Best of 2017

Tally of Books Read for 2017:

Fantasy: 30

Romances: 7

Urban fantasy: 5

SF: 3

Post-apocalypse: 12

Mystery: 5

Contemporary YA: 2

Literary: 6, all but one by Karen Joy Fowler

Historical: 3

Alternate history: 3

Caper novel: 1

Nonfiction: 4

Of this lot, re-reads: 10

DNF: 14

What an unbalanced year. I had no idea how little SF I read this year until I looked over my list. Which is a bit unreliable; there were some months I know I forgot to record some of the books I read. Still, this is a fairly accurate list of my reading for 2017.

Okay, favorites by month. I read from four to twenty books per month, so there’s a lot of variation in how competitive any given month was. Still, I’ll take a stab at picking out one favorite for each month of 2017.

Favorite January: Tomorrow, When the War Began series by Marsden (a re-read)

Favorite February: Hidden Steel by Durgin

Favorite March: Shadow Unit 15 by Bear and Monette and others

Favorite April: Shadow Fallen by Briggs

Favorite May: I read a whole bunch of books in May, lots of them good to excellent, so it’s hard to select one favorite read. But I have to go for the Freedom’s Gate series by Kritzer.

Favorite June: The Under a Graveyard Sky series by Ringo

Favorite July: Burn for Me by Andrews. I’d been saving this one for a reading slump. Loved it.

Favorite August: Knife by Anderson

Favorite September: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Carson

Favorite October: The Last Mage Guardian by Chase

Favorite November: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Valentine

Favorite December: I haven’t really been reading many books this month, so I guess I’ll leave this space blank for now. If I read something fabulous in the next three weeks, I’ll be sure and review it.

Favorite of the Year: Out of the whole year . . . drumroll . . . I have to pick out Freedom’s Gate series by Naomi Kritzer as my overall favorite book or series for 2017.

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Okay, now to break the favorites down a little differently:

Favorite male lead: Um, here I’m going to go with Innisth Maèr Eäneté in Winter of Ice and Iron. I generally avoid including my own books or characters in these lists, but hey.

Favorite female lead: Lauria from the Freedom’s Gate series by Kritzer.

Favorite lead who is neither male nor female: The murderbot protagonist from The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. There’s not a lot of competition for this spot, obviously, but the Murderbot would be a great protagonist whatever its gender or lack thereof.

Favorite romantic couple: Lucien and Elena in Kiss of Lavender by Florand

Most unexpected plot twists: Knife by Anderson

Story that surprised me the most, in a good way: The remarkably readable Under a Graveyard Sky series by Ringo. I wouldn’t have expected to enjoy a series that hardly bothers with characterization and sometimes suffers from clunky writing plus overt political Messages. But I did.

Favorite secondary fantasy world: The Harbors of the Sun by Wells. Hard to beat the Raksura world.

Favorite fairy tale: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Valentine was not exactly a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but I liked it a whole bunch and it did echo the fairy tale.

Favorite contemporary: Hidden Steel by Durgin

Favorite historical fantasy: Steel Blues by Graham and Scott

Favorite alternate history: The Eagle and Empire series by Smale

Favorite SF setting: The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red by Wells

Favorite UF/Paranormal: Burn for Me series by Andrews

Favorite romance: A Kiss in Lavender by Florand

Favorite mystery: As Red as Any Blood by Greenwood

Favorite Georgette Heyers: False Colors, which I listened to for the second time.

Favorite YA: Thick as Thieves by Turner

Favorite MG: The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Burgis

Favorite art book masquerading as a novel: Above the Timberline by Manchess

Favorite Cover Art: Winter of Ice and Iron. It’s nice enough online, but you have to see it in person to appreciate the lovely metallic sheen this cover has – it shifts from greys to blues depending on the angle of the light. Saga sure did give me beautiful covers.

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