Gowstuff

Perhaps my favorite science fiction book. Maybe my favorite book, period. A ripping yarn, a horror story, a space opera, a love story, a tale of parental devotion, big ideas, and little moments--it's all here. Make sure to pick up The Fall of Hyperion at the same time: the two books are basically a single novel.

Older science fiction can age badly. Not this one. Alfred Bester retells The Count of Monte Cristo with a brutish protagonist whose quest for revenge shapes, refines, and ultimately evolves him into something maybe more than human.

Fun, fun, fun. Mignola continues his love affair with the pulps of the 1920's and 1930's in this Hellboy tale combining Nazis, ghosts, zombies, talking gorillas, a menace from space, and the goggled Claw of Justice, Lobster Johnson.

I am in awe of this guy. His writing is poetic, with perfectly chosen words, perfectly placed in drawings that are both calm and kinetic. And he's funny. Best punchlines in the business.

Writer Charlie Huston beats the vampire genre into a bloody pulp--just like his protagonist, Joe Pitt, a modern-day vampire trying to "Yojimbo" his way through the deadly politics between the rival vampire clans of modern-day Manhattan. Violent and no-nonsense, but with a sharp eye and a unique sense of justice, this is the perfect antidote to all those "broodingly handsome" vampire books.

The first of the Preston/Childs collaborations, and still one of my favorite opening chapters ever. If you like this one, there's a lot more, all dealing with the same far-flung "family" of characters first introduced here. (By the way, erase from your mind all memory of the vastly inferior movie adaptation.)

An amazing book that changed the course of modern fantasy. There are enough ideas and characters in here for five lesser novels, but Mieville takes the time to develop them all--and then smashes them together in a desperate struggle against a hideous menace. (And in a happy note, it is now free in the Kindle store.)

Christopher Moore achieved what I had thought to be unachievable: he wrote a truly funny science fiction novel. And he set it in Hawaii, which is always a bonus.

In addition to being a multi-instrument musician, accomplished comedian, and, of course, Dr House, it turns out that Hugh Laurie is a heck of a writer. He delivers all the expected features of a modern thriller while still messing with the conventions to deliver an original and engaging story.