best adj. those albums, films or books I enjoyed, appreciated or admired the most during the year

It’s that time of year again, when I look back over the books I read, the films I watched, and the albums I bought and listened to. And then I pick the best five from each medium. For me, one of the interesting aspects of this exercise is that each year I find myself picking some authors, directors or bands new to me – proving that I’m not solely focused on stuff that I know I like.

For example, of this year’s five books, four authors were new to me – and two of them sparked off “enthusiasms” (which is what I call it when I find myself buying loads of books on a subject because I’ve found that initial book so fascinating). After reading The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, I went and bought a bunch of books on mediaeval Arabic literature. And Moondust rekindled my boyhood interest in the Space Race, leading to the purchase of several autobiographies by astronauts…
Music too includes two bands new to me in 2007. New to everyone, in fact. It’s their debuts that I’ve chosen on my best of the year. And in films, only one is by a director whose work I like a great deal. I watched the others because of their story… although one not only was picked as a best of the year but also became a favourite film.

Books
Ascent, Jed Mercurio (2007)
A review of this in a daily newspaper piqued my interest – a novel about a cosmonaut in which, the reviewer complained, the level of detail was so dense it made the book a difficult read. The subject matter appealed to me, and the reviewer’s comments reminded of a complaint often levelled at science fiction by mainstream critics. So I bought a copy of Ascent, read it, thought it very good, and decided it was indeed science fiction and that the reviewer in the newspaper was a bit of a twit. I blogged about it here.

Moondust, Andrew Smith (2005)
I freely admit I was a space nut when I was a kid. I had posters of astronauts and launch vehicles on my bedroom walls. Around the age of 11, I discovered science fiction, and my interest in real spacemen began to wane. However, reading Ascent reminded me of that childhood interest. I dug out the few non-fiction books on the subject I still owned, and then went hunting for more recent works. And found Moondust. This is not a book about the Apollo programme, or the Space Race; it is a book about the nine surviving men (of the original twelve) who walked on the Moon. It is about how that experience changed them, and how they coped – or failed to do so – on their return. It’s also about how we feel about those men and their achievements. In one telling scene in the book, Smith goes to see Dick Gordon (Apollo 12 CMP) at a Star Trek convention. Gordon is sat alone in a corner of the signing room, while long queues stretch before the tables of TV actors. Gordon, a man who really went to the Moon, is ignored. I know which person’s signature I would treasure more…

The Penguin Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature, Robert Irwin (1999)
I bought this on a whim – saw it on the shelves of my local Waterstone’s while I was looking for a copy of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, and decided to buy it. I had no idea what to expect. Like most people (I suspect), my idea of classical Arabic literature meant… 1001 Nights. And that’s despite growing up in the Middle East. I soon learnt there is a wealth of literature from the mediaeval Arab world, mostly epic poems. Irwin’s commentary is entertaining and educational. As mentioned earlier, after reading this book, I hunted down some more books on the subject. I also read The Middle East by Bernard Lewis shortly afterwards, to get a better idea of the historical context.

Sea-Kings of Mars, Leigh Brackett (2005)
This collection is No. 47 in the Fantasy Masterworks series – which is odd, because Brackett writes science fiction. It’s a type of sf no longer popular – planetary romance. I think that will change soon, however – if only because of the John Carter of Mars film currently in pre-production at Pixar. Whatever the future of swashbuckling amongst ancient ruins on Mars or the jungles of Venus, Brackett was the best writer to work in planetary romance, and this collection contains all her best works. Brackett was a better writer than her choice of material suggests, and it shows in these tales.

The first four picks for this list were easy. The fifth one was… Well, I reread my favourite sf novels during the year, but they don’t count. I also read a lot of very good novels – L Timmel Duchamp’s Alanya to Alanya, Alastair Reynolds’ The Prefect, Eric Brown’s Starship Summer, M John Harrison’s Nova Swing, Emil Habiby’s The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, Andreas Eschbach’s The Carpet Makers… but I can’t pick one above the others. So instead, I’ll finish up with two excellent anthologies:-

The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (2007)
Does just what it says on the tin. Admittedly, New Space Opera is no longer new, and at least one story in this anthology fits no known definition of space opera (the Kage Baker one; and she can’t do Brit characters, either), but this is still a strong anthology with some good stuff.

Text: Ur, Forrest Aguirre (2007)
This is allegedly a themed anthology, although the only common link between the stories that I could see was that they were mostly experimental. And, as is the nature of experiments, some succeeded and some failed. Toiya Kristen Finlay’s ‘The Avatar of Background Noise’ was probably one of the best pieces of short fiction I’ve read this year.

Albums
Martriden – Martriden (2006)
Although death metal arguably began in the US, I’m not that big a fan of the US style – well, except for Morbid Angel and Nile. I much prefer the North European variety. Martriden, however, are a bit different. There’s some NWOBHM and some progressive metal mixed in with their melodic death metal. This debut EP is only 4 tracks, but I’m looking forward to the album (The Unsettling Dark, due for release in March 2008).

The Lucifer Principle – Pitch Black Dawn (2007)
A new Dutch band, The Lucifer Principle play NWOBHM-influenced death metal. There are some great tracks here: ‘Soul Saviour Throat Cut’ has some excellent shredding, and ‘Burn’ goes funky in the middle eight. It didn’t take long for this album to become a favourite.

Fall of the Leafe – Aerolithe (2007)
They split up. Bah. Fall of the Leafe release this great album, and six months later they disband. I can understand why they were an acquired taste, and perhaps not all that popular. But I liked their extreme metal-influenced sort of goth Finnish metal, and this last album was their best to date. Since it seems every band on the planet is reforming at the moment, perhaps they’ll decide to get back together. I hope so.

Dark Tranquillity – Fiction (2007)
The last three albums from Gothenberg stalwarts Dark Tranquillity had been… a little disappointing. Fiction is a welcome return to form. Many of the songs are a little… unsettling, inasmuch as they don’t progress in quite the way you’d expect. In some respects that makes Fiction a more experimental and progressive album that it first appears. The band have said they deliberately retrenched when it came to writing Fiction. Which makes the final result even more remarkable.

Mithras – Behind the Shadows Lie Madness (2007)
This band’s last album was in my top five last year, and this year’s release is even better than that one. There’s more spacey ambient strangeness, more insane drumming and guitarwork. The most annoying thing about this band is that it only has two members, and they’ve yet to settle on a line-up for live perfomance. I’d go see them if they toured. I think they should tour.

Some honorable mentions:
NahemaH – The Second Philosophy (2006)
When an album by a band I’ve never heard of features a sticker quoting resemblances to Opeth and Dark Tranquillity, there’s no way I’m not going to buy it. Except, NahemaH don’t actually resemble either of those two bands. So when I first listened to The Second Philosophy, I was disappointed. But I kept returning to the CD because I suspected it would be a grower. And so it was. A couple of months after purchasing it, it became a favourite.

Rotting Christ – Theogonia (2007)
These Greeks play a fierce style of black metal that sounds somewhat similar to old-style Swedish death metal acts like Bloodbath. I’m not a big fan of black metal but this album I thought was excellent from the first listen – aggressive and otherworldly.

Rise to Addiction – A New Shade of Black for the Soul (2007)
I saw these live at Bloodstock, and they gave one of the best performances of the weekend. The album is heavy groove metal, with some excellent guitarwork, infectious riffs and anthemic choruses.

Films
Divine Intervention (dir. Elia Suleiman, 2002)
See here for all you need to know about this film.

Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
I read the PD James novel on which this film is based many years ago, and was not impressed. James’ ridiculous protestations that it wasn’t sf impressed me even less. But Cuaron has turned an ordinary book into an excellent film. The opening scene is indeed a shocker, but unlike Swordfish (which also features a shocking explosion in the opening minutes) Children of Men does not turn into some sort of implausible wish-fulfilment action-adventure. It’s a solid gritty near-future film that transcends its origins.

The Prestige (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2006)
Here’s another book I read when it was published. But then I’ve been a fan of Priest’s writing since the publication of The Glamour. But when I first read The Prestige, it never occurred to me that it was filmable. Christopher Nolan, however, has managed it. Some of the subtlety of the novel might have been lost, but this is still an excellent film.

Black Book (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 2006)
I’ve always enjoyed Verhoeven’s films. And yes, Starship Troopers is a great film. Hollow Man, which followed it, wasn’t as good. When I heard Verhoeven had returned to the Netherlands to make a film, I guessed I wasn’t the only one hoping we’d see a return to the Verhoeven of The Fourth Man, Soldier of Orange and Katie Tippel. Black Book is perhaps not as good as those three titles, but it’s pure Verhoeven through and through. And Carice van Houten is superb in the lead role. There’s none of that Hollywood silliness, either.

Fahrenheit 451 (dir. Francois Truffaut, 1966)
And conversely, I’m hardly a fan of Truffaut – I found both Jules et Jim and Les Quatre Cents Coups somewhat dull. I’m not a big fan of Ray Bradbury’s fiction either, and have never really understood his great popularity. And yet, I thought this film was superb. I only bought it because it was going cheap in a sale, I’d never seen it, and it’s considered one of the great sf films of the 1960s. And when I watched it, this happened.

An honorable mention:
From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
It’s not a film, it’s a miniseries. About the Apollo programme. I’d never seen it before, but bought it because of my newly rekindled interest in the Space Race. Each episode covers an Apollo mission, but the writers have cleverly found a story set in and about it. This is no documentary, it’s proper drama. But it is also technically accurate.