2005 Christmas reads: Fantasy

Newton's Wake
By Ken MacLeod
(Orbit $25)

Fleeing the Hard Rapture, an artificial intelligence plague which has devoured the Earth, the remnants of humanity have spread throughout the galaxy. Several new empires have sprung up, fighting for living room and for political ideals. The one thing they all fear is a second Hard Rapture ... and it's about to happen. Ken MacLeod is one of the smartest science-fiction writers around, and by some distance the most politically astute. His latest is as idea-packed and fast moving as ever.

The Child Garden
By Geoff Ryman
(SF Masterworks $27.99)

Geoff Ryman is one of the best writers you've never heard of, and the fact that his best book has just come back into print is yet another reason to bless the Masterworks reprint series. Too rich and multi-textured for easy synopsis, this is a love story, a dystopia, a fireball of conceptual innovation, and pure fun on every page. If I had to pick the best science-fiction novel of the last 20 years, it's one of three books I'd be unable to choose between. Treat yourself.

The Hallowed Hunt
By Lois McMaster Bujold
(Eos $44.95)

Any year Lois McMaster Bujold brings out a new book is a good year. This new stand-alone title in her Five Gods fantasy series is in the Rolls-Royce class of light reading: the easy, intelligent writing carries you off on a tide of political intrigue, magical assassination plots, and ancient wrongs in need of righting.

The Locus Awards
Edited By Jonathan Strahan & Charles N. Brown
(Voyager $39.99)

This three-decade collection of the best short science fiction and fantasy offers less range than its only real rival, Gardner Dozois's The Best of the Best, because it includes several short novels — meaning it has less space for other things. The trade-off's a good one. If you want to lose yourself in first-rate genre writing, this book won't let you down.

Lord of the Silver Bow
By David Gemmell
(Bantam $36.95)

Gemmell's retelling of the Trojan War is my kind of thriller: sympathetic characters, suspense, fabulous set-piece battle scenes and, above all, a familiar story rendered unpredictable and exciting. Historical fantasy the way it should be written.

Mirrormask
By Neal Gaiman & Dave McKean
(Bloomsbury $32.95)

Master fantasist Neal Gaiman's first film is Mirrormask, but this isn't a book-of-the-film as such. Gaiman and artist Dave McKean have reworked the story from the ground up, producing a sumptuous picture book, almost a graphic novel. A girl falls into a fantasy world and has to earn the right to return to the life she used to dislike. Gorgeous.

Grendel
By John Gardner
(Fantasy Masterworks $24.99)

John Gardner's sly retelling of Beowulf from the monster's point of view is not a comfortable book, but it makes fabulous reading. Grendel in this version is an existentialist intellectual thug, determined to prove that life is meaningless and all heroes are fools. Dark, funny, and finally searing: a tour de force.