27 December 2011

Best of 2011 - The Long List Edition

In no particular order at all here are the books I'm considering for my year end review of books published in 2011. Note I read quite a few books published prior to 2011 not included here.
  1. Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
  2. Ganymede by Cherie Priest
  3. All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen
  4. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
  5. Seed by Rob Ziegler
  6. The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams
  7. God's War by Kameron Hurley
  8. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  9. The Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu
  10. Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
  11. Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
  12. Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan
  13. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern
  14. The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
  15. Ico: Castle in the Mist by Miyuki Miyabe
  16. The Rift Walker by Clay & Susan Griffith
  17. Aloha from Hell by Richard Kadrey
  18. The Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell
  19. Machine Man by Max Barry
  20. Spellbound by Blake Charlton
  21. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
  22. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
  23. Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh
  24. The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi
  25. The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones
  26. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
  27. Brave New Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams
  28. Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson
  29. Hounded by Kevin Hearne
  30. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
I've also just started on The Magician King by Lev Grossman, which may end up in the final list as well given how much I liked Grossman's previous effort.  Some brief observations:
  • *  None are considered Horror, but a couple have elements. Seems I didn't gravitate to much in the way of Horror in general this year, which might mean a reading goal for 2012.
  • *   Just one is an anthology despite reading a few this year.
  • *   5 are Steampunky.
  • *   8ish are Sci-Fi.
  • *   About half are debuts. This may be due to my predilection towards new authors.
So what did I leave off the list? Any other observations?

You Might Also Like:
REVIEW | Brave New Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams
REVIEW | Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
Best Genre Books of the Year - 2010 Long List Edition
Best Books of 2010 (That I've Read)
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 27, 2011 at 3:28 PM

    I still have to get to a lot of these but Ready Player One rocked it hard. Rothfuss was over long and lost some of the magic of The Name of the Wind. God's War surprised in a good way. I have to thank you for that one.

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  2. UnknownDecember 28, 2011 at 10:51 AM

    Wow, great list! The Winds of Khalakovo, Robopocalypse, A Dance with Dragons, and The Wise Man's Fear are already on my TBR shelf but I suspect I'll be adding a few of these others once I get a chance to check them out.

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  3. montsamuDecember 28, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Ah! Thanks for reminding me of Desert of Souls, which I didn't remember forgetting... or something perhaps more sensical than that.

    Other really good books (among others) in 2011: Zoo City, Embassytown, The Quantum Thief, Germline, and Journal of a UFO Investigator. (Speaking of Among Others I've heard really good things about it, but haven't quite gotten to it yet this year.)

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  4. Mad Hatter ReviewDecember 28, 2011 at 3:47 PM

    I haven't read Zoo City, Germline, Among Others, or Journal of a UFO Investigator so I can't comment on them yet.

    The Quantum Thief I had in my best of 2010 list since I read the UK version, but it certainly belongs on best of lists.

    I had some deep problems with Embassytown that prevented it from making this list. I loved some of the ideas Mieville came up with especially playing with language, but I felt too disconnected from the characters and the middle of the book it s a bit of a mess. I still think Mieville is brilliant. It just didn't work for me.

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