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2019 reading list
Jan. 7th, 2020 11:01 pm2019 reading totals:
69 books (2018: 76)
(S)WM: 6 (2018: 14)
I continue to enjoy the diversity in my fiction reading that this project has brought to my life.
A Trail Through Time - Jodi Taylor. Ok, still fun, but, if anything, even more contrived plot (in a time-travel series). I'll read the 5th I have, but not buy more.
A Climber's Guide to El Potrero Chico - Simeon Heimowitz. An extended rant about route development in EPC with occasional route information interspersed.
Good Guys - Steven Brust. Good -- good yarn, well put together.
Silver Moon: A Wolves fo Wolf's Point Novel - Cahterine Lundoff. Good, queer, would buy more but not chase down.
Stay Crazy - Erica L. Satifka. Highly unreliable narrator (schizophrenic) in a story where it is hard to tell "voices from aliens" from "hallucinations". Not entirely my thing, but not bad.
Hull Metal Girls - Emily Skrutskie. Pretty good. A few suspension-of-disbelief problems (generation ship where they far too casually lose air from airlocks), but a good tale.
The Song of Hadariah - Alisse Lee Goldenberg. Meh-. Characters suggest YA (summer before last year of high school) -- but the problems/resolutions and writing seem too simplistic for even that -- more like juvenile? Not worth getting more.
Inside Job - Connie Willis. (ebook). Meh+. Short. Do we really need another story where a movie-star beautiful rich women falls for a nerdy guy? Or pander much?
Ashes of Honor - Seanan McGuire. Continues good. Get next one.
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinetter Kowal. Despite alt-history not being my thing, I quite enjoyed this.
10
An Ancient Peace - Tanya Huff. Fun, not deep but enjoyable. Buy more.
Beloved - Toni Morrison. Book club. Not bad for "literature". Why is Magic Realism accepted as serious literature" but fantasy isn't?
Space Opera - Catherynne (Cat) M. Valente. Meh for a very non-meh book. Definitely other people's thing, but not mine. This seems an ongoing issue for her work.
Mecanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti - Genevieve Valentine. Strange, baroque, dark, but good.
Dragon Pearl - Yoon Ha Lee. YA, not as good as Machinations of Empire, but still pretty good. Started a bit weak.
Skeen's Return - Jo Clayton. Good adventure story. Some fun 4th-wall breaking.
Skeen's Search - Jo Clayton. Enjoyable conclusion. Though, I realized part-way through I had suspension-of-disbelief issues with the reproductive biology of the major race focussed on. (Male/female pair-bonds, abour 50/50 sex mix, max 3 children per female.)
Dragon's Winter - Elizabeth A Lynn. Decent high fantasy.
Temper - Nicky Drayden. An interesting, readable, but not light fantasy, but from a very non-standard view. Interesting gender stuff.
The Black Tides of Heaven - Jy Yang. Another good, but different fantasy with interesting gender stuff.
20
Bannerless - Carrie Vaughn. Good, post-apocalypse, and interestingly-presented world and story. Also, a murder-mystery.
Point of Hopes - Melissa Scott & Lisa Barnett. Enjoyable mystery-fantasy.
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach - Kelly Robson. Another post-apocalypse (eco), but with time-travel. Good, but short.
The Poppy War - R.F. Kuang. A fantasy novel about war -- but not the usual pretty genteel war of a fantasy novel. A war with atrocities, and with people who can commit them. Good, but not easy.
Otherbound - Corrine Duyvis. Interesting, I'd read more by Corrine.
Planetfall - Emma Newman. Good. Interesting book with an, essentially, broken protaganist.
Sister Emily's Light Ship (and other stories) - Jane Yolen. Short stories, generally ok to good.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Kai Ashante Wilson. Excellent. Short, but very interesting visit to a very different world & culture.
After Atlas - Emma Newman. A sequel to Planetfall, but not a continuation - an independent and very different, but still good, novel.
Icon - Genevieve Valentine. Sequel (and continuation) to Persona and not, I feel, as strong.
30
A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashante Wilson. Nominally a sequel to The Sorceror; unrelated other than world. eforGood, but not as good.
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe. Ugh. UUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHH. (Book club.)
Before Mars - Emma Dawn - book three of Planetfall series. Slower getting started, not as good as previous 2. Not bother with next?
Attached - Amir Levine M.D. and Rachel S.F. Heller, M.A. Non-fiction. Adult attachment in relationships - some useful stuff.
The Burning City - Alaya Dawn Johnson. Book 2 of Spiritbinders trilogy; excellent, but cliff-hanger ending. Published in 2010 (book one 2007), book 3... doesn't exist yet! ARGH!
Brother Ruined - Emma Newman. Short (novella?). Good, buy more.
Devil's Wake - Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due. Zombie apocalypse tropes played with -- not bad, but not my thing. I dislike the people-get-nasty-in-a-disaster trope. Nope, people get altruistic, band-together, and help each other, generally.
The Lilies of Dawn - Vanessa Fogg. Short - novella? Or shorter? But, enjoyable.
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - F. C. Yee. Delightful. Look for the sequel.
Will Do Magic for Small Change - Andrea Hairston. Excellent! Black, queer, and awesome.
40
Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep - Paula Guran (ed) - a surprisingly good collection for a themed collection, with many strong stories.
Mighty Good Road - Melissa Scott. Fun, light read.
Dreaming Metal - Melissa Scott. Good, bit heavier, not quite so fun.
Steerswoman - Rosemary Kirstein. Very good, put next in series on to-buy list.
Skin Folk - Nalo Hopkinson. Short stories, many very good. Some written in an English that is not my English, though.
Hidden Sun - Jaine Fenn. Good, buy more. Fallen-colony.
Jade War - Fonda Lee. Still good, though maybe not quite as good as first. Buy 3rd.
Mrs Vargas and the Dead Naturalist - Kathleen Alana. Short stories. Mexican author, mostly non-fantastic with some Magic Realism. Not really my thing, but seem well done. And interesting insights into another culture.
How Long 'Til Black Future Month? - N. K. Jemisin. Short stories. All good, many excellent, some cutting. A few are set in familiar settings, a few are in conversation with classics of the genre, and some are just their own thing.
Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens - Eleanor Arneson. Linked short stories, purportedly translated from an alien culture, with annotations. Generally good.
50
Beholder's Eye - Julie E. Czerneda. Ok, but not great. "Web Shifters #1" -- I probably won't chase down any more of them.
The Ecologic Envoy - L. E. Modesitt, JR. I think I would have enjoyed it more in the 80s, when it was written. Kinda feminist, in a back-handed misogynist way?
Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer. Excellent, but only 1/2 the book (or maybe trilogy?) -- pickup second volume. A look at Utopia with a lot of philosophy.
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers. The characters and story are good - but oh the science. Perpetual motion machine android, and more.
No Time Like the Past - Jodi Taylor. Book 5. Meh+.
The Sagan Diary - John Scalzi. Short, interesting, but not at all what I've come to expect from Scalzi.
A College of Magics - Caroline Stevermer. An enjoyable stand-alone fantasy. Stand-alone is kind of nice.
AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers - Ivor W. Hartmann (ed). Very uneven. Interesting, none-the-less.
The Twenty-Side Sorceress Omnibus: Books 1-3 - Annie Bellet. Enjoyable urban fantasy.
Hexarchate Stories - Yoon Ha Lee. Some are very light, some are good, the final novella is very good. A lot more about Jedao.
60
The Consuming Fire - John Scalzi. Started slow, but turned out solid.
A Blade So Black - L.L. McKinney. YAish, but good. Playing with themes from Alice in Wonderland.
Dark Orbit - Carolyn Ives Gilman. Good, even very good. Some interesting ideas on thought, perception, and science.
Not Your Sidekcik - C. B. Lee. Fun, YAish, good. Speaks from/to a queer and immigrant experience.
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone - Kat Howard. Short stories; the weakest are good, many are excellent, some are put-down-the-book-and-sit-with-the-story-for-a-bit-before-continuing excellent. Also, lovely prose.
The Raven Tower - Anne Leckie. Good. Written in 2nd person - why? I guess I should expect something odd with pronouns.
The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo. Interesting and different, decent.
Mindscape - Andrea Hairston. Weird. Really weird. (Also felt long.) Hard to get into, but worth finishing.
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz. Ok. IP gone mad, plus 'bots.
Total: 69 (2018: 76)
(S?WM): 6 (2018: 14)
69 books (2018: 76)
(S)WM: 6 (2018: 14)
I continue to enjoy the diversity in my fiction reading that this project has brought to my life.
A Trail Through Time - Jodi Taylor. Ok, still fun, but, if anything, even more contrived plot (in a time-travel series). I'll read the 5th I have, but not buy more.
A Climber's Guide to El Potrero Chico - Simeon Heimowitz. An extended rant about route development in EPC with occasional route information interspersed.
Good Guys - Steven Brust. Good -- good yarn, well put together.
Silver Moon: A Wolves fo Wolf's Point Novel - Cahterine Lundoff. Good, queer, would buy more but not chase down.
Stay Crazy - Erica L. Satifka. Highly unreliable narrator (schizophrenic) in a story where it is hard to tell "voices from aliens" from "hallucinations". Not entirely my thing, but not bad.
Hull Metal Girls - Emily Skrutskie. Pretty good. A few suspension-of-disbelief problems (generation ship where they far too casually lose air from airlocks), but a good tale.
The Song of Hadariah - Alisse Lee Goldenberg. Meh-. Characters suggest YA (summer before last year of high school) -- but the problems/resolutions and writing seem too simplistic for even that -- more like juvenile? Not worth getting more.
Inside Job - Connie Willis. (ebook). Meh+. Short. Do we really need another story where a movie-star beautiful rich women falls for a nerdy guy? Or pander much?
Ashes of Honor - Seanan McGuire. Continues good. Get next one.
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinetter Kowal. Despite alt-history not being my thing, I quite enjoyed this.
10
An Ancient Peace - Tanya Huff. Fun, not deep but enjoyable. Buy more.
Beloved - Toni Morrison. Book club. Not bad for "literature". Why is Magic Realism accepted as serious literature" but fantasy isn't?
Space Opera - Catherynne (Cat) M. Valente. Meh for a very non-meh book. Definitely other people's thing, but not mine. This seems an ongoing issue for her work.
Mecanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti - Genevieve Valentine. Strange, baroque, dark, but good.
Dragon Pearl - Yoon Ha Lee. YA, not as good as Machinations of Empire, but still pretty good. Started a bit weak.
Skeen's Return - Jo Clayton. Good adventure story. Some fun 4th-wall breaking.
Skeen's Search - Jo Clayton. Enjoyable conclusion. Though, I realized part-way through I had suspension-of-disbelief issues with the reproductive biology of the major race focussed on. (Male/female pair-bonds, abour 50/50 sex mix, max 3 children per female.)
Dragon's Winter - Elizabeth A Lynn. Decent high fantasy.
Temper - Nicky Drayden. An interesting, readable, but not light fantasy, but from a very non-standard view. Interesting gender stuff.
The Black Tides of Heaven - Jy Yang. Another good, but different fantasy with interesting gender stuff.
20
Bannerless - Carrie Vaughn. Good, post-apocalypse, and interestingly-presented world and story. Also, a murder-mystery.
Point of Hopes - Melissa Scott & Lisa Barnett. Enjoyable mystery-fantasy.
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach - Kelly Robson. Another post-apocalypse (eco), but with time-travel. Good, but short.
The Poppy War - R.F. Kuang. A fantasy novel about war -- but not the usual pretty genteel war of a fantasy novel. A war with atrocities, and with people who can commit them. Good, but not easy.
Otherbound - Corrine Duyvis. Interesting, I'd read more by Corrine.
Planetfall - Emma Newman. Good. Interesting book with an, essentially, broken protaganist.
Sister Emily's Light Ship (and other stories) - Jane Yolen. Short stories, generally ok to good.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Kai Ashante Wilson. Excellent. Short, but very interesting visit to a very different world & culture.
After Atlas - Emma Newman. A sequel to Planetfall, but not a continuation - an independent and very different, but still good, novel.
Icon - Genevieve Valentine. Sequel (and continuation) to Persona and not, I feel, as strong.
30
A Taste of Honey - Kai Ashante Wilson. Nominally a sequel to The Sorceror; unrelated other than world. eforGood, but not as good.
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe. Ugh. UUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHH. (Book club.)
Before Mars - Emma Dawn - book three of Planetfall series. Slower getting started, not as good as previous 2. Not bother with next?
Attached - Amir Levine M.D. and Rachel S.F. Heller, M.A. Non-fiction. Adult attachment in relationships - some useful stuff.
The Burning City - Alaya Dawn Johnson. Book 2 of Spiritbinders trilogy; excellent, but cliff-hanger ending. Published in 2010 (book one 2007), book 3... doesn't exist yet! ARGH!
Brother Ruined - Emma Newman. Short (novella?). Good, buy more.
Devil's Wake - Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due. Zombie apocalypse tropes played with -- not bad, but not my thing. I dislike the people-get-nasty-in-a-disaster trope. Nope, people get altruistic, band-together, and help each other, generally.
The Lilies of Dawn - Vanessa Fogg. Short - novella? Or shorter? But, enjoyable.
The Epic Crush of Genie Lo - F. C. Yee. Delightful. Look for the sequel.
Will Do Magic for Small Change - Andrea Hairston. Excellent! Black, queer, and awesome.
40
Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep - Paula Guran (ed) - a surprisingly good collection for a themed collection, with many strong stories.
Mighty Good Road - Melissa Scott. Fun, light read.
Dreaming Metal - Melissa Scott. Good, bit heavier, not quite so fun.
Steerswoman - Rosemary Kirstein. Very good, put next in series on to-buy list.
Skin Folk - Nalo Hopkinson. Short stories, many very good. Some written in an English that is not my English, though.
Hidden Sun - Jaine Fenn. Good, buy more. Fallen-colony.
Jade War - Fonda Lee. Still good, though maybe not quite as good as first. Buy 3rd.
Mrs Vargas and the Dead Naturalist - Kathleen Alana. Short stories. Mexican author, mostly non-fantastic with some Magic Realism. Not really my thing, but seem well done. And interesting insights into another culture.
How Long 'Til Black Future Month? - N. K. Jemisin. Short stories. All good, many excellent, some cutting. A few are set in familiar settings, a few are in conversation with classics of the genre, and some are just their own thing.
Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens - Eleanor Arneson. Linked short stories, purportedly translated from an alien culture, with annotations. Generally good.
50
Beholder's Eye - Julie E. Czerneda. Ok, but not great. "Web Shifters #1" -- I probably won't chase down any more of them.
The Ecologic Envoy - L. E. Modesitt, JR. I think I would have enjoyed it more in the 80s, when it was written. Kinda feminist, in a back-handed misogynist way?
Too Like the Lightning - Ada Palmer. Excellent, but only 1/2 the book (or maybe trilogy?) -- pickup second volume. A look at Utopia with a lot of philosophy.
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers. The characters and story are good - but oh the science. Perpetual motion machine android, and more.
No Time Like the Past - Jodi Taylor. Book 5. Meh+.
The Sagan Diary - John Scalzi. Short, interesting, but not at all what I've come to expect from Scalzi.
A College of Magics - Caroline Stevermer. An enjoyable stand-alone fantasy. Stand-alone is kind of nice.
AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers - Ivor W. Hartmann (ed). Very uneven. Interesting, none-the-less.
The Twenty-Side Sorceress Omnibus: Books 1-3 - Annie Bellet. Enjoyable urban fantasy.
Hexarchate Stories - Yoon Ha Lee. Some are very light, some are good, the final novella is very good. A lot more about Jedao.
60
The Consuming Fire - John Scalzi. Started slow, but turned out solid.
A Blade So Black - L.L. McKinney. YAish, but good. Playing with themes from Alice in Wonderland.
Dark Orbit - Carolyn Ives Gilman. Good, even very good. Some interesting ideas on thought, perception, and science.
Not Your Sidekcik - C. B. Lee. Fun, YAish, good. Speaks from/to a queer and immigrant experience.
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone - Kat Howard. Short stories; the weakest are good, many are excellent, some are put-down-the-book-and-sit-with-the-story-for-a-bit-before-continuing excellent. Also, lovely prose.
The Raven Tower - Anne Leckie. Good. Written in 2nd person - why? I guess I should expect something odd with pronouns.
The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo. Interesting and different, decent.
Mindscape - Andrea Hairston. Weird. Really weird. (Also felt long.) Hard to get into, but worth finishing.
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz. Ok. IP gone mad, plus 'bots.
Total: 69 (2018: 76)
(S?WM): 6 (2018: 14)
