Tim Pratt's Best Literature Picks of 2007

The best SF novel I read all year was Halting State by Charles Stross. Amazing near-future weirdness.

The best YA about nuclear supremacy was Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas: never have garden gnomes seemed so foreboding, and his trick of letting his psychic first-person narrator naturally expand to become an omniscient narrator was inspired.

The best vampire novel I read (in several years, actually) was 13 Bullets by David Wellington. His curmudgeonly badass hero was a breath of cranky fresh air.

The best alternate history I read was Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, and the best pulp-influenced odd-couple buddy-novel was his Gentlemen of the Road.

The best pirate con artist book was Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

Best SF novel that wasn't actually technically SF was Spook Country by William Gibson.

The best prose was Elizabeth Hand's, in her collection Saffron and Brimstone and her novel Generation Loss.

Best Big Fat Fantasy was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss; I didn't think I'd ever love another doorstop bugcrusher of a fantasy novel, but his won me over.

Best contemporary fantasy was Whiskey and Water by Elizabeth Bear. I love that series, and can't wait for the next two due in 2008.

Best mystery was Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers (I'm only, oh, 75 years behind the times on that one, huh?)

Best unreliable narrator was Jane Charlotte from Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff.