December 2016 Reading

Currently re-reading Redemption Ark.

Still working on The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton.

Zero K by Don DeLillo, with a futuristic take on cryogenics, seems to be science fiction so far.

Finished Remnants of Trust by Elizabeth Bonesteel which was really great. Now I'm reading After the Crown by K. B. Wagers which is the sequel to one of my favorite books of the year, Behind the Throne

Finished my re-reading of The Immortals. I enjoyed it more on this second reading than my first when I was a teenager. In my teen years I wasn't much interested in stuff like death and immortality. In middle age it's all much more relevant. If you want to know more there are a couple of excellent reviews on this site.

Next up I'm reading Worlds of the Imperium by Keith Laumer.

Dusty's TBR for December
Lester Del Rey - Rocket Jockey ✔
Allan M Steele - Orbital Decay✔
Simon R Green - Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth✔
Michael Swannick - Stations of the Tide ✔
Jack Devitt - Coming Home✔
Dorothy L Sayers - Hangman's Holiday ✔
Lois McMaster Bujold - Dreamweaver's Dilemma✔
Edgar Rice Burroughs - At the Earth's Core ✔
John Mullan - What Matters in Jane Austen ✔

Started on the second collection of Dave Langford pastiches, He do the Time Police in different voices. It incorporates the text of his first such collection, The Dragonhiker's Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune's edge: odyssey two, but some of the stories in the second half of the newer anthology are more pastiche than parody.

Just started Blood Music by Greg Bear.

Just getting started with Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. I like this author's style, so far. (First time with Stross.)

FINALLY finished The Big Book of Science Fiction. It was a bit of a slog, due to a) the sheer mass of the book (>1000 pages); and b) the uneven quality of the stories (which isn't the editors' fault - they intentionally went VERY broad with the selections). I just couldn't get into the sometimes bizarre stories, although there were some gems in there, including Sandkings, by none other than George R.R. Martin and Ted Chiang's story that was the basis for the movie Arrival.

Downloaded Peter F. Hamilton's Night Without Stars, which I am ripping through. It's interesting - the more I read Peter Hamilton, the more I see the flaws in his writing (using certain phrases over and over...and over again, somewhat flat characters, laughably bad sex scenes, 5 pages to describe what a character is wearing, etc.), but the less I care! After slogging through 1000 pages of arguably higher "quality" SF, this was like a breath of fresh air to me, awkward writing be damned.

>10 drmamm: Oohhh... Sandkings. I first read that when it was published in Omni magazine back in 1979 or maybe 1980... Such a cool story...

>10 drmamm: I'm working on The Big Book of Science Fiction too. I get what you are saying about the uneven quality, but I have to say, I love the wide selection. I'm half way through, and with the stress levels in my life at this moment, short stories is all I can manage.

>10 drmamm: Ah, the Sandkings! First thing I ever read by Martin. And was there ever a character in sci-fi more deserving of his fate that Simon Kress?

I have just received my copy of Corporation Wars: Insurgence by Ken MacLeod and am speeding up my reading of the Arthur Machen story I am reading so that I can get to Insurgence as soon as possible. I loved, Dissidence, the first novel in the "Corporation Wars" trilogy.

Finished Worlds of the Imperium, a short but entertaining read, even if there are only two or three worlds involved and the Imperium is rather briefly sketched.

Next up I'm re-reading Recalled to Life by Robert Silverberg. Edit: Actually no, The Wizard of Linn by A.E. van Vogt is next.

>10 drmamm: I must admit I have no objection to laughably bad sex scenes. At any rate, so long as they are describing laughably bad sex.

Just finished Weighing Shadows by Lisa Goldstein. Very disappointing, & a surprise since I've really liked several others of hers that I read. It was so flimsy and implausible that I probably wouldn't have finished it, except I kept thinking "this is Lisa Goldstein; she must be going to pull it all together at some point, or make sense of it."

Knocked off Foxglove Summer (A) yesterday evening...apart from "The Laundry" series of Charlie Stross there is little that I enjoy in genre writing more right now than Aaronovitch's urban fantasy police procedurals.

Finished Night Without Stars. I won't spoil anything, but it was a satisfying conclusion to the Void Opus (although the Commonwealth Universe is so huge, he could write 10 more books set there). As I noted above, it isn't high literature, but it really hit the spot for me. If I were to rank this against the entire Commonwealth series, I would put it somewhere in the middle - above the core Void stories, but below the two originals Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

Finished the final book in my 80s Defining Books challenge over on WWEnd.Afraid I thoroughly disliked Allen Steele's Orbital Decay,plot,style,formatte,characters, odd confusing premise,the lot. Perhaps the ending was meant to be sad or even tragic,but since I dIdnt care a fig for anything or anyone in the book,I was just relieved to have finished it at last.
I had already gone ahead with my 90s Defining Books challenge since I have procrastinated months with this book/ The challenge is to read one book from each year of the 90s.The whole challenge has covered the years 1950-1999,and its been great for the most part'
This is my list for the 90s;
1990 Iain M Banks - Use of Weapons ✔
1991 C J Cherryh - Heavy Time✔
1992 Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep ✔
1993 Kim Stanley Robinson - Green Mars
1994 Bruce Sterling - Heavy Weather
1995 David Brin - Brightness Reef
1996 Dan Simmons - Endymion
1997 Joe Haldemane - Forever Peace
1998 Octavia E Butler - Parable of the Talents
1999 Vernor Vinge - A Deepness in the Sky
An odd sort of list I suppose but should be interesting
I am in the process of preparing my 60 SF/F reads for 2017 and will post the list - of course! - later in the month.

Just started Ready Player One. So far so good.

>20 dustydigger:, I've slated Green Mars for January, to follow up Red Mars which I read this summer. I assume you've read the first book before, and are just getting to the sequel now?

I started a re-read of Simak's City.

>20 dustydigger: said, "Perhaps the ending was meant to be sad or even tragic,but since I dIdnt care a fig for anything or anyone in the book,I was just relieved to have finished it at last."

So, for you, it was a happy ending then? ;)

Good to see a Dusty list appearing. I trust your recovery is progressing?

I am just over halfway through Use of Weapons at the moment. A confusing delivery of a very good story so far. I trust Banks won't leave things too murky by the ending.

Have you read, (or plan to read), Parable of the Sower? Talents being the sequel?

>24 ScoLgo: There will be NO murkiness at the ending of Use of Weapons. None at all.

>22 Cecrow: Yep,I too will be reading Green Mars,but probably in February,as Michael Swannick's Stations of the Tide comes up before it.
Unlike the rest of the world I was not at all keen on Red Mars.Why are books set on Mars almost always are about revolutions,conspiracies and the like,when what I want is exciting exploration,terraforming,hands on engineering conundrums.,mysteries and adventure,1950s style! :0) Green Mars looks chockablock with politics and uprisings.........sigh.........

>23 jnwelch: I have City on my list for 2017.plus Simak's Time is the Simplest Thing and maybe Ring Around the Sun.And Thomas Watson had good things to say about All the Traps of EarthLooks like a Simak year,if I can locate cheap copies

>24 ScoLgo: I will be reading both ''Parables'' in 2017.All on the list :0)
Sadly,Scolgo, the recovery is going rather badly,very slowly. My wound bled copiously from the start,and as the hospital was worried that constant replacement of dressings makes chances of infections worse ,they put on a ''PICO dressing'' for a week,then when it still hadnt healed another one last Friday. I go to the hospital tomorrow to have it removed,here's hoping it is clean now.The dressing is extremely uncomfortable as the layer of plastic protection is quite rigid,and when my leg swells then shrinks it is so very constricting I almost cry from it. My clips removal is already a week overdue,so that wont be a happy affair.:0(.
The knee was such a mess inside and masses of bone grafting was carried out. The oedema is very bad,at one point my thigh above the knee was a massive 27 inches,like a tree trunk!. Sitting in a chair is agony,lying down even worse.I am pretty much in constant strong pain,I lie for hours in pain till I fall into an exhausted sleep,but the oedema means I am awoken within an hour to get rid of fluid,and I go back to the 3 hours awake,1 pitiful hour sleep cycle.The rigid dressing keeps my leg in mostly one position,and I get little respite or easing of the knee into different positions..I'm totally worn out,and know from the past this nightmare will go on for almost another month before I finally get well.I am SO not a good healer and of course the op was more complicated than a basic TKR,so things go very slowly.There is some improvement today,day18,and by standing up at the kitchen workbench I have typed this post with one finger while leaning on a stick! lol.Hope to be back in a few days with an update,but for now its back to bed .....sigh.......

>25 drmamm: Thanks - good to know. In truth, I'm not too worried. I've read Banks before and he has proven very good at wrapping things up. Appreciate the confirmation though!

>26 dustydigger: Maybe give Mark Tiedemann's Remains a go? It is set partially on Mars and also on orbital habitats. It's a murder mystery/whodunit - in spaaaaaacceee....

>27 dustydigger: I too need to read City. I have a tattered old copy of Out of Their Minds here that I also need to get to one of these days.

>28 dustydigger: Oh no! Very sorry to hear that recovery is such a struggle. I sure hope things improve quickly. Fingers crossed for good news at the unwrapping tomorrow!

>26 dustydigger: You definitely want a copy of Old Mars then.

>27 dustydigger: I came across All The Traps of Earth while browsing a used book store. Definitely worth keeping an eye open for this one.

Sorry to hear the recovery process is such a chore. Here's hoping for steady improvement - soon!

>28 dustydigger: I hope all the discomfort is worthwhile and ends soon with your taking hikes and gallivanting about this coming summer!

Recovery day 20......YAY! That godawful restrictive bandage was removed today,huge improvement.Also my 34 clips were removed,a week late,so they were embedded in the flesh and were hard to get out .Lots of dots of blood and wimpish yelps from me,but its a relief too. Looking forward to some real progress from now on :0) And possibly more than 1 hour asleep,4 hours awake in pain? Fingers crossed! :0)
Hope to be able to sit at the computer tomorrow for first time,while choosing my SF/F reads for 2017.Great fun
>32 DugsBooks: Not quite hikes or gallivanting,Dug,but pushing my first greatgranddaughter out in her pram in the spring,almost as good.:0)

>33 dustydigger: Glad to hear of the improvement!

Finished The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton and started Babylon's Ashes by James S. A. Corey.

>33 dustydigger: That sounds like a big step forward. Hope you continue to do well.

Finished reading The Wizard of Linn, next up I'm reading A Martian Odyssey, a collection of short stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum, a new author to me.

>26 dustydigger: I attempted Red Mars many years ago, and found it terribly dull. Even Earth politics is boring to me.

>29 ScoLgo: great minds think alike,ScoLgo!.I had already been fortunate to locate a copy of Mark Ws Remains on Open Library ( the prices of his books on Amazon UK are totally ridiculous!) and I already had a copy of our own Thomas Watson's Founders' Effect.I thoroughly enjoyed the debut novel,Luck of Han'anga and look forward to returning to his engaging world.Its like old home week.Bet I enjoy them a lot more than KSRs political machinations on Mars :0)

>38 SFF1928-1973: Hah!,so true. My enjoyment was ruined from the start when we were told first off that the most likable character,who we followed for the small bits of the story actually exploring Mars, was going to be killed,then worked through 100s of pages braced for it to happen while trying not to identify too closely with him so as not to be devastated. That did not sit well with me. Then whole parts of the plot just didnt ring true,with ridiculous groups of people hidden away here and there suddenly popping out in time for revolutions and mayhem.I was fuming and grumbling all the way through.lol
I'll get through Green and Blue if it kills me,because they are Hugo winners,but its certainly not something I am looking forward to.Afraid they are likely to be ''medicine'' books Every morning I dutifully eat my unexicting porridge,and read about a dozen pages of a book and take my medication. I often read that small number of pages from a dutiful or dull read,get it over with for the day before doing household chores.. Then I know any reading during the rest of the day will be for fun and pleasure! :0)

>39 dustydigger: Hope you enjoy Founders' Effect.

Starting book 4 of the Destroyermen series Distant Thunders. I hope it is more than just a build-up to another impossible Grik fight... that aspect of the series is starting to get boring for me.

I finished After the Crown by K.B. Wagers which is every bit as good or better then the first book in the series. It feels like I'm at the beginning of the Miles Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold or the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. I love the characters and the universe created here and I can see a long popular series emerging.

I'm reading Unseen World.

Hi dusty - thank you for keeping us posted on your progress, slow and painful as it is. You certainly have my well wishes for an ease of your pain. Hang in there!

I have finally, finally finished Childhood's End and couldn't be happier. I found the experience of reading it being pulled between storylines that seemed to start and then suddenly end (Stormgren's kidnapping, the research into the need for the Overlords into telepathy and the paranormal), then long passages into social commentary, such as the dinner party where we are introduced to Jan and his idea of traveling to the Overlord's home planet, that didn't seem to fit. And it's a short book that I tried to read quickly to let it all sink in, but it became a slog that I was going to finish no matter what.

I feel bad that I didn't like it better because it is a classic and explained great theories of where humanity is going, but there you have it.

Taking a break from sci-fi for the holidays; have other Clarke volumes to start in the new year with higher hopes for them and hopefully more stars.

>46 threadnsong: I too was not a fan of this book,and am always surprised when people rave about it.Maybe its just me but I was suspicious of the motives of this so called transcendent Overmind.Are you really sure Overmind is merging with the kids,and not just having a tasty snack? lol.Then there are those strange Overlords and their very odd relationship with the Overmind.And I didnt like the writing,would be epic but not very convincing to me.AND the way the children's bodies were brutally tossed aside as unwanted was downright offensive and hardly transcendent behaviour!As I have said before about Clarke,he tosses aside religion and then is forever yearning for something just as transcendent to replace it,with little success.SO not my cup of tea.

Been a bit spaced out from meds this weekend,but finally managed to complete my list of 48 SF titles for 2017.
I am concentrating on the 90s this year,for WWEnd challenges,so about 40% of my reads are from that decade,some monster tomes in there :0( Then there are around half a dozen 21st century books,but many of the other 50% are golden oldies from earlier decades,some rereads,some classics I have been wanting to read and some just light popcorn reads to balance out all those ever so worthy,ever so huge 90s doorstoppers.All in all I think its a fascinating list and I hope for a great year ahead!
Dusty's TBR for 2017
Isaac Asimov - Foundation and Earth
Catharine Asaro - A Quantum Rose
Greg Bear - Moving Mars
Terry Bisson - Voyage to the Red Planet
David Brin - Brightness Reef
Lois McMaster Bujold - Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Octavia E Butler - Parable of the Sower
Octavia E Butler - Parable of the Talents
C J Cherryh - Serpent's Reach
C J Cherryh - Visitor
Hal Clement - Needle
Alan Dean Foster - Cachalot
Alan Dean Foster - The Howling Stones
Nicola Griffith - Slow River
Joe Haldeman - Forever Peace
Robert A Heinlein - Beyond the Horizon
Damon Knight - Mind Switch
Vonda M Macintyre - The Moon and the Sun
Emily St John Mandel - Station Eleven
China Mieville - Perdido St Station
Larry Niven - Ringworld Engineers
Andre Norton - Cats-Eye
Andre Norton - Night of Masks
Kim Stanley Robinson - Green Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson - Blue Mars
Spider Robinson - Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
Robert J Sawyer - Terminal Experiment
John Scalzi - The Last Colony
Clifford D Simak - Time is the Simplest Thing
Clifford D Simak - City
Dan Simmons - Endymion
Dan Simmons - Rise of Endymion
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
Bruce Sterling - Heavy Weather
Michael Swannick - Stations of the Tide
Mark Tiedemann - Remains
Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation
Vernor Vinge - A Deepness in the Sky
Thomas Watson - Founders' Effect
James White - Hospital Station
James White - Star Surgeon
James White - The Aliens Among Us
Gene Wolfe - Citadel of the Autarch
John Wyndham - Chocky
Timothy Zahn - Heir to the Empire
Timothy Zahn - The Third Lynx

My fantasy/urban fantasy reads are still in flux,Ill add that list later

I've just finished reading the November 1948 Astounding (no, I'm not THAT far behind!) and there was much of interest, mainly by people we've never heard of since then. The stand-out story for me was 'In Hiding' by Wilmar H. Shiras, all about a 12-year-old boy who is referred to a child psychologist because he doesn't seem to quite fit in, and turns out to be a towering intellectual genius way beyond his years. It turns out to be an "atomic mutation" story, and the denouement was a bit rushed, but it was well written and engaged my interest far more than you'd expect from that description. (Though a lot of the things the child psychologist does in terms of how he handles his patient would get him struck off nowadays, if not put on a register somewhere!)

Two 'science fact' articles were amusing for getting a lot of stuff wrong - Willy Ley on supersonic flight, stating that future supersonic aircraft would all be rockets (jet engines were no more than six or seven years old at the time of publication, so why Ley couldn't see them as being capable of further development I don't know, but he dismisses them as a engineering dead end), and E.L. Locke on 'A New Natural Law' - an article about the connection between gravity and magnetism, which confuses magnetism, magnetic fields and gravity completely, putting all planetary magnetic fields down to rotation. I don't know when we found out about Mars' lack of a magnetosphere, but that rather demolishes Locke's argument.

The issue's headline story was the second part of the serialisation of A.E. van Vogt's 'The Players of Null-A'. The kindest thing I can say of it is that it read like a bad pastiche of itself.

Later: well, I Googled Wilmar H. Shiras and found a) she was a woman, and b) 'In Hiding' was the first in a series of well-regarded stories about mutants who were benign and whose mutations didn't give their subjects uncanny powers and the desire to wear Spandex out of doors.

>46 threadnsong: I've read Childhood's End twice now and I have to admit it's not an easy read. I can see that the various subplots are necessary to reflect the various eras and phases of the Overlords' relationship with planet Earth. But the book can certainly be hard going at times, particularly the dinner party stuff where to story seems to almost grind to a halt.

I guess the difference for me is that I find the payoff well worth what goes before. Also it was one of my earliest reads from the genre so I might just be nostalgic about it.

>49 RobertDay:
Yes, "In Hiding" was the seed that became Children of the Atom, a favorite of mine when young, and since. A similar situation was set up by Nancy Kress in Beggars in Spain: a group who are far above average intelligence, the reaction of the majority population, and debates among the special group about the best way to handle the majority reaction. Both books have a resonance for readers who are very intelligent, or for that matter significantly different in any way.

Started The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin. A hundred pages in and it's OK but not outstanding.

That's a good list...I've read them all and there's not a clunker in the lot.

>51 rshart3: Indeed, I did have the occasional thought that we were looking at a more nuanced version of the 'fans are slans' meme (or fantasy). I suspect that a number of readers who had progressed beyond the 'Gosh-wow!" stage identified with the protagonist.

>48 dustydigger: Interesting list. By no great coincidence Hospital Station is on my TBR pile.

>48 dustydigger: James White :) I always smile when I see someone remembering him - for some reason I never understood, he is not as popular as he should be

>56 AnnieMod: I don't understand it either. I read The Dream Millennium last year and thought it was great.

>56 AnnieMod:: I love James White. Beautiful, hopeful future. Plus I love his alien classification system.

>48 dustydigger: Do you realize that Visitor by C. J. Cherryh is the 17th volume in the Foreigner series? Or that Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe is the fourth book in the New Sun series? Or The Last Colony by John Scalzi is the third book in the Old Man's War series? I would hate for you to dislike the books because you read the end instead of the beginning. Oh, and I loved the James White books. I just read several of them this year.

Just beginning Dancer's Lament. I've missed Malazan.

>56 AnnieMod:, >57 Darth-Heather: & >58 tardis:
Not only are his stories great but he was a lovely man. He was a regular attendee at conventions in Ireland. I may be biased as he came from my hometown.

>61 pgmcc: And in the UK, too. One of SF's true gentlemen.

>48 dustydigger: Some great titles on your list! I'll look forward to your thoughts.

>62 RobertDay: Exactly!

>59 seitherin: Yep,I am reading them all in order. I just have a nostalgic yen to reread the Sector General again after many years.:0)

I have the recent(-ish) Tor omnibus editions in the TBR pile. It'll be interesting to read them in order rather than piecemeal the way I originally came across them.

Reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, I found myself so impressed that I decided to check out the author's body of work and see what I had ahead of me. Because, yes, I'll be reading more. Doing so, I discovered that I'm reading his first novel.

Seriously - This is his FIRST novel? No wonder he took people by surprise!

Finished Dave Langford's 'He do the Time Police in different voices'. Having a bit of a break from fiction generally.

OK,for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Sector General books,Tor.com has a very nice blurb/article discussing the rerelease of the series in 2016.
check out - http://www.tor.com/2016/05/05/lonely-hospital-at-the-edge-of-space-a-return-to-s...
Hope we get some new fans from this discussion! :0)

>66 RobertDay: >69 dustydigger:

Reissued? Those were reissued this year? Well - merry Christmas to me! :)

>69 dustydigger: Yep, those are the three I read. I really enjoyed them.

>70 AnnieMod: And me! I snapped up the first 3 books,Beginning Operations as a present to myself too :0)

>70 AnnieMod: >72 dustydigger: Zoinks! I sure hope you all didn't buy the used hardcover from Amazon.com, ($2,498.00 + shipping!) I almost had to call the EMT's when I saw that...

I finished the last of my WWE challenge reads the other day with Seed to Harvest by Octavia Butler. I also tracked down an online copy of her Survivor, which is an out-of-print installment in the Patternist series but is not included in the omnibus. Butler reportedly disliked the story and insisted that it go out of print. Too bad as I found it the 2nd most powerful tale in the group, (Clay's Ark was a downright harrowing read). I followed all that with the posthumously published Unexpected Stories. The first in the duology returns to the world of Survivor and tells a prequel, (or perhaps it's the original story she wrote in that world?).

Last night I finished Crusade, book #2 in Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series. Fast-paced adventure set in an alternate reality. The characters are mostly caricatures - but they are fun caricatures and the pages turn quickly. There are over 10 volumes in this series and, while they are relatively fast reads, I hope Anderson finds a way to build the world beyond what we have so far, (evil reptilian empire, kill or be killed, fighting and winning huge battles against immense odds... Lather. Rinse, Repeat). I'll give it another book or two and, if it doesn't somehow grow beyond that, I will likely call it quits.

Just began Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. Some interesting parallels with the recent political climate here in the USA.

>73 ScoLgo: I am on book 4 of the Destroyermen Series: Distant Thunders and I like this story better than Maelstrom. So don't give up if you feel the same as I did about Book 3 (read my review of Maelstrom). Book 4 has more intrigue and discussion of their new inventions... rather than nebulous hack and hew battles which got to be boring for me.

>74 Lynxear: Thanks for that. I'll plan on giving it at least 2 or 3 more then... ;)

I've just started After the crown, hoping it will be as much fun as the first book in the series.

Just over half-way through The Corporation Wars: Insurgence and it is living up to my expectations. Excellent!

I just Started Metro 2033, I work retail so I tend to read dark dystopian novels this time of year.

>78 davisfamily: I used to work in retail so I totally get your comment!
:-)

>78 davisfamily:
>79 pgmcc:

Ditto!

>73 ScoLgo: I did the "Pick & Mix" thing over on WWE, and I've got 2 to go (out of 20) before the end of the year. Not sure I'll make it, though I do seem to be zipping through Stross's Singularity Sky at a healthy rate. That happens when I'm really enjoying a book. The last two are a short story collection by David Brin, and Star Born, the sequel to Norton's The Stars Are Ours.

Whew! Must sit down and catch my breath.Finished galloping through book #6 of Simon R Green's Nightside series,Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth.John Taylor and assorted friends/enemies come together for the final showdown with his mother,Lilith,who is so cruel and vicious she makes the goddess Kali look like a pussycat.Cue almost total destruction of the Nightside,masses of gore mayhem and black humour.Enormous fun,and managed to grab my attention in spite of pain and a haze of meds.
Now working through Jack McDevitt's Coming Home and Kathy Reichs Terminal,both rather meh and bland,but they finish off challenges,and then I must find a few popcorn lite reads for the last couple of weeks of the year,and continue filling in my lists for next year.And trying to keep my paws off starting next years books too early.:0)

>73 ScoLgo: I also liked Survivor. I've read why she's disowned it, but to me it seemed thematically and emotionally very comparable to sexual power politics of Lilith's Brood.

I am back to Jack McDevitt with Polaris. The change of narrator from the first book caught me a bit off-guard (part of why I liked it was because of Alex and his thought process). But it is not bad actually - and I am curious what happened with that ship :)

Pretty much finished the "The Invisible Library" (B) by Genevieve Cogman. I kinda of like it but even cutting Cogman some slack for her first novel it didn't quite click for me; would I be wrong in thinking that this was basically an alternate take on the Time Lords of "Dr. Who," only with a female protagonist?

>84 AnnieMod: I previously read Seeker which was a Nebula winner,,and while it was an OK read I didnt see it as worth the award.My problem with the series is that the time frame is very unconvincing.If the premise was that they were searching for a plastic artifact from the 23rd century say 1000,even1500 later,I could work with that. But 9000 years later? Too much to swallow,and life seemed exactly like today.Add that the narrator is a woman,and called Chase confusingly enough,by time Alex Benedict filtered through the story he seemed curiously unsubstantial.
I am now trying Coming Home,Nebula nominated,again with Chase narrating the tale and I am getting the same vibes and irritations as before.OK,but rather bland as I said before

>86 dustydigger:

Seeker is next on my list - I am reading on order (inside of the series anyway). What I find with his writing is that he is telling a good yarn. It may not be great and I may not like everything but it is a good adventure story (I am almost ready to say pulp story in some cases).

I knew that Chase is a woman (from the first book) and a LOT of the background information is not in this book and needs to come from the previous one - or the book sounds wooden (so I suspect that if you started with Seeker, that may have been part of the issue) - the bare bones explanation on what happened before is there to tie it up but the details is what make some of it work...

A lot of people seems to think that these are standalones but so far, I really disagree.

>86 dustydigger: and >87 AnnieMod: I really enjoy Chase telling the tales. She has an interesting perspective on Alex. I'm past Seeker. Next up for me is Firebird.

>82 dustydigger:, >84 AnnieMod:, >88 majkia: With McDevitt, I nearly always feel with his books that I'm reading a novelisation of an above-average 1980s tv movie. I've even found myself visualising one of his heroines with a bubble perm and shoulder pads. I can't put my finger precisely on why this is (and it doesn't put me off). And then in A Talent for War he pulled off a most amazing trick of somehow conveying the scale of a human-inhabited galaxy so much so that I felt it almost viscerally. And I suppose I keep reading him to see if he can do it again. Which is why I have quite a bit of McDevitt on the TBR pile.

Just finished reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. One of the cleverest and most entertaining works of fiction I've read this year. Five stars, highly recommended, and now I need to find a copy of Iron Sunrise. :-)

Dipping into Dreamsongs, a GRRM retrospective, which has been on my TBR for ages. The man certainly is prolific! Also started Chimpanzee by Darin Bradley - so far a self-centered protagonist in a humourless distopia is making it hard work!

>91 SChant:, really liked Dreamsongs, found the first volume was the stronger one but there's good stuff in each. "Sandkings" is a standout classic.

>82 dustydigger: et al. To me McDevitt writes pot-boilers which is fine, when I'm sick or burnet out I appreciate a easy read. One of the quirks I like about the series and the similar Priscilla Hutchins' Academy series is how 1950's it all is. They have AI and anti-gravity and FTL but no bio-tech, no social media and no societal problems at all. I keep expecting to run into Samantha Stephens and Mary Tyler Moore.

>75 ScoLgo: I just finished Distant Thunders and was very pleased with this book. It became the page-turner that the first two books of the series became. I will rate this book at 5 stars like the first two and that is up from 3.5 stars that I rated Maelstrom.

Don't give up after reading Maelstrom ... it gets really good again.

Oh boy! I've just surfaced(very appropriate word!)from Michael Swannick's Nebula winning Stations of the Tide.An unnamed bureaucrat is sent to the planet Miranda to find a renegade scientist -cum-magician who may have possibly stolen some proscribed technology.Redolent with allusions to The Tempest,this book swings wildly from SF to fantasy and is hallucinogenic,surreal,bewildering and hypnotic. I didnt understand most of it,and even the ending was weird,but the book was enormous fun,exploding with ideas,fantastic worldbuilding and it certainly lived up to the famous quote in the Tempest
''Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.''
This whole book was rich and strange indeed - and only 260 pages long!
Next up in the Hugo/Nebula award winners list is KSRs Green Mars,576 pages long,and not likely to change into something rich and strange....sigh.......It can wait till January though,the rest of this month is reserved for urban fantasy fun.

I've just finished After the crown, the gripping sequel to Behind the throne. This is turning into a really fun space opera series.

I am really loving Dancer's Lament by Ian Esslemont. What a terrific look at Dancer and Kellanved as youngsters. Poor Dancer. He's just as frustrated as a young man as he is later on with his cohort in... crime?

I'd also recommend this to a lot of folks who are intimidated by Gardens of the Moon as their first read of the Malazan series. It is far more approachable, with far fewer intricate threads to keep in mind.

And I'm laughing out loud at some of Kellanved's antics and Dancer's struggle not to strangle him.

Reading a short fiction collection by David Brin, The River of Time. As was true of the Simak collection I read a few weeks ago, I'm not as familiar with Brin's short work as I am with his novels. Haven't hit any clunkers in this collection so far (half way through). The author commentary that follows each tale is nice touch. I do enjoy hearing/reading about how people do what they do.

>96 Sakerfalcon: Those are both making my top SF reads of 2016. I really love this series.

>96 Sakerfalcon: broken link for behind the throne?

>100 DugsBooks: Thank you! Fixed it.

>46 threadnsong: I first read Childhoods End in HS. Had already been a fan of Clark's short stories, this was the first of his novels for me. I loved the book, tho found the ending odd and didn't quite get it all. Read it several more times as I got older, and enjoyed it more and more. Sorry it didn't quite work for you - but Clark has so many wonderful books . The story collection Nine Billion Names of God is still one of my favorite SF short stories (and the title story is still one I think about) Then there is The Sentinel, and of course 2001 A Space Odessey which I liked so much more than the movie. And just scanning his booklist - I didn't realize he wrote books with Stephen Baxter. I loved his Long Earth books he wrote with Terry Pratchett and his Time Shifts so I may have to try those. Anyway, enjoy your reading!

>61 pgmcc: I have not heard of James White - where would you suggest I start with him?

>21 drmamm: I read that - I loved the premise but thought it bogged down a bit with all the cultural references. But ymmv, esp depending on what time period you were growing up in!

>28 dustydigger: Yikes, Im so sorry to hear that you are in so much pain! I fractured my hip last year. I get the lack of sleep from the pain and discomfort. I so hope you can get some sleep, and that you get some relief from the pain!

>95 dustydigger: I just finished rereading Tempest after reading Atwoods Hag Seed. This book sounds right up my alley!

I've only been on LT for a few weeks, and am amazed at the amount of reading going on here! I thought I was doing well reading 50 books a year.....Im also thrilled with how many new titles and authors I am finding. May need to retire early so I can get through them all!

Ok, sorry for all the posts, I'll stop now.....

>102 cindydavid4: The Nine Billion Names of God is one of my favourite stories too.

I also preferred the novel 2001 A Space Odessey over the film.

>103 cindydavid4: The one I remember best is, Tomorrow is Too Far which is totally separate from his Sector General stories.

>103 cindydavid4: I can recommend Way Station. It is standalone, and brilliant.

>109 Darth-Heather:, >103 cindydavid4: Ditto

Way Station is Simak, not White. In the Sector General series, I really liked Major Operation but haven't re-read it in years. My favorite White is the atypically grim The Watch Below.

Way Station is definitely Simak. His City is really good, too.

>103 cindydavid4: Amazon has omnibus editions of James White's book. The first is Beginning Operations.

oh right. I'm confusing Simak and White, both of whom were new to me this year. I read White's The Dream Millennium and really enjoyed it, and hope to track down more of his soon.

>105 cindydavid4: thanks Cindy. I actually got 4 hours sleep last night,the longest so far :0)At last I am seeing some decrease in the pain - until I do the dreaded physio exercises,of course,which seem to wipe out all improvements! lol. No,there is definitely an improvement at last,though I still cant sit at the computer easily,so I'm not online much at the moment.But I hope to be back in the thick of it in the group in the new year.With a nce new TBR to tackle. Cant wait.

Still wading slowly through Jack McDevitt's Coming Home.Very slow paced,but at least it has more background of the history,the Dark Age etc.Still think 9 or 10,000 years is too incredible,2 or 3.000 would have been enough
Also reading another of Simon R Greens fun John Taylor/Nightside series The Unnatural Inquirer.Shame the library has no more of that series left,and only 2 of the Secret Histories series.Anyone read the Deathstalker books? They seem to have lots of those,but somehow I dont fancy them.Oh well,I do have a couple of Green's Ismael Jones books on order,and have filled in all my slots for next year so I shouldnt be eyeing up even more! lol.

>116 dustydigger:

Is Inter-library Loan an option with your library? Mine is missing a lot of middle installments in various series and ILL had managed to fill all the gaps (anything not published in the last 12 months as per the rules of course).

>117 AnnieMod: Unfortunately,Annie,ILLs have become almost extinct in my county.When the government imposed so called austerity measures by massively cutting local budgets by as much as 20%,librarie were just about the first to suffer. My county cut the budget from £6 million to £4.25 the first year, with more cuts each year since then. Branches closed,opening hours were reduced,librarians are running 2 or even 3 branches,stock purchases have halved. Several years ago I wanted to get a rare SF title through the ILL and was told there would be a charge,£12. It was cheaper than that to buy a used copy online,which I did :0(.
However there is actually more choice in general (though not in SF/F much) as branches are swapping their stock with one another,so we see different titles on the shelves,but they are not the latest reads by any means.We have 39 branches in our county,so that can go on for quite a while,but now councils have the excuse that people can get free kindle books or free books on the net,so libraries are not important any more! Cant see bigger budgets any time soon,its a tragedy

>118 dustydigger:
That's not good :( All books are equal, uh? If there are 100 free books, who cares what they are - people can read. (yeah, being sarcastic here).

Well.. maybe one of the other branches have the missing ones? Or someone donates them - I hate getting stuck in mid-series.

>115 dustydigger: We'll take it, any improvement at all. And as dreadful as the physical therapy might be, stay with it. I've known folks who had knee replacement and couldn't bring themselves to do the PT and ended up with problems in the long run.

Down to the last book on the WWE 20 book challenge I set for myself. Looking ahead, I'm not sure I'm going to repeat that. WWE has a problem with self-published fiction, and I seem to be reading more "indie" works these days (two for sure, next year). It's annoying that I can't fold such books into the mix, so I'll probably just go with a list of my own - which is already up to 22 titles for 2017. Twenty-two... that makes me something of a piker compared with dustydigger. ;-)

And I've still got to get a book written next year into the bargain!

Well the library service in Sheffield, while suffering budget cuts, has just produced 4 books I've reserved (not IIL but very quick) - which makes me even more peeved to have wasted 2 hours of my life going to see "Rogue One" yesterday when I could have been reading!
They are View from the Cheap seats, non-fiction pieces from Neil Gaiman; Dissidence by Ken MacLeod; Saga: Volume 3; and Kameron Hurley's Empire Ascendant which I've only just realised is the second in a trilogy and of course the library service don't have the first one!

>108 pgmcc: thanks for that and to others for their James White Recs. Definitely need to take some time this holiday to check them out!

>113 seitherin: Mmmm, that could be a good start, thanks

>118 dustydigger: I have a particular dilemma. Leicestershire has handed over most of its branch libraries to volunteer groups. My village's branch library is next to be handed over early in the New Year. It is less than five minutes away from me.

Back in the 1970s, I trained to be a librarian. But I trained to do it as a job. I actually only ever spent ten months since I graduated in 1978 doing any sort of library work. I'm as community-spirited as the next person, but do I really want to go and volunteer my time to do a thing which everything I stand for says I ought to be paid for? If I volunteered, am I not endorsing the elitist, anti-intellectual stance of a government comprised of fools and charlatans?

>104 cindydavid4: I agree. Very creative and entertaining, but leans on the nostalgia angle REALLY hard. (And this is coming from someone who loved all that stuff!)

well, I am back after searching for more Destroyermen novels in 2 used bookstores and coming up empty.

So I decided on a novel which is slotted Science Fiction but I am not sure it should be. The Edge of the World on first blush seems a bit juvenile but we shall see how it goes.

>124 RobertDay:

One of the big problems with volunteer run libraries are more those of acquisition. There is already lack of funds hence lack of real librarians so any chance the collection is going to be constantly refreshed seems low. Also if there are new books then the volunteers are hardly likely to be able to drive the decisions as to what to acquire. You end up with a stale, aging collection of books.

Also as you say it should be a paid job. even if the role is part-time. I am sure that there are some MPs who see librarians as glorified supermarket checkout staff.

>124 RobertDay: Wow Robert ! They havent gone down the volunteer library road in my area. Mainly because it is a mainly working class ex mining town,and I suspect your option is for middle class areas where the people understand and appreciate libraries.My fear is that after an initial spurt of interest and activity the number and enthusiasm of the volunteers will inevitably die down,or it will become a chore,or the volunteers will find some new cause to uphold,and start campaigning for polar bears or snow leopards etc instead of libraries.And can you really trust the politicians to keep supporting a sound book buying budget?If a local council has to choose between getting rid of a couple of workers or slashing the book fund,guess what they they would choose.Its just the thin edge of the wedge I think to do this volunteer library thing.At the moment the provision of library services to communities is enshrined in law,but it wouldnt surprise me to see some amendments,such as increase the population minimum level that must have a service. Then they could ''rationalise'' the branches.How sad to see an abandonment of such a noble thing as public libraries,which had a fundamental role in educating the working classes. :0(

>127 andyl: But what else can you expect of a Government whose Health Secretary thinks paramedics are mere "ambulance drivers"?

>125 drmamm: Yes same here as far as loving all the stuff, but way too much 'remember when' going on. Could have cut out probably half and still made an amazing book. Still, liked the concept and it was fun. Can't say I'd read it again, and I can't imagine how they are going to make a movie out of it (I heard its in the works)

>130 cindydavid4:, Ready Player One is in Spielberg's hands, which makes it interesting since many of the references are to his stuff. Apparently he's going to remove the majority of that, except for things that are key to the plot. I'll bet he's got lawyers working overtime to secure rights to everything else, because it feels like there's very little from the 1980s that Cline didn't reference. One of the movies I'm most looking forward to, and still more than a year away.

Thank you, dustydigger! You are such a huge sci-fi fan and I feel better knowing that you, as well, were not a fan of this book. And I like how you state "he tosses aside religion . . . " as an insight into what is lacking in his works.

Without too much of a spoiler alert, a sci-fi writer who lives on a tropical island and then does what he does to the planet at the end of this work?? Wasn't he an advocate of saving the planet in his public life, or did that start somewhere later in his life??

Yep, been in retail, done that. After the first of the year for me, when the brain could finally work again.

Thank you, I will! I have The Sentinel and Fountains of Paradise on my bookshelf to be read in 2017 by Clarke. I think the former is a series of short stories? That kind of ends with what eventually becomes the kernel for 2001: A Space Odessey? So I'm hoping that these other volumes of his will ease my worried mind about Childhood's End (and seriously, the ending? I'm with you on not getting it, especially the first time through!)

'The Sentinel' isn't a linked collection of shorts as such, though interestingly one of the ideas Clarke and Kubrick were batting around in the early stages of development for '2001' was a selection of linked stories about Clarke's future inhabited Solar System, ending with 'The Sentinel'.

Finished Star Born by Andre Norton this afternoon. A quick and entertaining read. I'll have to dig out more Andre Norton novels in the months ahead. They've been a pleasant rediscovery and a nice trip down memory lane.

Well I've just finished Ken MacLeod's The Corporation Wars: Dissidence and while I enjoyed it very much I'm now totally confused as to what's real and what's sim, who is who on each side of the conflict, and if there really are 2 sides to this conflict or whether it's all a manipulation by someone/thing unknown. Yes, I'm hooked!

>137 SChant: Insurgence is also great.

I had hoped to finish Jack McDevitt's Coming Home in the last week or so of December but its been mayhem with all the Xmas kerfuffle and somehow I mislaid the book round about 23rd,and only discovered it under a pile of my husband's shirts 20 minutes ago! lol.I think I've read about 20 pages of an urban fantasy book over Xmas,but was constantly with family Xmas Day,Boxing Day and today my granddaughter's 21st birthday,so I am barricading myself in the house for the last 4 days of the month,will attempt to finish at least one more book,to make 16 for the month,and then its all bring in the new lists and challenges for 2017.Cant wait!

Back to McDevitt for probably the last SF book for the year for me (maybe... we will see): Seeker starts as good as the previous ones (and I do not have issues with the 9000 years old plastic - some of these things are indestructible - I can see them getting even more in the future :) And if I thought I knew anything about his universe, I was wrong - putting is so far in the future, there is so much space for civilizations and stories (and setting the stories as diary entries (or close enough) allows introspection and a lot more flexibility...

I'm re-reading Philip K. Dick's slow-burning masterpiece The Man in the High Castle.

Thought I was going to get Abaddon's Gate done as my last novel of the year but it's now clear that The Fall of the House of Cabal is going to enjoy that honor. I like the "Expanse" series but the individual books are brick-like enough that I'm reminded why I got sidetracked from this epic.

>142 Shrike58: I heard about the Cabal series but never took a look before. This sounds very interesting. Think I'll pick up Necromancer this week and try it.

I highly recommend them...particularly if you think mixing H.P. Lovecraft with grimly ironic humor is a good idea.

No visitors today so I finished off Jack McDevitt's Coming Home and was very disappointed. Slow as molasses,thin plot,dull as ditchwater, made me wish I had never bothered in the first place.Two could have been intriguing plots both fizzled anticlimactically and I cant even summon up the energy to rant about them.Sorry McDevitt,I've read 2 of your Alex Benedict books as part of a WWEnd challenge,but wont be back for more.
And next up are two martian books in a row,KSR'sGreen Mars and Greg Bear's Moving Mars,both full of martian politics.....sigh........ I will reward myself with some Zelazny and urban fantasy!

Shrike, the idea of lovecraft + douglas adams is very intriguing; something tells me this will be right up my alley. And our two indie bookstorews do not carry the old ones, just the one recently released. So I'll have to order it - looking forward to it!

Well I have given up on The Edge of the World. I gave it 150 pages in a 600+ page book but the story got worse as it went along. Now somewhere I read it being compared to Jean Auel as far as writing is concerned.... what a crock! Now I am not a great fan of Ms. Auel's pension for padding succeeding novels with detailed flashbacks from previous books but she otherwise is head and tails above Anderson as far as detail and character development.

I have rarely read such a bland novel as I read in The Edge of The World. One dimensional bland characters, a story line both predictable and bland... I got disgusted and put it down today.

I finished my final book of the year #175,better than I estimated earlier in the year,though still 20-30 down on my original target before nasty real life poked its ugly nose into affairs.Here's hoping for a happier and more tranquil 2017 on all fronts so we can get on with the important thing,reducing that towering TBR.
Happy New Year everyone!

>147 Lynxear: A semi-funny little anecdote... Back in the Shelfari days, one of the SF group members commented one day about a KJA book he had once read and how terrible it was. He picked apart all kinds of things about the story, going into some rather fine detail. This was a group member whose opinions I took seriously and whose reading tastes often aligned with my own. Having never read a KJA novel at the time, I posted a reply saying so. I also mentioned that I only had one of his books on my TBR shelf and gave the title.

Wouldn't you know it? It was the exact book he was talking about.

So, yeah... I still have not read any KJA books... ;)

Reading Crompton Divided by Robert Sheckley.

Currently reading Heart of Stone and it's terrible. Set in London, but the author has plainly never been there. The main character is a Brit, but the author plainly doesn't know British English. I'll be reviewing it on SF Mistressworks.

Made something of a forced march yesterday evening in regards to The Fall of the House of Cabal (A) and it's a worthy end to this cycle; depending on whether or not Howard decides to write more novels set in this world. Not quite the ending I expected but what these stories have really been about is the process by which a terrible fanatic regains his humanity.

>148 dustydigger: Wait... 178 books? In 2016? Did I read that right?

I was about to brag about reading 29 this year - fiction and nonfiction combined.

{clears throat}

I'll just shut up, now.

Hey,its easy Thomas. Give up your job(and your writing),and be housebound and semi- crippled,with a disdain of watching TV,and all those hours mean a lot of books finished!
My best ever year was on shelfari where I read 256 books,though some were short junior books.
Have you checked out Weesam over on WWEnd,she is approaching 400 books in SF/F this year,and just a quick look at her challenges will show most of these are seriously high calibre books. Absolutely amazing. She has serious heart problems and spends maybe 12 hours a day reading.

Oh, I listened to that one (Man in the High Castle in case the reply doesn't link up) a while back as an audiobook. Good one. Not sure how it fits in with the recent TV adaptation, but I thought the book was very good and very chilling.

Yeah, I'm hoping to reach somewhere near 35 this year. And that's being unemployed for the last 6 months!

>154 dustydigger: Give up writing?!??!?

So,people,did you have a good reading year?What were the books that most impressed or most irritated you?
I read 94 books in the SF/F genres.Some favourites were
CJ Cherryh - Faded Sun trilogy
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Larry Niven - The Integral Trees
Ken Grimwood - Replay
Iain M Banks - Use of Weapons
Roger Zelazny - Jack of Shadows
Gene Wolfe - Sword of the Lictor
On the junior front I finished off Heinlein's juveniles(why did he write only 12?),and enjoyed several of the Winston classic juveniles too.Also Mary Norton's The Borrowers sequence and Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series
Biggest disappointments were
Jack McDevitt - Coming Home
Connie Willis - Doomsday Book
Pat Murphy - The Falling Woman
Isaac Asimov - Robots of Dawn/Robots and Empire
Made very slow progress with my plan to read all Hugo and Nebula winners,reading about 10 in the year.Still 27 left to go!

I didn't read as much as I could have this year; lots of time convalesing should have made it easy. But my heart just wasn't into it. I did reread several favorites which did my heart good:

-Dune
-Dune Messiah
-The Gunslinger Stephen King
-Good Omen (a long time favorite when Im struggling)

Also read and enjoyed:

-Station Eleven
-Trigger warning Neil Gaiman*
-All the birds in the sky
-Bone Clocks David Mitchell*
-Darker Shade of Magic *

*on my list of top fiction reads for the year

I read relatively little this year, instead I helped my couch in front of the tube resemble a swayback horse even more than before. {see below} I hope to read more this coming year - especially nonfiction that will help me make more money!

69 books this year, mostly fairly short. But I don't set myself targets and I go for quality over quantity. Includes most of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian/Barsoom series. It's interesting to me to note the stylistic similarity between Burroughs and early Michael Moorcock.

>149 ScoLgo: I don't believe The Edge of the World was designed as a YA novel... and I have read many well written YA novels over time... recently I, Coriander. It is a children's fantasy that is so well written I was surprised to find out it was a children's book.

"The Edge of the World" has no redeeming qualities of any kind...Not in the first 180 pages anyway. And that is sad as I would have liked to read a good book on that subject.

> 161 It's interesting to me to note the stylistic similarity between Burroughs and early Michael Moorcock.

Certainly no accident, inasmuch as the Kane of Old Mars books were overt Burroughs pastiche, and the Hawkmoon books, for instance, were written at such a pell-mell pace that stylistic innovations were quite unlikely. More generally, ERB was at least an indirect model for nearly anyone who wrote novel-length fantasy adventure fiction in the 20th century.

All kidding aside, my effort to take a more focused approach to both reading and writing certainly bore fruit. A new book released and 29 books read, 21 of them science fiction or fantasy.

All The Traps of Earth – Clifford D. Simak
Shadow & Claw – Gene Wolfe
Dying of the Light – George R. R. Martin
Fury – Henry Kutner
The Gods Themselves – Isaac Asimov
Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
Kiln People – David Brin
The Left Hand Of Darkness – Ursula K. LeGuin
The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
The Light of Other Days – Arthur C. Clarke & Stephan Baxter
Remaking History – Kim Stanley Robinson
Ringworld – Larry Niven
The River of Time – David Brin
Singularity Sky – Charles Stross
The Solar Sea – David Lee Summers
Star Born – Andre Norton
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Phillip Jose Farmer
Star Gate – Andre Norton
The Stars Are Ours – Andre Norton
Visitor – C.J. Cherryh
Inish Carraigh – Jo Zebedee

Standout surprises of the pleasant kind were The Lies of Locke Lamora, All the Traps of Earth, and Singularity Sky. The biggest challenge was Shadow and Claw. I'm a fan of Wolfe's writing, but it is (as one of his characters is fond of saying) "No easy road." All the rest were good reads except for To Your Scattered Bodies Go. For some reason (and this was a reread) the story and characters just left me uninspired.

My tally for the year (ignoring short stories and comics) is
26 SF
16 fantasy
14 non-fiction
5 non-genre fiction

Sadly, there's a lack of SF reads that blew me away, but highlights were Children of Time, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, flawed as it is, and the one I've just finished, Revenger.

On a fantasy bent, I'm working through a reread of the Thraxas books in time for the new one next year, and continuing to enjoy Benedict Jacka.

Non-fic highlights include The Invention of Nature : The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science - a biography of the first ecologist, What Goes Around : A London Cycle Courier's Story (been there, done that, will never be as cool as her), and Decoding the Heavens : Solving the Mystery of the World's First Computer - all about the Antikythera Mechanism. Hmm, I think I'd recommend these above the fiction I've read this year. There's a thing.

123 books read this year with 69 sf/f. Highest rated sf was Great North Road while highest rated fantasy was Uprooted.

I will be repeating my Pick & Mix challenge again this year over on Worlds Without End.There are a host of challenges of all sorts and arenas,but P&Ms only criterion is that what you read is found somewhere on the WWEnd.So if you can read 10,20,40 or 80 books over 2017 please come and join my challenge! :0)
......well,perhaps in a few days,I think the admins are off celebrating the new year(which just HAS to be better than 2016,right??????)
Come back when all the hangovers have subsided
But for anyone not familiar with Worlds Without End,do come over and check out the fabulous lists,guaranteed to increase yourTBRs exponentially.
check out : https://www.worldswithoutend.com/index.asp

And I was right in >140 AnnieMod: that this will be the last SF I will finish this year but not the last SF I will read - started Children of Time last night. So far it is better than I expected (although I would have expected cockroaches to survive somehow and not spiders :) )

See you all next year!

>167 dustydigger: I saw that challenge. I may be joining you. Depending on what other challenges I attempt there.

>169 majkia: That would be great.You can use books for multiple challenges over there,so as long as you can manage 10 books in a year,you will qualify! :0)

>165 mart1n: The Invention of Nature was on my list this year, as well. In nonfiction, easily the best book I read in 2016. Highly recommend another book by the same author, Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens.

Other works of nonfiction I managed this year:

Annals of the Deep Sky, Vol. 3 – Jeff Kanipe & Dennis Webb
How To Use An Astronomical Telescope – James Muirden
The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts – Graham Robb
Dune Boy - The Early Years of a Naturalist – Edwin Way Teale
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson
The Amateur Astronomer's Introduction to the Celestial Sphere – William Millar
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest – Craig Childs

>167 dustydigger: I've decided to do the Pick & Mix thing again in 2017. Need to see which of the books I mean to read next year pass muster on WWEnd.

Started The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction September/October 2016 and The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig.

Seventeen science fiction and 72 fantasy out of my 131 books for this year.

Best new books of 2016:

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

These are both actually the first book of a new series. Both are dense and startling original fantasy.

Best New (to me) Series:

Elantra by Michelle Sagara
St. Cyr by C. S. Harris
Noctis Magicae by Sylvia Izzo Hunter

Best Continuation of Series:

Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire
Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone
In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan

Best Re-read of the Year:

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams

I have GOT to get to at least The Dragonbone Chair this year. I've been saying that for years, but plan to make it happen in 2017!

>155 threadnsong: Yes, I haven't seen the show myself, but from what I can gather they've taken the basic premise and a few of the main characters and run with it.

>176 SFF1928-1973: I've caught the first few episodes, and part of the interest is seeing how a somewhat mystical alternate universe novel gets turned into an adventure/suspense serial. The world-building is especially clever.