The Year (so far) in Review
It’s not over yet, but I can’t see any final revelations happening, unless you count Nintendo suddenly releasing a billion or so Wiis. So what I have got to say about the year? I haven’t got a clue but let us see what I can come up with.
Way back in January I wrote a post called ‘Support‘ where I said this year if I could I was going to buy more debuts. And as it turned turned out I was able to do a bit better by reviewing and promoting some great new voices. All starting with Anonymous Lawyer which strangely, or not, started off as a blog written by Jeremy Blachman. It’s a devilishly funny novel and well worth a read. From there I’ve been introduced to some excellent new writers like Chris Ewan, Brian Ruckley and Chelsea Cain who have started off a series of books that I want to read more of.
Mostly this year I’ve read writers who are new to me even if they’ve been around a little while like Charles Stross, Peter F. Hamilton, Charlie Hutson, Chuck Palahniuk, Paul Magrs and Jim Butcher. And I’m still finding new favourite writers. Each one has their own view on what the world is or what the world could be. I guess I’m more interested in writers with an imagination and skill for making alive their dreams.
I still have books that I’m yet to read from people new to me and old friends Here is a non-definitive or exhaustive list:
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gollancz)
- The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Vintage Classics)
- Cell by Stephen King (Hodder)
- Lisey’s Story by Stephen King (Hodder)
- Scar Night by Adam Campbell (Tor)
- Gradisil by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
- Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Hodder)
- Vellium by Hal Duncan (Pan)
- Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (Orbit)
- The Hounds of Avalon by Mark Chadbourn (Gollancz)
- Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (Harper Collins)
- Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin (Orbit)
- A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (Corgi)
- The Court of The Air by Stephen Hunt (Harper Voyager)
- The Killing Kind by John Connolly (Coronet)
- The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller (Orbit)
- Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)
- In the Woods by Tana French (Hodder)
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Phoenix)
- Marco’s Pendulum by Thom Madley (Usbourne)
Wow, that’s probably next years reading right there if this years reading rate is anything to go by. All of them are in some way part of my taste in books - supernatural detection, detective stories, soft sci-fi, urban fantasy, and fable.
I do wish though that there were a bit thinner or by reading them I wasn’t committing myself to reading a long series. Actually that’s wrong I do love series as long as I don’t have to remember in detail what happened on page 321 of book two when I’m reading book nine page 840.
And if that back catalogue wasn’t enough there are yet more books that have just come out, about to come out, planned or books that I’ve not even heard of that are going be on a ‘want to read’ list by this time next year.
This all goes to prove that the book business as far as coming out with good and great books is a healthy one. New writers get a chance to shine but if you are looking to get published you have to be very very good. Literary fiction is best left to those who have a name or some background that supports the name they make for themselves. Genre is the way to go.
If I had to choose books of the year under gun point and on a lie detector I’d say that the ones to check out are (in no particular order):
The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton.
Heartsick by Chelsea Cain
Already Dead by Charlie Hutson
The Atrocity Archives/The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Never the Bride by Paul Magrs
I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow but those are the ones that are coming to the surface right now.
Right back to the surprisingly good-so-far The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
Don’t wait too long to read Tana French’s “In the Woods”! It’s popping up on all sorts of best of ‘07 lists, especially in North America, where I am (though it recently was No. 8 on the Sunday Times paperback bestseller list). I saw somewhere that’s it’s out in 22 languages so far (counting English and American as 1…). It’s a wonderful mystery, beautifully written with extraordinarily rich characters - move it to the top of your list!
I only picked it up yesterday!
Strangely it’s taken a whole month to appear on the shelves of my local supermarket since coming out in paperback and it hasn’t been on the tables in Borders when I’ve been there. Amazon have it as 541. I wonder why it’s not getting a big push?
Since you insist
it’s next after Jeanette.