Top 50 releases of 2014: #1-20

Was a bit too busy yesterday to post #11-20, so I decided to combine it all together for the final 20 of 2014.  Appropriate anyways, as it would have been very difficult to decide which belonged in which subgroup of ten.  The differences between #1 and #20 are miniscule, as each of these are excellent works, featuring many new writers.  Hope some of these works will lead to you considering reading them.

20.  Lydie Salvayre, Pas pleurer

Winner of the 2014 Prix Goncourt, this novel mixes personal recollection of the author's mother's experiences during the Spanish Civil War with the change in French writer George Bernanos's views on the war to create a powerful story of loss and suffering in the midst of a cruel and devastating war.

19.   Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing 

Winner of the 2014 Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction, this is one of the most daring narratives published this year.

18.  Blake Butler, 300,000,000

The line between deranged and brilliant at times seems to be (purposely) blurred in this tale of obsession and mass killing.

17.  S.  Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh (translated from Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck)

Finally released in translation in the US, this 1949 novella by one of Israel's founding fighters/politicians is one of the most harrowing and damning accounts of the eviction of the Palestinians following the 1948-1949 war that established the state of Israel.

16.   Daša Drndić, Trieste (translated from Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursać)

One of the better WWII/Holocaust tales that I've read in recent years.

15.  Paul Kingsnorth, The Wake

Longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize, this novel of a last stand in the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest is brilliant in its use of a "shadow English" to narrate the story.

14.   Roxane Gay, An Untamed State 

This novel about a Haitian-American woman's experiences after being kidnapped in Port-au-Prince was one of the best, most unsettling debuts I've read this year.

13.   David Grossman, Falling Out of Time (translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen)

In prose, poetry, and play genres, Grossman explores the loss of his son during one of the rocket attacks in northern Israel during the 2006 mini-conflict with Hezbollah.  Powerful, sad, and so much more.

12.  Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman 

Finalist for the 2014 National Book Award, this novel about a Lebanese woman and her abandoned translations of some of the world's greatest literature speaks volumes about why some do give up or go in directions their hearts would rather not travel.

11.   Johanna Sinisalo, The Blood of Angels (translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers) 

One of the best narratives of ecological collapse that I've read in quite some time.  Chilling in its plausibility.

10.   Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk 

One of the more moving, probing collections I've read this year.

9.  Jeff VanderMeer, The Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance)

The best weird fiction/ecological mystery story I've read this year.  All three now available in a single-volume hardcover edition.

8.  Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North 

Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize, this novel in some sense could be seen as an Australian version of the non-fiction Unbroken in its treatment of WWII prisoners and the humanity discovered even within the worst abuses against human beings.

7.   Julia Elliott, The Wilds

This debut collection is full of outstanding stories.  To say much more would spoil the bountiful surprises.

6.  Ali Smith, How to be Both 

Finalist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize (and the one I thought which should have won), this is an outstanding meditation on art and life, stretching across nearly five centuries.

5.  Evie Wyld, All the Birds, Singing 

This was a delight to read, this wonderfully-written tale of a woman fleeing her past in Australia only to come upon a seemingly-minor and yet frightening episode in rural Britain.

4.  Catherine Lacey, Nobody is Ever Missing

This tale of a woman who up and leaves her dissatisfying home and professional life to discover herself is well-written and moving.

3.  Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See 

Finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction, this tale, set in WWII France, of a blind girl and a German radio savant, constantly surprises with its rich language and poignant moments.

2.   Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You

This story of a biracial American family's fissioning, leading up to the suicide of their daughter, was a devastating read.

1.  Phil Klay, Redeployment 

This National Book Award winning collection is my favorite book of the year for its combination of humor, rage, frustration, doubt, and all the gamut of human emotions in these tales of Iraqi War veterans dealing with their experiences, both wartime and after.  Just an outstanding debut and a well-deserving winner of the National Book Award.

Best of 2014: Debuts

2014 was a good year for debut novelists.  Out of the 26 debut novels/collections that I read this year, 12 made my Top 50 releases of 2014 list, with 6 in the Top 20 (to be posted shortly).  Here they are, with brief descriptions:


12.  David Cronenberg, Consumed

One of the more unusual, atmospheric novels I've read this year.


11.  John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van

Longlisted for the National Book Award, this debut novel is very well-constructed.

10.   Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves

Excellent debut novel that follows the lives of an Irish-American family across three generations and the complex relationship of an ambitious wife and a more passive, content husband.

9.   Jennifer Marie Brissett, Elysium

Debut novel that shows, as on a computer screen in the sky, the alternate lives of a couple.  The depth of characterization and prose impress.

8.  Rene Denfeld, The Enchanted 

Powerful debut that looks at the lives and dreams of those condemned to death row.  Moving.

7.  Cristina Henríquez, The Book of Unknown Americans 

 This story of the lives of recent immigrants and their experiences is subtle in its breadth and depth of emotion.

6.  Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing 

Winner of the 2014 Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction, this is one of the most daring narratives published this year.

5.  Roxane Gay, An Untamed State 

This novel about a Haitian-American woman's experiences after being kidnapped in Port-au-Prince was one of the best, most unsettling debuts I've read this year.

4.  Julia Elliott, The Wilds

This debut collection is full of outstanding stories.


3.  Catherine Lacey, Nobody is Ever Missing


This tale of a woman who up and leaves her dissatisfying home and professional life to discover herself is well-written and moving.


2.  Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You 


This story of a biracial American family's fissioning, leading up to the suicide of their daughter, was a devastating read.


1.  Phil Klay, Redeployment 

This National Book Award winning collection is one of my favorite books overall this year.


 

Top 50 releases of 2014: #21-30

#41-50

#31-40

Now that we're getting a little past the halfway point in this Top 50 list, the differences between these novels is shrinking ever more.

30.  Can Xue, The Last Lover (translated from Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen)

One of the best experimental, surrealist fictions from one of my favorite short story writers.

29.   Antoine Volodine, Terminus radieux 

Winner of the 2014 Prix Médicis, this post-apocalyptic tale set in Siberia might be the best post-apocalyptic/collapse novel that I've read this year in any language.

28.  David Cronenberg, Consumed

One of the more unusual, atmospheric novels I've read this year.

27.  Hilary Mantel, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher 

Pleasantly surprised to see that the two-time Booker Prize winner is just as adept at writing short stories as she is at writing historical novels.

26.  John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van

Longlisted for the National Book Award, this debut novel is very well-constructed.

25.  Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land 

Outstanding conclusion to one of the best fantasy trilogies of the 21st century.

24.  Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves

Excellent debut novel that follows the lives of an Irish-American family across three generations and the complex relationship of an ambitious wife and a more passive, content husband.

23.  Jennifer Marie Brissett, Elysium

Debut novel that shows, as on a computer screen in the sky, the alternate lives of a couple.  The depth of characterization and prose impress.

22.  Rene Denfeld, The Enchanted 

Powerful debut that looks at the lives and dreams of those condemned to death row.  Moving.

21.  Cristina Henríquez, The Book of Unknown Americans 

 This story of the lives of recent immigrants and their experiences is subtle in its breadth and depth of emotion.

Best of 2014: Foreign Language Releases

I read 18 books this year that were published in a language other than English.  The majority of these were nominated for prestigious national awards such as the Premio Strega, Premio Alfaguara, Prix Médicis, and the Prix Goncourt.  Others were SF anthologies published in Spanish and Portuguese.  Overall, it was a very strong group of books read and while only five are listed below, the others are not far behind in terms of quality.

5.  Hedwige Jeanmart, Blanès

Nominated for the Prix Médicis, this tale of disappearance that evokes Roberto Bolaño's life in the town and his novel The Savage Detectives is excellently executed.

4.  Jorge Franco, El mundo de afuera

Winner of the 2014 Premio Alfaguara, this tale based on a 1971 Medellin kidnapping is a slow-building yet thrilling read.

3.   Claudie Hunzinger, La langue des oiseaux

Finalist for the 2014 Prix Médicis, this tale reflects upon the nature of and uses of language to construct meaning for one's life.  Beautifully written.

2.  Antoine Volodine, Terminus radieux 

Winner of the 2014 Prix Médicis, this post-apocalyptic tale set in Siberia might be the best post-apocalyptic/collapse novel that I've read this year in any language.

1.  Lydie Salvayre, Pas pleurer

Winner of the 2014 Prix Goncourt, this novel mixes personal recollection of the author's mother's experiences during the Spanish Civil War with the change in French writer George Bernanos's views on the war to create a powerful story of loss and suffering in the midst of a cruel and devastating war.

Top 50 releases of 2014: #31-40

#41-50

Here's the second grouping of ten for the Top 50 releases of 2014 that I read.  It's getting to be a bit harder to rank these, as these are some high-quality works.

40.  Siri Hustvedt, The Blazing World

Booker Prize-longlisted story of art and sexism in the industry.

39.  Michel Faber, The Book of Strange New Things

A story of faith under strain as well as (too briefly) one of understanding an alien society.

38.  Helen Oyeyemi, Boy, Snow, Bird 

A retelling of Snow White referencing race relations.

37.  Lydia Davis, Can't and Won't 

Another excellent collection from a renowned master of the short story form.

36.  Claudie Hunzinger, La langue des oiseaux

Finalist for the 2014 Prix Médicis.

35.  Porochista Khakpour, The Last Illusion 

Excellent second novel that mixes Persian legend with early 21st century American realities.  The blurred lines between magic and reality suit this story perfectly.

34.  Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

2014 National Book Award winner for Young People's Literature.  Moving series of poems on Woodson's experiences growing up in Ohio and South Carolina during the 1960s.

33.  Keith Donohue, The Boy Who Drew Monsters

The drawn monsters aren't the most horrific part of this gripping tale...

32.   Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem (translated from Chinese by Ken Liu)

One of the best "first contact" stories I've read in quite some time.  Also involves a narrative of rebuilding/destroyed civilizations.  And much, much more.  Opener to a SF trilogy.


31.  Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night 


2014 National Book Award for Poetry winner.  Outstanding poetry collection.

Best of 2014: Short Story Collections

I read 22 short story collections and anthologies that were published in the US in 2014.  Since I only read 6 anthologies and didn't want to do a truncated section with them (as well as there being five stronger single author collections to fill out a Top 5 list), I thought I would note here that there won't be any anthologies on this year's list.  I decided to go with only a Top 5 for this category as this happens to be the number of collections that appear on my overall Top 50 for 2014 list.  But enough gabbing, here's the list:


5.  Lydia Davis, Can't & Won't 

Another excellent collection from a renowned master of the short story form.

4.  Hilary Mantel, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher 

Pleasantly surprised to see that the two-time Booker Prize winner is just as adept at writing short stories as she is at writing historical novels.

3.  Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk 

One of the more moving, probing collections I've read this year.

2.  Julia Elliott, The Wilds

This debut collection is full of outstanding stories.

1.  Phil Klay, Redeployment 

This National Book Award winning collection is one of my favorite books overall this year.

Top 50 releases of 2014: #41-50

For the rest of the year, I'm going to release in groups of ten my Top 50 releases of 2014 that I read.  It was tough to reduce 165 reads down to 50 (a great many of these books have been featured on several prominent Best of Year lists), but these works should be of interest to most, if not all, readers.


50.  Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes (translated from Portuguese by Adam Morris)

One of the wilder Modernist pieces I've read in any language.

49.  Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven 

This National Book Award-nominated book was one of the better post-apocalyptic novels released this year.

48.  William T. Vollmann, Last Stories & Other Stories 

Some wonderfully chilling "ghost" stories in this collection of lives lost and destroyed.

47.  Dinaw Mengestu, All Our Names

A moving tale of identities stripped and rebuilt during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s in East Africa.

46.  Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea 

A take on post-apocalyptic America that does not feature whites for a change.

45.  Richard Powers, Orfeo 

Longlisted for both the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award.   Beautiful tale that utilizes music theory to great effect.

44.  Brian Francis Slattery, The Family Hightower

Good combination of family history with thriller elements as a journalist suddenly finds himself on the run from Mafia hit men due to something related to his family history.

43.  Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (translated from German by Susan Bernofsky)

Five linked novellas that explore a chilling "what if" when it comes to a woman's life.

42.  Carlos Labbé, Navidad & Matanza (translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden)

Clever, labyrinthine tale that may or may not involve people caught up in a narrative game that may or may not involve the disappearance of two children.

41.  Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies 

 A story of identity, of someone somehow becoming a dead person's identity to the point where it is impossible to tell where the false diverges from the true.

Best of 2014: Translated Fictions

I only read twelve 2014 releases that were translations from other languages.  Some of these were published prior to 2014 in the UK, but since I am an American citizen, I'll go by US release dates here.  It was tough choosing which books to list here, in part because out of the thirteen read, nine were selected for my overall Top 50.  So I'm going to make this a Top 10 list, including one book that almost made the cut for the Top 50 of 2014:


10.  Frankétienne, Ready to Burst (translated from Haitian by Kaiama L. Glover)

This story set during the days of Papa Doc Duvalier's dictatorship is a dark yet moving account.

9.  Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes (translated from Brazilian Portuguese by Adam Morris) 

One of the wilder Modernist pieces I've read in any language.

8.  Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (translated from German by Susan Bernofsky)

Five linked novellas that explore a chilling "what if" when it comes to a woman's life.

7.  Carlos Labbé, Navidad & Matanza (translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden)

Clever, labyrinthine tale that may or may not involve people caught up in a narrative game that may or may not involve the disappearance of two children.

6.  Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem (translated from Chinese by Ken Liu)

One of the best "first contact" stories I've read in quite some time.  Also involves a narrative of rebuilding/destroyed civilizations.  And much, much more.  Opener to a SF trilogy.

5.  Can Xue, The Last Lover (translated from Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen)

One of the best experimental, surrealist fictions from one of my favorite short story writers.

4.  S.  Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh (translated from Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck)

Finally released in translation in the US, this 1949 novella by one of Israel's founding fighters/politicians is one of the most harrowing and damning accounts of the eviction of the Palestinians following the 1948-1949 war that established the state of Israel.

3.  Daša Drndić, Trieste (translated from Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursać)

One of the better WWII/Holocaust tales that I've read in recent years.

2.  David Grossman, Falling Out of Time (translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen)

In prose, poetry, and play genres, Grossman explores the loss of his son during one of the rocket attacks in northern Israel during the 2006 mini-conflict with Hezbollah.  Powerful, sad, and so much more.

1.  Johanna Sinisalo, The Blood of Angels (translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers) 

One of the best narratives of ecological collapse that I've read in quite some time.  Chilling in its plausibility.

 

Best of 2014: Most Disappointing/Worst Releases

What better way to kick off covering the year that was (and for a few days, still is) than by listing those few 2014 releases that left me either disappointed or just were that bad?  I tend to vet the books I choose to read/review, so there's a lot of mediocre to poor works that are eliminated from consideration before I purchase and/or read them.  Yet some I have some hopes for, only to see them crushed by the stories turning out to be either deeply flawed or just were downright tedious to read.  Then there are the "special" books, the ones that I know will be mediocre or even downright putrid, that I read/review just to keep in the practice of reviewing in a certain fashion.

But I'm blabbing (as usual?) a bit too much, so here are six works that either were disappointing or just plain awful (links to original reviews):


6.  David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize)

I expected much more from the writer of Cloud Atlas than a disjointed narrative that was much less than the sum of its parts.  It's not horrid, but it certainly was his weakest, most flawed narrative in quite some time.

5.  Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor

I mostly enjoyed Sarah Monette's Mélusine series, but this new fantasy just did not work for me.  The narrative just felt too bland, lacking in some je ne sais qua quality that would have raised it above being just another average fantasy narrative.

4.  Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

No, I'll resist making the obvious pun.  However, lately Sanderson's prose and narrative constructing skills have declined from slightly above pedestrian to something that is barely able to keep me reading anything he's written.  So yeah, it's mildly disappointed, combined with being decidedly bloated.  Not a good combination.

3.  Kameron Hurley, The Mirror Empire

While I have never thought all that highly of Hurley's prose (a good stylist she is not nor has ever claimed to be), I did have some hopes that the narrative at least would be coherent or at least attention-absorbing.  It was neither.  The inchoate mess of the first quarter, while alleviated somewhat later on, just made this novel too structurally flawed for it to be anything other than a huge disappointment.

2.  Edan Lepucki, California

If #FirstWorldProblems wrote a post-apocalyptic novel, it likely would resemble California in many of its thematic concerns.  Such a shallow, vapid, vaguely white ethnocentric novel that barely can maintain any semblance of structure or plausibility under the weight of the bullshit presented over the course of the narrative.  If it weren't for the truly "special" prose and narrative of #1, this would have been by far the worst 2014 novel I've read/reviewed this year.

1.  Terry Goodkind, Severed Souls

I had to put one of my Serbian reading squirrels into reading rehab due to this dreck.  I didn't expect Goodkind, crappy as he is, to be able to put out something that would make Robert Stanek's self-published works read like Flaubert, but with Severed Souls, he managed to outdo himself and create one of the worst fictions ever published by a large publishing firm in the 21st century.  Quite an impressive accomplishment, actually.

Non-"core SF" recs for a hypothetical Hugo Awards nomination ballot, or rather, a Best of 2014 in non-"core" speculative fiction

I am unlikely to ever pay any money to be any sort of WorldCon member, but for those who are more interested in such things and who might be curious to see what sorts of works I would nominate for the fiction categories, below is a list of works published by non-genre-specific publishers of authors whose stories, both novels and shorter fiction alike, would be considered for such a hypothetical Hugo ballot.  I am also writing this in case there are those who are going to be nominating works in the next couple of months and who might be wanting to seek out recommended books so that their own ballots might contain as many diverse and wonderful books as possible.

Novel:

In most cases, I've already written reviews, so I'll just link to those:


Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea 

Okey Ndibe, Foreign Gods, Inc. 

Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies

Jeff VanderMeer, The Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance)

Helen Oyeyemi, Boy, Snow, Bird 

Carlos Labbé, Navidad and Matanza 

Edmundo Paz Soldán, Iris 

Can Xue, The Last Lover 

Shane Jones, Crystal Eaters 

Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land 

Antoine Volodine, Terminus radieux 

John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van (writing a short review in the next 24 hours or so)

David Cronenberg, Consumed 

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven 

Keith Donohue, The Boy Who Drew Monsters (I'll write a review of this shortly)

Blake Butler, 300,000,000 

Michel Faber, The Book of Strange New Things

Johanna Sinisalo, The Blood of Angels 

Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days 


Short Fiction:  (multiple stories found within each of these collections)


Julia Elliott, The Wilds

Jac Jemc, A Different Bed Every Time 

Margaret Atwood, Stone Mattress 

William T. Vollmann, Last Stories & Other Stories 

Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes (novella)

Dorothy Tse, Snow and Shadow 

Karen Russell, Sleep Donation (novella)

David James Poissant, The Heaven of Animals 

Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk 


Yes, I know that if this were a real ballot, I would have had to list a Top 5 (something I will not do now, as I would like to maintain some suspense for when I reveal my Top 50 for 2014 over the course of the next 10 days).  But these are some of the best speculative fiction that I've read this year (very few works published by genre imprints would have been considered, but maybe that's a post for another time?) and for those looking for some great stories, I believe these will please the majority of you.  The short fiction categories (collections, unless otherwise noted) contain several really good stories, too many to list here (if I had, the list of noteworthy spec fic stories would have easily exceeded 50).

Hopefully, there will be something for some to consider as they try to make out their Hugo nomination ballots in the coming months.  I certainly hope my lists provide something different and not more of the same for those readers who do want to see just what is being published out there beyond the familiar confines of genre publishing.

Planning out my Best of 2014 lists

Although it'll be another four weeks or so before I begin posting my Best of 2014 articles, I've already had to begin laying out some of the parameters for this year's edition.  I have made my job easier and harder by deciding to review virtually every 2014 release that I have read.  Easier in that I have a ready-made set of links to post for those titles that I discuss in various posts on translated works, disappointing releases, short story collections/anthologies, etc., harder in that I have to have some record of my thoughts on each and every work written before compiling the lists.  While I'll whittle down the list of nearly 50 unwritten reviews over the next three weeks or so by writing a series of compilation reviews that'll contain 1-2 paragraph reviews of three dozen or so of those books, I still have to write over a dozen reviews of 800-1200 words each.

In addition, I still have 16 books left to read, including 4 to purchase.  The former will not be much of a problem to finish (I should finish 5-6 of them by Sunday), but I'll have to wait until early December to buy those 4 books.  So it'll take me until mid-December before I am ready to construct final lists.  In the meantime, I think I'll have the categories from last year, only that due to having read a little over 160 books released this year, the majority of which have made some sort of literary or genre list of good/outstanding releases already, I'll do a two-part Top 50 list.  This should allow for a bit more exposure for some worthy and entertaining releases.

Now to just "encourage" those loyal rabid Serbian reading squirrels to read and write the rest of this for me...

A couple of early Best of 2014 lists

Although it's only November, some publications are already starting to list their Best of 2014 selections.  Below are a couple of such lists:

Amazon's Editors' Top 100

Kirkus Reviews Best of 2014


I've read/own about a quarter of the books on each list of 100.  Several selections I agree with, a few I don't, but that's par for the course.