The best of the other fiction I read this year

[jinian]

Just a list, I can keep this one reasonable. I think...

A College of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
The Arbitrary Placement of Walls, Martha Soukup
China Mountain Zhang Maureen McHugh
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, Steven Brust
Ash, Mary Gentle (four books in the US)
Little, Big, John Crowley
The Revenants, Sheri Tepper
God Stalk
Dark of the Moon
Seeker's Mask, all P.C. Hodgell
Use of Weapons, Ian M. Banks
The Innamorati, Midori Snyder
Ring of Swords, Eleanor Arnason
The Door Into (), Diane Duane
Freedom and Necessity, Steven Brust and Emma Bull
Aristoi
Metropolitan
City on Fire, all Walter Jon Williams
Beggars in Spain
Beggars and Choosers, both Nancy Kress
Humility Garden, Felicity Savage

Worst book read:
The Magnificent Wilf, Gordon Dickson
Good fuck, that was bad.

Favorite nonfiction read:
Woman: An Intimate Geography, Natalie Angier
(also read lots of Gould's essays, which are hard to rank one book above another)

Total books read, approximately -- some graphic novels and magazines included, some not, Ash counted as four -- 241

Low month: November, at 11 books
High month: January, at 31 books
Average month: May, at 21 books (average is 20.08, but I didn't ever do 20)

And now I think I shall curb my listing and go home. Good night!

Comments

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

I will comment on this, I just need reminding. Post a comment-answer.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

mrr?

[resolute.livejournal.com]

A College of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
Excellent book. Strong character development, angst without being too too too adolescent.
The Arbitrary Placement of Walls, Martha Soukup
Never managed to finish it, despite my like of the author at Wiscon.
China Mountain Zhang Maureen McHugh
One of the best books ever, deserving of high praise. But . . . has anyone else noticed that her books are getting forgettable? And they are so very very cold. I can't read them in winter.
God Stalk
Dark of the Moon
Seeker's Mask, all P.C. Hodgell
And all quite pleasing. I quite liked God Stalk. Again with the character development, yay.
Freedom and Necessity, Steven Brust and Emma Bull
I am a huge fan of this book. I don;t care much for Steven, either as an author or as a con panelist. And I am not a big fan of the epistolary novel. Additionally, I skip all the bits about HEgel. Every bloody time. But I love the main CHaracters, and I love the bits about socialism, and I love the bleakness of it, the stand alone love that is sacrifice and passion all confused up together.
Beggars in Spain
Beggars and Choosers, both Nancy Kress
I liked the first one better. Stinger, by Kress, is I think my favorite book of hers. She recommended it at last Wiscon, and rightly so.

>Worst book read:
>The Magnificent Wilf, Gordon Dickson
>Good fuck, that was bad.

Worst book read? I didn't finsh Harry Turtledove's World War books. No characters worth speaking of. Which is not always a death knell -- I read the Honor Harrington books, and most of the characters in those are "traditional" or "classic" -- cardboard, in other words. But the world is vibrant and thae plots are gripping. World War, no such luck.

>Favorite nonfiction read:
>Woman: An Intimate Geography, Natalie Angier
>(also read lots of Gould's essays, which are hard to rank one book above another)

William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream.