Thirteen Years Later makes Booklist Best SFF for 2010

Great news! We just got the word that Jasper Kent's Thirteen Years Later made the Booklist Editor’s Top 10 Best SFF Books for 2010 (which will appear in Booklist's May 15, 2011 issue).

Aleksandr made a silent promise to the Lord. God would deliver him--would deliver Russia--and he would make Russia into the country that the Almighty wanted it to be. He would be delivered from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and from the pestilence that walketh in darkness--the terror by night...

1825, Europe--and Russia--have been at peace for ten years. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, ten or more years ago. His duty is still to serve and to protect his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but now the enemy is human.

However the Tsar knows that he can never be at peace. Of course, he is aware of the uprising fermenting within the Russian army--among his supposedly loyal officers. No, what troubles him is something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. The Tsar has been reminded of a promise: a promise born of blood...a promise that was broken a hundred years before.

Now the one who was betrayed by the Romanovs has returned to exact revenge for what has been denied him. And for Aleksei, knowing this chills his very soul. For it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he believed in and all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later...

The Dervish House Tops SF Site's Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010

SF Site has posted their Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010 and Ian McDonald's The Dervish House tops the list at # 1! They say:

"This is a novel of near-future Istanbul. It begins with a suicide bomber on a crowded tram, and follows the lives of 6 very different people whose lives are all affected by this incident, and whose paths intersect. One witness to the bombing thereafter begins to see djinni and saints; a young invalid witnesses the event through the eyes of a BitBot monkey, and witnesses someone else also spying remotely; this boy shares his concerns with a disgruntled professor who has been forced into retirement; another woman is delayed by the blast in her effort to get to a job interview and consequently takes a job that involves her in a nanoware company; an antique dealer is set on a quest to find a man mummified in honey -- something that may exist or may be mere legend -- while her boyfriend is planning a stock-market scheme of unprecedented proportions. The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010."

Meanwhile, time to update this page again.

Two Pyr Books Place in Fantasy Book Critics' Best of 2010

Mihir of Fantasy Book Critic has posted his Top Ten list. Mark Chadbourn's The Silver Skull makes #7 in his list of Top Ten Novels 2010. Mihir says:

The Silver Skull was Mark Chadbourn’s opening Salvo in the Will Swyfte Alternate Hist-Fantasy series. It was a much darker re-imagining of Victorian England and its battle with the Fey court who are as devious as legends foretell and deadlier than the human imagination. Bringing together a cast of characters and a quick paced plot MC fascinatingly showcases bits and pieces of history mingled with a fast paced storyline to give jaded readers a new series to follow and cheer for.

Meanwhile Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Son placed # 2 in his Top 10 Debut Novels list. He writes:

This book was another winner from Pyr who are fast becoming a stable for new fascinating authors. Jon Sprunk debuted with his tale of an assassin with a semblance of a conscience and a unique-ish partner. This tale was very fast paced and in spite of utilizing tropes it managed to give the readers a fresh feel. This book was my nomination for The David Gemmell Legend Award as I feel it best encapsulates DG’s book themes

The Dervish House: Adam Roberts' Best SF Novels of 2010

Locus Online has posted  Adam Roberts’ 10 Best SF Novels of 2010 and it's no surpise that Ian McDonald's The Dervish House makes the list. Adam has this to say:

"A rich, accomplished portrait of near-future Istanbul that may be is the best thing McDonald has written—and that’s saying something. It is the product of a writer at the top of his game: beautifully styled, complexly characterised and plotted without ever feeling heavy or dull. We move through interlinked worlds of Turkish commerce, industry, politics and the streetlife: half a dozen storylines are coiled together as neatly as DNA, each of them compelling and readable. McDonald manages to avoid the traps of condescension, or Orientalism, that lie in wait for the white Westerner writing about places that are neither of those things. A dervishly good book."

Pyr Dominates Elistist Book Reviews Best of 2010 list

Elitist Book Reviews have just published their Best of 2010 list, and we're thrilled to see books by David Louis Edelman, James Barclay, Tom Lloyd, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Sam Sykes, and Jasper Kent on the list. That's six out of thirteen authors, or ten out of seventeen books!

The full list:

GEOSYNCHRON by David Louis Edelman
James Barclay's novels -- ELFSORROW and SHADOWHEART
SWORDS & DARK MAGIC edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
THE RAGGED MAN by Tom Lloyd
Adrian Tchaikovsky's novels -- EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD, DRAGONFLY FALLING, BLOOD OF THE MANTIS and SALUTE THE DARK
MR. MONSTER by Dan Wells
TOME OF THE UNDERGATES by Sam Sykes
TWELVE by Jasper Kent
SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinette Kowal
THE BIRD OF THE RIVER by Kage Baker
BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis
NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR by Mark Charan Newton

For a round up of all the Best of 2010 lists Pyr has appeared on today, see this post.

SciFi Now Awards: The Dervish House & The Horns of Ruin

SciFi Now has announced its SciFi Now Awards for 2010:

Ian McDonald wins Best Novel for The Dervish House. SciFi Now writes, "Set in a near-future Turkey, the book explores a range of themes and ideas common to his novels - technology, social variance, politics and others - and manage to frame a tightly plotted narrative around it. After River of Gods, we weren't sure if McDonald would reach such heady heights again, but he's proven that he's more than capable of it here in this excellent release."

Tim Akers, Tim Akers, author of The Horns of Ruin, wins the Rising Star Award. SciFi Now writes "we expect big things from him over the next few years."

The Best of 2010 Steampunk Facebook Awards

Not a picture of Lou.

The steampunk page on Facebook has just announced "The Best of 2010 Steampunk Facebook Awards." They write, "The largest steampunk fan page on Facebook now has a set of yearly awards to acknowledge the best of the best, those people in the arts and other creative fields whose work has shone through above the rest or who hold the most worldwide popularity among the steampunk community for their work this year. As this is the first year of these awards, we will be taking into account the work that individuals have done over the course of the past decade when determining who to select."

I suppose I'll be needing a pair of brass goggles now as I've been named "Best Editor." But before I start affixing gears to all my gadgets, what this announcement really means is that someone appreciates all the wonderful steampunk books that Pyr has released in the last few months, books like The Ghosts of Manhattan, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The Greyfriar, The Horns of Ruin, and The Buntline Special. For my part, I certainly appreciate their authors.

The Dervish House: RUSU 2011 Recommended Reading List

According to Locus Online, Ian McDonald's The Dervish House has been selected as the science fiction recommendation in the 2011 Reading List from the Reference and User Services Association, as announced January 10, 2011 at the American Library Association.

io9's The 15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010

io9 has posted their list of The 15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010, and Ian McDonald's The Dervish House is on it. Oddly, they quote the BoingBoing review:

The Dervish House is set in 2027 Istanbul, in a future in which Turkey and the Queen of Cities have moved into the EU, where "the sick man of Europe" has boomed again, the center of a new practical nanotech revolution that has high-achieving school-kids and high-flying commodities traders snorting vials of tailored nano to help them cope with their days. Meanwhile, snappily dressed power-brokers sport nanofiber suit that shifts and shimmers in a luxuriant display of wealth and might.

One Monday morning, a suicide bomber boards a tram, touches a jewel on a curious collar fastened around her throat, and blows her own head off, sending it through the tram's roof, fountaining a geyser of blood over the morning commuters, but killing no one except the seemingly incompetent bomber. This grisly episode sets off a chain of events that intertwines the lives of several characteristically odd and engaging Ian McDonald characters.

Time to update this post again! 

RobWillReview: Counting Down My 11 Favorite Books of 2010

RobWillReview has just posted his year in round up. "Counting Down My 11 Favorite Books of 2010" has a whopping five titles.

Matthew Sturges places at #11 with The Office of Shadow. Rob writes:

"The Office of Shadow is the fantasy equivalent of cold-war-set spy-fi, detailing espionage occurring in Titania’s Seelie Kingdom as a means of protecting her people and lands from the wrath of the Unseelie Queen, Mab, and her weapon of mass destruction, the Einswrath....Through The Office of Shadow‘s fantasy construct, Sturges manages to examine a number of issues that affect our world, including nuclear weapons, the concept of mutually assured destruction, terrorism, and a needless war inspired by greed, not to mention a number of philosophical questions about such things as what defines a person, but what is most impressive about it is how he manages to never allow the parallels to seem heavy-handed or overwrought, through a combination of dazzling invention and meticulous, layered character development that keeps these fascinating people–or Fae, rather–from ever feeling flat or merely symbolic.  His Faerie–each different place and culture within it–is such a fully realized, magical dimension that it consistently transcends being a simple parallel for our world.  It comments on our world–on our wars, on our religion, on our mythology–but it is very much its own place."

Sam Sykes' Tome of the Undergates comes in at #9:

"...most advance buzz I read seemed to revolve around its extended battle sequences, its grittiness, its pirates and sea monsters, and its dark and at least slightly warped sense of humor that includes references to bodily functions of various sorts. What has been getting less attention, as far as I’ve noticed, however, is how gorgeous Sykes’ prose can be.  There are passages here of astounding beauty–sometimes serious, sometimes funny, sometimes deliciously purple, sometimes all of these things at once–and the fact that they are sometimes accompanied by fart jokes makes them no less beautiful.  Even some of the fart jokes are delivered with rare eloquence.  Part of Tome of the Undergates‘ brilliance is that it can be epic, crude, dark, silly, scary, violent, and surprisingly tender–often many of these things at once–without ever collapsing in on itself.  In some respects, it reminded me of Farscape, constantly navigating between high, operatic fantasy and naughty indulgences, each aspect of which seems to strengthen the other by keeping it in check.  The former never becomes too self-important or pompous, as the genre can be in less skilled hands, because the latter consistently brings it down to earth, while the latter is somehow afforded a respectability it might not otherwise have thanks to the epic plot in which Our Heroes find themselves embroiled. ...Tome of the Undergates captures the extremes of high and low fantasy and does both aspects better than most.  I am more than stoked for the second tome."

The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire Book One) by Clay and Susan Griffith, ranks # 7:

"I decided to read this novel, because I found the synopsis on the back cover intriguing, but it didn’t quite prepare me for how deeply in love with this book I would fall.  It has elements of alternate history, steampunk, war, politics, satire, adventure, action, graphic novel, romance, horror, suspense, and more, and yet all of these well-worn elements join together in a manner that is completely unique.  The pacing is perfect, the character development stunning, and the narrative twists and turns superb.  It also has an appealingly sly sense of humor that manages to infuse even its darkest sections with humanity and warmth.  It succeeds on every level and seems to invent whole new ones.  If you’ve grown tired of vampires and/or steampunk, The Greyfriar is the paradoxical cure for what ails you–a vampire steampunk novel that makes both genres feel shiny and new again."

The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn at #6:

"Faeries.  British Folklore.  Alternate Elizabethan History.  Magic.  Spies.  Political Intrigue.  Christopher Marlowe. If these fantastic components weren’t enough to get me excited about reading The Silver Skull, the first novel in the new Swords of Albion trilogy, the fact that Mark Chadbourn is the author sealed the deal.  An expert on British mythology and folklore, he is a master not only at crafting brilliant fantasy novels with complex characters and nail-biting suspense but ones which demonstrate the breadth of his knowledge without condescension or awkward exposition. Chadbourn is the rare sort of author who can layer a novel with history and mythology, teaching the reader a great deal along the way, without seeming as if he is delivering a lecture or lesson.  The information flows with the natural rhythms of dialogue.  His stories are rich from a plotting, characterization, mythological, and even philosophical standpoint, but he also never forgets that a good story’s first priority must be to entertain and then to enlighten."

 matthew
Mark Hodder's The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack at #3:

"...a dazzling work of steampunk that introduces one of the cleverest twists to the subgenre I have seen yet–the explanation for what paved the way in this universe for steam technology, among other innovations, to be invented is gobsmackingly fantastic.  Furthermore, these other innovations include such extremely witty satire on modern science and plastic surgery as eugenics experiments being performed on animals and humans to make them more efficient, and a forerunner to modern-day botox that inorganically and poorly staves off the effects of aging, reducing peoples’ faces to frightfully immovable masks....I’ve never read anything quite like The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack before, and my guess is that neither have you.  Imagine the best time travel story you’ve ever read crossed with the greatest B-movie ever filmed crossed with one of the most intelligently crafted, richly detailed alternate histories ever composed crossed with any number of oddball delights and shrewd political and social satire to boot, and you might have some idea of how ingenious this novel is, but even then you might have a hard time guessing how it can possibly all be tied together with such complex metaphor, grace, ingenuity, and depth."

Given how much Rob reads, I'd say 5 out of 11 is pretty impressive!

Guess I'll have to update my Best of 2010 post yet again!