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Amazon's SFF Top Ten for 2012 Wot? No [favourite author]?

#1 Use Of Weapons

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 05:00 PM

So, Amazon sent me a list that they say is their top 10 picks in genre for 2012. How many have you read?

Justin Cronin - _The Twelve_
Iain M Banks - _The Hydrogen Sonata_
Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter - _The Long Earth_
Joe Abercrombie - _Red Country_
Hannu Rajaniemi - _The Fractal Prince_
Tad Williams - _The Dirty Streets of Heaven_
Nick Harkaway - _Angelmaker_
Charles Stross - _The Apocalypse Codex_
Jo Walton - _Among Others_
James Treadwell - _Advent_

I've read 5 of the 10. [Cronin, Banks, Rajaniemi, Williams, Stross]. Anyone got any opinions on the others?

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#2 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 05:03 PM

None, but then, I don't generally keep on the new stuff.

I don't think I'd even heard of Advent, though.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 03 December 2012 - 05:04 PM

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#3 polishgenius

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 06:35 PM

The Long Earth is a really good read, although probably not what anyone reading it was expecting. It's essentially a Frontier Western at its core.

Red Country is Abercrombie keeping up the form. So, really good.

Angelmaker was a slight disappointment, but that was because Harkaway's previous one, The Gone-Away World, is one of the best books I've ever read and Angelmaker doesn't scale those heights. It's still a bloody good read (among many other things, it's essentially a riff on old school Bond-style adventures).

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 03 December 2012 - 06:35 PM

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#4 amphibian

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 06:54 PM

I've read three from the above list.

The Twelve, Red Country and The Fractal Prince.

Hannu Rajaniemi's book (Fractal Prince) is the best of the three, but that's no slight to Abercrombie's Red Country, which I view as his best work yet. The Twelve was kinda good, but not deserving of a Top 10 spot this year.

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#5 Kruppe's snacky cakes

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 08:46 PM

Currently reading and enjoying The Twelve.

Banks is on my radar, but I haven't read anything of his yet.

I didn't care for The Blade Itself, so I probably won't read any more Abercrombie. (Yes, I know that's blasphemy here.)

Angels are the new vampires, and I despise fads, so that eliminates the Williams book.

Stross's The Atrocity Archives bored me, so I haven't read any of the sequels.

Some of the others look interesting, but I almost always wait for the paperback, so I am usually a year or two behind the "early adopters."

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#6 QuickTidal

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 08:52 PM

AMONG OTHERS is good...but not overly inventive and relies a bit too much on the protagonist being a SFF book nerd as well as being a part of the supernatural. It's like if someone wrote a book about a Star Wars fan who found out Star wars was real....it would be interesting for 5 minutes and then feel a little cheap.

So I guess I'm saying....meh.

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#7 Abyss

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 08:52 PM

Only read Stross' CODEX, actually, and while i totally enjoyed it, and the series generally, i don't think i would have figured it for a Top 10 list.

RED COUNTRY gets to me in Jan and am looking fwd to it.

No particular plans to jump on anything else there any time soon altho a few are on the radar for eventually.

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#8 Vengeance

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very good...;)

Posted 03 December 2012 - 08:58 PM

I have read red country and Banks both where really good. I am still trying to get caught up from previous years lists.

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#9 Eddie Dean

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:27 PM

Man, Amazon's lists suck. No Dresden, Dark Tower, Erickson? Bah!

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#10 Chance

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:38 PM

Read three of them Hydrogen Sonata which was good but Banks have done better, The Apocalypse Codex was good but more in the next installment of a entertaining series then wow this was best of the year stuff, The Fractal Prince would be in my top books of 2012 but not in my top reads since its predecessor is just downright more fun. Will eventually get to Red Country but the remaining except for possibly Angelmaker doesn't seem that interesting.

#11 polishgenius

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Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:50 PM

Eddie Dean, on 03 December 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:

Man, Amazon's lists suck. No Dresden, Dark Tower, Erickson? Bah!

Has Erickson released a new book this year?

Oo, wikipedia tells me he actually has. But I dunno if it's SFF.

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#12 Obdigore

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Posted 04 December 2012 - 07:44 AM

Hydrogen Sonata and A Red Country are the two I've read.

Have not heard of a couple of those and the others really hold no interest for me.

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#13 Kruppe's snacky cakes

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Posted 08 December 2012 - 10:54 PM

I just realized...I'm reading The Passage, not The Twelve. So I've read zero of these books. Is there a 2006 list we could talk about instead?