The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe - It really is the Lord of the Rings of science fiction. I place it higher than Dune, the closest contender for “LotR of Scifi”.
**Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett **- This one grew in favor after reading it. It lingered in my mind and is the best Discworld book I read this year.
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis - This is strictly an audio book recommendation. The book is good, but the audio book is amazing. James Avery’s best performance.
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - my favorite author and a great stand alone novel. Many mysteries, all wrapped up at the end. Loved it.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - this will likely not age well, but it was a fun read. I was actually more impressed than I expected to be. Very cool book.
Disappointments:
Redshirts by John Scalzi - It’s a nice book. It won the Hugo? It’s very much an average book. Nothing special.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - Wow, this was only OK. I was surprised I didn’t enjoy it more. Kind of boring in parts.
**The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe **- Huh. Not much here. A misfire by Gene Wolfe.
Cool idea! I’m gonna have to think about what I read; I love the idea of keeping a spreadsheet.
A few recommendations:
Borne, by Jeff Van der Meer. I’ve described it around here before; it’s yer average postapocalyptic enormous flying golden man-eating-bear with a sentient purple blob on its back book. Probably van der Meer’s most accessible work to date :). The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: it’s space opera, better written than most, very fun. The author cares a lot about cultural differences and spends a lot of time working them out. Too Like the Lightning: 25th century society described by a vile criminal in 18th-century style. An incredibly affected book, the sort that would normally drive me nuts, except it’s so goddamn well written. I’ve read it and its sequel and don’t know what to think about them, except that there’s a lot to think about them. If you exist at all in the Venn diagram space between “philosophy dilettante” and “science fiction nerd,” like me, you should give it a try. The Stone Sky: the end to NK Jemisin’s excellent trilogy about a postapocalyptic fantasy wasteland. Very grim, but not in a George RR Martin sense, more in a Beloved sense.
I read Ancillary Justice earlier this year. Took a little for me to find the groove of it, but I ultimately thought it was pretty great. Some really different sci-fi concepts/premises that were presented quite well.
I just finished reading E.R. Punshon’s Bobby Owen series of detective novels. Punshon was one of the second rank of Golden Age writers, and his novels are nicely plotted, very well written, and full of rather wry wit. The novels (there are 35 of them) follow Bobby from his start as Detective Sergeant all the way up to Assistant Commissioner (Unattached). I liked them so well that now I’m starting to re-read them.
Phew, glad to hear someone else who doesn’t just fawn over that book. Seems like everyone I know who’s read it loved it. I didn’t just not love it, I rather hated it.
You also mentioned Ready Player One, which I also loved. And so when I saw Cline’s Armada at Half Price Books a few weeks ago I snatched it up. And flew through it. And it’s…just OK. Does not compare to his debut novel, but it’s not bad.
I decided to have a…purposeful year of reading 2017. I haven’t read this many books in a single year for a very long time, and certainly haven’t ever researched, sought out and chosen books like this.
Here is my list, I think it will open:
I recommend everything on it without reservation, except for Girl on the Train. That was a streaming pile that I found in a thrift store or something.
If This Is a Man, Primo Levi. A classic for good reason. Spare and precise writing about the Holocaust and what it means to be human. Can’t believe I had never read it before.
Grant, Ron Chernow. Bordering on hagiography, but still careful enough even for critics of Grant. The rare (for me) page-turner of a biography and a very interesting way to revisit the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace. Loved every essay.
Locked In, John Pfaff: A critical reevaluation of the mass incarceration narrative coming out of the New Jim Crow. Careful, quantitative, and utterly persuasive in arguing that the problems in criminal justice are largely the result of how prosecutors choose to exercise their discretion. Single-handedly responsible for shifting national efforts away from a focus on non-violent drug offenders and toward more fundamental reform.
The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein: For half a decade I’ve felt like I really needed to understand housing policy and housing history to understand America. If you’ve felt the same way (and you’ve already read Evicted), pick this up. Brings it all together.
Devil In The Grove, Gilbert King: In part, the story of Thurgood Marshall before he was on the Supreme Court. In part, the story of the South before he was on the Supreme Court. A reminder of how far we’ve come, and how far we have left to go.
The Warmth of Other Suns [re-read], Isabelle Wilkerson: This book changed my life. So I read it again, which I rarely do. Even better the second time around. I was tempted to just recommend this one so people would see it. It’s an account of the Second Great Migration, but it’s also a lot more than that.
Lincoln In The Bardo, George Saunders: I love Saunders for his writing and would read him writing about pretty much anything. But in a year when the Civil War feels a little too close, to read him write about Lincoln and death was amazing.
Superforecasting,* Philip Tetlock*: Very cool nonfiction account of Prof. Tetlock’s academic research into forecasting. Great antidote to all of the terrible punditry out there in 2016. Some relevant life lessons too.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami. This is the novel that Murakami says he was proudest of. It is definitely the pure essence of Murakami, part pot-boiler part magical realism. Expected it to feel dated, but it didn’t. His female characters often leave something to be desired, but if you can overlook that, worth a read.
