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The Monstrous and the Marvelous by Rikki Ducornet (1999)


A few months ago in a post at FBS Victoria asked me about current female writers I enjoyed, who I thought were also among the best writers currently in fiction. I really drew a blank (although I did mention L. Timmel Duchamp). It’s not a question I’m asked a lot, but the one should have mentioned (quickly) was Rikki Ducornet - who really represents for me the ideal ‘artist’ that I like to think is at the core of every writer. This is a set of essays by Ducornet, a journey into the mind of an artist while regarding art (and other things).

Alas, the other Ducornet works I have read were written before a decade ago (her Phosphor in Dreamland is an all time favorite of mine) - and a list like this that doesn’t include her would have very little validity.
The Scar by China Mieville (2002)


Reaction to The Scar has always been one of the most interesting things to observe for me in genre circles. Perdido Street Station gave Mieville a bit of rock and roll star status and this follow-up had as many people anticpating it for its possibilities as it had people waiting for a fall. I think there was a fall, personally I prefer Perdido Street Station, but I think Mieville had enough seperation to fall and still remain above the pack. The Scar is one of those books that on retrospect it’s not too hard to find points of frustration with text or angles to disect and improve upon it, yet these aspects never occured to me while I actually reading the book - I think this was one of the great pure adventure novels in recent memory! The high seas, leviathans, vampires, alientech-swords, spies, pirates, mosquito people, groovy mystical artifacts - and social commentary wrapped in one of a kind Mieville prose. What else can one ask for? Is there anything else?

I’m think I’m going to change my name to Japan H.P. Kafka.
Words Are Something Else by David Albahari (1996)


A collection from an author who has recently received some acclaim for Gotz and Meyer (which I haven’t read - I have never really been too fascinated with Nazi/concentration camp related fiction). A local here actually put me on to Albahari, and whoa! Highly introspective, but from different sources, at the same distant but in front of you. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s also a deep one, where Albahari spins personal, and regionally relevant fiction with equal skill using the surreal or mundane. It’s one of those books that later made me mroe wary of the person who recommended it than I was before - the person was smarter than I first realized.
Minions of the Moon by Richard Bowes (2000)


First, shadow/doppelgangers are very cool. Whether as recently in Park’s A Princess of Roumania or works by Auster, Chabon, Nabakov etc, The Bodhisattva likes Doppelgangers and Bowes’ Fred is no exception. In fact a doppelganger named Fred might be the epitimy of cool. More than that, Bowes lay the groundwork for what we later come to know him far - tacking real life not with fantasy, but tackling fantasy with real life, emphasizing real. I mentioned this in my review of his From the Files of the Time Rangers - but nobody puts you in setting like Bowes, he doesn’t just take you there - this guy is like walking on to a holo-deck.
Black Glass by Karen Joy Fowler (1997)


A collection that conveniently includes some stories from Fowler’s earlier collections. I think John Clute just says everthing you need to know about Fowler:

"Her stories are not snapshots. They are what happens to snapshots."

If my name was Japan H.P. Kafka I think I could say something deep like that to.

Leviathan III by Forrest Aguirre and Jeff Vandermeer (2002)


This is my favorite anthology, and bless it’s heart because I can get away with a brief reasoning: Jeffrey Ford, Zoran Zivkovic, Michael Moorcock, Tamar Yellin, Rikki Ducornet, Carol Emshwiller, Stepan Chapman - and more all in top form.

There aren’t too many geat anthologies anymore. Remeber all the hype for the Legends stuff? I liked it because they had some necessary reads from authors like a Martin in them (Martin fans will buy anything that includes something aSoIaF related - and rightfuly so), but they define uneven stories. Most of them were big names, who never could write anyway and were out of element in the short form. With Leviathan you have collected some of the best in the business.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (2006)


Let’s ruffle feathers! A caper novel? A fun novel? Wait a minute, isn’t this an adventure? What is this, an enjoyable read that can have wide appeal?

Fuck that!

If you think those are actual detractions than you’re an idiot. I don’t know about anyone else but one of my main goals - a daily goal - is to maximize my enjoyment and have fun. This is Fritz Leiber after watching Reservoir Dogs and that can’t possibly be bad.

The Gentleman Bastards are an institution - someone give me an official T-Shirt.

The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen (1996)


Conspiracy! There is some possible fudging here, I am told this could have been written in 1994-1995, but my edition says 1996 and it’s close enough (and damn straight it’s worthy enough) to get a pass. The Bodhisattva took one year of meditative hibernation thus it becomes the 10 year + 1 list. I was browsing Amazon one day and for some reasons I clicked on one of those Listmania links accidently and it leads me to a list by some guy named Jeff VanderMeer. This list would eventually lead me to some damn good reading (some on this list like Cisco). The gem on the list is this work by Hansen. Many books purposelly attempt to involve and manipulate emotions, other try to appeal to intellectual sensibilities - Hansen does both while exhibitnig the capabilites of fantasy we all have and never allowing that fact to unties itself from reality. I think this books is 10x better than Crowley’s Little, Big which I view as a fundamental cornerstone of modern fantasy.
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (1998)


My historical fiction taste is something I can’t really define. I could never get into Cornwell because I couldn’t shake the feeling I was reading the the David Webber or Terry Brooks of historical fiction (for those needing clarity - not a good thing). It could be said I’m not very current with my knowledge when it comes to historical fiction, but I do know I enjoyed this effort by Pressfield, a soldier’s perspective of Thermopylae.
Air by Geoff Ryman (2004)


If you are a fan of SF/F and have been alive in the last year you have heard of Air, it was the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, and the British SF Award. It’s a book that may not have been everyone’s first choice, but one nobody can complain about after the fact. Ryman’s evaluation of a third world nation’s - real people not a term most just hear on CNN - and the effects of a technology that it literally the global tsunami of popular culture is perhaps his best book yet (and that’s not a marginal statement, as he also wrote The Child Garden, Lust, and Unconqured Countries) and who doesn’t like a talking dog?

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