BEST AND WORST OF 2011

[mjgambino]

76 books this year, a new personal record. Yay unemployment! I'm still pretty new to sf/fantasy, so I'm still reading a lot of older stuff.

Best books that I read this year (in no particular order):

Iron Jackal

All the Vorkosigan books

The Heroes

Dance with Dragons

Fallen Dragon

Use of the Weapons

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

Worst:

The Hunger Games Trilogy (I don't get the hype.)

Color of Magic

The Order of Scales

[beniowa]

The Stand-Outs:

Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch

Zoo City, Lauren Beukes

Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang

When the Great Days Come, Gardner Dozois

Infidel, Kameron Hurley

A Dance with Dragons, George R. R. Martin

The Islanders, Christopher Priest

Things Will Never Be the Same, Howard Waldrop

The Iron Jackal, Chris Wooding

Worst:

Den of Thieves, David Chandler

Feed, Mira Grant

Wolf Hall would be under the worst if I had managed to finish it. Everyone raved about it, and normally I like historical fiction, but this one bored me to tears.

[Grack21]

76 books this year, a new personal record. Yay unemployment! I'm still pretty new to sf/fantasy, so I'm still reading a lot of older stuff.

Best books that I read this year (in no particular order):

Iron Jackal

All the Vorkosigan books

The Heroes

Dance with Dragons

Fallen Dragon

Use of the Weapons

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

Worst:

The Hunger Games Trilogy (I don't get the hype.)

Color of Magic

The Order of Scales

Oh, Finally someone who doesn;t like Color of Magic either. We should form a club.

[Garlan the Gallant]

I managed 27 books this year, but many of them did not come out in 2011.

God Tier:

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Top Tier:

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

High Tier:

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Mid Tier:

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Low Tier:

Brayan's Gold by Peter V. Brett

Bottom Tier:

Perfect Shadow by Brent Weeks

[TheEvilKing]

I've only finished 15 books this year. Pretty lame effort since I smashed out 25 last year. Going to use the Tier system like Garlan.

God Tier:

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

Homicide by David Simon

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

Epic Tier:

The White-Luck Warrior by Scott Bakker

Awesome Tier:

The Hammer by K.J. Parker

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox

The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

Good But Should Have Been Much Better Tier:

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

Good Tier:

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley

Tower of the King's Daughter by Chaz Brenchley

Okay Tier:

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

[Grack21]

I suppose I'll have to get to this Last Werewolf thing, although I'll admit the extracts I've read make me vomit.

[Tehol]

my books are mostly paperbacks with few exceptions, so i am not updated with current releases.

books that i liked not in any particular order:

god's war - kameron hurley.

the last werewolf - glen duncan.

the white-luck warrior - r scott bakker. i loved this book.

never knew another - j m mcdermott.

loved jim buther's dresden files book 1 to 5 but had to stop at book six-blood rites, i was never sure of urban fantasy and this did not help at all.i could bitch about it but guess is not a right place to do it.

the passage - justin cronin.

matterhorn - karl marlentes.

did not like:

a dance with dragons - george r r martin. my impression ...*yawn*.

the night circus - erin morgenstern.

miserere an autumn tale - teresa frohock. just awful.

there is a book called wise man's fear sitting on my bedside table, glaring at me but i do not feel the urge to take it up. thomas wagner (whose review i read carefully and agree most of the time) compared it with jrpg (japanese role-playing game), is not helping it's cause.

to the future

this year i read a lot of fantasy books, next year i intend to diversify. history,historical fiction and some others.

i want to thank veterans of this sub forum for their insights, helped me to pick up some books that i wouldn't have considered reading and avoiding the stinkers.

[Happy Ent]

i want to thank veterans of this sub forum for their insights, helped me to pick up some books that i wouldn't have considered reading and avoiding the stinkers.

Let me echo this. Simple as it is, I find this very thread quite insightful and encourage more boarders to post on it. There’s a lot of useful information (both about books and boarders) in rankings and one-line reviews.

[SkynJay]

Oh, Finally someone who doesn;t like Color of Magic either. We should form a club.

The club of being wrong!

jk, but I do love Color of Magic, and have read it at least five times.

[Calibandar]

Some thoughts:

White-Luck Warrior: Very good, but far more excited about Unholy Consult. On the downside I felt it held out on me, only gave small teasers, wasn't the revelatory book Bakker spoke about. And also, the final third just wasn't to my satisfaction, for reasons detailed by myself and others in the Bakker threads. On the upside, well it was a great read once again, still very interesting, tremendous worldbuilding, sense of depth and scale. Also, immensely intriguing series, so many mysteries going on, that is why there is so much discussion about it. Very much up there with JRRT and Martin as the best in epic Fantasy.

Dance with Dragons- GRRM

It wasn't what I was hoping for, it hard sections which were disappointing, but on the whole I was still very glad to have read it. As I said before, it now seems Winds of Winter was the book I'd been waiting all these years for, because so little of what I was hoping and expecting to see, happened in Dance. And yet it was still a book that I blazed through, and had some remarkably beautiful stuff. I rate it slightly higher than WLW.

I chose to save Abercombie's The Heroes and Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear for 2012. Thought Dragon's Path was an "ok but no more than that" start to a new Abraham series. Haven't read Leviathan Wakes yet.

Also really liked Felix Gilman's Half-Made World and The Passage by Justin Cronin, as well as Full Dark, No Stars, a great return to novella form from Stephen King.

Goblin Corps-Ari Marmell was a fun read that people might check out if you're interested in a classic adventure, but with a twist, and great humor.

Books I did not care for, and/or couldn't get into at all:

Embassytown-Mieville- ( very hard to get into, I like the premise, but once again find Mieville impossible to connect with)

Deathless-Valente ( just too boring, no characters to connect with)

Winds of Khalakovo-Beaulieau

Whitefire crossing-Schafer ( as with the Beaulieu, promising but not well-written/characterized)

Prince of Thorns-Lawrence ( unbelievable and too young adult for me )

Alloy of Law-Sanderson ( just cannot get on with this man's work, such light fluff, no suspension of disbelief)

The Tiger's Wife-Obrecht ( not engaged in the slightest)

Swamplandia-Russell ( just not my thing)

By Light alone-Roberts ( totally unengaging)

The Night Circus-Morgenstern ( intriguing, but the characters were so slight)

The Quantum Thief by Rajaniemi- what the fuck?

Magician King- I wasn't that pleased with The Magicians, but it had something. This was worse and put me off the series.

Best horror:

I read very little horror, but one book came out this year which I just had to read, and it was a fine one indeed:

The Ritual- Adam Nevill

Good 2011 anthologies:

Alien Contact-edited by Marty Halpern

Halloween-edited by Paula Guran

Ghosts by Gaslight-edited by Nick Gevers

Couple of high profile fiction releases that I read and which were very good, every single one of them:

Doc: A novel-Mary Doria Russell

Train Dreams-Denis Johnson

The devil all the time- Donald Ray Pollock

The Nightwoods- Charles Frazier

The Sister Brothers-Patrick Dewitt

Cool 2011 artbooks:

Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art- edited by Karen Haber

Great short story collections:

Orientation and other stories-Daniel Orozco

The Great Frustration- Seth Fried

We, Others-Steven Millhauser ( if you don't own much of his previous collections, this would be a good choice, it's a sort of retrospective)

Volt-Alan Heathcock

The Outlaw Album-Daniel Woodrell

Both ways is the only way I want it-Maile Meloy

Sleight of hand- Peter Beagle- fantastic collection by the master fantasist.

[Cuchulain]

I've read a little over a hundred books this year, but I'll restrict my list to 2011 releases.

The Good:

The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie

The Crippled God - Steven Erikson

The Hammer - K J Parker

A Dance with Dragons - George RR Martin

The Cold Commands - Richard Morgan

The Okay:

Home Fires - Gene Wolfe

The Enterprise of Death - Jesse Bullington

The Edinburgh Dead - Brian Ruckley

The Disappointing:

Embassytown - China Miéville

The Book of Transformations - Mark Charan Newton

The Last Werewolf - Glen Duncan

I've read a lot of excellent books which weren't released this year (too many to list here), but my absolute favourites are the novels and short stories of Alastair Reynolds. So far I've finished all of his Revelation Space works and the standalone House of Suns and I haven't come across anything mediocre (let alone bad) yet.

[dornish prince]

even counting short stories, i didn't crack 20 this year...most likely my lowest total since junior high school. i promise i'll do better this year.

in no particular order...

the quantum thief: absolutely loved it. it unfolded like a summer blockbuster in my head.

the name of the wind: again, absolutely loved it. i'm painfully aware that nothing really happens in the book and that kvothe is indeed tim tebow's smarter and more powerful big brother, but somehow i just don't care about that. i can't stress enough how much that it amazes me that despite those two things i had so much fun reading this.

dance with dragons: i enjoyed it. to be sure, it isn't the book that i thought i was going to get but that's ok. the reek chapters, in particular, were a pleasant surprise. jon, also, was more fun than i expected. tyrion and dany were not what i was hoping for but i still enjoyed it somewhat. for purely selfish reasons, i didn't like the quentin chapters :( i guess i wanted him to be more like oberyn even though he is doran's son. tyrion sailing down the river with griff and company, the dragon showing up at the fighting pits, jon's julius ceaser moment and reek's escape were favorite scenes.

lord foul's bane: not much to say. i wanted to like it more than i actually did.

red nails: got this on my kindle the first day i bought it. an RE howard conan story. nothing fancy but i kinda dug it. the city of tuchotl was a pretty interesting place to visit.

the mystery knight: i enjoyed it. as the westeros of the period begins to fill out, i find myself craving more.

the rest was a smattering of short stories, really.

a beast for norn: haviland tuf is a cool character and his ship is amazing. i'll be tracking down tuf voyaging sometime in the near future.

the garden of forking paths: i've read this several times already and it was one of my favorite stories this year. borges is all that and a packet of crisps apparently.

a rose for emily: i read this for school and loved it. a very atmospheric piece...macabre stuff.

mr. spaceship: i liked it a lot and wish that it had been much longer.

2BR02B: a vonnegut short. nothing terribly original but the payoff was still pretty cool.

also, i reread lamb by chris moore again. i don't think i will ever tire of this book. pure brilliance.

there were a few others that didn't really stand out enough for me to remember as i sit here so they were either not memorable or i'm repressing them.

ETA: :P i knew better than to go ahead and hit post.

a scandal in bohemia: my first sherlock holmes story. not so much a mystery as an adventure. i could definitely see some of the holmes portrayed in the movie(s). i found it interesting but i'm not sure if his omniscience is going to ruin stories later on. i plan on reading more. :cheers:

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Have to add V For Vendetta by Alan Moore. Got it for xmas and read it on boxing day. Very important and moving. Even prefered it to Watchmen

[Sci-2]

Have to add V For Vendetta by Alan Moore. Got it for xmas and read it on boxing day. Very important and moving. Even prefered it to Watchmen

Same here - thank god there is someone else!

[Wormwood]

I managed to read 40 books this year.

The best:

The Heroes - Abercrombie

The Shotgun rule - Charlie Huston

Mina drömmars stad (city of my dreams) - Per Anders Fogelström http://www.goodreads...3139.Stockholm_

The good:

Books 3-6 of the Dresden files - Butcher

The Dragon's Path - Abraham (unlike many others i really enjoyed this one

A dance with dragons - GRRM

Prince of thorns - Mark Lawrence

The price of spring - Abraham

Women - Bukowski

The Passage - Justin Cronin

The mystic arts of erasing all signs of death - Charlie Huston

edit. Ready Player One was definitely a good read for me.

The bad (I didnt read a book that actually sucked but these were definitely underwhelming.)

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

The alloy of law - Sanderson

I am also roughly 200 pages into The wise mans fear but I wont finish this year.

[PaulineMRoss]

I've read 96 books this year (Kindle + retirement = paradise). I'm playing catch-up on fantasy compared to most of you guys, so not much actually published this year on my list.

Best of the year (5* reviews):

Name of the Wind

A Clash of Kings

The Long Price Quartet

The Lions of al-Rassan

Ready Player One

Stormlord Trilogy (Glenda Larke)

Honourable mentions:

The Folding Knife

The Dragon's Path

Leviathan Wakes

Principles of Angels (Jaine Fenn)

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

The Stone Dragon (Tom Kepler)

The Silence of Medair (Andrea K Host)

The Shaihen Trilogy (S A Rule)

Stormfront (F K Wallace)

I shall be merciful and leave my worst of the year to their anonymity.

ETA: correct titles.

[kcf]

I'll of course be doing the standard end of year blog post, but since I'm still a week or two out from that, I'll thrown in my best (links to the full review are included so you can see what I'm thinking of the books and how they got included in this list). It was a very modest year for me with only about 23 books read.

Best

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (review)

The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (review)

The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham (review)

Honorable Mention

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (review)

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham (review)

The Worst - by a large margin

The Dark Griffin by K.J. Taylor (review)

and...The Most Dissappointing - I was looking forward to this one a lot, but for me it simply didn't work.

The White-Luck Warrior by R Scott Bakker (review)

[Grack21]

I'm not sure if I should be happy or scared that a lot of my to be read pile is on here in both categories. Ahhh, opinions.

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

First level (outstanding):

The White-Luck Warrior

A Dance with Dragons

Among Others

Second level (very good, but perhaps with some flaws)

The Hammer

The Clockwork Rocket

Embassytown

Deathless

The Folded World

The Neon Court

Never Knew Another

Third level (very solid, but nothing really new)

Ready Player One

The Sacred Band

The Heroes

The Dragon's Path

Children of the Sky

Grail (by Elizabeth Bear)

The most disappointing (perhaps not bad as such, just not what I hoped for):

Reamde

The Night Circus

Legacy of Kings

The worst is dubious category. I read a lot of guilty pleasure books, which are not good but still successful as what they are, so I don't think I should list them here. The only real stinker I managed to read was Outies - fanfic by Pournelle's daughter being the sequel to two Mote in God's Eye novels. This will teach me to never again buy anything by James Nicoll's recommendation.

[snowleo]

Ok, this thread has convinced me to join goodreads, because then I'd know how many books I read this year. Between 20 and 50 I think, but what if it was only 15 or so?! :dunce: Just looking through the previous lists, I can construct this roll of books I enjoyed:

The Passage--sheer fun

Wise Man's Fear--similar to above. 100% agree with dornish prince's review of it's prequel

Dance With Dragons-- good but highly unsatisfying

Dragon's Path--best start to a new series this year

Cryoburn--always nice to read a new Miles adventure, though this is not her best

Wildfire--sequel to Firethorne. Wonderful, hope the next book comes out soon

Hunger Games trilogy--eh, I liked them.

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent and The House on Durrow Street--Jane Austen-like society novels with magic!

I know I read several great non-fantasy novels, but I can't remember titles.

snow "read and forget" leo