Saturday, January 3, 2015

2014 Books

These are the books I've read this year:


Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre *****

Fiddlehead, Cherie Priest ****

Vamparazzi, Laura Resnick ***

Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson *** .5

Axis, Robert Charles Wilson *****

The Lost Fleet: Courageous, Jack Campbell ***

The Owner, Book One: The Departure, Neal Asher *****

Indexing, Seanan McGuire ***

Sere From the Green, Lauren Jankowski **.5

Shadow Ops: Control Point, Myke Cole ***

Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal *****

Woken Furies, Richard K. Morgan, ****.5

Polterheist, Laura Resnick ***.5

Half-Off Ragnarok, Seanan McGuire ****

A Thousand Perfect Things, Kay Kenyon *****

The Plague Forge, Jason M. Hough, ****.5

Abaddon’s Gate, James S.A. Corey *****

Fortune’s Pawn, Rachel Bach ***.5

A Darkling Sea, James L. Cambias ****

Zero Point (The Owner: Book Two), Neal Asher ****.5

The Arrivals, Melissa Marr ***

Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon ***

The Human Division, John Scalzi ****

Grimspace, Ann Aguirre ****

Free Live Free, Gene Wolfe *****

The Etched City, K.J. Bishop ****.5

Ghost Story (Dresden Files), Jim Butcher ****

My Real Children, Jo Walton *****

The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes ****

Wanderlust, Ann Aguirre ***

Parasite, Seanan McGuire ***.5

Vortex, Robert Charles Wilson *****

Inferno, Mike Resnick ***.5

The Night Stalker, Jeff Rice **.5

Dark Progeny (Doctor Who), Steve Emmerson ***

The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein *****

Farside, Ben Bova ***.5

Outlander, Diana Gabaldon ****.5

Peacemaker, C.J. Cherryh *****

Terms of Enlistment, Marko Kloos *****

Mission to Horatius, Mack Reynolds ***

The Owner, Book 3: Jupiter War, Neal Asher ****

Revolt of the Triffids (AKA The Day of the Triffids), John Wyndham *****

The Winter Long, Seanan McGuire *****

Re-Birth, John Wyndham ****

Death’s Dark Domain (Doc Savage). Kenneth Robeson ***

Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey ****

Stowaway to Mars, John Wyndham **.5

Lock In, John Scalzi ****.5

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, James Tiptree, Jr. (finished)

The Pride of Chanur, C.J. Cherryh *****

The Pritcher Mass, Gordon R. Dickson **.5

Nova, Samuel R. Delany ****

Chanur’s Venture, C.J. Cherryh ****

The Enceladus Crisis, Michael J. Martinez *****


Hmm. 

I’ve got to thank JfPowaloski for lending me his copy of Revenge of the Triffids, which was great, and also led me to some other John Wyndham books.

The one non-SF book on the list is Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, a detective novel in the mold of Raymond Chandler. A combination of Pynchon and Chandler is going to be weird, and this one lived up to the promise. Confusing like Chandler, amusing like Pynchon, and confounding like both of them. Possibly I should have rated it higher. Looking forward to the movie.

I read Free Live Free, by Gene Wolfe, about 30 years ago, and didn’t quite get it at the time. But like Pynchon, Gene Wolfe is never predictable, and pretty much everything he writes is worth reading.

The Night Stalker? I kept hearing Darren McGavin’s voice as I read the book. But really, you should just watch the movie.

Outlander. Just great. Can’t wait for the DVDs to come from Netlfix, and to get the next book from the library.

Mission to Horatius. The first Star Trek novel I ever read, actually before I’d really seen the original TV show. A so-so novel, but it brought back memories.

Thanks, Jason, for recommending the Sandman Slim novels.

Nova, by Samuel Delany. Another book I read a long time ago, but that meant a lot more to me now. Delany is a fantastic writer.



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