Making the List
By Paula Guran
December 2005
There I am: Ms. Expert. She Who is Unafraid to Voice Opinion -- asked to sum up
-- in early October -- the best books of 2005 in all of science fiction and
fantasy (including horror, of course). There are maybe five or six hundred books
published so far? How many not even published yet? One hundred? 150? Are we
counting reprints?
While compiling this list, I need to keep in mind that this article is for CFQ and its mass-appeal-type readership. This is
not a negative or a putdown, just a realization that the reviews and articles I
do for CFQ are for the mostly unread masses rather than book fiends. CFQ, in
other words, is not Locus -- which is why the circulation is 100,000 instead of
7000 and you can buy it at Wal-Mart. Harry Potter is on the cover of this
"yearbook"; Robin Hobb and Paul McAuley are on the December Locus cover. Need I say more?
I am reaching people who otherwise might not be reached: fans of genre film and
TV, even gaming and comics who, like most of the world, don't often think of
reading as entertainment or of books as worthy of discretionary income -- but
they might. After all, they are buying and reading a magazine, right? Sure,
"they" say reviews don't sell books. "They" are probably right, but the more
notice -- mentions, pictures, ads, features, awards, whatever -- an author or
book gets, the better chance there is of making a sale.
Besides, they pay me. Or they will, I am assured, eventually.
So I scramble to dip into stacks of unread volumes and request a few more. I
check the already-published opinions of others and follow their leads. I ask for
some personal recommendations from a few people. I read, I judge, I balance, I
weigh. Supreme Court justices are seldom as fair-minded. Besides, I have no
constitution to deal with.
I write around two thousand words mentioning about 40 books. I've got gaps and
left holes, but I've tried.
Then I get this message left on the answering machine: "Decided to go with this
great lay-out with big numerals, pictures of the books and authors, less than 75
words on each -- a 'Top Ten,' got it? We need this immediately. Thanks."
(See spiffy lay-out below.)
Top Ten? TEN! I might be hard-pressed some years to FIND ten decent sf/f movies, but
this is literature...these are books! And an extremely diverse lot of books at
that.
But, if you put on the six guns, you have to be ready to shoot...
The Reduction
First off the list is one of my very favorite books of the year, The Limits of
Enchantment by Graham Joyce. Considering the magazine's audience, this
heartwarming coming of age novel set in rural England in the 1960s with strong
appeal to women probably isn't a good pick for these folks. I'd already skipped over another
great favorite, Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel because, like Limits, I suspect it
is too British, too female, and too literate.
The same basic reason -- probable lack of connection with this publication's
readers -- makes me drop Jonathan Carroll's Glass Soup, Octavia Butler's
Fledgling, Terry Pratchett's Thud! Paul
Witcover's Tumbling After, and The Narrows by Alex Irvine.
I debate with myself over The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. I decide against. (Possibly
a bit of a reach and it is small press in the U.S., although widely avaialable.)
A couple more are dropped because I am not dead sure of them to start. One is
the third of a fantasy trilogy, another is the second of three with the third as
yet unavailable -- can they stand alone? I'm not sure. A certain SF pick may be
well thought of by others, but it left me cold.
An entire section on "first novels" is scuttled except for Counting Heads by
David Marusek and Jeff VanderMeer's Veniss Underground. The Marusek is another
personal favorite that absolutely blew me away. It's flawed, yes, but the high
level of imagination is incredible. But I go for the VanderMeer instead. I leave
the worthy Veniss Underground on the list because I feel that although it is
"new literate" (for lack of a better term) SF/F, it is accessible and enjoyable
by a wide audience. It is also a bit of a cheat because it was originally
published a couple of years ago by independent press, but I'm also supposed to
be concentrating on major publishers, so if small press doesn't really
count...then publication by a major does. Or something likes that.
With one exception, all the collections go, too. The exception is China
Miéville's Looking For Jake. Miéville's novels are brilliant, but sometimes
challenging for the average reader. The short story collection offers an easier
entry to his work that might then lead to the harder stuff. Was it the best
collection of the year? Well, no, but it was among the best.
This leaves me with a dozen titles. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman was a given and
might as well go in as #1. I combine Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice by
Steven Erikson as one "pick", thus slipping in an extra book. I get tricky and
combine Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell and Olympos by Dan
Simmons, into one "pick". The Overnight by Ramsey Campbell and Joplin's Ghost by Tananarive
Due are the remaining horror picks. Learning the World: A Scientific Romance by
Ken Macleod, Woken Furies by Richard Morgan, and Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley
Robinson are the other SF selections.
No consideration is even given to anthologies or nonfiction.
The Enumeration
I hate this ranking thing. (I hate the one-to-four stars I have to give books
for the usual reviews more though.) Books don't have play-off games; you don't award points
and total them up. ("That's an 8 for metaphors, 7.5 on description, a major plot flaw brings
that score down to a 5...brilliant dive into stream of consciousness with nary a ripple..." "A better
cover might have catapulted this title into first place, but...")
My little "two sides of a Trojan coin"
maneuver will go in as #10 -- especially since I may not get away with it. The
Gaiman was already in the top spot, so lets go for science fiction or horror in
the second slot. The Overnight gets the nod. I'm not sure why except I am
confident it is one of the very best horror novels of the year -- although it
really came out in 2004 in England.
I don't really have much of a rationale for the rest of the numbering though. I just sort
of did it. Despite those lovely numerals, the ranking is arbitrary.
The Meaningless Statistics
» Out of eleven authors, six (Gemmell, MacLeod, Morgan, Miéville, Campbell, and
Gaiman) are British; Erikson is Canadian
» Miéville is the youngest (33); Campbell is the oldest (59). Four are under 40
(Due, Morgan, VanderMeer, Miéville), two between 40 and 50 (Gaiman, Erikson),
two between 50 and 55 (Macleod, Robinson), three between 55 and 60 (Gemmell,
» Simmons, Campbell)
» Only one, Due, is female
» Only one, Due, is not Caucasian
» Three (Campbell, Gemmell, Simmons) have published over two dozen books each,
four if you include graphic novels (Gaiman)
» At least two have Ph.D.s (Robinson, Miéville)
» I've met seven of them
The Outcome
I'm still reading, of course. If I could, I'd probably add Joe Hill's collection
20th Century Ghosts to the list -- even is it is small press and is published
only in England. I might add The Shadow at The Bottom of The World by Thomas
Ligotti, another collection, but from a major publisher. Ligotti's a
too-well-kept secret. Two more collections -- and dark ones at that, would skew
the balance, though. I think I chickened out on the Banks, but what would I have pulled to get it in there?
I'm in the middle of Robert Charles Wilson's Spin and I'd
also like to read A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park, and Already Dead: A Novel
by Charlie Huston. I've not read The Mysteries by Lisa Tuttle. One of them might be a real
contender.
I don't suppose Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is not a pick for the CFQ list,
but it might be on my own list...
And speaking of my own list of recommendations -- I'm still looking for suggestions. Got any?
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