Love ’em or hate ’em, the Suvudu Cage Matches are popular. When I was asked to come back again this year and write a few of the mock battles, I couldn’t say no.

I’ll admit, I was giddy to get my hands on some of the contestants. Last year, I was tasked with writing a faux-fight between Kahlen Amnell vs. Drizzt Do’Urden and Kvothe vs. Garet Jax, four characters I was very familiar with. This time around, I was given Severus Snape, Corvis Rebaine, Allanon and Paul Atreides. Awesome, right? Two classic badasses; a superstar Wizard; and an up-and-coming Warlord. But, wait. I was only familiar with two of them, one in each cage match.

What was I to do?

Well, several hours of research (and two skimmed novels) later, I felt mildly prepared to approach these characters and pit them against two familiar opponents. It was a challenge, I’ll admit, but I feel confident that even if I wasn’t able to nail them perfectly, I would be able to at least fool some of the readers into thinking I knew what I was writing about. One of them won their match, the other lost. I’ll let you decide who I was familiar with and who I worked with from scratch.

The matchups:

Severus Snape vs. Corvis Rebaine:

The Warlord swung his giant axe in the direction of the black shape, but the attack crawled through the air like it was cutting through water. Not a vicious charge on horseback, but a slow stroll through the park with a baby carriage.

Suddenly Snape was gone. The black shape disappeared and Sunder slammed heavily into the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, cutting through the ageless stone like it was nothing. Gradually, the spell slowing him lessened, until finally, it broke. The mobility in his arms returned. He spun, eyes searching the courtyard.

/Your grandmother could swing harder than that!/

“And that’s my fault? Counterspell, you useless thing!” Corvis raised a hand, gauntleted fist clenched tightly.

Allanon vs. Paul Atreides:

So, go read the two matches, vote and let me know who you think would win in a fight to the death. After you’re done with my stories, check out the rest of the matches and make sure your favourites win!

Today, I woke up to find an interesting comment on my review of Daniel Abraham‘s The Dragon’s Path.

One of my readers, Jim Cormier, had this to say:

What’s unfortunate is that despite all of the great new authors that seem to have sprung up in the last few years, the criticisms leveled against Abraham (and presumably Tor’s decision to drop him) suggest that the genre is still in a sad state. I’ve only just finished A Shadow in Summer, but I can’t see how anyone of even marginal intelligence would have trouble “grasping” the poses Abraham worked into the primary culture. He describes it organically but in a way that makes it perfectly obvious how the custom works. It also seems inspired, at least in part, by the nuances of Japanese bowing, something that many people might know anyway. The feeling of some that readers might not understand something this basic seems to be another example of the publishing world vastly underestimating its audience and prioritizing the lowest common denominator.

I remember reading reviews of the Long Price Quartet before beginning the first book: most of them mentioned how amazing it was that Abraham worked economics into the plot of his story. Going into it I was expecting some kind of complex, macroeconomic subplot involving finance and evil market influence. I was surprised to find that the “economics” referenced by the reviews referred to the simple (but effective) point that the Khaiem, having yet to invent the cotton gin, rely upon their andat to clean the seeds from cotton instantly, thereby making them a dominant force in the cotton market.

It’s a great idea, it works, and I respect Abraham’s originality and talent, but the fact that this was seemingly all viewed (at least by publishers and some critics) as being beyond the grasp of fantasy readers is sad. The reason we don’t have more authors like Abraham is not because they don’t exist but because so few publishing houses are willing to take risks on stories that don’t fit a stereotypical fantasy pattern.

Even writers like Joe Abercrombie, whose work I love, seem to have become the successes they were because they were willing to work from the inside out: writing something that bore the hallmarks of traditional epic fantasy but twisted to produce something new.

It makes me wonder: do publishers see fantasy fans as somehow “dumber” than science fiction? I can think of any number of science fiction stories that involve extremely complex scientific and even economic ideas, yet those authors aren’t set apart for those complexities.

Instead of responding there, where the conversation would not be seen by the majority of my readers, I thought it would be interesting to open the board to the community, so we can discuss as a group this idea that Fantasy is being held back by a perception that the genre and its readers are not as smart as Science Fiction and its audience.

To those of you who read both Science Fiction and Fantasy, would you say that one genre taxes you more than the other? To those who write Fantasy, how do you respond to this allegation that smart Fantasy exists but isn’t being published?

So what do you think?

You know how it is. There are few people who can (rightly) claim to have read widely enough to create an honest-to-goodnes ‘best’ novel of 2010 list. I know I certainly didn’t. For every great book I read, there is a handful of others out there that are likely just as deserving. So, instead, here’s a neat little list of my ‘favourite’ books from 2010, published during the year or otherwise.

Favourite Novel Published in 2010

I mean, really, what is there to be said about Kay that hasn’t been said before and with more eloquent words than I can write. The man’s a master of the genre and his ability to weave real world history with the fantastic is second to none. Under Heaven is a lovely, lyrical novel that continues to resonate with me months after turning its final page.

Favourite Novel Not Published in 2010

Last year I named Daniel Abraham’s A Shadow in Summer (REVIEW) as my favourite book of the year. This year, I’m going back to the Abraham pot. I’ve not yet finished the series, because I’m almost too intimidated by the series’ reputation and how strong the final two volumes are supposed to be. Like Guy Gavriel Kay, Abraham is an author I keep on the shelf for a time when I feel jaded about the genre and need to be reminded of how wonderful Fantasy can be.

Best Debut of 2010

It’s not often that a new author hits the stage with as much aplomb as Anthony Huso. His debut novel, The Last Page is weird and wonderful, sorrowful and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Steven Erikson, Mark Charan Newton and China Mieville. Quite a list of names, but one he deserves to be among. There’s not been as much talk about The Last Page as I’d like, but I hope more people are able to discover Huso’s work in 2011 and with the upcoming release of Black Bottle, the final volume in the duology.

Favourite Short Story

My review of this story still perfectly sums up its triumph and why Ted Chiang is as good a writer as you’ve probably heard:

Time travel stories are notoriously hard to tell with any success. Time paradoxes, physics being broken and non-linear timelines all lead to plot holes in the hands of an inexperienced author. Novels that pull off the conceit well, like The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers or Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut are few and far between. Chiang, though, tackles the time travel motif with aplomb and challenges the reader by filling every plot hole just when they think they’ve found one. It’s at turns both clever and profound, full of smart twists and genuine insights into the compulsion we all have to live in the past, to regret turns not made or choices gone wrong. So often, time travel stories present fluid timelines, easily saved or ruined by the hero or antagonist, but Chiang plays with the idea that only the present is fluid and that what’s before us is every bit as defined as what’s passed us by. It’s a story of redemption and regret, with a melancholy air hiding just under the serpentine switchbacks of the puzzle-like time travel narrative.

A free audio version of The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate is available on StarShipSofa.

And, there you go! I read a lot of bloody good novels and short stories this year, but there’s the cream that rose to the absolute top. Hopefully 2011 will be filled with so many good reads as 2010!