Best of 2015 – Part 1
It’s that time of year when, as we have done for the last decade or so, we have dragged ourselves from the revelries here at SFFWorld to try and put some sort of order to our favourite (and not so favourite!) stuff from 2015.
The second part, on Science Fiction books is HERE and the third part on Genre Film & TV is HERE.
And so, in the finest traditions of trying to reduce our lists to five in each category, here’s the first part of our attempt to show what we liked (or didn’t) this year. Taking part are Rob Bedford (Rob), Luke Brown (Luke), Mark Chitty (MarkC), our film reviewer David Paul Hellings (David), our owner Dag Rambraut (Dag), Nila (N.E.) White (Nila) and Mark Yon (MarkY).
Part 1: Fantasy / Horror
In no order, Mark Y’s top 5 Fantasy/Horror books for 2015:
Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
Twelve Kings (in Sharakhai) by Bradley Beaulieu
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson
The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
MarkC’s top Fantasy/Horror books of 2015:
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher
Touch by Claire North
Unbound by Jim C Hines
Battlemage by Stephen Aryan
Other than Day Shift, the Dave vs The Monsters Trilogy, and The Invisible Library, I didn’t get to any other 2015 fantasy release.
Rob’s top Fantasy/Horror books of 2015.
I’m going with six, to be different. Also, beer comes in six packs.
Twelve Kings (in Sharakhai) by Bradley Beaulieu
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
Black Wolves by Kate Elliott
Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Luke’s top 5 Fantasy/Horror books for 2015:
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
Half a War by Joe Abercrombie
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Touch by Claire North
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
Dag’s top Fantasy/Horror books of 2015.
Irona 500 by Dave Duncan
Clockwork Lives by Kevin J. Anderson and Neal Peart
Nila’s top Fantasy/Horror book (not books!) of 2015:
Unfortunately, this past year has taken Nila across the world, three times! Though she should have been able to get more reading in, she didn’t. But she did read one book she thinks is the best she’s read in a long time. If you only have time to read one book this year, read Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb.
Fantasy/Horror Books in Detail
Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
MarkY says: The second in this series, I’m still appreciating the tighter, leaner prose of this series. An Interesting left-turn from Half A King, this one has a great, typically Joe twist in the ending. I haven’t yet got to the third book in the series (Half A War) though I know Luke enjoyed it.
Twelve Kings (in Sharakhai) by Bradley Beaulieu
MarkY says: One of the books that brought me back to Epic Fantasy, after struggling with many, many dull and unengaging books this year. Brad’s book is a tale that grabbed me from the start and kept those pages turning. A big fat book that showed me how good Epic Fantasy can be, with great characters and intriguing world-building. There’s enough potential in the book to come to keep me going with the series.
Rob says: Beaulieu’s prose is bolstered by the narrative techniques, namely the interweaving of Çeda’s past along with the current storyline. He jumps back, first eleven years, then five years into her past, showing events while Çeda was eight years old and her mother was still alive, then five years in the past when she was fourteen. Scott Lynch did this to great effect in his Gentleman Bastard sequence contrasting the life of a very young Locke Lamora with the more experienced thief known as the Thorn of Camorr. There’s also a nice interplay of fantasy flavors here, the more intimate and personal elements closely associated with Sword and Sorcery against the larger scale (worldly) elements associated with Epic Fantasy.
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
MarkY says: I know some of my other colleagues will mention this one. We had a lot of fun joint-reviewing this. And that enjoyment sums up the book nicely – it is fun, with some great characterisation and that trademark Jim Butcher voice in a more traditional Fantasy setting than the Dresden Files. The other book that brought me back to Epic Fantasy this year, even though this one is more steampunk-ish.
MarkC says: Yep, I’m mentioning this one too. Pretty much the best fantasy book I read this year. Easy to read, enjoyable characters, great story, and plenty of potential for the sequels. I think our review says it all!
Rob says: I loved this book. Steampunk isn’t my go-to subgenre, when it misses, it really misses. But when it hits like this one (or Beth Cato’s debut The Clockwork Dagger), I really love it. I think because there’s more of a mix between the Steampunk aesthetic and epic rather than a Steampunk in world that Victorian times. It was very clear that Jim had a great deal of fun writing this one because it was an incredibly fun and engaging story. There was enough world-building to whet the appetite. I like the concept of the Spires and think Jim’s only touched the surface (pun not intended) of what this world is. There’s a shining beauty atop the Spires, with a darkness lurking below on the surface (literal, not metaphorical) of the world. I have some theories about the true nature of this world and how it came to be.
Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
Rob says: A rewarding novel for both new readers interested in sampling Myke’s novels and readers who have followed the exploits of the Supernatural Operations Corps through the first three Shadow OPS novels. A glimpse into the early days is a fascinating thing as the military is barely understanding the magic they are trying to exploit as part of its toolset. New readers can see things at the foundation of the milieu while readers like myself can see that beginning and realize how relatively far the military has come in exploiting magic.
With Gemini Cell Myke has given readers perhaps the most brutally honest and naked look in (fantasy) fiction at the effect of a life of war on an individual and those he loves. Gemini Cell is a fantasy novel of imagined truths and is all the more potent and honest because of it; a powerful and engaging novel that will very easily rank as one of the best books I read this year.
The Traitor by Seth Dickinson
MarkY says: Rob said in last year’s review that ‘every five or ten years, a novel will come along in the fantasy genre that remixes what came before in a powerful resonant fashion so as to seem newly sprung into the world (Books like A Game of Thrones, Perdido Street Station, The Blade Itself); watershed novels that evoke a perfect symmetry of resonance and freshness.’ This was the book this year that did that for me – The Traitor (aka The Traitor Baru Cormorant) is original, lyrical and poetic, and yet heart-breaking and coldly, coldly logical in its denouement. Baru is a character you can both love and hate. A stunning debut.
Black Wolves by Kate Elliott
Rob says: Superficially, Elliott tells her story with the framework of Epic Fantasy tropes, but what she does with those tropes and her purely magnetic storytelling elevates Black Wolves to a higher level than readers have likely come to expect from Epic Fantasy. The characters come across as realistically drawn individuals and the standout without a doubt for me was Dannarah, I loved her straight-forward (almost blunt), unashamed, unapologetic, and uncompromising approach to situations, how Elliott depicted her frustrations and aspirations, and simply how she interacted with the other characters. A long novel for sure, but every page of it essential and consumed with great joy, Black Wolves is a hallmark of Epic Fantasy and one of the best books I read this year. I can’t wait for Book 2.
Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb
Rob says: In the second installment of The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy, itself part of a larger series of stories. Hobb’s magnificent prose is on full display here as well as her powerful ability to build real character and emotion. Fans who have been reading her work for years will be rewarded greatly and maybe frustrated by the wait for is that Hobb seems to be playing towards what I hope to be a world-capper of a novel.
Nila says: To me, Robin Hobb is one of the best fantasy writers out there. The skill with which she weaves a tale of heart ache amazes me. In Fool’s Quest, Ms. Hobb has again brought characters we love to life and tortures them – and us! And I love her for it. A dark, character driven fantasy with adventure and magic doesn’t get any better than this. Is the next book out yet?
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Rob says: There’s a sense that the world in Uprooted echoes the folk tales of Europe, that it has a rich tradition sewn into the DNA of the world the characters inhabit, but we as readers meet these character at a time of Great Change, after all why else would we meet these characters? Despite this familiarity with the trappings of the story, Novik makes this story fully her own, a fresh story that can sit next to those tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, but with an entirely new story comprised of familiar parts. Not an easy thing for any writer to attempt, let alone pull off so successfully as Novik does here in Uprooted.
The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
MarkY says: My surprise of this year. A dark, dark story with some of the most imaginative world-setting I’ve seen for a while. More towards Horror, this one, it is imaginative and memorable, written in a detective-noir style. The book that has stayed with me most this year since I’ve read it.
Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher
MarkC says: A new Dresden release, despite it being only three short stories, was a winner for me. Not only enjoyable for fans of the series, but a good introduction too.
Unbound by Jim C Hines
MarkC says: MarkY, Rob, Nila, and I read and joint-reviewed Libriomancer, the first book in Hines’ Magic Ex Libris series, early in 2014, and I really enjoyed it. I missed Codex Born, the second book, on its release, but caught up by reading all three back-to-back this year. This series about magic from books has been done very well by Jim C Hines, and Unbound has taken the story forward yet again, giving even more to look forward to from the next one. A series worthy of reading by all bibliophiles.
Battlemage by Stephen Aryan
MarkC says: Fantasy readers will be able to see many influences in Steve’s debut, but this is no bad thing. Fast-paced with an interesting and well-built world, Battlemage really hit the mark for me.
Clockwork Lives by Kevin J. Anderson and Neal Peart
Dag says: A lovely tale for any fans of the Steampunk genre and it has this philosophical backdrop which I really like: “Some lives can be summed up in a sentence or two – Other lives are epics”. In many ways Clockwork Lives bring us on a journey which tells a greater story through other people’s stories. Clockwork Lives is the follow up to Clockwork Angels, but it can very well be read on its own.
Irona 500 by Dave Duncan
Dag says: This is a story about a poor girl that on her sixteenth birthday suddenly finds herself chosen by the goddess to be the next to join the 70 who govern the city. We follow Irona 700 as she grows up through intrigues, politics and war. I also enjoyed the fact that this is a standalone Fantasy story.
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
Luke says: Even more haunting following recent events, de Bodard’s atmospheric fantasy is set in a fractured version of our own world, where a magical war has left a ruined Paris living under the rule of fallen angels. De Bodard spices her plot with a dash of mystery, which pulled me through her exquisitely constructed and darkly mesmerising decaying urban landscape.
Half a War by Joe Abercrombie
Luke says: It’s tempting to list both books released by Abercrombie this year, but Mark Yon has already mentioned Half the World, so I’ll draw attention to this deeply satisfying final instalment of the trilogy, which details the epic war that crescendos events from previous volumes. This entire latest trilogy from Abercrombie is worth your while, being less enamored with world building, but more focused on character and efficient plotting than most contemporary epic fantasy.
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Luke says: This book has been largely overlooked by genre fans in the end of year appraisals, but it in my opinion it is clearly one of the best fantasies of 2015 and should not be ignored simply because of the author’s mainstream literary pedigree. This atmospheric and elegiac Arthurian fantasy about collective forgetting and mass atrocity has continued to haunt me since I turned the final page.
Touch by Claire North
Luke says: Part urban fantasy, part espionage thriller, Claire North’s novel about a body hopping ancient named Kepler was probably the most compulsively readable book I enjoyed all year. Touch takes the idea of body shifting and uses it as a powerful metaphor to explore themes of identity, love, intimacy and physical beauty, and wraps it all up in an action packed plot, with many twists and turns.
MarkC says: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was among my favourite reads of 2014, so Touch was a no-brainer to read. While very similar in style to Harry August, Touch does take a different look at identity and the possibilities for a lifeform that lives through inhabiting the bodies of others. It’s both fascinating and damn near un-putdownable, and Claire North manages to present a clearly genre story in a way that will appeal to almost everyone.
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
Luke says: This is a book that defies easy genre classification, combining elements of fantasy, alternate history, and steampunk. The invention of mechanical beings has thrust the Netherlands and France into a bitter struggle for world power, and Tregillis uses this intricately constructed alternative history to tell an engrossing story that explores the idea of free will and questions the nature of human soul.
And that’s it for Part 1.
Next up: Science Fiction books.
