Hobbit’s 50 at 50 Redux

It is with great surprise that it is five years since my post of the 50 genre novels I have enjoyed most so far in my lifetime. (LINK HERE.)

I am grateful (and rather surprised!) that I am still here, but as today is my 55^th birthday I guess this is as good a time as any to update my list and add any other books published since 2014. If I was sufficiently well organised, I would call this “55 at 55”, but those who know me will realise that sticking to just 55 is near-impossible. (If you didn’t know, my original list for my fiftieth list was over one hundred before I ruthlessly pruned it.)

So, for the record and in terms of context, since 2014 I’ve reviewed over 200 more books and read many more. So it may be time to add those extras.

As before, there are no concessions for gender, race, political persuasion, popularity or any other subdivision you might care to mention. They are simply books that I’ve liked, that you may wish to like as well. At no point do I claim to have read everything, but everything I have included I have read.

As ever, I’m sure that once I’ve made my list there will be blindingly obvious ones that I should have included as well. Feel free to point out the error of my ways!

And it should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway!) that none of this would be possible had it not been for the owner, staff and Forumites of SFFWorld and the many writers, publishers and sellers who have fed my addiction. To all of you I am truly grateful, and long may it continue.

2014

A few to look at here. Do I include The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell? The latest by Peter F Hamilton, The Abyss Beyond Dreams? Pratchett & Baxter’s The Long Mars?

My suggestions at SFFWorld at the end of the year in Fantasy were The Incorruptibles – John Hornor Jacobs, The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, The Three by Sarah Lotz, Half A King by Joe Abercrombie, Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan and Station Eleven by Emily St. James Mandel.

In Science Fiction they were The Abyss Beyond Dreams: by Peter F Hamilton, ULTIMA: by Stephen Baxter, War Dogs by Greg Bear, Robert A Heinlein: The Authorised Biography, Volume Two: The Man Who Learned Better, 1948-1988, by William H. Patterson Jr., V-S Day by Allen Steele and The Martian by Andy Weir.

Of those, the Heinlein biography was much anticipated, but I’ll take it out of the running, as it is non-fiction. The Allen Steele was as entertaining as ever, as was The Martian, albeit clearly the debut novel of a fledgling writer.  Rothfuss’s short novella was memorably different.

In the end I think I’ll add Station Eleven by Emily St. James Mandel. It’s a stealthy book that slowly builds but has remained with me since I read it. The ending made me cheer, something that doesn’t happen often these days!

2015

My Fantasy choices for SFFWorld this year were 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 and The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth.

My SF choices of the year were The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald, Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and The Promise of the Child by Tom Toner.

There was also a set of rereads I really enjoyed, which were Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke, Colossus by D F Jones, The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K leGuin and (surprisingly!) Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert.

My enthusiasm for Sir Arthur’s work should mean that Childhood’s End should be an automatic addition to my list. However, I am trying to stick to new releases, and there’s a good representation of his work on the ‘50’ list, so I’m discounting it. (Following my re-read though, I might take out  Rama from my original list and add this instead. Hmm.)  I really liked Luna: New Moon, but would I want to read it again? My selection from this year was almost Bradley’s brilliant Twelve Kings, but in the end, I think my choice will be The Three Body Problem. Even though it is quite old-fashioned in style, (which might be why I liked it!) I liked the big ideas and what I understand to be slightly wobbly science from an unusual more global perspective. It is also a reminder of the need to avoid hubris. Despite my enjoyment of the novel, I confidently predicted the day before the announcement of the results that it would not win the Hugo for Best Novel. (To be fair, up to this point a translated novel had not ever won Best Novel.) Of course, it did.

2016

My Fantasy choices in 2016 for SFFWorld were The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp, The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone, The Fireman by Joe Hill, Hope and Red by Jon Skovron and A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, with an honorable mention to Of Sand and Malice by Mr Bradley Beaulieu.

My SF choices were Creation Machine by Andrew Bannister, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Corporation Wars: Dissidence by Ken MacLeod, Revenger by Alistair Reynolds and Arkwright by Allen Steele.

There were honorable mentions for The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds, A Night Without Stars by Peter F. Hamilton and the whopping The Big Book of Science Fiction, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer.

Of the older reads, the most noticeable were Foundation and Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov (already in the list!), Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A Heinlein, in my continuing reread of Heinlein juveniles and the perennially popular The War of the Worlds by HG Wells (again, already in the list.)

I really liked Revenger and Creation Machine, but for pure old-fashioned enjoyment I’m going to go with Arkwright – a book that reminded me most of the sheer enjoyment to be had by reading Science Fiction, a book that recognises and celebrates the history of the genre and the one I’d most reread again.

2017

Fantasy choices this year were Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw, Darien: Empire of Salt by C F Iggulden, Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, Blackwing by Ed McDonald and The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carey.

SF Choices at SFFWorld were Artemis by Andy Weir, Austral by Paul McAuley, Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill, Iron Gods by Andrew Bannister and Avengers of the Moon by Allen Steele.

There were also honorable mentions for All Systems Red by Martha Wells, Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter and Acadie by Dave Hutchinson.

Of the rereads, one of the biggest events for me in 2017 was that, after about seven years, I finally finished reading and reviewing the Heinlein juveniles. Starship Troopers was a reread that created mixed emotions as the now noticeable transition from juvenile writer to mainstream adult writer became complete – with both good and bad results.  More enjoyably, I also reread Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis, and Earthlight,  A Fall of Moondust,(on the 50 list) Rendezvous with Rama (again, already on the 50 list), and Prelude to Space by Sir Arthur C Clarke.

Trying to stick to new books to add to the list, rather than the old, there’s a lot I liked this year. Mike Carey is on a roll at the moment, but my choice is Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw. Even in difficult times some of our outcasts need care and attention, and for that reason this is a real feel-good story that just edged out Kings of the Wyld (also a great debut, but undeniably grimmer.)

2018

And so to last year. Of the Fantasy books reviewed for SFFWorld, I read The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale, Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw, Cold Iron by Miles Cameron, We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix and Elevation by Stephen King.

Honorary Mentions went to Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix, and Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant. The latter was a pleasant surprise, the former’s a book that I still dip into. I was very pleased that Valancourt Books are going to reprint some of the books shown in Grady’s book.

In SF (which I generally enjoyed more) I chose Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi, Rejoice: A Knife to the Heart by Steven Erikson, Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson, Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio and The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Andrews.

There were Honorary Mentions for Ursula K. LeGuin’s Dreams Must Explain Themselves, An American Story by Christopher Priest and Carrie Vaughn did a nice upgrade of the Heinlein template in Martians Abroad, which I caught up with this year.

Of the other SF ‘classics’ of 2018, I read more ‘old Heinlein’ – this time concentrating on the Future History stories (LINK). My view of Heinlein has been given additional perspective through reading Alec Nevala-Lee’s lengthy history of the Golden Age, Astounding (LINK). My view of Heinlein remains as muddled and as complex as ever. (I am currently reading Farah Mendlesohn’s biography of Heinlein, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein, which is superb, but muddies the water further.)

There was more Arthur C Clarke, unsurprisingly, including The Fountains of Paradise and The Lost Worlds of 2001 by Arthur C Clarke, They Shall Have Stars and A Life for the Stars by James Blish. Even with each having a degree of ‘datedness’, I have enjoyed re-reading these a great deal.

In the end, I’m going to go with The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale – a Christmassy tale with a Dickensian/Grimm Brothers feel that has stayed with me since I read it.

So that’s it. My five books added to the Hobbit 50 at 50 list, for reasons of longevity, staying power and (most of all) enjoyment are

• Station Eleven by Emily St. James Mandel;
• The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu;
• Arkwright by Allen Steele;
• Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw;
• and The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale.

Thank you again to all for allowing me to continue this journey. (I’m working on the 2019 list…. 🙂 )

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