riontel | Books of 2011

Voyager, Diana Gabaldon

It started out with "Outlander" as a guilty pleasure and every once in a while I go back and read the next book in a series. It's getting to be rather masochistic of me because they irritate the hell out of my sensibilities. Typical woman's novel masquerading as a fantasy on a basis of having some time travel in the plot which is getting more and more far fetched. Her Lord John novels set in the same universe are much better and way shorter.

Red Seas under Red Skies, Scott Lynch

Second in the Gentleman Bastard series and sequel to "The Lies of Locke Lamora". Easy entertaining read. There are more books planned in the series, next one should be out sometime in March.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson

Lord Foul's Bane

Illearth War

The Power that Preserves

Top of my list of the worst books I've ever read. And I still don't know why I finished all three of them or went past the first dozen pages in the first book for that matter. I did stop on the first try but then picked it up and muscled through the whole horrible set. Has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Features a vile repulsive protagonist who performs despicable acts for obscure reasons and lifts the term antihero to whole new levels. Badly written too.

Codex Alera Series, Jim Butcher

Furies of Calderon

Academ's Fury

Cursor's Fury

Captan's Fury

Princeps' Fury

First Lord's Fury

Fun, fast paced fantasy series. In essence it's the typical farmboy story and as such stays faithful to the trope. Completely appropriate for the younger audience. Titles act as a sort of a spoiler to the plot arc of the series.

The Fry Chronicles, Stephen Fry

Fry continues his autobiography. This one covers his college years and his career, to the point when it finally takes off, as well as some of his addictions. I like the clever way he writes, though some of his references are a bit obscure for a person not too familiar with British TV of the times. Still fun.

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Wonderfully written quirky take on Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" (hence the title). Complete with time travel, Victorian manners, and causal paradoxes. And a cat. Highly recommend.

Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton

Another take on Victorian novel as acted out by dragons. Charming.

Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs

Supposedly it's a true memoir of Burroughs' bizarre dysfunctional adolescence.

The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly

A retelling of some common children's fairy tales with a dark twist. A world born of imagination of a disturbed boy dealing with a death of his mother and an appearance of his father's new wife and child. Not really for children, except older ones.

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman

War sucks but if you wait long enough and have the law of relativity on your side, few thousand years in the future you might just get a life you wanted. You simply have to survive long enough.

First Law Trilogy, Joe Abercrombie

The Blade Itself

Before They Are Hanged

Last Argument of Kings

Even though at first glance it's a typical story of a quest embarked on by a disparate group of unlikely and reluctant heroes in the end it's not what one expects. Maybe too much so for my taste. And it drags on a bit.

Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold

Latest in the Miles Vorkosigan adventures. She should just stop and let Miles live happily ever after. Pretty weak and lacks the exuberance of the earlier novels, but not as awful as my least favorite "Brothers in Arms" and "Mirror Dance" were.

Among Others, Jo Walton

Doesn't live up to the level of her Small Change trilogy(read that if you haven't) but will find a warm spot in the heart of anybody who grew up loving sci-fi/fantasy. Actually inspired me to go back to read some of the older classics of the genre which I missed previously. Outside of nostalgia, it's a bit too pat and simplistic.

Reamde, Neal Stephenson

I wrote about it right after I read it so I will just repeat that it's not as good as his other books and don't expect anything more than a passable thriller.

The History Boys, Alan Bennett

This is a play on which one of my favorite movies was based. Watch the movie, it's superb. Play is good but I don't know if I would have been as taken with it if I haven't seen the movie first.

A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

Don't know if there is a corrected edition, the one I read had some noticeable factual errors. It became popular because it's written in such an accessible manner, good as a starter to learn of the origins of universe and life, not so much of everything else.

The Cold Commands, Richard Morgan

Sequel to the "Steel Remains", second in A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy. Still dark and tortured but too much of the deus ex machina (or deus without machina) rescuing our hero all of a sudden, which is a bit irritating.

Triton, Samuel R. Delaney

Original title has been changed to "Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia". It might have read differently in 1976, when this came out, but I saw it as a story of self-centered narcissistic chauvinist homophobe living in a society where such concept do not exist. He is unhappy, naturally, can't maintain any kind of a relationship, constantly lies to himself and others, and finds all kinds of excuses for why he is unhappy, refusing to acknowledge that he might be his main problem. Common issues in an uncommon setting.

The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins

Interesting look on evolution.

Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

Classical Zelazny with a good dose of Hindu mythology.

Dying Inside, Robert Silverberg

Man dealing with losing something that he considers his defining trait, something that makes him himself.

The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon

Not sure I figured out what the point of this was. I'd say it was a mockery of the conspiracy theory nuts but don't know if it was already relevant in the 60s? Either way, it's a bit too post-modern for my taste.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, Eoin Colfer

If this were a TV show I'd say author just jumped the shark. Artemis and the gang are getting a bit boring. I know it's not fair to expect each book in the series to be uniformly good but I still do. This is the lowest point for me so far.

The Cold Equations, Tom Godwin

A collection of stories in which most stories are pretty standard conventional sci-fi of the type "man's triumph over the elements." Takes place on distant planets or deep in space where through some feats of cleverness or ingenuity men get out of self-created problems. Some of it is way far fetched, like solving a problem by inventing anti-gravity in a few months. BTW, I meant "men" quite literally, women are practically non-existent. The short story that gave name to the whole volume stands out though. There is still a problem deep in space but it lacks a clever solution and instead the narrative is focused on the actual human characters. It reads much more current than any of his other stories.

Daemon, Daniel Suarez

This was a_lazy_legend great recommendation and discovery of the year. It's exactly what I expected Stephenson's book to be like (Stephenson was also Lena's recommendation originally), and everything it wasn't: fast paced, well written, technically sound, full of great ideas and interesting characters. You can tell author actually knows what he is talking about, his descriptions of underlying technologies are accurate and implementable with just enough stretch to make you think and wonder of the possibilities. Don't know how well it will hold up to the advent of the future though. There is a completed sequel called "Freedom" which I am reading right now and the overall impression will be based on both books but for now I do highly recommend this.

I just noticed this is the first time ever I don't have a single book in Russian in the list. And I know I didn't reread any of my old favorites either. Which means that the only Russian texts I read this year were LJ entries.