Calibandar Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Something of an annual tradition, even though we have the monthly reading threads, it is nice to see what people's favorite reads were in 2016. It does not need to be a book released in 2016 by the way. Just the best books you read during 2016. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Unquestionably Senlin Ascends and Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft. The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney and Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay were also very good. And interesting to reread the first six Robin Hobb books. She's a very talented author. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Barger Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 The Forgetting Moon by Durfee. I know Pat, from Pat's fantasy hotlist, didn't care for it but I loved everything about the beginning to this new series. A close second place is Morning Star by Pierce Brown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beniowa Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 My top reads in alphabetical order by author: Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay The Wolf in the Attic, Paul Kearney The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu John Adams, David McCullough The Call, Peadar O'Guilin The Devil You Know, K.J. Parker The Winged Histories, Sofia Samatar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 The one that immediate pops in my head is Gladstone's Four Roads Cross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I should really take and keep notes, probably: Jack Vance: Lyonesse (especially/mainly the first book) Terry Pratchett: Small Gods (the best Pratchett I have encountered so far) Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash (wild ride, a pity I didn't read this when it came out in the 1990s) not sure if I am convinced of the greatness but certainly fascinating: Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Definitely 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 The Obelisk Gate by N K Jemisin The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie. From that list, I enjoyed each of them in different ways so it's hard to really judge them against one another. But I think The Obelisk Gate is probably my favourite. It's just such a fresh approach to fantasy, IMO, and the way the novel is written is very interesting too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Top 10 novels in approximate order: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay The Call by Peadar O Guilin Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo Slade House by David Mitchell Uprooted by Naomi Novik A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers Touch by Claire North The best short story collections I read were Stories of Your Lives and Others by Ted Chiang The Best of Ian McDonald Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrackerNeil Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Good thread! Mine are: Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman Disrupted: My Adventure in the Start-up Bubble by Dan Lyons These are ones I rated 5 stars on Goodreads; there were a few four-stars, but to hell with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonebender Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Lords of the North, Cornwell The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Swanwick King of the City, Moorcock The Custom of the Country, Wharton The Hammer and the Blade, Kemp Dancer's Lament, Esslemont Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andorion Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 My top ten of 2016 in no particular order: (Note: List includes books published previous to 2016 as well as books published in 2016) 1. Dancer's Lament by Ian Cameron Esslemont 2. Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins 3. Fifth Season by NK Jemisin 4. Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin 5. City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett 6. The Warriot Prophet by R Scott Bakker 7. Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone 8. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley 9. Black Wolves by Kate Elliott 10. The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LugaJetboyGirl Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 These are the best Young Adult books I read this year: Corinne Duyvis, On the Edge of Gone Franny Billinsley, Chime Hugh Howey, Sand Omnibus Melissa Landers, Starflight Kathy MacMillan, The Sword and the Verse Marie Rutkowski, Winner's Kiss Alison Goodman, The Dark Days Club Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King Libba Bray, Lair of Dreams Robin Mckinley, Chalice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheep the Evicted Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 So you can click on the link below to see my reading and ratings for 2016 and how my taste compares to yours. 2016 reading in brief. For me the big revelation of 2016 was The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman. It has always been on my radar and i know it has one of the most intense love it or hate it reputations in fantasy but this was the year where I finally worked out which camp I would fall into; i really, really loved it. I can definitely see why some people would hate it though. For the first book the main character is basically an irredeemable little shite and Grossman also seems to have a love/hate relationship with the fantasy genre and its fans. Its sometimes hard to see the loving homage dotted in amongst his savage mockery of everything the genre stands for, but to my mind its definitely there. If you can't relate to the protagonist in some way, or distance yourself from him or Grossman's barbs then you will really struggle to enjoy this series. Even for someone like me who adores this series and ranks it as one of the greats i can see the flaws; the successive books aren't as well written as the first one making it tonally inconsistent and Grossman seems to be overcompensating for his first book by making the end of the third one saccharine sweet. But for me these are insignificant blemishes in an otherwise spectacularly good series of books. The other highlight of the year was the non-fiction book Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene. For me the hype for this book was well and truly justified. Eye-opening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teng Ai Hui Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Last year I unfortunately choose a lot of books that were less than great. The one and only standout was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Top five (no particular order): The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes Behold the Man, by Michael Moorcock The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson People in the Summer Night, by Frans Eemil Sillanpää Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 7 hours ago, Sheep the Evicted said: The other highlight of the year was the non-fiction book Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene. For me the hype for this book was well and truly justified. Eye-opening. I read this in 2014 or 2015. It is interesting but highly problematic. Greene is overplaying his hand and while his psychological research is sometimes fascinating, almost everything he writes on moral philosophy should be taken with a truckload of salt. It is hard to believe that someone with a philosophy degree from a major university could be so casually dismissive. And for many laypeople this will probably the only book on moral philosophy they ever read, so they take his facile dismissals and his advocacy of utilitarianism (a stance disproportionally less popular among professional philosophers than among guys like Greene) as "scientific fact". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guinevere Seaworth Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 My top reads of 2016 according to Goodreads were: The entire re-read of the Empire Trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. Still one of my favorite fantasy series of all times. Penric's Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold The Making of Outlander: the Official Guide to Season 1&2. Love the TV show. Enough said. The King's Blood and The Widow's House from The Coin and Dagger series Fall of Giants by Ken Follett Kushiel's Justice by Jaqueline Carey Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 On 02/01/2017 at 2:32 AM, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said: Top five (no particular order): The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson I love all of these! I read the latter in 2016. Of the 50 books I read last year I would give these five stars: The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) - Jemisin, N.K.Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) - Leckie, AnnThe Haunting of Hill House - Jackson, ShirleyWe Have Always Lived in the Castle - Jackson, ShirleyTenth of December - Saunders, GeorgeRailsea - Miéville, ChinaA Monster Calls - Ness, PatrickSlade House - Mitchell, DavidUndermajordomo Minor - deWitt, PatrickThe Glamour - Priest, ChristopherBlack Swan Green - Mitchell, DavidThe Luminaries - Catton, Eleanor I'm surprised it took me so long to get around to reading Shirley Jackson. But I feel as if I can detect her influence in many similar works now. To my shame I had never heard of George Saunders until a friend gave me this short story collection but it was a revelation and I want to read everything of his now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 I only gave five stars to five books on Goodreads in 2016, and they were surprisingly all Jim Butcher books, as I was catching up with the Dresden Files: Summer Knight (#4), Blood Rites (#6), Proven Guilty (#8), White Night (#9) and Skin Game (#15). Other great books (from four star reviews) were: Soumission by Michel Houellebecq, Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie, The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney and Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje, czyli tajna historia Słowian by Ziemowit Szczerek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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