The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction 22nd Annual Collection (7 page)

If I’ve missed some, as is quite possible, try Googling the name of the publisher.

Once again, there were a
lot
of novels published in the SF/fantasy genres during the year, and although the recession-driven recent upheavals in the publishing world may reduce their numbers somewhat next year, they’re certainly not going to vanish from the bookstore shelves in 2009.

According to the newsmagazine
Locus
, there were a record 2,843 books “of interest to the SF field” published in 2008, up 4 per cent from 2,723 titles in 2007. (This total doesn’t count media tie-in novels, gaming novels, novelizations of genre movies, most Print-On-Demand books, or novels offered as downloads on the Internet – all of which would swell the total by hundreds if counted.) Paranormal romances continued to boom, both in number of titles published (there were 328 paranormal romances this year, up from 290 last year) and in robustness of sales; several of the best-selling writers in America – Stephanie Meyers, Charline Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher – are paranormal romance writers. Original books were down slightly, by 2 per cent, to 1,671 from last year’s total of 1,710. Reprint books were up by 16 per cent, to 1,172 compared to last year’s total of 1,013. The number of new SF novels was down by a statistically insignificant amount, one book, to 249 from last year’s total of 250. The number of new fantasy novels was down by 5 per cent to 439 from last year’s total of 460. Horror dropped by 12 per cent, to 175 titles, as opposed to last year’s total of 198, still up from 2002’s total of 112.

Busy with all the reading I have to do at shorter lengths, I didn’t have time to read many novels myself this year, so, as usual, I’ll limit myself to mentioning that novels that received a lot of attention and acclaim in 2008 include:

Saturn’s Children
(Ace), by Charles Stross;
The Dragons of Babel
(Tor), by Michael Swanwick;
The Quiet War
(Gollancz), by Paul McAuley;
The Last Theorem
(Del Rey), by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl;
Lavinia
(Harcourt), by Ursula K. Le Guin;
Little Brother
(Tor), by Cory Doctorow;
Matter
(Orbit), by Iain M. Banks;
Going Under
(Pyr), by Jusina Robson;
Navigator
(Ace), by Stephen Baxter;
Weaver
(Ace), by Stephen Baxter;
The Dragon’s Nine Sons
(Solaris), by Chris Roberson;
Incandescence
(Gollancz), by Greg Egan;
House of the Stag
(Tor), by Kage Baker;
The Night Sessions
(Orbit), by Ken MacLeod;
Marsbound
(Ace), by Joe Haldeman;
A Dance with Dragons
(Bantam), by George R. R. Martin;
Hunter’s Run
(HarperCollins), by George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham;
City at the End of Time
(Del Rey), by Greg Bear;
The Prefect
(Ace), by Alastair Reynolds;
House of Suns
(Gollancz), by Alastair Reynolds;
Zoe’s Tale
(Tor), by John Scalzi;
The Graveyard Book
(HarperCollins), by Neil Gaiman;
Victory of Eagles
(Del Rey), by Naomi Novik;
Pirate Sun
(Tor), by Karl Schroeder;
Judge
(Eos), by Karen Traviss;
Earth Ascendant
(Ace), by Sean Williams;
Firstborn
(Del Rey), by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter;
An Evil Guest
(Tor), by Gene Wolfe;
Rolling Thunder
(Ace), by John Varley;
The Ghost in Love
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux), by Jonathan Carroll;
Anathem
(Morrow), by Neal Stephenson;
Flora’s Dare
(Harcourt), by Ysabeau S. Wilce;
Misspent Youth
(Del Rey), by Peter F. Hamilton;
Ender in Exile
(Tor), by Orson Scott Card;
Keeper of Dreams
(Tor), by Orson Scott Card;
Null-A Continuum
(Tor), by John C. Wright;
Valor’s Trial
(DAW), by Tanya Huff;
Shadowbridge
(Del Rey), by Gregory Frost;
Lord Tophet
(Del Rey), by Gregory Frost;
An Autumn War
(Tor), by Daniel Abraham;
The Martian General’s Daughter
(Pyr), by Theodore Judson;
The Steel Remains
(Gollancz), by Richard Morgan;
The Valley-Westside War
(Tor), by Harry Turtledove;
Slanted Jack
(Baen), by Mark L. Van Name;
The Hidden World
(Tor), by Paul Park;
Stalking the Vampire
(Pyr), by Mike Resnick;
Victory Conditions
(Del Rey), by Elizabeth Moon;
The Edge of Reason
(Tor), by Melinda Snodgrass;
Bone Song
(Bantam Spectra), by John Meaney;
The Philosopher’s Apprentice
(Morrow), by James Morrow;
The Time Engine
(Tor), by Sean McMullen;
The Engine’s Child
(Del Rey), by Holly Phillips;
January Dancer
(Tor), by Michael F. Flynn;
Very Hard Choices
(Baen), by Spider Robinson;
The Stars Down Under
(Tor), by Sandra McDonald;
Renegade’s Magic
(Eos), by Robin Hobb;
Escapement
(Tor), by Jay Lake;
Before They Are Hanged
(Pyr), by Joe Abercrombie;
Half a Crown
(Tor), by Jo Walton;
Juggler of Worlds
(Tor), by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner;
Nation
(HarperCollins), by Terry Pratchett; and
Duma Key
(Scribner), by Stephen King.

Small presses once published mostly collections and anthologies, but these days they’re active in the novel market as well. Novels issued by small presses this year, some of them among the year’s best, included:
Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key
(Subterranean), by Kage Baker;
Implied Spaces
(Night Shade), by Walter Jon Williams;
The Bird Shaman
(Bascom Hill), by Judy Moffett;
The Word of God: or, Holy Writ Rewritten
(Tachyon), by Thomas M. Disch;
The Song of Time
(PS Publishing), by Ian R. MacLeod;
Hespira
(Night Shade), by Matthew Hughes;
Dogs
(Tachyon), by Nancy Kress;
The King’s Last Song
(Small Beer Press), by Geoff Ryman;
The Shadow Pavilion
(Night Shade), by Liz Williams;
Leaving Fortusa: A Novel in Ten Episodes
(Norilana), by John Grant;
Shadow of the Scorpion
(Night Shade), by Neal Asher; and
The Madness of Flowers
(Night Shade), by Jay Lake.

The year’s first novels included:
Singularity’s Ring
(Tor), by Paul Melko;
Pandemonium
(Del Rey), by Daryl Gregory;
Black Ships
(Orbit), by Jo Graham;
The Magicians and Mrs Quent
(Bantam Spectra), by Galen Beckett;
The Ninth Circle
(Gollancz), by Alex Bell;
A Darkness Forged in Fire
(Pocket), by Chris Evans;
Apricot Brandy
(Juno), by Lynn Cesar;
Seekers of the Chalice
(Tor), by Brian Cullen;
Thunderer
(Bantam), by Felix Gilman;
Havemercy
(Bantam), by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett;
Whitechapel Gods
(Roc), by S. M. Peters;
Mad Kestrel
(Tor), by Misty Massey;
Gordath Wood
(Ace), by Sarath Patrice;
Superpowers
(Three Rivers Press), by David J. Schwartz;
Immortal
(Delta), by Traci C. Slatton;
The Mirrored Heavens
(Bantam), by David J. Williams; and
Paraworld Zero
(Blue World), by Matthew Peterson. The Melko and the Gregory probably attracted the most attention of these.

Associational novels by people connected with the science fiction and fantasy felds included:
Wit’s End
(Putnam), by Karen Joy Fowler;
White Sands, Red Menace
(Viking), by Ellen Klages;
Black and White
(Subterranean), by Lewis Shiner;
The Somnambulist
(Morrow), by Jonathan Barnes;
Tigerheart
(Del Rey), by Peter David; and
The Shadow Year
(Morrow), by Jeffrey Ford. Ventures into the genre by well-known mainstream authors, included:
The Island of Eternal Love
(Riverhead), by Daina Chaviano;
The Widows of Eastwick
(Knopf), by John Updike; and
The Enchantress of Florence
(Random House), by Salman Rushdie.

Individual novellas published as stand-alone chapbooks were not as strong this year as they’ve been in other years, but there were still some good ones out. Subterranean published:
Kilimanjaro: A Fable of Utopia
, by Mike Resnick;
Muse of Fire
, by Dan Simmons;
Stonefather
, by Orson Scott Card; and
Conversation Hearts
, by John Crowley. PS Publishing brought out:
The Economy of Light
, by Jack Dann;
Gunpowder
, by Joe Hill;
Planet of Mystery
, by Terry Bisson;
Template
, by Matthew Hughes;
Mystery Hill
, by Alex Irvine;
The City in These Pages
, by John Grant;
The Situation
, by Jeff VanderMeer;
Revolvo
, by Steve Erikson;
Val/Orson
, by Marly Youmans;
The Book, the Writer, the Reader
, by Zoran Zivkovic;
The Bridge
, by Zoran Zivkovic;
Living with the Dead
, by Darrell Schweitzer; and
Camp Desolation
and
An Eschatalogy of Salt
, by Uncle River. Aqueduct Press produced
Distances
, by Vandana Singh. Wyrm Publishing produced
Memorare
, by Gene Wolfe. Norilana published
The Duke in His Castle
, by Vera Nazarian. Knopf published
Once Upon a Time in the North
, by Philip Pullman. And Monkeybrain published
Escape from Hell!
, by Hall Duncan.

Novel omnibuses this year included:
The Jack Vance Reader
(Subterranean), by Jack Vance;
Five Novels of the 1960s and 1970s
(Library of America), by Philip K. Dick;
Books of the South: Tales of the Black Corridor
(Tor), by Glen Cook; and
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number One Ox
(Subterranean), as well as many omnibus novel volumes published by the Science Fiction Book Club. (Omnibuses that contain both short stories
and
novels can be found listed in the short story section.)

As has been true for the last couple of years, after the long drought of the 1990s, when almost nothing out-of-print got back into it, this is the best time in decades to pick up reissued editions of formerly long-out-of-print novels, not even counting Print On Demand books from places such as Wildside Press, the reprints issued by The Science Fiction Book Club, and the availability of out-of-print books as electronic downloads from Internet sources such as Fictionwise. Here are some out-of-print titles that came back into print this year, although producing a definitive list of reissued novels is probably difficult to impossible:

Tor reissued:
Pebble in the Sky
, by Isaac Asimov;
The Dragon in the Sea
, by Frank Herbert;
Starfis
h, by Peter Watts;
The Risen Empire
and
The Killing of Worlds
, both by Scott Westerfeld; and the associational novel
In Milton Lumky Territory
, by Philip K. Dick. Orb reissued:
Make Room! Make Room!
, by Harry Harrison;
Anvil of Stars
, by Greg Bear; and
Inferno
, by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Baen reissued:
Farmer in the Sky
and
Between Planets
, both by Robert A. Heinlein. Orbit reissued:
The Reality Dysfunction
, by Peter F. Hamilton; and
Consider Phlebas
,
The Player of Games
, and
Use of Weapons
, all by Iain Banks. Cosmos reissued:
Space Viking
, by H. Beam Piper;
The Black Star Passes
, by John W. Campbell, Jr; and
Planet of the Damned
, by Harry Harrison. Tachyon reissued:
The Stress of Her Regard
, by Tim Powers. Paizo/Planet Stories reissued:
The Ginjer Star
, by Leigh Brackett; and
Lord of the Spiders
, by Michael Moorcock. Overlook reissued:
Titus Alone
, by Mervyn Peake. Golden Gryphon Press reissued:
The Physiognomy
,
The Beyond
, and
Memoranda
, all by Jeffrey Ford.

Lots of science fiction and even hard science fiction here, as usual, although there are also fantasy novels and odd-genre-mixing hybrids on the list as well. Although we often hear the lament that science fiction has been driven off the bookstore shelves, it just isn’t true. There’s still lots of it out there to be found.

This was another good year for short story collections. The year’s best collections included:
The Best of Michael Swanwick
(Subterranean), by Michael Swanwick;
East of the Sun and West of Fort Smith
(Norilana Books), by William Sanders;
Dark Integers and Other Stories
(Subterranean), by Greg Egan;
Other Worlds, Better Lives: A Howard Waldrop Reader
(Old Earth Books), by Howard Waldrop;
Pump Six and Other Stories
(Night Shade), by Paolo Bacigalupi;
The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories
(Golden Gryphon), by James Patrick Kelly;
The Best of Lucius Shepard
(Subterranean), by Lucius Shepard;
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls
(Golden Gryphon), by Nancy Kress;
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
(Small Beer Press), by John Kessel; and
Pretty Monsters
(Viking), by Kelly Link. Other good collections included:
Harsh Oases
(PS Publishing), by Paul Di Fillipo;
The Ant King and Other Stories
(Small Beer Press), by Benjamin Rosenbaum;
Strange Roads
(Dreamhaven), by Peter S. Beagle;
The Garble and Other Stories
(Tor UK), by Neal Asher;
Starlady and Fast-Friend
(Subterranean), by George R. R. Martin;
Space Magic: Stories
by David D. Levine (Wheatland Press), by David D. Levine;
The Wall of America
(Tachyon), by Thomas M. Disch;
The Autopsy and Other Tales
, by Michael Shea;
Binding Energy
(Elastic Press), by Daniel Marcus;
Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt
(Subterranean), by Jack McDevitt;
Tempting the Gods
(Wildside Press), by Tanith Lee;
The Adventures of Langdon St Ives
(Subterranean), by James Blaylock;
Crazy Love
(Wordcraft of Oregon), by Leslie What;
Walking to the Moon
(Wildside), by Sean McMullen;
Billy’s Book
(PS Publishing), by Terry Bisson;
Long Walks, Last Flights
,
and Other Journeys
(Fairwood Press), by Ken Scholes;
What the Mouse Found and Other Stories
(Subterranean), by Charles de Lint; and
Just After Sunset
(Scribner), by Stephen King.