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

• Dystopia: Collected Stories
  Author: Matheson, Richard Christian
  Publisher: Gauntlet $ 50 ISBN: 1887368248 Date: 1999
  PW
  

November

• Tamsin
  Author: Beagle, Peter
  Publisher: Roc $ 21.95 ISBN: 0451457633 Date: 1999
  PW
  Tamsin is a young woman who died over 300 years ago. Jennifer is a young American transplanted to England. They are two lonely souls on opposite sides of life and death - a boundary they are both about to cross . . .
  Suggested Reading: Ghostly Stars
• Precursor
  Author: Cherryh, C.J.
  Publisher: Daw $ 23.95 ISBN: 086778360 Date: 1999
  PW
  From the three-time winner of the Hugo Award comes a sequel to the Foreigner trilogy. Both human and Atevi return to space to rebuild and rearm the ancient human space station and starship, and make a desperate bid to defend their planet against alien attack.
• Dune: House Atreides
  Author: Herbert, Brian & Kevin J. Anderson (Frank Herbert)
  Publisher: Bantam $ 27.50 ISBN: 0553110616 Date: 1999
  Kirkus PW LJ
  Capturing all the complexity and grand themes of the original Dune, this prequel weaves a new tapestry of terrible betrayal, grand passions, and momentous destiny into a saga that expands the tale written by Frank Herbert more than 30 years ago.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
  Author: Maguire, Gregory
  Publisher: Regan $ 24 ISBN: 0060393827 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  From the author of the acclaimed novel Wicked comes a fresh perspective on another timeless tale -"Cinderella" - sure to enchant readers young and old alike. Line art.
• Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask
  Author: Munroe, Jim
  Publisher: Spike (Avon) $ 12.50 (trade paper) ISBN: 0380810433 Date: 1999
  Booklist
  Ryan Slint can turn into a fly. Cassandra, a waitress at a greasy-spoon, can make things disappear. They were made for each other . . . and to fight crime!
• Lady of Sherwood
  Author: Roberson, Jennifer
  Publisher: Kensington $ 24 ISBN: 1575664755 Date: 1999
  PW
  The author of Lady of the Forest continues the tale, as Robin Hood and Marian are caught up in the intrigue of kings and face a betrayal that will test their faith in each other - and the power of their love.
  Suggested Reading: Legendary Characters
• The Garden of the Stone
  Author: Strauss, Victoria
  Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 (mass market paper) ISBN: 0380797526 Date: 1999
  PW
  An evil warrior steals a powerful stone and uses it to institute a cruel tyranny. Centuries later, even after a hero arrives and attempts to restore balance, the evil Arm of the Stone is still strong. It now falls to a beautiful strong assassin to take up the dangerous quest and restore the balance of the Mind and Hand.

October

• Lord of the Fire Lands: A Tale of the King's Blades
  Author: Duncan, Dave
  Publisher: Eos $ 23 ISBN: 0380974614 Date: 1999
  PW
  They entered the grim school of Ironhall as unwanted, rebellious boys. They emerged five years later as nimble and deadly young men, tile finest swordsmen in the known world. Never in living memory has a Blade candidate refused the honor of serving his king. . . until now. Young Wasp is no rebel, but an orphan who came to Ironhall when his entire family was obliterated by savage Baelish pirates. Yet, at the sacred ceremony of binding, he follows the lead of his friend Raider - and together they spurn the wishes of King Ambrose himself. Suddenly Raider and Wasp are outlaws to King and country - fugitives hunted by the very Blades whose ranks they were a breath away from entering. Amid the turmoil their "treachery" has inspired, Wasp and Raider must undertake a desperate journey into the heart of the dreaded Fire Lands. For the outcome of their terrifying confrontation with dark truth and darker magic in this realm of monsters, ghosts, and half-men will ultimately determine the fate of two kingdoms. - Publisher Marketing.
• All Tomorrow's Parties
  Author: Gibson, William
  Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399145796 Date: 1999
  Kirkus PW
  The author of Neuromancer, the novel that predicted the Internet, now takes readers into the millennium, resurrecting Colin Laney, his popular character from Idoru, in a brilliant new novel about the moments in history when futures are born.
• Others
  Author: Herbert, James
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312872933 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  Britain's #1 bestselling author of thriller/horror fiction offers a controversial and stunning new chiller. When he is hired to find a baby taken at birth, P.I. Nicholas Dismas's investigation leads him to a strange home for the elderly, where he discovers the dark secret of the Others - and resolves the enigma of his own existence.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars
• Millennium Rising
  Author: Jensen, Jane
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 24 ISBN: 0345430344 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  A really cool priest and a reporter track down the cause of impending Armageddon and find that it's not really God - it's a conspiracy. Problem is, it's taking on a life of its own, and by the time our heroes figure out who is behind it and how, it may be too late.
  Suggested Reading: If You Liked the Da Vinci Code | Conspiracy Stars
• Something Dangerous
  Author: Redmond, Patrick
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786865520 Date: 1999
  PW
  At Kirkston Abbey, Jonathan Palmer can't believe his good luck when Richard Rokeby seeks out his friendship. But soon he comes to realize that there is something not quite right about his new friend when an innocent game among schoolboys turns into a nightmare.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars
• The Martians
  Author: Robinson, Kim Stanley
  Publisher: Spectra $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553801171 Date: 1999
  PW
  With this stunning collection of original short pieces, science fiction icon Kim Stanley Robinson returns to the incredible world that made him a multiple award-winner and catapulted him into the top ranks of the field.
• The Stars Compel
  Author: Roessner, Michaela
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312857551 Date: 1999
  PW
  

September

• Darwin's Radio
  Author: Bear, Greg
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 24 ISBN: 034542333x Date: 1999
  PW LJ
  Molecular biologist Kaye Lang's theory - that ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans can return to life - has become a chilling reality. The shocking evidence: a "virus-hunter" has tracked down a flu-like disease that kills expectant mothers and their offspring.
• A Civil Campaign
  Author: Bujold, Lois McMaster
  Publisher: Baen $ 24 ISBN: 0671578278 Date: 1999
  PW
  In this Miles Vorkosigan sci-fi adventure, Miles and his friends and relatives employ one cunning plan too many as they seek to succeed in their romantic strategies.
• Ender's Shadow
  Author: Card, Orson Scott
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 031286860x Date: 1999
  PW
  In this new parallel novel to Ender's Game, Card tells the story of another child in the Battle School - a boy named Bean, whose past was a fight just to survive and whose mind was leagues beyond anyone else's.
• The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well
  Author: Chamberlin, Ann
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN:0312865511 Date: 1999
  PW
  This stunning historical fantasy, based on actual events, casts Joan of Arc and her times in a revealing new light, recounting how her outstanding destiny was predicted by ancient prophecies attributed to Merlin.
  Suggested Reading: Legendary Characters
• The Road to Mars
  Author: Idle, Eric
  Publisher: Pantheon Books $ 24 ISBN: 0-375-40340-X Date: 1999
  LJ
  Douglas Adams meets Kurt Vonnegut meets Isaac Asimov in this wildly inventive and hilarious sci-fi thriller about life on the interplanetary comedy circuitin the 22nd century.
  Suggested Reading: If You LIke Douglas Adams
• Hearts in Atlantis
  Author: King, Stephen
  Publisher: Scribner $ 28 ISBN: 0684853515 Date: 1999
  BL Kirkus LJ
  In his strongest collection since Different Seasons, Stephen King confirms the power of his storytelling with four brilliant, disturbing tales of an America shadowed by Vietnam: "Low Men in Yellow Coats, " "Hearts in Atlantis, " "Blind Willie, " and "Why We're in Vietnam."
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense
  Author: Sarrantonio, Al (ed)
  Publisher: Avon $ 27.50 ISBN: 0380977400 Date: 1999
  PW
  A mammoth horror/suspense anthology featuring 29 authors, including Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, David Morrell, Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsey Campbell, and Eric Van Lustbader.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars

August

• The Rainy Season
  Author: Blaylock, James P.
  Publisher: Ace $ 21.95 ISBN: 0441006183 Date: 1999
  PW
  After the sudden death of his wife, Phil Ainsworth senses an eerie presence in the house. His niece, left in his care, is a special child who can sense powerful emotions from the past - and see the uncanny powers closing around them.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars
• Rhapsody
  Author: Hayden, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867522 Date: 1999
  PW
  In the tradition of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth, Rhapsody marks the beginning of a new fantasy series, set in a "richly realized place of myth and magic" (Mary Jo Putney).

July

• Chi: A Novel of Virtual Reality
  Author: Besher, Alexander
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0684830884 Date: 1999
  PW
  
• Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (12th annual)
  Author: Datlow, Ellen & Terri Windling (ed)
  Publisher: St Martins $ 17.95 (pbk) ISBN: 0312206860 Date: 1999
  PW
  This new helping of fantasy and horror stories includes works by Jorge Luis Borges, Charles de Lint, Terry Dowling, Dennis Etchison, John Kessel, Delia Sherman, Michael Marshall Smith, and Peter Straub - plus Edward Bryant's wrap-up of the year in fantasy films.
• Dark Sister
  Author: Joyce, Graham
  Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312866321 Date: 1999
  PW BL
  Alex and Maggie think they live in an ordinary townhouse, until they discover a diary containing secret Wiccan herb-lore - and awaken a malevolent force they can't control.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
• Company of Glass: Book One of Evrien
  Author: Leith, Valery
  Publisher: Bantam $ 13.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0553379380 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  In the world of Evrien, home to the shadowy remnants of an imperfectly understood magic, a deadly force moves against the land. One man holds the key to his world's salvation - the one man who has turned his back on it.
• Cassini Division
  Author: MacLeod, Ken
  Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312870442 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  Ellen May Ngewthu, a soldier and leader of the Cassini Division, has a plan to rid humanity once and for all of the powerful post-humans: god-like beings descended from those men and women who transformed themselves with high technology centuries ago.
• Nocturne for a Dangerous Man
  Author: Matz, Marc
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN:0312869355 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  When Gavilan Robie is hired by a powerful multinational corporation to find an employee who has been kidnapped by terrorists, he will need every trick he's picked up during years of covert ops just to survive.
• Ancients of Days: Second Book of the Confluence
  Author: McAuley, Paul J.
  Publisher: Eos $ 16 ISBN: 0380975165 Date: 1999
  PW
  The second volume of "a powerful epic that could be one of the most important in recent SF" (Locus). On an artificial world created and seeded with ten thousand bloodlines by the long-vanished Preservers, young Yama pursues the hidden secrets of his past.
• Starfish
  Author: Watts, Peter
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312868553 Date: 1999
  BL
  Peter Watts is a new science fiction novelist of extraordinary talent. His first stories appeared in Canadian SF magazines in the last few years and now he delivers a powerful and original novel of the not-too-distant future and the exploitation of the geothermal resources of the deep Juan de Fuca Rift in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by multinational corporations. Unfortunately all the volunteers who are surgically altered for employment at the bottom of the ocean in these experimental stations are psychotic. And one of the central questions is how many of them can survive, or will be allowed to survive, long enough to become sane, while worldwide disaster approaches from below.

June

• Year's Best Science Fiction 16th Annual Collection
  Author: Dozois, Gardner (ed)
  Publisher: St Martins $ 29.95/17.95 ISBN: 0312209630/0312204450 Date: 1999
  PW
  Science fiction at its very best, this award-winning anthology features works by the top sci fi writers of the year.
• Centauru: The Best Australian Science Fiction
  Author: Hartwell, David (ed)
  Publisher: Tor $ 29.95 ISBN: 0312865562 Date: 1999
  PW
  Science fiction is a world-wide literature, as World Fantasy Award-winning editor David G. Hartwell has often shown. Now Hartwell and acclaimed Australian anthologist Damien Broderick are bringing a higher profile to Australian SF with Centaurus, a showcase of some of the most original voices in SF.

  Included are stories from Peter Carey, Greg Egan, Terry Dowling, A. Bertram Chandler, Phillippa C. Maddern, Rosaleen Love, Sean McMullen, Lucy Sussex, and George Turner. For both avid followers of Australian SF and genre readers who have not yet discovered our southern stars, Centaurus is an anthology no SF fan will want to miss. - Tor marketing.

• Souls in the Great Machine
  Author: McMullen, Sean Date: 1999
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312870558
  Kirkus BL
  In McMullen's glittering, dynamic, exotic future a faint mirrorsun hangs in the night sky, a mysterious siren lures people to their deaths, and an ancient, forgotten device threatens the world with a new ice age. Only one man knows how to stop it, but he has mysteriously disappeared - and time is running out.
• Flashforward
  Author: Sawyer, Robert J.
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312867123 Date: 1999
  PW
  In pursuit of an elusive nuclear particle, an experiment goes incredibly awry, and, for a few moments, the consciousness of the entire human race is thrown ahead by about 20 years. As the implications truly hit home, the pressure to repeat the experiment builds.

May

• The Conquerer's Child (Holdfast Chronicles Bk IV)
  Author: Charnas, Suzy McKee
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312857195 Date: 1999
  PW
  The direct sequel to The Furies. Sorrel, adopted daughter of Alldera the Conqueror, comes from the camps of the Riding Women to join her mother. As she and her adopted son face grave danger, she slowly finds her own place outside her mother's shadow.
• Violent Stars
  Author: Gotleib, Phyllis
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312869533 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  "Phyllis Gotlieb is the four-star SF writer who creates real people dealing with complex social and metaphysical problems in scientifically knowledgeable situations -- and all this in fine writerly language", said Judith Merril on the publication of Cotlieb's Flesh & Gold last year. Now the story continues and many of the same characters reappear in this intriguing sequel featuring both wonderful and terrible aliens, good and evil humans on many planets, and a series of murders aimed at wiping out opposition to a certain interstellar family corporation. - Publisher marketing.
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
  Author: King, Stephen
  Publisher: Scribner List Price: $ 16.95 ISBN: 0684867621 Date: 1999
  PW
  When a young girl gets lost in the woods, she has only her Sony Walkman for comfort. She is a huge fan of Tom Gordon, a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, so she listens to a game and he becomes a character in her mind. The question is, is there something threatening in the woods?
• Really, Really, Really Weird Stories
  Author: Shirley, John
  Publisher: Night Shade $ 16.95 (pbk ) ISBN: 1892389029 Date: 1999
  PW
  
• Far Horizons: The Great Worlds of Science Fiction
  Author: Silverberg, Robert (ed)
  Publisher: Eos $ 27.50 ISBN: 0380976307 Date: 1999
  PW
  In this collection of new, original stories, science fiction's most beloved writers (including Dan Simmons, Orson Scott Card, and Anne McCaffrey) once again revisit the remarkable worlds they created and made famous.

April

• Leper's Companions
  Author: Blackburn, Julia
  Publisher: Pantheon List Price: $ 22 ISBN: 0679439846 Date: 1999
  Kirkus PW
  From the widely praised author of Daisy Bates in the Desert, here is an exquisite new novel about a woman's fantastical quest for rebirth in the aftermath of a devastating loss.
• Mad Ship: the Liveship Traders (bk 2)
  Author: Hobb, Robin
  Publisher: Spectra $ 24.95 ISBN: Date: 1999
  PW BL
  In this stunning second volume of Robin Hobb's acclaimed Liveship Traders trilogy, heroine Althea employs an insane crew to battle pirates and the slave trade.
• The Calculus of Angels (Age of Unreason, Book 2)
  Author: Keyes, J. Gregory
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 14 (trade paper) ISBN: 0345406079 Date: 1999
  PW
  The uncanny adventures of Newton and Franklin continue as sorcery wreaks havoc across eighteenth-century Europe - demolishing London with a hurtling comet, uniting Peter the Great of Russia with Adrienne and beckoning a host of colonial America's famous figures across the ocean on a most extraordinary expedition.
  Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars
• Waiting
  Author: Robinson, Frank M.
  Publisher: Forge List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312866526 Date:1999
  PW
  They are among us, and they've been here for a long time - waiting. One ordinary man in San Francisco, Arthur Banks, begins to find them out, and immediately his life and family are in danger. It's a paranoid's worst nightmare - but that's just where it starts. He may well be fighting for the survival of the entire human race.
• Cryptonomicon
  Author: Stephenson, Neal
  Publisher: Avon $ 29.50 ISBN: 0380973464 Date:1999
  PW LJ
  The adult grandchildren of two men once involved in code-breaking espionage in World War II find a sunken Nazi submarine that leads to a massive conspiracy, which can either enhance freedom - or subjugate the world.
• Singer From the Sea
  Author: Tepper, Sheri S.
  Publisher: Eos $ 24 ISBN: 0380974800 Date:1999
  Kirkus
  An heiress on the isolated planet of Haven must unmask a terrible truth - or else the entire civilization is doomed to be swept away on a cosmic sea of oblivion.

March

• Dragonshadow
  Author: Hambly, Barbara
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 24 ISBN: 0345421876 Date: 1999
  Booklist PW Kirkus
  The eagerly awaited sequel to the classic fantasy Dragonsbane, by the bestselling author of Icefalcon's Quest. As sorceress Jenny Waynest, and Morkeleb, the dragon, battle for their freedom, John Aversin once again ventures to save the day.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• A Clash of Kings
  Author: Martin, George R.R.
  Publisher: Bantam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0553108034 Date:1999
  PW
  Transporting readers into a forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare, Martin weaves a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night.
• Rainbow Mars
  Author: Niven, Larry
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312867778 Date:1999
  Kirkus
  Five-time Hugo Award winner Larry Niven weaves time and fantasy to create an utterly unique novel of a time traveler who must retreive life forms extinct in his current existence.
• The Dragons of Springplace: Stories
  Author: Reed, Robert
  Publisher: Golden Gryphon $ 23.95 ISBN: 096559016x Date:1999
  PW
  No American writer during the 1990s has published a more distinguished bibliography of first-rate science fiction than Robert Reed. In the title piece, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. - Golden Gryphon marketing.

February

• Incubus
  Author: Arensberg, Anne
  Publisher: Knopf $24 ISBN: 0394556968 Date:1999
  PW
  The acclaimed author of Sister Wolf and Group Sex presents her most mesmerizing novel yet - the story of a town under demonic possession.
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars
• Minions of the Moon
  Author: Bowes, Richard
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 031286566x Date:1999
  Booklist
  
• Stardust
  Author: Gaiman, Neil
  Publisher: Avon $ 22 ISBN: 0380977281 Date:1999
  BL PW Kirkus
  From the extraordinary imagination of Neil Gaiman - bestselling author of Neverwhere - comes a haunting fable of love, duty and magical lands.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
  Author: Jones, Stephen
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 10.95 ISBN: 078670585x
  Suggested Reading: Scary Stars
  PW
  
• Colonization: Second Contact
  Author: Turtledove, Harry
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 25.95 ISBN: 034543190 Date:1999
  PW
  The "master of Alternate History" (Publishers Weekly) offers the first novel in a new series that continues the action of the acclaimed Worldwar saga. The 1960's are a time when humanity must face its greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth.
  Suggested Reading: Alternative History Stars
• A Deepness in the Sky
  Author: Vinge, Vernor
  Publisher: Tor $ 27.95 ISBN: 0312856860 Date:1999
  Kirkus
  
• The Warlock of Strathearn
  Author: Whyte, Christopher
  Publisher: Gollancz $ 10.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0575401222 Date: 1999
  PW
  

January

• Second Angel
  Author: Kerr, Philip
  Publisher: Henry Holt $ 25 ISBN:0805059628 Date: 1999
  Kirkus
  Set in 2069, on the centennial of the Apollo XII Moon mission, this dystopian high-velocity thriller reveals an Earth where plagues have destroyed the major food supplies, climatic changes have brought constant winter to the once-industialized West, and a new and virulent virus has infected the population.
  Suggested Reading: Dystopian Stars
  
• Distraction
  Author: Sterling, Bruce
  Publisher: Spectra $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553104845 Date: 1999
  PW Kirkus
  An electrifying cautionary tale from Bruce Sterling - called "one of the best thinkers in science fiction today" (Newsweek) - propels readers to 2043, when high technology is humanity's ultimate threat.
  Suggested Reading: Dystopian Stars
  
• The Intuitionist
  Author: Whitehead, Colson
  Publisher: Anchor $ 19.95 ISBN: Date:1999
  BL Kirkus
  In a time of calamity in a major metropolitan city's Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the department's first black female inspector, is at the center of it. Beautifully written and wildly imaginative, The Intutionist stars one of the most lovable heroines of all time.
  Suggested Reading: African American Stars