The books of 2020

1. Dying of the Light - George R.R. Martin

Look at that! The debut novel from GRRM, and it was sitting on my shelf. I adore the title and the Dylan Thomas verse from where it came, even though it is a bit melodramatic. It is very fitting for this novel of a dying world in a baroque setting the reminded me of Dune. I felt intrigued by the setting, and all the small hints and details of a larger universe. What quite quickly became aparent, though, was that as the characters were prone to proud proclamations and brooding it was not as breezy a read as I had hoped for. The plot was well done, the setting was as I mentioned quite fascinating, but the characters really disengaged me. I think you might need a symphathetic character of some sort, and one that is mostly annoying until the last fifth of the novel doesn't really cut it. I really wanted to like this more. But, it was cool to know where githyanki came from!

2. Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart

A novel with gods who plot and scheme, and incredible happenstance made happen by the August Personage of Jade, but also a story filled with very colourful characters and a quite intriguing plot. It's quite clear that Barry Hughart have not only a deep knowledge of old Chinese stories and legends, but also a lot of love and respect for them. He manages to mix in some of those old elements in his new, and they all fit so well in style and content. Everything is a glorious romp of humerous scams and finding of clues to the main mystery, but it also felt just as wild as some of the things from The Watermargin. It was very visceral, with gruesome blood and gore. I think I had forgotten how brutal some of the elements were. I re-read this as it was a debut novel, and what a debut this is! Language, characters, plotting and style is all fully developed in this one.

3. Vurt - Jeff Noon

As I was preparing for a panel at a con, about debut novels, I re-read this one. It's definitely one of the more memorable debut novels I've read. It's "just" a story about a crew of borderline criminals that in a weird Manchester of the future are doing drugs and playing games. The drugs are many, but the weirdest are a feather you put in your mouth which takes you to a secondary world. It's a pluggable skill chip, it's a virtual reality and it's a mind expanding drug. Also, it's a shared dream dreamt by Alice/Hobart. It's weird, it's funny and it's filled with allusions and references. I think I like it more every time I read it. It tries to be edgy and shocking, with incest and body horror, but I think it mostly just is trippy. It's very much worth reading, as it is like no other book.

4. Appleseed - John Clute

Another debut novel, debut fantastika at least. It's just as weird as Vurt, but not as readable. Where Vurt goes wild with neologism, this one goes wild with existing ones. The former you can somehow infer, and the latter can be quite opaque. It is space opera, writ large, and those parts are enjoyable in all it's craziness. The multidimensional precursor artifact/space station/planet where the second half of the novel is set is more dense. Everything is so described, so flowerly decorated, that you sometimes wish for more plot. Maybe the biggest problem is the weird settings combined with most of the action being AIs talking back and forth in a tell-don't-show unbalanced. Still, it is quite a treat to read, and I at once felt like I should start over, taking notes. It's not a book for everyone.

5. Exhalation - Ted Chiang

Meticulously crafted gems of thought experiments, that's what these are. There's a preciseness to the stories, and sharpness of thought that makes you feel Chiang has taken a nugget of an idea an minded it dry, really brought out everything of the idea. It's hard not to be impressed. At the same time, not all of them linger. Some do, and it's with a tinge of sadness. I found The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom both to be very poignant, but they were in some ways both stories about loss, and how to cope with lost oportunities and choice. Chiang is clearly very interested in questions about religion, and about free will and choice, and he works these questions into his stories extremely well. Still there's something in me that maybe feel they are too cerebral. I wish I could love them, but I just admire them. Strongly.

6. Imperiets Dotter, första boken [Daughter of the Empire] - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts

Having heaard that the Riftwar saga started as a D&D campaign crossover with Tekumel, I wanted to read more "Tekumel" and sought out these books. The money grabbing stupidity of Swedish fantasy publishing means two volumes of each book, and so little care for the cponsumer that the map in the front is displaying the change to the state of things after the conclusion of Servant! Anyway. It was clearly a Tekumel modified quite a bit not to be clearly identified, but key points where there. I loved the way it looked, and how you got a feel for the life of upper status clansfolk. The intense intrigue was also portrayed very well, even though the role of the temples had been played down compared to Tekumel. I think that the honour bound culture gave some indication of how tsoylanu approach fate, and all in all it gave me the "Tekumel" fix I wanted.

7. Imperiets Dotter, andra boken [Daughter of the Empire] - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts

Apart from the visuals and the feel of the setting, the character of Mara was quite interesting. She is clearly very clever, and the scheming reminded a bit of the more convoluted plots in the Vlad Taltosh books, and that's praise!

8. Imperiets Dotter, tredje boken [Servant of the Empire] - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts

The plotting now turned more into romantic character development, and some of the tie ins to the bigger Riftwar saga kind of passed me by without the same effect it would have had if I had first read those books. But, more very likable characters are introduced, and now the page turner qualities come to the fore.

9. Imperiets Dotter, fjärde boken[Servant of the Empire] - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts

Finally Mara vanquish her foes, changes her perception of her people and her culture and learns about feelings and mercy. A tinge bit too "feel good" but still quite enjoyable, as her schemes are very impressive. As far as fantasy intrigue goes, this is up there at the top, and the setting is gloriously colourful. I decided to stop after this book, as it felt like the natural stopping point, with the blood feud concluded. Now I want to play another Tekumel game!

10. Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain - Louis Cha/Jin Yong

A very interesting setup for this wuxia novel, almost like a locked room murder mystery. One day on one mountain, with multiple heroes of the jianghu with grudges going back generations, and one resolution. I really liked how the backstory was unrolled, tale by tale, so the characters all learned the full story at the same time as the reader. I think I felt the love story was a bit more convincing than it was in Smiling Proud Wanderer as well. I liked this one a lot. But why on earth did the translator choose to translate the names of the characters, and why the archaic words and stilted English? This translator need to work om her gong fu.

11. Carl Gustav Jung - Frank McLynn

I like to read biographies, as I usually learn something not just about the person being biographed, but also the era. This happened again with this book, where I realized how typical that Freud and Jung did their work on the uncouncious mind in the Victorian era, basically. It's the decadent and dying 1800 with surpressed sexuality and racial tension like the old school anti-semitism brewing in the heart of Europe. Sadly the biography part was not as interesting, and it was not the fault of the biographer, who apart from an annoying tendency to psychoanalyze his subject, did a decent enough job. No, the main thing is that Jung was a despicable human being. He acted intensly immoral by entering into secual relationships with dozens female patiences, and his arrogance and vulgar views of politics makes him come across as someone very unsympathetic. He was an interesting character, and his views have enormous power and influence on the arts, but I gave up and skimmed the latter part of the book as I had no more stomach for the unpleasant character of the subject.

12. Alternate Routes - Tim Powers

I had strtaed to think about PKD, so I grabbed a new Tim Powers book as I saw it on the shelf. It was not great, but not too shabby either. Simple but entertaining. Maybe it would have made more sense to try to figure out the geography of the book, as it was quite tied to the Los Angeles area. I will probably not read it again, but I will read more Tim Powers book. Also, there was a Phil Dick joke in the book, with a deli called PKD. This will work fine as a palate cleanser before I read some long wuxia books.

13. Strange Tales from The Dragon Gate Inn - Albert A. Dalia

How many have not been charmed by the stories collected by Pu Songling! Movies have been made, and now the author of these stories have been inspired to tell his own tales of the strange. I liked them quite a lot. They all had that etherial quality, but still a solidity of China and the setting felt real.

14. The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder

As computer history texts go, this one is a classic. It was entertaining, and it was an interesting window into an age before I started my career in computing, and a window into the culture of the group and the company that is depicted. But, you also get the image of a very broken company, of mismanagement and the worst aspects of American corporate culture exploiting people for minimum pay. I also found the extreme focus on the head manager West a bit annoying. He is described as some kind of super human, and I ended up with more admiration for the engineers that built the computer than him. It was an interesting read when Kidder took on the more detailed dives into technical topics, as it is clear the author knew nothing of intriguing. I've seen non-techs do far worse. I do wish we had gotten some more of the technical deep dives combined with discussions of why they took some of the technical design decisions they did. All in all a quite enjoyable read, even though the debugging part in the end after they where "done" dragged on for more chapters than was fun to read.

15. Swords of the Four Winds - Dariel R. A. Quiogue

I don't know how I got wind of this book. It's clearly self published, and the typography and layout could really use some work! But, it's a decent set of sword and sorcery stories. I thought they felt maybe a touch too much like Conan. Apart from the names of things, little was new. But, maybe that's what you get when trying to write in that vein. It will not be original. I enjoyed many of the stories, but some were a bit too much. Rape and child abuse grate upon my sensibilities. I think you can write dark stories without those elements. Also, I think the theme of betrayal was a bit overused. Decent.

16. The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin

These 17 tales differ quite a bit. They are earlier work, later collated, so sometimes it feels the author had not yet fully developed her craft. Some are more old school rockets and space travel, and some are pure New Wave Inner Space experiments. I think one the the themes throughout is perception, and how a change in perception changes the world. There are though experiments about society like Those who walk away from Omelas and The field of vision which is a perspective change on ontology. Also, in this collection is Direction of the road which being written from the perspective of a tree is one of my favourites. It really changes your perception of things in an amazing way. I really like how all these perspectives are always about the human. How is it like to be human, from this new perspective. Good stuff.

17. Crane Startles Kunlun - Wang Dulu

So did I finally manage to read a novel by the author of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's a crying shame nobody took the opportunity to translate his work when the movies was popular. This book told the story of Jiang Xiaohe and his travails as he travel the Jianghu, seeking vengence. But, the focus of the novel is his love story with Bao Aluan and how they never manage to sort of their feelings amongst the feud between their families. As far as love stories goes, I think this one worked quite well. The demands of filial piety, jianghu righteousness and personal feelings made for good drama. It was not the flowery fights and visuals of a Jin Yong novel, and even though it was filled with curious characters it was not the level of oddballs like in a story by Gu Long. I really liked to be able to read it. The martial world of Wang Dulu is a world filled with bullies and bandits, and the righteous are few and far between. I would have liked to be able to read more of this. The ending, with death and sadness felt kind of buddhist, and maybe in line with the author's own life a bit. I liked how we in the last chapter got to know how the characters got on in life, and how they turned old. The package was tied together neatly, and Jiang Xiaohe, the Southern Crane, retreated up unto his mountain.

18. The Baron of Magister Valley - Steven Brust

What's there not to like about a new Dragaeran novel? Also, when an author so clearly telegraphs that this is his way to model a story on The Count of Monte Christo at least I sit up and take notice. This is once more written by Paarfi of Roundwood, with all entails. Yeah, a language of a very special kind. The story was engaging and fast paced, the charater colourful as usual. As it's set as the Interregnum starts we get an interesting perspective of what happens when the Orb disappeared. But maybe the best part is saved for last, when we learn the true identity of the Demon, with whom Vlad Taltos so often have had interactions with! That blew me away! I love how we learn more and more details of this world with each new novel. Not surprisingly, I liked it a lot.

19. A Deadly Secret - Jin Yong

A brutal story, with some seriously unsympathetic villains. Actually, almost everyone except out hero and the two women, everyone is a villain! Actually, it is kind of funny that the story is about a sword manual, but the great and deadly secret is about a treasure of gold and jewels, and not sword arts at all! The action was well described, but really super over the top. The "inner power" effects are quite something, with people hitting each other at a distance, and suchlike. The love story is, as it always is, tragic. Oddly enough though, in the last paragraph the second love interest shows up from out of thin air as aburpt as a Shaw Brothers film! The end! I can see some inspiration from Dumas in this one, just like the last book I read. Good and entertaining, but not great.

20. Elysium Fire - Alastair Reynolds

Back in the Glitter Band, and it's still gothic noir in space. Like the other story about Prefect Deryfus it's a mystery novel. Like quite a few other novels in the setting there are characters who are not who you think they are, or even they themself think they are. There are so many instances of deep memory manipulation it's dizzying. I am beginning to think the big theme in everything Al writes is, "who are you?", as a question to us all. As always there are body horror and some creepy suggestions about the crouching tigers and the hidden dragons in the gothic milieu, like rogue AI fighting a war of annihilation in the midst of the crisis. There are so many skeletons in the closets for the aristocratic families around Yellowstone. The only bad thing about this book was that it tied in quite closely with the first book about Dreyfus, and I did not remember the details that well, as it was years since I read it. I look forward to the next prefect Dreyfus emergency.

21. Chinese Martial Arts Cinema - The Wuxia Tradition - Stephen Teo

If you want an overview of how the Chinese cinema developed, with historical drama, supernatural adventures and the wandering martial heroes - xia - merging into the wuxia genre, this is your book. It was partly very dense, with more theoretical academical jargon than necessary, but as this is an academic text, it's not surprising. But if you can stand that, you get a very good overview of the literature and how it related to the movies, and the historical developments. I learned a bit more about the relationship between other film genres, and also a bit more about how the geographical differences and the cultural differences between the northern Mandarin speaking film industry and the southern Cantonese speaking one. I good text about the history of the most important studios probably does not hurt to have handy as a companion volume. I have one about Shaw Brothers, and I think it will fit in very well together. I got a bunch of new ideas about what to watch.

22. De Gyllene Häxornas Folk [Golden Witchbreed] - Mary Gentle

As my previous attempts at reading Mary Gentle didn't work out well, I was wary about ruining the memory I held from reading this book in my teens, and being very impressed by it. It turned out that it held up. Why Gentle is not an action writer, and she cuts away from the action more often than not, the things she is good at, like describing and giving you a sense of a place, worked well in this novel. I can see why I was captivated by this book as a youngster. The anthropological science fiction angle is well done, and the deep theme of social change, gender roles and strangeness when confronted by the Other is really well done. You can see lot of similiarities between this book and The Left Hand of Darkness. Still, the leisurely speed at which the plot develops, stops me from really loving this book. I admire how Gentle managed to portray a alien society, and the questions she oh so gently (sorry couln't resist) brings to the foreground. It's well done, but I won't read it a third time.

23. Eight Skilled Gentlemen - Barry Hughart

This is the last of the Chinese fantasy novels by Barry Hughart, and while I am a bit sad he never told all the stories he had planned, I think he ended well. This one went far deeper into the realm of myth and magic, as the mystery and skulldugery not resolved into pure human antagonists weaving webs of deception, but actually into a family of demons being behind the murders! Like the former volumes in this series, you always get the impression there are allusions and hints of even more folklore. Even the names of peoples and things hints at gems the well read reader can enjoy. I think I will re-read these books, as I learn more. If this series has any big flaws, it's probably that the plots are quite labyrinthine and there were sections where I just shrugged and read on thinking it might all be revealed at the end. Also, some of the humor focus strongly on the baroque and grotesque, which might not be to everyone's liking.

24. We have always lived in the castle - Shirley Jackson

This is a weird one. The main character, Mary Katherine, is obviously totally insane. She is xenophobic, has anger management issues, paranoia, delusions and obsessive compulsive behaviour. It's hard to like her. When you learn that she has also without any remorse killed her whole family and talks about killing people regulary, you feel there's something seriously wrong with the whole setup. It's a weird book. Merricat, as the protagonist is called, is clearly living in a fantasy world, and in a way you get forced into her twisted view of reality. When "normality" interjects in form of her cousin Charles it does not help that he is clealy an opportunistic fortune seeker. Then when the house catches fire, the whole village comes and thrash the whole house! Nobody acts in a sane manner in this book. Clearly it's not just paranoia that the people in the village hates the Blackwood's, or is it? As it's told from the perspective of an insane narrator, nothing is clear. It's a very intriguing story, and the interplay between the characters (almost always relatable to food) is quite interesting. It makes me sad that Merricat drags her sister into her fantasy world of insanity, though. This is a weird one. I'm not sure I liked it.

25. Wine - a graphic history - Benoist Simmat & Daniel Casanave

A graphic novel about the history of wine, what's there not to like? I learned a few new facts, and reading non-fiction in this format was new and interesting. In the modern era, the 1900, it felt like the story was quite focused on France, and I'm not sure how much of that is down to the dominating role France has, and how much it was a result of the creators being French. But, interesting none the less. I was not aware how influential Rudolf Stainer had been in the development of modern viticulture. I was also a bit surprised they just glossed over the big catastrophy of the vines in the old world, and most of all in France, being affected of the aphid that forced the industry to graft vines from Europe to American ones. All in all, enjoyable and educational.

26. Record of a spaceborn few - Becky Chambers

So, was this a novel totally devoid of plot? Not really, but it felt a bit at the end that nothing much happned. What that means is that there where no earth shaking reveals, or staggering mysteries. I'm pretty sure there will be readers who claim it's not even science fiction at all, as it's all a book about people whose way of life is fading away, and how they copy with change and identity. But, I must say it also did contain more than a few nuggets about society that I felt was quite insightful. While not a post-capitalistic criticism, it does raise a few points about different ways to run a society that does focus on personal fulfilment by acknowledging the need to also always consider the collective needs, and scarcity of resources. It felt like a book for our time, while also pretty much valid for all eras. It affected me, which must mean something. It was different. I have so many emotions swell up in me after reading it.

27. Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword - Gu Long

Gu Long never writes a simple plot. Once again there's a myriad av people and intrigues between them, but the core of the story is about Ah Fei and Lin Xian Er on one pole and Li Xun Huan and Long Xiao Yun on the other. Ah Fei is snared by Lin Xian Er and she abuses him as he is emasculated by his love for her. Li Xun Huan on the other hand is sworn brother with Long Xiao Yun and refuse to act against him, even though he is conspiring against him, even though he has gotten all he has from Xun Huan. "Little Li" Xun Huan is a strange individual, but he values friendship above everything, and he is the odd one out in the Jianghu, as he forgives people! The martial world is ruthless, but the feelings Xun Huan has for his friends Ah Fei and Long Xian Yun transcends it. He managages to master his feelings, while Ah Fei becomes a slave to them. The same is true for Lin Xian Er, who has no feelings for any of the men she snares, and her ruthlessness makes her numb to sentimentality even though she twists and uses feelings all the time to get what she wants. It's almost as the plot about hidden manuals and Plum Blossom Bandit gets lost in the emotional roller coaster of backstabbings and emotional jabs! As always, Gu Long interjects observations about life, drink and women directly aimed at the reader, and as always I get the feeling he was a very tragic individual. He sure had a woman problem, in addition to his alcoholism. For all its talk about death, this is very much a book about love and coming to terms with the decisions you took because of love. I kind of like the happy ending with the plucky Sun Xiao Hong getting her man Li Xun Huan.

28. Trumps of Doom - Roger Zelazny

Time again to read more Amber stories. As before, I'm inspired by the rpg. It starts of with better flow than the Corwin stories, and is entertaining. What surprised me a bit was that it ended with Merlin trapped in the cave of blur crystal (is that a Mery Stewart reference, or something else?), as I imagined these to be fairly self contained. These are all really one story told in five volumes. In this one Merlin learns that his friend Luke is another Amberite, and that there's layers of conspiracies against him and Amber.

29. Blood of Amber - Roger Zelazny

Merlins adventures continues, and he get to sit down and talk to the body hopping creature that has been "protecting" him, talk to Luke some more and in the end rescue his mother from a weird wizard who had her captured. Naturally it turns out Dalt, the mercenary who worked for her against Amber is also an Amberite, naturally. Once again it ends with Merlin stuck in a weird place, this time some Wonderland psychedelia. I wonder why he did not grasp that the one eyed shape shifted wolf with a torn ear is his half brother from the Courts of Chaos. I'm pretty certain that's correct.

30. Sign of Chaos - Roger Zelazny

More intrigues happen. We get to see Merlin and Jasra fight together at the Keep of the Four Worlds against Jurt and his wizard protector. He was indeed the wold that attacked Merlin. It turns out the wizard is Merlin's old sweetheart Julia. Emmisaries from a neighbouring kingdom show up, and the younger sister tricks Merlin into walking Pattern, and the elder turns out to be his old protector, a demon. Mandor, Merlin's brother, shows up and helps him. Fairly deep level of scheming in this one! I like Mandor, for some reason.