I’m finishing up The Golden Compass tonight, and I doubt I’ll get through another book before Jan 1, so it’s time to look back on the year’s reading.
Overall, it was a good year. A very good year. 43 books (with a target of 40, but some of these are pretty short, so I consider it a wash).
According to Goodreads, I awarded 5 stars to 29 books, and 4 stars to another 13. Only one novel, Very Hard Choices, was something of a disappointment and earned 3 stars.
I read from a number of series. Some of my favorites:
- The Armored Saint (The Sacred Throne) Cole, Myke
- Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire) Lee, Yoon Ha
- The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency) Scalzi, John
- Foundryside (Founders) Bennett, Robert Jackson
- The Moons of Barsk (Barsk) Schoen, Lawrence M.
- The Lady Astronaut of Mars (Lady Astronaut series) Kowal, Mary Robinette
- Revenger (Revenger) Reynolds, Alastair
- Annihilation (Southern Reach) VanderMeer, Jeff
- The Night Masquerade (Binti) Okorafor, Nnedi
- All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) – Wells, Martha
- Hymn: The Final Volume of the Psalms of Isaak – Scholes, Ken
- The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials) Pullman, Philip
For beautiful prose, check out:
- In the Vanishers’ Palace – Bodard, Aliette de
- Forest of Memory – Kowal, Mary Robinette
Noteworthy standalones:
- Sea of Rust – Cargill, C. Robert
- The Prey of Gods – Drayden, Nicky
Weird and wonderful!
- Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach – Robson, Kelly
- Blackfish City – Miller, Sam J.
- Space Opera – Valente, Catherynne
Craft & miscellany:
- Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative – Wendig, Chuck
- Roger Zelazny – Krulik, Theodore
- The Ides of Octember: A Pictorial Bibliography of Roger Zelazny – Kovacs, Christopher
My TBR shelf is still — unsurprisingly – full, and many delights await on my Kindle library as well. I have no doubt next year will be a bounty of favorite authors and new voices.
Looking forward to it.
