Tis still the season—for lists!
The end of one year and beginning of the next is always a great time for lists, both of “big hits’ from the previous year and “looking forward to’s” for the next, and maybe even a few resolutions …
Not to be left out, I posted about my top reads for 2010 on January 2nd, as part of reflecting on 2010 generally, with a preview on November 27. I also talked about looking forward to reading for the Hugo Awards again this year on January 9. Not quite a resolution, more a resolve! And then yesterday I discovered that over on Tor.com they’re really going one better and compiling a list of the Best SciFi-Fantasy Novels for the (past) Decade—eleven years really, since the dates are 2000-2010. Anyway, here’s my list (with a ‘best book’ for each year):
2000: Steven Erikson Deadhouse Gates
2001: Neil Gaiman American Gods
2002: China Mieville Perdido Street Station
2003: Robin McKinley Sunshine
2004: Scott Westerfeld The Risen Empire
2005: George RR Martin A Feast for Crows
2006: Max Brooks World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
2007: Naomi Novik His Majesty’s Dragon / Temeraire (UK)
2008: Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games; Helen Lowe Thornspell
2009: Paolo Bacigalupi The Windup Girl
2010: Helen Lowe The Heir of Night
You may notice that 2008 has not one but two titles. That is because Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games came out in that year and I loved it, but of course 2008 was also the year that my first novel, Thornspell, was published by Knopf—and how could publication of one’s first novel not be the very best book in that year for you?
As for 2010—again, although I have so far very much enjoyed Cate Tiernan’s Immortal Beloved, Mary Victoria’s Tymon’s Flight and Paolo Bacigalupi’s Shipbreaker, as my first adult novel published, and the first in the epic-scale The Wall of Night series, The Heir of Night will always be the top book of 2010 for me!
And as the work that I commenced just a few months before the rollover into 2000 and finally saw published in 2010, to be honest, The Heir of Night is probably the “Book of the Decade” for me, as well … 😉
I can understand your double-up! Besides, The Hunger Games and Thornspell were faves for me that year too 🙂
Thanks, Wen. 🙂
I could have ‘tripled up’, too, with Neil Gaiman and The Graveyard Book, but as I already had Amercian Gods earlier, I thought I’d stick to the two. But it was a great year for books, especially in the YA genre.