Another week, another set of fantasy novels being read…
Bill: Missed the last one, so since then, I’ve read (and reviewed) Joshua Palmatier‘s Well of Sorrows and Leaves of Flame — the first two books of an excellent series that I highly recommend. I also read City of Dragons by Robin Hobb, which (slowly) moves along that series and was a bit of a disappointment. Another disappointment was Melanie Rawn‘s Touchstone, which I nearly didn’t finish. More successful, though overly-long and not consistently engaging enough, was Felix J. Palma’s Map of Time. Outside of the fantasy world, I read Julian Barnes’s Booker Prize winner Sense of an Ending; I loved the digressions on time and memory, was less enamored of the storyline proper. Currently, I’m reading Sisterhood of Dune.
Greg: I finally wrapped up my review of Richard K. Morgan‘s second KOVACS novel, Broken Angels. (It takes me longer to review the books I really like over the ones I don’t. ) Now I’m reading the final installment of Micheal J. Sullivan‘s RIYRIA REVELATIONS, Percepliquis. It’s shaping up to be the best of the series. I got hooked up with an Audible.com gift card, ;) so I’m trying out my first audiobook: Monster Hunters International by Larry Correia.
Kat: This week I read the audiobook of Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick because the book was so highly recommended by Greg. Indeed, it was a lot of fun, though I felt more like Marion did about it than Greg did. In other words, it was highly entertaining, but won’t be remembered as one of my favorite 2011 books. For a debut, though, it deserves the praise it’s received. On to the next audiobook: Philip K. Dick’s The Simulacra.
Marion: It’s amazing what a little time off will do for my reading. I finished Medicine Road by Charles de Lint, NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and Alan Bradley’s latest Flavia de Luce mystery, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows. I finished Lynn Kurland’s Star of the Morning for the Challenge List. I’ve just started Umberto Eco’s Prague Cemetery.
Stefan: It looks like I haven’t participate in these update posts for a few weeks, and that’s mainly because I haven’t had the chance to read a whole lot of SFF lately. In the last month or so I’ve read Empire State by Adam Christopher, Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, Faith by John Love, and a ton of (non-fiction) magazines I was trying to catch up on before the end of the year. Currently I’m reading Rise of Empire, which is the second RIYRIA REVELATIONS omnibus by Michael J. Sullivan, and I’m also about to start reading Hitchers, the second novel by Will McIntosh (whose Soft Apocalypse was one of the best SF novels I read last year). I hope that 2012 will bring more reading time!
Terry: I read Heather Tomlinson‘s Toads and Diamonds this week, which is based on the Charles Perrault story of two girls who meet a fairy by the well. Tomlinson has substituted India and a goddess for France and a fairy, and written a lovely young adult novel. I’m also working on finishing up books I’ve started over the last several months but never finished, which means I’ve been back to Lavie Tidhar‘s The Bookman, an enjoyable steampunky sort of novel.
Tim: I have had relatively little time to read this week, as I’ve been settling back into studies. The solution, of course, was to make time, and I’m happy to report that after an evening of procrastination from studies, I finished a book recommended to me by my sister, Suzanne Collins‘s Catching Fire, the second book in her HUNGER GAMES trilogy. It was a fun read, and the suspense was certainly vibrant. For one reason or another I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one, but it was still quite good, and the discrepancy may be simply due to the fact that I rushed this one so much.
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Tim — practically everyone I know who has read them has said that of the Collins books, Hunger Games is the best (even though they enjoy the others).
Kat- I have to admit, you do have a good point about Among Thieves, as good as it was it may not have been a fit for a “best of” list. (Though, I’m very much looking forward to the next Tale of the Kin book.)
In my defense, of all the books I’ve read this year, I think only around 6 were released in 2011 and Among Thieves was my 3rd favorites of those.
That said; I’ll stand by my other picks for 2011 till the end. Abercrombie’s The Heroes and Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns are a couple personal all-time favorites.