2014 Favorite Reads

A wealth of great things happened on the page this past year — sometimes serving as a balm or a fuse for dealing with world events.

2014 bookshelf pic (selected links below) — Lots more wonderful books here!

 

As usual, I’m scattershot about keeping track of my goodreads. I wibbled about short stories, novellas, novellettes and novels here on these very pages. I shared what-I’m-reading posts at the Between the Bookends columns hosted by Geekmom. And, to my great delight, my review of Eileen Gunn’s Questionable Practices was published at the New York Review of Science Fiction.

Amazing reads, short and long, content across all age ranges and appropriateness levels. I read the entire Hugo short story slate as well this year, in order to participate on the Loncon3 Hugo short story panel. From that list, if you haven’t yet, read John Chu’s The Water that Falls on You from Nowhere, and Ellen Klages & Andy Duncan’s Wakulla Springs, which won Hugo and a World Fantasy Awards respectively this year. See also, Aliette de Bodard’s The Waiting Stars, Catherynne M. Valente’s Six Gun Snow White, and Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut of Mars. (coffee-broken editor’s note: Hugo Winning Lady Astronaut of Mars)

As always, I know I’ve forgotten things. I’ll be moving novellas and novellettes around all day because I’m just that organized. And there’s a bunch on the TBR pile I haven’t gotten to yet.

Ready? Here we go… 

Novels:

The Goblin Emperor. Katherine Addison (Tor 2014)
Shield and Crocus, Michael Underwood (47North 2014)
Steles of the Sky Elizabeth Bear, (Tor 2014)
The Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff Vandermeer (FSG 2014)
Ghost Train to New Orleans (Orbit, 2014), Mur Lafferty
Three Parts Dead (Tor 2014) & Full Fathom Five (Tor 2014), Max Gladstone
Ancillary Sword (Orbit, 2014), Ann Leckie
Delia’s Shadow (Tor 2013) & A Barricade in Hell (Tor, 2014), Jaime Lee Moyer, Tor 2014
Tropic of Serpents (Tor 2014), Marie Brennan
Sister, Mine Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central, 2013)
The Republic of Thieves, Scott Lynch (Del Rey 2014)
The Angel of Losses, Stephanie Feldman (Ecco 2014)

Early 2015 Books (all but one, courtesy of Tor):
Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear, Tor 2015
A Darker Shade of Magic, Victoria Schwab, Tor 2015
Time Salvager, Wesley Chu, Tor 2015
The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again, A.C. Wise, Lethe Press, Summer 2015

Collections:

The Time Traveler’s Almanac, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Tor, 2014)
The Best of Connie Willis (Del Rey, 2013)
Questionable Practices, Eileen Gunn (Small Beer Press, 2014)
21st Century Science Fiction, David M. Hartwell & Patrick Nielsen Hayden, eds (Tor, 2014)
Kaleidescope, Edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein (12th Planet Press, 2014)
Women Destroy Science Fiction, edited by Christie Yant (Lightspeed, 2014)
Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow and Laird Barron (ChiZine, 2014)
Reach for Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Solaris, 2014)
The Other Half of the Sky edited by Athena Andreadis (Candlemark & Gleam, 2013)

Novellas:
The Mothers of Vorheesville, Mary Rickert, Tor.com
Palm Strike’s Last Case – Charlie Jane Anders, F&SF July
The Tallest Doll in New York City, by Maria Davana Headley. A Valentine from Tor.com.

Novelettes:
Sleep Walking Now and Then by Richard Bowes, Tor.com
The Insects of Love – Genevieve Valentine, Tor.com
Siobhan Caroll, The Year of Silent Birds Beneath Ceaseless Skies
A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i – Alaya Dawn Johnson, F&SF July

Short Stories:
This Chance Planet Elizabeth Bear, Tor.com
Belly, Haddayr Copley-Woods, F&SF
Stone Hunger, N.K. Jemisin Clarkesworld
We, As One, Trailing Embers – E. Catherine Tobler, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Ink of My Bones, Blood of My Hands Vylar Kaftan, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
The Panda Coin (reprint), Jo Walton, Lightspeed
Allosaurus Burgers, Sam J. Miller, Shimmer
Migratory Patterns of Underground Birds, E. Catherine Tobler, Clarkesworld
Undermarket Data, An Owomoyolea, Lightspeed
Codename Delphi, Linda Nagata, Lightspeed
21 Steps to Enlightenment (Minus One), LaShawn Wanak, Strange Horizons
Snakebit, Amanda Downum, Strange Horizons
How to Get Back to the Forest Sofia Samatar, Lightspeed
Shatterdown, Suzanne Palmer, Asimov’s
A Stretch of Highway, Two Lanes Wide, Sarah Pinsker, F&SF
Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown, Michael Swanwick, Asimov’s
Rules of Engagement, Matthew Johnson, Asimov’s
The Earth and Everything Under, by K.M. Ferebee, Shimmer
Polynia, by China Mieville, Tor.com (link not working)
The Devil in the Details, by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, Tor.com
Lipstick, by Valya Lupescu, Gone Lawn
Resurrection Points – Usman T. Malik, Strange Horizons
Combustion Hour – Yoon Ha Lee, Tor.com
The World Resolute – E. Catherine Tobler, Strange Horizons

MG & YA: 

EXO, Steven Gould (Sequel to Jumper et. al) (Tor 2014)
The Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages (Puffin, 2008)
Silence of the Six, E.C. Myers (Adaptive, 2014)
17&Gone, Nova Ren Suma (Dutton 2013, Speak 2014)
Un Lun Dun China Mieville (Del Rey, 2008)

Nonfiction:

What Makes This Book So Great – A selection of Jo Walton’s re-readings from across the science fiction and fantasy bookshelf. Does exactly what it says on the tin. (Tor, 2014)
Stories about Stories -Brian Attebery, (Oxford University Press, 2014)

What about you? As 2014 draws to a close, what stands out on your reading lists?

Nota Bene: I’m a Tor author, and my work has been published in Asimov’s, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and by some of the editors mentioned above.