Read and Appreciated in 2003
A Year’s Best List
‘03 was a ball peen hammer to the forehead for me, a long, slow, sleep walk up the down escalator. I did manage to read some, but not as much as usual. My pleasures in the reading, listening and movie watching area were usually selective and minimal. There were some whole books I read and enjoyed immensely, though. Some of these were new ones and some were old. Before I move on to my blowhard best of list for 03, I want to mention a few story-length pieces that I thought were particularly good.
I’ve always admired the cleanliness of Maureen McHugh’s less is more style, but in her two Sci Fiction stories this year, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” and “Ancestor Money,” she really cuts loose and torques it up a few notches. These were two of the most impressive stories I read this year. Richard Butner’s “Ash City Stomp,” from the Trampoline anthology, was quite good as were Chris Barzak’s “Dead Boy Found,” and Shelly Jackson’s “Angel” from the same book. If you get a chance, check out Butner’s story, “The House of the Future,” which will be published on Sci Fiction early in ‘04—that’s a beauty. I also enjoyed “Sleeping With Bears” by Theodora Goss, which appeared on Strange Horizons. The Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists anthology had some great stuff—“The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines” by John Crowley, “Entertaining Angels Unawares” by M. John Harrison, “The Familiar” by China Miéville. My favorites from this volume, though, were “Lull” by Kelly Link and Andy Duncan’s “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” J.K. Potter’s anthology, Embrace the Mutation, should have gotten a lot more notice than it did. There are classic pieces in there by Lucius Shepard, Michael Bishop, Kim Newman, Graham Joyce, and a devastating tale by Liz Hand, “Pavane For the Prince of the Air.” In addition to these fine stories, I found a lot of good reading in three chap books from Small Beer Press—Foreigners and Other Familiar Faces by Mark Rich, Bittersweet Creek by Chris Rowe and Other Cities by Ben Rosenbaum. As for the old stuff in the story category, I happened upon a story this year that completely fascinated me and that I read and reread many times. “The Pedersen Kid” by William Gass is a masterpiece.
My best laugh of the year last year was Leslie What’s “Sex and Grease At the King of Chicken,” but this year it’s not a story. When you get a chance, go to the ever brilliant Steve Aylett’s message board on the TTA site and check out the Jeff Lint thread. Lint was a comic book artist from some years ago who did a book called The Caterer. I won’t ruin it for you by trying to describe it. Aylett has essays on The Caterer in The Third Alternative #29 and at The Alien Online. There is also the promise of a website.
OK. In no particular order and bearing no particular significance outside of my own addled mind (I suppose this goes without saying), here’s a baker’s dozen.
Fitcher’s Brides, Gregory Frost
Frost is firing with all 8 cylinders in this retelling of the Blue Beard story. The writing is just phenomenal. The story retains some of its fairy tale nature but it takes no prisoners. I heard him read a piece of this at the KGB in New York before I got the book, and the prose sobered me up out of a solid drunk.
