Snippy Snippets: "The Separation" by Christoper Priest

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"The Separation" by CHRISTOPER PRIEST is a prime example of great and mind-boggling alternative history fiction. You get caught up in a story narrated by two identical twins through their journals and a few external publications on the lives of the two. The story is about the lives of Jack (the bomber pilot) and Joe L. Sawyer (the pacifist ambulance driver) during the WWII England. They have a love-hate relationship and they are both in love with the same woman. The war and their personal differences separate them, but as we follow their journal entries and external ("objective") facts are introduced along the way via newspaper articles and other official publications, we realize that a lot of the information we picked up along the way really contradicts itself. Priest does not spoon-feed the reader with the right answers, but leaves you to juggle with your thoughts and come up with a reasonable explanation for what was really going on. The writing is superb as well. A great page-turner even though the book offers limited action. If you want a breezy read full of adventure this probably isn't it, but what it offers is high quality drama, a well-written and highly enjoyable prose (the red herrings and the conflicting facts are masterfully woven into the fable so they don't disrupt the flow of the novel at all), and a sharp mind to connect the dots at the end to come up with an answer for the factual discrepancies. A great, heartily recommended read! Somewhere in between 4/5 and 4.5/5.

- Thrinidir -

Dan Simmons - Drood (Book Review)

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"DROOD" (Amazon: UK, US)
by DAN SIMMONS
Format: Paperback, 816/784 pages
Publisher: Quercus / Little, Brown and Company (Feb 2009, first edition)

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Last summer, I've written a post regarding books we like and how hard it can be to review them – can you remain objective? Should you remain objective? Drood is one of such books and I can't really decide whether I'm infatuated with it or it really is that good.

"Drood", like "The Terror", is neither fantasy nor science fiction – it's historical fiction, but unlike " The Terror", "Drood" concentrates more on 'historical' than on 'fiction'. Our narrator is Wilkie Collins, who introduces us to his life as a writer, one of Charles Dickens' closest friends and a member of 19th century's London upper class.

"Drood" presents Dickens and Collins in the time when they were both already established writers, praised all over England, neither of them short on money or company. Their lives, as well as everyone involved, are subject to their various whims and thus often a fine source of gossip; while Dickens dismissed his wife and forbid her to enter his house again, Collins is unmarried but has two lovers who don't know about each other. While both authors readily cooperate, they just as readily dismiss each other's work as petty, unimaginative or just plain bad writing. The older they get, the wider the gap between them becomes – with a little help from the mysterious Mr. Drood, whose past and skills obsess Dickens.

In most reviews of "Drood" I've read, people mostly complain about "Drood" being too long and mostly just Dickens' biography. Neither of these bothered me. I actually enjoyed how SIMMONS took his time and 'spent' many pages to create a perfect atmosphere and explain the background of the story. Admittedly, this was probably a bit easier for him than if he set his story in a fictional place, because a lot is known about 19th century London and its upper class, but it still takes a certain amount of skill to present it as intriguing and engrossing as SIMMONS did. "Drood" hardly reads as a history textbook or a biography, more as a work of pure fiction. One of the possible reasons to why its length didn't really bother me might lie in the fact that I've recently read a lot of first-part-of-the-series novels, and they rarely left me satisfied because they centered more on action, offering an immediate, but not lasting satisfaction, and less on explanation and wholeness – there is enough time for the latter in one of the sequels. "Drood," though, is a standalone novel, and as such has to offer some explanation, background and so on.

As for the biography part of criticism – well, I can't really say, since in all those years I spent in school, we only mentioned Dickens a couple of times. And when I say mentioned, I mean exactly that – we listed his name along with other writers of his era, but we never got further than that. We never had to read any of his works, and I never knew that Wilkie Collins existed. Because of that, reading "Drood" was in a way like watching a great documentary; biography was just a logical part of the book and I found it more interesting than boring.

As mentioned, SIMMONS takes a step forward from "The Terror" here; by introducing an unreliable narrator, he successfully manages to blur the line between facts and fiction and thus piquing reader's interest. The book starts as a tale of two 19th century writers' everyday life, but slowly evolves into a gripping and unexpected tale, full of suspense. Highly recommended.

~Trin~

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I'm totally out of practice, guys. I don't remember the last time I read so little. I've read maybe 10-20 books since June, which is just SAD. I have written 2 (unfinished) reviews. Sucks to be me, I guess?

The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List: Recap & Conclusion

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Finally, here is the absolute "Ultimate Best Of 2008 List"! I perused every single article in this ongoing series of articles we've been posting over the last couple of months [links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 & The RoSF List] and the linked sites that were referred to in each subsequent article, including the huge database of various 'best of' lists over at FANTASY BOOK CRITIC (link). Here I've compiled a list that's made up from all the books that were mentioned at least 6 (5) times (on different lists, of course, and regardless of the ranking, if the list in question happened to rank the books in any manner); also worth mentioning is that this is technically not a real 'best of' list, but more of a 'most popular' books list, since - among other things - some of the lists sorted the books from best to worst and others listed them in no particular order, making it very hard to determine the absolute winner of 2008. What is more, the books we've taken into account weren't necessarily released in 2008, they just had to be read last year. The books with the same number of mentions are listed in alphabetical order and are as follows.

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1. Last Argument of Kings [review: 1, 2] – JOE ABERCROMBIE, 2008 (12 mentions)
Little Brother – CORY DOCTOROW, 2008 (12 mentions)

3. The Graveyard Book – NEIL GAIMAN, 2008 (11 mentions)

4. Anathem – NEAL STEPHENSON, 2008 (1o mentions)

5. The Name of the Wind [review coming soon] – PATRICK ROTHFUSS, 2007 (9 mentions)

6. The House of Suns – ALASTAIR REYNOLDS, 2008 (7 mentions)
The Shadow of the Wind [review coming soon] - CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON, 2001/2004 (translation) (7 mentions)
The Ten Thousand [Review] – PAUL KEARNEY, 2008 (7 mentions)
Thunderer [review coming soon] – FELIX GILMAN, 2008 (7 mentions)
The Terror [Review] – DAN SIMMONS, 2007 (7 mentions)
Toll the Hounds – STEVEN ERIKSON, 2008 (7 mentions)

12. Caine Black Knife – MATTHEW W. STOVER, 2008 (6 mentions)
Pump Six and Other Stories (short story collection) – PAOLO BACIGALUPI, 2008 (6 mentions)
The Drowned Life (short story collection) – JEFFREY FORD, 2008 (6 mentions)
The Painted Man [Review] – PETER V. BRETT, 2008 (6 mentions)
The Steel Remains [review coming soon] – RICHARD MORGAN, 2008 (6 mentions)

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A bit of STATISTICS for interlude: there were 518 different sf&f books mentioned in all the lists we used in our survey, but only 142 of those were mentioned more than once and only 74 were mentioned more than twice. Another interesting fact: while a lot of these ‘Best of 2008’ lists were not limited to books that were published in 2008, these books still prevail on overall.

What about the RUNNER-UPS? There are 10 books who missed the top of the chart by only one mention - and they're all just as (some even more in my opinion) interesting as the top tier:
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17. Implied Spaces – WALTER JON WILLIAMS, 2008 (5 mentions)
Lavinia – URSULA K. LE GUIN, 2008 (5 mentions)
Matter – IAIN M. BANKS, 2008 (5 mentions)
Old Man's War [Review] – JOHN SCALZI, 2005 (5 mentions)
The Alchemy Of Stone – EKATARINA SEDIA, 2008 (5 mentions)
The Dragons of Babel – MICHAEL SWANWICK, 2008 (5 mentions)
The Engine's Child – HOLLY PHILLIPS, 2008 (5 mentions)
The Gone-Away World – NICK HARKAWAY, 2008 (5 mentions)
The Red Wolf Conspiracy [Review] – ROBERT V.S. REDICK, 2008 (5 mentions)
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (anthology) – ed. JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS, 2007 (5 mentions)

Congratulations to all the books that made it on this list (and to the ones that were left out by a small margin as well). There is not much to say really, since most of the books you see listed here have been getting a lot of attention (with a few exceptions) on the blogosphere and other relevant genre sites in the past year. Although this list reflects POPULARITY of books before anything else, it is still somewhat an indicator of the QUALITY of these books. We read only a handful of the titles listed above and we have the intention to correct this mistake in the future, but from what we've read we can agree with the pick in most cases. We're not going to write an opinion for each of the books and whether they deserve to be on the list or not, but I'd like to hear what the rest of you think...is there a book that is missing on this list, but should be there? Or maybe one of the most popular books you see here doesn't deserve to be nearly as popular as it appears to be here? All in all, we've put much work into making this list and I hope it will give you at least a small insight into what went on in science fiction and fantasy genre in the past year.
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Trin & Thrinidir

The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List [part 7] - THE RoSF LIST

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And now, finally - and also long overdue - Realms of Speculative Fiction Best of 2008. The only guidelines we followed while making this list were (1) that the books had to be read (but not necessarily published) somewhere in between January 2008 and March 2009 (2) and that most of the books comprising the list have to be genre related (the terms sf, fantasy and horror were perceived in the broadest sense possible). TRIN, MADWAND & THRINIDIR started regurgitating the books we read in the past year and you can find out which books we thought were more special than others from here on; let's start with Trin's reading highlights of 2008...

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TRIN: I've already listed some of my favourite books of 2008 in Thea and Anna's Smugglivus post, but as soon as that list was posted, I realised I forgot to include some of the other books I've read last year as well. So, here goes: the full list of my favourite books of 2008, in alphabetical order.

Ender's Game (1985) by ORSON SCOTT CARD: I enjoyed this one greatly, but sadly never wrote a review for it (though I plan to do that after a re-read). It's one of the classics of the SF genre, but I didn't even know it existed until last year. The funny thing is that despite my love for this book, I don't plan to read any of the following instalments, at least not in the near future. Probably because I doubt they can get any better than Ender's Game.

Flowers For Algernon (1966) by DANIEL KEYES - Another classic! (In fact, about half of this list is made of classics … I'm slowly discovering some great things that others read ages before. I blame it on not being from US/UK.) Also, one of the first reviews I wrote. I suspect it'll stay one of my all time favourites, because it's one of the best books I've ever read.

Heroes Die (1998) by MATTHEW WOODRING STOVER – I'd never have thought that such a great book can hide behind such a funny cover. I can't get the second installment anywhere, though, since it's out of print, and I'm not going to read the third one without reading the second one first, so I'm kinda stuck. I also don't want the e-book (what good is an e-book without an e-book reader? True, I could spend some extra hours at the computer screen, but that doesn't sound very appealing to me) – as someone said: I need a dead tree in my hands when I read. Sorry, trees.

I Am Legend (1954) by RICHARD MATHESON – A classic again, and one of the rare 'horror' books we've reviewed on RoSF (I don't really think it a horror book, but I can hardly call it sf or fantasy …). I find it funny that at the time of reading it, I was perfectly sure that it was written in the 90s and kept asking myself why doesn't he use some technology. Hah! Also, I didn't watch the movie – I mean, they failed at choosing the main character (Neville from the book has pale skin, blue eyes and blond hair), so I didn't want to know at what else they've managed to fail.

It (1986) by STEPHEN KING – I don't know if this one should be called a classic, but it surely is a notorious book. I guess it's a sort of book that you love or hate, and I'm clearly on the former side. One of my little pleasures is creeping out people who only watched the TV series and think they know what "It" is about. Did that with Thrinidir and he swore that he's never going to read this book. Awww. :(

Orphan's Tales (2006, 2007) by CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE – Finally, a book (two of them actually; Book One: In the Night Garden and Book Two: In the Cities of Coin and Spice) that's pretty fresh! It's a criss-cross between a fairytale storybook and 1001 nights (which could also be called a storybook, I suppose), written in a very poetical language. Very nice.

Otherland (1996-2001) by TAD WILLIAMS – This series has been sitting on Thrinidir's bookshelf for quite some time, but it never seemed really interesting to me. Thrinidir, however, insisted that I should read it, and I finally did so in the last days of 2008. I'm glad that he insisted.
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The Name of the Wind (2007) by PATRICK ROTHFUSS – Still trying to write a review of this one. It's one of the best fantasy books I've read lately, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment.-
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The Road (2007) by CORMACK McCARTHY – I can't believe I almost forgot to include that one. Another one of my beloved post-apocalyptic books with a sociological note and a beautiful story. I can't wait to see what the movie will look like.

The Steel Remains (2008) by RICHARD MORGAN – An actual 2008 book :) I loved every part of it – the realism, the explicit language that went with it, the characters, everything. A thought: there can hardly be any strange slash fanfic written for this one.
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The Terror (2007) by DAN SIMMONS – I've read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion before this one, but it's The Terror that made me a real fan of Simmons'. The only book I've read and re-read in 2008.

Wasp Factory (1984) by IAIN BANKS – Not sure if this is speculative fiction at all, but I nevertheless loved it. I can't explain what's so great about a book where almost everyone is obviously crazy, though, but Banks is one hell of a writer who managed to successfully pull the whole thing off.
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MADWAND: Even though I managed to read only a few books in 2008, there was one that stood out; Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006). I should thank Thrinidir for having been such a pest [Thrinidir: "Oh rlly?"]: he has continuously badgered me about this book until I caved in and finally read it.

Locke is a young thief whose talent is recognized and nurtured by a con artist, Chains. A man with a vision, Chains moulds Locke and the other orphans he took under his tutelage into a group of confidence tricksters feared by the wealthy nobility. But then the plot thickens... :) Lynch did manage to spoil the experience near the end, but the overall impression was a very positive one. How can one not like a well written tale of charismatic con artists set in a fastastic rendition of Venice?
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THRINIDIR: I don't read as much as some of the people I know and I'm not as genre knowledgeable as others, so I wouldn't take my year's pick as a definite indicator of sublime quality or some other serious referential pointl (i.e. I'm not saying that the books I'll be highliting represent the actual top of the crop), but I'm doing this in hope that people will be able to find at least a few noteworthy suggestions to add on their reading list.
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Last Argument of Kings (2008) by JOE ABERCROMBIE. Though I was slightly less satisfied with the final volume of the superb "The First Law Trilogy" (Blindman was even more disgruntled by it) than with its two predecessors, especially "Before They Are Hanged", I still highly value Abercrombies' satirical wit, feel for characterization and utter disregard for what the endings should be like by the genre standards. This trilogy is definitely one of the highlights of the new millennium.
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The Painted Man (2008) by PETER V. BRETT. While I called this book light-weight and suffused with genre staples it is still one of the best - if not the best - fantasy debuts of 2008. This is book one of the "Demon Trilogy" and its main purpose is to set up the world and introduce the main protagonists, but here this is not that much of a problem, since the characterization is sublime and a few innovative elements are thrown into the mix with the genre archetypes. This is a traditional fantasy, but it feels modern without the explicit content that a lot of authors abuse to try and make their book distinguished from the genre classics (and the dross).
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The Shadow of the Wind (2001) by CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN. I'm in the process of writing a review for this monster of a book. What defines it as a monster isn't its length or even the inclusion of horror elements, but the richness of the prose and chock-full of thematic content and references. This is a book about life, but carefully hidden behind a mystery story that unfurles in the fascist Spain under general Franco. While not a fantasy, horror or science fiction book in the strictest sense of the word, it is still one of the finest books I've had the privilege to read in the past recent years. Highly recommended.
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Chronicles of the Black Company (the original novels were published in 1984,1984 and 1985; the omnibus was published in 2007) by GLEN COOK. In a recent review of the "Black Company" books that I've came across the author of the article refers to these books as a "...revered ancestor that should be honored as well as awarded a significant place in the history of the genre, but they shouldn't be (re)visited often, because while they left their mark on the genre, they have been outlived and outperformed by its successors." While I agree with this estimation to an extent, I was nevertheless left more appreciative (as opposed to the author of this review) of the Black Company and Glen Cook when I finished this terrific omnibus. While the Black Company books might be labeled as sort of an revered ancestor, I still think that they should be visited at least once, by anyone who loves down-in-the-trenches first person narrative, charismatic protagonist or simply put - great fantasy.
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The Road (2006) by CORMAC McCARTHY. The most evocative and touching book I've read in ages. Somber, moody, oppressive and primal, but never falling into the pit of pathetic. This is the book you need to read as soon you can. You really mustn't miss the sad journey of one father and his son following the road to nowhere in a fictional post apocalyptic world. Simply brilliant.
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The Mark of Ran (2004) by PAUL KEARNEY. Paul Kearney, who? I've never heard of this author before I've started following online book reviews; Adam from The Wertzone referred to Paul Kearney as one of the most under appreciated fantasy authors out there and every since I've decided to read "The Mark of Ran", book one of The Sea Beggars trilogy, I have to agree. After this book I've read two more of his titles ("This Forsaken Earth" and "The Ten Thousand") and each of them is marked by the distinctive quality of Kearneys writing. He is a master storyteller who knows how to weave a tale and I promise you, when you'll pick up a book signed by Kearney - if you haven't already - you will be everything but disappointed.
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Flowers for Algernon (1966) by DANIEL KEYES. If I'd have to pick a favourite book I read last year, it would arguably be this one. "Flowers for Algernon" is Daniel Keyes' opus magnum that won the Nebula for Best Novel (with Babel-17) in the year that it was published. This is, technically speaking, a diary of a man who undergoes a surgical procedure that allows him to slowly progress from a state of idiocy to become nothing less than a genius and then gradually regresses to his previous state. The author shows tremendous insight into the human condition and has a knack for making you care for the protagonist. This is an ingenious work of fiction, you just have to be smart enough to pick it up.

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I promise that the next article in the series (part 8, if I counted right) will be the last one; we only need to tally up all the books people refered to as special in 2008 and give you the final numbers (i.e. the books that were mentioned on the most lists).

The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List [part 6]

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It's been quite a while since I've posted the last recap, but I've been waiting for other pages to announce their lists etc. Namely, I've been waiting for SFSite.com and SFFWorld.com (forum) to come up with their best of 2008 list. You can see the other lists I've accounted for on the following links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.

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SF Site's Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2008 list is divided in two; the two lists are the editor's choice list and the reader's choice list. Let's start with the books that the editor's felt deserve commendation: (10) "City at the End of Time" (Greag Bear, SF), (9) "Busted Flush" (ed.GRRM, SF/Fantasy), (8) "Screamland" (Harlod Sipe & Hector Casanova, comic book), (7) "Little Brother" (Cory Doctorow, YA), (6) "Girl Genius, Book 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle" (Phil & Kaja Foglio, webcomic), (5) "The Graveyard Book" (Neil Gaiman, YA), (4) "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson, Fantasy), (3) "Echo: Moon Lake" (Terry Moore), (2) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Volume 2: No Future for You" (Brian K. Vaughan, Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Cliff Richards, et al.) and (1) "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson, SF). Some pretty odd choices there, wouldn't u agree? Now for the reader's choice list: (10) "Zoe's Tale" (John Scalzi, YA SF), (9) "Dragons of Babel" (Michael Swanwick, "anti-fantasy"), (8) "Matter" (Iain M. Banks, space opera), (7) "The Steel Remains" (Richard Morgan, Fantasy), (6) "The Graveyard Book" (Neil Gaiman, YA), (5) "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson, Fantasy), (4) "Pump Six and Other Stories" (Paolo Baciagalupi, short story collection), (3) "Little Brother" (Cory Doctorow, YA), (2) "The Last Argument of Kings" (Joe Abercrombie, Fantasy) and (1) "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson).

The second source I've been eagerly awaiting for is SFFWorld.com, or rather the result of the ongoing poll they had on their forum, which I value greatly. The members of the SFFWorld.com forum voted the following books as the best of 2008: (10) "Reaper's Gale" (Steven Erikson, Fantasy), (9) "Red Seas Under Red Skies" (Scott Lynch, Fantasy), (8) "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson, SF), (7) "The Painted Man" (Peter V.Brett, Fantasy), (6) "The Hero of the Ages" (Brandon Sanderson, Fantasy), (5) "The Shadow Isle" (Katherine Kerr, Fantasy), (4) "Small Favor" (Jim Butcher, urban fantasy), (3) "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson, Fantasy), (2) "The Name of the Wind" (Patrick Rothfuss, Fantasy) and the book that got the most votes was "Last Argument of Kings" by Joe Abercrombie. Check out the thread with results and commentaries for yourselves.

Last but not least, Locus magazine has posted its own list of a sort (technically speaking, it's not a "best of" list, but a recommended reading list, published in the Feb issue of Locus mag, created consensually by the Locus magazine editors, reviewers and with imputs from outside professionals); the SF NOVELS they recommend are: "Matter" (Iain M. Banks), "Flood" (Stephen Baxter), "Weaver" (Stephen Baxter), "City at the End of Time" (Greg Bear), "Incandescence" (Greg Egan), "January Dancer" (Michael Flynn), "Marsbound" (Joe Haldeman), "Spirit" (Gwyneth Jones), "Escapement" (Jay Lake), "Song of Time" (Ian R. MacLeod), "The Night Sessions" (Ken MacLeod), "The Quiet War" (Paul McAuley), "The Company" (K.J. Parker), "House of Suns" (Alastair Reynolds), "Pirate Sun" (Karl Schroeder), "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson), "Saturn's Children" (Charles Stross), "Rolling Thunder" (John Varley), "Half a Crown" (Jo Walton) and "Implied Spaces" (Walter Jon Williams). FANTASY NOVELS: "An Autumn War" (Daniel Abraham), "The Love We Share Without Knowing" (Christopher Barzak), "The Knights of the Cornerstone" (James P. Blaylock), "The Ghost in Love" (Jonathan Carroll), "The Island of Eternal Love" (Daina Chaviano), "The Shadow Year" (Jeffrey Ford), "Shadowbridge/Lord Tophet" (Gregory Frost), "The Memoirs of a Master Forger" (William Heaney); "As How to Make Friends with Demons" (Graham Joyce), "Varanger" (Cecelia Holland), "Lavinia" (Ursula K. Le Guin), "The Bell at Sealey Head" (Patricia A.McKillip), "The Hidden World" (Paul Park), "The Engine's Child" (Holly Phillips), "The Enchantress of Florence" (Salman Rushdie), "The Alchemy of Stone" (Ekaterina Sedia), "The Dragons of Babel" (Michael Swanwick) and "An Evil Guest" (Gene Wolfe). FIRST NOVELS: "The Ninth Circle" (Alex Bell), "The Painted Man aka The Warded Man" (Peter V. Brett), "A Curse as Dark as Gold" (Elizabeth C. Bunce), "Graceling" (Kristin Cashore), "Alive in Necropolis" (Doug Dorst), "Thunderer" (Felix Gilman), "Black Ships" (Jo Graham), "Pandemonium" (Daryl Gregory), "The Gone-Away World" (Nick Harkaway), "Last Dragon" (J.T. McDermott), "Singularity's Ring" (Paul Melko), "The Red Wolf Conspiracy" (Robert V. S. Redick) and "The Cabinet of Wonders" (Marie Rutkoski). YA BOOOKS: "City of Ashes" (Cassandra Clare), "The Hunger Games" (Suzanne Collins), "Monster Blood Tattoo" (D.M.Cormish), "Little Brother" (Corry Doctorow), "The Graveyard Books" (Neil Gaiman), "Eon: Dragoneye Reborn aka The Two Pearls of Wisdom" (Alison Goodman), "Tender Morsels" (Margo Lanagan), "How to Ditch Your Fairy" (Justine Larbalestier), "Ink Exchange" (Melissa Marr), "Chalice" (Robin McKinley), "The Knife of Never Letting Go" (Patrick Ness), "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" (Mary E. Pearson), "Nation" (Terry Pratchett), "Zoe's Tale" (John Scalzi), "Flora's Dare" (Ysabeau S.Wilce). COLLECTIONS: [I'm editing the list; for full list check the link] "Pump Six and Other Stories" (Paolo Bacigalupi), "The Wall of America" (Thomas M.Disch), "The Drowned Life" (Jeffrey Ford), "Nano Comes to Cliffor Falls and Other Stories" (Nancy Kress), "The Best of Lucius Shepard" (Lucius Shepard), "The Best of Michael Swanwick" (Michael Swanwick) etc. ANTHOLOGIES (orig.): [I'm editing the list too] "Fast Forward 2" (Lou Anders), "The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy" (ed.Ellen Datlow), "Galactic Empires" (ed.Gardner Dozois), "Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology" (ed.Nick Gevers), "A Book of Wizards" (ed.Marvin Kaye), "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume Two" (ed.George Mann), "Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy" (ed.William Schafer), "Eclipse Two" (ed.Jonathan Strahan), "Fast Ships, Black Sails" (ed. Jeff&Ann VanderMeer) etc. For Anthologies (best of the year), non-fiction, art books, novellas, novelettes and short stories recommendations I suggest you check the link I've provided.

This was the penultimate article in the series of this articles, which will be followed in a couple of days by the RoSF best reads of 2008 and "the ultimate-ultimate best of" a.k.a. the recap of all the lists we've covered (Trin was the busy little bee this time). Patience grasshoppers :p.

In the Limelight - Nebula Award Final Ballot

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A while ago I posted the preliminary ballot for 2009 Nebula Awards and although I'm a bit late with the news (the final ballot was announced more than a week ago) I'll nevertheless post the latest list. The awards will be announced and presented at the Nebula Awards Weekend on April 24-26.
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Novels

"Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow (Tor, Apr08)
"Powers" by Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, Sep07)
"Cauldron" by Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov07)
"Brasyl" by Ian McDonald (Pyr, May07)
"Making Money" by Terry Pratchett (Harper, Sep07)
"Superpowers" by David J. Schwartz (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

“The Spacetime Pool” by Catherine Asaro (Analog, Mar08)
“Dark Heaven” by Gregory Benford (Alien Crimes, Resnick, Mike, Ed., SFBC, Jan07)
“Dangerous Space” by Kelley Eskridge (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
"The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF, Aug08)
“The Duke in His Castle” by Vera Nazarian (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

“If Angels Fight” by Richard Bowes (F&SF, Feb08)
"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by James Alan Gardner (Asimov's, Feb08)
“Dark Rooms” by Lisa Goldstein (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 07)
“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF, Jan08)
“Night Wind” by Mary Rosenblum (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)
“Baby Doll” by Johanna Sinisalo (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Ed., Tor, Jun07 )
“Kaleidoscope” by K.D. Wentworth (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

“The Button Bin” by Mike Allen (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)
“The Dreaming Wind” by Jeffrey Ford (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking, Jul07)
“Trophy Wives” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Greenberg and Hughes, Daw Jan08)
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, Jul08)
“The Tomb Wife” by Gwyneth Jones (F&SF, Aug07)
“Don’t Stop” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, Jun07)
"Mars: A Traveler's Guide" by Ruth Nestvold (F&SF, Jan08)

The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List [part 5]

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You can find the previous four articles in the "The Best of 2008..." on the following links: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. Now, let's continue from where we left of.

Top 5 reads of 2008 for James (Speculative Horizons) were "The Terror" (Dan Simmons), "The Scar" (China Mieville), "Gardens of the Moon" (Steven Erikson), "Midnight Falcon" (David Gemmell) and "Altered Carbon" (Richard Morgan). Honorable mention goes to: "Empire in Black and Gold" (Adrian Tchaikovsky), "The Steel Remains" (Richard Morgan), "The Ten Thousand" (Paul Kearney) and "Last Argument of Kings" (Joe Abercrombie). You can find more on his site...

For those mostly interested for urban fantasy visit SciFiGuy's blog and his list here, and we are on to Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog's favourite books of 2008: "Old Man's War" (John Scalzi), "The Lies of Locke Lamora" (Scott Lynch), "Clockwork Heart" (Dru Pagliassotti) and "Watchmen" (Alan Moore)...more. Mariel from Where troubles melt like lemon drops (you gotta love this blog's name) has her own review of 2008 here.

The review team at Strange Horizons put forward the following works of fiction as "best of 2008" (not essentially published in the same year): "The Knife of Never Letting Go" (Patrick Ness), "Anathem" (Neil Stephenson), "Spook Country" (William Gibson), "Pump Six and Other Stories" (Paolo Bacigalupi, short-story collection), "The Gone-Away World" (Nick Harkaway), "Neuropath" (Scott Bakker), "Liberation" (Brian Francis Slattery), "Flood" (Stephen Baxter), "The Quiet War" (Paul McAuley), "Lavinia" (Ursula K. Le Guin), "The Engine's Child" (Holly Phillips), "The Bell at Sealy Head" (Patricia A.McKillip), "The Execution Channel" (Ken MacLeod), "Black Man" (Richard Morgan), "The Carhullan Army" (Sarah Hall), "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" (Michael Chabon), "Spirit: or the Princess of Bois Dormant" (Gwyneth Jones), "Little Brother" (Cory Doctorow), "The Angel Maker" (Stefan Brijs), "The Love We Share Without Knowing" (Christopher Barzak), "The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein" (Peter Ackroyd), "Dangerous Laughter" (Stephen Millhauser, short-story collection), "God is Dead" (Ron Currie), "Dust" and "Undertow" and "All the Windwracked Stars" (Elizabeth Bear), "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" (Mary E. Pearson), "Life As We Knew It" (Susan Beth Pfeffer), "The Hunger Games" (Suzanne Collins), "The Handmaid's Tale" (Margaret Atwood), "Larklight" series (Philip Reeve), "Swiftly" (Adam Roberts), "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume 2" (ed.Geoge Man, short-story collection), "Eclipse 2" (ed.Jonathan Strahan, short-story collection), "The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy" (ed.Ellen Datlow, short-story collection), "Fast Forward 2" (ed.Lou Anders, short-story collection), "The Drowned life" (Jeffrey Ford, short-story collection)...and other.

I've already covered the enormous effort that the guys at Fantasy Book Critic are putting up with interviewing various genre authors and other genre related individuals about their thoughts on 2008 and the things they are looking forward in 2009 (they've interviewed exactly 51 by this moment!). You should really check out what some of your favorite authors enjoyed in 2008, what they look forward to and what are their plans for 2009 here. The genre works I've accounted for in the previous article are alredy obsolete, so what I'd like to do here is recount the choices of the blog's staff which were posted well after my first article. Some of their picks are: "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" (Stephen Hunt), "Return of the Crimson Guard" (Ian C.Esslemont), "Iron Angel" (Alan Campbell), "The Magicians and Mrs.Quent" (Galen Beckett), "The Hounds of Ash and Other Tales of Fool Wolf" (Greg Keyes), "Kushiel's Mercy" (Jacqueline Carrey), "Empire In Black & Gold" (Adrian Tchaikovsky), "The Born Queen" (Greg Keyes), "Shadow Gate" (Kate Elliott), "Lord Tophet" (Gregory Frost), "Midnight Never Come" (Marie Brennan), "An Autumn War" (Daniel Abraham), "Havemercy" (Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett), "The Steel Remains" (Richard Morgan), "The Red Wolf Conspiracy" (Robert V.S. Redick), "Blood Ties" (Pamela Freeman), "The Host" (Stephanie Meyer), "Escapement" (Jay Lake), "Singularity's Ring" (Paul Melko), "Debatable Space" (Philip Palmer), "Hunter's Run" (GRRM, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham), "Death’s Head: Maximum Offense" (David Gunn), "The Mirrored Heavens" (David J. Williams), "Little Brother" (Cory Doctorow), "Tigerheart" (Peter David), "The Resurrectionist" (Jack O’Connell), "Severance Package" (Duane Swierczynski), "The Monsters of Templeton" (Lauren Groff), "Stalking the Unicorn" (Mike Resnick), "Sharp Teeth" (Toby Barlow), "The Alchemy of Stone" (Ekaterina Sedia), "Through a Glass, Darkly" (Bill Hussey), "Neuropath" (Scott Bakker), "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson), "Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant" (Gwyneth Jones), "By Schism Rent Asunder" (David Weber), "The Quiet War" (Paul McAuley), "The Temporal Void" (Peter F.Hamilton), "The Martian General's Daughter" (Theodore Judson), "Swiftly" (Adam Roberts), "MultiReal" (David Luis Edelman), "Chaos Space" (Marriane de Pierres), "Caine Black Knife" (Matthew Stover), Night Angel trilogy (Brent Weeks), "The Engine's Child" (Holly Phillips), "Thunderer" (Felix Gilman), "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" (Stephen Hunt), "Last Argument of Kings" (Joe Abercrombie), "The Ten Thousand" (Paul Kearney), "The Painted Man" (Peter V.Brett), "Deep Water" (Pamela Freeman), "The Immortal Prince" (Jennifer Fallon), "Black Ships" (Jo Graham), "Shadow of the Wind" (Carlos Ruiz Zafon), "The Ninth Circle" (Alex Bell), "Perdido Street Station" (China Mieville), "Accelerando" (Charles Stross), "The New Weird" and "Steampunk" (ed.Jeff and Ann VanderMeer,anthology)... This is not an exhaustive list, for all the picks and the elaboration on the choices follow the above link.

Now, finally*, Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen...if you wanna know how many books he read in 2008 go here (hint: 366), his favorite DEBUT NOVELS are listed here, ANTHOLOGIES here, TRANSLATED FICTION here, SPANISH LANGUAGE FICTION here, SF&F NON-FICTION here, GRAPHIC NOVELS here, YA FICTION here and his FAVORITE FICTION BOOKS IN OVERALL here. Let me reiterate the first ten (out of twenty) books of this final list: (1) "Yalo" (Elias Khoury), (2) "The Situation" (Jeff Vandermeer), (3) "El Juego del Angel" (Carlos Ruiz Zafön), (4) "Lavinia" (Ursula Le Guin), (5) "Last Dragon" (J.M.McDermott), (6) "Liberation" (Brian Francis Slattery), (7) "Tender Morsels" (Margo Lanagan), (8) "Thunderer" (Felix Gilman), (9) "Black Ships" (Jo Graham) and (10) "The Alchemy of Stone" (Ekatarina Sedia).

* Some of the "best of" lists aren't compiled, completed or the votes aren't in/accounted for yet (e.g. SFSite.com, SFFWorld.com etc.). These lists will be gathered in the final "The ULTIMATE Best Of..." article accordingly.
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- Thrinidir -

The ULTIMATE (and somewhat bloated) Best Of 2008 List [part 4]

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Part 1, part 2 and part 3 of this ongoing article...and we are already at part 4.

I've picked out the following titles among the vast and varied selection of Bookspot Central's favorite reads of 2008 (I'm making an unjust selection again, but necessary due to this sites genre preferences): "A Shadow in Summer" (Daniel Abraham, fantasy), "The Well of Ascension" (Brandon Sanderson, fantasy), "All the Windwracked Stars" (Elizabeth Bear, sf), "Pride of Carthage" (David Anthony Durham, historical fiction), "Pump Six and Other Stories" (Paolo Bacigalupi, short story collection), "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories" (Nancy Kress, short story collection), "The Way of the Shadow" (Brent Weeks, fantasy), "Jhegaala" (Steven Brust, fantasy), "Anathem" (Neal Stephenson), "Caine Black Knife" (Matthew Stover, fantasy), "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson, fantasy), "The Drowned Life" (Jeffrey Ford, short story collection), "The Enchantress of Florence" (Salman Rushdie), "The Ghost in Love" (Jonathan Carroll), "Thunderer" (Felix Gilman, fantasy), "Template" (Matthew Hughes), "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse" (ed.John Joseph Adams, sf short story collection), "Under My Roof" (Nick Mamatas), "One for Sorrow" (Christopher Barzak), "The Forever War" (Joe Haldeman, progenitor of military sf), "Blindness" (Jose Saramago), "The Orphan’s Tales Vol. II: In the Cities of Coin and Spice" (Catherynne M. Valente, 'fantasy' in the vein of 1001 Nights), "A Clash of Kings" (GRRM, fantasy), "Last Light of the Sun" (Guy Gavriel Kay, fantasy), "Ash: A Secret History" (Mary Gentle, fantasy) and MANY MANY more. Again, I'm making a huge injustice to the authors of the posts I'm copying from, so do yourself a favor and follow the link to get more information.

Adam from The Wertzone awarded the following sf&f titles: (1) "The Ten Thousand" (Paul Kearney), (2) "The Last Argument of Kings" (Joe Abercrombie), (3) "The Temporal Void" (Peter F. Hamilton), (4) "Nation" (Terry Prattchet), (5) "The Steel Remains" (Richard Morgan), (6) "The Painted Man" (Peter V. Brett), (7) "Swiftly" (Adam Roberts), (8) "Return of the Crimson Guard" (Ian C.Esslemont), (9) "Shadow Gate" (Kate Elliott), (10) "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson), (11) "The Edge od Reason" (Melinda Snodgrass), (12) "Flood" (Stephen Baxter), (13) "The Red Wolf Conspiracy" (Robert VS Reddick) and finally (14) "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.

Neth's (Neth's Space) best are (clear and simple): "Neuropath" (Scott Bakker), "Already Dead" (Charlie Huston), "The Lees of Laughter’s End" (Steven Erikson), "Lord Tophet" (Gregory Frost), "Zoë’s Tale" (John Scalzi); one step above them - 'best of the best' books he read in 2008 - are "The Final Empire" and "The Well of Ascension" (Brandon Sanderson), "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson), "Heroes Die" (Matthew Stover), "The Dragons of Babel" (Michael Swanwick) and "The Judging Eye" (R. Scott Bakker).

Rob - to some better known as RobB from SFFWorld.com forums (saying it again: beside Ran's ASoIaF forum, this is the place to be for sf/f/h enthusiasts) - mentioned 'the best 2008 books' he read in the annual SFFWorld.com Review (Fantasy and SF&Media), but on his blog (Rob's Blog o'Stuff) he didn't limit himself to just 2008 books (his own words). The books that left the biggest impression on him in 2008 were: "Dresden Files" series (Jim Butcher, 'urban fantasy'), [BEST SCIENCE FICTION] "Little Brother" (Cory Doctorow, sf), "Starship Troopers" (R.A.Heinlein, sf classic), [BEST FANTASY] "Heroes Die" (Matthew Stover, sf), "The Graveyard Book" (Neil Gaiman), "Shadow of the Wind" (Carlos Ruiz Zafon), "The Hero of Ages" (Brandon Sanderson), "The Born Queen" (Greg Keyes), [FAVORITE DEBUTS] "Night Angel Trilogy" (Brent Weeks, Rob's favorite), "Destroyermen I: Into the Storm" and "Destroyermen II: Crusade" (Taylor Anderson), [FAVORITE UNDISCOVERED GEM] "Throne of Amenkor" trilogy (Joshua Palmatier), [FAVORITE SHORT STORY/ANTHOLOGY COLLECTION] "Wastelands" (ed.John Joseph Adams), "The Living Dead" (-II-), "Fragile Things" (Neil Gaiman) and "Worlds of Weber" (David Weber, retrospective). Rob's most disappointing reads of 2008 were: "Thunderer" (Felix Gilman), "Empress" (Karen Miller) and "Juggler of Worlds" (Lary Niven & Edward M.Lerner). Rob's 'favorite author whose work he revisited' in 2008 is Jack McDevit and his 'favorite publisher' of past year is Orbit Books with Pyr being a close second.

Aaron Wilson's (The Souless Machine Review) best reads of 2008 are: (1) "The Swarm" (Frank Schatzing), (2) "The Suicide Collectors" (David Oppegaard) and (3) "Unholy Domain" (our review) by Dan Ronco. Check out his site for the list of best short fiction.
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To be continued...

In the Limelight - Nebula Award Nominees 2009 (Long List)

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A little break from the time consuming job of compiling a big overview of 'best of 2008' lists is in order and the SFWA's announcement of the preliminary ballot for the 2009 Nebula Awards provided just the opportunity to give us something other to chew on. Keep in mind that "The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA...awards presentation weekend will be announced and presented at The Nebula Awards Weekend on April 24-26". And now the list of all nominees for each of the categories...
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Novels

• Abraham, Daniel: "A Betrayal in Winter" (Tor, Jul07)
• Barzak, Chris: "One for Sorrow" (Bantam, Sep07)
• Bull, Emma: "Territory" (Tor, Jul07)
• Doctorow, Cory: "Little Brother" (Tor, Apr08)
• Goonan, Kathleen Ann: "In War Times" (Tor, May07)
• Le Guin, Ursula K.: "Powers" (Harcourt, Sep07)
• McDevitt, Jack: "Cauldron" (Ace, Nov07)
• McDonald, Ian: "Brasyl" (Pyr, May07) *review*
  
• Pratchett, Terry: "Making Money" (Harper, Sep07)
• Rothfuss, Patrick: "The Name of the Wind" (DAW, Apr07)

Novellas

• Asaro, Catherine: "The Spacetime Pool" (Analog, Mar08)
• Benford, Gregory: "Dark Heaven" (Alien Crimes, SFBC, Jan07?)
• Eskridge, Kelley: "Dangerous Space" (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)
• Finlay, Charles Coleman: "The Political Prisoner" (F&SF, Aug08)

Novelettes

• Bowes, Richard: "If Angels Fight" (F&SF, Feb08)
• Flynn, Michael F. : "Quaestiones Super Caelo et Mundo" (Analog, Aug07 (Jul/Aug07 issue))
• Gardner, James Alan: The Ray-Gun: "A Love Story" (Asimov's, Feb08)
• Goldstein, Lisa: "Dark Rooms" (Asimov's, Nov07 (Oct/Nov 07 issue))
• Kessel, John: "Pride and Prometheus" (F&SF, Jan08)
• Kosmatka, Ted: "The Prophet of Flores" (Asimov's, Sep07)
• Moles, David: "Finisterra" (F&SF, Dec07)
• Sinisalo, Johanna: "Baby Doll" (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, Tor, Jun07 (trans. from the Finnish by David Hackston))
• Wentworth, K.D.: "Kaleidoscope" (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

• Allen, Mike: "The Button Bin" (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07 (Reprinted in Transcriptase))
• Cassutt, Michael: "Skull Valley" (Asimov's, Nov07 (Oct/Nov 07 issue))
• Finch, Sheila: "Stranger Than Imagination Can" (The Guild of Xenolinguists, Golden Gryphon Press, Sep07)
• Ford, Jeffrey: "The Dreaming Wind" (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Viking Juvenile, Jul07)
• Henderson, Samantha: "Bottles" (Realms of Fantasy, Apr07)
• Hobson, M. K.: "The Hotel Astarte" (Realms of Fantasy, Jun07)
• Johnson, Kij: "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" (Asimov's, Jul08)
• Jones, Gwyneth: "The Tomb Wife" (F&SF, Aug07)
• Kelly, James Patrick: "Don't Stop" (Asimov's, Jun07)
• Nestvold, Ruth: Mars: "A Traveler's Guide" (F&SF, Jan08)
• Plante, Brian: "The Astronaut" (Analog, May07)
• Rickert, Mary: "Holiday" (Subterranean #7, Sep07)
• Scholes, Ken: "Summer in Paris, Light From the Sky" (Clarkesworld Magazine, Nov07)
• Van Pelt, James: "How Music Begins" (Asimov's, Sep07)

Scripts

• Stanton, Andrew: "WALL-E" (Pixar, Jun08)

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No works made the preliminary ballot for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.
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~~~

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Who wants to place bets? ;)
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