2013. Better known as: the year in which Lisa barely posted any reviews at all because the fantasy landscape was so gorram bleak. I made it to 50 books this year, by the skin of my teeth, but only because I did a boatload of re-reading - 20% of the books I read this year were re-reads, because I needed something to keep me invigorated. Did anyone else feel let down by 2013?
By the statistics, I read 19839 pages in 2013, an average of 55 pages a day - both up a bit from 2012, against all odds. Average book length was 389 pages.
Anyway, my top picks for the year. Um. I'm going to skip on re-re-re-mentioning Daniel Abraham/James S. A. Corey, since they've topped my list for the last couple of years. Suffice to say they still do, but there's no need to beat a dead horse. So in no particular order, things I enjoyed:
1) Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy. These were gorier and darker than I usually like, but to some extent I felt like Lawrence accomplished what Abercrombie is always shooting for (and generally missing). I loved the setting, and the slow dawning realization that the setting maybe wasn't what you were set up to believe it was. The ending was a bit odd, but overall it was solid.
2) Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. It's a love story written to everything that comprised my childhood. I couldn't resist it, even though the writing was dubious at best. Endearing characters, a clever set-up, and heaps of nostalgia made it work.
3) Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist Histories, of which I slurped down 2 in a row while on vacation before deciding I needed a little break. I was reading these in juxtaposition to The Broken Empire, so you can imagine that the difference was a bit jarring. I loved these books, in no small part because they filled a hole left in my shelf by the completion of Galen Beckett's Mrs. Quent trilogy.
4) The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. Love, love, loved this for the main character, the world, and the storytelling. I'll be interested to see how book 2 comes together without the memory-loss trope employed by the first.
5) River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. Predictable? Me? Naaah. Honestly I spent most of this book wondering if I really was going to like it as much as the rest of Kay's body of work. Everything felt so understated and sedate... though undeniably beautiful, of course. I spent quite a bit of the book going "this is too slow..." and then suddenly it was the last 40 pages and I was just crying and crying. He has a way of sneaking up on you.
I'm tempted to rant a bit about the books that were disappointing or left unfinished, but instead I think I'll just shut up and cross my fingers that 2014 is a better year for books. My full reading list is below!
By the statistics, I read 19839 pages in 2013, an average of 55 pages a day - both up a bit from 2012, against all odds. Average book length was 389 pages.
Anyway, my top picks for the year. Um. I'm going to skip on re-re-re-mentioning Daniel Abraham/James S. A. Corey, since they've topped my list for the last couple of years. Suffice to say they still do, but there's no need to beat a dead horse. So in no particular order, things I enjoyed:
1) Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy. These were gorier and darker than I usually like, but to some extent I felt like Lawrence accomplished what Abercrombie is always shooting for (and generally missing). I loved the setting, and the slow dawning realization that the setting maybe wasn't what you were set up to believe it was. The ending was a bit odd, but overall it was solid.
2) Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. It's a love story written to everything that comprised my childhood. I couldn't resist it, even though the writing was dubious at best. Endearing characters, a clever set-up, and heaps of nostalgia made it work.
3) Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist Histories, of which I slurped down 2 in a row while on vacation before deciding I needed a little break. I was reading these in juxtaposition to The Broken Empire, so you can imagine that the difference was a bit jarring. I loved these books, in no small part because they filled a hole left in my shelf by the completion of Galen Beckett's Mrs. Quent trilogy.
4) The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. Love, love, loved this for the main character, the world, and the storytelling. I'll be interested to see how book 2 comes together without the memory-loss trope employed by the first.
5) River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay. Predictable? Me? Naaah. Honestly I spent most of this book wondering if I really was going to like it as much as the rest of Kay's body of work. Everything felt so understated and sedate... though undeniably beautiful, of course. I spent quite a bit of the book going "this is too slow..." and then suddenly it was the last 40 pages and I was just crying and crying. He has a way of sneaking up on you.
I'm tempted to rant a bit about the books that were disappointing or left unfinished, but instead I think I'll just shut up and cross my fingers that 2014 is a better year for books. My full reading list is below!
| Throne of the Crescent Moon | by | Saladin Ahmed |
| The Lies of Locke Lamora | by | Scott Lynch |
| The Human Division | by | Jon Scalzi |
| The Rise of Ransom City | by | Felix Gilman |
| Unclean Spirits | by | MLN Hanover |
| Darker Angels | by | MLN Hanover |
| The Rook | by | Daniel O'Malley |
| The Daylight War | by | Peter V Brett |
| Great north road | by | Peter F Hamilton |
| Green | by | Jay Lake |
| Vicious grace | by | M L N Hanover |
| The Windup Girl | by | Paolo Bacigalupi |
| Ready Player One | by | Earnest Cline |
| River of Stars | by | Guy Gavriel Kay |
| Bending | by | Greta Christina |
| The Magicians Guild | by | Trudi Cavanaugh |
| The Tyrant's Law | by | Danile Abraham |
| Variable Star | by | Spider Robinson/Heinlein |
| The Rithmatist | by | Brandon Sanderson |
| Abaddon's Gate | by | James S. A. Corey |
| The Stranger's Shadow | by | Max Frei |
| Prince of Thorns | by | Mark Lawrence |
| Shades of Milk and Honey | by | Mary Robinette Kowal |
| Glamour in Glass | by | Mary Robinette Kowal |
| King of thorns | by | Mark Lawrence |
| Ship breaker | by | Paolo Bacigalupi |
| Tigana | by | Guy Gavriel Kay |
| The Foundling | by | D. M. Cornish |
| From the dust returned | by | Ray Bradbury |
| The New Watch | by | Sergei Lukyanenko |
| Requiem | by | Ken Scholes |
| Stations of the Tide | by | Michael Swanwick |
| Cold Steel | by | Kate Elliott |
| The Ocean at the end of the lane | by | Neil Gaiman |
| Red Seas under Red Skies | by | Scott Lynch |
| The Incrementalists | by | Steve Brust and Skyler White |
| The republic of thieves | by | Scott Lynch |
| The inexplicables | by | Cherie Priest |
| Killing Rites | by | M. L. N. Hanover |
| Emperor of Thorns | by | Mark Lawrence |
| Hild | by | Nicola Griffith |
| Innocent Mage | by | Karen Miller |
| Steelheart | by | Brandon Sanderson |
| Dodger | by | Steve Brust |
| Taltos | by | Steve Brust |
| Dragon | by | Steve Brust |
| Yendi | by | Steve Brust |
| Tiassa | by | Steve Brust |
| Jhereg | by | Steve Brust |
| Teckla | by | Steve Brust |
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