OK, Time’s up. Let me throw some queries (do I still know any PLSQL?) at my database and evaluate my progress over the last year:
- I exceeded my target of 100 novels read this year by a measly 1, thereby bringing the total number of works read since I started manically reading SF+ in 2000 to a disappointing 848. I thought it would be more.
- The oldest work I read in 2011 was Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), the most recent Adam Roberts’ By Light Alone (2011). BLA therefore automatically becomes my recommendation for the 2012 awards. Funny thing though, it is good. It is very, very good and would deserve to sweep the awards this year. (Disclaimer: I’m a Roberts fan).
- Although I did read works from every decade since the 30’s, 36 were published since 2000 and a further 22 in the 90’s. Still, I did read a few stunning classics.
- I’ve judged my reading experience (note, I make no attempt to rate the work itself, this is completely and unashamedly subjective) of the following 8 novels to be worth 5 stars:
- Brain Aldiss, Report on Probability A, (1968)
- Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, (1962)
- M. John Harrison, Signs of Life, (1997)
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, (1932)
- George R.R. Martin, The Armageddon Rag, (1983)
- Adam Roberts, By Light Alone, (2011)
- Kim Stanley Robinson, Galileo's Dream, (2009)
- Gene Wolfe, In Green's Jungles, (2000)
- In addition to the above I would also recommend Ian McDonald’s Desolation Road (1988) and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl (2009)
- My 5 favourite authors overall are: Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Gene Wolfe and Robert Silverberg.
My reading target for 2012 remains 100 SF+ novels. I’m starting the year with China Miéville, Embassytown (2011). Go for it boy!