clong's 50 book challenge for 2016

1. A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born by Harry Harrison - slightly entertaining in a mind-numbing sort of way.

2. Knife of Dreams and 3. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan - working towards finishing up re-reading WOT and enjoying it despite the book 7-10 morass.

4. Towers of Midnight and 5. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan - all in all, a very well done completion to an amazing series.

6. The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted by Harry Harrison - reasonably entertaining in a mindless way.

7. Orca by Steven Brust - somewhat of an improvement over some of the later books in the series.

8. Jandar of Callisto by Lin Carter - derivative and sexist and replete with logical disconnects, but fun and entertaining nonetheless.

9. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen - plenty of laughs, but not really up there with Hiaasen's best.

10. The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance - interesting ideas and interesting societies, if not really up there with Vance's best.

11. Voyage of the Star Wolf by David Gerrold - I wanted to like this, but I didn't.

12. The World Jones Made by PKD - I seem to have liked this one more than most.

13. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson - I enjoyed my recent reread of WOT, so I figured maybe it was time to revisit the greatest fantasy series of all time.

14. Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson - Way better than the first book. Perhaps not as effective the second time around, as the surprises are no longer surprises. If you like your fantasy funny and brutal, this should be right up your alley.

15. Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson - another amazing book, although some important aspects of the plot left me unconvinced, even the second time around.

16. House of Chains by Steven Erikson - a pretty amazing book, even if the element of surprise is missing the second time around.

17. Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson - Amazingly compelling book, all the more astonishing in that it is about a completely new world within the world.

18. The Radioactive Redhead by John Zakour - good for a few laughs. I am guessing this is not as good as the first book(s) of this series.

19. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett - This felt like a good solid Clifford Simak novel, but is marred by a really flimsy and unsatisfying ending.

20. The Super Barbarians by John Brunner - An unambitious and dated, if reasonably entertaining, novel.

21. Into the Alternate Universe and 22. Contraband from Otherspace by A. Bertram Chandler - the first of these was surprisingly a bit better than my fairly low expectations, and the second was not. These are about as good as your average Star Trek - TOS episode.

23. Underlay by Barry Malzberg - I liked this strange little novel quite a bit.

24. Island by Aldous Huxley - interesting, more as a comparison to Brave New World than in and of itself.

25. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson - perhaps a few too many coincidences, but a couple of amazing sequences, and this book moves the series' plotline substantially forward to boot.

26. On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch - this one took me quite a while to make it through....An interesting juxtaposition of the surreal, the mundane, the profound and the profane. Didn't really enjoy the first two thirds of the book, but kind of blown away by the last third.

27. Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen - a typical Hiaasen novel, entertaining and at times quite funny.

28. Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick - I seemed to have enjoyed this more than many... Everything I like about PKD was well represented, even if the ending was a bit of a let down.

29. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson - back to my re-read of tMBotF with this dark, powerful, amazing book.

30. Valley of the Flame by Henry Kuttner - I liked the surreal, at times almost Poe-esque sensibility of this one, but the hokeyness quotient was also quite elevated.

31. The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod - Great beginning, slightly disappointing ending.

32. Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen - I thought this was the best Hiaasen novel I've read to date. Quite a bit less over the top, although still with a good bit of middle aged male fantasy fulfillment.

33. In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker - For a first novel I thought this was quite good...thought-provoking, historically interesting, and empathy educing.

34. Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian Aldiss - a quite solid collection of earlyish Aldiss short stories.

35. Count Zero by William Gibson - cool concepts, but kind of a mess of a story. And while I freely admit that the story would likely have made more sense if it hadn't been so long since I read Neuromancer, and don't think that had much of an impact on my not particularly caring about any of the characters in this one.

36. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - definitely things to like about this (including a far from typical cast of lead characters), but I didn't find it nearly as compelling as other Sanderson novels. Too much of it felt more like setting up the next book than a tale that is completely satisfying on its own (which is not to deny that the climax, when it finally comes, was a reasonably satisfying one).

37. Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke - a reasonably promising beginning, but this didn't really have much to say about anything.

38. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - listened to this again as a book-on-cd during a lonnnng two day drive to pick up my daughter from camp.

39. Suspect by Robert Crais - listened to this as a book on cd while on a car trip with my mom. It was quite a bit better than the previous Crais book I had read (my wife is more a fan of this author than I).

40. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson - Finally getting around to reading this well known series. I thought the first book was conceptually quite interesting, but rather unimpressive from a storytelling point of view.

41. The Illearth War by Stephen Donaldson - more of the same, this time featuring perhaps the worst fictional general ever.

42. Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - picked this out at an airport bookstore. Started ok, but kind of fell apart at the end.

43. The Power that Preserves by Stephen R Donaldson - overall, the things that I disliked about these books outweighed the things that I liked.

44. Conan the Invincible, 45. Conan the Defender, and 46. Conan the Unconquered by Robert Jordan - I've never read any of the Robert E Howards stories. I could see that these offered a bit of mindless entertainment, but I struggled a bit with what felt too much like a "No doesn't really mean No" sensibility.

47. The Fire in His Hands, and 48. With Mercy toward None by Clen Cook - reasonably interesting world, but I felt little empathy for any of the characters, especially in the first book.

49. Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanislaw Lem - enjoyed this very much.

50. Super-Cannes by JG Ballard - I love Ballard, but this one left me with mixed feelings.

51. Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen - I thought this was one of the better Hiaasen novels I've read to date.

52. The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - I wanted to like this more than I did.

53. The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard - I seem to have liked this more than most, perhaps because I came to it with memories having been blown away by the short story from which it was expanded.

54. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson - Despite its heft, this one seemed to move along a bit quicker than book 1. I found it entertaining, at times quite funny and at times quite moving, but not really up there with my favorite books from this author.

I've been making may way through a re-read of Dust of Dreams, but I have bogged down because I am dreading re-reading the horrific Hetan rape scene.

In the meantime, a quick reread of 55. Bridge of Birds was fun.

56. The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker - entertaining in a fairly superficial and predictable way.

57. The Weapon Makers by AE van Vogt - better than I expected.

58. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link - A couple of these stories were really good, others were more of a mixed bag. Having said that, Link strikes me as an author who is always inventive, creative, and ambitious and one that I will continue to seek out when the opportunity presents itself.

59. Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville - To my taste there were more misses than hits in this collection, but still a handful of very good stories.

60. Agent of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and 61. Carpe Diem by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - having previously read and loved the second half of this duology, I finally got around to reading the first book and re-reading the second.

62. Star Island by Carl Hiaasen - neither as funny nor as satisfying as many of this author's books, despite the presence of two of his best characters (Skink and Chemo), and a reasonably strong ending.