Fantasy Book Critic: Fantasy Book Critic’s 2008 Review/2009 Preview

2008 FAVORITES:

Here is my list of the Best 12 fiction books I read in 2008. I was surprised when I looked up the pub dates on these and found I had read hardly anything brand new. That means I'm getting behinder and behinder on my reading. It also means that many of the 2008 releases I brought home as freebies from cons were weak, especially the big fantasy tomes. But bear in mind that high fantasy just gives me brain freezes unless its George R. R. Martin. Also, I limited myself to fantasy and science fiction, just because.

In order, sort of:

1) “Fox Woman” by Kij Johnson (F)
2) “The Terror” by Dan Simmons (F or alternate history)
3) “Brasyl” by Ian McDonald (SF)
4) “Pushing Ice” by Alastair Reynolds (SF)
5) “Sagramanda: A Novel of Near Future India” by Alan Dean Foster (SF)
6) “Keeping It Real” by Justina Robson (F/SF blend)
7) “The Blade Itself” by Joe Abercrombie (F)
8) “Nightwatch” by Sergei Lukyanenko (F)
9) “Ironside: A Modern Faerie's Tale” by Holly Black (F)
10) “Airs and Graces” (Book Two of the Horse Mistress Saga) by Toby Bishop (F)
11) “The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden” by Catherynne Valente (F)
12) “The Dragons of Babel” by Michael Swanwick (F)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kay Kenyon began her writing career as a copywriter for radio and TV, before publishing her first novel, “The Seeds of Time”, in 1997. Since then, she has written a number of short stories and standalone novels and has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick and John W. Campbell Awards. Kay is currently penning the epic four-volume sci-fantasy series The Entire and the Rose (Bright of the Sky, A World Too Near) with Book Three, “City Without End”, published by Pyr Books on February 24, 2009. For more information, please visit the author’s Official Website.

NOTE: For more author responses, please visit Fantasy Book Critic's 2008 Review/2009 Preview index HERE.