Let's say, your top five to ten books for the year. I know it is sometimes difficult to whittle it down to so few books but for the sake of brevity, we ought to make the attempt. I also know that it's difficult weigh some kinds of books against others - anthologies with novels, for example - so feel free to split your lists into short categories. These are guidelines, of course, not rules.
I have read little in the genre this year, as I have been back in school; however, I did read a little and two books which stand out - both YA titles - are:
Siberia by Ann Halam a.k.a. Gwyneth Jones. I was curious about Jones's YA titles as she is, imo, a very literary SF author. This was an entertaining story - a long chase scene with a SF premise, a welcome respite between books on the Aids Epidemic in Africa and Fractals.
Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan (Lanagan writes fabulous short stories that can be fantasy, SF or some weird mix. Recommend readers start with her collection, Black Juice.
Well, not counting those I read as part of my "challenge" of rereading a favourite sf novel each month during 2007, I'd have to pick the following as the best genre novels I read during the year:
Starship Summer, Eric Brown - a cheat as it's a novella. But it pretty much a distillation of all the themes which appear in all his novels and short fiction.
The Prefect,
Alastair Reynolds - a welcome return to form after the disappointing
Century Rain. Normally, Reynolds' villains are more interesting than his heroes, but in
The Prefect, he managed to turn this on its head.
Alanya to Alanya,
L Timmel Duchamp - at its start, it feels like it's stretching plausibility just a little too far to make a point about feminism, but you soon realise that it needed to push things that far. I'm looking forward to reading the rest fo this 5-book series.
The New Space Opera, edited by
Gardner Dozois and
Jonathan Strahan - does exactly what it says on the tin. although one story (the
Kage Baker) is not space opera, and features some very unconvincing Brit characters...
Nova Swing,
M John Harrison - although, to be fair, I didn't enjoy this as much as
Light. But it's still a damn fine novel.
Sea-Kings of Mars,
Leigh Brackett - classic stuff: ancient ruins on Mars, jungles on Venus, lost treasures, alien kings... They don't write them like this any more, more's the pity.
The Carpet Makers, Andreas Eschbach - translated from the German. Slightly old-fashioned in places, but always interesting. Some of the story is - bizarrely to a reader of Anglophone sf - left completely unexplained.
Text: Ur, edited by
Forrest Aguirre - an anthology of epxerimental fantasy and science fiction. Some succeed, some fail. But the results are mostly interesting nad, in a couple of cases, very good indeed.
Ascent,
Jed Mercurio - well, I think it's science fiction. Perfect fodder for your inner space geek.
(Gah. This touchstones thing is useless.)
Message edited by its author, Dec 29, 2007, 11:51am.
I don't think the touchstones are working at all today, which is a shame. I will have to look through my list and come back, but first I have to ask--what books did you re-read as your favorites, iansales?
These ones:
Undercover Aliens,
A.E. van Vogt (1950)
Dune, Frank Herbert (1965)
Soldier, Ask Not, Gordon R. Dickson (1967)
Dhalgren,
Samuel Delany (1975)
The Ophiuchi Hotline,
John Varley (1977)
Where Time Winds Blow,
Robert Holdstock (1981)
Kairos,
Gwyneth Jones (1988)
Metrophage,
Richard Kadrey (1988)
Take Back Plenty,
Colin Greenland (1990)
Stations of the Tide, Michael Swanwick (1991)
Against A Dark Background,
Iain Banks (1993)
Coelestis,
Paul Park (1995)
And then I blogged about my experience of rereading them.
What is in the Sea-Kings of Mars book Ian? Sounds interesting.
It's a collection of
Leigh Brackett's stories and novellas set on Mars (and on Venus) - ones like 'The Secret of Sinharat' and 'People of the Talisman', as well as the title story. It's part of the Fantasy Masterworks series. Definitely worth getting hold of a copy.
Message edited by its author, Dec 29, 2007, 11:50am.
I still have a soft spot for
The Ophiuchi Hotline, although I've always felt the best idea in the book was thrown away in the last couple of pages.
I've not read any Charles Stross yet, but I was given
Glasshouse for Christmas...
Thanks Ian, that does sound interesting.
Cyteen absolutely beyond question,
the best book I read this year of whatever genre.
Other top picks - more of
Cherryh's work and also
Forty signs of rain though the sequels weren't as good,
Galactic north (grr still waiting for a paperback Prefect).
I did a fair amount of re-reading favorites last year, too.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Female Man by
Joanna RussThe Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
Of the new reads for this year, these are the ones in running to become one of the favorites:
The Baby Merchant by
Kit ReedThe Ghost Brigades and
The Last Colony by
John ScalziI read
Old Man's War, too, but I didn't like it as much as the others.
Honorable mentions:
Schrodinger's Ball by Adam Febler, just because it was bizarre and kind of fun
The Maquisarde by
Louise Marley, because it made me want to read more Marley, even if it didn't rise to the level of a favorite book
Interestingly enough, all of my re-reads for last year were SF books. I didn't do a lot of re-reading, only 7 books, but it looks like the SF books were the only ones that I wanted to go back to again.
My top 5 were:
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson
Black Man (AKA Thirteen) By Richard K Morgan
Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (reread)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
However, I would mention that two books cited are among my all-time favorites. These include John Boyd's The Last Starship From Earth, which has been on my favorites list for over thirty years, and River of Gods by Ian McDonald, which I found to be a towering achievement.
This seems to put me in close agreement with usnmm2 and bibliophool. Generally, I see strong support for Thirteen by Richard K Morgan.
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