Top Ten SF&F novels of the decade

[druidlover]

Thanks Starman, it sounds like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is my kind of book! (I love alternate histories!)

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Read American Gods and found it... interesting and enjoyable enough I guess. I did finish it after all. But I find that not a word of it stuck with me - I don't remember any of it.

Perdido Street Station was more memorable, probably because it was rather "freakier" and I really did like the monster. However, it left me with a surprising lack of desire to read anything else by the author much less a sequel.

Of the rest on the list I think I've only even HEARD of one of them much less seen any on a shelf anywhere. And people wonder why bookstores are struggling...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Really? Around here, I can't escape finding Norell & Strange- hardcover, softcover; black cover, white cover, red cover...

 

[Mallus]

The list should contain two books that were released/considered mainstream fiction but are both unabashedly science fiction, not to mention damn good.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It's starts as a historical novel, but one section takes place in a 23rd century Korean super-state and another in the post-apocalyptic ruins of Hawaii sometimes around the 30th century. One of the best books of the decade, period.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Steyngart. It's a love story set against the collapse of the US about 20 years from now. Totally dystopian, or at least semi-dystopian sci-fi, and hilariously funny to boot.

 

[TanisFrey]

I enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell myself. I really liked the fact that the author used 1800's language and got the US publisher to use the English spellings. This gave it a nice consistent feel with the time and place of the book.

 

[Umbran]

Not necessarily. It depends on how they did it and one can take that information and do an analysis to determine the accuracy of the poll. It is just statistics.

"Just statistics" makes it sound simple, when it isn't. Sometimes you can determine the expected error in the polling, which is more about determining precision. You can't determine accuracy unless you know something about the people who voted, and something about the population as a whole.

 

[GreyLord]

I've been spectacularly unimpressed with most of the Sci-Fi, fantasy novels over the past decade. For some of them they seem to have needless sex tossed in (books had that before, but not quite so meaningless or senseless in relation to what we need to know, some are even like women's porn..er...I mean romance novel approach in how they do it). Others are just not that interesting and cater more towards meaningless trivial details rather than a focused plot and character elements.

Most of the good Fantasy I read now seems to be from the 20th century instead of the 21st century.

In that light I find myself reading more typical fiction and non-fiction as most are written better and are far more interesting.

In my opinion of course.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another surprise for me was an absence of any of The Retrieval Artist novels by Kristine Kathryn Rusch…

Great series!

 

[Zaukrie]

I was disappointed The Lies of Locke Lamora was not on the list. Great book.

 

[Nylanfs]

I am surprised that nothing by David Weber was on that list. I would say that his Safehold series, starting with Off Armageddon Reef is simply phenomenal.

Also his Hell Gate series with Linda Evans (which he unfortunately won't be finishing with her) I would say should qualify at least in the upper 15.