yuletide reveals and 2014 reading
This year I wrote one fic for Queen's Thief (Megan Whalen Turner), Rooftop Sneaking for morganstern, 1,500 words, about Eugenides teaching Eddis how to sneak around her palace.
I already recced my fic but I want to rec it again: Kushiel's Keys, by vibishan, 8,000 words, a what-if AU if Morwen succeeded in getting a child from Imriel and what would happen. Very very cool to see what might have been - lots of callbacks to the books' real chronology but also a lot of inventiveness that makes the AU great.
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Stats about my novel reading in 2014!
[brief rundown with mini-reviews of my favourite books this year]
I read 71 books this year 1. First book: Weight of Stone, by Laura Gilman, 9/10, fantasy ( Review). Last book: Emilie and the Hollow World, by Martha Wells, 7/10, fantasy. I would rec both, but I would only rec the first book of Weight of Stone's series (which is magic via wine/grapes); Gilman has serious plotting and tension issues and it is not a very satisfying resolution. The world itself is very cool.
In general my reading list, if you sort by author, is pretty clumpy. Quite a few authors I read 3 or more books from their catalogue. The most (n=5) was Sophie Kinsella. I'm swinging back to fantasy so a lot of stuff is in series. Main genres: fantasy, historical fiction, some sprinkling in of contemporary stuff and science fiction.
Outstanding books I read (that are not rereads): well, it'd probably be easier to make a list of stuff I didn't like, because I tend to DNF anything that doesn't catch my fancy. I don't ditch them exactly, I just put them down and forget to pick them up. That said:
Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde, sf/f dystopia. Colour-dominated hierarchy of future British Isles, stellar all round. Except for the fact I fear that he will never get round to a sequel. ( Review)
Lays of Marie de France: short pieces, some in prose and some in verse, of the twelve usually accepted as the work of Marie de France (c 14th century). Plenty of supernatural and interesting/sympathetic characters and a bit of insight into roles and perceptions in medieval French society. ( Review-ish)
Queen's Thief, Megan Whalen Turner, fantasy? Set in vaguely Greek landscape about a thief pressed into stealing a precious stone, it's a series that's completely chock full of twists and I love it. (Reviews for: The Thief (read in 2013), The Queen of Attolia)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, historical fiction. Fairly repetitive (if Robin Hood or his men end up fighting someone, 99% time the opponent will end up joining Robin's merry band), but lighthearted and fun and featured some truly hilarious English wording that has since shifted meaning or gone out of style. (Pyle lived in the latter half of the 19th century and into the 20th.)
Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson, fantasy. Notable because it was my huge summer book series. I read it every chance I got. I had a massive fit of BUT WHY at the third book, but the novels were magnetic. ( Review)
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin, science fiction. I loved her exploration of Anarres and its contrast with Urras. I'm still struggling to understand how a society of anarchists can survive. I can see anarchists surviving long term, I can see a community of anarchists surviving temporarily, but I am not quite convinced of it all together.
Blindsight, Peter Watts, science fiction. Alien first-contact novel. Very dense book packed with tons of interesting ideas. (Review)
Island of Ghosts, Gillian Bradshaw, historical fiction. The first few companies of Sarmatians are marched to Britain to serve as Roman soldiers on the Wall in the north. It's really just lovely. I reread it a lot. ( Review)
Howl's Moving Castle, Diane Wynne Jones, fantasy. Why I did not pick up Jones earlier (despite having heard so much about her stuff) I don't know, and I deeply regret it. My life is so much better with this book. It is just wonderful.
1 I have an Excel spreadsheet that tracks this. I fill down for the numbers (A1 is the column heading "book"; A2 is a plain number 1; A3 is =A2+1 and I fill down). Sometimes I delete or add rows and apparently it messed up the numbering a lot; I noticed a mistake, which shrunk it down to 69, then re-filled down everything and instead of the 70 I thought I actually read 71.
Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/163248.html.
I already recced my fic but I want to rec it again: Kushiel's Keys, by vibishan, 8,000 words, a what-if AU if Morwen succeeded in getting a child from Imriel and what would happen. Very very cool to see what might have been - lots of callbacks to the books' real chronology but also a lot of inventiveness that makes the AU great.
--
Stats about my novel reading in 2014!
[brief rundown with mini-reviews of my favourite books this year]
I read 71 books this year 1. First book: Weight of Stone, by Laura Gilman, 9/10, fantasy ( Review). Last book: Emilie and the Hollow World, by Martha Wells, 7/10, fantasy. I would rec both, but I would only rec the first book of Weight of Stone's series (which is magic via wine/grapes); Gilman has serious plotting and tension issues and it is not a very satisfying resolution. The world itself is very cool.
In general my reading list, if you sort by author, is pretty clumpy. Quite a few authors I read 3 or more books from their catalogue. The most (n=5) was Sophie Kinsella. I'm swinging back to fantasy so a lot of stuff is in series. Main genres: fantasy, historical fiction, some sprinkling in of contemporary stuff and science fiction.
Outstanding books I read (that are not rereads): well, it'd probably be easier to make a list of stuff I didn't like, because I tend to DNF anything that doesn't catch my fancy. I don't ditch them exactly, I just put them down and forget to pick them up. That said:
Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde, sf/f dystopia. Colour-dominated hierarchy of future British Isles, stellar all round. Except for the fact I fear that he will never get round to a sequel. ( Review)
Lays of Marie de France: short pieces, some in prose and some in verse, of the twelve usually accepted as the work of Marie de France (c 14th century). Plenty of supernatural and interesting/sympathetic characters and a bit of insight into roles and perceptions in medieval French society. ( Review-ish)
Queen's Thief, Megan Whalen Turner, fantasy? Set in vaguely Greek landscape about a thief pressed into stealing a precious stone, it's a series that's completely chock full of twists and I love it. (Reviews for: The Thief (read in 2013), The Queen of Attolia)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle, historical fiction. Fairly repetitive (if Robin Hood or his men end up fighting someone, 99% time the opponent will end up joining Robin's merry band), but lighthearted and fun and featured some truly hilarious English wording that has since shifted meaning or gone out of style. (Pyle lived in the latter half of the 19th century and into the 20th.)
Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson, fantasy. Notable because it was my huge summer book series. I read it every chance I got. I had a massive fit of BUT WHY at the third book, but the novels were magnetic. ( Review)
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin, science fiction. I loved her exploration of Anarres and its contrast with Urras. I'm still struggling to understand how a society of anarchists can survive. I can see anarchists surviving long term, I can see a community of anarchists surviving temporarily, but I am not quite convinced of it all together.
Blindsight, Peter Watts, science fiction. Alien first-contact novel. Very dense book packed with tons of interesting ideas. (Review)
Island of Ghosts, Gillian Bradshaw, historical fiction. The first few companies of Sarmatians are marched to Britain to serve as Roman soldiers on the Wall in the north. It's really just lovely. I reread it a lot. ( Review)
Howl's Moving Castle, Diane Wynne Jones, fantasy. Why I did not pick up Jones earlier (despite having heard so much about her stuff) I don't know, and I deeply regret it. My life is so much better with this book. It is just wonderful.
1 I have an Excel spreadsheet that tracks this. I fill down for the numbers (A1 is the column heading "book"; A2 is a plain number 1; A3 is =A2+1 and I fill down). Sometimes I delete or add rows and apparently it messed up the numbering a lot; I noticed a mistake, which shrunk it down to 69, then re-filled down everything and instead of the 70 I thought I actually read 71.
Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/163248.html.