[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Battle Ground is an obvious mention.

The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower and Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden - wonderful series, really enjoyed the Slavic and Russian folklore element.

Becky Chambers Wayfarers series, beginning with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - first book is very Firefly, second is more focused and the third was a bit more of a collection of seemingly unrelated threads but was probably the most affecting. Looking forward to the release of the last one next year.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 18 December 2020 - 09:51 PM

[Chance]

Been an awesome reading year going to end up with a new record breaking my last one from 2013 which I honestly thought would never happen, if only by 2-3 books or so.

Got a lot of satisfaction from re-read and finished up the Change by SM Stirling been intending to do that for a while and some of the later books made it very much worth it even if I sometimes doubted it during the way there.

The Best: Hard to say this year I loved the finish to the Change series with The Sky Blue Wolves which has a few scenes closer to the end that will stay with me for a long long time, Bright Steel finished of the Masters and Mages series brilliantly and was awesome, The First Man in Rome and the following books are ridiculously good historical fiction thought I think the earlier books eclipse the later ones. A Deadly Education however is probably my book of the year simply because I really want to read the next one even if it was fairly simple fair it stuck with me for some reason.

The excellent: Prince of Outcasts, The Grass Crown, Some of the Red Rising books, The Kingdom of Bronze, The Collapsing Empire, Mindstar Rising, Quantum Murder.

The very good: Crownbreaker, This Savage Song, False Value, Blood of Empire, All Systems Red (and follow ups), Ravenor and Eisenhorn books, The Ballistic Kiss.

The worst: Well I didn't really read any that bad books this year guess Dark Age from the Red Rising got to stand in as most disappointing while it probably wasn't close to the trash that usually finds its way onto my reading list once or twice a year. In hindsight maybe I should have started Rhythm of War to have something to put here...well there is still some time.

Also got Fallen from the verus books queued up so it will probably be added to the very good and excellent ones.

This post has been edited by Chance: 19 December 2020 - 12:42 AM

[Macros]

A LOT of rereads this year. With the Malazan up until TtH and all the Gaunts books.

Top new to me, hmmmm, touch or hope by North.

Top reread, DG on Malazan and Anarch on Gaunt

[Ailesbury]

During the whole COVID shutdown, I went and read the massive book 2666 by Roberto Bolano. It is the best Latin American novel I have ever read.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

I didn't read enough new books this year, too much of what I read was rereads. There's an easy early New Year's resolution - read more new material.

Probably the most enjoyable new reads were Wrath of Kings, the omnibus edition of Glen Cook`s Reap the East Wind, An Ill Fate Marshalling and A Path to the Coldness of Heart (I think that was this year - it`s been a looong year) and Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot. I know not everyone is a fan of Cook`s Dread Empire series due to the writing style, but it is fine by me.

[Cyphon]

So turned out I consumed 30 books plus the forum reread which is a lot more than I would of guessed. Probably due to the fact I haven't read much else except for the reread as life has got busier since end of Paternity leave in April. Omitting the reread from consideration below.

I think the best book I read was the Hod King. Enjoyed Harrow the Ninth quite a bit too.

I did a bit of reading books to broaden my horizons and they were a bit more patchy in quality.

I think the disappointments were the first fifteen lives of Harry August and Peace Talks. The former maybe due to hype, the latter as I'm not sure the books have moved on with the world or as I've moved in the world.

Finishing the Lymond Chronicles, the 40k ear bundle, Bel Dame Apocrypha, Jill Kismet series and the witcher series were good. And that's roughly in quality order too by the end... sounds harsh on the Witcher as the back end tails off. The Kismet series sort of has the opposite problem is that it dragged in the middle but for reading something different was worth the time. Those last two could easily swap around on mood when looking at the whole series.

Continued on the Rivers of London series which meandered a bit for more in False Value but looking forward to the next one. Started the gaunts ghost series which I'll looking forward to picking up again, probably once the forum reread is done.

On standalone the scifi classics of rendezvous with Rama and Grass were both worth the time - with very different approaches to scifi. You can see why they're on the master list. I suppose R&R was the surprise because hard scifi isn't always something I've liked in the past.

[Abyss]

So it's May and i never got around to my 2020 list and i want to but in the meantime 2019 was funny to revisit...

Abyss, on 02 January 2020 - 04:00 PM, said:

My turn...

So the magic number for 2019 is 40 books (not counting comics which i'll get to below). ...
MOST IMPROVED:

Seth Dickinson THE MONSTER BARU CORMORANT. I enjoyed this book, i have nothing bad to say about it, but the most striking thing is how much BETTER is was than TRAITOR, which i only mostly enjoyed. Dickinson does everything better here and i can't wait to see how the third book plays out.

And wow that was a disappointment. TYRANT was a step backwards. Didn't lose me, but close.

Quote

BEST SERIES (sort of):

The 'sort of' is because while this year i read all two books in Jonathan French's 'BASTARDS' series, GREY BASTARDS and TRUE BASTARDS, i am virtually certain that the series isn't done. Which is great because these were great, a near perfect example of what i read fantasy lit for... conflicted 'heroes' who are far from shiny, snarling evil villains but also interesting less evil advesaries, interesting and novel takes on magic, and dead gods some glorious over the top action scenes i had to listen to and/or read more than once. TRUE also features a significant number of HOLY FUCK DID I JUST READ THAT moments. But for being in this category both books would be up in the 'Also Bestest' category and TRUE might have made it into 'Bestiest'.

And thus, anger, because French was forced to cut the four book series back to three. I have every confidence FREE BASTARDS will be epic, but dammit.

Quote

...
Martha Wells' MURDERBOT DIARIES, because cynical killer androids who love soap operas are very fun.

...and continue to be.

Quote

S A Charabotay's KINGDOM OF COPPER... also a serious contender for 'most improved', i enjoyed the hell out of her Middle-East setting fantasy.

Her finale in the trilo is a serious contender for my best read of 2020.

Quote

Kay's UNDER HEAVEN... i have had an extended break from GGK for no good reason i can point at. It was nice to read this and remember why i enjoy his work so much.
Wong's THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS, SERIOUSLY DUDE DON'T READ IT... more horror than JOHN DIES + less 'stupid' comedy = great fun.

Both of these' next books sit in the trp. Didn't get there in 2020. Still want to.

[Tiste Simeon]

See I was so annoyed by the second Baru Cormorant book I have no desire to read the third.

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 03 May 2021 - 10:43 AM, said:

See I was so annoyed by the second Baru Cormorant book I have no desire to read the third.

So much about that series is unusual, i'm not surprised it's offputting for many.
I respect the author taking a chance, and i respect the publisher giving him four books to do it with.
Of the three out to date, i was meh on 1, loved 2, meh on 3. 1 and 3 weren't so meh as to initiate the drop sequence, and there's enough novelty and interesting characters to keep me around, but there was skimming. If asked, i would reco it because it's so different it's worth a look just to see whether someone liked it enough to continue.

[Abyss]

2021 THREAD INITIATED... PROCEED....

[Aptorian]

Hey now, you can't just transmogrify the 2020 thread into a 2021 thread. There are rules about Crossing the streams.

I'm going to call the ombudsman.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 29 November 2021 - 08:17 PM, said:

Hey now, you can't just transmogrify the 2020 thread into a 2021 thread. There are rules about Crossing the streams.

I'm going to call the ombudsman.

There's precedent, the 2020 thread was also the 2017-2019 threads.
Also, the ombudsman is on the bud and can't take your call right now.

[Aptorian]

Was anybody else aware that Abyss has been centipeeding threads? How long has these crimes against threads gone unnoticed?

[Macros]

You're too many dreams in APt, you need to wake up quick

2021 - hmmmm best book is a tough call, currently shaping up to be Fall of Babel, need to check my list to see what books were this year though before we get carried away with that

[Tiste Simeon]

My favourite reads this year definitely include the two Naomi Novik Scholomance books.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Tiste Simeon, on 29 November 2021 - 08:56 PM, said:

My favourite reads this year definitely include the two Naomi Novik Scholomance books.

I would include these as well, unless I read the first last year... Will have to check on that.

[Imperial Historian]

Book of the year for me has been hands of the emperor by Victoria Goddard. God is not willing was up there too.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, the final Wayfarers book, is hands down my book of the year.

[worry]

I just bought her Small Angry Planet on ebook cuz it was on sale, so that's good to hear.

[Tsundoku]

Something about an unwilling God by that Erichsen chap.