40 Books From 2009 You Should Read
At an AggieCon panel this weekend, panelists Ellen Datlow, Scott Cupp and Jayme Lynn Blaschke named an excellent selection of books released last year that are more than worth a look. (I hope I captured them all!)
- A Blood of Killers by Gerard Houamer
- A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti
- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
- British Invasion edited by Christopher Golden, TIm Lebbon, and James A Moore
- Clockwork Phoenix 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness edited by Mike Allen
- Collected Stories by Lewis Shiner
- Drood by Dan Simmons
- Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett
- Everland and Other Stories by Paul Witcover
- Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
- Fugue State by Brian Evenson
- Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec
- He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Michael A. Arnzen Hellbound Hearts
- Hespira: A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn by Matthew Hughes
- Last Days by Brian Evenson
- Lovecraft Unbound edited by Ellen Datlow
- Madder Mysteries by Reggie Oliver
- Midnight Picnic by Nick Antosca
- Northwest Passages by Barbara Roden
- Phantom edited by Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace
- Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe edited by Ellen Datlow
- Powers: Secret Histories by John Berlyne
- Slow Sculpture: Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon by Theodore Sturgeon
- Tesseracts Thirteen: Chilling Tales of the Great White North edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell
- The Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene Wolfe
- The Best of Michael Moorcock by Michael Moorcock
- The Catacombs of Fear by John Llewellyn Probert
- The City & The City by China Mieville
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 1) by Roger Zelazny
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 2) by Roger Zelazny
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 3) by Roger Zelazny
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 4) by Roger Zelazny
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 5)by Roger Zelazny
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny (Volume 6) by Roger Zelazny
- The Dead That Walk: Flesh-Eating Stories edited by Stephen Jones
- The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes
- The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay
- The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Trips (Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg) by Robert Silverberg
Manual of Detection was fantastic. I so regret not doing a review of it when it was fresh in my mind. I am glad that it has won Berry an award and I hope to see the book up on other awards shortlists here soon. Boneshaker as well, what a fun story with a really interesting protagonist (Briar Wilkes). The Windup Girl is one off the list that I am wanting to read and I’ve read a lot of good things about A Book of Endings here recently.
I loved Midnight Picnic and Last Days… two hugely underappreciated novels from last year. Can’t recommend them enough. Very interested to read The Little Sleep, The Windup Girl, and A Blood of Killers, too.
Nice list, and it’s great to see Boneshaker made it. That was one of my two top books for 2009 – really a remarkable novel!
However, I’m disappointed that Stephen King’s Under the Dome isn’t there. That was my book of the year, and it may well be King’s masterpiece.
The audience was asked for books to add…King’s book (and some others) comepletely slipped my mind.