Part 2 of our now traditional End of Year posts. This time its about Science Fiction Books.
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Mark Y: Like in the Fantasy / Horror novels I’m pleased to say that there’s been a lot of Science Fiction I’ve enjoyed this year. Again, choosing just five has not been easy.
So my 5 (in alphabetical order) are:
I’ve said in my reviews that I’m a Baxter fan, and although I’ve enjoyed them all to a degree this one feels like one of his best recently. A story that incorporates big science ideas across huge time scales with characters that seem logical. It was refreshing to read of science being taken seriously in a future world. It may not be for everyone but for those who like Baxter’s style this is a recommended read.
Miles Cameron – Artifact Space
This was my surprise of the year. Obviously being written by Miles, I was hoping for much, and boy did this one deliver. It managed old-school sensawunda but brought it bang up to date with contemporary twists. A real page-turner that kept me going over the minor niggles. Perhaps the one whose ending made me most want the next book NOW.
This may be my favourite book of the year. An emotional story of one boy and his robot that combined great characters and action with sentiment. The ending is a killer that really struck home, that felt like it really mattered for characters I loved.
Ken MacLeod – Beyond the Hallowed Sky
Ken’s latest is an intriguing start to a promising series. Lots of hints at things to come but with a terrific world-set-up and a distinctly Scottish tone that makes it appreciatively different. Politics, espionage, aliens and FTL all wrapped up in a story that builds momentum to a cracking ending and one that bodes very well for the rest of the series.
Brendan P. Bellecourt – Absynthe
A late entry this one, but a lot of fun. Art Deco meets Steampunk sensibilities. Since writing the review, I’ve discovered that ‘Brendan’ is also Bradley Beaulieu, not that that really matters. But it might explain why I liked it. Absynthe is fast-paced, gloriously exciting and deliberately baroque in its telling. Strangely prescient in a time of vaccinations and COVID, with enough for conspiracy theorists to appreciate.
Honorary mention goes to: Rian Hughes – XX (I caught up with this year. A huge book that is more than a book), The Essential Terrance Dicks Volumes 1 & 2 (a blast from the past for Doctor Who fans) and Louise Carey’s Inscape.
Rob Bedford: I didn’t read as much SF in 2021 as other branches of the genre, so the books I’d rank highly are aren’t quite as many as past years.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir https://www.sffworld.com/2021/06/project-hail-mary-by-andy-weir/
Weir has very potent narrative skills, he crafts an extremely compelling story making it very easy to breeze through thick chunks the novel in one sitting. Grace comes across as a likeable, if flawed protagonist. There’s, of course, a great deal of science involved in the narrative and it comes across quite nicely. It sometimes seems as if Weir goes a little too much out of his way to show us just how clever Grace is with some unnecessarily contrived situations. Some of what Grace experiences in the far reaches of space outside of our own Solar System as well as the looming threat of humanity’s end; however, is constructed magnificently with all the sense of wonder the Science Fiction genre is known to possess.
Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt https://www.sffworld.com/2021/02/doors-of-sleep-by-tim-pratt/
In Doors to Sleep, Tim Pratt has launched a fascinating series that effectively blurs the lines between science fiction and fantasy the way novels and stories from the earlier days of the genre do. The world-building is tantalizing and engaging, most of the new worlds Zax visits are places I as the reader would like to explore in more detail. However, there’s a strong modern sensibility to Pratt’s approach, especially with the characters he creates. He even throws in some twists near the end and sets the table for the next book in The Journals of Zaxony Delatree. This is a fun, entertaining SF adventure that manages to touch on a few important ethical issues along the way. I know I’m looking forward to where Zax’s story goes next.
Absynthe by Brendan Bellecourt https://www.sffworld.com/2021/12/absynthe-by-brendan-p-bellecourt/ , which aligns with Mark Yon’s top SF book
Bellecourt/Beaulieu sets quite a few pieces in motion, with a really interesting character journey, a cracking plot, and some really deep themes. The distrust of government has long been a theme of science fiction, but I don’t know, maybe in the last 5 years or so this seems even more of a theme of real life and there was a great deal of resonance. Setting the novel in a world perhaps adjacent to our own, but with strong echoes, allows Mr. B. to examine some of those themes in rather interesting and entertaining ways.
I enjoyed the hell out of this novel. Mr. B. has a knack for creating living, breathing, immersive worlds and that skill is on full display here in Absynthe. He also manages to create lightning rod characters who force you to give them attention. Lastly, his storytelling is so good because he manages to have such balance between those two important elements of storytelling – that is, the characters and world don’t overtake each other and work harmoniously together.
Mark C: Science Fiction is definitely my choice of genre, and it dominated my reading. I didn’t realise I’d read quite as many new releases as I had either, which is always a pleasant surprise. In no particular order, here are my top 5:
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A great first entry in a new space opera series by Tchaikovsky. I loved his first novel length venture into sci-fi with Children of Time, and I’m very pleased to see him continue to write in this genre. With easy prose and an engrossing story, Shards of Earth just this the spot for me, and it promises plenty to come in the next novel.
Adrift by W Michael Gear
This is the fifth book in the Donovan series, and it shows that there’s plenty of fresh ideas for this planet yet. Gear really hit the mark for me with the first novel, Outpost, and each subsequent story has delivered expectations with its depiction of a cruel and strange alien world, and how those living there get by, especially with space travel to the planet far from straight-forward and full of dangers.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This may be my book of the year, it’s just that good. Lonely astronaut faced with long odds in an attempt to save Earth isn’t something new, but this is fantastic. With all the science you’d expect from Weir along with a truly interesting story that gets better in the telling makes this perhaps even better than The Martian. Great stuff.
Day Zero by C Robert Cargill
A prequel to Sea of Rust (which in itself is an excellent stand-alone), Day Zero tells the story of how robot came to rule the Earth with humanity all but extinct. Often brutal and unforgiving, but never dull, here’s a story with heart and character in abundance.
Artifact Space by Miles Cameron
MarkY pretty much covers this one above, and that true sense of a modern space opera with a definite old school feeling makes this right up there this year. Roll on the sequel…
Honourable Mentions: Domesticating Dragons by Dan Koboldt, Spec Ops Z by Gavin Smith (a reprint of an earlier published story, but I’m sticking it in for this year regardless), Into the Light by David Weber & Chris Kennedy (sequel to Weber’s Out of the Dark – humanity and vampires team up to fend off and recover from an alien invasion), Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White (sequel to Cold Forge, and another top class Alien novel).
I am amazed that none of you picked Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells. It was another fun Murderbot book.
Hi Byron! Thanks for your comment.
You may know that these are personal views – we don’t try to mention everything in these End of Year reviews – we used to but it got too complicated! – but it is more about what we liked. We don’t review everything, of course, and personally as I’m in the UK some books (like Fugitive Telemetry) are quite hard to get hold of here, which means that I can’t really comment on them. (I really liked the early Murderbot stories, but am starting to feel a little like they have had their day. ) Not getting a review copy or a chance to buy does limit our reading choices a little, especially when we have so much to read. (Not complaining, btw!)
Nevertheless, others have said they liked it, and Martha did very well at the Hugos this year. It may be one I’ll get to at a later date.