It’s the first Thursday of the month. You know what that means. Time to report!
What is the best book you read in March 2014 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF. 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. And we’ve also got a constantly updating list of new and forthcoming releases.)
As always, one commenter will choose a book from our stacks.
We’ve got a couple of giveaways still current. Find those here!
Well, what other book could it be except Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson?
And my favourite audio story was Doctor Who: Dark Eyes Two. As good as the original Dark Eyes was, this one was even better.
Two Serpents Rise. Max Gladstone is 2/2 in great sf novels to date.
EMPEROR’S BLADES by Brian Staveley (whom I met this past Sunday here in Albany NY). A fast and entertaining roller coaster ride through a world peopled with badass monks, black ops warriors riding into battle on giant hawks, Machiavellian politicos and magical leeches (of the human extraction). Loved it!
I started 3 or 4 and they were all DNF for me…not my best showing!
Ugh! Do you want to tell us what they were?
Keeping in mind that I am a VERY picky reader, sure, I’ll mention a couple:
Witch for Hire by N E Conneely
Great idea and an interesting plot. This was a very good story for the part that I read, and it deserved to be edited. There’s quite a bit of repetition in there and between that and the typos, I found my love of the story constantly interrupted.
This would be a good book for cozy mystery readers and light fantasy readers–if you can overlook typos and general editing issues that need to be cleaned up. I didn’t finish it because I hit the annoyance threshold with the problems, so I can’t say if the plot held up.
Baerhly Breathing by Elizabeth A. Reeves Okay, I picked this up despite the corny cover and corny title. And for the first three-quarters of the book I really enjoyed it. It was quite good. I have no idea what happened, but somewhere past the halfway, the scenes started to jump around…and were hurried. IMPORTANT scenes were summarized rather than “lived out.” I kept reading, but when it hit a “yes, I guess we are going to explore a love triangle” I gave up. This book was almost there and has a lot going for it. It’s possible that if you keep reading past the love triangle scene (and this is after I felt there was a lot of info missing on the magical system/world building scene previous–lot of unexplained stuff that still annoys me no end) Anyway. If you keep reading past that cliche, maybe some of the story works itself out. I read cozy urban fantasy a lot so I get that they are not books that are going to go into a lot of detail about how a magical system works. HOWEVER, if the bad guy is able to do something CRITICAL to the plot, you can’t just say, “No idea how he did that, but we got you out of it.” Well, you can’t do that and expect me to keep reading, anyway.
There were a couple of others I tried to read, but they didn’t pan out and I’m quite certain no one needs to hear me rant further. :>)
Sand by Hugh Howey
Matter by Iain M. Banks
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
take a chance by Abbi Glines for the story
And Blue Skies From Pain by Stina Leicht – I really love the blend of urban fantasy and Ireland in the late 70s. They’re not happy books though.
Sadly, last month was full of books that didn’t really impress me much. The best thing I read was, easily, the third volume of the graphic novel Saga by Brian K. Vaughn. In terms of regular novels, I suppose it was Mistborn: The Final Empire, but I have plenty of qualms with it, so it wins by virtue of being the best thing I got around to.
Saga
Sand
Dark Eyes
Two Serpents Rise
The Gods Themselves
Matter
I didn’t actually read these. I just thought they made a good poem . . .
I’ve read a few, but the best was China Mieville’s Railsea. Honourable mention to the graphic novel Saga. Geez, now that I think about it Scalzi’s Redshirts, and Old Man’s War were pretty entertaining too (although the main characters felt a bit stock and likely could have been swapped for another with no negative effect…) Whew!
Traitor’s Blade by De Castell was really fun, made more fun by the Jo Fletcher Book’s Join the Greatcoats contest that accompanied it’s release. I also read The Zaanics Deceit by Nina Post, which also was fun. It’s a first-of-three too, so I’m waiting for the next installment. Hmm. On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Boudard would be on the list of March reading I’d recommend, although it’s not a full length novel. Finally, I also read the 2nd book of Peter V Brett’s Demon Cycle, which doesn’t need me to recommend it!
I read a lot, and I honestly liked everything I read last month (as I like everything I read every month LOL), but I absolutely loved “Half-Off Ragnarok” by Seanan McGuire. She is a wonderful storyteller and I look forward to all of her offerings.
The Touchstone Trilogy by Andrea K Host. The entire series is told in diary format. I’m usually wary of books about an earth person transported to another world – the last one I really liked was Heroes of Zara Keep – but this one totally worked for me it never once felt like a bad RPG night turned into a book like a lot of them do. I loved the main character, and got completely caught up in the story. I’m looking forward to trying more by this author.
I haven’t read that series by her, but I have read her Stained Glass Monsters. Excellent read.
I’ve been trying to decide which one to read next. I will have to check out that series.
Two toddlers mean not much reading. Easily the best was Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells (a reread), but her Emilie and the Sky World was a lot of fun too. I started Ascension, but am only halfway.
I have Death of the Necromancer on my TBR list. I’m glad to hear you liked it!
March for me was not that great – no five star books!
The best fantasy was a UF that isn’t out yet, Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin.
The best book I read in March was Written in Red by Anne Bishop. I was completely sucked into the world, and the characters were well-rounded enough that I wasn’t bored with them. I would definitely recommend it!
I adore Anne Bishop’s worlds, and Written in Red was my second choice for my favorite read last month :)
Margo Hurwicz,if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me
(Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!
R. Lee Smith’s Cottonwood. I like how it tugged at my emotions. I came back to it again and again after reading it the first time.