What are the best and the worst books you've read this year? (they don't have to have been published this year)
Best book was probably a tie. The first was Scythe. It's a great, thought provoking idea of the future even if it is YA. The second was A Darker Shade of Magic. It's so well done and the writing just flowed so well with fun, memorable characters. Worst was The Twisted Ones. The things I do to make sure books are okat for my classroom.
I think the worst books are the forgettable ones. Even if I absolutely loathe a book and want to go back to college for degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, then get my doctorate in quantum physics and a postdoc in wormhole theory before spending the next 20 years as a professor and researcher while I earn my professor emeritus title before it all finally culminates in that one glorious moment, where I make all of my dreams a reality by building an actual time machine so I can go back in time and hand the author’s father a condom and a stern warning, it’s still not nearly as bad a book as one that is ultimately forgettable. That said, I read so fast that the best books of 2017 for me are two series in a dead heat. Glynn Stewart’s Starship’s Mage series, and J.A. Sutherland’s Alexis Carew novels. Both of which earned five stars from me and even got reviews here on the forum. Glynn Stewart managed to make a ridiculously OP character, and then completely subverted the trope by throwing challenges at him that somehow still manage to come across as believable. To sum it up, Damien Montgomery is a starship’s Mage. Except, he’s not only that but also one of the three most powerful Mages in existence by a factor of five. Not only that, he’s one of a few dozen people in the galactic empire of Mars who is completely above the law and empowered with the ability to speak for the emperor. Not only that, but his personal starship is one of the most powerful battleships the empire has built and he’s shuttled around in it by a crack naval crew and a battalion of special forces marines who escort him . Sounding OP yet? Well, the author continually throws him into situations that cannot be resolved by brute force. His power exists solely to create spectacular climaxes where it’s completely justified by circumstance to drop the equivalent of a thermonuclear weapon on a primitive tribe of about twelve pacifists living in huts made of spit and dirt. Overpowered does not mean invincible. Alexis Carew, on the other hand, is the complete opposite in almost every way. She’s bright, but not brilliant. Competent at just about everything, being saved from Mary Sue status by virtue of not being the best at everything. The one outstanding quality she has is her absolute refusal to bend in the face of overwhelming circumstances - she gets her ships practically shot out from under her in nearly every book! If I had to pick two words to describe her character, they would be stubbornness and leadership. I also absolutely love the wit, humor, and charm that Sutherland manages to pack into his writing. I had full blown belly laughs several times per book - to the point where I was literally crying and my dog had to come investigate to make sure I was okay. <billy_mays>But wait! There’s more!</billy_mays> I also love the research that Mr. Sutherland puts into his work. In fact I strongly recommend sticking around for the “bonus bit” at the end of the book where he drops some historical knowledge on his readers that a lot of people probably miss because it’s after the point where Kindle brings up the “hey leave a review” pop up. I could go on and on, but instead, just as a means of illustrating how memorable these books are, I’ll leave you with a quote pulled from memory out of a book that I read some 100+ books ago: “Mister Carew, while I appreciate the enthusiasm, it is inappropriate for a midshipman in her majesty’s Royal Navy to be found on the gun deck shouting ‘bugger ‘em through their knickers, boys,’ no matter how effective it was at increasing morale.” Honorable mention goes to E. William Brown’s novel “Perilous Waif”. I’m still waiting for the sequel, but Mr. Brown seems intent on writing more of his schlock portal fantasy with everything I hate about an isekai MC-kun combined with many explicit sex scenes that are wildly less realistic than you’d find in vintage porn from the 80s. Still, Perilous Waif was damn good and I highly recommend it.
Graphic novels I started this year by reading a lot of graphic novels and were most impressed by: (They are all Must-Reads, imho.) The Authority - Warren Ellis Planetary - Warren Ellis Sunstone, Ravine and Death Vigil - Stjepan Sejic Lucifer - Mike Carey Moon Knight (2016) - Jeff Lemire LitRPG 2017 was also the year I discovered LitRPG! Not just the genre, but also the community. A special thanks to Paul Bellow and everyone else here for making me feel so welcome. Two series that really stood out for me were: Awaken Online - Travis Bagwell (The first LitRPG series I ever read. I will always remember Travis Bagwell fondly for that exciting introduction.) The Weirdest Noob - Arthur Stone (despite the somewhat rushed and confused feel of the third book.) I read a few others, but Way of the Shaman - Vasily Mahanenko also stood out for me because as much as I enjoyed it at the beginning, that much I was disappointed and frustrated by the conclusion. Looking forward to reading many more! (I bribed an elf and I hear I might be getting a Divine Dungeon to explore for Christmas.) Fantasy Two new authors I discovered this year to add to my list of Damn, They're Good Cradle and House of Blades series - Will Wight Faithful and the Fallen series - John Gwynne A worthy mention also to the light novel Goblin Slayer series - Kumo Kagyu Two fantasy books that weren't necessarily bad, but that I lost interest in and dropped (probably more to do with my taste than the authors' talents and skills, so no criticism intended here. I've mentioned before I prefer a blend of action and humour. I will stop watching a highly-rated, very popular and successful TV series as well if it doesn't suit my tastes.): Dragon's Trail - Joseph Malik The Destroyer - Michael-Scott Earle Sci-Fi Two great sci-fi discoveries: Three Body Problem series - Liu Cixin Ghosts of Tomorrow - Michael R Fletcher And that's about it! Many more I read and enjoyed to a greater and lesser extent, but these were the books that really stood out for me and therefore defined my 2017 reading experience.
Best book. Hogfather. pretty much anything I've read of Terry Prachett made me happy but the hogwatch book was my fav. this year. Second place goes to the circles in hell series by Mark Cain. Sometimes being silly and fun is just what I need to perk me up. Third place goes to the bobiverse. Something different yet doesn't take itself too seriously. Honorable mention goes to Drew Hayes. I love his S. S. and S. Series as well as the Fred books, I've spent quite a few nights binge reading them. Worst book... I'm sorry but just one? They seem to come in threes... 1. Anything by James Patterson. I gave him a try in Jan and everything from him was a well earned 1 star. 2. The way of the shaman books 3-5. After how good and creative the first two were those suck even more in retrospect and a serious waste of time. 3. Sleeping beauties by King. This one gets on the list because of how disappointed I was. For such a great writer to put out political garbage like this is just depressing. Honorable mentions The Fold by Peter Clines for wasting my time, up until the last 70 pages the book was meh but bearable. It was only after that that my brain melted. I can't believe all the high ratings it's getting. Artemis for all the undeserved positivity it got. I have never seen such a bloated corpse of a book before. And that's after plagiarizing another book for the set up! I'm sure I'll forget it before the end of the year so for now just an HM and a middle finger! Looking back at my year over at goodread I'd say it was quite good with more 4-5 star books then anything. The ones I felt were bad were REALLY bad and actually made me angry not just meh I forgot it five days later. They are here because those authors actually stole their ideas from better books yet managed to blotch it up so badly that you actually feel dumber after reading them. How is that even possible!!!
Favorites 1. Alice Long Book 1 A wonderful book that used a blend of science and pseudoscience to make a believable world that still seemed massive and vast. Also the book itself poses many interesting questions about both morals and transhumanism and transformed my ideal future entirely. The stream of consciousness style of writing also made an incredibly strong character seem weak and somewhat human however my main drawback was with all the world building the characters felt flat 2. Deamons of Astlan (currently up to book 3) Since the whole series is supposed to be a single book and I read it this year I thought I would include the entire thing. The book would already be up there if It didn't have such an amazing style of storytelling blended with multiple genres the added layer of thought the author put in and the questions the book asked made me think quite alot 3. Please dont tell my parents I have a nemesis Now this is a weird one for me while the book was already one of my favorites with its layered characters and vibrant world the ending of the book presented Spoiler: No outright spoilers but the ending could be given away presented an interesting take on the problem of self as well as the locks socks which took this book from a great book to one that made the list of favorites 3.5 ( couldent chose between the two) Chuggie and the../ The only way I can think to describe these books is weird there all around strange the main character is a horseman of drought the others being fire and pestilance who together form VOLTRON... I mean ( the primal being of destruction) The world itself is a post apocalyptic wasteland with wierdness all around iron mechanical aliens who enforce anyones laws who allows them to claiming to be just trying to help demon fetuses who corrupt villages and turn them into zombies and of course death presteses who make cloaks of human skin died with blood. While this book is labeled as horror there is little to no attempt to scare the reader in fact I personally found the book had a zen quality to it. Honerable mentions Futuristic violence and fancy suits/ for another really cool possible future world with good characters and a relatable protaganist Heartstrikers book 4/ might have made the list if this book didn't feel like it ruined alot of the mysteries of the series for a filler book about romance that dosent even explore the area the talk about most namely china Nevernight/ good series with a wierd roman steampunk magic theme simply didnt make the list Worst Spoiler: three big long rants 1. The nightblade Epic VOL 1 This book is without question the worst book I've ever read i tried to force myself to listen but about 6 hours in i had to stop for fear of me breaking my phone in annoyance with the book (ok a bit of an exaggeration but I did feel like throwing things while on vacation in hawaii so that tells you something) The MC is entitled to this idea of being a theif who dosent kill not only that but who is perfectly fine with getting others into trouble and then stopping them from saving themselves by even fighting in self defense not only that but she seems to have 2 people following her who have an irrational attachment to her even though she treats them terribly not only that but they havent known her for more then a week. 2. Blood of the lost the darkness within Ok so while I can see why this book could be considered good it feels like it wants to punish its readers as much as possible in the first book the guy thinks his wife is dead when really they just got seperated and come super close to finding eachother accept there are a few characters that think the MC is evil and thus never tell him about his wife for some wierd reason this continues for the whole second book accept then he starts falling in love with someone else verry much against his backstory of being overly loyal to his wife and her being his childhood sweetheart aswell this book might have been ok (assuming there is a planned redemtion) if the author didnt love throwing this in your face to the point where them meeting up feels like the entire story if he had decided to make the two groups just do other things and stumble across each other (possible) or even move the plot forward an inch by informing him his wife was alive. 3. The cadet (D rus) So I really liked alter world despite its many flaws and when reading this i was sorely dissapointed aside from the fact the book was so booring i forgot i was reading it by the time i finished. It felt like it threw away so much potential when in the beginning there was almost a good survival game LitRPG they instead made it a loot collection thing while that alone wasnt enough to make me mark it so badly the books treats women almost entirely as emotional robot servants with no skills or personality perhaps i missed something while being bored out of my mind and its supposed to be a setup for redemption but it just felt terrible
oh ya didnt notice that I share your complaints this is the first book im hopeing the author decides not to go that route
To add to my list above: I just read Maestro, Book #29 of The Legend of Drizzt, the second of a trilogy. It was so awful that I quit with less than 2 chapters to go because I simply couldn't be bothered to finish. It has now officially become the worst book I've read this year and I highly discourage anyone from reading it, especially if you were ever a fan of any of the characters.
