Best and Worst Series of 2019 Book Tag

I’m doing this very interesting book tag that I saw for the first time on the Youtube channel of BookslikeWhoa. She is an awesome Booktuber with great book recommendations so, follow her! 😉

Questions and Answers:

1. What is the best series that you caught up with this year that is still a work in progress?

AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS by Kat Howard. It is an awesome and well written first book and I can’t wait for the sequel. Rating: 5 Stars!

I must also mention EMPIRE OF SILENCE (Sun Eater #1) by Christopher Ruocchio. This is extremely well written. I see it more as epic fantasy with space opera elements than the other way around, but what matters is that once you start reading this, you won’t be able to put it down. (I wouldn’t read the blurb tough, it gives away too much of the story). Rating: 5 stars!

2. What is the best work in progress series that you are still catching up with?

THE WICKED KING (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black
I know some people didn’t like this series. I liked it even if it has a couple of flaws, and I will surely read the next book, THE QUEEN OF NOTHING (The Folk of the Air #3) asap. Rating: 5 Stars!

3. What was your favorite first book in a series this year?

One of my favorites was REBEL OF THE SANDS by Alwyn Hamilton. This was a wonderfully written tale of the desert, with so many important underlying themes and a compelling story with awesomely developed characters.
I will surely be following this series and Alwyn Hamilton is a new favorite author to watch for. The “Goodreads Choice Winner of 2016” prize this book has won is completely deserved.Rating: 5 stars!

4. What is a first book in a series you read this year that you think should have just been a standalone, not a series?

KING OF SCARS (Nikolai Duology #1) by Leigh Bardugo.
The story of Nikolai dragged to a point I stopped caring, since there were too many POVs jarring the pacing and flow of the narrative there. An interesting character like Nikolai Lantsov deserved a more fast-paced book with a deeper exploration of his story. The other shallow narratives of Nina Zenik and Zoya Nazyalensky just stood in the way of the main story. Rating: 3,5 stars.

5. What is your most over-hyped series of the year?

I’m a bit late for this, but definitely, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1) by Ransom Riggs. I have heard so many times how this series was the best on Booktube that I was completely underwhelmed by it. Rating: 1 star.

6. What is a series that you DNFed this year?

I have the same answer as Bookslikewhoa for this question; THE PASSAGE (The Passage #1)by Justin Cronin. I could not understand why people liked this series. I don’t like when a book is way too sad. Dystopia is fine but not overly done. And there was so much exposition, tell and not show. In addition, it went so slow… No rating (since I bailed).

7. What was your favorite series finale of the year?

Again, my answer is the same as Bookslikewhoa, MAGIC TRIUMPHS by Ilona Andrews.
This was an amazing, great final book for this awesome series. I could not put it down. Rating: 5 stars!

8. What was the biggest cliffhanger you had in a series this year?

What a cliffhanger!

SAGA #54 (Saga (Single Issues) #54) by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples.
I won’t say more not to spoil it, but the last issue of this graphic novel was shocking (and kind of upsetting too). Rating: Variable through the series, average 4 stars.

9. What is your favorite spin-off series you read this year?

I have read only one spin-off series this year, but I didn’t like it enough to read past the first book. One of the spin-off books I liked but that wasn’t a series was THE LOST SISTERS (The Folk of the Air #1.5) by Holly Black. I wished this book’s story had been more deeply explored tough, as it was, it was a very rushed-up explanation. Rating: 3,5 stars.

10. What is your most anticipated next book in a series that you read this year that will come out next year?

I’m waiting since awhile for THE NEMESIS (The Diabolic #3) by S.J. Kincaid. I hope it comes out next year. Rating of the previous books: 5 stars!

I should also mention the VOIDWITCH SAGA by Corey J. White. I sincerely hope this awesome series continues. Rating of the previous books: 5 stars!

And finally, I’m waiting for the next book in the Game of Thrones series. But who isn’t, right?

11. What is your most anticipated series to catch up with next year based on what you read in that series this year?

I want to catch up with the BOBIVERSE series next year. I liked the first Audiobook of WE ARE LEGION (We Are Bob)(Bobiverse #1)by Dennis E. Taylor enough to go on reading or hearing the series. Rating: 5 stars!

12. What is your favorite series that you finished this year?

I already mentioned the KATE DANIELS series by Ilona Andrews. I think it finished in the right moment, since I could see myself reading spin offs with secondary characters of this series. Better than to drag it for many more empty sequels and loose its driving force momentum, as I have seen happening with other paranormal series. Rating: 5 stars!

I also finished the FALLEN EMPIRE series, by Lindsay Buroker. This series was extremely entertaining, funny and full of action. It included a captain full of jokes, a moody cyborg, a pessimistic engineer, space pirates, and many other interesting Space Opera tropes. It was the perfect light summer read for me, and I read all its eight books and spin-off short stories in fifteen days. Rating: 5 stars!

13. What is your favorite episodic series of the year?

I don’t really know any episodic series as far as I can remember right now. Recommend me a good one in the comments!

14. What is a series that you finally bailed on after holding onto it for a long time?

The MERCY THOMPSON series by Patricia Briggs. The last book, SILENCE FALLEN, was so utterly boring. I don’t know if it is because I am enjoying less paranormal romance lately, but I think the series has completely lost its momentum on its tenth book. So, after years following it,  I’m bailing. At least until my interest for the paranormal genre returns. Rating: Although I liked many books in this series, this last tenth book gets only 1 star.

15. What is the series you were most surprised that you liked this year?

The MORTAL ENGINE series by Philip Reeve, since I never read Steampunk before. This was one of the most interesting books I came across for a long time; with an extremely well built story world and every single one of the characters had many layers and something unique and special about them. Rating: 5 stars!

So, these were my best and worst series of 2019, I tag anyone who would like to answer these questions. If you do I would like to read your answers, so please leave your link below in the comments.

The two main reasons I’m not following a book series, even if I liked the first book.

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1) The author killed most characters I cared about on the first book.

Game of Thrones was a series where I endured the death of a lot of my favorite characters, and its last tv season was *spoiler alert* so tragical! All hopes for my favorite characters, Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, were crushed in the worst possible way. Even though I read all the released books in the series so far and will probably read the next ones (when its ‘wizard’ author finally publishes them).

This was tough, an exception, because there were many awesome characters still left and even if my reader’s heart got broken five times or more in each book, I still had other five awesome characters to follow on the next one. (Furthermore, Tyrion Lannister was staying to the end, saying he was “the god of t**** and wine”).

GOT exception apart, I won’t be doing that again, especially not for five books in a row. If an author kills my most loved characters already in the first book, don’t expect me to hang around (no, no, no, enough with the heartache).

I have a really hard time understanding why authors make us, not only like, but tie all our heartstrings, to a character, show all her/his potential for all those series sequels to come, and not long after, after one hundred pages, kill them. Frankly, I’m not supporting this further.

Imagine how it would be if Dorothy had never journeyed through the yellow brick road, met the Wizard of Oz and melted the bad witch? As a reader, I’m Toto following Dorothy, and I’m not going anywhere without her.

 

2) The author changed the main characters from one book to the next.

I like when a story world stretches longer than three books. But for me, the longer and deeper character journeys that happen during more than one book, in a well-written series, is the most important reason why reading a series is enjoyable for me.

I consider very jarring if the main characters are switched for completely new characters already on the second book, or any next book in the series for that matter. Then, instead of following the amazing plot with the characters I already care about, I have to get acquainted to new points-of-view once again.

It also creates a multitude of superficial characters to populate a series, and that, for me, is usually less interesting than characters who have a personal journey at each new book. I would rather follow two characters for three or many more books.

My upper limit so far has been ten books and I could see myself following a character even longer, if its journey would be interesting enough to go on following, then follow six main characters that had their whole story told in only one book.

I understand that going that deep into analysing a main character is much harder for the author than creating yet another fascinating and superficial first impression, but I like character layers, depths, baggage and flaws. The first book is like the small talk of a conversation for me, the sequels is where stuff gets real and finally interesting. The sequels are when all those skeletons get out of the closet and the flashing characters turn from wooden puppets into real boys/girls/non-binary characters. 😉

And when it comes to plot, it’s better when a second book is done with the main character introductions. Now it’s time for development, deepening what I know about that characters I already know a bit about, so let’s move on with the story. If the main characters I liked in book one become secondary characters, it’s way too jarring. Their story and POV was the main reason why I was invested in the series sequel to begin with, and I rarely like spin-offs. Specially spin-offs posing as sequels. As a reader I feel as if I was promised a second book, so a first book with the same story world isn’t the same. I get that feeling of “this wasn’t the dish I ordered”. It may taste wonderfully, but it’s like ordering salad and getting pizza, or the other way around.

I have suspended my disbelief while following Dorothy, I don’t want her to find out about the Ruby Slippers and come back to Kansas before the story is told. I don’t want either to follow Dorothy’s daughter that picked up another tornado elsewhere and had other witches to melt. That story is already told. Dorothy’s daughter might become an alien hunter and have a completely new story in an a Moon in Saturn, but don’t kill her before her series is done either.

My favorite books from 3 Read-a-thons: A Starry Wrap-Up

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Hello everybody!

These last months I was participating in diverse Read-a-thons and reading a lot of books. In May I was participating in the Bookémon Badgathon, in July in The Reading Rush, and finally in September I participated in Space Opera September.

I enjoyed many of the books I choose for my TBRs while discovering new favorite authors. At the same time I did not like or finish a couple of others too. Today tough I’ll be talking only about the books I did enjoy and that got at least a 4 stars rating from me.

In this post I listed the favorites for each Read-a-thon, also with the prompt I read them for, so here they are:

Bookémon Badgathon

My favorite for this Readathon was “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart. I read this Thriller for “The Chiller Badge- Read a book that is in the Crime / Thriller / Mystery / Suspense Genre”.

I rarely read mystery and even more rarely contemporary and young adult thrillers, but even though I could not stop reading this well written book. It took me a day to read it entirely. The end is… Quite surprising, and I like that in books, I won’t say more not to spoil it, only that it has a lot of ‘feels’. I almost never have tears for stories, but this was an exception.

For “The Fantastical Badge – Read a book that is in the Fantasy Genre”, I read “Children of the Nameless (Magic: The Gathering #72)” by Brandon Sanderson. This Novella can be found for free on the Magic: The Gathering internet page. It is extremely well written and interesting and Brandon Sanderson is a new favorite author.

The Reading Rush:

I was reading three books for this week long challenge, but of these I can only recommend “Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands #2)” by Alwyn Hamilton, which I read for the “Read a book with purple on the cover” challenge prompt.

This is the second book on this awesome YA trilogy with desert setting and Arabic mythology. It reminds me of City of Brass, but imo this is even better.
The writing style, the story world and the characters, everything is masterly written in a page-turner, edge of your seat way, until the very last phrase. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. 😉

Space Opera September

One of the prompts of this very interesting Readathon was to read a space opera novella. For this, I read “Killing Gravity (Voidwitch Saga #1)” by Corey J. White and enjoyed the first book so much that I went on and read the next two books of the Voidwitch Saga; “Void Black Shadow” and “Static Ruin”. I hope this series is not yet finished because I’m looking forward to more books in this amazing space opera series!

I also went on reading the whole eight book series that started with “Star Nomad (Fallen Empire #1)” by Lindsay Buroker. The spicy humor and funny situations made the page-turner series the perfect summer beach read for me.

For the prompt of “Read a space opera 500 pages or longer” I read “Empire of Silence  (Sun Eater #1)” by Christopher Ruocchio. This was extremely well written. It seemed to me more epic fantasy with space opera elements than the other way around, but what matters is that once I started reading it, I wasn’t able to put it down. The only thing I didn’t like was the blurb, because it gives away too much and it doesn’t, at least in this first book, have much to do with the actual story, so I would recommend not to read it before diving into this awesome book.

Two Last Notes:

The picture on this blog post is by me. It’s sci-fiye and weird, therefore it fits. 😉

Now in October I’ll concentrate on the Gothic or Horror eerie books that are still lurking in the dark corners of my e-reader otherworldly dimension.

So, stay tuned for more recommendations!

 

 

R/fantasy 2019 Bingo: TBR and First Impressions Wrap-Up

r/fantasy 2019 TBR

In the picture above:

Titles in blue: Books I read for that square prompt, and included a mini-review here.

Titles in black: The books I chose for the challenge prompts and haven’t read yet.

This year I started the R/fantasy 2019 Bingo challenge with enthusiasm and already read books for seven of the prompts in the bingo card.

I decided to post the Bingo Challenge Wrap-Ups (with the mini-reviews on the finished prompts) quarterly, instead of writing a long, with 25 books or more, Wrap-Up in April 2020.

So here is my TBR with the finished prompts. If you are mainly interested in the mini-reviews and not so much on my planned TBR, just jump to where I put “(Done!)” before the prompt. I also put the already read book titles in bold. And a last warning, sometimes it was difficult to be completely spoiler free on my review, so if you don’t want to know too much about the story, skip the parts with *spoiler alert*.

Slice of Life / Small Scale Fantasy – The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

A SFF Novel Featuring a Character With a Disability– Planetfall-E.Newman

(Done!) SFF NovellaEnvy of Angels (Sin du Jour #1) by Matt Wallace
Rating 3 stars: This was very different and entertaining. The reasons I’m not giving it more stars is that for me, the plot didn’t have much structure, being a constant run of crazy and bizarre events on top of each other. For a novella, it also had many characters, to a point where I wasn’t following who was who and not caring much either because *spoiler alert* zombie clowns were attacking. I hope though that the next books of the series may deepen their story arcs.

Self-Published SFF Novel – It’s a though decision, since I have many writer friends. I will probably start five different books and read the one that I like best entirely. One I might try is Lady of the Veils by M.L. John.

(Done!) SFF Novel Featuring TwinsThe Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate, #1) by J.Y. Yang  Rating: 3 stars *spoiler alert*

This was the first book I read with the pronouns they and them for a character and I considered this new and interesting. The writing style though sounded almost like a fairy tale and now and then I felt that important things were told too quickly, like for example, *spoiler alert*, when one of the characters went to a mountain to get phoenix feathers and came back with them almost in the next phrase. I was so surprised that such a thing that could have been a book on its own was just thrown in like that.

*spoiler alert* I also could not really connect with the main character as most of the time Akeha seemed to only react to what happened in the plot, the action being carried by other secondary characters that should have been main characters instead of him, since they were the ones who moved the plot. Even the so feared (for unexplained reasons btw) ‘Mother’ would have been a more interesting POV. The passive way how Akeha mainly reacted dragged the story so much I wished other character had been chosen to be the main POV of the book, because any other character would have done more. I considered the situation with the mother of the twins very superficially told, in a way I didn’t understand why everybody was so extremely afraid of facing her. This was the kind of book that could have been much improved from rewriting and more active POVs.

(Done!)  Novel Featuring VampiresDead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) by Charlaine Harris–  Rating: 3 stars
This was funny. *spoiler alert* The end was a bit rushed up and out of the blue, but I’ll probably go on reading this series.

(Done!) Format: Graphic Novel (at least 1 vol.) OR Audiobook / Audio drama

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse #1) by Dennis E. Taylor (Author), Ray Porter (Narrator) Format: Audiobook – I enjoyed this book a lot, it made me laugh and the writing style reminded me of The Martian by Andy Weir.

I just wished that when authors would put Brazilians in a story, that they would use Brazilian names and not use Portuguese words (even curse words) out of context. Brazilians don’t use Mexican or Spanish curses.

I’m not saying this because I’m upset about the role of the Brazilian ships in the story. I’m happy that Brazil was portrayed in this book as a powerful country. (I hope one day it gets there but definitely not as a military empire.)

I will surely go on reading this funny and entertaining, page-turner series. The Audiobook performance of Ray Porter was five stars too.

SFF Novel by a Local to You Author – Dream a little dream (Silber #1) – Kerstin Gier

SFF Novel Featuring an Ocean Setting -The Priory of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.

(Done!) CyberpunkAltered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs #1) by Richard K. Morgan
Rating: 2 stars. The story world/mystery was interesting and I really tried to like this, reading until around 30% of the book, but it wasn’t for me.

I didn’t like the pacing, writing style, and the visceral/gory details didn’t help.

2nd Chance– I’ll give a second chance to an author I didn’t like the previous books so much, so I might read the Shadow of the Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) by Julie Kagawa for this prompt, even if the first books in the The Iron Fey series were three stars for me and I didn’t go on reading the series.

Afrofuturism – Brown Girl in the Ring – Nalo Hopkinson.
One of my continuing goals is to read more POC Authors, so I intend to read not only this, but many other books of Afrofuturism. Probably still this year if I manage, so stay tunned. 😉

SFF Novel Published in 2019 – The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi

Middle Grade SFF Novel – The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1) by Soman Chainani

A Personal Recommendation from r/Fantasy – The Cloud Roads (The Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells

(Done!) Any r/fantasy Book Club Book of the Month OR r/fantasy Read-along BookFoundryside (Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

This is long and full of action. I could not really get immersed in this book so I’ll set it aside it for now and pick it up again eventually.

(Done!) Media Tie-In Novel – I read three books that can fit this prompt!

1)Children of the Nameless (Magic:The Gathering)by Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 5 Stars! This novella that Sanderson has written for Magic: The Gathering was awesomely well written. Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite new authors!

2)Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines Quartet #1) by Philip Reeve
This was one of the most interesting books I came across for a long time; with an extremely well built story world and every single one of the characters had many layers and something unique and special about them. The movie is on my asap list to watch.

3) The Circle by Dave Eggers
This book, that warns about the dangers of Social Media, may seem exaggerated and therefore ridiculous, but is it really so exaggerated? I look at the world around me and don’t think it is.
I see how a lot of people are looking at their smartphones for hours and hours, sending pictures of everything, nearly showing everyday reports of their lives. I receive messages of people upset because I was a couple of hours offline and didn’t send them an immediate answer, I do look around me and encounter similarities to the Circle world in an uncomfortable and unpleasant way. So I wonder how much the uncomfortable truths of this book can be dismissed.
My opinion is that the film based on this book had a *spoiler alert* very happy ending that seemed forced and not faithful to the tone and message of the book .

Novel Featuring an AI Character– Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente.

(Done!) SFF Novel That Has a Title of Four or More Words
An Unkindness of Magicians (An Unkindness of Magicians #1) by Kat Howard – Rating: 5 stars!
This is a masterpiece, it has magic but even though it managed to have an extremely original plot of fantasy filled up with so many important themes and written in such an awesome style that I can’t believe it doesn’t has a higher rating and it isn’t all that hyped. Quality food-for-thought that everybody interested (or not) in stories with magic should read.

I might still read A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine for this prompt, in any case this book is on my asap radar.

Retelling! – Deathless (Leningrad Diptych #1) by Catherynne M. Valente.

SFF Novel by an Australian Author – Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff.

The Final Book of a Series– It will come up eventually, when I decide to follow up on a series. Lately I have had many reasons not to follow book series, but this will be the topic for one of my next blog posts.

#OwnVoices – Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse. I also want to read the anthology New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color by Nisi Shawl for this prompt.

LitRPG – Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) by Andrew Rowe. I didn’t manage to read this book last year so I want to do this in 2019. I am an ocean of good intentions, really. 😉

Five SFF Short Stories – The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 (Science Fiction Hall of Fame #1). (I love me old sci-fi tales from even before the time Spock was our most loved alien.)

I am also hearing the anthology “Tor.com Collection: Season 1” so I’ll post all reviews when I have achieved this year’s goal of hearing and reading-a-ton (this sound funnily the same as Readathon) of these short stories/novellas.

And you? Are you doing reading challenges this year or are you just picking up the next book on the shelf? Have you find any of my picks interesting ? Or not?

Let me know in the comments.

 

Wrap-Up: r/Fantasy Reading Bingo 2018

FantasyBingo_Leticia_12_2018I must confess that at a certain point in the year I lost track of the Bingo Challenge and my reading went to other directions. I think that one of the reasons was that I wasn’t always lucky with my picks for the different prompts, so eventually I distanced myself and started prioritizing shorter Readathons with the idea that I still had enough time to finish the Bingo later, but April came and the last four remaining books to complete the card remained unread. I completed only one of the rows entirely, even if I managed to read four prompts in all five rows.

Since I like no stress attached to my reading goals, I decided to post my final results in this Wrap-Up even though. And the unread books I chose for the last year’s challenge will be read, eventually. Not all books I chose for the challenge were for me, but I still liked going out of my favourite authors scope and trying new ones.

In addition, certain prompts were very interesting so I also read more than one book for them, I will be adding the additional books when I consider them special enough to mention.

 

1st Row:

Novel that was Reviewed on r/Fantasy

I chose Nice Dragons Finish Last by (Heartstrikers #1) by Rachel Aaron for this challenge and even started reading it, but somehow got distracted by other books, so I still didn’t finish reading this.

 

Novel Featuring a Non-Western Setting

The Killing Moon (Dreamblood #1) by N.K. Jemisin

I liked this book even if I considered it quite slow-paced (even for epic fantasy). The relationships, magic system and world could have been much more fleshed out too. I’m yet in doubt whether I will go on reading this Duology or not.

Additional Book:

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

Awesome story world with Ifrits, Ghouls, Marids, Peri, Djinn and multi-layered characters. I’m following this series for sure.

 

Five Short Stories

I chose to read the anthology “The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories” by Mahvesh Murad (Editor)

I set it aside after reading five stories, mainly because I expected mainly a fantasy anthology when I started reading this and, true, all stories there have fantastic elements, but apart from this they are a mixture of genres. Therefore, I’ll finish reading this when I feel like reading literary, slice-of-life, or magical realism short stories.

 

Novel Adapted by Stage, Screen, or Game

For this prompt I read the whole trilogy of Ruby Red (Edelstein-Trilogie #1) by Kerstin Gier,  Anthea Bell (Translator)

Kerstin Gier is my new favorite fantasy and young adult author even if I don’t read her books in their original language, German. I may try it though sometime with “Die Mütter-Mafia” books. The whole trilogy was told in a light and humorous way that makes it a real treat for a relaxing afternoon. I also like the tension created by the time-travel plot and multi-layered characters. This was an entertaining, page-turner trilogy. The Audiobooks, narrated by Marisa Calin, were also very good.

 

Hopeful Spec-Fic

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers

This was a different kind of science-fiction, quite enjoyable and focused on the characters and human interactions.

 

2nd Row:

Fantasy Novel that Takes Place Entirely Within One City

Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures #1) by Kami Garcia,  Margaret Stohl.

This was entertaining, very romantic and full of magic atmosphere. I watched the film based on this book, and will eventually go on reading this series.

 

Self-Published Novel

I had chosen Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1) by Andrew Rowe for this, but unfortunately lost track of it. This remains in my TBR though.

 

Novel Published Before You Were Born (1973, GenXer here!)

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (first published 1955)

This book was a trip, you will want to jaunt yourself after reading it, LOL. Some allowances have to be made since this was written in the 50s, but I can fully understand why this is in a science fiction masterworks list. All the settings this book goes through, often in a disturbing, and very possible dystopian way, make it the revered classic that it is.

 

Any r/Fantasy Goodreads Group Book of the Month

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells.

Murderbot is a very original character, you can see why this novella has won the 2018 Hugo Award. I’ll be following this series.

 

Novel Featuring a Library

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

Sometimes I read outside my favorite genres and with that I discover a great read. This wasn’t unfortunately the case here, but it could be due to Horror not really being a genre I enjoy. I started this book due to all good reviews on Booktube, but found it too confusing and at a certain point I stopped caring about the characters and plot and DNFed the book.

 

 

3rd Row:

Subgenre: Historical Fantasy OR Alternate History

Servant of the Underworld (Obsidian and Blood #1) by Aliette de Bodard

I mainly picked up this book because it is extremely rare to find books with an Aztec setting. I liked the original world building/story elements in this book. I can imagine that for someone who likes the blend of mystery/historical fiction this is a four/five star read.

** spoiler alert ** One of the reasons I rated it three stars is that for me alone the main character’s arc was very slow paced dragging the plot with it. I couldn’t understand why Acatl acted the way he did most times, always in doubt whether he should act, blending aloofness and insecurity with resourcefulness. It was part of the story, but it was also shocking how Acatl and others sacrificed animals all the time without a second thought on the waste and cruelty of their way of life, and how quickly they dismissed people’s deaths as every moment occurrence. I wonder if the Aztecs were really like that or if they were more like us, willingly ignorant of the brutality of our world most of the time? An original, thought-provoking and interesting read in any case.

 

Novel Published in 2018

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

This book was an entertaining page-turner. I liked especially the original characters, and the well-constructed fantasy world with historic background. I’ll be checking out the next books by this author.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas Nelson–FICTION for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Novel Featuring a Protagonist Who is a Writer, Artist or Musician (NOT: Kingkiller Chronicles)

Wintersong (Wintersong #1) by S. Jae-Jones

Were it for the writing style and the original premise and setting alone I would have given this book five stars, but the main relationship in this book is so… ** spoiler alert ** I’m not really sure of how to finish this phrase, perhaps: “hopeless-through-the-whole- book-until-the-end-when-I-was-happy-that-it-was-finished”?

I’m tired of stories were the heroine is unnaturally and endlessly humble, selfless and self-sacrificing and the (anti) ‘hero’ is cruel, blase, cold and treats other women badly because supposedly they were not as great as the heroine is.

Perhaps this is how fairy tales are supposed to be, but to me it feels really outdated and even unfair as gender roles go? I’m tired of the trope of “there isn’t a bad man, only a man who has not found the perfect woman to change him for the better,” because for teenage girls this is not the best thing to believe in. Perhaps the purpose of the story was to show that the heroine was better off without that troublesome relationship, but it didn’t feel as if she made the decision of finishing the relationship herself. No, she was freed by the cruel ‘hero’ because ‘she was better than the other girls.’

I cringed every time Liesl said ‘Mein Herr’ to her husband, always so subservient and meek. Again, this was only another of the story elements but it made everything sound so old fashioned. True, the Goblin King helped her to grow up enough to express her music, but did she really need him to become a composer or to be happy at all? Perhaps the next book in the series will answer this question

 

Novel Featuring a Mountain Setting

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1) by Sarah J. Maas.

It’s with the same characters from the trilogy, that I liked well enough to reread, but extremely little really happens. I hope the next books have more plot to them.

My pet-peeve with novellas is that they are mostly too short to introduce as many new and interesting things as a novel, and this one felt like a long epilogue of the third book. I would rather have a spin-off based on any other character than the main ones, or a collection of different POVs from side characters.

 

2017 r/Fantasy Top Novels List

The Goblin Emperor (The Goblin Emperor #1) by Katherine Addison.

This is so hyped but I can’t see what’s that all about…

The story reminds me of “The Queen of the Tearling” by Erika Johansen. However, the stakes, the tension and the action of the mentioned book aren’t present at all. The main character has a lot of time to think, meditate and complain about life… I’ve already read 110 pages and not much happened. I don’t manage to care enough to read everything. This book isn’t for me.

 

4th Row:

Novel with Fewer than 2500 Goodreads Ratings

Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2) by Colleen Oakes.

I expected more from this sequel after enjoying the first book so much. It felt flat and rushed up, I was just wondering why characters were acting into certain directions, it felt forced with the main character, Cheshire and Wardley.

The story world just went by, interesting but not being really explored in detail, although this seems to happen often in YA.

 

Novel with a One Word Title

Armada by Ernest Cline.

I liked this even if I still prefer “Ready Player One” by this author. I would love a next book where Zack Lightman would meet the aliens and try to find out what they are plotting 😉

 

Novel Featuring a God as a Character

I chose The Curse of Chalion (World of the Five Gods #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold for this prompt, but haven’t read it yet. However, all Bujold books are on my TBR!

 

Novel by an Author Writing Under a Pseudonym.

Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey

I started this but stopped because I could not bring myself to go on reading. I’ll perhaps pick this one later again, right now I find it too slow-paced and I don’t fell like committing to a very long series when the first book isn’t for me.The world is interesting though and it left me curious enough to watch the first season episodes based on the books. **spoiler alert**  Sigh… I’m really tired of zombies whether they come from ice or space, and I think they spoil every story they appear in. To me zombies always seem like a cheap and cliché plot device to add action to a plot the author has no other stakes for.

Subgenre: Space Opera

The Empress (The Diabolic #2) by S.J. Kincaid

I’m in doubt how to rate this book, it was quite original and full of really unexpected plot twists.  I wonder how the story is going to continue and can’t wait for the next book.
Audiobook: The reading of Candace Thaxton was as five stars good as in the first book.

 

5th Row:

Stand Alone Fantasy Novel

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black.

This was an original take on vampire stories and the world building was awesome.

I found it somehow slow paced and thought that a couple of flashbacks were placed too late in the story, but I was happy to find similarities between this book and The Cruel Prince.

This book should be getting a sequel.

 

Novel by a RAWRR Author OR Keeping Up With the Classics

I chose The Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company #1) by Glen Cook but couldn’t get to it.

 

Novel from the r/Fantasy LGBTQ+ Database

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo.

I liked more this sequel than the first book in the Duology due to all the feels and the depth of the character stories.

Additional Book:

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh

This was very well written, a literary, slice-of-life, dystopia. At the beginning I thought Zhang aloof and could not relate to him, but as the story progressed I understood that it isn’t easy to survive in a world that condemns most things about you. I considered the chapters with the other characters really great too and loved the story set in Mars.
A beautiful book, to be read without hurry, as the awesome food-for-thought about human condition that it is.

 

Format: Graphic Novel (at least 1 vol.) OR Audiobook

Paper Girls, Vol. 1 (Paper Girls #1- #4)

#1- I like it but the story is all over the place. I’ll go on reading and see where is going.

#4- Finally we start to get some answers after three volumes of saying “Um, what just happened” like one of the robots in the series and we go on reading this page turner.

Additional Graphic Novels:

Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine – (Bitch Planet (Collected Editions) #1) by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Goodreads Author) (Writer),  Taki Soma (Illustrator), Valentine De Landro (Artist), Robert Wilson IV (Artist)

This is awesome, I would recommend it to anyone, especially with how politics is going nowadays in the world.

Bitch Planet, Vol. 2: President Bitch (Bitch Planet (Collected Editions) #2) by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Goodreads Author) (writer),  Taki Soma (artist), Valentine De Landro (artist). –    This is awesome and everybody should read it. 😉

 

Novel Featuring the Fae

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

This book has nice descriptions, a really nice cover, premise, and so much hype that I was completely underwhelmed by it.

It could have been better but the pace was terribly slow and at a certain point I wasn’t caring anymore about the story or the characters. I dropped it on several occasions because nothing interesting was happening. Even the romance was insta-love, and it also dragged. For me this was only an over hyped book where the hype had not real reasons to be there.

And you, do you agree/disagree with my opinions on the books I picked? And have you already committed to a year-long reading challenge?

2019 r/Fantasy Book Bingo Reading Challenge

I’m doing this challenge again this year.

Way Too Fantasy

Some of you have probably noticed me talking about book bingo  around here and were wondering what exactly I was going on about. Well, now that it’s after April 1st (the start of the new bingo period) I thought I’d do a post about it.

r/Fantasy Book Bingo is something I initially started on kind of a whim. Several years ago, after I’d been skulking about reddit’s r/fantasy community for a bit, I found myself engaged in thread about book challenges. In the discussion I mentioned having done a book bingo before and then said ‘I should make a fantasy one for the subreddit’ and a couple of people were like ‘yeah, you totally should’ and thus r/Fantasy Book Bingo was born.

So, what is r/Fantasy Book Bingo? It’s a year long reading challenge with the aim of getting readers to branch out, look at books they may have otherwise…

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