[pat5150]

I meant to post my top reads of 2010 sooner, but I needed to finish Tad Williams Shadowheart in order to see where the book would fit. So you can now peruse my Top 10 speculative fiction titles of the year and the 10 runner-up titles here.

Here's my Top 10:

1- Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay [Penguin Books, Voyager]
1- (tie) The Dervish House by Ian McDonald [Pyr, Gollancz]
3- Stonewielder by Ian Cameron Esslemont [Tor, Bantam Press]
4- Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman [Pyr]
5- Prince of Storms by Kay Kenyon [Pyr]
6- The Machinery of Light by David J. Williams [Bantam Dell]
7- Shadowrise by Tad Williams [Daw, Orbit]
8- Leviathan Wept and Other Stories by Daniel Abraham [Subterranean Press]
9- Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis [Tor]
10- Thirteen Years Later by Jasper Kent [Pyr, Bantam Press]

What about you? What were your top SFF reads of 2010???

Happy Holidays!

Patrick

This post has been edited by pat5150: 26 December 2010 - 10:28 PM

[polishgenius]

Oddly, not read most of those, normally my lists are more congruent with yours. Stonewielder is the only one (I've also got Levathian Wept but not read it all yet, though I do love me some Abraham).

Mine:

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
Changes by Jim Butcher
The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin

very little between those four, then probably something like:

The Last Page by Anthony Huso
Kraken by China Mieville
Stonewielder by ICE
Farlander by Col Buchanan
Lamplighter by DM Cornish
Terminal World by Alistair Reynolds


I think.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 27 December 2010 - 03:37 PM

[Werthead]

All of my 2010 releases ranked from top to bottom:

Quote

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
Warriors, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Corvus by Paul Kearney
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton
The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding
Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Stonewielder by Ian Cameron Esslemont
City of Ruin by Mark Charan Newton
Veteran by Gavin Smith
New Model Army by Adam Roberts
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
Farlander by Col Buchanan
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
King of the Crags by Stephen Deas
Kraken by China Mieville
Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregellis
Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan
The Thief-Taker's Apprentice by Stephen Deas
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel
The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk
The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
Empire of Light by Gary Gibson
Antiphon by Ken Scholes
The Japanese Devil Fish Girl by Robert Rankin
The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes
----
----
----
----
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

The Silent Land was brilliant. The Left Hand of God is the worst fantasy debut since Bilsborough, maybe even Newcombe.

[amphibian]

Werthead, on 26 December 2010 - 07:12 PM, said:

Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Passage by Justin Cronin
[...]
Kraken by China Mieville

These three are some of my favorite reads of 2010. Pure rushes of adrenaline at times. The Passage is almost like a "best version of this story that I have ever read" story - it seems familiar like whatever Bruce Springsteen song comes out next and yet it really delivers every line with feeling - which is what led to his greatest hits. The Quantum Thief needs a sequel AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Alastair Reynolds keeps hitting every odd one or so out of the damn park. Brilliance. Mieville has my eternal love for The Scar and the Kraken only makes me ride harder for him.

And although it came out in 2006, Blindsight by Peter Watts is so good it deserves a mention on every Best of List for the next decade. Same for The Windup Girl by Paolo Baciagalupi (2009).

Empire of Light by Gary Gibson was alright. Wouldn't consider it a top read though.

[Use Of Weapons]

I really struggle to remember what I've read from one week to the next, so compiling a list of my favourite reads for a whole year is a task beyond me.

That said, by far and away my favourite read of 2010 was Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet.

[Salt-Man Z]

I read a lot of great stuff this past year, but The Name of the Wind has to take top honors.

[Abyss]

I have a hell of a time recalling specifically when i read something, let alone when it was released but i'll give this a shot...

BEST OF 2010: hands down, DUST OF DREAMS takes this for me. I cannot pretend otherwise.

BEST OF 2010 THAT WASN'T MALAZAN: I waver back and forth between Butcher's CHANGES and Abercrombie's BEST SERVED COLD so let me waffle and leave it at i thoroughly enjoyed both of these books.

BEST SERIES I READ IN ONE GO: Weeks' NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY. Good fantasy fun. Has its flaws but it was a solid read that i would have enjoyed less if i didn't have all three mmpb books all together.

BEST BOOK I READ THAT NONE OF YOU DID: SM Peters' GHOST OCEAN. Takes a lot of the common urban fantasy tropes and guts them. Neat characters, good action, great original concepts and new takes on old ones.

BEST LAUGH: Mieville's KRAKEN, narrowly edging out Stross's FULLER MEMORANDUM.

BEST NEW SERIES I STARTED THIS YEAR: Do Banks' CULTURE novels constitute a series? I dunno but USE OF WEAPONS was an excellent read and i'll seek out others. Honourable mention goes to Rolins' SIGMA FORCE commando scientist series, as the two of these i read this past year were good fun and i only have, oh, every other book in the series now sitting in the TRP.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Campbell's GOD OF CLOCKS. Time's up if that was the best he could do.

[Grief]

Favourite book is a hard one, since this years been great for me book wise.

Most uneexpected book that I really enjoyed: The sound and the fury. I try to read at least a couple of the classics every year, because they're interesting, and usually very good. However, this one really stood out for me. A tough read, but I really enjoyed it. It was particularly unexpected since I was pretty dubious about the style he uses.

Books that I couldn't put down: There were a few this year. I read The Scar pretty quickly, and didn't get much done till I finished it. I took a slower approach to Dust of Dreams than I have in the past with Erikson. It didn't grab me as much as some of the other malazan books. However, I think that Anansi boys and Neverwhere would get this one. I got them for christmas and read them basically non stop.

Biggest disappointment: Butcher's Changes. I was pretty underwhelmed by this book, and when compared to most of the rest of the series, this made it pretty disappointing.

Most irritating character I was introduced to this year: Hard choice actually, this year. Probably one of the people from the later black company books.

Most stupid moment of the year: Dresdens plan in Changes is probably the worst single moment, though there is plenty of ongoing stupidity in The Gathering storm, and the second set of Convennt books.

Favourite book of the year: Foucalt's Pendulum. I'd seen Eco mentioned occaisionally on the forum, and found this in my house. Absolutely brilliant book.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 04 January 2011 - 04:46 PM, said:

Honourable mention goes to Rolins' SIGMA FORCE commando scientist series, as the two of these i read this past year were good fun and i only have, oh, every other book in the series now sitting in the TRP.

Oh hells....yeah! I truly think there is only one book in the series that I was ho-hum about...the rest are historical mystery techie gadget action thrillers all the way. Kowalski! Looking forward to THE DEVILS COLONY, AKA Sigma book 7.

[QuickTidal]

I think my list next year will be more comprehensive since the book blog documents all my reads for me now. This year I had to think back on all that I read this year for the answers, and like Abyss said, that's tough.

[Yellow]

Like others, I have no idea what I've read this year. The Gathering Storm sticks out though as something I really enjoyed (BIG improvement on previous couple of volumes), so I'll go with that.

Now I've switched to solely ebooks, it should be a piece of piss to come up with a list next year.

[amphibian]

How in the heck could you be disappointed with Changes? I can understand being slightly off-put due to the power-ups, but I'll be damned if that wasn't a brilliant book and fitting ending.

[moridin]

For me, off the top of my head:

Dust of Dreams-outstanding book and I love everything malazan
Changes-again anything dresden makes my day
First lords fury-loved this whole series
Towers of Midnight-huge WOT geek and love the hole series
Black Prism-nice start to a series and had some good twists and turns
Way of Kings-Absolutly loved this book and can't wait for more

I'm sure there were many many many more that I enjoyed through the year, but these six were the ones that really stood out. These were the six that I went to my brothers, also fantasy readers, and told them that they had to read them.

[Grief]

amphibian, on 04 January 2011 - 09:18 PM, said:

How in the heck could you be disappointed with Changes? I can understand being slightly off-put due to the power-ups, but I'll be damned if that wasn't a brilliant book and fitting ending.

Well, part of it is the move away from the detective aspect of the books. Mystery adds to the suspense, and I find the books a bit lacking without it. Rather than Dresden having to figure anything out, he simply chases people, where before figuring out who he needed to be chasing played a part. This also contributed to the issues I had with the books pacing, which sometimes felt like really important things were being glossed over, also cuased by the amount he tried(unsuccessfully imo) to cram into a single book.

It didn't follow up well from the previous book either, in terms of plot and character. Some of Turn Coat's more interesting developments were glossed over in the same way as many potentially interesting developments in Changes were, or just outright ignored again caused I suspect by him trying to put too much into one book.

The plot was pretty simple, but still jarred, with his plan being the low point here for me.

The book had it's moments, but just didn't work as a whole for me.

It was still reasomably enjoyable, but not near the quality of some of the others, which made it pretty disappointing.

[Salt-Man Z]

I meant to post this here, but forgot. Better late than never, hey?

Best books read in 2010.