The Dervish House Places (and tops) many Best of 2010 lists.

SF Site has posted their Readers' Choice: Best Read of the Year: 2010 and Ian McDonald's The Dervish House tops the list at # 1! They say:

"The tightly plotted story takes place over a brief period of time in a confined setting, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. But it is McDonald's writing and his handling of character that led SF Site readers to choose The Dervish House as the best book of 2010."

But The Dervish House is already all over Best of 2010 lists. Here are a few:

#1 on Bookgasm's 5 Best SciFi Books of 2010 (and Stephan Martiniere is their choice for Best Cover Artist, with his covers for The Dervish House).

#1 (tied with Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven) on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist's Top 10 Speculative Fiction Titles of 2010. 

1 of 5 unranked books in Fantasy Literature's FanLit's Favorite Books of 2010 science fiction list.

Included in io9's unranked The 15 Best Speculative Fiction Books of 2010.

Included in Locus magazine's unranked Recommended Reading List.

Included in Concatenation's unranked Best SF Books of 2010.

Included in Adam Robert's unranked 10 Best SF Novels of 2010.

So, basically it tops every ranked list and places on the unranked.  

Swords & Dark Magic - Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010

Larry Nolen has posted his list of the Best Heroic Fantasy of 2010, a list of seven novels and two anthologies. I'm very proud to see Swords & Dark Magic, which I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, place at #7, while Pyr author Adrian Tchaikovsky's Salute the Dark came in at #8.

Speaking of Swords & Dark Magic, Larry writes:

Caitlín R. Kiernan’s “The Sea-Troll’s Daughter” brilliantly subverts the ugly/evil, handsome/good stereotypes embedded in so many tales, as the hero becomes more the villain and the presumed villain takes on heroic qualities that are the inverse of those presented in more traditional tales. Gene Wolfe’s “Bloodsport” is perhaps one of his better short fictions in recent years, as he still manages to confound and entrap the reader with the metaphysical qualities of the first-person narrator and his possible unreliability. These two stories alone, combined with several solid if not spectacular contributions from the likes of Steven Erikson and Michael Moorcock, help make Swords & Dark Magic a recommended anthology of heroic fantasy.

Of Salute the Dark he says:

The narrative arc that concludes in the fourth volume, Salute the Dark, is sharp, with little sense of extraneous detail thrown in to create a false sense of ponderousness. Tchaikovsky also weaves in elements from other subgenres such as steampunk to create a setting that feels different from traditional heroic fantasies. Combined with his quasi-magical totemic use of insects (beetles, wasps, bees, spiders, moths, mantis, ants, etc.), the atmosphere feels fresh. Tchaikovsky’s characters are complex and yet direct, which allows the author to develop and transform their personalities and actions as necessary. By the time the introductory plot arc concludes with Salute the Dark, the reader will have found herself wondering just where from here Tchaikovsky is heading with his overall series, considering how well he concludes several character and subplot arcs.

Swords & Dark Magic: Elitist's Best of 2010

Elitist Book Reviews have just published their Best of 2010 list, and I'm thrilled that Swords & Dark Magic, the sword & sorcery anthology I edited along with Jonathan Strahan for Eos books, is on the their list. Also included are no less than ten books by Pyr authors (which I naturally also edited), making the total of Lou-related works in the list eleven out of seventeen books! I'm 65% of their year!

The full list:

GEOSYNCHRON by David Louis Edelman
James Barclay's novels -- ELFSORROW and SHADOWHEART
SWORDS & DARK MAGIC edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders
THE RAGGED MAN by Tom Lloyd
Adrian Tchaikovsky's novels -- EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD, DRAGONFLY FALLING, BLOOD OF THE MANTIS and SALUTE THE DARK
MR. MONSTER by Dan Wells
TOME OF THE UNDERGATES by Sam Sykes
TWELVE by Jasper Kent
SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinette Kowal
THE BIRD OF THE RIVER by Kage Baker
BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis
NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR by Mark Charan Newton

The Best of 2010 Steampunk Facebook Awards

Not a picture of Lou.

The steampunk page on Facebook has just announced "The Best of 2010 Steampunk Facebook Awards." They write, "The largest steampunk fan page on Facebook now has a set of yearly awards to acknowledge the best of the best, those people in the arts and other creative fields whose work has shone through above the rest or who hold the most worldwide popularity among the steampunk community for their work this year. As this is the first year of these awards, we will be taking into account the work that individuals have done over the course of the past decade when determining who to select."

I suppose I'll be needing a pair of brass goggles now as I've been named "Best Editor." But before I start affixing gears to all my gadgets, what this announcement really means is that someone appreciates all the wonderful steampunk books that Pyr has released in the last few months, books like The Ghosts of Manhattan, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, The Greyfriar, The Horns of Ruin, and The Buntline Special. For my part, I certainly appreciate their authors.

The Hotties: 2010 Year End Awards

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has issued their "The Hotties: 2010 Year End Awards."

I'm honored that Pyr has been named "Publisher of the Year." Pat writes, "With three Pyr titles in the Top 5 and four in the Top 10, it couldn't be any other publisher! The folks at Pyr celebrated their 5th anniversary this year. Keep up the great work! And long live!"

Meanwhile, Stephan Martiniere's cover for Kay Kenyon's Prince of Storms gets the Best Cover Art Award.

And I'm thrilled to receive the "MVP Award" for the second year in a row. Pat writes, "Yes, two years in a row! Last year I said that as the heart and soul behind the Pyr imprint, this man is pretty damn close to being a genius. Scratch that! He is a genius! Though he doesn't have the means of the genre powerhouses at his disposal, Lou Anders nevertheless manages to work wonders year in and year out. To the powers that be at Prometheus Books: Give this man a raise! God knows he deserves it!" Can't argue with those sentiments.

Swords & Dark Magic - Best Anthology of 2010

There's a review of Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery up at Sci-Fi-London today. It calls out stories by Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, KJ Parker, Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, and Joe Abercrombie, and says "go and buy the damned book, it's well worth it!" (I couldn't agree more). The review concludes, "...all in all an excellent anthology and one that is probably as well timed as it could possibly be given the recent upsurge in the genre. The writers here are amongst the best in the field and fans and newcomers alike will enjoy working their way through them, but it has to be said, there are a lot more writers out there that fit this mould and anthology number two should be just as exciting when it comes around. Lets hope it comes around soon."

Meanwhile, The Mad Hatters' Bookshelf & Book Review has posted their "Best Books of 2010 (That I Have Read) list and Swords & Dark Magic is their pick for Best Anthology of 2010. They describe the book as "a fairly complete view of where the genre of Swords &Sorcery has been and where it is going with a few truly exceptional stories, by many of my favorite authors."

Masked chosen as "Best Book of 2010" and gets Facebook Page.

The website Superhero Novels has picked Masked as the best super-themed fiction of 2010. They write, "Masked, a collection of straight-up superhero stories was the best book of 2010. So sayeth SuperheroNovels.com. Each of the contributing authors fearlessly embraced the tropes of superhero fiction and successfully expanded the genre’s horizons. Hats off to the project’s editor and everyone involved. Hopefully we’ll see a second volume soon."

Meanwhile, I have created a dedicated Mask Facebook page, which you can conveniently "Like" in the box below. 

Swords & Dark Magic: the most important sword-and-sorcery event from this year!

Over on Tor.com, John Klima opines that "2010 for Me Was Full of Swords and Sorcery." He goes through some of the players in the S&S field, and then says, "But for me, the most important sword-and-sorcery event from this year was Lou Anders and Jonahtan Strahan’s anthology Swords & Dark Magic. This anthology collected a phenomenal list of authors: Joe Abercrombie, C. J. Cherryh, Glen Cook, James Enge, Steven Erikson, Greg Keyes, Caitlin R Kiernan, Tim Lebbon, Tanith Lee, Scott Lynch, Michael Moorcock, Garth Nix, K. J. Parker, Michael Shea, Robert Silverberg, Bill Willingham, and Gene Wolfe....Honestly, there isn’t a bad story in this book. If you’re a fan of fantasy, you’ve probably already heard of it, but if not, you’ll be very happy to pick up a copy."

ELFSORROW makes LJ Best Books 2010: Genre Fiction list

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The Library Journal have just released their "LJ Best Books 2010: Genre Fiction" and James Barclay's Elfsorrow made the list. They write, "The mercenaries of the Raven journey to the heart of the elven continent of Calaius to save the land from dying in a superbly visualized fantasy adventure reminiscent of Glen Cook's classic Black Company tales."

He shared the list with Todd McCaffrey's Dragongirl, China  Miéville's Kraken, Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur, and Skyler White's And Falling, Fly. Congratulations to all the authors on this prestigious list!