It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!
What’s the best book you read in June 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 Fanlit Faves page and 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).
The Hugo short list is out:
https://locusmag.com/2023/07/2023-hugo-astounding-and-lodestar-awards-finalists/
Some great work, and, as always, a few noms that have me scratching my head.
I enjoyed the “Tunnels” series by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. It was quite exciting. There is a review on this site for the first book in the series, and the reviewer was not that crazy about it. I understand that reaction if someone just reads the one book. But the whole series had a lot of action and interesting heroes and villains. The series does seem pretty ludicrous regarding physics and earth science, but then in the final volume there are plot developments that make it all make sense, in a sci-fi way.
The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1) by John Gwynne
Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1) by Steven Erikson
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was the best book I read in June, once I realized that I had somehow never managed to read it before. A runner-up was the 2009 short story collection The Radio Magician and Other Stories (James Van Pelt), which had a hint of Bradbury to some of its tales. Outside of genre I read two collections of Thomas Hardy stories, almost all anti-romances (where love at first sight turns sour, marriages soon become unsatisfying, and passionate extramarital affairs end in ruin for all concerned), plus another Jean Shepherd fictionalized memoir of Depression era youth, Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, and Other Disasters.
I enjoyed Subhuman by Michael McBride. Gave me my scientific, archaeological Alien fix. I also loved Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man. Definitely can’t go wrong with Bradbury. The story “The Veldt” is absolutely chilling!
my best genre read in June was Blade of Ash by Daniel Abraham
my best non-genre read was Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
My best non-fiction read was Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us by Keggie Carew
Bill, is Blade of Ash the second book in the trilogy? If so, I must order it immediately.
Yes, and yes you should :)
The first book was Age of Ash and the second is Blade of Dream. I’m wavering on whether to read the second one, since the first one didn’t knock me out. Bill’s review is pushing me toward a Yes on that. And there aren’t any other interesting new books coming out before August, when we get Roanhorse’s The Mirrored Heavens, Modesitt’s Contrarian, and Carrick’s Labyrinth’s Heart (all of which are sequels). Salt on the Midnight Fire (book 4 in that series by Liz Williams), which I have on order, will be my only other new book for July.
With Age of Ash it look me a while to figure out what was going on, but for me, it was worth the wait and the confusion for the pay-off.
I also want to see how he pulls off his conceit of a trilogy that follows the same time period, following different sets of characters.
Been reading Jade City for a good part of June.
It’s got some amazing world building. Yes it’s a second world fantasy with some great world building. The characters are just as good. And there’s intrigue. And it feels so real. Lots of versimilitude in this one.
Bit decompressed though. But I’m enjoying the read.
Also in the good read pile: Dealbreaker by LX Beckett. Finally got around to reading it. Wonderful characters (I care about them), a real feeling post climate catastrophe world (and it’s not Mad Max dystopia). Then there are the bad guys. Been a while since I hated a bunch of bad guys so much. Even though I had an inkling of sympathy for one of their minions.
I just started LEGENDS AND LATTES. A discussion about the Hugo short list in my writers group finally nudged me off the fence and I bought it. Good fun! Probably best read while sipping a coffee beverage from your favorite barista, and ideally interspersed with bites of a cinnamon roll. It confirms one writer friend’s theory about the nature of the short list as a group– escapist, fun, popular books this go-round.
I read Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Mallerman. I’m not sure if it’s out yet, but it was amazing! Certainly some of the best short stories and most unique horror I’ve ever read.
My scifi/fantasy reading was all on the light side in June: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, The Vine Witch by Luanne Smith, and The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. All enjoyable reads, nothing special.
“The False Student” begins Goldeen Ogawa’s “Professor Odd” series. While the influence from Doctor Who is obvious (Professor Odd is an eccentric scientist who takes companions on travels in a living conveyance), it still manages to be charming and display some variety. Only one of the companions is human. Professor Odd is female while the Doctor is usually male, and the Oddity usually transports between universes rather than just planets and time periods. I like the Professor’s line about loving ignorance – not willful ignorance (“Oh, great Dawkins, no.”), but the state of not knowing all the answers which encourages curiousity.
In the second installment of Dark Horse’s comic book series “Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise”, tensions rose between Earth King Kuei and Fire Lord Zuko over the status of the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom, some of which are too old to reasonably expect everyone to just pack up and leave. Meanwhile, Toph brings Sokka to see her new metalbending academy, only to find trouble waiting for them. The involvement of the original showrunners means that the characters’ voices are authentic and the series continues the same thoughtful consideration of complex issues as the cartoon.
Scott Turow’s followup to “Presumed Innocent” and “The Burden of Proof” is titled “Pleading Guilty”. Turow again shifts protagonists in his loosely connected series of Kindle County legal thrillers. This time, it’s a former cop alliteratively named Mack Malloy whose position as a partner in a top law firm has only led him to a dark night of the soul, a descent he’ll have to confront while chasing the mystery of the firm’s top litigator disappearing along with five million in embezzled dollars.
Trey, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks, or a $5 Amazon gift card, or a T shirt.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!