best of 2009

[dfordoom]

I know I should have asked this question last week, but better late than never. What were your fantasy fiction highlights of 2009?

What were the best fantasy books of 2009?

And what were the best things you read in the genre last year, regardless of their original publication date.

Comments

[stormbringer986]

I was happy for the new Wheel of Time book, but I felt like the 'end' was lacking. I know they kind of had to chop one huge book into three parts, but still. It didn't really leave me going "Holy crap I can't wait to see the next part."

I'm trying to think of other fantasy I read last year and I'm not coming up with much...That's unusual for me. Most of the things I can remember reading are more sci-fi.

[riibu]

I really enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind. It was published already in 2007, but I found this author only last year. Now I'm waiting for the sequel.

Also, Stephen R. Lawhead's King Raven Trilogy (Robin Hood's tale retold) got completed last year. I found that series only last year, and liked especially the second part of the trilogy. The tree books are: Hood, Scarlet and Tuck.

[glazomaniac]

a dance with dragons.

oh, wait.

[tomboy_typist]

..... *snerk*

[glazomaniac]

to be fair, i know it ain't easy doin' what he does and all. but it had to be said.

[tomboy_typist]

XD I know. I thought of it too. On the other hand, I'm still so behind on on the series that I don't really mind him taking his time. - and well. if he has a writer's block, he makes me feel better about my own. >.>

[trans_simian]

I enjoyed 'The City and the City' (hard to pin genre on it, but lets call it fantasy for the purposes of this comment), which was actually published in 2009, and I especially liked 'The Magicians' by Lev Grossman (also published in 2009).

Of the fantasy books that I read in 2009 but were not actually published that year, I re-read the complete Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance. They are awesome, and I liked them even more than I did when I read them 25 years ago.

[pxr5]

gack, I hated the Magicians. Definitely on my worst of the year list.

[yanneng]

Why did you hate the Magicians? Just wondering by the way, no offence. I felt it was an average book with a nice magic system which got a little bad nearing the end. The ending was kind of angsty.

[pxr5]

largely because I felt it didn't offer much besides being overly reminiscent of Harry Potter mixed with Narnia, and I truly wanted to slap Quentin silly. Plus, it felt sloppy (all the emphasis on disciplines, and then they never tell you squat about Quentin.)

[bagfish]

Not published in 2009....
Robin McKinley's 'Sunshine'. I'm really unenamoured with the vampire genre at the moment because of the whole Twilight hysteria, but for some reason Sunshine just won't let up. I just can't stop thinking about the book, and it's over a month since I finished it.

It was one of the most adult treatments of the vampire genre I have read, in particular with the lack of glorification of the vampire lifestyle that so many of the teen vamp stories offer. I loved the way that McKinley left so much untold about a world so familiar in some ways to start with, but so very different as the book goes on; my mind has spent four weeks trying to fill in the gaps. In fact I think I'm being haunted by the story, it's lingering and teasing at the back of my mind.

[ataxi]

Will have to check this out. I used to really like Robin McKinley as a teenager, I bet it's good.