As I did with the Best Books of 2009 post, I will be listing my 5 favorite books from the 00s in no particular order. Also some honorable mentions:

• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke brought Victorian fantasy to the forefront and caused a mini rush of similar books (like The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes and Drood by Dan Simmons). The titular heroes of of the novel do battle in the field and in magical theory. Mr Norrell is the last of the magicians who uses his magical knowledge and ability to make his way into Victorian society. Then another magician appears, Jonathan Strange, who isn’t quite as skilled, but finds himself a student of Mr. Norrell. As Jonathan Strange’s abilities grow, he chafes under the tutelage of Mr Norrell and eventually breaks free. As the sorcerers clash in magical theory, the nation is divided between followers of the two great men.
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is a paean to the age of funnybooks. The days when Superman and Batman were new and fresh and everyone was trying to find a way to copy their success. Josef Kavalier is magician in training in Prague who gets a chance to escape to America to live with his aunt and cousin Sam Clay. Sam is a prospective writer/artist of pulp fiction and comics who sees Josef’s artistic ability as his way into his dream job. Sam and Josef come up with a comic book character The Escapist to wide acclaim. The book follows Sam and Josef from the mid 30s through the early 50s as the characters and their creation mature and lose everything that’s important to them.
• Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold is a story of magic, love and television. In parallel stories, we find out the history of Charles Carter who falls in love with magic at a young age. While almost losing his dream, he his vaulted into the spotlight by Houdini and connected with his true love. Meanwhile Philo Farnsworth is trying to invent the television and fight off companies from stealing his invention. Throw in death of President Harding, Borax Smith, the Marx brothers and Max Friz (founder of BMW) and this is a magical journey through the turn of the century.
• The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World) by Neal Stephenson must be read together (set aside some time for a 3000+ page trilogy) to be enjoyed. After the success of Cryptonomicon, Stephenson jumps back from the 20th Century to the late 17th century and tackles issues around the intersection of politics, technology and currency. 40 years of European history covering the great fire of London and the founding of the Royal Society are the backdrop for this story about the fight over the invention of calculus (Newton or Leibniz) and whether Isaac Newton is a proper master of the English Mint. There are a couple call backs to Cryptonomicon, but you don’t need to have read that book to enjoy these. It’s not an easy read and starts slow, but once it starts going, Stephenson does a masterful job of tying all the thread together.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Volume 1, Volume 2, The Black Dossier, Century 1910) by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill is a bit of a cheat. Alan Moore steals characters from everywhere and pulls them together into a wonderful set of pulp stories. The mythology is added to by the portraits of previous leagues which line the walls of the headquarters. The first volume introduces a cast of Victorian literature anti-heroes (including Captain Nemo, Alan Quartermain and the Dr. Jeckyll) who work for Mr Bond (their contact into the British government) who works for the mysterious Mr. M. Not only a wonderfully drawn and written set of stories, the in-jokes about the characters and their future fly freely as they capture anti-gravity rocks, protect London from invasion and gernally save the world.

Honorable Mention:

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson is a peek at a math, based religious world that touches on a number of interesting concepts. The plot doesn’t start for 200 pages which allows plenty of time for world building
• The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem touches on families in Brooklyn, art, comics and friendship. A wonderful book from an underappreciated author.
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling is a children’s series that adult love about a wizard who is destined to save the world while learning how to cast a spell. The characterizations and interplay between the heroes elevate this series above the usual sorcery book.
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon is a detective story set in Alaska after the Jewish state is created there (instead of Israel). A corpse sets off a murder mystery, but the real story is the Jewish state which is a temporary solution about to be ended.
• Ragmop by Rob Walton is a mesmerizing combination of super villains, dinosaurs, physics, feminism, politics and Looney Tunes. It was started as a comic book in the mid 90s and then put on the shelf and completed in the mid 00s. So the politics start becoming more prominent over the last half of the story.

This post is part of the thread: BestOf – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.