Fantastic Metropolis

This was a banner year for Fantasy fiction in all its various lengths and forms. So much great stuff that I couldn’t fit it all on my list. I stuck mostly to novels and collections of a speculative nature here but also threw in a graphic novel, a film and a biography I really loved.

What I found most heartening was all of the work from “newer” writers, like Alex Irvine’s remarkable first novel, A Scattering of Jades, or David Herter’s second book, Evening’s Empire. In the realm of the short story, I have been tracking work by newcomers like Chris Barzak, Ben Rosenbaum, Alan DeNiro, William Shunn, Kristin Livdahl, Richard Butner, Theodora Goss, Charles Finlay, Neil Williamson, Glen Hirshberg (looking forward to Hisrshberg’s new novel, The Snowman’s Children). Their work bodes well for the continued health of the genre and more great reading experiences for me in the future.

As for more established writers of short fiction, I am pleased to note that Richard Bowes has continued his Time Rangers series, Stepan Chapman had a great piece (“State Secrets of Aphasia”) in Leviathan 3, Michael Swanwick has stuck to the periodic table and his Goya (Los Caprichos) project at The Infinite Matrix with Zen-like commitment, Kelly Link’s new piece, “Lull,” in Conjunctions 39??, is a twisting, meandering, comic thing of beauty, and Karen Joy Fowler’s terrific story, “What I Didn’t See”, at SciFiction caused the kind of shit storm of controversy that can only be healthy for the genre. Hands down, the funniest story of this year and many others was Leslie What’s “Sex and Grease at the King of Chicken” in The Journal of Pulse Pounding Narratives. The first two paragraphs of this piece are worth the cover price of the anthology.

So here it is, in no specific order, my own myopic view of the best of the year. I know I am forgetting some things I wanted to mention, but…

The Scar, China Miéville

I think what I admire most about Miéville’s writing are his powers of description. His imagined world is not some lurching, clay golem with instructions rolled up under the tongue, being put through its paces, but a bristling, organic beast with a life and mind of its own.

Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang’s greatest hits, volume 1. What more do I have to say? For me, as a writer, reader and lover of short fiction, it doesn’t get any better than this. Really dug “Hell is the Absence of God.” Chiang isn’t afraid to ask the big questions. His fiction has all the technique, craft and style to carry their weight and make it look effortless.

City of Saints and Madmen (hardcover), Jeff VanderMeer

Even if you have the paperback, it’s worth the freight to get this one as well. There’s another whole book’s worth of material original to this volume. It’s a brilliant, fun, puzzle of a book, but don’t miss the forest for the trees. Beyond the literary gamesmanship, VanderMeer is a great story teller and stylist. Nice illustrations by Eric Shaller. Heads up in 2003 for VanderMeer’s Veniss Underground. You won’t be disappointed.

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Kim Deitch

If you ever wondered whether you would find a graphic novel that had the complexity of plot, compelling characterization, and imaginative impact of your favorite conventional novel, wonder no more. Deitch is probably the best writer in comics and his page layouts are mind blowing.

Things That Never Happen, M. John Harrison

Harrison is a new discovery for me this year. I read Viriconium over the summer and was amazed by it. This collection from Nightshade Books is, in my opinion, even better. One story, “Egnaro,” became an instant favorite of mine, and there are many more terrific pieces equally as good. Read these two books back to back to get a sense of the incredible range of this writer.