Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Another Constituency Heard From

SF Site has just put up their list of the Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2005:

10) Life by Gwyneth Jones
9) Woken Furies by Richard Morgan
9) The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
8) Vellum by Hal Duncan
7) The Ultimates No. 2 by Mark Millar, illustrated by Bryan Hitch
6) The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach
6) The Hounds of Avalon by Mark Chadbourn
5) Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
5) 9-Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
4) The Silences of Home by Caitlin Sweet
3) Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
2) Accelerando by Charles Stross
1) Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
1) The House of Storms by Ian R. MacLeod

Yes, those are fourteen books; they had ties for some of the places and didn't just drop the lowest-scoring four books for obscure reasons they failed to mention. (So their actual top ten ends at The Ultimates.)

I haven't read some of the foreign titles (since I usually only get to books once they're eligible for the SFBC; it doesn't make any sense to read something a year or two before I can sell it, and be forgetful and clueless once it finally does make it to my neck of the woods). But there are some books that I think they completely missed: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, Thud! by Terry Pratchett, Strange Itineraries by Tim Powers, Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud, and, especially, Counting Heads by David Marusek. Arguing over matters of taste is completely futile, of course, but what are blogs for if not to do completely pointless things?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What, no Touched by Venom?

Feast for Crows really wasn't all that, and certainly not when compared with the previous volumes in the series.

It's amazing that with all the books I read last year, I managed to completely miss every single one on that list and I can't think of anything I'd nominate to be on it. Kind of sad, really.

Andrew Wheeler said...

I haven't seen Touched by Venom yet, though I do have a lurking hope that Roc will nominate it for the World Fantasy Award so I can get a copy of my own. (If there are any ROC publicists out there -- go for it!)

I have problems with A Feast For Crows, and I am worried that Martin is losing control of his series, but even a minor book of "Song of Ice and Fire" is a huge achievement; I was grumbling about it while I was reading it a couple of weeks ago, but I've been thinking about it ever since.

The one on that list that I keep thinking I need to read is Spin, but I really doubt I'll have time to read a year-old SF book this year...

RobB said...

I've heard great things about Spin as well. It is almost shocking that Anansi Boysis not on the list, and surprisng AFFC isn't.

Ultimates 2? Of all the comics/graphic novels the throw on the list they pick Ultimates 2?

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