Continuing my strange obsession with lists of books...
Locus Magazine is the bible of the sffh business -- both in print and online. Every year they poll their reviewers and various other industry people and come up with a pretty extensive recommended reading list for the year. Their categories include: sf novels, fantasy novels, YA books, first novels, collections, original anthologies, reprint anthologies, best of year anthologies, non-fiction, art books, novellas, novelettes and short stories.
I'm obviously not going to reprint all their lists here -- just the sf novel one to give you a taste of what they do.
- The Empress of Mars, Kage Baker (Subterranean Press; Tor)
- Transition, Iain M. Banks (Little Brown UK; Orbit)
- Ark, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
- The Devil's Alphabet, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
- Buyout, Alexander C. Irvine (Ballantine Del Rey)
- Under the Dome, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton; Scribner)
- Steal Across the Sky, Nancy Kress (Tor)
- Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday)
- Gardens of the Sun, Paul McAuley (Gollancz; Pyr 2010)
- The Walls of the Universe, Paul Melko (Tor)
- Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
- Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
- Galileo's Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperVoyager; Ballantine Spectra 2010)
- The Sunless Countries, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
- This Is Not a Game, Walter Jon Williams (Orbit UK, Orbit US)
- Julian Comstock, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
The complete lists also appear in their February issue. BTW, if you really care about the sffh genres, subscribing to Locus is something you should consider.
Humanities & Social Science
Information Science
Comments
Not a strange obsession -- awesome obsession.
Too bad Kage Baker is no longer with us..
Posted by: thorn | February 5, 2010 1:35 PM
I've picked up a copy of This Is Not A Game but haven't cracked it yet, even.
Do you know if the Banks is a Culture novel?
Posted by: Kate from Iowa | February 5, 2010 3:56 PM
Almost people agree that Locus Magazine is a very good one. It is more interesting than many others !
Posted by: Printed koozies | February 5, 2010 8:13 PM
Transition is a standalone, not a part of the Culture series - and it's excellent, one of my favorite Banks books. In UK it's published as Iain Banks, without the M. Transition is not space opera, mroe or less a genre bender.
Posted by: Claire Dement | February 5, 2010 8:31 PM
Thanks Claire. I just got a wad 'o birfdy cash yesterday, so I have plenty of book money now. Also finally started This is Not a Game earlier this afternoon, and it's great! Although I wish I didn't recognize myself in some of the assorted gamers' comments...
Posted by: Kate from Iowa | February 6, 2010 5:15 PM
I have to vote for This Is Not a Game, by Walter Jon Williams, who seems like a really nice guy. I asked him about the book and he told me a little about the sequel, Deep State, which he just finished writing. Unfortunately, he also said that publishers aren't exactly beating down his door for sequels to Metropolitan, which is one of my favorite books ever. (If you're interested, you can read the whole interview for free on SciFiBookshelf.com )
Posted by: Laurence | February 9, 2010 10:05 PM