Since there are quite a few people who are already beginning thinking of "books of the decade" (despite this first decade of the 21st century CE not ending until midnight on December 31, 2010), I thought I would create something a bit different and (hopefully) true to the spirit of this blog. Below are 50 books published in English or English translation from 2000-2009 that can be read and taken as a whole without the need to read a book prior to or following that book. There are a few books listed that share perhaps a common "universe," but each book could be read independently of the others and not depend upon those others for a complete story.
Not all of the books are novels. Nor are all of them speculative fiction, per se. There are likely some that I've read and enjoyed a lot that I left off, either because of my limiting this to standalones, or because I just plain didn't have them shelved when I checked through my dozen bookcases just now. Of course, the real point of such things is to generate thought, discussion, and hopefully curiosity about the rationale(s) employed by the list generator (me) and about the books listed. Oh, and before I forget: this is not in a ranked order, but rather from a scribbled down notes as I did a purview of my shelves.
1. Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell
2. Jeffrey Ford, The Shadow Year
3. M. John Harrison, Light
4. Jeff VanderMeer, Shriek: An Afterword
5. Jeff VanderMeer, Finch
6. Brian Evenson, Last Days
7. Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
8. Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels
9. Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners
10. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow
11. Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
12. Roberto Bolaño, 2666
13. Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones
14. David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp
15. Dan Simmons, The Terror
16. Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark
17. China Miéville, The Scar
18. Chris Adrian, The Children's Hospital
19. Terrence Holt, In the Valley of the Kings
20. Elizabeth Hand, Generation Loss
21. Caitlín Kiernan, The Red Tree
22. Thomas Ligotti, My Work is Not Yet Done
23. Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
24. Ignacio Padilla, Shadow Without a Name (Amphitryon in Spanish)
25. Geoff Ryman, Air
26. Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day
27. Salvador Plascencia, People of Paper
28. Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
29. M. (Mary) Rickert, Map of Dreams
30. Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park
31. Ian McDonald, Brasyl
32. Zoran Živković, The Last Book
33. Milorad Pavić, Second Body
34. Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives
35. Jorge Volpi, Season of Ash (No será la tierra in Spanish)
36. David Toscana, The Last Reader (El último lector in Spanish)
37. Xavier Velasco, Diablo Guardián
38. José Saramago, Death with Interruptions
39. Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin
40. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento in Spanish)
41. Paul Auster, Invisible
42. Michael Ajvaz, The Other City
43. J.M. McDermott, Last Dragon
44. Dave Eggers, What is the What
45. Thomas Glavinic, Night Work
46. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
47. Elias Khoury, Yalo
48. Cormac McCarthy, The Road
49. Nalo Hopkinson, The New Moon's Daughter
50. Jesse Bullington, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
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6 comments:
Great list. Although I must confess I'm a bit surprised that a novel by Bret Easton Ellis has made your list; I'd never think he was your style.
Anyway, thanks for posting this. There are a good chunk of books here I've never read, that I'll certainly add to my to-read pile.
I actually have enjoyed Ellis's Less Than Zero and American Psycho. You might be interested in the post I just made that references how this list was constructed, but hopefully there will be many pleasant discoveries ahead for you as a result of this list :D
While I read or browsed most books here (or plan to read/am reading from in 3 or 4 cases including Pynchon and Bullington) and generally I would not have many quibbles about the sff choices except that Brasyl while with great pyrotechnics breaks down pretty badly as sfnal content goes, Light oscillates between great stuff and stuff that I had a very hard time suspending disbelief in and Last Dragon I thought a great try but not quite a full success, the main quibble I have about the list is that I would have loved a line or two about each book.
50 is a lot of work no question, but a list with some arguments about why something is there has much more added value
Yeah, I toyed with doing that, but I was rushed for time when I was transcribing what I had written. Perhaps I'll edit it in the next day or two with a short line or two for each book. Good suggestion and I can see your point about Brasyl - I debated whether or not to have it appear there, but since I'll likely be adding a line of defense for each, I'll just start by noting it was included in part because I think it was slightly better than River of Gods and that those two works are the more visible examples (Bacigalupi's short fiction and debut novel being other examples) of how non-Anglophone countries are becoming more and more visible in SF/F writing. Thinking about writing a bit about the BRIC powers and especially Brazil in the coming days. Reading The Quiet War right now and that made me think of those emerging powers.
I adore lists. I don't know why, exactly, but they almost always make me want to count up how many books on them I've read, and then how many I own, and then buy and read the ones I don't have and haven't read. It must be a form of OCD.
This happens to be a good one. Thanks, Larry.
Glad to see Last Dragon on the list. I really, really enjoyed it, and hope we get some more novels out of McDermott.
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