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OK, so, not very popular request... Count 'em on the fingers of one foot, probably. But wotthehell, archie, wotthehell. I have been asked what was worth reading recently, so here are my favourites of the new SF I've read in the two-thousand-and-noughties.
This is just the top 10, and it's from my ever-more-fallible memory. I fear there may well be some stellar stuff I've completely overlooked, and if so, I humbly apologise.
1. The Algebraist – Iain M Banks
What can you say about Banksie? The man actually genuinely is a genius – one of the greatest men of English letters in many decades, I feel. As well as mind-stretching settings and burning originality, beautiful prose and memorable characters, both sympathetic and not, he also has the trick of making it all look effortless. Stunning stuff. I love the earlier Culture books, but feel he has gone somewhat off the boil in more recent years, as if getting bored with the world he build. Thus a departure into a completely fresh, new one is very welcome. It's not a return to form – he's never lost his form – but it's fresher than anything since, or including, Excession.
( Read more... )
This is just the top 10, and it's from my ever-more-fallible memory. I fear there may well be some stellar stuff I've completely overlooked, and if so, I humbly apologise.
1. The Algebraist – Iain M Banks
What can you say about Banksie? The man actually genuinely is a genius – one of the greatest men of English letters in many decades, I feel. As well as mind-stretching settings and burning originality, beautiful prose and memorable characters, both sympathetic and not, he also has the trick of making it all look effortless. Stunning stuff. I love the earlier Culture books, but feel he has gone somewhat off the boil in more recent years, as if getting bored with the world he build. Thus a departure into a completely fresh, new one is very welcome. It's not a return to form – he's never lost his form – but it's fresher than anything since, or including, Excession.
( Read more... )
