Fantastic Metropolis

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

(Autobiography/graphic art)

Possibly the finest graphic novel I’ve ever read—hilarious and horrific, cute and tragic all rolled into one as Satrapi tells the story of her childhood and teens in pre-and post-revolutionary Iran. One of those invaluable volumes you throw at people when they’re being condescending about comic book art.

The Broken Sword, Poul Anderson

(Fantasy)

Okay, this was actually published in 1954 (and reprinted several times since in an author-modified form), and okay even the back-to-basics honour-the-original-text version came out September last year, but I didn’t get around to reading it until 2003, and that was the first time I’d read the original version, and… Anyway—the point is, you can shut the gate on Sword and Sorcery once you’ve read this one. Anderson banged it out before Lord of the Rings made its appearance, and it’s still the last word on elves ‘n’ swords ‘n’ sorcery. Tolkien, Schmolkien! This is the real shit (and it’s a lot shorter too).

Veniss Underground, Jeff VanderMeer

(Well, you tell me… SF/fantasy/horror? Yeah, sort of.)

Man, this is genius—first you’re given a nightmarish far future world and, through throwaway detail and intense characterisation, made to accept it as real. Then, the substance of this world you’ve just got to grips with begins to fracture apart and you’re pitched into the realms of pure nightmare without redemption or reference back to the real you thought you’d got a handle on. Reads like early Angela Carter on too much amphetamine and a dash of the DTs.

The Year of Our War, Steph Swainston

(Fantasy/weird fiction)

Okay, another cheat—this one isn’t even due out ‘til April next year, but I was lucky enough to be given the manuscript a few months back. The background of Swainston’s tale is a Tolkienesque landscape of feudal society up against a horde of implacable destroyers—and that’s where it stops, because neither she nor, after a couple of chapters, you are interested in this sweeping backdrop. Instead, the novel becomes an intense and lyrically detailed character piece in which past history and petty rivalries, drug addiction, infidelity and a very peculiar afterlife come to dominate the action. There is enough brutal battle and feudal intrigue to delight any fantasy fan, but with it comes a rich seasoning of genuinely delirious imaginings and moments of laugh out loud hilarity, both of which are so often sadly lacking in much so-called cutting edge fantasy these days.