Recommended Reading?
Locus magazine has released its 2004 recommended reading list. I find their reviews a little hit-or miss (sometimes I can't really make out what in hell they're talking about), but it's usually worth taking a look at what they think is good.
The really striking thing about this is what a small fraction of the list I've read: out of 79 books in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, YA, and First Novel categories, I've read 12 (almost 13). This is partly due to the fact that I just haven't seen some of these books (they list a number of UK releases that aren't out yet in the US), but it's remarkable how many of them I'm just not interested in reading.
The Fantasy category is the one with the highest read fraction (6/21), as I've read the Irvine, Kay, Pratchett, Stewart, and Wolfe entries (Gene Wolfe's The Kinght is listed along with The Wizard, for some reason-- I thought it came out in '03). Of the rest, well, I have Charlie Stross's The Family Trade sitting on the dining room table, and I'll take a look at the Lucius Shepard if I see it, and that's about it. The Steven King books are the tail end of a huge series, and I'm waiting for Kate to finish them and tell me if it's worth starting. I gave up on Perdido Street Station, so I'm not interested in the Mieville, I'm not enthusiastic about another horse-choking Tad Williams book, and nothing else really leaps out as something I want to read.
The Science Fiction list is even worse: I've read two of the 28 books on the list (Newton's Wake and The Confusion, though I'm nearing the end of The System of the World). Now, granted, this is the list that seems most affected by the UK-only problem, with books by Iain M. Banks and Ian McDonald that sound interesting if they ever come out in a place where I can get them. I may check out the Jon Courtenay Grimwood book, as well, if I ever see it. It's also got a fair number of books that I just haven't gotten to-- I have Cloud Atlas and Forty Signs of Rain sitting on a shelf next to me, and I'll definitely read Iron Sunrise. But my interest pretty much ends there. Baxter, DiFillippo, Haldeman, Heinlein, McAuley and Rucker don't interest me (based on previous experience), Sterling doesn't really write novels, and a bunch of the others are really series books, and I'm not interested in the amount of catch-up required.
All in all, my reaction to the lists is pretty much "Enh." I'm not sure if it was really an "Enh" sort of year-- I don't recall it that way, but then a lot of my SF reading in 2004 was from 2003-- or if there's just a major taste mismatch between me and the Locus review staff. Either way, I'm just not wildly enthusiastic about this slate of books.
Posted at 8:55 AM | link | [ hide comments ]
You've got me beat. I've only read The Language of Power and Banner of Souls from the sf list and The Last Light of the Sun, Alphabet of Thorn, Glass Dragons and The Last Guardian of Everness from the fantasy list.
Is Everness any good? It had a "collect the plot tokens!" look to it that kept me from buying it.
I don't recall even hearing of Glass Dragons or Banner of Souls before.
Add in first novels and you get City of Pearl.
I forgot to mention those: I've read three of the fifteen (Clarke, Swainston, and Wheeler), and stalled out halfway through a fourth (Move Under Ground-- I like the "Beat Poets vs. Cthullu" premise, but the Kerouac pastiche was too good, and reminded me why I never finished On the Road). A couple of the others sound vaguely interesting, but I haven't seen them.
I really enjoyed The Atrocity Archives, as you can see at the bottom of the page, and Singularity Sky had enough energy to be fun, even if it did sort of dissolve into narrative chaos toward the end. I'm happy to read more of Charlie's stuff, and would've picked up Iron Sunrise today if anybody had had it.
As for alternatives, I thought Bad Magic was terrific, but I don't know that anyone at Locus has reviewed it, and it may have come too late in the year to make the list.
Chad Orzel, 01.29.2005, 5:30pm | permalink
Banner of Souls is a bizarre far future thing which may or may not fall into this 'New Weird' thing. Whatever it was, it didn't work for me. I found it fairly similar to Natural History actually, another book wildly praised by Locus which mostly just bored me.
Glass Dragons is by Sean McMullen. It the second book in the same universe as Voyage of Shadowmoon. The female characters in all of his books leave a lot to be desired, but they can be occasionally amusing and inventive. Not a bad way to pass the time.
The phrase that comes to mind when I think of Stross is 'porn for geeks'. I don't think it's very appropriate, though, and it's not really what I want to convey. It all just feels like overly long rasfw threads surrounded by some semblance of narrative structure. The Atrocity Archive at least had a semblance of coherence which is more than I can say for the tedious Singularity Sky. I was seriously annoyed by the self-congratulatory commentary at the end, too. I'll pick up the next one in paperback.
I liked the Wright, but I don't know if you would. It's another single book split into two for some publishing reason or another. I'd give it a try in paperback.
I should say that I finally tried some Kage Baker after hearing various praise on rasfw. It was In the Gardens of Iden and I guess I just don't see it. It was good, but it didn't seem like anything special.
For the rest of the list, I'll probably try the MacLeod in paperback. His recent trilogy bored me, and I'm tired of the whole internet politics in space subgenre.
The MacDonald will have to wait for the next foreign book order, probably happening when the next Malazan book comes out. I might the Reynolds then, too, although I thought his last book wasn't particularly good. Hopefully, there will be a new WJ Williams by then, too.
I probably ought to read the Wolfe -- the reason why it's listed with The Knight is that they were written as one book, supposedly. He always seems like such a chore, however. It's the same thing for the Clarke. I've got the same feelings towards Williams that you do. I seem to remember some incest in an old Lynn book I read, so I haven't been reading anything by her. I'll probably check out some of the others in paperback eventually. I have A Scattering of Jades in the to read pile for Irvine, so we'll see.
I noticed that Nix has something called "The Seven Towers", maybe? Know anything about it?
Aaron, 01.29.2005, 6:21pm | permalink
For the rest of the list, I'll probably try the MacLeod in paperback. His recent trilogy bored me, and I'm tired of the whole internet politics in space subgenre.
Newton's Wake isn't really all that political. There are some fun bits that riff on politics (such as the play "The Tragedy of Leonid Brezhnev, Prince of Muscovy"), but it's not the same thing as his earlier books (well, OK, I only read The Cassini Division, and I hated that because it was too political).
I probably ought to read the Wolfe -- the reason why it's listed with The Knight is that they were written as one book, supposedly. He always seems like such a chore, however. It's the same thing for the Clarke.
The Wizard Knight is the least chore-like of Wolfe's books that I've read. It leaves a distinct impression that there's something deep going on that you may be missing, but the story is perfectly enjoyable on a surface level.
The Clarke wasn't exactly a chore, as I always enjoyed it while I was reading, but it didn't have much momentum.
I have A Scattering of Jades in the to read pile for Irvine, so we'll see.
I thought that was much better than One King, One Soldier.
Chad Orzel, 01.30.2005, 5:24pm | permalink
Sterling doesn't really write novels...
This isn't categorically true of his novels; I think Holy Fire was a reasonably cohesive whole. (I actually started typing out my reactions to some of the books on the list, but since you find Wolfe chore-like, I'm not sure our tastes in s.f. coincide well enough to give you any useful feedback.)
(I actually started typing out my reactions to some of the books on the list, but since you find Wolfe chore-like, I'm not sure our tastes in s.f. coincide well enough to give you any useful feedback.)
I should add that I find Wolfe more of a chore in principle than in practice. I know that he writes deep books, so I tend to expect them to be a hard slog, but I'm usually surprised by how readable they end up being. Of course, I don't always understand what happened, but I do enjoy reading them.
I'd be interested to hear your comments, whether there's significant taste overlap or not. And one of the other six people who reads this might find them helpful...
Chad Orzel, 01.30.2005, 7:10pm | permalink
I've only read two of the books on that list...well, 1 and a half, I guess, really; "The Baroque Cycle" and The Knight, and finished both in the past couple of weeks. I blame this on my campaign of the past couple of years to read mostly "classic" and/or "essential" SF. It's paid me well, experientially, but left me in an odd place conversationally, as everyone else seems to be talking about either latest and greatest stuff or some other classic I haven't gotten around to yet.
Items on the list that I'm sure I'll get around to, sooner or later: Doctorow's is a probably, Kirstein's a definite, Stross' are both maybes, Kay's is a definite, as is Pratchett's, MiƩville's is a probably, and King's is a maybe. The rest are authors that I've never been able to get or get into, one or the other.
The Kay is, unfortunately, not very good. It wasn't bad, really. Mostly just very disappointing.
Aaron, 01.31.2005, 11:52am | permalink
I'd read that somewhere (Koz, maybe?), but I figure it's probably worth picking up in paper, just for completist purposes.
I liked Iron Sunrise more than I did Singularity Sky; Iron Sunrise has a relatively interesting plot with some surprises in it. There are still a fair number of Internet in-jokes.
I very much liked Frek and the Elixir, but Rucker's always been my great guilty pleasure; if you don't like him already, it probably won't change your mind. Writing a YA novel obliged him to tone down the raunch a little bit, which did him good, I think.
I was impressed by Perdido Street Station and The Scar, mostly as acts of worldbuilding, and Iron Council is next in the queue after I get through The System of the World.
Matt McIrvin, 01.31.2005, 9:03pm | permalink
You've got me beat. I've only read The Language of Power and Banner of Souls from the sf list and The Last Light of the Sun, Alphabet of Thorn, Glass Dragons and The Last Guardian of Everness from the fantasy list. Add in first novels and you get City of Pearl. Of those, I wouldn't recommend Banner of Souls or The Last Light of the Sun.The Language of Power and Alphabet of Thorn were probably the best.
I got turned off of Stross from The Atrocity Archive which just seemed a little too narrowly informed by the IT-type world (similar to how Singularity Sky reminded too much of Usenet arguments). I'll probably try his later stuff in paperback.
I also don't get this "new weird" stuff. I thought The Scar was a tedious travelogue with a bit of bildungsroman thrown in.
Rather than just being a taste mismatch, though, I sort of feel like there just might not be so many good books out there. Outside of the Kirstein and the McKillip, I find myself hard pressed to come up with alternatives. I end up mostly just reading trashy fantasy to pass the time (the Holly Lisle trilogy starting with Memory of Fire are pretty decent along those lines.)
Aaron, 01.29.2005, 3:35pm | permalink