Friday, December 31, 2004

2004: The Year in Books

(Reposted from a previous blog.)

(Made up of items from 2004 and other items reconstructed from memory due to loss of original post!)

In 2004 I started to move from just posting titles and the occasional review to trying to review everything I read. I can't say that I'm there yet; sometimes I just don't feel like writing and review and sometimes life takes precedence (hence the backlog this year!). But, as you'll see from the number of links here, I did more book (and story!) reviews in 2004 than any year previous.

During this period I was working seven days a week. So I would have a lot of time to read. However, I had limited access to the computer, so would let the books pile up instead of jotting notes, composing reviews, etc. That led to a big crunch in December where I tried to review as much as possible. You'll see that when it came to short stories, there were a number of books that I read...but did not review individual stories in. Time ran out!

Ah well, I'll read them all again, someday. And then I'll fill in the blanks and write more reviews!

Best books that I read this year: Tied for first place were Revelation Space and Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds as well as Going for Infinity by Poul Anderson. Tied for second place were Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod and Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.

Book count: 122. See also the 2004 Short Story Project.

Poul Anderson: For Love and GloryGoing for Infinity.

Tom Swift, Jr. by "Victor Appleton, II": Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956). Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957). Tom Swift and His Deep-Sea Hydrodome (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift and His Space Solartron (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope (Grosset & Dunlap, 1959).

Isaac Asimov: In Memory Yet Green. In Joy Still FeltFoundation. Foundation and Empire. Second Foundation. The Complete Robot (Doubleday, 1982). Murder at the ABA (Doubleday, 1976).

Wayne Barlowe: The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe and Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.

Stephen Baxter: Phase Space (HarperCollins, 2002).

Gregory Benford: In the Ocean of Night (WarnerAspect, 2004).

Ben Bova: Sam Gunn, Unlimited.

Ben Bova (editor): The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIA (Avon, 1974). The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIB (Avon, 1974).

Mark Bowden: Black Hawk Down (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999).

Ray Bradbury: From the Dust Returned.

Michael Cabbage and William Harwood: Comm Check...The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia (Free Press, 2004).

Eleanor Cameron: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (Little, Brown, 1954). Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (Little Brown, 1956). Mr. Bass's Planetoid (Little, Brown, 1958).

John W. Campbell, Jr.: The Black Star Passes.

John W. Campbell, Jr. (editor): The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology (Simon & Schuster, 1952).

C.J. Cherryh: The Kif Strike Back. Chanur's Venture.

Tracy Chevalier: Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Arthur C. Clarke: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipdeds! Collected Essays 1934-1998The View from SerendipPrelude to SpaceSands of MarsThe City and The StarsThe Songs of Distant Earth.

Samuel R. Delany: The Jewels of Aptor. The Einstein IntersectionThe Motion of Light in WaterAye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories. Distant Stars.

Gardner Dozois (editor): The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998). The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St Martin's Griffin, 1999).

Freeman Dyson: Disturbing the Universe (Harper & Row, 1981).

Harlan Ellison: Vic & Blood (artwork by Richard Corben) (iBooks, 2003).

M.C. Escher: The World of M.C. Escher.

Matt Eversmann & Dan Schilling (editors): The Battle of Mogadishu: Firsthand Accounts from the Men of Task Force Ranger (Ballantine, 2004).

Timothy Ferris: Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril (Simon & Schuster, 2002).

Alan Dean Foster: Nor Crystal Tears (Del Rey, 1982). Phylogenesis (Del Rey, 1999).

Tommy Franks and Malcolm McConnell: American Soldier (Regan Books, 2004).

Neil Gaiman: Coraline.

James Gunn (editor): Astounding Stories: The 60th Anniversary Collection (three volumes).

Karen Haber: Meditations on Middle-Earth.

David M. Harland & John E. Catchpole: Creating the ISS (Springer-Praxis, 2002).

Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land. Rocket Ship Galileo (Scribners, 1947). Space Cadet (Scribners, 1949). Between Planets (Scribners, 1951). Farmer in the Sky (Scribners, 1951). Starman Jones (Scribners, 1953).

Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (Simon & Schuster, 1999).

Alan Lee: Tolkien's World—Paintings of Middle-Earth.

Fritz Leiber: Ill Met In Lankhmar (made up of Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death) (White Wolf Publishing, 1995). Lean Times in Lankhmar (made up of Swords in the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry) (White Wolf Publishing, 1996). Return to Lankhmar (made up of The Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magic) (White Wolf Publishing, 1997). Farewell to Lankhmar (made up of The Knight of Knaves and Swords) (White Wolf Publishing, 1998). Gather, Darkness! (Ballantine, 1975).

Murray Leinster: The Wailing Asteroid (Ace, 1960).

Ken MacLeod: Newton's Wake (Tor, 2004).

Tim McElyes: A Vision of Future Space Transportation: A Visual Guide to Future Spacecraft Concepts (Apogee Books, 2003).

Alan E. Nourse: Scavengers in Space.

William R. Pogue: How Do You Go To the Bathroom in Space? (TOR, 1999)

Mark Pendergrast: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World (Basic Books, 1999).

Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (Ace, 2001). Redemption Ark (Ace, 2003).

Rudy Rucker: Seek!.

Carl Sagan: The Cosmic Connection. Other Worlds (Bantam, 1975).

K.H. Scheer & Walter Ernsting: Perry Rhodan: Enterprise Stardust/The Third Power.

Frank Seitzen, Jr. & Keith L. Cowing: New Moon Rising: The Making of America's New Space Vision and the Remaking of NASA (Apogee Books, 2004).

Charles Sheffield: Summertide (Book One of the Heritage Universe, one half of Convergence, Baen Books, 1998).

Robert Silverberg (editor): The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I.

E.E. "Doc" Smith: Gray Lensman (Old Earth Books, 1998).

Allen E. Steele: Sex and Violence in Zero-G (Meisha Merlin, 1999).

Neal Stephenson: Quicksilver.

Scott P. Sullivan: Virtual Apollo (Apogee Books, 2002) and Virtual LM (Apogee Books, 2004).

Travis S. Taylor: Warp Speed.

Lewis Thomas: The Lives of a Cell.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Bilbo's Last Song (Knopf, 2002). The Hobbit. The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin, 2001).

Harry S. Truman (edited by Ralph Keyes): The Wit & Wisdom of Harry Truman (Gramercy Books, 1999).

United States Marine Corps: A Book on Books.

John Varley: The Persistence of Vision (Dell, 1979). The Barbie Murders (Berkley, 1980). Blue Champagne (Berkley, 1986). The John Varley Reader (Ace, 2004). Red Thunder (Ace, 2003).

T.K.F. Weisskopf (editor): Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System (Baen, 2004).

Mark Whittington: Children of Apollo.

Winston SF (click on the link for some details): The World at Bay (Paul Capon) (1954). Islands in the Sky (Arthur C. Clarke) (1952). Attack from Atlantis (Lester Del Rey) (1958). Step to the Stars (Lester Del Rey) (1954). Mission to the Moon (Lester Del Rey) (1956). Trouble on Titan (Alan E. Nourse) (1954). Missing Men of Saturn (Philip Latham) (1953).

Makoto Yukimura: Planetes #01 (Tokyopop, 2003). Planetes #02 (Tokyopop, 2003). Planetes #03 (Tokyopop, 2004). Planetes #04a (Tokyopop, 2004). Planetes #04b (Tokyopop, 2004).

Robert Zubrin: Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic (Penguin, 2003).

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