So, I wasn’t all that keen on this week’s topic – Hugo-worthy novels – because I don’t generally vote for awards and I don’t generally read all that much these days. Back in Chicago, I could rip through two-three books a week sometimes. That’s what happens when you commute 15 hours every week. But these days I can walk home, and much of my reading time is eaten up by social media, blog posts, and writing.
Still, I did do some reading this year, and I read some good stuff. Here’s the best of the bunch. You’ll need to decide if it’s award-worthy, but I can guarantee all of them are read-worthy.
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1) Jeff VanderMeer, Finch . For epic worldbuilding and weirdness, you can’t do any better than Finch. This book gave me nightmares. I mean that. But I couldn’t stop reading it. Pair the epic worldbuilding with a cast of strong female supporting characters and crazy noir plot and you’ve got a combination that’ll keep you up at night… in the best way possible.
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2) Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold. In a word, Abercrombie’s worldbuilding sucks. There, I said it. But if you can get over the cod-European setting and the awful first few pages of dialogue, this is probably the best of the best when it comes to portraying an epically bad-ass female heroine, the sort who could actually live in this kind of cut throat world. Abercrombie is great at plot and character, and I just finished a re-read for plotting tips.
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3) Tim Akers, The Horns of Ruin. Another great round of worldbuilding. This is one woman with a clockpunkish sword that you don’t want to meet in a dark alley. Akers’s take on revolution and religion and living gods will give you quite a lot to ponder. That said, if you haven’t checked out his first novel, Heart of Veridon, you are also missing out. That one was even more epic, with even weirder gods. Looking forward to the sequel, Dead in Veridon, later this year.
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4) Felix Gilman, The Half-Made World. Another fun romp. The concept of a world in a constant state of being formed – just there along the horizon – kept me enthralled despite some of the heavy-handed American West parallels. It loses some steam about 2/3rds of the way through, but picks up again for an admittedly not-quite-satisfying ending. Still, strong characters, strong writing, and an interesting world will keep you riveted
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5) Paulo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl. This book doesn’t really need any more signal boost, but when it comes to books that engage me, this one was high on the list. Epic dystopia, interesting but unlikeable characters (including several strong female characters – worth noting that there are, indeed, female characters aside from the sexual slave of the title), and some stuff to ponder about just what it is we’re going to do at the end of the fossil fuel age.
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And wow, hey, that’s a whole hell of a lot of white guys. Help me out in the comments below with your own suggestions, preferably some action-packed, hardhitting, dystopian novels of the sort that may speak to my worldbuilding/weird kinks that are a little more diverse in their authorship.
redhead on February 22, 2011
Vandermeer’s Finch is SOOOO good! I just love that man and his crazy weird creepy unsettling bile-rising-in-your-throat awesomeness.
hmmm.. action packed weird dystopian?
Tel Aviv Dossier by Lavie Tidhar was fun and weird and end-of-the-world crazy, Grey by Jon Armstrong is post-apocalyptic brand-sponsered-ness on crack, some oldie but goodies are Blindsight by Peter Watts and Glasshouse by Charlie Stross.
Courtney on February 22, 2011
What about Mira Grant’s Feed? I haven’t read it yet myself – it’s lurking in my TBR stack – but the description makes it sound like it might be up your alley.
Kameron Hurley on February 22, 2011
@redhead Mmmmmm But still! All guy authors. I know there are a lot of good books by women with great worldbuilding and crazy dystopias somewhere. Tho I will have to check out the Lavie Tidhar one, and I’m hearing good things about Armstrong.
@Courtney I know there are some great zombie novels out there, but it’s been so overdone that just seeing them makes me grit my teeth. Same with vampire novels. Maybe in ten years I can catch up on reading the good ones?
Yes, I am Writing.. In a Crap-ton of Other Places on February 22, 2011
[...] Awesome Books I Read This Year [...]
redhead on February 23, 2011
Kameron – and the thought that went through my head a few hours after posting was “damnit! that’s all guys, and mostly pasty white guys! crap!” Most of the female authors I read write “girly” stuff, not so gritty or actiony. I’d advise you to write the book you want to read, but you already did, and I’m reading it right now.
hmm… Zoo City by Lauren Beukes?
Paul on July 19, 2011
Finch looks really interesting. I’ve been at the amazon page for 5 minutes looking at it. I think it’s time to buy a book light and this book haha.
My time is also mostly eaten up by social media, I try to read as much as possible though.