2011 was a big year for doorstopper-sized fantasy novels, particularly A Dance of Dragons by George R.R. Martin, which is a whopping 1,040 pages. It sold 298,000 copies on its first day alone, which included 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 eBooks, and 18,000 audiobooks, proving that although ebook sales are catching up, print is still ahead for big releases like this.

Another major series that got a hugely anticipated sequel came in the form of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Wise Man’s Fear, which continues the events of The Name of the Wind and propels Kvothe into an even more compelling situations. Canadian horror also got a few notable entries with Enter, Night and Dead of Winter, both historical fiction novels and both superbly written. Small and mid-sized presses continue to produce some of the best genre fiction out there, and this year proved no exception.

Here’s my picks for the Top 10 Fantasy and Horror Books of 2011.

Aloha From Hell
Hardcover | Kindle
A Sandman Slim Novel
Written by Richard Kadrey
HarperCollins Voyager
Release date October 18, 2011

Aloha from Hell is the third book in the Sandman Slim series from Richard Kadrey and it is one hell of a ride. Wise cracking antihero and nephilim (that’s half human, half angel to you) Jim Stark, A.K.A. Sandman Slim, has been to Hell before. In fact, he spent eleven years down there as a killing machine. He hasn’t been back in Los Angeles for very long before he’s called upon to help find a missing boy who’s possessed by an unknown demon, which is odd because Stark and his friends thought they knew all the demons already. He really doesn’t want the job, but when all signs in the case start pointing toward a personal vendetta against Stark, he knows who’s behind it and fully intends to put that guy out of business permanently with the help of the Kissi, another particularly fierce species which doesn’t quite belong anywhere and stink like vinegar.