2006 Wrap-Up

(2006 finished...updated for 2007 and probably for 2008!)

(For thoughts several months after I originally wrote this, see below the fold.)

So here we are. 85 books completed. What were the best of the year?

Tops on my list are actually novels that are not (gasp) science fiction. Patrick O'Brian contributed three novels to my list this year, all three were smashing good sea yarns of the first water.

In the non-fiction department, Jefffrey Kluger's Journey Beyond Selene tops the list. It's an excellent tale of the various unmanned probes that we've launched.

What about short fiction? Given over 700 items read, is it possible to just pick a few?

Gregory Benford: Bow Shock. I read (and re-read) a lot of short stuff by Benford this past year. This story, making its first appearance in the first issue of Jim Baen's Universe is a great hard SF tale, showing how science "really works" and featuring some nicely drawn characters. One of the best I read all year.

John W. Campbell: Several of the stories that appeared in A New Dawn (one of NESFA's usual high-quality collections) have long been my favorites.

Jack Dann: DaVinci Rising.

David Drake, Eric Flint and Jim Baen (editors): The World Turned Upside Down. Probably the best multi-author collection I read during the year. Get it for your bookshelf! You won't regret it!

Paul Di Filippo: A Year in Linear City.

David Drake: The Darkness. Another story from the first issue of Jim Baen's Universe. Excellent military SF tale and one of the best short stories I read all year.

Bud Sparhawk: Jake's Gift stuck in my mind. I don't even know if you could call it science fiction, despite its appearance in Analog. Nice small package, great characters, one interesting idea.

So what about 2007? As you can see by looking at the list of short stories read in 2006, I did not complete several anthologies. We're here in August, and I still have completed several anthologies! What's the scoop? I attribute this to several personal events (family health, the home improvement project from heck, etc.), but also reading/reviewing fatigue. Reading and reviewing (for the most part) 700-odd stories left me tired of short stories. I've got to try and balance the desire to write a good entry on an anthology and not "slight" any story in an anthology with the reality that it gets kind of hard to keep writing something other than "I really like this story" again and again.

So I may finish those unfinished anthologies in the remainder of the year. Or I may boot it all forward one year.

I also had plans to tackle several future history/serial universe collections such as Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization and James Schmitz's Hub series. I've started some stuff in each, but haven't written any summaries or postings. More time was spent this year taking down the old blog and re-posting stuff here, than writing new entries.

That will, hopefully, change now! This represents the last reading-related entry from the old blog so I can move forward with postings of the stuff I read this year (that I haven't already reviewed). And...maybe I can pump up the short story count, write that essay on military fiction that I keep fiddling with, etc., etc., etc.

I think it is better not to make any more reading plans going forward. Every time I make a plan ("I'm going to read all the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series books this year!") it gets scuttled shortly after the year begins. Better to let serendipity take me where it will.