nomadman
Sophomoric Mystic
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2007
- Messages
- 464
I don't like to order things like this, but these are my top ten best reads of the year:
The Human Factor - Graham Greene: one of the most finely crafted thrillers I've yet to read, with the conflicted characters, the masterful plotting and the wonderfully spare prose that I've come to love in Greene.
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies: first of the Deptford trilogy and a rich and intelligent novel about the strangeness and wonder of life when lived to the full. A novel I feel sure I'll be rereading at some point in the near future.
The Quiet American - Graham Greene: another great book from this masterful author, tense and fascinating, filmic in its pacing (it was twice adapted, though only the second is worth watching) leaving all sorts of residues in the memory.
Last Call - Tim Powers: best Powers novel I've yet read. Great fun though a tad overlong. Mixes all sorts of disparate elements together in a well-balanced brew.
White Apples - Jonathan Carroll: not the best Carroll book I've read but the best I've read this year. Contains all the Carroll traits, genteel prose, quirky characters, endless imagination.
The Final Reflection - John M Ford: a complex and surprisingly excellent novel set in the Star Trek universe, used as a basis for many of the elements of Klingon culture that were elaborated upon in much of the Next Generation.
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny: every so often I read a book that moves me to such extremes of emotion that I feel overwhelmed upon its completion. Lord of Light was one such book, and I feel enriched by its experience.
The Wandering Jew - Stefan Heym: a retelling of the popular myth set during three pivotal periods in Christian history, Christ's birth, the Lutheran revolution and the present age. Almost hallucinogenic at times in its ability to evoke the strangeness that lies at the periphery of life, yet retaining a discipline and down-to-earthness that prevents it from wandering into the misty borderlands of its mysterious protagonist.
Light - M John Harrison: a knotty and difficult read, but enlightening in the best way. Harrison's novel is both a celebration and a destruction of the most enduring science fictional tropes of the last fifty years; dark, depressing, grimy and at times hilarious, always daring in its goals.
The Book of Sand - Jorge Luis Borges: a Borges collection invariably makes it to my top ten list and this year is no exception. These stories, whilst lacking the brilliance of Fictions or the Aleph are nonetheless as rich and multilayered and meticulously crafted as anything he's written. And unlike his earlier writings there's a melancholy infusing the whole thing, a shadow of death and resignation that makes these stories poignant and at times heatwrenchingly good.
The Human Factor - Graham Greene: one of the most finely crafted thrillers I've yet to read, with the conflicted characters, the masterful plotting and the wonderfully spare prose that I've come to love in Greene.
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies: first of the Deptford trilogy and a rich and intelligent novel about the strangeness and wonder of life when lived to the full. A novel I feel sure I'll be rereading at some point in the near future.
The Quiet American - Graham Greene: another great book from this masterful author, tense and fascinating, filmic in its pacing (it was twice adapted, though only the second is worth watching) leaving all sorts of residues in the memory.
Last Call - Tim Powers: best Powers novel I've yet read. Great fun though a tad overlong. Mixes all sorts of disparate elements together in a well-balanced brew.
White Apples - Jonathan Carroll: not the best Carroll book I've read but the best I've read this year. Contains all the Carroll traits, genteel prose, quirky characters, endless imagination.
The Final Reflection - John M Ford: a complex and surprisingly excellent novel set in the Star Trek universe, used as a basis for many of the elements of Klingon culture that were elaborated upon in much of the Next Generation.
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny: every so often I read a book that moves me to such extremes of emotion that I feel overwhelmed upon its completion. Lord of Light was one such book, and I feel enriched by its experience.
The Wandering Jew - Stefan Heym: a retelling of the popular myth set during three pivotal periods in Christian history, Christ's birth, the Lutheran revolution and the present age. Almost hallucinogenic at times in its ability to evoke the strangeness that lies at the periphery of life, yet retaining a discipline and down-to-earthness that prevents it from wandering into the misty borderlands of its mysterious protagonist.
Light - M John Harrison: a knotty and difficult read, but enlightening in the best way. Harrison's novel is both a celebration and a destruction of the most enduring science fictional tropes of the last fifty years; dark, depressing, grimy and at times hilarious, always daring in its goals.
The Book of Sand - Jorge Luis Borges: a Borges collection invariably makes it to my top ten list and this year is no exception. These stories, whilst lacking the brilliance of Fictions or the Aleph are nonetheless as rich and multilayered and meticulously crafted as anything he's written. And unlike his earlier writings there's a melancholy infusing the whole thing, a shadow of death and resignation that makes these stories poignant and at times heatwrenchingly good.
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