The following is my personal list of the top ten titles published in 2014 that I read, and mostly reviewed, for Teleread. It’s a personal list and is strictly confined to those new titles that were actually published this year – so apologies to any fine authors and works who don’t appear here for that reason. That said, the top ten is also a running order in terms of quality and impact, at least for me. I’ve graded the works according to how well I judged they were written, and how much they stuck in my mind.
Many of these titles are in the horror/dark fiction/weird vein, but not all are by any means. And once again. it’s a completely personal top ten, but it’s been a hell of a year for great new books, and I’m pleased to single out a few. So here goes:
- Dark Entries, by Robert Aickman, Faber & Faber
- Echopraxia, by Peter Watts, Tor Books
- The Nickronomicon, by Nick Mamatas, Innsmouth Free Press
- The Children of Old Leech, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele, Word Horde
- Shadows and Tall Trees 2014, edited by Michael Kelly, Undertow Publications
- Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 1, edited by Laird Barron, ChiZine Publications
- Burnt Black Suns, by Simon Strantzas, Hippocampus Press
- The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, edited by Mark Morris, Spectral Press
- Academic Exercises, by K.J. Parker, Subterranean Press
- Flowers of the Sea, by Reggie Oliver, Tartarus Press
There you are. There’s only one title where I’ve relaxed my stricture on new publication in 2014, and that because it’s been unavailable for so long. And apologies to anyone who should have been on the list but wasn’t – it’s been a really formidable year that leaves me breathless with anticipation for what 2015 may bring.
