The books of 2012

1. Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick

The plot never really gets anywhere in this book, but it has those interesting qualities of throw away ideas that Dick sprinkles his novels with. The drug Can-D and Chew-Z are they just halluciogens? Do they transport you to another world? Frankly, the question becomes uninteresting when it is such a maze of worlds within worlds and you in the end no longer care. Is god evil? Well, it is all so surreal and vague the big questions gets lost in the hallucionary terrain, where Palmer Eldritch shows up in every face in the end. Kind of meh.

2. Issoa - Steven Brust

Very cool and funny, as usual. It was a bit too much with the travel to another world and the gods fighting over a sea of raw magic. Vlad is best when it's human concerns.

3. Orbit 1 - Damon Knight ed.

A motley collection of stories in an anthology series that was very influential. I think I expected more from it. A few stories were good, like the Poul Anderson one. He is a good writer, and can craft a story. Some of the others were just silly, like the Kangaroo Court one. Most were just bland. Disch was good, though. Really good. It hurt. I could have ignored the rest.

4. In praise of shadows - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

A very peculiar book. Written as it is in 1933 it is kind of scary with it's "volkisch" feel to it. On the other hand, it is slightly whimsical and argues for a "back to basics" from a purely aesthetical view, which is kind of interesting. It's architechture and art from the point of view of shadows, and of how to emphasize the strange and mysterious. I'm really split on this one. It's both strangely compelling and repulsive.

5. Wild Cards I - George R.R. Martin ed.

I am bored by supers, but this promised to be different. It was. It was more like alternate history with some human drama based on strange powers. I liked how it took some real political issues, issues about liberty and hate crime. I liked that stuff, even though some of it was depressing. In the end it was getting kind of repetetive, but I still liked it all and ended it before it got long in the tooth. Funnily enough it was aparently based on ideas from a rpg campaign of Superworld! Kind of fun.

6. Dzur - Steven Brust

This was a good one. Vlad is fighting not for his own hide, but for Cawthi, and is back in Adrilankha. Many factions, the usual intrigues and this time the story is structured around a meal. Just like Dragon, we see each chapter with a specific feel to it and framed by the dish right now enjoyed. I became quite hungry reading this book! In the end Vlad gets to meet his son! Not as rip roaring as some others, but I found I really had missed Adrilankha. For once, the set of characters is quite small. Mostly it's just Vlad and Loiosh. Not bad. Now I want more.

7. The Adventures of Alyx - Joanna Russ

I've hear mention of Russ' Alyx stories a long time, and since I have some respect for Joanna Russ as a capable and intelligent writer I decided to take these stories on. I wasn't that fond of them. The biggest problem is that they are slightly detached. It feels like the author sometimes is too present with a slightly ironic tone, and very often we get a story told from a perspective of someone who just look at Alyx, not from Alyx herself. These stories might be important from a certain point, but I found them to be slightly boring. I think I preferred the more emotionally charged The Female Man.

8. Empire of Bones - Liz Williams

I wanted to read this, since I have a soft spot for speculative fiction with an Indian bent. This time it was very much a story about general human values. At the same time, it was kind of refreshing to see a take of colonialism, gender, social conflict which managed to have the aliens be both humans and non-humans. I especially liked how Williams managed to have them mirror and reflect each others in intriguing ways. The plotting was good, and the theme was strong and well thought out. I liked it. Very high yuck factor about the alien tech with spores, viruses and living buildings.

9. Peace - Gene Wolfe

This is just a story of an old man reminiscing his life and telling of stories he heard as a kid. It's strangely engaging though little happens. It's a human story with some both touching and funny moments. Now, Neil Gaiman claims the protaginist commits multiple murders, and there are people who dies without much being said about it. Apparently the protagonist is also a ghost, which I think I discovered hints about. As usual an unreliable narrator and a story very well written, which gets bigger on re-reading. A good one.

10. The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke

Since I expected something like Childhood's End I guess I had to be disappointed. Well, I wasn't really, but I think I had expected something more. Sometimes it really shines. There are humans with some human dreams and concerns, and there are some truly inspired descriptions of locales and vistas. Sadly, the plot is sloppy. Some parts are filled with real drama, like the tense rescue expedition up the "beanstalk" to rescue the stuck humans. In between there are just engineering and self congratulatory exposition about the wonder of engineering. Uneven.

11. Jack of Shadows - Roger Zelazny

So, this is the famous Jack of Shadows? Interesting blend of magic and science, but the plot was quite uninteresting. It's a bit like a Vancian story without the language or the quirky settings. Someone is angry and takes his revenge. Yeah, so?

12. Storm Front - Jim Butcher

Well plotted, with a hero you can feel sorry for and still believe in. A good yarn, with modern day grisly urban fantasy and horror. Not great literature, but a fun read.

13. The Dreaming Jewels - Theodore Sturgeon

Who is the moron who decide to change the original title of a book into something bland that spoils the story? I liked this book. The protagonist was a decent enough fellow, the "mystery" interesting and the relationships between the characters was interesting. I wouldn't call it great, but it was quite ok. The main premise was quirky and interesting, with an alien race living among us, so alien we did not even see them.

14. Babel 17 - Samuel R. Delaney

This was an interesting novel. Sometimes you can see how Delaney slips into the lecturing tone he adopts in his later Neveryone(sp?) stories. Apart from that, there are some grand space opera vistas with space battles and a dizzying array of posthumans. Those parts felt very modern. The parts about the alien language and the "plot" was kind of cool. But, I will remember the look and feel most of all.

15. Agyar - Steven Brust

Well written story about an intelligent, suave and socialable fellow whom you later come to feel is a real douche bag. He does horrible things, and at the same time make very incisive and intelligent remarks about society, women and men. Maybe the love story worked because it wasn't sappy, and the workings of the mind of a monster had multiple nuances and humanity. I liked it.

16. Imajica - Clive Barker

Once again I re-read a Barker book. It was good, although the book has some structural problems, as the author himself acknowledge in the paperback foreword. There are a lot of ideas about religion and the origin and power of myth in this one. I found the ideas about godesses and the sexual politics kind of interesting, even though it leaved me with some doubts about the message of the books. Definitely worth it, though. I liked the ideas about mutability of identities, even down to the idea of gender. Some of the estrangements between women and men in the book felt kind of odd though. For a book about oneness and harmony, there were a few discording sounding chords. Maybe it was intentional.

17. The Complex - John Duignan

A slightly slow read, not written with much flair or flow. But, the content was dynamite. I have read before about the bizarre life of LRH, and this insider's view of working for the sect was interesting. Suddenly I understood how you could fall for the ridiculous scam that scientology is. The obsessive hypnotic repromming taking place inside the movement is brutal. Quite scary, but informative. Expose the lies. It's all about money.

18. The Monkey and the Tiger - Robert van Gulik

I've long wanted to read the Judge Dee stories, and even planned on looking for them at my local library. For some reason I never got around to it. Now having borrowed one volume I think they gave me exactly what I expected. The mysteries are intricate, and you can find some hints to their solution if you read closely. But, it's the setting and the culture that makes them shine. Tang dynasty China is a fascinating era, and the observations on the moral character of people by the protagonist is both odd and interesting. It really is kind of the Agatha Christie in China. Very metodical, not very emotional or political. Very far from modern Swedish crime fiction. I will probably read some more.

19. The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust

Apparently this is Brust's attempt to write like Dumas. Maybe I should read Dumas? It's a story written as a historical drama, set 1000 years before the age of Vlad Taltos. I liked the sense of high adventure, and the interplay between the characters is funny, witty and sharp. Good fight scenes.

20. Five Houndred Years After - Steven Brust

Five houndred years after the first book, now we get a complex plot like some of the Taltos books, and a lot of glimpses into the lives of the emperor and big names like Aliera and Sethra. I liked the plotting, but maybe the style was becoming a bit much. Still, the story is engaging and it's intriguing to read about the Disaster and how it came to be.

21. Death Masks - Jim Butcher

Devilishly tightly plotted, and genuinely scary at times. More than once I thought this was what a great game of Mage should be, with really scary Nephandi. The shroud of Turin and some revelations about the mobster boss and his relation to Dresden, what is there not to like?

22. Mirkheim - Poul Anderson

Reading this book I realize how good Anderson was. While the political message is kind of grating, and way to often repeated, it does not overshadow a well plotted story well written. The feeling of place is really good. Nature and space is painted in very effective ways, with a economy of prose and a sensibility which I really enjoy. While the characters might seem a bit stodgy, the worlds they fight for feel real.

23. Land of Lisp - Conrad Barski

Good fun just to read. It had some nice suggestions for symbolic manipulation of textin the early part. The latter part demonstrated some functional concepts quite well, even though they were mind bending without trying it out. It's not as good at covering the details as PCL, but when it comes to concepts it really shines.