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Ever since I started reading for pleasure again a few years ago I've been tracking all my reads in an effort to push myself to do 25-30 book per year. I've been meaning to do an end-of-year write up each time, but never got around it, until now! Here's the sci-fi/fantasy stuff I read this year in rough order of how much I enjoyed them: The Birthday of the World and Other Stories Short story collections often do not make it very high on my lists. I enjoy them while I’m reading them, but then their contents tend to leak out of my memory with no lasting impressions. I was also doubly hesitant here as I found the only previous work I read by Le Guin (The Lathe of Heaven) rather ho-hum to the point I have difficulty remembering it. All of these preliminary caveats just serve to demonstrate how strong a work this short story collection is. Every story was fantastic, impactful, and thought provoking. I still find myself thinking about some of the tales months later. I had been dragging my feet on Le Guin after Lathe, but I will likely try to read one of hers a year going forward based on the strength of this collection. Tower of Babel Series (Senlin Ascends) My favorite series of the year. A tetralogy about a prudish bumbling schoolteacher who loses his wife while visiting the dejour tourist attraction of their fantasy world—a giant tower where each floor is its own themed polity. There is a nice sense of progression in this series, with a whimsical first book reminiscent of Hitchhiker’s Guide in tone that solely follows the eponymous character, only for the subsequent books to expand the scope tremendously, assemble a traditional RPG-esque team of characters, and become progressively darker in themes/atmosphere. The real star of the show is the Tower itself, with the highlight being discovering the strange thematic societies as the characters make their way up and around. Red Rising Trilogy 2 (Iron Gold & Dark Age & Light Bringer) I remember reading some early impressions about this being a different beast than the initial trilogy; one more focused on the politics and practical realities of ruling a society after the war is over. These impressions were wrong—the next 3 books are exactly the same as the 2nd and 3rd books of the initial trilogy—which is a rollicking action packed space opera with a large cast of likeable characters coated with a heavy 40K flavoring. There are no nuanced discussions of politics, economics, and philosophy about ruling an empire/society. They feature the same break neck pace as the initial trilogy with each point of view character getting the same pattern of intense action scene downtime interpersonal character building intense action scene. That said, if you like the first trilogy, you are going to like these. I did, and I do. The Scar This may be my new favorite Mieville, in close competition with The City & The City. A refreshingly unique take on fantasy from the extremely weird world building that is BassLag to the non-stereotypical protagonist choices of a linguist and a mutated welder. I’m also a sucker for boat cities that float on water, which is the primary locale this novel takes place, and is probably the best take on it I’ve ever seen. I like many of the choices Mieville makes with how the plot unfolds, but I’d rather keep tight lipped about those parts. The Folly of the World Gritty historical fiction in an interesting underutilized setting (medieval Netherlands during the Saint Elizabeth flood). Has some of the more amusing characters I’ve encountered and mixed action, comedy, and horror well. Without spoiling anything, one of the protagonists has a very interesting personality quirk, that is one of the better character concepts and drives a lot of his behavior and situations he gets into. The bleaker parts of the story that featured subtle fantastical elements gave me similar vibes to Between Two Fires. I will definitely read Bullington's other two books now. Wraiths of the Broken Land Horror mystery western so probably doesn’t belong in this thread, but I’m reviewing it here anyway. Solid page-turner about a family rescuing their daughters/sisters from imprisonment in a Mexican brothel. Lean, mean, and written like it wants to adapted into a movie, which it is, by Ridley Scott. It’s actually written by the director of Bone Tomahawk and there are certain overlapping plot elements. It has peaked my interest in the horror western genre, of which I have now discovered there are quite a few high quality selections to choose from. Warning: The author of this book made some awful right wing puppet movie in the last few years. I didn't feel there was anything problematic in Wraiths, but figured I'd throw that warning out there. Hyperion & The Fall of Hyperion Hyperion was excellent, and if rated alone, would probably be a few spots higher on this list. Canterbury tales-esque sci-fi where a group of travelers share their backstories as a series of short stories. The framing story with the travelers is mysterious and engaging and ties in well with the short stories. Fall of Hyperion was overly concerned with providing a answer to the central mystery, and while that answer was fine and coherent, it was pretty standard space opera fare, and wasn’t nearly as interesting as anything going on in the first book. Fall was enough of a letdown that I did not bother with the two more recent books. Black Company -- First Trilogy This iconic series often has two main descriptors: 1) Mercenary company works for Sauron & 2) Told from perspective of grunts so the reader is left to figure out the larger details themselves. I found neither true, and that was a good thing in both cases. The entity they work for is more nuanced than Sauron and that’s all I’ll say on that point. I just found the second point blatantly false. Every action the company takes is straightforward, communicated clearly, and the protagonist is important and privy to a lot of information. When an event is mysterious, it is obviously purposefully so because it’s tied to a forthcoming plot twist; the same way it would be in any other book. The books are an enjoyable dark fantasy story with fun characters. The main plotline itself is rather simple, and the main pull of the series for me was the increasingly weird world building (esp in book 3) and the well-written interpersonal interactions between said characters, who convincingly felt like a bunch of folks who developed lifelong friendships after spending 30 years together in a mercenary company. I enjoyed seeing how foundational some of the tropes/characterizations are too later fantasy, specifically Joe Abercrombie. Having now read these, I can see that some of his side characters are straight up lifted from The Black Company. I have not made up my mind about whether I would read the sequel trilogy yet. Any opinions? There is No Antimimetics Division A clever quick-witted SCP story that hit novel length. A fun page-turner with a heady central conceit that was very cool on a conceptual level. I honestly don’t remember a lot of the details or characters at this point, which were all rather forgettable (the irony here), but it’s one of those novels that just has an excellent core concept and everything else is window dressing. The Spear Cuts Through Water Highly unique setting and world building with a nuanced framing story to boot. Very easy to get sucked into the world and both the two protagonists and many of the side characters are compelling. This would have been higher up the list if it didn’t hit a serious lull from 65%-85% of the way through. I had a lot of trouble slogging through that section where it slowed down glacially, but it does pick up again for the ending and lands the finale. Ash, A Secret History I wanted to like this more than I did, given how much I enjoy the idea of a faux-scholarship about what appears to be incredibly well researched real history, but casually slides into historical fiction. The underlying premise is great, the protagonists are enjoyable to spend time with, the modern day framing story was actually quite exciting. The issue for me was the languid pace where entire chapters would go by with nothing happening combined with enormous length (< 1000 pages). I do get the author was trying (and succeeding) to achieve a day-in-the-life-of almost documentary style feel for a medieval mercenary company, but what can I say, I got bored. I got bored enough that I actually had to split the book into quarters, and I still haven’t finished the last ¼, which I will do this year. Space Marine I like the 40K setting and sometimes find myself in Wikipedia rabbit holes about it, but this is the first time I’ve picked up a book about it. I was mainly interested in this because I heard it was a very weird early take on it that is now considered non-cannon. It was enjoyable enough, but I didn’t find it weird at all. It read like standard franchise genre fiction where it was plotted in a mechanical way to put our space marines in front of a checklist of the expected 40K phenomena. Paper Menagerie This was my typical experience with short story collections. While reading it, I remember liking, but not loving it. However, I cannot remember a single thing about this book now except that there was a story about living origami that was by far the stand out and made me feel emotions. The rest is just a blank. If you want an idea if your tastes are similar to mine and you'd enjoy any of the above, here is what I consider my favorite books from the last 5 years or so of reading:
Between Two Fires Southern Reach Trilogy The Locked Tomb Series Ancillary Series The Raven Tower Blindsight On the list for next year: Murderbot, The Book of the New Sun, Revelation Space Series, Translation State, One of the other two Jesse Bullington Books
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Dec 27, 2023 16:25
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Do not read the Endymion books under any circumstances Do read Revelation Space. The series varies a lot in quality but it's a fantastic universe and has some real winners. I recommend starting with the first novel, then the short story collection Galactic North if you're liking it. Alistair Reynolds is a big Gene Wolfe fan too so he'd also tell you read Book of the New Sun, which is still the best work the genre has produced.
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Dec 27, 2023 16:36
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Megasabin posted:There is No Antimimetics Division definitely recommend if you liked this! and vice versa. the point I'm making is that they are a very consistently good author. sort of the anti-John C Wright in that the ideas carry the work (but without the odious politics) edit: Slyphic posted:I can't recall what book it was, other than one I recommended to a friend. He was listening to the audiobook format, and the reader hit a big number with a superscript power notation, and read it in a rising tone. Like 36,822x10³ as "thirty six thousand eight hundred and twenty two times one hundred and thrᵉᵉ?" in a rising hesitantly inquisitive form. DACK FAYDEN fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 16:43
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Megasabin posted:Black Company -- First Trilogy
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Dec 27, 2023 17:28
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StrixNebulosa posted:
I'm gonna have to buy it...I first read "Arrows of the Queen" around 1983-1984 in a Valdosta State College (now University) small library while my mother went to night classes.
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Dec 27, 2023 17:28
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Infinity Gate (Pandominion #1) by MR Carey - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B38STG6T/
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Dec 27, 2023 17:31
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ulmont posted:I'm gonna have to buy it...I first read "Arrows of the Queen" around 1983-1984 in a Valdosta State College (now University) small library while my mother went to night classes. These books lead to one of the most hilariously stupid reviews I have ever seen posted on a book store. On the very first one, someone seriously posted a one star review complaining that these books were bad and obviously non-canonical because the story of the founding of valdemar doesn't match many of the details put forth in earlier books.
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Dec 27, 2023 17:33
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Terrible Opinions posted:I'd only recommend the spin off book The Silver Spike which covers what happens to Darling and the people who stay behind in the north. Unfortunately the trip south takes six books of declining quality and is really just a slog. Port of Shadows the 2018 interquel is really terrible, don't both reading it.
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Dec 27, 2023 17:40
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NinjaDebugger posted:These books lead to one of the most hilariously stupid reviews I have ever seen posted on a book store. On the very first one, someone seriously posted a one star review complaining that these books were bad and obviously non-canonical because the story of the founding of valdemar doesn't match many of the details put forth in earlier books. Oh good god. I mean, it is clear that Lackey was clearly still working things out - magic and Gifts get significantly better defined just between the Arrows trilogy and the Herald-Mage trilogy - but yeah you can't really expect books written 30-40 years earlier to be a 1:1 match for everything written later.
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Dec 27, 2023 18:31
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Slyphic posted:Whereas I would tell you Silver Spike is the second worst book of the entire series (I agree Port of Shadows is the worst) wherein the characters have the same names but act totally different like caricatures of themselve and ultimately nothing really happens. I hated that one, but I really liked the books of the South, all of them, straight through to the end. Yeah, everyone in this thread always talks up Silver Spike but it is for sure my least favorite book.
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Dec 27, 2023 19:04
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Slyphic posted:Whereas I would tell you Silver Spike is the second worst book of the entire series (I agree Port of Shadows is the worst) wherein the characters have the same names but act totally different like caricatures of themselve and ultimately nothing really happens. I hated that one, but I really liked the books of the South, all of them, straight through to the end.
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Dec 27, 2023 19:18
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This was a year of getting back into reading in a much bigger way. Including graphic novels and manga collections I’ll top 60 books this year, prose will be around 45 by Sunday. A lot of that was driven by a renewed interest in science fiction, especially vintage SF. I like the idea of ranked lists. Here’s my top ten sci-fi/fantasy that I read this year. Honourable mentions to go City by Simak, the early Hainish cycle books by Le Guin, and CJ Cheryh’s Dreamstone. Dishonourable mention to Gateway. Interesting ideas, just couldn’t stand sitting with that character after the domestic violence turn. 10. Ginungagap by Michael Swanwick (Nebula Award stories 16). This one comes in at number 10 because it’s one story from a collection, and the rest of the collection is just ok. This one story, which is a first contact story with interesting traversal science, is great though, and makes me want to read a lot more of Swanwick’s work. Seems like a forgotten gem of the 80s-00s. 9. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mostly this surprised me by how readable it was. ERB is racist as hell, as was the style of the time, but he writes a compelling and fast moving adventure yarn. This happens and then this happens and then this happens but it all hangs together really well. 8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick I liked it, but I think I expected more… and also less of the weird religious stuff. I need to read a lot more PKD and get a better handle on where he’s coming from. 7. The Time Machine by HG Wells A classic that I had never read. I like Wells quite a bit, The Island of Dr Moreau rates really highly for me. This one was pretty good too, though it resembles A Princess of Mars in that the plot kind of just moves forward (and the racist undertones, a bit more muted here but still very present). I’m sure there’s a well established throughline between Wells and ERB, but even without looking that up at all you can kind of sense it. I have a nicely illustrated version of War of the Worlds that I’ll get to next year. 6. Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kathryn K Rusch I read a short story by KKR in an Asimov magazine I picked up earlier this year and it was pretty good. Then I dug through a lot of sci-fi I won in an auction and found a stack of these Retrieval Artist novels she wrote. They’re about a private investigator on the moon. This one deals with a biological weapons attack. It’s a fast grimy read in the tradition of noir mysteries, but has a nice sci fi twist. I have more of these I’ll get to next year. 5. The Shadow Rising & The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan Late summer when the new WOT tv season hit I lost myself in books 4 and 5. One day I’ll get to 6. Once I start I find it so easy to just spend hours reading these, but actually starting is always a challenge. 4. The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester Wow, this hit me like a brick. It feels like it could have been written this year, and speaks to the timelessness of fiction. Like an anti Ayn Rand, Bester explores the Individual Man but cuts out everything that doesn’t need to be in the text. CW for a pos rapist main character (the writing itself is sparse and does not describe the event. I read that he was a pos but the rape scene happened without me even realizing that’s what it was until later in the book when the event is referenced.) 3. Planetes Vol 1-4 by Makoto Yukimura I picked up the two book omnibus edition of this at a St Vincent de Paul charity shop for like 2$ and didn’t expect anything. The first volume starts off as a slice of life style sci-fi manga about a group of garbage collectors in space. It’s good. As the book goes on though it shifts gears and becomes about family and love and duty and purpose and by the end it was one of the most impactful and beautiful books I had read all year. 2. Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons My buddy recommended this to me and I happened to already have it on my shelf from a random pickup a couple years ago, so I took the plunge. Man this books goes places. Vampire nazi horror places. Extremely compelling. 1. Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers I travelled to a friend’s wedding a couple months ago and the night before, while my wife was luxuriating in the big hotel bath, I burned through this book. Like The Stars My Destination, this feels like it could have been written this year. Beautifully paced, trusting in the reader to fill in the gaps and made the connections themselves. I’m so curious to watch Stalker now. That’s something I’d like to get to before the end of the year. I also NEED to read more of these guys.
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Dec 27, 2023 19:53
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Slyphic posted:Whereas I would tell you Silver Spike is the second worst book of the entire series (I agree Port of Shadows is the worst) wherein the characters have the same names but act totally different like caricatures of themselve and ultimately nothing really happens. I hated that one, but I really liked the books of the South, all of them, straight through to the end. If you liked the characters and world-building, the Books of the South are worth a look, but be aware that Cook changes narrators after the first and starts playing around with narrative and order of events in the middle of the series. I still find Water Sleeps to be a standout (with a radically different kind of situation for the Company to be in). And Soldiers Live is a great conclusion to the series and a good place to stop. Maybe the best thing is to ask whether you think a Black Company novel narrated by Lady sounds like something you'd want to read. If yes, try the first two Books of the South, which essentially set up the conflict that will be carried out through the remainder of the series.
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Dec 27, 2023 20:28
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Terrible Opinions posted:I'd only recommend the spin off book The Silver Spike which covers what happens to Darling and the people who stay behind in the north. Unfortunately the trip south takes six books of declining quality and is really just a slog. Port of Shadows the 2018 interquel is really terrible, don't both reading it. Conversely, I liked the Books of the South overall; the middle ones narrated by Murgen kind of suck for multiple reasons, but it starts strong, the Book of the Lady slaps, and the last two books absolutely stick the landing, so it's worth wading through (or, honestly, skimming through) the Books of Murgen.
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Dec 27, 2023 20:32
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Oh these kinds of countdowns are super fun, but this was not a year where I really read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy and finished it. I read a lot of romance, urban fantasy, and then this stuff: Master and Commander + Post Captain - one excellent book, one frustrating, difficult book. I am halfway through #3 and enjoying it but ADHD struck again. I highly recommend these to sci-fi fans who want to read about a strange civilization using a weird technology to get around. Fortress in the Eye of Time - this might be my third reread of this book, it's just so good. Cherryh takes the fantasy setting and really thinks about it and tells a classic 'wizard summons elf lord back to fight evil; young prince must find his place and live up to the shadow of his father' and then throws out all the cliches and does wonderful stuff instead. Also I respect any author who loves horses. Kushiel's Dart - after reading half of it in high school and never finishing after it turns tragic, I came back and finished it and wow. Parts of this work, but parts of it don't, and I think ultimately I'm just more interested in Phedre the courtesan-spy than Phedre the explorer-adventurer? The intricate not-France politics are really fun! I also confess I enjoy sex in my books and it's really nice to see it here in a fantasy novel as part of the plot with no shame or apologies. And I wish there was more, but it's been a rough year and my comfort food is romance and uf...so here have a quick list: Rosemary and Rue is still more noir-tragedy than anything else, and while I enjoy it a lot I confess I am really tired of "small angry woman who gives no shits" as a protagonist, and they're a dime a dozen in this genre. But - to be fair to Toby - she has a hell of a lot of reason to be angry. The opening of the story is her being cursed to become a koi, stuck in a koi pond, for fourteen years, and her husband doesn't know what magic is. We open with her in the disaster zone that is her life - lonely, estranged from husband and daughter, refusing to talk to anyone who cares about her, sad and angry - and then it gets worse as a powerful fae lady is murdered... and she cursed Toby to solve her murder or else die too. Cue angry tired tour guide through modern fae courts and an interesting case. I don't know if I wanted to reread this one as it's so bleak, but I've been in a fae mood so I want to read all the 10+ sequels and that means pick up from the beginning. I'm in the second book now. Written in Red might be the most problematic UF I know of and I read LKH on a regular basis. The concept is wild - humans share the planet with violent predators who only graciously allow humans to uh, have a civilization. Humans slowly expand and they're coming to the New World and settling cities in North America, but it's uneasy as the Others aren't united in their desire to let humans, well, exist. I'd love to read this setting written by someone who doesn't erase native cultures or boil down their villains to 'only the stupid would do these things'. Flowers from the Storm is pure romance, not UF or fantasy at all, but historic fiction might as well be sci-fi, y'know? Especially this one: the Duke of Jervaulx has a stroke one day, rendering him to all appearances mad. He can't speak, he can't control his actions, he's violent, he's thrown into an insane asylum. A 19th century insane asylum. Yeah, he's boned. Maddy Timms is a Quaker (and what a wild introduction to that religion and way of life!) who bravely volunteers to help at this asylum, and her work to help heal this man is really fascinating. Also shoutout to a romance who sets this up - and then manages to address the problematic aspects of falling in love while in a power imbalance and then resolves it in a variety of interesting, fascinating ways. And - yes. The Duke does recover in time, but never fully. It's fascinating.
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Dec 27, 2023 20:38
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John Lee posted:sad gay boy in snow, the series e: Which very much doesn't make it worth reading today.
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Dec 27, 2023 20:47
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John Lee posted:sad gay boy in snow, the series Arsenic Lupin posted:Dudini, it was the '80s. Sad gay boy heroes were like "oh, God, they slipped an actual gay person past the establishment". It helps if you play Erasure's Hideway* on loop while you read The Last Herald-Mage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaO8_WYxZE *sad gay boy in snow, the song (one of many)
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Dec 27, 2023 20:56
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Dudini, it was the '80s. Sad gay boy heroes were like "oh, God, they slipped an actual gay person past the establishment". Hey, I'm not complaining - I don't think that well of the series, but if somebody wants to read about a Sad Guy, more power to 'em. It's a series with a strong thematic identity about grief and duty, which is cool.
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Dec 27, 2023 21:02
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Jordan7hm posted:8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick After a point, PKD is just coming from a weird religious place. VALIS might be the most in that vein, so maybe don't start there  My favorite of their works are probably A Scanner Darkly, Ubik, and Then Flow My Tears, which are all more about drugs and the nature of reality (as I remember, anyway). There are some good-strange short stories, too.
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Dec 27, 2023 21:19
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh these kinds of countdowns are super fun, but this was not a year where I really read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy and finished it. I know there’s a whole thread and I’m sure you’ve heard this already, but keep going! Honestly I think he wrote himself into the series a bit. They just keep getting better.
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Dec 27, 2023 21:50
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh these kinds of countdowns are super fun, but this was not a year where I really read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy and finished it. Kushiel is fantastic, I stalled out on Dart after about 190 pages of not Renaissance parties and BDSM spying, as it turns out that's just before it kicks into high gear. When I came back I inhaled that and the next two books, it's just a cracking series and phedre is a wonderful character.
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Dec 27, 2023 21:52
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ulmont posted:Oh good god. I mean, it is clear that Lackey was clearly still working things out - magic and Gifts get significantly better defined just between the Arrows trilogy and the Herald-Mage trilogy - but yeah you can't really expect books written 30-40 years earlier to be a 1:1 match for everything written later. Not to mention that we know that (minor spoiler for the third Founding book), in-universe, there are reasons that things are missing from the histories that later people read, because the founding generation intentionally altered their records to hide certain things.
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Dec 27, 2023 22:31
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Jordan7hm posted:8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick Mercerism, and the overall human societal relationship to empathy (come late of course, since the animals are all gone now), and how the synthetic animals were treated in contrast with the replicants, which also kinda puts a lie to that societal relationship to empathy, is the central point of that book, and the part that most resonated with me. Unfortunately it was basically unfilmable and I think Ridley Scott made the right choice to cut it out IMO
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Dec 27, 2023 23:59
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ToxicFrog posted:Conversely, I liked the Books of the South overall; the middle ones narrated by Murgen kind of suck for multiple reasons, but it starts strong, the Book of the Lady slaps, and the last two books absolutely stick the landing, so it's worth wading through (or, honestly, skimming through) the Books of Murgen. She is the Darkness is probably my favorite of the whole series. There's so much going on and it's all described by Cook at his best. The Book of Lady does indeed slap, that's the good poo poo right there. Murgen... the Books of Murgen are fine to great, but Murgen himself kinda sucks. He's a sad sack who is just lucky that the addiction he withdraws into is actually useful. The scene where Croaker calls him out on his bullshit and his poor writing is great. Also, if you skip the Books of the South, you miss the chapter that's an excerpt from The Book of Goblin.
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Dec 28, 2023 00:18
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DACK FAYDEN posted:this is an accurate description of all of qntm's stuff imo, but it's all good (Valuable Humans in Transit is great, Ra is fine even if it doesn't stick the landing, there's another short story collection I totally forget the name of that I really liked... looking it up, it's Fine Structure. Ed is also fine but not as good as the others.) Fine Structure is actually not a short story collection though it's just disguised as one.
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Dec 28, 2023 00:47
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Bilirubin posted:Mercerism, and the overall human societal relationship to empathy (come late of course, since the animals are all gone now), and how the synthetic animals were treated in contrast with the replicants, which also kinda puts a lie to that societal relationship to empathy, is the central point of that book, and the part that most resonated with me. Unfortunately it was basically unfilmable and I think Ridley Scott made the right choice to cut it out IMO Oh I agree, I think it’s the core of the story. I just didn’t realize it would be going into it. I think I prefer blade runner as a story, though obviously different mediums make it tough to compare.
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Dec 28, 2023 00:51
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mllaneza posted:She is the Darkness is probably my favorite of the whole series. There's so much going on and it's all described by Cook at his best. The Book of Lady does indeed slap, that's the good poo poo right there. Murgen... the Books of Murgen are fine to great, but Murgen himself kinda sucks. He's a sad sack who is just lucky that the addiction he withdraws into is actually useful. The scene where Croaker calls him out on his bullshit and his poor writing is great. One-Eye writes something that I suppose could be called a chapter. Murgen is fine, the problem is that you have to read the whole series to understand what's happening to him and why he's so messed up. It turns out to be fairly complicated and ambiguous after that stage, but having re-read a lot, I can say that it's all worked out ahead of time. And Croaker can only get away with calling Murgen out because Port of Shadows hadn't been written yet IRL, though I suppose that isn't officially part of the Annals.
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Dec 28, 2023 01:13
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The worst part of the books of the south are how much they retcon the original trilogy so that all the taken who die are just back now don't think about it too much, because who can bother to make new villains. Just gonna keep reusing the same ones that already got clearly and unambiguously murdered cause magic. They're a bit of a slog in places but they're not awful fantasy, beyond the unfavorable connection to the (better) initial trilogy.
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Dec 28, 2023 01:39
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I read 42 ish books this year, the vast majority of which were speculative fiction. My top list, in no particular order: Space Marine: I’ve read some of the Black Library (Eisenhorn, Gaunt’s Ghosts, Night Lords Omnibus, some of the Horus Heresy series) and I’ve always found space marines kinda boring. I really liked this though. Weird, visceral, brutal. It’s not super long, you can find a pdf of it. hosed up guys in big iron suits doing weird messed up stuff. Fine Structure: felt like a real breath of fresh air. It does initially feel like a short story collection, as someone just mentioned. It’s a little all over the places, but the ideas are really interesting and big and he crams a lot into one book. I thought it was extremely unique. The Witness for the Dead & The Grief of Stones: quiet, competent, interesting. A fantasy society that doesn’t feel very forced, and feels lived in and real. I’d love to read more about Celehar. Shards of Honor and Barrayar: So nice to discover another fully fledged space opera universe. Lots of good action, good twists, interesting world building. Also feels pretty unique. Murderbot: I read like six Murderbot books this year. You don’t need another person telling you to read them. Zodiac: 90s eco terrorism in the most 90s and Stephenson way possible. Anyways, I found most of my most enjoyed books this year ITT. I came back to SA after abandoning Twitter when Elon took over, and I was so glad to find spaces like this. Thanks y’all.
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Dec 28, 2023 02:09
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Jordan7hm posted:Oh I agree, I think it’s the core of the story. I just didn’t realize it would be going into it. I think I prefer blade runner as a story, though obviously different mediums make it tough to compare.  I've read the Alan Nourse novel! And remember none of it.
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Dec 28, 2023 02:39
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Megasabin posted:
There are a few versions of space marine, the original is more strange that the later retcon version
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Dec 28, 2023 04:36
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I've been reading Lost on a Page by David Sharp and it's actually pretty great. It basically is about characters in books becoming alive and leaving their books to go hunt down the authors who made their life hell. It's got virtually every main genre you can think of, plus a decent plot. I'm a big fan of stories told in different ways so having part of it being told via email is fun. Worth reading. I'm really enjoying it.
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Dec 28, 2023 04:51
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Kestral posted:The problem is that Between Two Fires has a combination of delicious genre elements with surprisingly good prose and character writing, and the combination hasn’t been achieved anywhere elsewhere as far as various seekers in this thread have been able to determine. It really is a unique thing, more’s the pity. I’m certainly going to snap up whatever the author puts out next, although after reading some of his other stuff I’m a bit concerned that Fires may be his one truly great novel. I've been thinking about Between Two Fires quite a lot since I've read it and I've concluded that the reason why I liked it so much is because it's like a mashup of The Name of the Rose and a really neat D&D adventure.
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Dec 28, 2023 05:13
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branedotorg posted:There are a few versions of space marine, the original is more strange that the later retcon version Can't believe they retconned OSC out of existence   (from the very first WH40K sourcebook, i still have it around somewhere)
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Dec 28, 2023 05:49
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You can't fool me, that's cptn_dr fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Dec 28, 2023 |
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Dec 28, 2023 06:07
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oh my god, the pale is the warp, Dolores Dei was Eldar fuckery, Cuno's an Ork, it all makes sense!
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Dec 28, 2023 06:30
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Narsham posted:One-Eye writes something that I suppose could be called a chapter. Okay, Book of One-Eye. Still hilarious.
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Dec 28, 2023 06:34
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I looked at Goodreads and found I have a habit of forcing myself to read an entire series even when I'm not enjoying it in the hopes it gets better. Alex Verus is overrated. I thought the first book was fine, but as it went I felt likemit was all being made up as it went along. So many times the author switches from giving the magic a structure to the flipping back to oooooOoOOoOO magic is mysterious. Despite 13 books and some pretty significant events, Alex himself never struck me as anything more than a 16 year trying to impress others by looking deep and mature. Fred the Vampire Accountant starts out cute and maintains that vibe, but it's very one note and stays that way. S o as long as you don't get tired of that, it's fine. I'll check in but it was probably hurt by me reading them all back to back. This and Verus may have benefited by having something else between entries, Between Two Fires should not be as good as it is. It actually reminded me a little of Pillars of Earth, but that might be the setting. It was also my first exposure to Catholic horror in writing and boy did that touch some core memories. The worst thing about it is that there's nothing else quite like it, tho I'll be giving Ash a shot soon. Battlegrounds of Dresden fame was read shortly after the Verus marathon and it feels like a Butcher is spinning his wheels. The stakes keep rising but after the last batch of people that Harry cares about get killed, I find I'm just tired of watching him get beat up. This book also felt off since everyone pretty much had infinite magic juice so it was basically a book long Michael Bay explosion. Reading it right after Verus didn't do either seipries any favors, the urban fantasy burnout was probably too real. The Princess Bride, once you remove the surrounding set up that is really shittily sexist, is basically the movie. Its clearly a book meant to have been a film from the jump but it works in both forms really well. The movie edges out because holy poo poo is there just a lot of sexism in the book. In hindsight I don't think there's a single positive female portrayal in the book. I read the Destiny Grimoire Anthologies. It doesn't have a narrative but it sure paints a wild picture of an alien world and species and it does it well. A shame the games are a train wreck but, boy, did they have a neat as hell core premise. Andy Weir is fine. He's mostly inoffensive and each book iterates on the same idea and by the third instance it's wearing thin. I think I actually like Artemis the most out of the three books. Steel Frame hasn't stuck with me. I liked it while reading it and afterwards. But I haven't thought about it since. I feel like I've seen what it's trying to do in too many other places before I read it so none of the events, themes, or ideas really stood out to me. Wounds and North American Lake Monsters were a mixed bag. I didn't care for NALM and Wounds was better, but I'm finding a lot of the horror being recommended falling flat for me. I thought maybe I just wasn't into the genre any more but Between Two Fires really worked for me so who knows. Satan Loves You feels is slick and snappy and incredibly easy to read but it also feels like a fleshed out and edited version of something I would've read in a high school creative writing class. Which is good! There's nothing wrong with light camp reading. A Short Stay in Hell was well paced and sized as a novella that expands on a very brief story by a different author (Library of Babel). It probably incidentally does a better job of exploring existential horror than most cosmic horror, and for that I enjoyed it. Finished the year off with The Haunting of Hill House. I have to read more Shirley Jackson, she manages to wrote in a way where I was along for the ride the entire time. Even when things go off the rails and the book ends as suddenly as it does I was right there nodding along following the train of thought right into a wall. While the horror on it is a nothing burger compared to modern horror, the perspective and rhythm convey the rise and crash of fear really well.
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Dec 28, 2023 06:39
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Well I finished reading the Final Architecture series, and overall enjoyed it. That said, a big chunk of it seemed like a novelized TTRPG, complete with players trying to come up with the most ridiculous characters possible, and another big chunk felt like someone's lightly-modded Stellaris game. And there definitely was the thing that another poster mentioned where a character would experience a major revelation that wouldn't be revealed to the reader for several pages (or in one case several chapters). And it does a weird thing of having tedious recaps sprinkled into the beginning of every book and sometimes even in chapters within the same book, which makes me wonder if it originated as something like a play by email or forums game. But it was fun space opera, and there were some decent parts that took the good parts of Stephen Baxter and worked them into a novel that had actually-compelling characters. Also the Essiel were great and probably deserve whole novels on their own. It did not live up to the standard set by the Children of Time series, and I think Tchaikovsky's insane pace of churning out books is showing. But I'd still recommend reading it.
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Dec 28, 2023 06:41
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I read 4 SFF books last year, all by LeGuin: the first three Hainish books and Lathe of Heaven. All I can recommend! The rest from 2023 were either literary fiction, horror/weird fiction, or a couple nonfiction.
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Dec 28, 2023 06:58
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