Tobias Buckell -- Best Literature Picks of 2007

For a while there I was starting to think I was the only person in SF/F that had read Max Brook's World War Z, but I'm seeing it talked about now. It's a zombie novel, but its told via a series of interviews with people after the war against the zombies, and it's a completely fascinating and well done book. Surprisingly so, it is probably my favorite book of the year. Other books that entirely got a lot of love from me:

Jay Lake's Mainspring, a fun romp in a creationist world where gears literally turn the world, like an enormous orrery.

Karl Schroeder's Queen of Candesce. Karl has put out yet another great adventure novel in his Virga series, set in a giant weightless area of air where people build floating cities.

K.J. Parker's Devices and Desires was a Fantasy about an engineer, of all things, who totally shakes up the medieval world he lives in in order to destroy the civilization  that has vowed to kill him for trading its secrets.

Jim Hine's Goblin Hero. For all that this is a funny book, it should not be ignored. Funny is hard to do, and Jim pokes fun at all the cliches of fantasy with relish.

A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham: Daniel is an awesome new voice, and his magic spells that take form as people is such a chilling and interesting new twist.

Since about 2005/2006 there have been a lot of novels by new writers hitting the market that are just a pleasure to read.