kcf Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 1. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson2. Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leict3T: Dancing With Bears by Micheal Swanwick3T: Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew StoverHonorable mentions:Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke ColeThe Hunger Games by Suzzane CollinsThe Woodwide by Terri WindlingSharps by K.J. ParkerForge of Darkness by Steven Erikson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkess Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 1. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson :box:(We need a "damn you!" emoticon...I'm thinking something involving shaking fists...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 To be mildly on topic I'll give some of my honorable mentions that haven't been mentioned previously in this thread: Wolfsangel by M.D. Lachlan, The Leaping by Tom Fletcher, Territory by Emma Bull, Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce, and All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.IMO Use of Weapons is the better book by quite a fair margin but The Player of Games makes a much better introduction to the series. I'd tried to read UoW a few times and struggled to get into it until after reading tPoG.I've been reading them in order published, which starts with Consider Phlebas.I'd agree with this, I think it does help to be familiar with the Culture before reading Use of Weapons even if there's not direct plot connection with either of the earlier books. Because they're completely independent I think either Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games could work as an introduction to the Culture, I think Player is the better book (it's probably the second-best Culture novel after UoW) but CP is a good introduction because it gradually introduces the Culture (most of the book being written from the perspective of an outsider fighting against the Culture).Thanks! :bowdown:I think it sounds like Consider Phlebas is the best starting point. I'm really looking forward to getting into these books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzer32 Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 1356 - Bernard CornwellDeath to the French (AKA Rifleman Dodd) - C.S. ForesterStarbuck Chronicles - Bernard Cornwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ryswell Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen The Berlin Noir trilogy by Philip Kerr Red Country by Joe Abercrombie Didn't put any non-fiction in the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redriver Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 1) Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Wolf Hall is one of my all-time favourites. The sequel is just as strong, while also having a different feel - leaner, more focused, and darker. I love the style and rhythm of Mantel's prose.2) In The Woods by Tana French. The bare bones of the actual story is actually a bit ridiculous - which I soon learned was kinda a habit with French's books - but the tone, the atmosphere, the prose, the characterization were all amazing. Months later, and I can still remember, and be slightly creep-ed out by, some of the scarier passages. The highly ambiguous ending probably pissed off a lot of people, but I really liked it. The next two novels in the series, which I also read this year, are likewise very strong, but this one gets a slight edge because of the way it really got into my head and genuinely scared me at times.3) Infinite Kung-Fu by Kagan McLeod. An incredibly entertaining and gorgeously illustrated graphic novel. Like the biggest kung-fu fantasy epic you can imagine. Look, if someone is going to write a comic book in which one kung-fu master punches another kung-fu master so hard that they begin to vomit up scorpions, it's going to make my "best of" list.Honourable Mentions: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel.Are you going to read the entire Maturin/Aubrey series?I would highly recommend them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candre Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 The Dispossed by Ursula Le GuinFirst Man in Rome by Collen McCulloughA contract with god by Will EisnerI also could set up my own graphic novels list this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 probably iron council, madame bovary, and lolita, though the year ain't quite over yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delete this account pls Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 Are you going to read the entire Maturin/Aubrey series?I would highly recommend them.That's the plan! Not in a row one after the other (I can't even do that with ASOIAF) but eventually, over the course of the next year or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peadar Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 These are just the fiction books. I should be able to get through one or two more, but for now, I'm going with...Dark Eden by Chris BeckettFaith by John LoveBitter Seeds by Ian TregellisLooking through my bookshelf, there are quite a few other things I could have gone with. The Brides of Rollrock Island and a few excellent books by Guy Haley. I'd feel far happier with a top ten......and then there's all the great non-fiction I was lucky enough to read!Happy New Year to you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horza Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 The Third Policeman by Flann O'BrianThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki MurakamiThe Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick(I read Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies this year and it goes without saying they're awesome as well but the three that got up won me over with their sheer mindbendingness)I read a tonne more non fiction than fiction this year, I would like to get more of a balance going. Best three were:Winner-Take-All Politics by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson - a sharp, concise examination of the deleterious course of US politics over the last three decades or so.Top Secret America by Dana Priest and William Arkin - a staggering expose of the surveillance state, should concern deficit hawks and civil libertarians alike.The Art Of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History Of Upland Southeast Asia by James C. Scott - even if you don't buy his specific theses in the later chapters you've at least read a pretty good history of upland Southeast Asia by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen of Procrastination Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Written by GRRM:A Game of ThronesA Clash of KingsA Storm of SwordsA feast for CrowsA Dance with Dragons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 i should amend to add herf's reactionary modernism, which is shaping up to be kickass.in discussing the (original?) "magical realism" of proto-fascist ernst junger, herf notes that two of junger's most popular writings were Feuer und Blut and Stahlgewittern--i.e., Fire and Blood and Storm of Steel. that's quite an ideological pedigree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Headless Ned Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael SwanwickForgot about this. One of the best reads of the year for me as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkdaub7 Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun (cheating here, I know)Erin Morgenstern - The Night CircusSusanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malek Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Last Argument of KingsStorm FrontEye Of the World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candre Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 i should amend to add herf's reactionary modernism, which is shaping up to be kickass.in discussing the (original?) "magical realism" of proto-fascist ernst junger, herf notes that two of junger's most popular writings were Feuer und Blut and Stahlgewittern--i.e., Fire and Blood and Storm of Steel. that's quite an ideological pedigree.Off topic: Is there some extra thread to discuss Jünger on this board? His later work like Heliopolis, most written while on drugs, sure is interesting and related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opisthokont Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I don't use Goodreads, but I keep lists of all books I read in a local database so I can just list them from there. I haven't read that many new books, I'm usually a couple of years behind. But the top three in 2012 (so far!) are probably:Anathem by Neal Stephenson. The ending isn't all that great, but the rest of the book makes up for it.Blindsight by Peter Watts. Cool ideas, suitable ending.A Dance with Dragons. Finished it in the beginning of January. It just barely makes the top three; even though the writing is very good as always, the way it is done with buildup and buildup and buildup and The End! is really frustrating. And I don't like cliff-hangers.Some honorable mentions: Embassytown by China Miéville, The Thousandfold Thought by R Scott Bakker (the last few paragraphs almost make up for every slow chapter in the entire trilogy), The Quiet War by Paul McAuley (nice, reasonably believable designs for surviving in the outer solar system). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dornish prince Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 i won't complete another book this year, so i feel like it is ok to go ahead and contribute to this thread. unit wise, this was the best year that i've had in a long, long while and i'm quite proud of that, which is why i bothered to mention it to you in the first place...YAY ME!!!1. the night circus - erin morgenstern2. use of weapons - iain banks3. the black lung captain - chris woodingi don't have my list in front of me but i don't think it would change if i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewingedwolf Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 The perils of inequality by Joseph StiglitzA Dance with Dragons by GRRM (obviously)Boomerang by Michael Lewis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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