2013 book roundup; git along now, little novels
An end of year summary of the books I read in 2013. (A slightly shorter version is x-posted to bookish.)
Stats:
total books finished: 101
sf/f: 71
books with female authors: 67
books with male authors: 34
young adult fiction: 16
non-sf/f fiction (including YA): 5
nonfiction: 4
graphic novels: 4
series tie-ins: 2 (Star Trek TOS, Warhammer 40,000)
ambiguously fiction/fact novella in narrative poetry: 1
Highlights (this is most of the linked posts):
Best One Hit Wonder (So Far):
Miserere: An Autumn Tale - Teresa Frohock. Truly weird original worldbuilding involving religion, angst, the striving nobility of failed paladins, gratuitous femdom bdsm, kickass heroine overcoming her psych troubles, goth.
Best novels that made me go wow, I didn't know this author could be that good:
Fortune's Pawn - Rachel Bach (previously published as Rachel Aaron). Nonstop military-political action, female warrior hero, an actual hot guy. OH MY GOD I NEED THE NEXT 2 BOOKS NAO.
The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken. Previously known to me as the author of a YA fantasy debut novel about carpet weaving that made me go meh. I never finished it. Whereas THIS WORK. This work is a dark, nuanced dystopia that doesn't talk down to you, that you can sink your teeth into. Parts of it are a Soviet gulag novel, only with child telepaths in a postapocalyptic US. Awesome believable main cast.
London Falling - Paul Cornell. Paul Cornell brought sex, guns, Machiavelli, and wine-drinking to the Doctor Who novels when I was a preteen. Sadly one of the better writers of the New Adventures. I love this urban fantasy though, and I can actually stand to believe in the universe without destroying all my hopes for beauty and karma.
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane - Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's okay. He's a better scripter (tv or comics) than a prose artist, which makes sense. I really liked this one though.
Feed - Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire). I avoided this one for years because it was a zombie novel. Picked it up to look at one day because it's about blogs and I was bored and my coworker kept raving about it. Mind. Blown. Zombies? Who cares about zombies? This is a political conspiracy thriller about the epic search for truth in politics and history, with an inspiringly badass paladin-reporter female character to boot. Plus geeking and epidemiology. Think Terry Pratchett's The Truth, only with Ivanova as a postapocalyptic blogger facing off against the neocons.
Gameboard of the Gods - Richelle Mead. What's hotter than young adult vampire novels and young adult prep school novels? Young adult vampire prep school novels = bestsellerdom! I haven't read. *This* novel is a very cool scifi/fantasy crossover with a bunch of Pagan gods wandering around trying to come back into our reality and harassing Our Heroes, a female elite soldier and a somewhat dissolute but pleasantly overintellectualizing male spook type with a sometimes-too-high opinion of himself.
The Curve of the Earth - Simon Morden. Postapocalyptic postpunk Russian-British physicist (armed and tech-heavy) vs. fundamentalist American government. Warren Ellis writing Abram Tertz's quest to rescue Tank Girl. Plus buddy movies. I wish the first Petrovitch novel had been as good as this, but this book made me happy to read that one.
Best space exploration nostalgia that made me cry from wonder:
Orbiter - Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran (art) with Dave Stewart
Recovering Apollo 8 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Best unexpected intrusion of the Russian surrealist humour tradition:
Breaking Stalin's Nose - Eugene Yelchin
Special category for:
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children - Kirstin Cronn-Mills. Not a one hit wonder, I've only read a few pages of her other book, not a first novel, not an author I'd heard of before, but wow does this novel work.
Special category for:
Reviver - Seth Patrick. What an amazing first novel full of atmosphere and personality and mystery and grittiness except for the sudden descent into demon/devil horror cliché right before the ending. At least there's an upcoming novel, maybe Patrick can work around it somehow and bring the rest of the trilogy/series/whatever up to the quality of the first 7/8 of this book.
Worst marketing:
Assassin's Gambit - Amy Raby. Book one of the Hearts And Thrones series has the series name stuck in the center of the cover, which features a woman in a flowing fantasy toga in front of a vista featuring a misty castle. Right. This is actually about an assassin trained from childhood to kill war mages at the height of their orgasm (because otherwise their combat magic kicks in and you can't really kill them unless you have 3+ good fighters mobbing them) who falls in love with her target, the abused child of a dead emperor suddenly thrust under a crown, but doesn't save him until after a coup leaves him without resource, at which point she thinks to negotiate her country's freedom. They both have massive PTSD and bond while discussing pseudochess and strategy. Oh yeah, and there's a cute dog. It must be paranormal romance! ....At least it's got a 5-star rating on amazon, 25 reviews and none of them below 4 stars. ...Book two's cover is even girlier.
State of Decay - James Knapp. Stupidly marketed as a fantasy novel because the postmortal characters are kind of could be considered vaguely like if you tried zombies. Really dystopian scifi with telepaths and undercover cops.
Most distinctive books that remain intensely in my memory:
The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken (read 1/27/2013)
Wide Open - Deborah Coates (r. 2/19) [Depth, place, voice. Perfect.]
The Curve of the Earth - Simon Morden (4/7)
Feed - Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) (5/7) - plus the other two books in the trilogy.
Orbiter - Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran (art) with Dave Stewart (5/24)
The End of The World - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (6/15)
Arclight - Josin L McQuein (6/29)
Recovering Apollo 8 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (7/4)
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Holly Black (9/11)
Shadows - Robin McKinley (10/8)
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children - Kirstin Cronn-Mills (10/26)
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch (10/29) [The sensual pleasure of reading Peter Grant's snark is indescribable.]
State Of Decay - James Knapp (11/2)
The War And After: Five Stories of Magic and Revenge - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (11/3)
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie (12/8)
Stats:
total books finished: 101
sf/f: 71
books with female authors: 67
books with male authors: 34
young adult fiction: 16
non-sf/f fiction (including YA): 5
nonfiction: 4
graphic novels: 4
series tie-ins: 2 (Star Trek TOS, Warhammer 40,000)
ambiguously fiction/fact novella in narrative poetry: 1
Highlights (this is most of the linked posts):
Best One Hit Wonder (So Far):
Miserere: An Autumn Tale - Teresa Frohock. Truly weird original worldbuilding involving religion, angst, the striving nobility of failed paladins, gratuitous femdom bdsm, kickass heroine overcoming her psych troubles, goth.
Best novels that made me go wow, I didn't know this author could be that good:
Fortune's Pawn - Rachel Bach (previously published as Rachel Aaron). Nonstop military-political action, female warrior hero, an actual hot guy. OH MY GOD I NEED THE NEXT 2 BOOKS NAO.
The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken. Previously known to me as the author of a YA fantasy debut novel about carpet weaving that made me go meh. I never finished it. Whereas THIS WORK. This work is a dark, nuanced dystopia that doesn't talk down to you, that you can sink your teeth into. Parts of it are a Soviet gulag novel, only with child telepaths in a postapocalyptic US. Awesome believable main cast.
London Falling - Paul Cornell. Paul Cornell brought sex, guns, Machiavelli, and wine-drinking to the Doctor Who novels when I was a preteen. Sadly one of the better writers of the New Adventures. I love this urban fantasy though, and I can actually stand to believe in the universe without destroying all my hopes for beauty and karma.
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane - Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's okay. He's a better scripter (tv or comics) than a prose artist, which makes sense. I really liked this one though.
Feed - Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire). I avoided this one for years because it was a zombie novel. Picked it up to look at one day because it's about blogs and I was bored and my coworker kept raving about it. Mind. Blown. Zombies? Who cares about zombies? This is a political conspiracy thriller about the epic search for truth in politics and history, with an inspiringly badass paladin-reporter female character to boot. Plus geeking and epidemiology. Think Terry Pratchett's The Truth, only with Ivanova as a postapocalyptic blogger facing off against the neocons.
Gameboard of the Gods - Richelle Mead. What's hotter than young adult vampire novels and young adult prep school novels? Young adult vampire prep school novels = bestsellerdom! I haven't read. *This* novel is a very cool scifi/fantasy crossover with a bunch of Pagan gods wandering around trying to come back into our reality and harassing Our Heroes, a female elite soldier and a somewhat dissolute but pleasantly overintellectualizing male spook type with a sometimes-too-high opinion of himself.
The Curve of the Earth - Simon Morden. Postapocalyptic postpunk Russian-British physicist (armed and tech-heavy) vs. fundamentalist American government. Warren Ellis writing Abram Tertz's quest to rescue Tank Girl. Plus buddy movies. I wish the first Petrovitch novel had been as good as this, but this book made me happy to read that one.
Best space exploration nostalgia that made me cry from wonder:
Orbiter - Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran (art) with Dave Stewart
Recovering Apollo 8 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Best unexpected intrusion of the Russian surrealist humour tradition:
Breaking Stalin's Nose - Eugene Yelchin
Special category for:
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children - Kirstin Cronn-Mills. Not a one hit wonder, I've only read a few pages of her other book, not a first novel, not an author I'd heard of before, but wow does this novel work.
Special category for:
Reviver - Seth Patrick. What an amazing first novel full of atmosphere and personality and mystery and grittiness except for the sudden descent into demon/devil horror cliché right before the ending. At least there's an upcoming novel, maybe Patrick can work around it somehow and bring the rest of the trilogy/series/whatever up to the quality of the first 7/8 of this book.
Worst marketing:
Assassin's Gambit - Amy Raby. Book one of the Hearts And Thrones series has the series name stuck in the center of the cover, which features a woman in a flowing fantasy toga in front of a vista featuring a misty castle. Right. This is actually about an assassin trained from childhood to kill war mages at the height of their orgasm (because otherwise their combat magic kicks in and you can't really kill them unless you have 3+ good fighters mobbing them) who falls in love with her target, the abused child of a dead emperor suddenly thrust under a crown, but doesn't save him until after a coup leaves him without resource, at which point she thinks to negotiate her country's freedom. They both have massive PTSD and bond while discussing pseudochess and strategy. Oh yeah, and there's a cute dog. It must be paranormal romance! ....At least it's got a 5-star rating on amazon, 25 reviews and none of them below 4 stars. ...Book two's cover is even girlier.
State of Decay - James Knapp. Stupidly marketed as a fantasy novel because the postmortal characters are kind of could be considered vaguely like if you tried zombies. Really dystopian scifi with telepaths and undercover cops.
Most distinctive books that remain intensely in my memory:
The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken (read 1/27/2013)
Wide Open - Deborah Coates (r. 2/19) [Depth, place, voice. Perfect.]
The Curve of the Earth - Simon Morden (4/7)
Feed - Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) (5/7) - plus the other two books in the trilogy.
Orbiter - Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran (art) with Dave Stewart (5/24)
The End of The World - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (6/15)
Arclight - Josin L McQuein (6/29)
Recovering Apollo 8 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (7/4)
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Holly Black (9/11)
Shadows - Robin McKinley (10/8)
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children - Kirstin Cronn-Mills (10/26)
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch (10/29) [The sensual pleasure of reading Peter Grant's snark is indescribable.]
State Of Decay - James Knapp (11/2)
The War And After: Five Stories of Magic and Revenge - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (11/3)
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie (12/8)