It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!
What’s the best book you read in November 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).
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I enjoyed a couple of good MG/YA fantasy books. The first is apparently some kind of Dutch classic–“The Cat Who Came In Off the Roof” by Annie M. G. Schmidt. Various cats help a young journalist who is having trouble finding stories other than ones about cats. His boss had been angry because the reporter was very shy and mostly wrote cat-focused stories, and the editor did not consider those to be newsworthy enough. There is a big sci-fi element with a young woman in the book.
The second is “Wishes & Wellingtons,” by Julie Berry. It’s about a feisty young woman who is stuck in a dreary boarding school across the street from an orphan home which acts as a feeder for boys sent down into the mines. Naturally, our heroine makes friends with a plucky orphan, and they work together to solve various problems involving a genie and mean, horrible people.
Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker was best of November for me, a short novel that was also surprisingly readable, given how dense and thorny some of Garner’s novels have been. However, the interpretation of what is going in this semi-mythical/folkloric novel might require a lot of effort, if you feel like investing it. If R. A. Lafferty had spent his days in northwest England rather than Oklahoma, he might have come up with a tall tale like this. I also read and had a overall more positive than negative impression of Traitor of Redwinter (Ed McDonald), second in that series and still involving despite a bit too much teenaged angst; Cold Hand in Mine (Robert Aickman), probably the least ambiguous short story collection from him that I’ve read so far; and There Is No Antimemetics Division (“qntm” AKA Sam Hughes), an extended shaggy dog story about a Laundry Files adjacent secret agency dealing with interdimensional horrors that by their nature cannot be remembered. Currently reading The Olympian Affair (Jim Butcher), second in his Cinder Spires series. Butcher, Fran Wilde, and Curtis Craddock all started series about people living above the cloud level around the same time (Craddock’s is more a Three Musketeers pastiche, where this one is more akin to Aubrey and Maturin).
I’m continuing with the Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock. The third book in the series, “The Weird of the White Wolf”, isn’t quite as good as the first two books but I still love this old school fantasy writing.
Not entering!
I actually read an SF book in November–System Collapse by Martha Wells, the latest Murderbot book. Excellent, as usual. I also read a box set of 3 novels by Tavia Lark, The Radiance Books I-III, in the romantasy genre (ugh, who came up with that name). Secondary world, magic and magical beings are around, otherwise medievalish. Individually, the three books are The Necromancer’s Light, The Paladin’s Shadow, and The Sword-Witch’s Heart.
Meanwhile, I don’t want to wait a month to include a book I read this week because I’m so excited about it! Kristine Smith has published a new Jani Kilian novel, Echoes of War. The previous book, Endgame, was published in 2007. I’d last read the series in 2016, so not *that* long ago, but I was able to pick up the story and important bits (there was some incluing but no infodumps) with no problem. Set in a future where Families control the best stuff and the off-Earth Colonies just to deal, Jani Kilian is a Colonial who joined the Service (military) to escape her homeworld. She’s trained as a documents examiner (let’s say accountant/contracts lawyer) and is chosen as one of the first humans to train at the alien idomeni Academy. She gets caught up in war and conspiracies and ends up hybridized (part-human/part-idomeni) and then on the run for 18 years. That’s the start of book 1. In this book, she’s now head of a colony of hybrids, most human-to-idomeni but a few in the other direction as well. The colony is under threat by both humans and idomeni, when an old friend of Jani’s, a Service colonel is kidnapped. Jani receives instructions to dig up some old documents if she wants to save NIall. The race is on to figure out who’s behind it, who’s involved, and who will benefit.
Jani is relentless, an excellent tactician, extremely competent in her field, and loyal. There’s a reason she’s called a chaos agent and it’s glorious watching her on this kinda-caper. I definitely don’t recommend starting here, but give Code of Conduct (book 1) a look.
1. The Olympian Affair, Cinder Spires Book 2, Jim Butcher. 8 year hiatus between books 1 and 2 but worth the wait. Among the best books he has written although the cats were weird.
2. The Art of Destiny, War Arts Saga, Book 2, Wesley Chu. Slow starting middle book but worth staying with. Strong character driven story, lots of intrigue and betrayal and abundant humor to keep it from getting too dark.
3. An Inheritance of Magic, Book 1, Benedict Jacka. Not a great book but a good, solid start to a new, long, urban fantasy series.
Kevin, 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!
I didn’t receive emails for the last two giveaways (I’ve checked Spam and Trash), and my account still says I’m following Fantasy Literature.