27 is practically 10 percent, and that's as much as I could bear to cut the list back
(the reviews are as I wrote them at the time - I need to start using a wider variety of adjectives)
Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko
I loved this book, and am so looking forward to the next one. Gritty and wonder-filled and ... it reminded me of Gogol somehow. I don't read enough Russian SF. Plus the movie makes SO much more sense now.
(4/250)
Heat, by Bill Buford
This book was a delight from start to finish. Brash and funny and, unlike a lot of memoirs-on-a-specific-topic (this one is about, basically, Italian chef stuff), it's very well-written.
(7/250)
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
This book was WONDERFUL. People had been telling me I would like it since before it came out and I had been kind of stubborn and avoiding it but I finally did read it and it was just ... perfect. Very very satisfying, and since I was reading it in bed while sick, it resonated for me with old school adventure books like, say, Treasure Island, in a way that probably wouldn't have occurred to me otherwise.
(38/250)
The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
I really did not mean to read this whole book today. Maybe just a chapter or two. But it just got better and better and I couldn't put it down. Glorious.
(42/250)
Critical Injuries, by Joan Barfoot
I was originally having a lot of trouble engaging with this book and then I realized it was because someone I love was just about to go into the hospital and large sections of it are set in .... the hospital. Duh. So I waited until all that was good and over and then tried the book again, and I'm very glad about it. A beautifully written and totally captivating book; it feels Canadian in the 'yes, this book is related to Margaret Atwood and Margaret Laurence' way. Also, not for the physically or emotionally squeamish; my best beloved was making fun of the jacket copy and said, 'come on, is it really "harrowing"??" and I realized that yes, it is, actually. Anyway, it was very good.
(61/250)
Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories, by Elizabeth Hand
There are few writers whose short stories I enjoy every bit as much as I enjoy their longer works. Hand is one of them. I think part of it is that all (or most all) of these stories are satisfying long - enough to sink your teeth into. And another thing might be a flaw if I liked her voice less - her narrative voice is most pleasingly consistent from story to story, so that it seems like really, it's all part of the same story, even when there are no other links.
(63/250)
Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
I'm not sure any praise I could lavish on this book would say more for it than the simple fact that I finished it in less than three hours. And it's a 384-page book. It's also very well-written, but dudes. Talk about unputdownable.
(65/250)
Mortal Love, by Elizabeth Hand
This book is a puzzle and a dance. Plus, crazy Pre-Raphaelites and edgy Lovecraftian undertones. What's not to love?
(69/250)
Shevraeth in Marloven Hess, by Sherwood Smith
Ok, I didn't actually mean to read this but then it was put up for free! FREE! In honor of International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch Day. And I started to read the beginning of it and I just sort of didn't ... stop. Several hundred pages later, it was suddenly mid-afternoon. What a good story! I am definitely going to check out the author's other novels.
(72/250)
She's Such a Geek, edited by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders
I really enjoyed this essay collection and while I feel like a bit of a dufus admitting to this, it was, in fact, inspiring. There, I said it.
(76/250)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, by Susanna Clarke
Both content and design were absolutely lovely, and I enjoyed every single story in the book (even the ones I'd read before). If a person had not yet read either this or her bookstop novel, I would recommend they try this first (though I think overall I slightly prefer the novel - but this makes a much better introduction). Witty and sly and perfectly turned. I laughed aloud several times and once or twice cooed audibly over the loveliness of one of Charles Vess's illustrations.
(80/250)
Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey, by Brian Sibley
This was nifty. The writing's a bit clumsy, like it may've been put together as a bit of a rush, but the research is fascinating and it is stuffed full full full of photos and all the photos have Peter-Jackson-written captions on. Plus it's full of nice juicy blockquotes. You can tell the writer is a Fan by the way he has to get every single last interesting detail in whether or not it's actually germane, but that's as much a plus as a minus, from my point of view.
(93/250)
Stay With Me, by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Absolutely one of my 5 most favorite contemporary YA authors (and probably one of only two on that list that aren't writing genre), garretfw is remarkable for the precision and elegance of her voice. Things break your heart in her novels, but not the things you would expect to break your heart - and the protagonists are understated in the claims they make on you, which is an enormously refreshing change from the more common run of teen melodramas. This is a perfect lemon poppyseed cake served with hot tea, instead of Coke and Cheetos, if you'll pardon the metaphor - but you know, one can enjoy Coke and Cheetos immensely and still know that tea and cakes are both tastier and more refined. Anyway, I definitely recommend any of her works, and I really liked this one. Oddly, it had echoes of Madeleine L'Engle for me, though I can't seem to pin down the specifics of that resonance. It may be more to do with L'Engle's autobiographical writings than with her fiction.
(97/250)
The Passion of Mary Magdalen, by Elizabeth Cunningham
OK, reading books with a picture of a really lovely naked lady on the cover pretty much always qualifies as a guilty pleasure for me. That said, this one is very smart indeed in its rompiness. Love this series, love love love love, so glad recent upping of interest in la magdalena has resulted in her finding a renewed audience (at least that's what I assume happened since the original Daughter of the Shining Isles prequel came out in like 1997). Can't wait for the last one. Happy happy joy joy.
(103/250)
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, by Gordon Dahlquist
Like Dumas channeling Poe, with more sex. That's a very good thing, if you didn't know. I very much appreciated the long sentences, the nearly non-stop action, the humour, and the rhythm of the dialogue.
(107/250)
Day Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko
The second installment in Lukyanenko's brilliant modern fantasy trilogy. I was very worried about reading this one, because the setting created in the first book, Night Watch, - a world much like our own, but filled with magic users bound by a treaty between Light and Dark - was so fully realized, and the stories-within-the-story so completely absorbing, that everything felt deeply, deeply true. And that's hard to live up to. But I shouldn't have worried because not only is the second book just as good, it actually transcends the first by pulling together all sorts of little subplots that seemed disconnected (except thematically) into one big overarching plot. I cannot wait 'til I have an excuse to buy the third one.
(138/250)
Territory, by Emma Bull
An absolutely brilliant reimagining of the Tombstone story with magic (and lovely, lovely use of words) thrown in. Can't recommend it enough ... despite my previous enjoyment of Bull's work, I was a bit skeptical about this one - she pulled it off perfectly. Echoey of Win Blevins, just a little, in retrospect, though maybe only someone who loves Win Blevins as much as me might think so.
(160/250)
Confessions of a Tax Collector, by Rick Yancey
This is the most well-written memoir I've read in a dog's age, and that puts it up against some serious competition. Yancey manages to make what I imagined to be a cold and alienating situation into a compelling and human one - without denying the alienation or the coldness. Damn, dude. And his use of language is just erudite enough. I will eventually read all his other books, I suspect. And I would've foisted this one on half-a-dozen people by now, if it weren't for the subject matter.
(168/250)
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, by Julie Phillips
It's quite an accomplishment to write a suspenseful biography, especially when the reader feeling suspended actually does know, in point of fact, more or less what will happen. And Phillips not only pulled that off, she also writes superbly and demonstrates an astonishing level of insight. Plus a bunch more gushing cliches. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in SF, feminism, or damned interesting women.
(179/250)
Sons of Heaven, by Kage Baker
It's been a long, strange ride with Baker's Company novels & stories, and I freely admit to struggling with a couple of them. But what a perfect conclusion this was! Everything worked out exactly how I would've wanted it, if I'd been clever enough to think of it ending that way, and all the subplots came together wonderfully and and and. Yum. But seriously folks, don't start here. Start at the very beginning (with In the Garden of Iden) and read everything you can get your hands on, and then you will be able to wallow in the finale as joyously as I did.
(180/250)
Inda, by Sherwood Smith
The first thing to say is that this is a wonderful, wonderful book. Solid characters, thoughtful prose, intriguing twists & turns in the plot, and lovely writing. Everything I could possibly want in an epic fantasy. I absolutely recommend it. But. I would wait to read it until you also have its sequel The Fox on hand, so that you don't find yourself, as I did, getting 20 pages from the end and saying "ARGH THEY CAN'T POSSIBLY RESOLVE THESE THINGS IN 20 PAGES," and then discovering that you are right, they can't. I mean, it was as much of an ending as you can have in the middle of the story, well-crafted and all, and it's a long book so I can see why they needed to cut it off, but I want the rest! Right now! Argh!
(199/250)
Galveston, by Sean Stewart
Just brilliant. Readable and smart and the amazon reviewer who compared Stewart's books to icebergs with most of their psychological weight under the surface was spot-on. Stewart is a writer I hoard, and dole out to myself in small doses. It was also very satisfying to read this book near salt water - added to the ambiance.
(208/250)
An Antic Disposition, by Alan Gordon
Gordon's Fools' Guild returns to its Shakespearean-retelling roots, taking on Hamlet this time. This was SO good. I loved it to bits and pieces.
(217/250)
The Fox, by Sherwood Smith
Absolutely engrossing, even better than the first one. I was a bit miffed at the abruptness/non-endedness of the ending but was accepting enough - until I found out there's actually to be a third one! YAY! So that's fine then.
(224/250)
A Day in Boyland, by Jessy Randall
I am very picky about my poets, and it's very rare that I love a modern poet's work as a whole, and not just one or two poems. I highly recommend this collection.
(227/250)
The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham
Absorbing novel about a bunch of people making their way through the first third of the 20th century. I especially loved the wryness of the narrative voice, but really there wasn't anything I didn't like about this book. More Maugham is definitely in order. Maybe if I read enough of him, I can keep putting off reading Fitzgerald. Heh.
(230/250)
Art Forms from the Ocean, by Ernst Haeckel
This is an atlas of radiolarians (protozoan plankton, see eg in icon accompanying this post), drawn in the mid-19th century. And an accompanying essay discussing Haeckel's life and work (which had a lovely surprise in the form of a couple of absolutely beautiful landscapes - I didn't know he did those). Anyway, Haeckel's grace, precision, and naturalism make him one of my favorite artists, and I'd never had a good look at this book, which is a reprint of a book he did before the one that really made him famous - Art Forms in Nature. Oh, as a bonus, this book is printed on the yummy-smelling paper. You know, the really nice art paper that certain books are printed on? That has that vaguely spicy, vaguely fresh-oil-paints smell? Aw man, if they made that smell for candles, I'd buy out the lot.
(252/250)
Special props to the Fables and Y: The Last Man series - neither of 'em has jumped the shark yet. Apologies to books read in November & December as I tend to be more cavalier about cutting them from the list (can't tell yet if they are going to stick, plus I figure you're more likely to remember them already); likewise, I didn't put any rereads on here even though several of them qualified.
(nb: of the 27, 18 would fall, in my head, into sff. I read plenty of other stuff, but sff is still my best bet, I guess.)