2006 best SFFIt’s that time of year again, when “best of” lists start making the rounds. For your geekish pleasure, I have three such collections, all found via SFSignal. First up, Jonathan Strahan, editor of The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, has posted the Table of Contents to Volume 1 of the 2006 edition. Then, Amazon.com has also published their Top Ten Customer- and Editor-selected science-fiction/fantasy books of 2006 (with absolutely no overlap between the two lists, which is suspicious either for editors’ inability to know what will resonate, Amazon’s motives in promoting undersold titles, just the sheer shoddiness of Amazon’s customer feedback rating system, or probably some combination of the three).

So here you go, a TOC that includes three Hugo winners and two Hugo/Nebula double-dippers, plus I added in the links to the relevant Wikipedia pages where available (some of these folks need a Wiki-assist in a bad way):

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year – Edited by Jonathan Strahan

  1.  “How To Talk To Girls At Parties” by Neil Gaiman
  2. “El Regalo” by Peter S. Beagle
  3. “I, Row-Boat” by Cory Doctorow
  4. “In The House Of The Seven Librarians” by Ellen Klages
  5. “Another Word For Map Is Faith” by Christopher Rowe
  6. “Under Hell, Over Heaven” by Margo Lanagan
  7. “Incarnation Day” by Walter Jon Williams
  8. “The Night Whiskey” by Jeffrey Ford
  9. “A Siege Of Cranes” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
  10. “Halfway House” by Frances Hardinge
  11. “The Bible Repairman” by Tim Powers
  12. “Yellow Card Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi
  13. “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)” by Geoff Ryman
  14. “The American Dead” by Jay Lake
  15. “The Cartesian Theater” by Robert Charles Wilson
  16. “Journey Into The Kingdom” by M. Rickert
  17. “Eight Episodes” by Robert Reed
  18. “The Wizards Of Perfil” by Kelly Link
  19. “The Saffron Gatherers” by Elizabeth Hand
  20. “D.A.” by Connie Willis
  21. “Femaville 29” by Paul Di Filippo
  22. “Sob In The Silence” by Gene Wolfe
  23. “The House Beyond Your Sky” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
  24. “The Djinn’s Wife” by Ian McDonald

Amazon.com’s Top Ten Customer Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books of 2006

  1. The Stolen Child: A Novel – Keith Donohue
  2. Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10) – Terry Goodkind
  3. Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 13) – Laurell K. Hamilton
  4. Danse Macabre (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) – Laurell K. Hamilton
  5. A Fistful of Charms – Kim Harrison
  6. Definitely Dead (Southern Vampire Novels) – Charlaine Harris
  7. Moon Called – Patricia Briggs
  8. Hunters of Dune – Brian Herbert
  9. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
  10. His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) – Naomi Novik

Amazon.com’s Top Ten Editor’s Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books of 2006

  1. Widdershins (Newford) – Charles de Lint
  2. The Children’s Hospital – Chris Adrian
  3. Armageddon’s Children – Terry Brooks
  4. Shriek: An Afterword – Jeff VanderMeer
  5. The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar
  6. Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends – Avram Davidson
  7. Glasshouse – Charles Stross
  8. Three Days to Never: A Novel – Tim Powers
  9. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Fables) – Bill Willingham
  10. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders – Neil Gaiman