Best of 2008 Picks -- Kathleen Bartholomew

BEST OF 2008

This past year was not one rife with Bests, for me. Most of the arts seemed sparse, repetitive and depressing – Best of a Bad Lot was the norm, usually. Most the New Release lists were dominated by the latest overwrought volume of series that should have sucumbed to senescence several books ago – when lists of what’s new are 75% “latest chapter of tired crap”, you stop looking at the new stuff at all. I spent most of the year re-reading old favourites, listening to old music, watching classic films instead of new ones – essentially, forting up with my provisions and waiting out the siege.

Luckily, there are exceptions to any drought – days when the dew is heavy enough to make one think the rains have finally come. In California where I live, the end of the year is the wet season: that’s when, if it’s gonna rain at all, the storm door opens and the hills turn green for the first time in 9 months. So I have a few Bests after all.

Books first; the written word is the Highest Art around here. Terry Pratchett – SIR Terry Pratchett now, mirabile dictu – more than earned his Knighthood In The Service of Literature with his latest YA, *Nation*. That book probably tops my Best of 2008 list. I would classify it as Required Reading for history students of *all* age, to keep them reminded that history is the sum of real human lives.

And Peter S. Beagle rejoined the main flow of literature with a vengeance; his recent offerings rank high on my list for 2008. Many of them aren’t from 2008 per se, but that’s when I read them. Most of them are coming from Tachyon Publications (thank you, Jacob!), and whether it was reprints like *A Fine And Private Place (2007) or new story collections like *We Never Talk About My Brother* (2009), his work is marvellous. He has been revealed as one of the best short-story fantasists in the field.

In general, I found fantasy more rewarding than science fiction this year, though generally I am a hard-core SF fan – but again, stale series and pastiches seemed to dominate the science fiction field. Fantasy had some fresh new voices – the best for me was Patrick Rothfuss’s *The Name of the Wind*, which was robust, wild and invigorating. Some older writers who are generally overlooked also provided great stories for me – Lois McMaster Bujold, who writes science fiction and fantasy with equal ease, commingled the two beautifully in her latest *Sharing Knife* novel (all right, I *do* read some series …) and Naomi Novik’s *The Victory of Eagles* continued to take her Telmeraire saga further into the realm of honest historical drama. (See previous parenthasis.) The seldom-mentioned but excellent Jacqueline Carey apparently concluded her Kushiel series with *Kushiel’s Mercy*. (All right, I read several series – just not stale ones!) These three ladies are all on my Best Of list, though they are seldom named in the media.

Oh, and I really liked Kage Baker’s *The House of the Stag*. She’s my sister and so I can’t really list her, but it would have been on my list if I wasn’t related to the author.

I simply don’t listen to a lot of new music, so I am not qualified to name anything to a Best of 2008 list; nothing I listened to by choice this year was written less than 20 years ago: except for Jethro Tull. And they too soldier on in the Dubious Lands of their field, seldom mentioned by the critics despite their never-fading excellence. In fact, one of the few mentions they got this year was yet another disbelieving metal fan complaining about the year they took Best Metal Album: so they go on my Best of 2008 list just for cocking immortal snooks at a humorless industry.

In cinema, my choices lag behind temporal reality, because I seldom see movies in a theatre; I am much more a wait-and-rent-it-viewer. However, three of the films I *had* to see on the big screen also make it to my Best of list - *Wall-E*, *Prince Caspian* and *The Dark Knight*.

*Wall-E* is one of the most humanist films I have ever seen, and simply flawless storytelling besides. It is the classic Hero’s Story, a resurrection myth, and a love story – all cast through a metal screen onto a wall of rubble, and yet managing to make its protagonists completely clear and true. It’s also gorgeous to look at. *Prince Caspian* took what is probably the least exciting Narnia story and made it a compelling adventure; Disney is insane to back out of the franchise now. And *The Dark Knight* - for all its violence, terror and despair – is just enthralling. If movies aspire most of all to glue our eyes to the screen, this one succeeds at the highest level.

For the rest – feh. And/or *yawn*. The best thing about 2008 was its ending – and that tops my entire list!