Luke’s Year in Review, 2014: BOOKS
Like most things, end of the year lists cause me to feel great umbrage. Mainly it has to do with the laziness of most list, and list for awards in general, tend to be end loaded. Meaning that the things that a fresher in people’s minds tend to do better on the lists that something earlier in the year, but has been forgotten. That and the focus on the things of the year as opposed to the things that were consumed that year. For f*ck’s sake, if you saw Buckaroo Banzai for the first time or read Neuromancer for the first time this year that should be at the top of your best of list. In a mediocre year everyone would be better off talking about the great things they consumed than forcing themselves to find the least of the bad to praise (1998 I am looking at you).
Luckily, this was not a mediocre year by and measure. My list of books is not the best or even favorite, but the books that stuck with me, books that either I wish I could write or ones that made me think or for whatever reason just stuck with me and would not let go.
(posted in no particular order)
- The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes – In a plot that loops through time and space back upon itself, we follow a serial killer and one victim he left behind (or ahead, depending where you stand) in an exquisitely plotted mystery. It is both one of the more complex time travel books I have read in a long time, but one where the temporal displacement is not the focus, but is so easy to follow it just becomes another feature of the setting. I would love to have the focus to put a plot like this together, and stand in awe of how well it works here.
- Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley – On one level, an epic fantasy spanning a half-dozen nations on at least two worlds, with a whole host of interesting races, magic, animals, and places we visit. On another, a character driven novel that manages to be one of the best of the breed, when it comes to fantasy in general, let alone epic fantasy. And on an entirely other, an epic response to the question of why women are always marginalized in epic fantasy with the never question answer of “because that’s the way it was” as the lazy-minded, misogynistic response it has always been.
- The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters – A small, tight story, especially coming in this list after the previous two, about a cop trying to solve one last case before the end of the world. What I love about science fiction, not about gizmos or gadgets or fantastic new science, but how the would we change if the world changed. The end of the world is coming in slow motion, over the course of years, and how do people adapt. There are only three, or only three so far, in this series, and I am going to dole them out slowly like a new Gibson book, so I can enjoy every moment.
- The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu – Not a novel, but a short story that should push everyone out there to up their game. A beautifully constructed literary short story meets a brilliant and simple science fiction idea, leaves an amazing and moving short story. Just read it, it won the Hugo, and deserved it.
- Afterparty by Daryl Gregory – Cyberpunk for the brain damaged set. As unsettling and deeply odd a boo as I have read in a long time. You can feel how broken and off the characters are, which only makes them more real. And since one of the main characters has over dosed on a drug that lets her see god, you know there is a crazed ride ahead.
- Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard – A nonfiction book so good it has inspired two failed TV shows (and I know that Black Sails is coming back for a second season, but it SHOULDN’T). Covering the eras of pirates that are the influence for every vision of pirates in popular culture, from Treasure Island to Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp, this books covers how these pirates came to be, and the colorful characters they were (and how easy piracy was and wasn’t).
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