Best of 2015 & Hello 2016!

It’s time to say goodbye to the year 2015!  It’s been a very busy year for me, professionally, but I’ve also been able to participate in a number of challenges/events and read-alongs, in addition to my usual reviews. I’ve reviewed 39 books this year, which is a bit higher than the previous year--hopefully I can read even more in 2016!  As usual, I’ve also put together a list of my favorite books reviewed this year, separately for recent and older works.

Most Highly Recommended New Books (published 2013-2015)

• Last First Snow by Max Gladstone: In my opinion, this is the best so far of Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence.  A prequel of sorts, it features Elayne Kevarian and Temoc during a period of unrest in Dresedial Lex. Full Fathom Five also deserves a mention here, as it was another excellent addition to the Craft Sequence.  
• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie: This one’s no surprise, as I had Ancillary Justice listed as one of my favorites last year!  The series continues to be exactly what I enjoy reading, and I really need to get around to reading Ancillary Mercy sooner rather than later.
• The Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley:  A complicated and difficult epic fantasy series. I read and reviewed the first two books, The Mirror Empire and Empire Ascendant, this year. The final volume is yet to be published, planned for 2017.

Most Highly Recommended Old Books (published before 2013)

• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin: A classic that has endured for nearly half a century. A story about dreams shaping reality, and the morality of using that power.
• Permutation City by Greg Egan: Pretty much everything I wanted from a book about mind uploading. It's the first book I've read by Greg Egan, and I loved it.
• Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey: The Kushiel's Legacy series, together with Worldbreaker, has reinvigorated my interest in epic fantasy. My favorite so far is Kushiel's Dart, but I have also read and enjoyed Kushiel's Chosen and Kushiel's Avatar.

Looking Forward to 2016!

For 2016, I’m looking forward to once again being involved in a variety of read-alongs, events and challenges.  At the moment, I’m in the middle of the 2015-2016 Sci-Fi Experience, and I’m getting ready to start Vintage Sci-Fi Month as well as a read-along of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Scion.  In addition, I have a few new features I’m hoping to add to the blog.  

Hugo Awards: I’m going to have a few posts discussing what I’m thinking of nominating for the various fiction and dramatic presentation categories, leading up to the nominations deadline.

Short Fiction: If we all learned one thing from the Hugo fiasco last year, it’s that there aren’t enough people reading and nominating short fiction.  This year, I’m hoping to have a monthly feature to highlight recent short fiction that I have enjoyed.  For the previous year, I’ve mostly read freely available fiction, but I will probably buy more magazines and anthologies this year.

Video Games: I put up a review of some science fiction video games for Sci-Fi Month 2015, and it was pretty fun. I’ve been playing lots of xbox 360 games since then, so I was thinking I could review a few of them each month.

Television: I have recently been watching quite a lot of genre television shows, so I thought it could be nice to have a feature (perhaps biweekly or monthly) to talk about them. I meant to do that in Sci-Fi Month as well, but I was planning to review Doctor Who, and then the final episode for that month was Face the Raven, and well...  We’ll see how this goes!

That’s it for 2015, I hope everyone has a wonderful 2016!