I mean, hey. I’ve read great books, and I’ve read many.
And I know personally some terrific authors who’ll be heartbroken to not see their book here.
This list is nothing against those thousands of astounding books out there. It’s simply that these 10 are the books I keep coming back to. They sit with me constantly, call to me, represent aspects of writing craft I aspire to, and/or I keep loving to reread them.
In no particular order, here they are…
1 Gilead Massively beautiful book. Ten stars out of five! 🙂 It took me a long to read although it’s short: simply put, I would stop every couple of pages and have to process what I’d been reading. Difficult to categorise. If you would enjoy something that makes you think and feel, something more existential than most of the scifi and horror I write haha, this is a must-read. I can see why it won a Pulitzer.
2. The Mote in God’s Eye. Simply my favourite scifi and space opera novel of all time. The sequels are disastrously bad, but the co-writers here craft something special in the original standalone novel. Simply the greatest alien species and civilisation I’m yet to come across. And a plot that keeps you guessing.
3. The Power and the Glory – I must have read this four times at very different stages of my life now. Bleak, haunting, economical with language, and with an anti-hero in the Whisky Priest who is to me weirdly heroic. This is Greene at his peak.
4. Liege-Killer. A Locus Award Nominee for Best First Novel and Best SF Novel (1988), I must have discovered this the year it was first published. For my money, the greatest villain of all time. A clever blend of alternate future history and crime thriller. Lost count of the reads I’ve given it (and I’m intending another reread in 2025). Can be read by itself or enjoyed with the two slightly lesser sequels. Masterpiece.
5. The Business of Death – Along with #2 above, this is the lightest of the books I’m recommending. A full trilogy available in one volume. Pacey, original, expertly plotted, and genuinely funny. An amazing take on the Grim Reaper trope and the afterlife, and one of the few urban fantasies that have gripped me all the way through.
6. Gorky Park. Awesome Cold war crime thriller. The Kafka-esque tone, the Arkady Renko character (who may or may not be on the autism spectrum but definitely has a death wish behaving the way he does in the Soviet Russia of the 80s), the mystery itself…perfection.
7. Whisperer in Dissonance – A superb novel. A quick read and a freaky one, Whisperer melds horror and science fiction to examine themes including post-industrial despair, colonialism and technology-as-magic. The story moves at a great pace. The prose is neat and interesting. The characters believable, their motivations credible. And I would hope this book would lead you into Welke’s other brilliant stories which display more of his wonderful sense of humour, such as The Eldar Sister and A Cookbook for the Besieged.
8. First Blood. If you consider Rambo a joke 80s action character, that’s because Stallone messed with David Morrell’s original perfection. This book is a masterclass in the literary thriller. It pulls no punches. It has no hero. It simply sets two totally committed men on a collision course that has horrendous consequences. Morrell’s command of English is superb in this. Not a happy story. Be warned.
9. To End All Wars. I can’t praise this book enough. Articulate, polished, embedded perfectly in a historical era, unpredictable, completely satisfying. Best thing I’ve read in several years, hands down. Blends WW1 espionage/suspense fiction with scifi flawlessly. Great writer. Great novel.
10 The Return Man. Let’s face it, much of the zombie apocalypse fodder that’s out there is written badly by devoted fans of the genre who shouldn’t have published their work without getting it severely critiqued by other writers then editors. Oooo, claws retracted, rant over. This book is the exception. Beautifully imagined and plotted thriller that happens to be set in a What-if future. Well edited, well-cast, very satisfying.
As I always do, I recommend downloading the Kobo or Kindle sample first to see if you like the book THEN buy it. Hope this has provided your next enoyable read!
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