Fantastic Metropolis

I read books for a living. As a freelance writer existing on the periphery of the publishing industry, I don’t often have the opportunity to choose my reading material; I am grateful for everything that comes my way. But this makes it difficult to read the books I want to read; I fall further and further behind. What follows, in no particular order, and not limited to books published in 2002, are books I read this year that were important to me.

The Fall of Chronopolis, Barrington J. Bayley

“With a hollow booming sound the Third Time Fleet materialized on the windswept plain.” Thus begins one of the greatest time travel space operas ever written. This baroque masterpiece of loopy paradox, earnest temporal and existential philosophy, perverse sex, and pulse-pounding action was first published in 1974, which is roughly when I first discovered it, circa age sixteen or so. Boy, did this one warp my impressionable young mind! Many years later, when writing my novel Waking Beauty (review), I pillaged my memories of Chronopolis shamelessly. Now Wildside Press has reissued it; I reread it; guess what? It still kicks ass!

The Scar, China Miéville

Let me quote from my review of this novel in Realms of Fantasy magazine: “China Miéville loots the traditions of a multitude of genres to explode boundaries, confound expectations, and, out of the ensuing chaos, create an extraordinary hybrid—at once beautiful and grotesque, violent and lyrical—that is far more than the sum of its parts.” The Scar had the added benefit of inspiring me to return to the Viriconium tales of Miéville’s master, M. John Harrison.

The Fan-Shaped Destiny of William Seabrook, Paul Pipkin

Okay, I confess to a personal interest here. A little more than a year ago, I was the science fiction and fantasy editor of the short-lived iPublish.com, AOL Time Warner’s eBook and print-on-demand division. Of the fifteen books edited by me that were published between March and November of 2001, this first novel was the one closest to my heart. It’s a wildly ambitious fictional working out of the many-worlds theory featuring a large cast of characters both real and imaginary, all revolving around the now-almost-forgotten Lost Generation writer, mystic, libertine, drunk, and eventual suicide, William Seabrook. This is a novel that deserves much wider recognition, but it’s so damn audacious and in-your-face that no “reputable” publisher will consider it. Still available on Amazon.com…

Metaplanetary, Tony Daniel

A thoughtful and absorbing space opera that posits a Final Solution directed against AIs. Chilling, moving, utterly engrossing. The second volume should be out in spring 2003.

Appleseed, John Clute

You had best believe that the long knives were out and at their sharpest for the appearance of this novel by SF’s leading take-no-prisoners critic, a man respected and feared throughout the galaxy for the fierce rigor of his intellect, the infinite capacity of his memory, and the implacable moral authority of his critical judgment. Alas for lovers of schadenfreude, although rough going at times, liberally bedecked with the displays of abstruse knowledge Clute’s criticism is known for, Appleseed is an excellent book, strangely reminiscent in tone and style of the mid-to-late-seventies work of Delany but thoroughly up to date in its future worldbuilding. And it’s funny!