Reading_fox in 2016

Here we go then, a list of abbreviated reviews. I hope (but might not always) manage to write a bit more on the actual work page/my catalogue. Comments thoughts discussions and suggestions always welcome!

Reclamation last of last year's storybundle and a favourite author. This is here 2nd work I believe. Explores a splintered humanity coming back into contact with it's fragments and the introduction of technology. Quite clever! Best of the bundle by far.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms SantaThing title - thank you teaholic
It was suggested to me last year I think, and had been sitting on my wishlist. It didn't quite work for me, but was interesting nonetheless. Family squabbles among the gods is influenced by the mortals who live in their shadow. Three is ever an unstable partnership.

Happy new year! I hope 2016 brings you lots of good reading.

I too was disappointed by The hundred thousand kingdoms. I didn't like the narrative style and hated the romance. I really want to read her newest book though, The fifth season.

Looking forward to seeing what you read this year!

Wishing you many excellent reads this year!

Happy new year! I've liked N K Jemisin's worldbuilding but found her novels dissatisfying so far. I think I'm still going to have to read her latest though - she does have a knack for throwing around fascinating ideas.

Magic Bites and quick santathing read. More fascinating ideas, not quite realised fully, but it was fun and I might try the next in the series. urban fantasy, it a very weird atlanta where the magic pulses in and out, creating all sorts of side effects. Sarcastic mercenary doesn't fall in love with handsome guys but holds her own against all sorts, due to a powerful but unexplained legacy. I could do with more explanation or a start from earlier in her life.

Massively late update. And few reviews, short is all. Whilst I was away in Kenya (see FB for photos) I read a lot of books - long flights, plenty of time in my room, not so much whilst on safari.

Magic burns Much better than the first, internally coherent
Firefight Sanderson's strange superhero universe
winged histories another ER title that I'm not that keen on. It sort of worked but some of the characters dragged.
Make me one of the better recent Jack Reachers
Elementals: water Short stories mostly happy
a knot in the grain short stories slightly melancholy
Newton's wake odd SF scottish mercenaries. How the accent was maintained for 000s years was never explained.
Summer of love a time travel and romance. Last of the storybundle set. Not quite as bad as I'd expected, and technically well written, just not my thing really.
In the shadow of man - Santathing, and very impressive. Jane Goodall's studies of chimps written engagingly, even if she omits a lot of personal detail the humanity of the chimps comes across very well - and Jane is very careful to avoid anthropomorphising them.

Lies and prophecy Not an ER title, but the 2nd in the series is, so I bought this one from BVC. I do wish publishers would be more clear about it. I don't mind, if I know in advance, but it's a little annoying to start a book and for the first chapter or so feel that it's missing something crucial, and then have to go and check and hunt out the first one.

Actually worth the bother though, quite a fun little urban fantasy. Sidhe were responsible for the outbreak of psychic powers in the world about 1000 years ago. And so ever since there have been schools for the gifted - those with a little bit of power. There are also the 'wilders' who have a lot more sidhe gifts, but they don't normally need training. One however is at Kim's school, and she's one of the few who doesn't treat him with suspicion. Which is very helpful when her divinations start to show something weird is on it's way. Enjoyable.

Just popping in to mark my place. Reclamation sounds fun.

And the sequel the ER title chains and memory Quite different, whilst still following the same characters in the same world. Moved away from magic school and into real world politics, while Kim tries to adjust to her new abilities.

The goblin Emperor frequently referred to on LT. (was there a GD discussion?) I enjoyed it but wasn't that impressed, hitting that border between well written but not actually being great - too little plot action, but too simple politics, and an undeveloped world building. Creating a whole world for a standalone novel is hard, but a bit more effort would have been appreciated here. Not the best innocent at court I've read - fortress in the eye of time is better.

Fortress in the Eye of Time knocked my socks off; I think we share similar takes on the two books. Interesting you made the comparison.

the eye of the world The great hunt - why is Jordon's not the top touchstone for this?

Yes I've finally started reading the wheel of time. teaholic was my Santa who filled this hole in my epic fantasy collection. I think I'd always got them confused with Brook's Shanara which I'd tried a long time ago and didn't like. They are significantly better, but still far from perfect. EotW has a very rocky start which does improve a bit, GH is more consistent. It dos all still feel a bit trite though. Kids discover they're special and go off on a Grand Quest to discover A Magic Trinket to Save The World, aided by a motley collection of Jesters, Wise Old Men, Beautiful Princesses, and Grumpy Dwarves. I'm sure the Mysterious Elves will be along shortly.
Fun though.

Glitch Rain - force a link Glitch Rain
ER title. OK short cyberpunk novella a few interesting concepts but a few rough spots as well. Would have been much better as a more developed novel. Interesting heroine has worked her way up from scrap metal foraging to meta-data editing, but is still pursued by an old debt.

Alloy of Law Quick re-read of this fun and fast paced continuation of the mistborn series. It's a big jump forward in time to a more victorian equivalent era / cowboy's with magic. But still clever.

>15 Sakerfalcon: I liked Alloy of law better than Mistborn. The new setting was a nice change.

Touchstones are all broken as the site search engine has failed again....

Shadows of self
- the next in the mistborn universe. Kind of fun but a big switch in antagonist means it doesn't really flow on form the previous alloy of law very well.

Go set a watchman
Just don't bother. This very much reads like the early draft it was, and should never have been published. You can see all the essences of the story that it became, but none of the polish. The characters are clumpy, the setting rough and there's just none of the sparkle. Read Mockingbird instead, which remains brilliant.

Ancillary mercy

Conclusion of the Radch. We still don't know what gender any of the characters are. But a few relationships re-establish. Species gets defined for the aliens, and the wider empire conflict is left for future novels. Fun, but ultimately never quite lived up to the wonder of the first book.

>11 reading_fox: Uh oh. I already bought The Goblin Emperor for my Kindle but I haven't read it yet. Now I feel like I have to track down Fortress in the Eye of Time.

ETA: Oh great, it's a series. :oS

>17 clamairy: always :-), I can't remember the ending, but my recollection is that it pretty much stands on it's own, and that then the next three form an arc together, and the final one is very much an epilogue. It's CJC, so always worth reading however many there are!

stray souls very disjointed. Kind of fun. Some great writing. As per a recommendation somewhere (hobnob?). but in very short chapter. Apparently a new arc, in the middle of a series. I might try the beginning. Urban fantasy. Self help group.

A red phone box

An anthology of short stories, written around a central theme - a travelling phone box in london - edited to make a surprisingly coherent story, the plot definitely progresses through the different stories featuring different characters, although it's hard to keep everybody straight. A friend of mine wrote three of the entries

Armada
Cline's eagerly awaited 2nd novel. After the joy of Ready Player One, I was keen to read whatever he wrote next. It's not as good, but still far from bad. It doesn't take itself seriously, which means it lacks some of the brilliance of RPO, but it's still fun. Still gaming related, but more contemporary which means it relies on conspiracy theories and alien invasions. Very funny in places.

>19 reading_fox: Hmmm, I might have to keep an eye on Armada and wait for a price drop.

Baker's dozen (How many other books are there with that name!) I bought a book from BookViewCafe, after winning so many of their ER titles. A collection of 13 short fantasy stories each written in a week. Perhaps not the ideal way to get the best out of an author, they still are all interesting, and in many ways Leah is better at short fiction than her sometimes untidy novels.

Empress - again a vast number of books titled this - A well crafted ER title, much better than I was expecting (I don't normally like historical fiction and I don't know why I chose it on the ER list). Set in the Byzantine times it chronicles the rise and fall of a slave girl and a farmer's son. Karen Miller's is perhaps better, although that's straight fantasy. But this is very good, despite the opening chapter which is dire, and an odd out of POV section 3/4 way though.

disturbed universes a selection of hard sf short stories from ER written by an actual astrophysicist. HIs non-fiction reports of working life at radio telescopes, and during satellite launches are the best bits, although the stories are ok.

Chimera - end of the trilogy. A good wrapping up with everything explained and all the characters accounted for. Lacking in that Wow punch that Grant can write.

>22 reading_fox: I agree that this trilogy fizzled out a bit. The first book really had me hooked but the second had so much filler that it lost me, and the last one couldn't quite make up for it.

Clockwork fairy kingdom and the sequel the teacher the maker

and still as re-reads tech heaven and the bohr maker

All from book view cafe, some as ER titles and some bought. I hadn't noticed the similarity of Maker themes until now! But they're very different. the first two are innovative faerie fantasy, with a tribe of clockwork fae - and a human Maker who has engineering skills to help them, the 2nd book goes a bit strange with a fight against a tribal wind spirit.

The latter pair are SF nano-tech. Not the grey goo scenario, but thoughts on the definition of what it means to be human, how much can you correct, and when it goes too far. The time jumps in the series are quite huge, with no characters carrying on between books, but the socio-political landscape has clearly evolved form the same background. Interesting stories.

Wow. Two weeks and I've not updated the thread - running at almost 1 book every other day - some much longer than others.

Deception well
Next in the nano-tech sucession - a big jump in time away, on a different world. Nanotech is now completely established in everyone's lives. But how did it get there?

Heart of fire
Short story - redemption of a succubus. (ER)

Final table
Also ER - fun! Urban fantasy, a warlock's reanimated five famous gamblers for a final night of poker. The first half the book is them not wanting to play.

wolverine's daughter
bought from BVC - fairly typical heroine led fantasy, a young girl discovering there's more to the world than the tough land she grew up in.

gridlinked
Violent SF. A bit like altered carbon. Not necessarily better, but I wasn't totally convinced. What was the importance of Ian not being linked anymore?

bodkin for the bride
fourth cosy mystery around a tearoom. With ghosts and recipes

Maurice and his amazing rodents
Some of pTerry's darkest ever writing. Nominally for children, they'd do better with the main series. Death and stupidity of fluffy cartoons.

My kids loved the Amazing Maurice when they were young. Older son has a hardcover edition that Pterry autographed when he was through here on a book tour many years ago. Older son would have been around 13 and younger son about 10.

"cosy mystery around a tearoom. With ghosts and recipes"

Great tagline! :)

Wee free men, Hat full of sky, Wintersmith, I shall wear midnight (least discworld title of the whole series)

Shepherd's crown - review coming.. honest

Yes a full YA discworld re-read as I'd finally remembered to buy Crown. These are much simpler than the full novels, but just as good. They have chapters, and Tiffany Aching, youngest witch of the Chalk* - too soft to be bedrock for witchery, but don't forget the flints inside. Wee free opens with the invasion of the faeries again, following the death of Tiffany's grandma who wasn't a witch, but still ruled all the Chalk. As you can see not a children's topic. The other books cover falling in love and standing up for the consequences of your actions. How pTerry managed to capture falling love as a teenaged girl is one of the many mysteries that highlight a great author.

*the english chalk downloads are a very special place, and well worth visiting, it's hard to do them justice with words, but pTerry manages.

Shadow unit 1

I was looking for War of the oaks by Emma Bull but apparently this isn't available as an ebook in the uk. HOwever this series is. A series of shared world short stories and novellas and extracts written as if for a tv series. X files style but with a bigger team and less alien opponents. Fun and well written with some good characterisation. Urban fantasy ish.

I've barely dipped a toe into the waters of Discworld. There are just so many books, and so little time in life! I thought The Wee Free Men was wonderful, but haven't gotten around to the next one yet.

>29 SylviaC: Ditto that. I listened to it, too. I loved it! And then I tried to get the next one through inter-library loan and was told that the only library in the state that had them wasn't loaning them out any more. :o(

>29 SylviaC: & >30 clamairy: They are well worth reading, even though billed as YA, these are YA as it should be. Full of wonderful stuff and not a hint that they are written for any certain age group. My only irritation with them is that sometimes they are repetitive in thoughts. It is intentional, but I get impatient with it.

So out of date with this and my reviews...just being slack. I have at least written the Shepherd's crown one.

I've finished Shadow Unit's 2-4 and am reading 5, all much the same fun, well characterised, a lot of emotion on how a team responds to the serious injury of one of their members in the line of duty.

The rook - book bullet from several threads. Fun urban detective fantasy. Plenty of politics. Not sure it's quite internally consistent, which spoilt it a bit for me. The book opens with someone who's lost all her memory, but still manages to talk/read/walk etc quite happily.

Gladiator at law a chance buy market stall 60s SF

Planetfall - book bullet from one of the reading threads. I didn't like/agree with the ending, but otherwise interesting. A little bit similar to the nano-tech succession I read earlier this year

Tainted tokay another average at best ER title. About a winemaker cum detective, but this is the 11th book int he series and it's flagging badly, not the best place to be introduced to the characters

Rosemary and Rue More urban fantasy - fae based this time - this is the 'normal' writing from the author of feed. Feed was better, but this is still fun, it just doesn't feel anything uniquely original cf feed.

The eyes of the setting sun bizarre title, for an ER book, about average. Eg poor. Biological super agent in a post nuke america. Some of it was actually ok, but needed about half throwing away, and the rest re-writing.

the door in the hedge another collection of Robin's wonderfully charming gentle short stories. Mostly sort of re-works of fairy tales, they're all enjoyable to read.

The shape of Water and The terracotta dog chance buy as I was brousing my local bookshop - Sicilian crime dramas. Set in the 90s with plenty of corruption, mafia gangs good food, hot women, and a bit of investigative work thrown in. Very Noir in feel despite being decades too late.

Another chance buy was The skull beneath the skin but this wasn't anywhere near as good as the Dalgliesh books, it drags and just generally doesn't really work.

I'm up to ShadowUnit 9 and have gone through varies crisis with most of the team now, but they finally think they've got some idea of how the anomaly works... maybe there's an end in sight.

>34 reading_fox: I find P.D. James one of those undependable authors. Sometimes enthralling, or great reading, others not so much. Still worth trying though. :)

>35 MrsLee: Agreed. Sometimes brilliant, other almost formulaic.

I've been lucky then, and mostly found her better books, so this came as quite a disappointment. Maybe it's just aged badly, written in 80s and set in the 70s it just didn't feel right anymore.

Rose Daughter
Robin's wonderfully charming re-telling (again) of Beauty and the Beast, this time as a full novel, with Roses, Unicorns and Baby Animals it's never going to be dark, but it never becomes schmaltzy or trite either. Very gentle but great.

I should update this more often!

Underwater potholer

One of the few recent (ish) caving books to be published. Essentially it's the autobiography (yes he's remarkably still alive) of a recently retired recreational cave diver. From some early very dangerous beginnings, through to some dangerous exploits once he 'knew what he was doing' via a few extremely hard core impressive achievements.

Red first light
The start of Linda's next AI trilogy. Not that plausible. But certainly possible. A well told tale

Points of departure

Collection of short stories set in a shared world. These all feature around one family and their
grandmother sorceress who interacts with the gods.

Liavek (collections 1 and 2) Further stories in the same city. More widely cast

Falcon

SF from Emma Bull (War of the Oaks fame - a book I'm still waiting for as ebook). Quite good, but an unusual novel structure. The first thrid is character history and utterly disconnected from the rest, the resolution of which is mentioned only in passing.

the blade itself Trilogy all 1600 pages of it as ebook.
The first book drags as various unplesant people are gathered in the city. There's few moments of humour along the way. The second book drags as they slog through the mud on a Quest for a Trinket. The third book is much better as there's lots more action and everything gets resolved. LOTS of violence and gore, not much sex. Sand is a softy really. Not sure that I'm bothered to read more in this world though.

>39 reading_fox: Wow! That series has a really high rating here on LT! So what you're saying is that despite the dragging it was worth the time invested, but not worth any more time?

It was OK, but didn't seem anything special to me.

>39 reading_fox: I don't feel quite so bad at having a hard time getting through book 2 now.

Two very contrasting read:

eocene station Which was an ER title. And below even DD's normal par. The time travel was just stuffed in to give the characters somewhere to run around with fewer clothes on.

Life and death underground was a chance buy from my recent caving convention and far more interesting and serious. Very dated now it was published in the 60s and lot of techniques and equipment have changed. But fascinating nevertheless, particularly hearing about systems I've been in, and first hand accounts of stories I've now heard from many people all distorted by time. Essentially caving is safer than you might think - this covers 30 years and has a handful of accidents in it, but the lessons still need to be learnt anew each generation.

>43 reading_fox: "The time travel was just stuffed in to give the characters somewhere to run around with fewer clothes on.
"

LOL!

Some real paper books!

Girl in the spider's web The continuation of Stieg Larson's work by another author. I quite enjoyed this, he's kept the tone quite similar, but without the graphic details that many readers disliked of the previous ones. It isn't any more believable, but it is fun.

Terminal World Alistair's not on the best form in this, his hard SF style doesn't really work in Steampunk mode unless you're a particular fan of the genre. The explanation for it all only occurs right at the end which is somewhat of an anti-climax.

>39 reading_fox: r_f, while there have been times we've liked different books, we seem not so far off on The Blade Itself (well I may have hated it more, but still. My review:

"An ugly book. Unlikable, sadistic characters; gratuitous violence; overly long. I resist populating my precious reading realm -- and time -- with the unpleasant people in this bitter world."

A it of a CJC re-read, starting with Intruder and Protector followed by the conclusion of that trilogy in Peacemaker which I've finally been able to get hold of.

Peacemaker is my favourite again, by some margin, The last few have felt somewhat contrived with Bren running around sorting out various aveti politics, that I had little care for, but Peacemaker finally sees some resolution to this, Action and poltics it's fast moving and I felt a real high point of the series. Really it's a shame that I don't have the stamina to read all 15 in one long rush.

A Turn of light

Very long, very slow, character driven romance/fantasy. I enjoyed it, but it isn't like most fantasy novels you've read. It's much more about Jenn's romance and choosing her suitors then chasing dragons or overcoming a siege.

>48 reading_fox: I would have enjoyed this slow-paced fantasy more if I had liked Jenn better. She was too immature and impetuous for me.

>49 Sakerfalcon: LOL. Same. :)

>47 reading_fox: I've been meaning to get round to Cherryh.

>50 LibraryPerilous: - you should! (everyone should!)

The falling of the moon and Meddlers of moonshine - Both ER titles, appreciated from the publisher sending the first in the series in addition to the 2nd. Fun YA fantasy featuring a half-blood vampire venturing out in the Daylands. Just because you've and evil reputation doesn't mean you can't be kind.

A masquerade of muertos continuation of the tearoom cosy mysteries. Remains fun, cake art and crime combine in this cosy thriller. It would probably help if I had any kind of understanding of mexican? cuisine.

>51 reading_fox: A Masquerade of Muertos sounds cute, and I love Mexican food.

Do you have any recs for the best place to start with Cherryh?

>52 LibraryPerilous: Downbelow Station? It sets the stage for many of her other books, and itself won the 1982 Hugo for Best Novel. Of course she's written 60+ books, so there are many other choices. It's r_f's thread, so I'm interested in his thoughts...

My personal favorite, and one of my favorite books period is Cyteen, but that wasn't the question.

>52 LibraryPerilous: I started with the Chanur series and have since progressed to Downbelow station. Personally I found Chanur far more engaging and accessible of the two, but stellarexplorer is right that if you want to explore the main Alliance-Union series (Chanur is only tangentially related) then Downbelow is the place to start.

I'd probably suggest starting with The pride of chanur which is more accessible than some, and gives a good start into CJC's "tight third person" writing style, very character driven, but with excellently thought through worlds. She doesn't explain the world the characters are in, you're left to discover and pick it up as you go along, which can be disconcerting for some of her more unusual settings. Foreigner is her longest running series, currently ending at book 18, but written in trilogies each with their own conclusion. There's a group read thread on it somewhere in the history of GD.

I find Alliance/Union more of a struggle. It's not a series, but a series of stories told in the same universe, featuring different (sometimes re-occurring) characters and at different times. Each book is complete in itself, but only tells a fragment of the history. I've always found difficult to hold enough of the universe in my understanding of how it all fits togther. I was blown away by Cyteen but had read many of the other books fairly recently.

I've finished A play of shadow which is better than Turn of Light - Jenn has settled down a bit more, and come to accept her inheritance and powers, so this is more of an exploration of the fun world Julie has created.

>53 stellarexplorer:; >54 Sakerfalcon:; >55 reading_fox: Thanks, all, for the varied perspectives and the list of titles! More for the endless TBR ...

>52 LibraryPerilous: said, "Do you have any recs for the best place to start with Cherryh?"

I haven't read all that much Cherryh yet but am busy trying to rectify that omission in my reading life...

My first CJC was Cuckoo's Egg, which reads well as a stand-alone and is a very good book, albeit with a rather challenging writing style.

My 2nd CJC was Downbelow Station, which started off slow for me. I had some trouble engaging with it. The massive info-dump at the start did not help. But then, about halfway through, I found myself heavily invested with the story really cooking along. Overall, a 4-star book for me, (I rarely rate books at 5).

My next foray was The Faded Sun Trilogy, which I just completed early last month. Also excellent.

My limited experience leads me to believe that you can't really go wrong with anything Cherryh! ;)

>57 ScoLgo: I think that's pretty much true. But ScoLgo, if you've made it this far liking Cherryh, it's probably time to treat yourself to Cyteen. And don't give up if it takes a while to fully seee where it's going!

>58 stellarexplorer: Yep, Cyteen is already on my TBR shelf... ;)

I try to read a few CJC books each year,and this year had some great reads,especially the Faded Sun trilogy.I've read 35 of her books now Already preparing my 2017 list of CJC books,in particular Serpent's Reach and Cuckoo's Egg,and of course Visitor in the Foreigner universe. I have read a lot of her SF,but have barely touched her fantasy,I just dont fancy it somehow,and I am not a fantasy fan in general.
I am doing a challenge at the moment over on WWEnd,reading a book from each year of the 80s. Almost all the 1989 books are unavailable in my library,and the only one I could locate was Allan M Steele's Orbital Decay which I am disliking intensely. I am really tempted to jettison it and do a reread of CJC Rimrunners from the same year,one of my fave Alliance universe books.Probably read it 4 or 5 times already!
Someday I need to reread Cyteen,I hadnt read much CJC back then and I'm sure now I would appreciate it much more,(I read 40000 inGehenna this year which shed some light on the azis)but,so many books so little time as the mantra goes.
I am seriously tempted to let everything go hang one year and just do rereads the whole year It would be wonderful! lol. So many Cherryhs,Jim Butcher,some UF series,Dick Francis,Georgette Heyer(of course!!),fave Sayers,Ngaio Marsh,J D Robb,Nora Roberts....the list goes on and on.I certainly wouldnt have any difficulty filling my 12x12 challenge with 144 old favourites(Jane Austen,Little Women,Cold Comfort Farm,Ulysses,Anne McCaffrey).....) as I used to do a lot of rereading before Shelfari,GR and LT opened my options so wide (Miles Vorkosigan,Edgar Rice Burroughs,C S Lewis etc etc etc!)
Another couple of years will see off all my lists of Hugos,Nebulas etc,then maybe I will have a Rereading Sabbatical. Nice to dream about anyway! :0)

>60 dustydigger: I plan to set aside January for rereading. I miss visiting with my favorites (many of which are the same as yours!). December I will try to read all my Secret Santa books which I haven't finished.

By the way, being new here, do you know about Secret Santa? Kind of a fun thing to do. Even if you don't want to participate and give and receive books, there is lots of opportunity to help with recommendations and last minute Santaing for those whose Santas don't follow through. There are/will be announcements and talks about it in the Talk about LibraryThing group.

>61 MrsLee: Yes, I am in a group that does Secret Santa. Its an excellent source for reading outside the box for participants. I take note of the intriguing books others are reading but what with my 12x12,my SF challenges over on Worlds Without End,and some challenges like the A-Z, the Birthstone challenge and what we call Heather's Challenge,(a challenge to read 52 books on a wide variety of categories) I personally couldnt squeeze in any more commitments. I have already sorted about 70 of next year's 12x12 and will enjoy sorted out the rest in December,
Still about 10 books to finish for my 12x12 before my knee op on 21st Nov,though its looking unlikely I'll do more than another 5. The rest will have to be read during my recovery and before the Xmas mayhem, My first great granddaughter is due on 17th of this month,so its all go,glad my reading commitments are almost finshed,things are going to be hectic!

Code of conduct
Didn't quite work for me. too much going on and not quite enough plot or detail to carry it through. Aliens, robots, AI, plagues, politics and romance. Not a bad kick ass heroine though.

Harmony: radford

Much better. An colonisation effort has discovered a planet where they can interact with the harmonic vibrations of that planet's soul. Isolated from mainstream humanity they control the export of a very rare alloy, which both humanity's space force and the local aliens badly need for their war. Works surprisingly well.

Tracker
Finally the Kyo come. Bren remains diplomatic and even remembers how to speak 'ship'. Another great instalment in the series but I'm glad CJC is now working on an Alliance/union book.

(Slight grr as ever on authors using common words for book titles. The number of 'Harmony's is huge.

Die trying
One of the early Reacher's and a fun read. Jack's wild and free, but not as dissatisfied with life as the freemen militia who's plot he ends up entangled with. Nice attention to detail.

The call, parkinson
ER title, Western fantasy, doesn't work for me. Steampunk and magic don't really work

Thud
One of Pratchett's best. Politics of policing in a diverse city.

The litigators
Classic Grisham: family, law and big corporations.

>64 reading_fox: Hmm, I'd kind of burned out on Pratchett, but Thud sounds very interesting and perhaps timely.

>57 ScoLgo:; >60 dustydigger: Thanks for the Cherryh recs!

>64 reading_fox: I started Discworld for the first time in late April and I’ve been slowly working my way through the series. Whenever I look at my list to see what’s next, Thud! has a tendency to catch my eye. I’m glad to hear it’s a good one! It will be a long time before I get there, though, since I’m reading in publication order. The last one I finished was Feet of Clay.

>66 YouKneeK: It is good to have a feel for the characters and atmosphere of Discworld before reading the later novels. Not that it's mandatory, but I think it yields a greater appreciation of puns and in-jokes.

>67 MrsLee: I think you’re right, MrsLee. I’ve enjoyed seeing the world grow as Pratchett invented it, and there are definitely in-jokes and minor world-building nuances evolving throughout the series that I wouldn’t have appreciated as much if I’d read the books in a different order. When I first decided to tackle the series, I originally thought it might be better to read one subseries at a time, but I’m glad I decided against it.

Two more from my 10year haul

charming a fun werewolf vs vampire urban fantasy that isn't anything like twilight!

poseidon's wake the conclusion to his african elephants in space trilogy

>69 reading_fox: said, "...the conclusion to his african elephants in space trilogy"

Wait... what?!? Elephants? In space? That's almost as cool as Brin's dolphins in space conceit from the Uplift War series.

Guess I need to bump these Reynolds books further up the TBR list.

>70 ScoLgo: - he attempts a justification for it, in the afterward to the first book - blue remembered earth but I haven't re-read it recently and can't remember why he picked elephants. Wake would have made more sense if I had re-read the series recently as I usually try to do.

>67 MrsLee: I think that's definitely true. One of my first Discworld books (I think it might've been my 7th or so? I know it was the second City Watch book I read.) was Thud and, while I loved it, it wasn't until I reread it a few years later, with far more Discworld books in my subconscious, that I felt I could truly begin to appreciate everything that Pratchett was doing with it.

written in red

Urban fantasy, interesting world - largely Other dominated but humans have still managed ot retain technology that the Others enjoy, but the author struggles with the werewolf =bad or dog.

the cold dish

Noir crime set in the midwest. Quite well done and interesting twist in the perp.

Among animals 2 - ER short story collection, but nothing special. Event he cockroach tale wasn't interesting, despite the premise.

He Sees You When He's Creepin a much better ER collection of short stories, all featuring Krampus the dark devil side of christmas, although here he's often the hero or victim of the story. This was a good collection with all of the stories interesting. Many authors to look out for.

Discount armageddon disappoints from Seanen, too over the top almost farcical urban fantasy. No idea what the name had to do with anything either.

The trials and Going dark the Mil-SF continuation of Linda's rogue AI trilogy. At the end it's all about trust, you, your squad, your captain, your lover, and the AI pulling your strings. Can an AI get it wrong?

Finished the year with:

Otter country - no fiction. A woman's search for otters in the UK. She sees a few, but mostly writes about otter poo.

A Local habitation the 2ns of the Toby Daye's and much better than the first, although still without the killer inventiveness of Feed.

Total of 81 books, not that many for me, and as ever, only a tiny fraction of non-fictions.. No really stand out reads either, a couple of 5* re-reads, and a few good series continuations, but nothing new that I was blown away by.

>76 reading_fox: I read Otter country a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Her experiences of seeing few animals and a lot of poo sounds like all the conservation work I've ever done!

I have grown to love the October Daye series; I think it starts to take off in book 3 and just gets stronger with each volume thereafter. I hope you'll find that to be true for you too. I see why she publishes under two names though, as her work is so different under each identity.

>77 Sakerfalcon: plus Seanan has a very sick cat (although recovering) and needs the money for vet bills, so buy her books! :)