Recommended Reading?
Locus magazine has released its 2004 recommended reading list. I find their reviews a little hit-or miss (sometimes I can't really make out what in hell they're talking about), but it's usually worth taking a look at what they think is good.
The really striking thing about this is what a small fraction of the list I've read: out of 79 books in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, YA, and First Novel categories, I've read 12 (almost 13). This is partly due to the fact that I just haven't seen some of these books (they list a number of UK releases that aren't out yet in the US), but it's remarkable how many of them I'm just not interested in reading.
The Fantasy category is the one with the highest read fraction (6/21), as I've read the Irvine, Kay, Pratchett, Stewart, and Wolfe entries (Gene Wolfe's The Kinght is listed along with The Wizard, for some reason-- I thought it came out in '03). Of the rest, well, I have Charlie Stross's The Family Trade sitting on the dining room table, and I'll take a look at the Lucius Shepard if I see it, and that's about it. The Steven King books are the tail end of a huge series, and I'm waiting for Kate to finish them and tell me if it's worth starting. I gave up on Perdido Street Station, so I'm not interested in the Mieville, I'm not enthusiastic about another horse-choking Tad Williams book, and nothing else really leaps out as something I want to read.
The Science Fiction list is even worse: I've read two of the 28 books on the list (Newton's Wake and The Confusion, though I'm nearing the end of The System of the World). Now, granted, this is the list that seems most affected by the UK-only problem, with books by Iain M. Banks and Ian McDonald that sound interesting if they ever come out in a place where I can get them. I may check out the Jon Courtenay Grimwood book, as well, if I ever see it. It's also got a fair number of books that I just haven't gotten to-- I have Cloud Atlas and Forty Signs of Rain sitting on a shelf next to me, and I'll definitely read Iron Sunrise. But my interest pretty much ends there. Baxter, DiFillippo, Haldeman, Heinlein, McAuley and Rucker don't interest me (based on previous experience), Sterling doesn't really write novels, and a bunch of the others are really series books, and I'm not interested in the amount of catch-up required.
All in all, my reaction to the lists is pretty much "Enh." I'm not sure if it was really an "Enh" sort of year-- I don't recall it that way, but then a lot of my SF reading in 2004 was from 2003-- or if there's just a major taste mismatch between me and the Locus review staff. Either way, I'm just not wildly enthusiastic about this slate of books.
Posted at 8:55 AM | link |