New York: TOR / Tom Doherty Associates, (1995.) dj. Hardcover first edition - "Celestis, inhabited by conservative human settlers fleeing from a socially decayed Earth, is riven by racial strife. Those conquered alien inhabitants who can afford it are surgically and pharmocologically altered to appear more human. Siomn, a human diplomat, is taken hostage by alien rebels and thrown into contact with Katharine, an altered alien, with whom he falls in love. But Katharine, also a hostage, is cut off from her medications and rapidly begins the transformation back into a creature of alien needs and desires." A novel about what it means to be human and Other, about sexual and racial identity - a novel which uses the classic science fiction image of the alien in a thought provoking way. 287 pp. ISBN: 0-312-85899X.