Kirkus Reviews just unveiled their top SFF picks of 2010.
To say that many of those picks are a bit surprising, not to say mind-boggling, would be an understatement. I'm happy to see Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur (Canada, USA, Europe) among their picks, but Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents was by far the worst installment in the Temeraire series. Oh well. . .
Other SFF picks include titles by Kage Baker, Jennifer Fallon, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb, Anthony Huso, Mary Robinette Kowal, Charles Yu, Terry Brooks, and more.
Click on the link above for the full list.
To say that many of those picks are a bit surprising, not to say mind-boggling, would be an understatement. I'm happy to see Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur (Canada, USA, Europe) among their picks, but Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents was by far the worst installment in the Temeraire series. Oh well. . .
Other SFF picks include titles by Kage Baker, Jennifer Fallon, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb, Anthony Huso, Mary Robinette Kowal, Charles Yu, Terry Brooks, and more.
Click on the link above for the full list.
12 commentaires:
Judging from that list, one might conclude that there weren't many "quality" science fiction books to come out in the past year. Most, but not all, of the books in their best of list fall under the fantasy umbrella. I wish the list did a better job of reflecting both genres, as some excellent science fiction books came out in 2010 (Greg Bear, Neil Asher, Iain M. Banks, Gary Gibson and Robert J. Sawyer all released new books this past year, and that's just naming off the top of my head).
It is a rather eclectic list, admittedly... But hey, I'll take what I can get. :)
Why would you expect any kind of consistency, or taste, or anything suggesting a strong critical point of view, in science fiction and fantasy? Of course their reasons for picking books had nothing to do with how 'good' or 'bad' they were...
Re: Butcher - Side Jobs makes it but Changes doesn't?
I'm sorry to say that Nights of Villjamur was the most wooden and poorly written book I've read in years, and sadly, the first I've read from Hotlist reviews that didn't reach the heights I had come to expect. So I guess it means my taste is poor now it has made a best books list.
A bizarre list. Not critically-minded - it has Brooks on it after all - but also not totally populist. If it were, where's THE PASSAGE, THE EVOLUTIONARY VOID, THE WAY OF KINGS and other crowd-pleasers. Looks to me it's trying to be both but then gets confused and falls over. But generally even weaker lists of this kind highlight a couple of under-appreciated books from the year, which is all to the good.
Hey Anonymous 2:48 AM; sorry it didn't rock your world, and these lists are as subjective as anything else.
I'd even say myself that Nights had a few errors; if you ever did make it onto City of Ruin, I'd hope you would find it much improved!
@Mark if you see these comments at all, what's up with the wierd/terrible/delayed release schedule for your books in the US? I really enjoyed 'Nights', but at this point I'm considering just importing 'City of Ruin'.
Hey Luke,
Well, the US publishers bought the books a year later than the UK guys, hence the delay - they'll probably always be a year behind, unfortunately... It's just a matter of schedules not being in sync.
"I'm sorry to say that Nights of Villjamur was the most wooden and poorly written book I've read in years..."
This. I didn't even finish it, and that's rare for me.
I'm glad to see Kage Baker getting some attention. I liked the Company series, but her novels set in the world of "Bird of the River" are top-notch and hilarious. RIP, Kage.
Anon1:40 again. I wouldn't have piled on Nights of Villjamur if I'd noticed the author was posting. The novel had a great setting and some good ideas, but suffered from the "show don't tell" problem that many new works do. Perhaps I will take the author's advice and try the 2nd one on for size.
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