2006 by the number

[salinea]

Bookish meme stolen from generalblossom

Books read during the year not counting re-reads & borrowed books & manga & comic books


The Awesome

The Thousandfold Thought by Bakker

Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrel by Susannah Clarke : quirky, original, brillant, witty, quaint, not for everyone fantasy. Tell me someone's written slash for it please?

The Iron Dragon Daughter by Michael Swanwick

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud : an awesome conclusion to an awesome trilogy. Fascinating setting, great characters, wittiness and action, good metaphysics, dark themes, yay! and all that in a Young Adult's novel ^^

River of Gods by Ian McDonald : YES, that's what Sci Fi's supposed to be

The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner : ♥ Alec & Richard ♥

Axiomatic by Greg Egan : ♥ Greg Egan and yay for mpreg and darkness and some of the best ideas in SF ever

Language of Thorn by Patricia McKillip

The Very Good

The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold : I think this one was my favourite of this world as yet. Not only is the world building and metaphysics still incredibly refreshing fun, but Lois taps into one of my kink (animal powers!) and the main character was delightful with the dry humour.

Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly

Banebreaker and Godslayer by Jaqueline Carey : enjoyable but eventually disappointing fantasy. The writing is still lovely, and it's definitely an interesting re-read of Tolkien, even though it should have gone farther.

Whose Body?, Unnatural Death, Strong Poison, Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, Gaudy Night (technically read in 2007 but who cares) by Dorothy Sayers : so, yeap, pretty awesome. Absolutely delightful characters and gorgeous writing. And I don't even like crime novels.

The Morgaine Saga (Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuda and Fires of Azeroth) by CJ Cherryh : very enjoyable SF

Ilario by Mary Gentle : filled with the silly but still a very fun read. I think I've figured out how to appreciate Mary Gentle. I need to stop expecting too much, ignore the Mary Sueness and just enjoy the wackiness, action and uchronic history.

The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold : Very well written and an intriguing setting. I'm waiting to see more, though.

Od Magic by Patricia McKillip

The Mother of Winter by Barbara Hambly

Le Royaume Blessé by Laurent Kloetzer : Conan rip off it might be but it's still good Conan rip off.

Survival and Migration by Julie Czerneda : pretty cool Sci-Fi

Changing Planes by Ursula Leguin : Vancian fantasy by LeGuin, Okay!

Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb : interesting ideas, some usual Hobb idiosyncrasies, will wait for the next stuff

The Wizards Hunters and The Ships of Air by Martha Wells : original world and the coolest female character ever ♥ however plot somehow lack appeal for some reason.

Harpy's Flight by Megan Lindhlom : original fantasy, I think I like Hobb's book she wrote as Lindhlom better than those she wrote as Hobb. They're just more fresh

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

The So, what was all the fuss about, or I waited how long for this?

The War of Flowers by Tad William : don't mistake me, the world is very good and there's lots of things that seduced me in this book. However, as it is often the case with Tad Williams, I felt incredibly underwhelmed at the ending. I felt like there were a lot of build up to be left with nothing. Remains a very interesting look out at Victorian/Modern fairy land (looks like it's becoming a trend) and some delightful character (Applecore rocked)

Temeraire and Throne of Jade by Naomie Novik : good, enjoyable fantasy, but still very shallow on the plot and very weak on the characterization. Beyond the original idea (dragonriders during Napoleonic wars!) which is pretty cool I feel like these books are big span of nothing. Enjoyable nothing but if they get the Hugo I shall weep. It would be like HP getting the Hugo all over again.

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean : not bad by a far margin, but another book made a big, giant lump of nothing. Very enjoyable to read and filled with goodie quotes. Sadly what i was interested most in was totally different from the focus of the book.

Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling : pretty much what generalblossom said : a disappointing conclusion to an promising trilogy.

Kushiel's Scion : well written and with adorable characters and stuff, but still going nowhere as a story.

Witch Week and the Magicians of Caprona by Dianna Wynne Jones : I'm somewhat bored with the Chrestomanci books.

A Secret Atlas by Michael Stackpole : intriguing fantasy with original ideas as well as stock stereotypes.

Hammerfal by CJ Cherry : okay book but a certain lackluster due to lack of originality

Tuf Voyaging by GRRMartin : the fact that Martin has a very weird Mary Sue doesn't stop it from being a Mary Sue and me from being annoyed. Also apparently I don't like cats that much.

The Bad

The Convergent serie by Charles Sheffield : not that bad but i don't remember much of it which is a bad sign

Didn't finish any of the really bad book ^^

Comments

[darksumomo.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Kushiel books, but they seem to be getting a major push from the publisher. Also, the woman on the cover art is hot. Beyond that, what would you say to me to get me to read those books?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

The Kushiel book are trashy fantasy. It's good trashy fantasy, but it's definitly of the guilty pleasure variety. On the plus side the world building is excellent. It's a different version of Europe wonderfully informed of legends and mythology. The spin of the Christian mythos is very interesting, and the bits of Celtic, Norse, Latin & Greek mythologies are equal enticing. The writing style is very good. It's lush, a little bit purple, but it does flow beautifully if you don't mind lyrical stuff. The porn doesn't take over the plot, thankfully, but the plot isn't exactly believable either. It's a bit like a James Bond movie, if James Bond was a whore ^_^ the plot does get weirdly contrived so that the main character's asset of being a godly masochist allow her to succeed. Not exactly likely, but fun to read. The sex is relatively well written as far as sexy fantasy go. It's definitly better than the Anita Blake novels, for exemple, but you find better in fanfics. I like the fact that a big part of the plot is based on a Lesbian antagonistic relationship. The characters are in general charismatic and likeable, so it's another big part of the appeal.

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

Always interesting to read your thoughts on books... I'm got the first Stroud book on my table de chevet, thanks to you;)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I hope you like it ^^

[alighiera.livejournal.com]

There's some really interesting stuff in that list. *adds to memories for future reference*

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Some of them I did a deeper review of during the year, if you want to check ^^

it feels weird laying out all a year's reading in a post!

[alighiera.livejournal.com]

I'll have to do a bit of digging on the reviews once I have the time to compile my next book shopping list.

Odd sometimes to see what you read in a year, isn't it? Especially the mix.

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

I started a meme *jumps in excitement*, yay!

I am a bit envious of your list, in the sense you read so much sf/f I mean to have read. It´s not like I did not have acess to some of it, some of those are languishing unread somewhere around here, just 2006 seems to have been a not too much sf/f year. I need a shot of really good sf particularly, wish me luck in 2007.

And as often happens, I totally agree with your opinions on most of those books ( or the ones I have read with a couple quibbles now and then)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I always read so much SF/F and so little else. I should have more variation ^^ (actually I read other stuff, all the Sayers novel ^^)

Don't hesitate to voice the quibbles ^^