Read and Appreciated in 2003
A Year’s Best List
I was slightly surprised to find that Neil Gaiman was my particular ‘author to watch’ this year. Gaiman has really hit his stride this year, producing a large body of work that was just phenomenal. In particular, his story “A Study in Emerald” for the anthology Shadows Over Baker Street struck me as a perfect, elegant twisting tale that ought to be included in everyone’s Year’s Best collections. Gaiman also contributed the novella “The Monarch of the Glen” for the otherwise humdrum Legends II anthology. Set in the mythic universe of American Gods, “Monarch” is a riveting tale that brings John Shadow to Scotland and a world of ‘monsters’. And of course, I absolutely adored The Wolves in the Walls, a terse graphic novel illustrated by Dave McKean. Another highlight was the beautiful Endless Nights, done in collaboration with a host of superb artists.
Gaiman also contributed to the much-vaunted and much-appreciated Conjunctions 39, edited by Peter Straub. This literary ‘magazine’ was actually one of the best slipstream-y anthologies I read this year, grouped with Leviathan 3, Polyphony and McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (which also contained a Gaiman story). All were a mish-mash of stories that danced around the edges of genre, and all were somewhat uneven in quality, with Leviathan 3 edging closest to pure excellence and McSweeney’s spiralling closest to dismal failure.
Much of what I read and appreciated this year skirted an edge of one sort or another. William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition is a near future net culture thriller barely distinguishable as science fiction, yet still stands out as an excellent addition to the author’s oeuvre. Meanwhile, Brooks Hansen’s The Chess Garden is a lovely fantasy that should appeal to anyone willing to cross over to the “L”iterary side of the fence, in the way that Mark Helprin’s A Winter’s Tale would appeal. I also read C.S. Godshalk’s awesome Kalimantaan, which provided more sense of wonder and alien mystique than any Epic Fantasy series. Give me Kalimantaan over Terry Goodkind any day!
Also skating the literary/genre lines were Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, an ambitious boyhood examination of power and identity and coming of age. The Sensualist by graphic designer Barbara Hodgson is a surreal, intelligent tale that is illustrated throughout with Hodgson’s groovy artwork, a sort of commingling of Kafka and Nick Bantock. Of course, there was also Graham Joyce’s superb The Facts of Life, a family-centered tale set in post-war Coventry that showcases Joyce at his ghostly best; I say again that Graham Joyce is one of the best authors around.
Meanwhile, there were excellent pure-strain genre works coming out all over the place. I couldn’t possibly list every genre book that I enjoyed this year, but there were definite stand-outs. Foremost, and one of my favorite books of the year, was Kage Baker’s quirky high fantasy novel, The Anvil of the World. Like Kalimantaan, The Anvil of the World packs more power and brilliance into a small package than any multi-volume fat fantasy epic out there. The setting is unique, the characters well-drawn and realistic, and there’s more swashbuckling action than all but a handful of novels I’ve read. Best of all, though, is the pure love for genre that spills from every word in Baker’s novel, which you just don’t find in the average fantasy knockoff.
Also high on excellence were Greg Keyes’ intriguing The Briar King, an epic fantasy grown from the aftermath of the Roanoke disappearances, and John Marco’s The Eyes of God, which seems to be a retelling of the Arthur myth, but twists and turns and evolves into an original and intriguing concept. I’m still hoping to get to the follow-up, The Devil’s Armor before the end of the year.
Vera Nazarian’s The Lords of Rainbow is a bit less conventional than John Marco, but is nonetheless an intriguing fantasy that ought to be discovered by the monkeys that are still shelling out for Robert Jordan’s pap. I also highly recommend Lisa Goldstein’s under appreciated The Alchemist’s Door, a fantastical vision of John Dee written in gorgeous, glittery prose. Goldstein is an excellent stylist that deserves more praise.
