Books? What Books? 2015 Reading Highlights

This has been a great year for books. Many, many words have been devoured. I’ve discovered new authors, and caught up with my to-read-list. Well, partially, at least: that thing is a never-ending pit of doom and delight. Hopefully you’ve had a great year for reading too… But if you’re still looking for bookish inspiration, I’ve invited a few guests to share their reading highlights for 2015. Enjoy!

 

Jo Zebedee, author of Inish Carraig, Abendau’s Heir, and the upcoming (2016) sequels Sunset over Abendau and Abendau’s Legacy:

Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett – I really love this series, it’s probably one of my favourite sf reads for a long time. I wondered how Chris would balance the story moving so far forwards and new characters and what not, but he did it beautifully. Love it.

The Minituarist, Jessie Burton – Really enjoyed this. Very clever, very evocative of its time, nice central male character (I found the female ones a little harder to like but overall more intriguing). Well worth a look at.

The Woman who Stole my Life, Marian Keyes – Just finished this. Fabulous. Well worth a look at for use of a frame story and for how to keep the predictable will-they/won’t-they story fresh.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers – This is also nearly on my biggest disappointment list. I enjoyed it but it didn’t come close to the hype for me.

Marina, Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Sumptuous. Just sumptuous. And creepy.

Winter Ghosts, Kate Mosse – I’ve never been a huge fan of Mosse, but this I loved. Very evocative of the time and place.

Finally, one of my very favourite reads was a beta/first read of the Sir Edric books by Thaddeus White. I was begging for the next installment as fast as it could be written. Out next year from Tickety Boo Press and I’ll be getting the nice shiny new version the day it comes out!

 

Steven Poore, author of The Heir to the North and the upcoming (2016) sequel, The High King’s Vengeance:

All That Outer Space Allows, Ian Sales – Tour de force conclusion to the Apollo Quartet that ought to be an award-winner in any year.

A Darker Shade of Magic, VE Schwab – A gloriously fun start to a new series, told with pace, clarity and verve.

The Stars Seem So Far Away, Margret Helgadottir – Fractured stories of a fractured earth; as bleak as the tundra, and as deep as the ocean.

 

Jennifer Carson, fantasy author and editor, has worked for a number of publishers such as Simon and Schuster, currently an editor for Tickety Boo Press.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline – I read this book at the nagging of my husband, and I have to admit, he was right. It was one of four books I read this year that put me in page-turner mode. Wade Watts is a teen who prefers to live in a Matrix-like construction called OASIS. When the OASIS creator dies, he leaves his vast fortune to the first person who win his easter egg hunt with only riddles to guide them. I’m usually quite put off by VR stories, but I loved this one. Mostly because I’m a closet geek, and I got 90% percent of the references and had played all the major games named in the story. I even out-geeked my true geek husband and got one of the riddles right away. He was floored. “How did you get that?” he asked. To which I replied, “How did you not? We spent our first date playing that game. You introduced me to PCs with it!” So if you love the oldies…or were there when those games were cutting edge (we won’t say which category Hubby and I fall into…but you can guess), this book is most definitely worth the read. The only negatives for me were that I wished the end had been a little stronger, and I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it so thoroughly had I not played these games. But if you like VR stories or video games, it’s certainly worth taking a look at the free download sample. I was hooked by the end of that!

Endeavour, Ralph Kern – This is the only project I’ve worked on that I chose to include. Why? Because in my thirty years of editing, this book was my favorite project. I found myself reading it when I should have been working on it. Even when I came to the end of my editing day, I would read just a few more pages ahead as a sneak peek for the next day’s work. I was quite happy to follow our intrepid explorers as they tried to answer the Fermi paradox: If space is so huge, where is everybody? As they search for extraterrestrial life, we watch the people of earth leap into the future and pass by our team who, as a byproduct of relativistic time issues, become one-way time travelers. The weakness of the book would have to be characterization. The characters are good enough to do the job of carrying their share of the story, but they aren’t deeply fleshed out. Rather, this book is a plot-driven story. I enjoyed how it took a mystery from the past in our real world and used it to generate a science fiction story that answered that mystery (But then, it was one I was always interested in, even did a book report on it in school). All in all, I really feel that Ralph has captured some of the flavor of the heyday of SF and the midcentury greats, then modernized it for today’s audiences. This is true hard science fiction, driven by story and science, and one very enjoyable read.

Dust and Light, book one of the Sanctuary duet, Carol Berg – Carol Berg is a favorite author of mine. I absolutely loved her Lighthouse duet and her Rai Kirah trilogy, so I was thrilled to find out she was doing a Sanctuary duet in the same world as the Lighthouse one. This story is about a sorcerer character whose talent is to sketch the truth of a man’s soul, and just how far others will go to keep those truths covered. Lucian pays the price for a talent he only fully comes to understand through the course of the book, and it costs him everything…family, liberty, even sanity. Angst-driven characters are a specialty of Berg’s, and this one was no disappointment. Following Lucian’s tortured journey kept me turning pages, though they are not necessarily for everyone. My husband doesn’t like the tortured-hero schtick as much as I do. He finds these characters to be downers. But if you like the suffering hero who endures and is transformed, a character who is reforged in the crucible of life, give this talented author a try. I still like the other two I listed above better, but this one did not disappoint. I can’t wait to dive into book two over the Christmas break!

 

Thaddeus White, author of Bane of Souls, Journey to Altmortis, Sir Edric’s Temple (to be re-released in 2016) and the upcoming Sir Edric’s Treasure:

Abendau’s Heir, Jo Zebedee – a deliciously dark tale of empire and family feud in space. It takes the reader into the hearts of its protagonists, and features a number of stellar moments, including a fantastically grim scene two-thirds or so into the book [the best fiction I’ve read this year].

The Greatest Knight, Thomas Asbridge – William Marshal was apparently the first man not a king to have his own biography, and this book reveals why. From being abandoned by his father and threatened with death as a child to rising to prosperity thanks to his military skill, Marshal served multiple kings during one of the most turbulent times in history, and this biography is well worth reading.

Ghost on the Throne, James Romm – when Alexander died his generals and relatives were thrust into a decades-long struggle for supremacy. Akin to a pack where every wolf considers himself (or herself…) alpha, the cadre of bold and clever men and women Alexander left behind engage in ferocious war for the ghost’s empire.

 

Nathan Hystad, author of many science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories and editor-in-chief at Woodbridge Press:

Fool’s Quest, Robin Hobb – She is my one of if not my favorite author, and though the book could have been condensed in the middle by a couple hundred pages, the ending was enough to push this to one of my top reads of the year. She is one of the authors I can’t wait to read.

Salem’s Lot, Stephen King – I am a huge King fan and since he has so many books, I have really only read maybe a third of them. This was a wonderful book, and it was hard to believe it was published fourty years ago. If you haven’t read this book…do it!

Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke – This was my first Clarke experience, and it was a great one. The sense of tension and build up was palpable. It ended slightly disappointing but the book was so good, it was inspiring. I also read Childhood’s End after it, and really enjoyed it too.

 

A big thank you to all my lovely blog guests and readers. Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2016 be a year of great stories!