That Was the Year That Was?

The 2006 Locus Reader’s Poll is now up, with a convenient on-line ballot for you to vote for your favorite books and stories of the year. For those not in the know, Locus is sort of the trade magazine of the science fiction field, publishing extensive reviews, and also all manner of publishing news and fannish gossip. If you’re not into science fiction or fantasy books, skip the rest of this post. (After the cut.)

The on-line poll comes with pull-down menus to aid you in voting for the books recommended by the Locus staff, so you know it’s completely scientific. The lists are pretty reasonable, even if they do occasionally miss some good stuff, and they’re helpful if you’re like me, and can’t remember the publication year of books that you’ve read recently.

Looking at those lists, there are two things that strike me immediately: first, that I’ve read very few of their recommendations: three of the 24 SF books, seven of the 20 fantasy novels, two of 15 first novels (or four of 17, if you count Elizabeth Bear’s as three books), and two of 13 YA books. More distrubing than that, though, is the fact that I’m not particularly enthusiastic about most of the rest of the lists. Of the fourteen books that I have read, there are maybe six that I would recommend without reservation (Spin, Anansi Boys, The Narrows, Thud!, Old Man’s War, and Peeps). Of the fifty-odd that I haven’t read, there are maybe six that I either plan to read, or feel like I ought to read.

In thinking about this sort of “Year’s Best,” there’s always a certain amount of tension between relative and absolute standards. That is, to what degree are you voting for things on the basis of their inherent excellence, as opposed to their relative superiority to the other stuff published in a given year. For example, I didn’t think Accelerando was all that good as a book, in an absolute sense, but I’d probably have to say that it was better than a lot of what was published this year– Olympos, for example.

In an absolute sense, I’m really only enthusiastic about one of the books: I thought Spin was absolutely magnificent, and one of the best SF novels of the last several years. Beyond that, I’m happy to vote for Peeps and Old Man’s War in their respective categories, and I thought The Narrows was very nearly excellent, while Anansi Boys is the best thing Gaiman’s done in a while, and Thud! is a pretty good Discworld book.

After those, though, I start looking for the “No Award” item.