The books of 2000

1. Nightlamp - Jack Vance

This book is a shapeshifter. To begin with, it's a revenge mystery. A young man witnesses a sinister apparition kill his parents, and he yearns for revenge. After that it becomes a high-school drama with social adventures and a quest for The Girl™. Then he suddenly gets out into space and the revenge story resumes. This was a very uneven story, that actually never becomes either this or that. The vast vistas were lacking, and the bizarre and obnoxious characters were just annoying. Those books by Vance that I've read the last years have left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction and of them being unfinished and haphazardly written. Maybe Vance is a thing of my teens, the past now gone?

2,3,4. Riddlemaster of Hed - Patricia A. McKillip

I read a review of these books which made me interested. It promised something more than the usual. A fantasy deeper, more involved, than the usual pseudo-medieval crap of modern american values and ethics. In a way, I guess that is what I got. McKillip is good, no doubt about it. But something is lacking. I read of the misfortunes, the secrets of ages past revealed, and while still fantastic there is something hard and strange about these books. The land itself speaks and somehow the protagonist is searching for not just the answer, but also the questions. I think these books have something, but I'm not sure what it is. Well worth your time, but I don't think I liked them.

5. City - Clifford D. Simak

6. Solar Lottery - Philip K. Dick

This is a really interesting read. It starts with bad omens, clearly showing that the futuristic world in Solar Lottery is indeed a strange one. After a while we even find out that this society is a "feudal" system of a sort, where oaths of fealty are sworn to politically potent characters. It's a weird setting and strangest of all is the Solar Lottery which makes a single person the ruler of the solar system. As fast as a winner is announced though, the assassins starts to hunt. Strange things happen, and after reading the "for Dickheads only" fanzine I realized that this wacky story with odd sideplots actually was very deliberately structured and could be read on many levels. As always, Dick provides a lot of story, "human" characters and more than meets the eye.

8. Gloriana, or The Unfullfill'd Queen - Michael Moorcock

In this book Mike has written his big homage to Peake. At least that's how I felt. It's set in the fabled land of Albion, a kind of fairyland England. The main characters are all colourful personalities and the line between good and evil is fuzzy. Everyone has secrets, schemes abound in the kingdom. The Queen, Gloriana, is the focus of everything and her health and mood is reflected upon everyone and everything. She is like the great castle of Gormenghast in herself. At first I felt that this sparkling and wordy prose was too much like the verbal diarrhea of Peake, but it soon turned out appropriate for the setting in this jolly and almost Dickensian adventure. It's not just a melodramatic tale of love and conspiracy, it's that and more in a way that is very much Moorcock. He has a way of telling stories, wonderful stories, that turn and swell with the tides of his plots. This is a good one, and as always told with wit and a firm grasp of a fluid and elegant prose. And since this is a moral tale of fairyland, you'll of course be able to read it all as a marvelous allegory.

7. The Real Story -- The gap into conflict
9. Forbidden Knowledge -- The gap into vision
27. A Dark and Hungry God Arises -- The gap into power
29. Chaos and Order -- The gap into madness
34. This Day All Gods Die -- The gap into ruin - all by Stephen R. Donaldson

Of theese books can be said one thing. They are far from easy and light entertainment. They exhaust you.
I actually don't know whether I like the books or not!

10. The Jewels of Aptor - Samuel R. Delany

Delany charmed the science fiction reading world when he started publishing. This is one of his early tales. It's a post apocalyptic world, filled with both strange cults and mysterious remains of a forgotten past. The writing is excellent and the atmosphere is great. The characters are always very human in books by Delany and you want to know them better. This was a delight to read, but the ending left me puzzled. It has both magic and technology and

11,12,13. Black Company (Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose) - Glen Cook

Good Lord why isn't more fantasy like this! Three books about a mercenary company and their sufferings, pains and small moments of glory. It's gritty and harsh and not at all like Tolkien and other high fantasy authors. I really like the fact that the main characters work for what's usually classified as bad guys and do it because they got paid better that way! Some people think the books' grey world of moral ambiguity is boring or just plain wrong. I think they are a refreshing breath since you actually get to think about why the heroes do the things they do and if it's right or wrong. Never is the truth spelled out, and never is there an easy answer lying about. Just like the real world. For those who like their fantasy with a lot of doom and dark humour this is it. There is hope and maybe even a small glimmer of hope, but it will take some fighting to make everything work out. And believe me, some characters are downright scary. Recommended!

14. Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks

After reading Excession and The Player of Games I can only say that even good authors have their bad books. This is a wild chase over the galaxy in the midst of a war, looking for a missing Mind. It feels a lot like Banks wanted to blow things up. He does that a lot in this book. Some scenes are unnecessary and one is just gross. Lot's of blood and gore. Ignore this one, or just read the part where they blow up an Orbital. Then go read The Player of Games which is better paced and even has a strong message and makes you think. This one stinks (OK then, stinks is to harsh a word - but it smells funny).

15. Galactic Pot-healer - Philip K. Dick

This is not one of the more serious book of PKD. In fact, I don't know if can say much intelligible about it at all! Well, a few of the recurrent themes pop up again. There's a strong gnostic taint to this book, and if it weren't for the almost comical god-from-outer-space you might be tempted to say this is almost a Cthulhu mythos story in some sense. As usual, the protagonist of this book is a bum, a common man whose life is in shambles or just plain dull. He and some other people get shipped away to another world, constantly manipulated by Glimmung, a being of vast power who lives in the depth of the ocean world. He does combat amongst himself and you never really know if he is just playing some elaborate practical joke on their expense or if it is a cosmic conflict at play. This is probably the most weird stuff PKD ever wrote. That's always something.

16. The Ballard of Beta-2 - Samuel R. Delany

This is one of the early novels of Delany which didn't get popular until he had published Babel-17. It's a bit simple, but well crafted. Basically it's a story about some generation ships, what they encountered and how they were found again. Even at this early age Delany was already very skilled at portraying people from various walks of life. He also wrote well of different worldviews meeting and how the worlds collide. Poetry and art as always has a point to play. The wrappings are of basic pulp adventure, but you can see the gem glimmer within. Delany was just starting, and yet, he was already good. Expressive language and a knack for getting two points across at once. A fun read and not as intellectually taxing as some of his later works.

17. Ancient Shores - Jack McDevitt

McDevitt seems to have made himself a genre of his own. Big object of some kind gets found and after a lot of fuss and exploring the characters don't know much more than they did from the beginning. Of course, he is not the first to write stories like that, but he has made quite a few of them. Just like in The Engines of God he describes some interesting people and their confrontation with the unknown. I just wish he for once would explain what is going on and solve the mystery! Not so in this novel, the mystery is a catalyst and not the focus in in itself. Still good sf, though.

18. Själamässa för en konstgjord - Bertil Falk

I bought this since it's published by one of the few publishers in Sweden doing sf today (the only one?). Admittedly, I do have a weak spot for religious sf so that's always a factor. :) Anyway, the writing is crude and feels a lot like bygone days. This is what sf looked like a long time ago. Even though I feel that today authors often dwell on every detail in order to be able to write 1000 pages of nothing, this is a little too economical with the words! Bascially the story is interesting, about humanity and what constitutes a human. Do androids have souls? Interesting questions, which should be handled with more flair. Still, there are some points in this book which shine.

19. Neverness - David Zindell

This is a big novel. This novel feels a lot like the author has planned his future history for a long time and big works are up ahead. I really can't say much about it. It's a pretty obscure journey into a far future of mystical mathematics and a stagnant culture from earth's past. And David Zindell probably loves coffee. I have never read such a exquisite loveful prose about coffee as this before! The only thing I can say about it is that if you like slow moving, thoughtful stories like Gene Wolfe's masterpiece Book of the New Sun, then you'll probably like this. I know I did.

20. Martian Time-slip - Philip K. Dick

So, this is the famous novel. I have the first edition, for which I paid quite a lot of money which I don't regret, but I must say I really don't understand why this is so famous. Some Dick-ian kind of plans for real estate fraud using a clairvoyant child and some other fun oddities, but then? Maybe I have to re-read it later. It didn't do much for me right now. But I still thing PKD is great. Maybe he drowned in the backwater of Neverness, it was a big beast which followed me awhile.

21. Camp Concentration - Thomas M. Disch

Another disappointment. Having read an interview with Disch I was very interested in reading this book. He writes about WWIII, when some guys is in this experiment which gives them syphilis and while killing them enhances their intelligence. I think that the part when their intelligence skyrockets wasn't that well thought out and it all felt a lot like Disch just wanted to show off some of his own poetry. I'm not sure I share his views about what superior intelligence manifests and how it ought to be handled in litterature. Actually, it felt more like being drunk reading about these people with an IQ of 400.

22. Tiger, tiger (A.K.A. The Stars My Destination) - Alfred Bester

If this book had been published 10 years ago it would have been a good story, filled with fun ideas but cardboard thin sketches of people. The book was published something like 45 years ago and must have been a explosion in the field of science fiction. Many fancy ideas now common made their apperance in this book about a man filled with anger about being left for dead in the cold of space and his quest for revenge. The plot is actually fairly simple and loosely modeled on The Count Monte Cristo by Dumas. Many have said that this book has meant a lot for their own writing, like Michael Moorcock, and many others feel its one of the best they've read. It actually still work pretty well and only the behavior of the main characters feels really stiff and fifties. A classic, I think it will be remembered but the more you know of genre history the more you'll probably like it. Try reading it right after one of it's contemporaries, it ought to be an eye opener.

23. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Another classic, once published as a novella and later fleshed out to be a novel. I've hear that it's supposed to be much better in it's original form but I think it's just purism talking and some amount of snobbism.I have a hard time seeing this getting any better either by being longer or shorter. It's a moving tale about a retarded man, Charlie Gordon, who undergoes surgery and a lot of training to be intelligent. His only friend is one of the lab mice, Algernon, whose development we'll follow throughout the book. The pair if manipulated and developed and after some time they realize the world is not like they thought. After being a retard he suddenly knows how it is to be just like everyone else and how much hate and scorn he had to put up with before, without understanding. It's a story about growing up fast and in a cruel way understand how you are somebody else. Soon both are super intelligent for their species and the megalomania is the next step. The final cruel development comes when Algernon dies and they realize that the time is short before Charlie will fall from grace, again. When the novel closes he has been through hell and seen all the petty stuff going around amongst humans. He doesn't die, but decends once more into the darkness of idiocy. I cried when this happened, even though I knew before how it would end. It's powerful, moving and and an unforgettable story about a man learning who is is, what he could be and to loose everything again. As I said, I cried after reading it and that doesn't happen often. I think you should read this book.

24. The Tower of Fear - Glen Cook

This is the book to read if you like me think that to many books are to thick! It's just one book and still contains everything a good fantasy novel should. Cook writes well and has a way of getting his message across almost like the master R.E. Howard himself. The villains are properly motivated and the setting is rich and exotic. Many names has a middle eastern flavour and everything feels properly fantastic with strange societies fighting for control and old magics threatening. Cook writes a grittier fantasy than most and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you like Howard.

25. Ars Moriendi - konsten att dö - Pål Eggert

A strong debut from a friendly Swede called Pål. A gothic fantasy of convents, nuns and dragons. The title is latin and basically means - The art of dying. It's a moodpiece, and it's pretty well written. Short and to the point a lot still happens, characters gets the opportunity to face death and do some pondering over the moral choices of their lives. I think I liked it.

26. The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman

28. The Wake - Neil Gaiman

30. Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany

One of the early tales, a short novella. Some memorable scenery and fantastics vistas. Once in a awhile it reminds you of Vance in his better moments. That Delany was still pretty young is evident but it shows a master of language growing and a amazing fantasy feel of space adventure.

31. The Seventh Scroll - Wilbur Smith

32. Moonshadow - John Marc DeMatteis & Jon J Muth

A graphic novel about a young boy and his really strange adventures in a universe which looks like and feels like wonderland for adults. Floating, glowing globes of light mate with human females and big foul-mouthed creatues mastrubates, burps and shows out hero a good time around the galaxy. It's totally whacko and both fun and disturbing. It's kind of a hippie world filled with tenderness and universal harmony and friendship at the same time as it's about space war, betrayal and the darker sides yourself by growing up as an spiritual individual. DeMatteis writes strange stuff and I'm not entiredly sure I've understood what it's about actually. It doesn't feel like I can describe it. The paitings are done in watercolours, smooth and light and very pretty. It's a very talky book for those wanting to read a "comic" and the quality of both writing and painting shows that this is a work of love about something that DeMatteis cares strongly about. Probably one of the best "comic books" out there (together with the works of David Mack).

33. Star Rigger's Way - Jeffrey A. Carver

Space adventure. Go There. Fetch Stuff. Go There. Start as two persons forced upon each other and become frinds in the end. This is a simple book, nothing to write home about. Skip it and file the name "Carver" as not worth reading.

35. Han som älskade livet - Irving Stone

A bestselling biography on Vincent van Gogh. Paints a broad picture of a strange man who looked upon the world with some odd eyes. I think you'll like it if you like biographies. The only thing I really never felt was adressed was his "unstable frame of mind". Was he insane or just plain sick and under a lot of creative stress? Maybe it's questions like that which make Stone do this in Vincents own words. He was a facinating man.

36. Castle of Eyes - Penelope Love

This is what happens when someone tries to write a novel inspired by a story they read and loved. This is very much Gormenghast, but it's much faster paced and there's a lot of things happening. If you want to like that novel and couldn't, then try Castle of Eyes instead. Otherwise you might go ask Penelope Love of maybe Michael Moorcock what's so good about Gormenghast anyway.

37. Stardust - Neil Gaiman

38. De sju timmarna i paradiset - Theodor Kallifatides

Once in a while I feel like reading a contemporary novel from the established cultural elite in Sweden. Once in a while you feel cheated, sometimes you actually finds a good book. This is a novel which feel like it was written by a very tired old man. It's good, friendly and feels almost like people you know. Then comes the end and Kallifatides cheats us of a good novel by just ending it with no wrapping up, no catharsis and no point of it all. Make up your own.

39. The Sparrow - Doria Maria Russell

40. The Thief of Always - Clive Barker

This is a fairy tale. It's a fairy tale told by Clive Barker so it's sometimes not very cute, not very much like Hollywood. This is a good story about the magic places in everyday. It's short, cleverly thought out and has all the trappings. I almost wish I had some children to read this one for.Oh, please remember! fairy tales are not kid stuff, not this kind. It's not Hollywood crap. It's good. Well worth reading!

41. Stations of the Tide - Michael Swanwick

42. Silverheart - Michael Moorcock & Storm Constantine

43. Blade #5, Okända Faror - Jefferey Lord

No fun. No good story. A lot of things just happend haphazardly and even the sex and fight scenes felt un-inspired. Eric van Lustbader does sex-and-violence much better.

(44. Battleaxe - Sara Douglass) finished in 2001