New features this year:

-a return to judging which are the “best” (why not? I’m no more unqualified than anyone else.)

-bonus features of Best of 1813 and Best of 2113.

-the author’s original title for their book, if I was able to discover it.

-I will disclose when my opinions are influenced by nepotism and intrigue, which is more than a real reviewer will do.

-as you can see, I'm using BookLikes now, and this will be a series of posts instead of one really long Facebook note.

 

Best of 2013: FICTION

 

Clearly I did not read very many novels for grown-ups that were published in 2013, but I did stumble across a few things that were extremely good.

 

The Top Two plus my handsome cat.

 

Top Five:

 

I Know Very Well How I Got My Name by Elliott DeLine

I could say that this was the best novel of 2013, but that would be a charming understatement. How about one of the best novels of any year? It’s about a kid growing up transgender, although there are many are other elements to the story. I wrote a full review here.

 

Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh (Author’s original title, and title of original short story in Asimov’s: “Bridesicle.”)

In a grim future, the dead can be cryogenically frozen and brought back to life—for a price, leading to an industry where dead women are revived for quick “dates” where they must convince their rich suitors to choose them for resurrection. This book made me think about questions like what is love and what is life and why we die and why we fear it, without ever swerving away from being a cracking good science fiction story. Also you don’t usually encounter well-written lesbian characters in science fiction by men, but here you do. And it had the coolest cover! There is a parchment wrapper that overlays the cover, acting sort of like a scrim on a stage—it's hard to explain, just look at these pictures.

 

 That's with the paper overlay on.

 

That's with the overlay off.

That is the overlay itself. The whole thing is a book design triumph!

 

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

A young woman who’s transgender is living in NYC in the recent past and working at the the Strand, but then her life becomes completely unglued and she goes on a journey. Loved it. I wrote a full review here.

 

News From Heaven: The Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh

Haigh’s awesome novel Baker Towers was set in a poor mining town, and she returns to the same setting and some of the same characters with these stories. I’ve mostly thrown in the towel on contemporary literary fiction, but Haigh is a subtle and wonderful writer. The story that stuck in my head the most was about a Bakerton girl who goes to work in New York City as a maid to a wealthy Jewish family. I liked having read Baker Towers first, but I think these would stand alone.

 

Artificial Gods by Thomm Quackenbush

Full disclosure: I know this writer slightly. A college student in downstate New York encounters some strange phenomena that she can’t explain—could there be aliens among us? Full review here.

 

What Else?

 

Dr. Sleep by Stephen King

It’s a sequel to The Shining, all about Danny when he is all grown-up and an alcoholic himself! The first couple chapters were kind of gross and then after that it was strangely non-scary with somewhat unthreatening villains/monsters, which suited me fine. It’s basically an unrelated story with some Shining-connected material thrown over it, also okay by me. My favorite part by far was seeing the characters who were in AA changing their lives aided by the fellowship of other alcoholics. There was an incident that Danny was haunted by and felt guilty about, and I kept thinking that he was overreacting and every addict has a story like that or far worse. Then this issue was beautifully addressed in the very end. Look, this novel is not as good as The Shining, and how could it be, but I quite enjoyed reading it.

 

Murphy’s Law by Yolanda Wallace

I love reading about mountain climbing, and this lesbian romance is set on a mountain climbing expedition in the Himalayas, so it was perfect for me. I expected headstrong climbers, terrible weather, low oxygen, life-and-death situations, and lots of smoldering glances. I was not disappointed!

 

Hit Me by Lawrence Block

I’m a big fan of the Keller series, about a stamp-collecting hired killer, and this is the latest installment. They don’t call Block a Grand Master of Mystery for nothing!

 

The Arrivals by Melissa Marr

People from all time periods who may have died are mysteriously transported to a world full of magical hazards. Right after I read this book, I read an essay by Robert Silverberg in Asimov’s that was about translating Westerns into science fiction by just changing the names (like “horse” into “greeznak”) and whether true conceptual originality is even possible. Those concerns are all extremely relevant to this novel.

 

Next Up: 2013 YA

 

I picked up this book purely by chance, and while I don't think it is without fault, it doesn't quite fit four stars. Let's call it 4.5.

I had heard nothing about this book before reading it, and sometimes it's just nice to read a book without a lot of hype behind it. Though I do think this book deserves more hype than it has currently. I don't know, maybe I'm just out of the loop.

There were a couple of things that bothered me throughout the book, such as the author's overuse of the phrase "looked to be" (a phrase that bothers me at the best of times), and in one instance used it twice within as many sentences. Luckily, by that stage, I was 182 pages in, and committed to finding out what was going to happen. I had already seen use of it about three times in the 180 pages before that.

The technology of the world takes a while to work out, as a person not living in 2133 - someone not used to this technology, but I think the author handled it in the best way possible. I'd rather be thrown into the deep end and have to work it out than be spoon fed the history, any day.

I loved the characters. At the start of the book, I just wanted to read more of Mira's chapters, which were so few and far between, but over time I grew to love Rob, Veronika, and the other people who play major parts in their lives.

No one character was the main focus of this novel, but each had their parts to play. The author didn't go out of his way to manufacture a happy existence for all of the characters, but managed to leave the reader satisfied that the events had run their course. This book reminded me so much of the real world, of a weird, messy, love dodecahedron, with things not always matching up how they do in fiction.

I also loved the allusion the author made to one of his other titles, "Soft Apocalypse", which I have not yet read, but plan on doing so in the near future.

Will McIntosh doesn't write a book that leaves you feeling all warm and gooey inside, but challenges you to think about how you would cope in these situations. He explores the idea from different points of view, which all manage to connect in some way, giving us a well rounded, compelling picture.

See more reviews at http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com

I have a confession to make: I'm a sucker for love stories. But not just any kind of love story would do, oh no, because I like my romance the same way I like my Fantasy -- gritty, transcendent, in-your-face, plus it helps if it's just a bit bizarre! Love Minus Eighty is definitely all this and more, as if you couldn't already tell from its exquisite tagline, "A novel of love and death in no particular order".

Decades from now, dwindling resources have caused cities like New York City to practically fold in and build upon itself, creating a social stratification system that's even more segregated than what we know today. No doubt, the book paints a pretty bleak view of the future, but it's especially bad if you're one of the hundreds of dead women cryogenically frozen in dating farms, awaiting your lucky day when some rich man will like you enough to pay millions for your revivification before whisking you home to be his wife.

And seriously, to think some of my friends complain about internet dating! Online dating sites have got nothing on the nightmare that are these dating farms, which charge male suitors thousands of dollars by the minute to "date" the dead women, whose consciousnesses are "awakened" for the session before the plug is pulled again and they go back to their state of non-existing. Will McIntosh expanded upon this idea from his award-winning short story "Bridesicle" (because that's what society in this world called the frozen women. Horrible, right?) for this novel, which follows a group of characters whose lives are all interconnected because of these dating farms.

What a disturbing and yet fascinating basis for a story, and it's all set before a futuristic backdrop which seems so outlandish but feels familiar enough to make you feel uncomfortable at the same time. It's a world of digital information and social media on steroids, where attention seekers can be trailed by thousands of literal "followers", their floating user screens going wherever that individual goes. People wear systems on their bodies to connect them to the network, allowing them to call up and communicate with multiple contacts at the same time. The setting was so vividly described that at times I felt like I was watching a movie (oh why oh why can't this be a movie?!)

But in spite of all the new technology, some things always stay the same. For one thing, people will still look for love, that timeless, formless, unshakeable deep connection to another soul. This makes Love Minus Eighty a sci-fi novel that's definitely more about the human story and less about the science and technology. Questions like how the dead can be brought back to life, or how these dating farms even manage to revive dead women for short periods of time aren't the point. Instead, what's important is the emotional impact of the story, and subsequently, the ethical implications of keeping women on ice and in limbo, basically according human beings who have the potential to live again less rights than what you'd give a dog in an animal shelter.

I also have to say the focus on love and dating was a nice touch, not only as it's something practically everyone can relate to, but also because it makes the characters and their motivations feel that much more poignant. It's hard to really say whose perspective was my favorite -- Rob, Veronika, Mira, and even a couple of the supporting characters -- because they each had their own experiences which I found acutely heartbreaking and intense.

Of course, this book wasn't perfect by any means, and I for one had some issues with some of the dialogue as well as the pacing, especially with the way it led up to the ending. However, the mere fact that I'm usually so persnickety about these things but was still able to overlook them meant that ultimately for me, Love Minus Eighty was all about the story and its provocative ideas. Above all, I enjoy books that make me feel (and here's where that whole "I'm a sucker for love stories" comes in), and this one was at once a very thoughtful commentary on the ways of the heart and just twisted enough for me to eat it up.

Format: First paperback and then, when I had to return that to library, I bought the Kindle version.
Narrated By: N/A
Original Publication Year: 2013
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Series: None
Awards: 2010 Hugo Award for the short story “Bridesicle” that the book is based on called.

I was intrigued when I heard about this book because it was based on a very interesting short story that I had listened to through PodCastle (ep. 247). I have a horrible memory, read a lot and have listened to hundreds of short stories but this one, “Bridesicle”, stuck with me. It was unique, provocative and evocative. In the future, humans have developed the technology to repair almost any damage to the human body but that repair comes with a hefty price tag. A corporation has figured out how to exploit this situation by making frozen desirable women, with fatal injuries, available as brides for the ultra wealthy. Men pay money to visit a "bridesicle" of their choice and the woman is revived enough to be able to speak. They must convince a wealthy man to marry them and pay to revive them fully or go through the terror of these short visits where they are aware they are dead and housed in frozen coffins. I was very interested and a little nervous about how the author would turn it into a full length novel.

Obviously Will McIntosh is not only talented at writing short stories. I was really impressed at how he took his one focused idea and expanded it to paint a realistic and rather chilling vision of the future. The world he reveals is our current world turned up by eleventy thousand – people wear electronic systems that allow them to constantly interact with others and everyone is their own reality TV show. It’s utterly believable and rarely seems forced in a “look at all these clever ideas I have” sort of way. Although seeing all the clever ideas he has as they unfold throughout the book is one of its joys.

The book stays real however because the focus is not on all the technology and gadgetry but on the human heart. How are relationships faring in this hyper-connected and highly consumerist world? There are three perspective characters: Rob, Veronika and Mira. Each one faces a different challenge to finding love and they all in one way or another are connected to the Bridesicle facility. They alternate chapters and each chapter is kept short so there is no danger in getting stuck in a less favorite storyline. There is very little danger of that anyway as each of the characters and stories is worthwhile.

The real triumph of the book for me was that it managed to tackle depressing topics and weighty moral issues while still remaining a really fun read. It managed to point out that whenever the human race achieves something great, it will almost always balance that with their ability to exploit each other mercilessly. But it also managed to be hopeful and in the end happy – no matter how complex and crappy our world becomes, we can still find love in the end. Nicely done Mr. McIntosh!