It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!
What’s the best book you read in July 2023 and why did you love it?
It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our 5-Star SFF page.
One commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose one of these prizes:
- a FanLit T-shirt (we have sizes M, L, XL)
- a book from our stacks.
- a $5 Amazon gift card (this is the only option for non-USA addresses).
Subscribe to our posts here (you can filter for giveaway posts if you prefer).
“Neon Green” by Margaret Wappler, published by The Unnamed Press. This is a pretty good domestic comedy-drama set in an alternative United States where people win visits by space ships, which park in suburban backyards.
Still sitting on my TBR from 2015 was Douglas Nicholas’ “Something Red.” It was an enjoyable story with the familiar setup of a small group of travelers with unique talents making their way through dangerous terrain, although attainment of their unnamed goal will likely occur in later volumes in the series. As they stop for safety and rest along the way at well-fortified monasteries, inns and castles they become aware of something evil preying on the unwary. Fun reading, and I hope to continue the story.
Timothy Zahn’s The Icarus Hunt was best of July for me. It’s a caper type novel where two smugglers, one human and one alien (with two alien ferret symbiotes), take on a job to deliver a strange starship to Earth, and immediately start attracting hostile attention from a more powerful alien race that holds a monopoly on interstellar cargo shipping. This also make their crime lord boss unhappy with them. The hairbreadth escapes as our heroes jump from one star system to another do get slightly repetitive, but it’s still a pretty fun read. For runners-up I would pick Izumi Suzuki’s collection Hit Parade of Tears (marginally less bleak than her earlier Terminal Boredom) and the novel Witch King by Martha Wells (not related to any of her other series). Suzuki was a Japanese contemporary of the New Wave writers in the Anglosphere, and her stories use some of the New Wave type flashy techniques to portray their depressive protagonists. Witch King is the version of Martha Wells that distances me a bit too much from her characters (so, not the stylist of The Element of Fire, Wheel of the Infinite, and Murderbot). But this is mostly an interesting tale, as if Wells is channeling Elizabeth Bear channeling Roger Zelazny, if that makes sense, where most characters have “powers” and use them a lot. In non-fiction I liked Mike Gravel’s 2008 book, The Kingmakers, a brief look at the dishonest slant that our war-intoxicated US media give to reporting on (and influencing) both foreign affairs and our national election campaigns.
Boneyards by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A very good continuation of her Diving Universe with a lot of backstory that furthers the overall intrigue and mystery of the anacapa drive and the attempts to keep the Empire from learning its full potential.
I’ve been reading this series, too, Lee.
Great! How far have you gotten?
Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker – This one had been on my TBR for quite some time. So glad I finally read it. I loved it! Here are my thoughts…
For me, a great book is a story the reader wants to keep going, even though it has ended. That was this book. I have been fascinated with vampires for as long as I can remember. I watched the old Dracula movies with Christopher Lee as the illustrious fiend, and the 1979 Dracula starring Frank Langella scared me to death. I was front row and center for Coppolla’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Anne Rice’s vampires have been favorites since I started the series many years ago. But Dracula, the original, Bram Stoker’s novel, really is my favorite. I have read it multiple times. So any offshoot from that legend is more than likely going to hit for me. Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian (I’ve read it twice) was so compelling for me, that story would often enter my mind just out of the blue. I know this book is going to have a similar effect. In his author’s note, Dacre Stoker states that Bram Stoker told his publisher that Dracula was a true story. His publisher balked because it seemed too horrifying for the public so the first 101 pages were cut. Did Stoker experience this, and were those 101 pages this story? He intended Dracula to be a warning against evil. It is often said that legends have a core of truth to them. What if there are things in this world we are not aware of? I guess we won’t know until, if they exist, they choose to show themselves. I’m not sure if that would be a good thing.
The Historian is one of the very few books I rated 5 stars.
It’s definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read.
In the third and final part of the graphic novel “Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise”, Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei are on the verge of a re-ignited war, but Aang comes up with a non-traditional solution to the question of the remaining Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom, foreshadowing the existence of United Republic of Nations and Republic City in “The Legend of Korra”. Aang’s refusal to harm Zuko is disapproved of by his past life Avatar Roku, and in response Aang severs his connection to all his past lives for the time being. The stage is set for the next graphic novel trilogy, “The Search”.
Scott Turow’s fourth book in the loosely connected “series” of legal thrillers set in Kindle County (no relation to the tablet) is called “The Laws of Our Fathers”, and features the interesting twist of a judge being called on to preside over a murder case where the victim was her old friend, and a senator’s ex-wife. While we think of judges as untouchable overseers, Judge Sonia Klonsky is pulled into some very potentially lethal action like Turow’s previous lawyer protagonists.
I read “And After the Fire”, by Lauren Belfer. Like several of my previous choices (ex. “Lilac Girls”, “Code Girls”), it takes place partly around the World War II era, one of the periods of history I find most fascinating. It also takes place in 2010 and 1783, with rotating POV protagonists, all linked by a hidden manuscript authored by J.S. Bach. Classical music, especially piano, is another of my genres of interest. I found the protagonists’ narratives well connected and the suspense of the plot maintained interest without becoming an action thriller.
Michelle Miller, if you live in the USA, you win a Fan Lit T-shirt (please specify 1st and 2nd preferred sizes) OR a book of your choice from our stacks, OR a $5 Amazon gift card. If your address is outside of the USA, you will get a $5 Amazon gift card.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!
Thank you! Email sent. :)