The Sword and Laser discussion

Our official monthly picks for this year were:

January: The Marrow Thieves byCherie Dimaline
February: The Fold by Peter Clines
March: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
April: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (March Madness pick)
May: Network Effect by Martha Wells
June: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
July: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
August: The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner
September: Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman
October: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
November: Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds
December: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

I don’t think there were any official alt-picks but there were some Rebel Reads:
February: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
April: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (March Madness runner-up)
October: Mexican Gothic, also by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.


The pick of the picks for me was Elatsoe, a book I would almost certainly not have picked up otherwise but which I very much enjoyed.

What book was your favourite?

Tamahome wrote: ""

Aurora Rising was your favourite?! Colour me shocked!

I really liked Piranesi. Network Effect was good too, but I read that a few months before the group did, so I didn't have the same fun of discovering it with everyone else.

Network Effect, Aurora Rising, Elatsoe were my favorites this year.

I didn't finish Consider Phlebas or NOS4A2.

Consider Phlebas is my 2nd favorite, just because it's in my wheelhouse.

Official : Network Effect
Rebel : The Priory of the Orange Tree

We have a tie over here:

Elatsoe
Network Effect
The House in the Cerulean Sea

Network Effect by a country mile. It's hard to think about Aurora Rising or Consider Phlebas as I had read those before, but probably I would have chosen Aurora Rising any other year.

Of the ones I read, I enjoyed every one. I skipped two, but *waggles fingers* not worth getting into why. For the ones not in my usual wheelhouse, The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina was quite a pleasant surprise. I may delve into the Brooklyn Brujas just to see what else she's done.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

1) The House in the Cerulean Sea
2) Network Effect

Rebel pick The Priory of the Orange Tree was better than them both.

It doesn't count, yet, But the best S&L book I read for 2021 was Pandora's Star. So good I read Judas Unchained as well.

Network Effect.

How did I miss out on the Rebel pick The Priory of the Orange Tree ?

Tina wrote: "Network Effect.

How did I miss out on the Rebel pick The Priory of the Orange Tree ?"

It was on the Sword and Laser Discord channel.

https://discord.com/channels/54897414...

Aurora Rising, just pipping Piranesi for the top spot - possibly just because it's fresher in my memory.

Also, honourable mention to both Piranesi and Elatsoe for being books I wouldn't have chosen for myself based on the blurb or on past experience with the author, but which I ended up really enjoying.

I was going to mention my biggest disappointments from the year's picks too, but it just felt mean spirited, so I deleted it!

Colin wrote: "Also, honourable mention to both Piranesi and Elatsoe for being books I wouldn't have chosen for myself based on the blurb or on past experience with the author, but which I ended up really enjoyin..."

You just made Tom giggle with delight. 😊

This is tough but I'm going with Network Effect. Piranesi is a close second.

My participation on the monthly books has continued to decline (12 in 2013-2018, 11 in 2019, 8 in 2020, 4 in 2021).

I only read 2 books with the club this year (The Fold & The House in the Cerulean Sea) , and had previously read 2 of the other picks (Network Effect & NOS4A2)

I enjoyed all 4. but I liked Network Effect the most. Of the 2 I only read due to the club though, I'd give it to Cerulean Sea.

For the 8 books I didn't do, I'm more likely to pick up The Priory of the Orange Tree instead of one of those. They just didn't sound appealing to me, and I'm just not reading enough right now to take chances on every S&L pick anymore.

In general I found my enjoyment/average rating of the S&L picks to be declining. Generally speaking the ones I like the most are ones that I end up reading before they are S&L picks too.

1. Network Effect
2. The House in the Cerulean Sea
3. The Fold
4. Piranesi
5. Elatsoe

My top five (Mostly in order....I think)

Tassie Dave wrote: "Tina wrote: "Network Effect.

How did I miss out on the Rebel pick The Priory of the Orange Tree ?"

It was on the Sword and Laser Discord channel.

https://discord.com/channels/54897414......"

OIC, that’s why I missed it. I never joined Discord

The Fold was my favorite!
I also loved NOS4A2, The Prefect, Consider Phlebas, Mexican Gothic, The Ruthless Lady’s Guide…

Top 3:
Network Effect (though sort of cheating because I’d already read it).
Piranesi
The House in the Cerulean Sea

Aurora Rising is a close 4th for me and probably the one I would least likely have picked without S&L

Surprisingly I actually read 9 S&L picks this year. 1 was a reread and another one I read recently, so 10 in total.

Top 3 were The Prefect, Consider Phlebas and The Fold. Of the others, Network Effect, NOS4A2 and Piranesi were pretty good but the others were awful.

I managed all but one boom this year and that was a reread for me in a month we’re I found I just cannot read text books because of events. I enjoyed all the books and appreciate being pushed to read new things.

My favourite was Terra Nullius for largely personal reasons (The Old Lie is a better book). The best book of the year was Piranesi just ahead of Network Effect.

I liked the reads more this year and read every one. I read all of Martha Well's Murderbot series and really enjoyed Piranesi. The Science Fiction works were really good, to I apparently liked many Fantasy selections as well.
1.
2.
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5.

For some reason I forgot to mention loving Network Effect. I read it as soon as I could get it & have read or listened to all the Burderbot!

#1 has a 3 way tie Network Effect ( Really the whole series)
Piranesi and House in the Cerulean Sea.
Close 2nd with Fold, NOS4A2 and Inheritance of Orquídea Divina.

The House in the Cerulean Sea was number 1 this year for me

Looking back, I tried and Lem'd pretty early The Marrow Thieves. It just didn't click for me. I remember enjoying The Fold, then loving both Elatsoe and The House in the Cerulean Sea. I remember being surprised how much I liked Murderbot in general, including Network Effect (I felt it couldn't possibly live up to the hype). I read Piranesi to the end and it wasn't my thing. I think that author isn't for me (I disliked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, too). I didn't read much of Consider Phlebas before I Lem'd that, then for the August pick I wanted to read the "prequel" first (and eventually finished that) but that was when my personal life went to crap so I haven't actually gone back to the August pick (it's downloaded on my Kindle and audiobook on my phone, so one day probably soon)...September was also crap. And the book didn't interest me at all once I purposely read a spoiler. I also skipped NOS4A2 because that kind of horror (well, most horror) isn't my thing. I've started Aurora Rising and am actually enjoying it, but that's one I'm reading with my eyes and that's been slowed by a knitting project and going to bed earlier in general than I might have in the past. And today I finished The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina and I was glad the mystery resolved, but it did in the way I expected, so that was a little bit of a letdown. It'll probably be a 3* book when I finish processing my feelings. Maybe 2.5.

That all said, I'm torn on my "favorite" because it's down to Elatsoe, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and maybe Network Effect (though I actually preferred some of the novellas in the series to that book itself). Elatsoe was the biggest surprise for me, so I think that's how I'd go, but any given day it might be one of the other two.

Kind of late, but I made a poll if anyone is interested: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...