best Science Fiction
(17th edition)
Author: Dozois, Gardner R.
Publisher: St Martins $ 29.95 ISBN: 0312262752 Date: 2000
PW - Under the Skin
Author: Faber, Michel
Publisher: Harcourt $ ISBN: Date: 2000
Booklist
Under the Skin is a first novel that defies categorization, an allegory for contemporary society run amok, set in the very real beauty of the Scottish Highlands. "Michael Faber has, it can truly be said--hand on heart--a vivid and original imagination".--The Scotsman. - Probability Moon
Author: Kress, Nancy
Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312874065 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Humanity has expanded into other solar systems using the remnants of an ancient technology of star gates--instant travel devices left in place by a now-vanished superrace. Yet now an alien race also has discovered the gates, a race with which no communication is possible, and they are determined to exterminate humanity.
Suggested Reading: Alien Invasions - Saturn's Race
Author: Niven, Larry & Steven Barnes
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867263 Date: 2000
PW
The bestselling co-authors of Beowulf's Children return with a Utopian taleset on a city-sized artificial island populated by some of the wealthiest menand women on future Earth. - Dark Matter: The Anthology
of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction by Black Writers
Author: Sheree, Thomas (ed)
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0446525839 Date: 2000
PW Kirkus LJ
For the first time, 40 short stories from past and present black science fiction and fantasy writers have been collected in a one-of-a-kind anthology. Authors include Steven Barnes, Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Tananarive Due, and Walter Mosley.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Scary Stars | All Stars - Chimera
Author: Shetterly, Will
Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312866305 Date: 2000
Kirkus
Zoe Domingo, half jaguar, half human, has run afoul of those who would like to keep her kind - chimeras - enslaved as servants, soldiers, laborers, or sex toys. Shetterly has created a dark new vision of the future in this tale of gene-splicing and artificial intelligence. - Magic Terror: 7 Tales
Author: Straub, Peter
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375503935 Date: 2000
Kirkus Booklist - Wheel of
the Infinite
Author: Wells, Martha
Publisher: Eos $ 24 ISBN: 0380973359 Date: 2000
Kirkus
From one of the most beloved and acclaimed new authors of epic fantasy comes a powerful tale of endings and beginnings in an eternal cycle of evil and good.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
June
- Daughter
of the Shining Isles
Author: Cunningham, Elizabeth
Publisher: Barrytown $ 24.95 ISBN: 158177060x Date: 2000
Booklist
Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
May
- Brightly Burning
Author:Lackey, Mercedes
Publisher: Signet $ 24.95 ISBN: 0886778891 Date: 2000
Booklist
This glorious return to Lackey's bestselling Valdemar series tells the story of Lavan Firestorm, a young man blessed--and cursed--with a special talent for firestarting. - The
Traveling Vampire Show
Author: Laymon, Richard
Publisher: Cemetery Dance $ 40 ISBN: 1587670003Date: 2000
PW
Suggested Reading: Scary Stars - Daughter
of the Forest
Author: Marillier, Juliet
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 031284879xDate: 2000
Booklist
In this first novel of a new fantasy trilogy, Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, is alone destined to defend her family and protect her land from a clan of the Britons. - The Tower at
Stony Wood
Author: McKillip, Patricia A.
Publisher: Ace $ 22.95 ISBN: 0441007333Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
The acclaimed author of Song for the Basilisk and Winter Rose weaves an entrancing fantasy of a powerful knight who is compelled to leave the kingdom on a mission to learn whether the new queen is truly the king's beloved - or a dangerous impostor.
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
April
- You Come
When I Call You
Author: Clegg, Douglas
Publisher: Cemetary Dance $ 40 ISBN: 1881475891Date: 2000
PW - Fifth Elephant
Author: Pratchett, Terry
Publisher: Harper Prism $ 24 ISBN: 0061051578Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
An outrageous send-up of everything from diplomacy to modern communication. Everyone knows that Discworld is flat, and supported on the backs of four elephants. But aren't there supposed to be "five"? - Eater
Author: Benford, Gregory
Publisher: Eos $ 24 ISBN: 0380974363Date: 2000
PW Kirkus
The Nebula Award-winning author of Cosm presents another stunning and thought-provoking novel mixing science with speculation as an age-old entity threatens all life on Earth. - Darkness
Descending
Author: Turtledove, Harry
Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312869150 Date: 2000
Booklist
In the sequel to the acclaimed Into the Darkness, Turtledove returns to a world at war, where the reader sees the conflict from all sides and understands how the death and destruction benefit no one, not even the victors.
Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
March
- House of Leaves
Author: Danielewski, Mark
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375703764 Date: 2000
PW Kirkus Library Journal Booklist
A blind old man, a young apprentice working in a tattoo shop, and a mad woman haunting an Ohio institute narrate this story of a family that encounters an endlessly shifting series of hallways in their new home, eventually coming face to face with the awful darkness lying at its heart.
House of Leaves
Suggested Reading: All Stars - The Fourth World
Author: Danvers, Dennis
Publisher: Avon Eos $ 23 ISBN: 0380977613 Date: 2000
Booklist
Searching for her vanished activist lover in the jungles of Mexico and in the virtual world, Margaret Mayfield uncovers a conspiracy that spreads from the highest levels of Earth society to the lowest--and all the way to Mars. - Galveston
Author: Stewart, Sean
Publisher: Ace $ 23.95 ISBN: 0441006868 Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
The island of Galveston had been baptized twice - once by water in the fall of 1900 and again by magic during Mardi Gras, 2004. Creatures were born of survivors' joy and sufferers' pain: scorpions the size of dogs, the crying clown, the widow who ate her victims. Galveston forever would be divided between reality and a city locked in an endless Mardi Gras.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
February
- Genesis
Author: Anderson, Poul
Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312867077 Date: 2000
PW
In classic Anderson fashion, Genesis investigates the subjects of human immortality and artificial intelligence a billion years into the future.
Suggested Reading: Artificial Intelligence Stars - Mendoza
in Hollywood
Author: Baker, Kage
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 015100448x Date: 2000
Kirkus
At Cahuenga Pass, in a stagecoach inn on the road to Los Angeles, Mendoza meets her new cyborg colleagues in this third novel of the Company. In the vein of Grand Hotel, readers get to know the lives and stories, both sad and funny, of these operatives from the 24th century.
Suggested Reading: Immortalism - Inversions
Author: Banks, Iain
Publisher: Pocket $ 23.95 ISBN: 0671036688 Date: 2000
PW - Candle
Author: Barnes, John
Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 031289077x Date: 2000
PW
In a provocative novel of individualism, society, and true identity, Currie Culver is called to hunt down the last of the "cowboys, " a man called Lobo who has unplugged himself from the global net and is now hiding in the wilderness. - The Light of
Other Days
Author: Clarke, Arthur C.
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312871996 Date: 2000
PW Kirkus
A new novel from the most famous science fiction author alive, writing with one of the hottest young SF authors of the decade. When a brilliant industrialist harnesses the cutting edge of quantum physics, his discovery amounts to the complete abolition of human privacy forever. Society reels as technology proves able to look backwards in time, instituting a change in the human condition for which no one is prepared. - 1632
Author: Flint, Eric
Publisher: Baen $ 24 ISBN: 0671578499 Date: 2000
PW
Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars | Time Travel Stars - Crescent City Rhapsody
Author: Goonan, Kathleen Ann
Publisher: Eos $ 24 ISBN: 0380977117 Date: 2000
PW Booklist
A woman mob boss, a Tibetan refugee, a nanotech spy, a New Age believer, and representatives of a dying alien race intersect and entwine as Goonan's tale of the birth of a brave new world unfolds. - Infinity Beach
Author: McDevitt, Jack
Publisher: Harper Prism $ 25 ISBN: 0061051233 Date: 2000
Kirkus PW
When "something" is brought back from a space exploration expedition, "something" now threatens them all. A gripping "first contact" thriller from one of science fiction's brightest talents, the acclaimed author of Moonfall and Ancient Shores. - Midnight Robber
Author: Hopkinson, Nalo
Publisher: Warner Aspect $ 13.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0446675601 Date: 2000
PW Library Journal
The Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is the setting for this exciting new science fiction novel by the author of the award-winning Brown Girl in the Ring. After her father commits a deadly crime, Tan-Tan must flee to a savage world which forces her to reach into the heart of myth to become the Robber Queen.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January
January
- Fox Woman
Author: Johnson, Kij
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312854293 Date: 2000
PW - Naked God
Author: Hamilton, Peter F.
Publisher: Warner $ 26. 95 ISBN: 0446525677 Date: 2000
PW
As more star systems fall to the possessed, the Confederation starts to collapse. The human race is in imminent danger as Quinn Dexter plots to bring about the Final Night. But can an alien god hold the solution to the crisis? Conclusion to the bestselling series that began with The Reality Dysfunction. - Tula Station
Author: Toscana, David
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312205384 Date: 2000
Kirkus
After a hurricane ravages the town of Tula, David Toscano's friend turns up missing and some suspect it's foul play. But the wife is sure her husband has run off with a lover. Now David must uncover the truth. - Grand Conspiracy
Author: Wurts, Janny
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0061052191 Date: 2000
PW
The fate of Athera hangs in the balance as brother battles brother, in the second installment of Wurts's fantasy epic.
Hotlists
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