Flights of Fantasy discussion

Woot! Another year is almost done. How was your reading year?

I think 2015 was a pretty "meh" reading year for me.

5 Star Reads
Master of Crows by Grace Draven (NTM Author!)
Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans by Michelle Tam
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (can't wait for Stiletto!)
Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman (2014-) #20 - I don't normally read comics so...
Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews Need I say more?
Written in Red by Anne Bishop
The Martian by Andy Weir Fuck yeah!
Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn


Worst Reads
Vengeful in Love - Hated just about EVERYONE
Keeping Her - the worse writing and scenarios. From the blurb: A seven-foot tall x-Navy SEAL, with no name but his call sign. Need I say more?

Two's A Couple, Three's The Law - the most annoying heroine this side of 2015. Her favorite word? "Gawd"

Ecstasy Unbound - the RAGE of BS books. I even wrote a ranty review of this one.
The Dragon's Heart - Just bad. And boring
I'm Dreaming of an Undead Christmas - it's a book full of nothings. It has no point, either. And should have no genre.
#GIRLBOSS - Horrible. I should have known with a title like #GIRLBOSS. ugh




Runners Up
Craving Flight - this was really different and really nice: it's a BDSM short starting an Orthodox Jewish couple.
Lion and the Falcon - it's really punny ;-)
Silver Shark - it's #2 of a short series that inspired a longer series. And I love Ilona Andrews.
Broken Open - A nice fluffy book is nice sometimes

The Carpet People - Adorable!
Dead Drop - NTM author! I really enjoy this PNR series.


So, what did I learn from this? I learned that while I tell myself I like Romance books and I read a lot of them, I seem to have not read a lot of them that I like. :-(

8 5-star reads? I'm so jealous...

colleen the fabulous fabulaphile wrote: "8 5-star reads? I'm so jealous..."

I included the 4.5 stars...


*shame face*

No shame. Still jealous. ;)

My favorite book of the year was definitely The Martian by Andy Weir!
As Mrs. J so eloquently put it "Fuck Yeah!"

The worst read of the year was Clover Omnibus by CLAMP.
I honestly thought, after seeing that this was originally intended to be a six book arc, that it was reworked to fit into the four books that were actually published. Nope! It just stopped cold. The climax never happened!

Nyssa wrote: "My favorite book of the year was definitely The Martian by Andy Weir!
As Mrs. J so eloquently put it "Fuck Yeah!"

The worst read of the year was [book:Clover Omn..."

Are you SERIOUS?????

That sucks.

MrsJoseph wrote: "Are you SERIOUS?????

That sucks. "

Maybe if it it sucked hard enough it would have hit the spot. Four days without climax is frustrating and painful!

Super quick hash-up of books that stuck right off the top of my mind:
5-Star Reads:
Kushiel's Dart
Shadow and Bone the whole series really.
Half a King
The Final Empire!!!!!
Honor's Knight
...really, just to name a few.

Not my Cup of Tea:
An Ember in the Ashes
The Mortal Instrument But I kind of saw it coming with how bad the characters and world-building was.
Stormdancer
Hmm, I see a trend that it's been Young Adult that disappoints me.
But to be honest it was a great year for me!

Bests:
- The Martian. Duh.
- Leviathan Wakes Wow.
- The Player of Games This should be the starting point for anyone reading the Culture series, much like Guards! Guards! or Reaper Man is a better starting point for people new to Discworld.
- Truth, Justin, and the American Way: Season One Pilot Just. Plain. Fun. Yeah, it's been on my bookshelf since the first run, but re-reading yet again Ready Player One triggered my nostalgia.
Midnight Riot I actually read The Rivers of London, but six of one... I enjoyed the entire series.
The Annihilation Score Finally! Mo gets treated as more than a sponge for Bob's neuroses!

Meh:
- Boneshaker
- Armada (consciously glorying in its derivativeness ((did I just make up a word?, Derivatuiviteness? Derivatuity?), much like the movie War Games 2 (yes, that happened)).

No worst, going straight to OMFG Never Again:
- The Book I'm not linking to the book, but the review. You'll thank me for it.

These are my best of the year. I'll do my worst in a second post.

Print:

Finders Keepers
Old Man's War & The Ghost Brigades
Age of Myth & The Death of Dulgath
Half the World
The Windup Girl

Audio:

An Autumn War & The Price of Spring
Fool's Fate
Fuzzy Nation
Columbine

I'm also going to throw a novella on here: Slow Bullets as an honorable mention. As well as a reread that I enjoyed a lot more the second time around: Leviathan Wakes. Both of these were in print. Another runner-up I want to mention is The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

The two Sullivans were beta read versions, not the final published books. In fact, the Age of Myth won't be out until June.

Nyssa wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Are you SERIOUS?????

That sucks. "

Maybe if it it sucked hard enough it would have hit the spot. Four days without climax is frustrating and painful!"

O_O

OMG, yes.

And here are the worst I read in 2015:

Lirael. What a horrible disappointment after I really enjoyed the first book.
Rocannon's World. Yawn and fucking yawn.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Couldn't finish. I live around a lot of rural southerners, but that wasn't enough to prepare me for this horrific grammar abomination.
Sourcery. I hate putting Pratchett on here, but I think this is the reason I only read one Discworld book this year.
The Sandman: Overture. Another disappointment in a series I love. Ahh well.

Overall it wasn't a bad year. Lots of decent stuff and the worst really wasn't that bad, just 'meh'.

Of course, after reading The Book last year, it was bound to get better.

Icia wrote: "Super quick hash-up of books that stuck right off the top of my mind:
5-Star Reads:
Kushiel's Dart
Shadow and Bone the whole series really.
[book:Half a King|18666047..."

I LOVED the Kushiel's Dart series! I also really liked the 2nd series but I haven't read the third series.

Chris wrote: "These are my best of the year. I'll do my worst in a second post.

Print:

Finders Keepers
Old Man's War & The Ghost Brigades
Age of Myth ..."

I keep meaning to read Old Man's War. I want to say I heard the series was optioned.

I think so, but we'll see if anything comes of it.

I had 12 total 5 star reads this year, but 9 of them were re-reads. Damn, that's a lot of re-reads. So really I had 3 new 5 stars this year:

Shadows of Self
Skin Game
Fool's Quest

The worst:

The One
Ex-Heroes

LOL Jose, I love that you linked to MY review of The Book. I am so proud of that rant. *wipes tear*

I don't have any 5-stars this year that weren't rereads, and most of my 4-stars are 3.5.

That said:

Favorite/Most Memorable of the Year:

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti - super cool fever dream of a book
The Paper Magician - alas the rest of the trilogy didn't have quite the same charm, but it's a rereader


Honorable Mentions:
Inspector of the Dead
London Falling
Doctor Sleep
The Sandman: Overture


Worst of the Year:
City of Dark Magic - (fucking toenails, man)


Dishonorable Mentions/Most Disappointing:
The City's Son
Fables, Vol. 22: Farewell - disappointing ending to a good series
Secondhand Souls
The Neverending Story
Strange and Ever After - sucky conclusion to a trilogy


DNF:
The Gone-Away World
The Wild Girl
Hood

Dawn wrote: "I had 12 total 5 star reads this year, but 9 of them were re-reads. Damn, that's a lot of re-reads. So really I had 3 new 5 stars this year:

Shadows of Self
[book:Skin Game|194864..."

Those 5 stars are classic Dawn's favorite authors. :-)

colleen the fabulous fabulaphile wrote: "I don't have any 5-stars this year that weren't rereads, and most of my 4-stars are 3.5.

That said:

Favorite/Most Memorable of the Year:

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti..."

toenails?

Ugh, toenails.

MrsJoseph wrote: "toenails? "

Yes. (view spoiler)[In the story they take this drug which helps them, like, mentally travel through time... but at some point they realize the drug they're taking is actually the calcified toenails of Beethoven. Or something. (hide spoiler)]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!

Exactly.

I mean, that was not the only issue with the book, by far... but I kind of have this thing against feet in general, so that just tipped it over the edge for me...

colleen the fabulous fabulaphile wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "toenails? "

Yes. [spoilers removed]"

Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

Top Books (all 5-star):

The Warrior's Apprentice + The Vor Game
Cursor's Fury + Captain's Fury
The Dead Travel Fast
The Martian
Vision in Silver
Edge of Eternity
Lock In
Golden Son
A Curious Beginning
Caliban's War
A Darker Shade of Magic
Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight comics
Saga, Volume 1 graphic novels

Worst (1-star or DNF):

#GIRLBOSS
When Crickets Cry
This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl
Burned
Reap the Wind
California
The Snow Queen - not the Joan D. Vinge
The Book of Life
Dragonfly in Amber
Little, Big


Honorable Mentions:
Elantris
Moxyland
Feed
Runner
Broken Soul
The Aeronaut's Windlass
Grayson, Vol 1: Agents of Spyral

MrsJoseph wrote: "Woot! Another year is almost done. How was your reading year?

I think 2015 was a pretty "meh" reading year for me.


5 Star Reads

Master of Crows by Grace Draven..."

I agree SO much on Written in Red, The Martian, and #GIRLBOSS!

OK, I have to add a Best and a Worst since I did this list.

Best: Luna: New Moon, which will actually earn the top spot for the year, and inclusion on my "favorites" shelf.

Worst: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which will join the other "meh" books on my worst list, and be henceforth forgotten as barely significant to my reading career.

It's been a slightly odd reading year for me with an annoying slump at the end. There was no one stand-out book that was my "read of the year" but my best reads were:

A Darker Shade of Magic
Seveneves
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Annihilation Score
The End of All Things

Not all of those were 5 star reads but they are the books that I'm still thinking about.

Most disappointing:
Pines
The Talisman
Promise of Blood

Times are tough!

Best new read....The Rithmatist ☆☆☆☆

Worst (only because I couldn't finish)
Unfettered not rated

Nothing against it, I'm just not a fan of short stories.
;(

I didn't read that much last year, and almost all of it was history (not that reading history is bad, it just surprised me, looking back, how little fiction I got in).

That said, I did enjoy Jo Zebedee's Abendau's Heir, and Ralph Kern's Endeavour.

On the history front, Thomas Asbridge's The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, The Power Behind Five English Thrones was a late but excellent read.

I also really liked Marc Morris' A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain and Ian Mortimer's The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation, biographies of Edward I and Edward III.