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FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-03-30 6:29 PM (#6780)
Subject: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I thought it might be cool to have a thread to mention our faves from the RYO experience thus far, along with perhaps what challenges that book may fit.

Of the seven or eight books I've read for RYO (and the dozen some odd books I've read this year) my favorite so far is unquestionably Caitlin Kiernan's The Dark Tree. Dark fantasy and fits the LGBT, Second Best, Creature Feature, and WoGF challenges.

Got any favorites to share?

HRO

Posted 2014-03-30 8:04 PM (#6781 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: RE: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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Excellent thread topic!

Books I've loved that I read for the RYO challenges:

A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren. (#1 book of the year....so far.) Thought provoking, profound, beautifully written.

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. Profound and poignant and compulsively readable.

Ancillary Justice, of course. So worthy of all the award noms it is receiving!

A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda Warrington. Vampire fiction for smart people. As I said in my review, "This a strongly crafted literary book with intelligent vocabulary, excellent character development, and a well-balanced mixture of philosophical musing and dramatic action." I was very impressed that the author created a new vampire mythos so I never could guess how the story was going to unfold.

And a book that is not in the database (but hopefully will be added) - The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier. One of the best collections of short stories I've ever read.

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-03-30 8:45 PM (#6784 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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So far, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt. Very clever format. It's hard to believe he's the same person who wrote Red Mars, which I thought was tedious with unlikeable characters (except for one). In YRS, he makes the reader care about the characters very quickly and--for the most part--does not get bogged down in description. I'm currently reading Among Others, which is also going to be a favorite.

DrNefario

Posted 2014-03-31 7:27 AM (#6790 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I've read a lot of strong contenders this year - I'm really pleased with the overall quality level, so far - but I think my favourite is probably Slow River by Nicola Griffith. It's not even that easy to say why, I just liked the main character and found the world interesting.

Honourable mentions for almost everything else. I'm not sure I'd know where to stop, but I'll pick out The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A McKillip and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin, both of which have sequels I'm hoping to read.

justifiedsinner

Posted 2014-03-31 9:48 AM (#6792 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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@Rhondak101 Yes, I was pleasantly surprised by Years of Rice and Salt although I was disappointed with the ending with I though was too pat and rushed. I agree with you on your assessment of Red Mars (and the rest of the trilogy didn't get any better), unlikeable people in contrived situations. 2312 was also much better.

Favorites for the month would be "Little, Big" and "Lavondyss" both inventive and well written fantasies.

Rhondak101

Posted 2014-03-31 2:10 PM (#6793 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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Justifiedsinner, I agree with you about the ending. In fact, i was not as impressed by the last few sections as I was with the first ones. I thought the Long War section bogged down, and while I liked the ideas in Nsara, I felt like it was the most wordy of the sections. I do want to read 2312 and Galileo's Dream also looks interesting.

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-03-31 6:49 PM (#6795 - in reply to #6790)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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*facepalm* For my OP, I meant The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan, not The Dark Tree.

I'm having trouble even coming up with a second favorite. I finished it on the road, and immediately made the hubby pull over into a McDonald's with WiFi so I could buy The Drowning Girl, only to read about a fifth of it and get irrationally mad at it for having the effrontery to not be the book I had just finished reading. So I had to put it aside in favor of other books for now.

However, the book I'm about halfway through right now I'd nominate as favorite for creativity and boldness in genre-bending. Aliette de Bodard's Servant of the Underworld is part mystery, part fantasy, part historical fiction. I'd say that it adheres pretty closely to the conventions of the mystery genre while very cleverly providing a fantasy framework (i.e. crimes are committed with and solved by magic), all in a setting that's really refreshing -- the Aztec Empire.

mjmahoney

Posted 2014-04-05 9:44 AM (#6852 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I really enjoyed "The Scar", by China Mieville, which I read for the "Read the Sequel" challenge. Compared to "Perdido Street Station" which I also liked, it had a much more lively pace and more of a single direction to the plot (though still with multiple threads and hidden motives). Steam-punk pirate adventure.

Linguana

Posted 2014-04-13 2:01 AM (#7098 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: RE: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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Location: Austria

It hasn't been added to the database yet but my absolute favorite read this year - and part of my Women of Genre Fiction Challenge - was Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor.
I was lucky enough to get an ARC and I loved it to bits. My hard copy is already on its way and I can't wait to re-read it. Plus, now I can put Sarah Monette (Katherine Addison is an open pseudonym) to my Just Have to Read More by That Author list.

Other than that, Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear was breathtaking. Just as good as everybody says.

Today I just started Adaptation by Malinda Lo, which is very promising and goes on several lists at once:

Women of Genre Fiction
LGBT Speculative Fiction
SF by Authors of Color

valashain

Posted 2014-04-13 7:20 AM (#7101 - in reply to #7098)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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Probably The Mount by Carol Emshwiller. Very interesting novel in a number of ways. I think she is a bit of an underapreciated writer.

francesashton

Posted 2014-04-20 10:49 AM (#7289 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I'm doing two challenges and of them the YA challenge is the best for me. So far I've read 6 books and loved 5 of them. The best would probably be a toss up between Planesrunner and Coraline. For the Masterworks challenge my favourite has to be Flowers for Algernon. I'm finding some great authors that I can search out more of their work, which for me is one of the points of the challenges.

Dlw28

Posted 2014-04-20 5:36 PM (#7292 - in reply to #7289)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I guess my *favorite* favorite books thus far this year are Sarah Canary for RYO and Wolfhound Century just for fun. I also loved Ancillary Justice and Ammonite for RYO. On the lighter side the Vorkosigan series beginning with Shards of Honor had some laugh aloud moments within a book with serious themes.

FeminineFantastique

Posted 2014-04-23 4:16 PM (#7316 - in reply to #6780)
Subject: Re: Favorite book(s) read so far for RYO

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I'm seconding the rec upthread for Griffith's Ammonite (though I read it before I found WWE). It's a lot more difficult for me to get into science fiction than fantasy; I'm not sure if it's due to the genre interest directly or just because sci-fi is a lot more likely to be dry. I think it's the latter, because I watch a ton of sci-fi. But nonetheless, I found Ammonite immediately absorbing. It may be the most impressive debut novel I've ever read.

Adding two favorites: Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making -- which fits the Faerie Mythology, WoGF, 12 awards, and YA challenges (though it doesn't really read like YA to me); and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, which fits 12 awards and WoGF.

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