The award for the book that in 2013 Most Made Me Love It...

...goes to Nick Harkaway's glorious Angelmaker.

Before I turn to the novel itself, let me deal with a bit of inevitable bookkeeping business:  Yes, I know Angelmaker appeared in 2012, but I didn't get around to reading it until this year, and these are, after all, my awards, so just live with the date and let's move on, shall we?

Angelmaker's protagonist, Joe Spork (how can you not love that name?), repairs clockworks and other mechanisms in a shop in a dodgy, little trafficked section of London.  His profession and his ancestry lead him into a set of adventures that I won't even bother trying to describe, because all I could do is diminish your experience of the novel.  Suffice to say that as the stakes ratchet upward, and oh how they do, Spork's world becomes more complex and more enchanted, in good ways and bad, than he could ever have imagined.

Our world does the same.

A novel in the grand fantastic tradition, Angelmaker is a glorious, insane, love-suffused ride that I encourage you to take.  I have recommended this novel more than any other this year.

I do not know Harkaway, but, Nick, if we're ever at a con together, please find me, because the drinks are on me all night long.