Thanksgiving. A time to come together with our extended family and reflect upon everything we're thankful for: our health, our happiness, our children, our friends, our love for one another, our weird and wonderful online book club moderators...
Thanksgiving: A time to come together with our extended family and let long festering dysfunctional issues boil to the surface in a soap opera-like knock-down-drag-out clash replete with projectile wine glasses, turkey legs used as bludgeoning weapons, heads forcibly dunked into crockery filled with cranberry sauce, curse words that would impress an old sailor, mortally wounded egos and burned relationship bridges that will never again be repaired....
Okay, well that didn't exactly happen – in fact, I had a quite enjoyable three-day Thanksgiving food fest at my in-laws' house – but I did encounter dysfunctionalism of a sort: and that was concerning genre fiction. It seems that whenever I mention "paranormal fantasy" to people who don't read it (especially those relatives from Minnesota), I get the smirk or eye roll that, in my mind, translates to: "Oh yeah, those mindless reads about falling in love with vampires or werewolves..."
Last week, when legendary adventure fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore was the guest at BarnesandNoble.com's Center Stage, he talked about opinionated nonreaders calling his Drizzt novels literary "popcorn" – and how, while everyone is entitled to their opinion, his novels featuring the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden are far from popcorn. (For me, Salvatore's Drizzt sequence is one of the most philosophical and deeply introspective fantasy sagas ever published!)
Let's just admit it: there is – and has been – a deep-seated prejudice against genre fiction: romance, mystery, horror, fantasy, etc. And the loudest naysayers always seem to be the ones who have never even read genre fiction!
So, that said, here is my list of the best paranormal fantasy releases of 2009: 13 simply stellar novels that are not only wildly entertaining but also impressively complex, featuring deeply developed protagonists, serpentine plotlines, and profoundly moving themes that explore the unfathomable depths of the human heart and the human condition.
Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, for example, is an audacious and unforgiving fusion of dark fantasy and crime fiction that will literally knock your socks off. The latest installment of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan saga - White Witch, Black Curse - is unarguably her best, and thematically deepest, work to date. After reading this book, I wrote: "Kim Harrison is to paranormal fantasy what J.R.R. Tolkien is to epic fantasy." Enough said. The same goes for Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs, the first volume of her Mercy Thompson saga to be released in hardcover. This is easily her strongest work yet and has elevated this series into the pantheon of elite paranormal fantasy sagas....
So, if you think that paranormal fantasy is just mindless literary escapism, I challenge you to read any book on this list and still have that same conviction afterwards. (And then next year, we can meet each other for Thanksgiving and have it out in a no-holds-barred turkey leg duel in a kiddy pool filled with gravy. Winner gets the first slice of pumpkin pie with all the whipped cream they want....)
Best Paranormal Fantasy Releases of 2009
1. Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
2. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
3. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
4. In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix (released 12/30/08 but I'm counting it as '09)
5. Blood Blade by Marcus Pelegrimas
6.
7. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
8. Demon Inside by Stacia Kane
9. Darkness Calls by Marjorie Liu
10. ReVamped by J.F. Lewis
11. Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead
12. Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
13. Vampire a Go-Go by Victor Gischler
Paul,
Sorry, I'm in London and it's about 1848... not the most civil time-- damnation! (counting back from 3... you'll not remember a thing) lol! OK, now I'm back in 2009 and thinking of a much more civil way that "we can all just get along". A round table perhaps? Can I walk around with a bigger smile on my face because I finished another chapter of one of Emma Wildes books? One's life reflects the richness of literature one devours! I think everyone on this blog must shine brightly among family, friends and associates 
[fade out- heading back to London 1848 for a bit of a respite]
Shine on,
Joan
Hi Paul!
Wonderful article! I'm one of those readers who just likes to read what she likes to read. I love romances and have been reading them for years. That is my favorite genre with several sub-genres thrown in. I've My family are not readers in general. We do have a few who gravitate that way, including me. Sometimes, I wonder. Where did I drop in from?
As far as having a knock-down-drag-out discussion about books, that happened between me and my 15 yr. old teenage cousin and her 10 yr. old twin brothers this Thanksgiving. We didn't have the knock-down-drag-out, because their too young, but we did have a wonderful discussion about what they were reading and what I was reading. Of course, what I was reading was wheedled down to ala Harry Potterish style. They were enraptured and I found myself very interested in what they had to say as well. The imagination in the telling of their stories, their rapt attention listening to me and the pure joy on their faces just being able to interact, added even more to the great day we had.
Thanks for your "Bests of 2009." Looks like some great reads. I've decided to add some to my TBR pile, which is beyond description at this moment.
