My wishlists have a strong bias to speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, myth. There is also a smattering of mysteries/detective/spy stories (but rarely the traditional ‘thriller’ I have grown numb to those), contemporary fiction, and world fiction, especially african.

Most of the books that were on the previous wishlist are still wished - I didnt buy them yet. As a result I have left the old wishlist and will only put new books on this one. So if you are looking for more ideas also check the older list here, as any overlap would be accidental.

Note: If this list makes you want to look up any of the books, I have a cute little amazon store with all of the books mentioned, and you can finance my book addiction while snatching a new or used copy of the book. Check it out: UK List | US List

New additions to my wishlist:

Peter Hoeg: The Quiet Girl. From Endicott. Hoeg’s latest is a thoroughly interstitial novel: part literary thriller, part urban fantasy, part post- catastrophe sf, set in near-future Copenhagen and told in rich, labyrinthine prose. This fascinating, atmospheric story may be my favorite of Hoeg’s books since his haunting, best-selling Smilla’s Sense of Snow . (T. Windling)

Stephen Baxter. From Locus: “Weaver (Ace Jul 2008). Fourth and final volume in the history-spanning Time’s Tapestry series following Emperor, Conqueror, and Navigator, this time set during an alternate WWII where Churchill falls from power and Nazis invade England. Previously published in the UK by Gollancz (1/08). “The Time’s Tapestry series evokes the same wondrous questions as the best alternate history tales, and does so on as broad an historical canvas as we’ve ever seen.‘’ [Gary K. Wolfe]“

Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone (Prime Books Jul 2008). From Locus: Literary fantasist Sedia enters steampunk territory with this tale of a sentient clockwork woman caught in a power struggle with alchemists, mechanics, and the gargoyles who once ruled the ducal city of Ayona.

Walter Jon Williams, Implied Spaces (Night Shade Books Jul 2008). From Locus: What seemingly begins as classic high fantasy — complete with a roguish sword-wielding hero, a talking cat, and an army of trolls — soon morphs into a wildly inventive, genre-bashing, post-Singularity tale of pocket universes and high adventure. Williams’s “angle of approach harks back to classic ludenic SF writers like Zelazny and Farmer, whose pocket universes borrowed as much from fantasy as SF.‘’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

And there are more:

Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton. From SFSite: “The book is filled with wonderful touches, glimpses of a world with a past that one wishes would be illuminated in more stories. The narrator, who can see into everyone’s head just as in Victorian novels, employs heraldic terms to illuminate the dragons’ movements. The echoes from Trollope’s novel add polysemous levels to this reading experience without revealing everything about the ending. Can this book be enjoyed by readers not familiar with Trollope’s novel? Of course it can. No one needs to be familiar with Victorian literature to enjoy a well-written story about dragons. The pacing is masterful, the characters distinctive, the climax exciting. What is very likely is that, on finishing this book, a reader might very well wish to seek out Trollope’s novel-and then come back to read Tooth and Claw again. It’s definitely one for the Favorites shelf.“

Filled with as many tears as chuckles, Rob Levandoski’s Fresh Eggs is a provocative father-daughter tale guaranteed to make you ponder the realities of modern farming and think twice the next time someone asks, “white or dark meat?“. Calvin Cassowary is ready to do whatever it takes to keep Cassowary Farm in the family for one more generation. Hatching a scheme to specialize in chickens, soon he’s got a million hens laying eggs for Gallinipper Foods, but he still finds himself deeper and deeper into debt. To make matters worse, his chicken-loving daughter Rhea is spending far too much time with the chickens and is starting to act very strange. From a librarything forum recommendation as an incredibly funny book. Got It

A Dirty Job (Morrow), by Christopher Moore. Satirist and fantasist Christopher Moore delivers one of his funniest works to date in this novel about a meek beta-male who unknowingly becomes a grim reaper. Moore’s reflections on gender are side-splittingly hilarious, and, as ever, his cast of oddball characters is terrifically intriguing and entertaining. From Locus.

Alex Bell, The Ninth Circle (Gollancz Apr 2008). From Locus. An amnesiac named Gabriel keeps a journal describing his somewhat surreal experiences in Budapest as he goes from wondering who he is to uncovering a supernatural mystery involving a war between angels and demons. ‘‘I had been too diverted by Gabriel’s eccentricities and the suggestion of wonders and horrors trembling on the verge of revelation to remember… I was reading a first novel.’’ [Paul Witcover]

From scifidimensins: The Dragon Done It is a strong collection of short stories, penned by many talented writers who fulfill the promise the book has just with the big names. While the famed Mike Resnick and Eric Flint are the leaders here, the other writers create drama in their own distinctive ways, adding to the fun of the whole collection.  My pick would be Laura Resnick’s “Dopplegangster” as the one story which compels you to keep reading, with jokes and hard-boiled crime.

From scifidimensins: If you enjoy humor along with your post-apocalyptic speculation, if you like Monty Python or Douglas Adams, or if you simply like science fiction or fantasy good enough to transcend the boundaries of genre, then do check out Nick DiChario’s Valley of Day-Glo, then go find his previous and equally fine novel, A Small and Remarkable Life.  You will be glad you did.

Farthing, by Jo Walton. From SFsite and others. “Farthing may begin like St. George’s dragon couchant, but this time the dragon shows teeth and claws with deliberate menace before it launches—and strikes with draconian resonance more than once. I had gotten about a quarter of the way in before I realized I was not going to be able to put this novel down, after which it left me stunned and unable to read anything else for quite a while after.“

Ian McDonald, Brasyl (Prometheus/Pyr May 2007). On my list for a long time, overdue for a buy… Ambitious novel set in the past, present, and future of Brazil that explores issues of class, race, culture, and technology. ‘‘A feast of fine prose, an able political novel, and an intriguing experiment in cross-temporal storytelling and implication.’’ [Nick Gevers]

Michael Swanwick, The Dragons of Babel (Tor Jan 2008) Swanwick returns to the mixed magical/technical world of The Iron Dragon’s Daughter for this tale of a rural faerie boy who is set on a series of adventures after a war-dragon crashes in his neighborhood. A striking fantasy, ‘‘elegant, erudite, slyly funny, hard-nosed, compassionate, propulsive, and capable of punching through overused conventions and sentimentalities and delivering the jolt that restores to the form its primal power.’’ [Russell Letson]. “The Dragons of Babel is an unqualified masterpiece representing the pinnacle of modern fantasy. Simply put, it is great fantasy as great literature. Future writers would do well to heed closely to Swanwick’s considered inversions of the tropes of the genre, which remind us that “Magic in the imagination is a wondrous thing, but magic in practice is terrible beyond imagining.“

Clive Barker, Mister B. Gone (HarperCollins Nov 2007). Master horror writer Barker tackles questions of good and evil, demons, love, and even the war between Heaven and Hell in this darkly fantastic and frequently humorous novel in the form of the autobiography of a demon. From Locus again.

The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson. From Locus: Noted literary novelist Winterson may claim not to care for science fiction, but she leans heavily on it for this frequently polemical novel made up of three interlinked tales about man and the environment — and love — seen primarily through scientist Billie Crusoe, who teaches her Robo sapiens (robot) pal Spike some interesting lessons. From scifidimensions: just go read The Stone Gods.  Even if the paramecium of the mainstream is enveloping the viral memes of SF; the point here is it’s a tremendous read.  It has humor.  It is ridiculous.  It is a Molotov cocktail aimed directly at convention.  The ghosts of speculative iconoclasts like Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem, Vonnegut and Swift are surely smiling at the effort.  This is not dreary realism.  This is a thought-inducing fabulist cross-over that sustains interest and leaves an indelible rhetorical mark.

Michael Swanwick, The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Tachyon Publications Sep 2007). From Locus. ‘‘Michael Swanwick is one of the finest short fiction writers of the last quarter century, and his long-awaited new collection…is surpassingly brilliant…the leading contender for best collection of 2007.’’ [Nick Gevers]

Elizabeth Hand, Generation Loss (Small Beer Press Apr 2007). From Locus. A formerly famous punk photographer attracted to the dead and damaged stumbles on a serial killer case when she takes a job inteviewing a famous reclusive photographer in this dark thriller of art and damaged souls, and despite only a hint of the supernatural, ‘‘…something of a departure for the author, but fully as elegant and significant as her overtly fantastic works. There is grave beauty her, and great thematic power.’’ [Nick Gevers]

James Morrow, The Philosopher’s Apprentice (Morrow Mar 2008) . From Locus and other reviews. A philosopher tutors a billionaire geneticist’s adolescent daughter who has lost her memory and moral sense, finding mysteries and unintentionally creating a woman determined to save the world at any cost. ‘‘…entertaining and often hilarious…Morrow is as good as anybody at dramatizing the notion that ideas can both kill us and save us, and The Philosopher’s Apprentice may well offer about as many provocative ideas per chapter as we’ll see in any novel this year.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

Catherynne Valente: The Orphan’s Tales - recommended on the Endicott Journal. Seems a baroque 1001 nights style narrative.

Charles Stross, Halting State (Ace Oct 2007) . An Edinburgh police sergeant reluctantly investigates a virtual robbery committed inside a massive multiplayer online game in this multilayered near-future police procedural mystery, which may be Stross’s ‘‘...most carefuly structured and most accomplished novel to date.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]. From Locus.

Ted Chiang: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. From Endicott. New from Subterranean Press: this time-travel story set in Baghdad fuses the lyricism of Arabian Nights tales with an incisive and thoroughly modern meditation on the nature of past and future. Chiang, a fiercely intelligent writer, uses the stories-within-stories literary technique to powerful effect. (T.Windling)

Sheri S. Tepper, The Margarets (Eos Jun 2007). From locus. This complex SF novel follows a girl who at key points splits into multiple versions of herself, versions who go on to live much different lives on many worlds throughout galactic civilization. Aliens, exotic worlds, multiple Margarets, and a dying Earth badly in need of saving combine in as passionate a polemic as Tepper has yet delivered on mankind’s inability to save itself.

Gregory Frost, Shadowbridge (Ballantine Del Rey Jan 2008). From Locus. The compelling first volume in a fantasy duology set in an exotic world of bridges, each with its own society, spanning oceans inhabited by sentient dragons, following a cast of damaged characters through a frequently disturbing world. A ‘‘...compelling and original novel… Frost could be on his way toward a masterpiece.’’ [Gary K. Wolfe]

The Name of the Wind . From Endicott. If you were going to tell your story, how would you begin? “My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as ‘quothe.‘ Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I’ve had more names than anyone has a right to. The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it’s spoken, can mean The Flame, The Thunder, or The Broken Tree.“ Beginning with your name might seem like the simple and obvious thing to do, but as Patrick Rothfuss’ brilliant debut novel The Name of the Wind shows, names are anything but simple. Kvothe’s name is by far the end of his mystery, and The Name of the Wind is as complex and enjoyable as its hero. The characters are well-drawn and nuanced, and the plot draws the reader in, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. But the most gorgeous thing in this beautifully written book is the profound importance it places on words. In Kvothe’s world, not only does the wind have a name, but there are seven words that can make any woman fall in love with you, and singing the wrong sort of songs can have the direst consequences. And Kvothe, the multi-named, the Kingkiller, the Bloodless, who pursues his destiny in the words of a children’s rhyme, insists that his story be told in an extremely precise way. That precision, that remarkable gift for knowing the perfect word, becomes a hallmark of Kvothe and his story. And so, as you wait for the next volume in the trilogy, ask yourself: as you tell your story, how will you begin?

Emma Bull, Territory (Tor Jul 2007). From Endicott. Occult forces lurk behind the events of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral in this historical fantasy that ‘‘…evokes the substance a spirit of old Arizona… it transforms the tropes of the Western to a degree that goes beyond the category of ‘genre hybrid’ to achieve a power very much its own.’’ [Faren Miller] From Endicott reviewer Kathleen Howard: “The American West has long been a mythologized location. Among other ideas, it symbolizes freedom, new beginnings, and the potential for immense wealth. Emma Bull’s extraordinary new book, Territory, takes this symbolism one step further—the land of her Old West does not just symbolize power, it is power, and the book deals with who will control it. “Set in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, Territory features some familiar faces. Doc Holliday is a Falstaffian presence, and Wyatt Earp exudes foreboding and menace. But the heart of this book lies in the unexpected, not the familiar. The powerfully realized characters of Mildred Benjamin, a young newspaperwoman who disproves the Western cliche that all women are wives or whores, and Chow Lung and Chu, who provide a window into Tombstone’s Chinatown, draw our eyes away from stagecoach robberies and silver mines, and into the rest of Tombstone. They also show Bull’s ability to make brilliant and vital characters out of people not normally seen in Westerns. “This is fitting because seeing, the ability to truly see what is there, is an important theme in Territory. A wizard, uncomfortable with the reality of his power, cannot see properly until he accepts it. The important players in a key scene see two different versions of what occurred. And many people in Tombstone are not what we would assume they are, or what they appear to be. “On her blog (which, thankfully, also announces that Territory will have a sequel), Bull refers to the historical events in Arizona as the Matter of Tombstone, much like the Arthurian legends are the Matter of Britain. Before reading Territory, I would have dismissed the comparison as ridiculous. Now, I find it apt.“