In about a month's time, I'm going to begin writing a series of posts focusing on what I consider to be the best fiction that I've read in 2008 (mostly devoted to books released this year). I know there'll be quite a bit devoted to covering anthologies and short story collections and while I already have a dozen or more in mind for coverage, I can't help but think that I might have overlooked a few. So here's a chance for you, dear reader, to nominate certain anthologies/story collections for me to consider. And to make it extra fun, I won't even tell you which ones I've read and/or own.
So...willing to help a reviewer out, please?
Knight Errant
4 days ago
Posts
8 comments:
Count me in!
BTW, would you mind if I did the same thing in my blog? Maybe the bloggers of the Blogger Book Club could do it.
Coincidentally, I was brainstorming my list the other day...
D. F. Lewis - Nemonymous: Cone Zero
John Joseph Adams - The Living Dead
Rich Horton - Fantasy: The Best of the Year 2008
Ellen Datlow - The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy
No problem at all, Fábio! I always am interested in seeing what others do. Besides, I'm considering using an essay format for discussing various subgenres/story formats.
Charles, I've only read the last one on that list, so I certainly shall be investigating the others, although I perhaps should have eliminated the "Best of ___" ones from consideration, since many of those stories were published at another time. Then again, maybe I could separate anthologies into Original and Reprint categories? Hrmm...
I was about to say I would only include original anthologies and collections, but if you look at collections most are reprint collections so would it not be fair to include reprint anthologies?
Anyway:
Fast Ships, Black Sails - Editors Vandermeer (original)
Wastelands - John Joseph Adams (reprint)
The Best of Lucius Shepard (collection - reprint)
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 2 - Jonathan Strahan (reprint)
Eclipse Two - Jonathan Strahan (original)
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy - Ellen Datlow (original)
Fast Forward 2 - Lou Anders (original)
Just After Sunset - Stephen King (collection - reprint)
I wasn't as crazy about JJA's Seeds of Change, but I think many will find it satisfying,
I haven't read all of these (but most), and the ones I haven't read I feel confident about.
I have a fuller list of collections I've read this year, but it is on my work computer so I'll get back to you on this, too
To be perfectly shameless, I'd like to throw A Field Guide to Surreal Botany up for consideration.
I say "Wastelands" for now :)
Joe, I have the VanderMeer, Wastelands, and Datlow anthologies and I suspect at least two of them will make the cut.
Jason Erik,
Yes, you are shameless! :P But I am considering it, but perhaps for a different category, as it is hard to group precisely with more "traditional" anthologies. I did like it a lot and I am going to be sending a copy of it overseas to a female friend of mine who can't afford the sky-high shipping costs, just because I know she'll love and be inspired by your wife's illustrations :D
Mihai,
See what I said above to Joe.
Poe Children: The New Horror, edited by Peter Straub (this is an astonishingly good reprint anthology)
The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford (Ford is a master of short fiction in my book)
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence by John Kessel (another short fiction master)
Dangerous Laughter by Stephen Millhauser (I'm not sure why he's not considered a genre writer, but he's certainly partaking of the fantastic in this collection)
The New Weird, edited by Anne and Jeff VanderMeer (a very useful exploration of what New Weird is/was, which has led me to other enjoyable reading)
The Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, ed. Jonathan Strahan (a very even and fair collection)
I enjoyed Elizabeth Bear's New Amsterdam, but can't honestly call it one of the best of the year. I was disappointed in Datlow's The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which I thought merely average. I also expected more of Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, edited by William Schafer, though I can't say I didn't enjoy it.
If Laird Barron's The Imago Sequence hadn't been published last year, it would have been my candidate for best of the year. As it is, that honor definitely goes to Poe's Children.
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