In the spirit of the end of the year, I take a break of the
list of the 100 best books Shorter made in 1898, and look at what I’ve read
this year. It turns out to be a woefully few books. I’ve been so busy writing
that I haven’t had time for reading. It seems I won’t even make my Goodreads reading
challenge of thirty books. I’m still three books short.
Most of what I’ve read
does not merit a place in any top of the year list. I’ve mostly caught up with
all the urban fantasy series I’ve followed for years. I listed the top ten of
those on my other blog.
I did read some
meatier fiction too. I wrote about re-reading Shikasta earlier this year, but I’m
not entirely sure I’d name it my top read of the year. Interesting though it
was, it didn’t really excite me the way some other books did.
I read other sci-fi
too – however you want to define the genre.
I read the second book in Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives series,
also a re-read that felt like I was reading it the first time. I read the
critically acclaimed Dark Eden by Chris Beckett that I found slightly dull for
some reason. In addition, there was This Land by L. S. Burton, an independently
published book I enjoyed very much.
Great though all of
those books were, they aren’t my top readings this year. I’ve written elsewhere
about the Lover at Last by J. R. Ward. It’s a strong book in a long-running UF
series, but what makes it stand out is that its romantic focus is two men,
fierce vampire warriors one doesn’t usually see in the same-sex romance in
urban fantasy. I thought Ward’s book was important, but it fell slightly sort
on my expectations. Another interesting read was The City & The City by
China Mièville. It’s unique enough to stand out among my otherwise mainstream
urban fantasy readings, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with it either. I
constantly kept expecting it to become something ‘more’.
So, it would seem that
my top read for the year is a book I haven’t actually finished reading as I
write this. The City’s Son by Tom Pollock is a young adult urban fantasy set in
London. It’s adventurous from the beginning, it has a unique world, it’s
narrative doesn’t follow the conventions – one character is described from the
first person point of view while the rest are in the third person – and it
doesn’t shy away from the difficult topics like sexual harassment. I found the
book captivating from the start and the only reason I haven’t managed to finish
it yet is that I’ve been insanely busy doing other things. Those are done now
and I can concentrate on the fantastical London of Tom Pollock.
It’ll be
Christmas next week so I’ll retire for the holidays and return in January. Merry
Christmas and Happy New year to you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment