Here is a list of the best new science fiction and fantasy I've read
this last year or so, in preparation for making out my Hugo nomination
ballot. The top 5 items in each list are on my Hugo nomination ballot;
the rest are in no particular order.
Novels
Three
Days to Never by Tim Powers -- One of Powers' best novels yet,
excelled perhaps only by Last Call (1992) and
Declare (2000).
Soldier
of Sidon by Gene Wolfe -- the third novel (but probably not the
last) in the series that began with Soldier of the Mist
and Soldier of Arete. Wolfe at his best, which is saying a lot.
Farthing
by Jo Walton -- A fine alternate history and murder mystery, in which
the murder victim is the man who negotiated the peace with the Third
Reich in 1941. Heartbreaking.
Fugitives
of Chaos by John C. Wright -- the second of a trilogy that
began with Orphans of Chaos.
Glasshouse
by Charles Stross -- Set further along, apparently, in the same future
as his fix-up novel Accelerando, but more accessible and
cohesive, and with more believable characters.
Rainbows
End by Vernor Vinge -- Not so excellent as his previous
couple of novels, A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) and A
Deepness in the Sky (1999), both of which won the Hugo; but
still great reading, full of mind-stretching near-future sf ideas,
fairly interesting characters, and a fast-paced plot.
Majestrum
by Matthew Hughes -- A fine sequel to his amazing series of Henghis
Hapthorn short works that appeared in Fantasy & Science
Fiction over the last few years, and were recently reprinted in
The
Gist Hunter and Other Stories.
Novellas
"A Billion Eves" by Robert Reed (Asimov's, October/November 2006)
"The Revivalist" by Albert Cowdrey (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2006)
"Hallucigenia" by Laird Barron (F&SF, June 2006)
"The Plurality of Worlds" by Brian Stableford (Asimov's, August 2006)
Novelettes
"Okanoggan Falls" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF, August 2006)
"Pop Squad" by Paolo Bacigalupi (F&SF, October/November 2006)
"The Leila Torn Show" by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's, June 2006)
"Home Movies" by Mary Rosenblum (Asimov's, April/May 2006)
"Crunchers, Inc." by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov's, August 2006)
"The Boy in Zaquitos" by Bruce McAllister (Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2006)
"The Moment of Joy Before" by Claudia O'Keefe (F&SF, April 2006)
"A Herd of Opportunity" by Matthew Hughes (F&SF, May 2006)
"Journey Into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert (F&SF, May 2006)
"Counterfactual" by Gardner Dozois (F&SF, June 2006)
"Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star" by R. Garcia y Robertson (F&SF, July 2006)
"Penultima Thule" by Chris Willrich (F&SF, August 2006)
"The Song of Kido" by Matthew Corradi (F&SF, September 2006)
"The Christmas Witch" by M. Rickert (F&SF, December 2006)
"Damascus" by Daryl Gregory (F&SF, December 2006)
"Under the Graying Sea" by Jonathan Sherwood (Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2006)
"Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" by Michael F. Flynn (Asimov's, October/November 2006)
[Update: I'm not sure how I overlooked "Yellow Card Man"
by Paolo Bacigalupi, which made the Hugo nomination ballot. I read it
on its first appearance, and enjoyed it more than most of the others
on this list, but somehow overlooked it when skimming over back issues
of Asimov's and compiling the list.]
Short stories
"Just Do It" by Heather Lindsley (F&SF, July 2006)
"Rwanda" by Robert Reed (Asimov's, March 2006)
"Eight Episodes" by Robert Reed (Asimov's, June 2006)
"From the Mouths of Babes" by Trent Hergenrader
(Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2006)
"The Way He Does It" by Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede #10, Spring 2006)
"Memory of a Thing That Never Was" by Jerry Seeger (F&SF, July 2006)
"Intolerance" by Robert Reed (F&SF,
March 2006)
"Bea and Her Bird Brother" by Gene Wolfe
(F&SF, May 2006)
"Immortal Forms" by Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF, August 2006)
"Misjudgement Day" by Robert Reed (F&SF, August 2006)
"Perfect Stranger" by Amy Sterling Casil (F&SF, September 2006)
"Killers" by Carol Emshwiller (F&SF, October/November 2006)
"World of No Return" by Carol Emshwiller (Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2006)
"Are You There" by Jack Skillingstead (Asimov's, February 2006)
"46 Directions, None of them North" by Deborah Coates (Asimov's, March 2006)
"The Edge of the Map" by Ian Creasey (Asimov's, June 2006)
"Impossible Dreams" by Tim Pratt (Asimov's, July 2006)
"Plausible" by Robert Reed (Asimov's, December 2006)
"Immunity" by Susan Forest (Asimov's, December 2006)
"Moon Does Run" by Edd Vick (Electric Velocipede #11, Fall 2006)