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Group Reads - Highlights
I read 17 (almost 18) books off of our shelves this year! 5 (almost 6) were from this year:This Alien Shore
Servant of the Underworld
Dreamsnake
Shadowshaper
Moon of the Crusted Snow
The Humans
(Gideon the Ninth- not finished yet)
Of this my highlights were
This Alien Shore
Dreamsnake
The Humans
I didn’t massively dislike any of them.
Of the books on our shelves from past years I especially liked (in no particular order):
Embassytown
Kindred
The Fifth Season
The Way of Kings
1Q84
The Farthest Shore (reread)
Dragonflight (reread)
Again, I didn’t hate any of them. The only one I was kind of meh about was Nine Princes in Amber.
All in all a very enjoyable year of group book reading!
Mod
Mod
That would have been funnier of me. I'm glad I have you to fix my jokes.
5 star:The Book of Koli - loved the entire trilogy
Neuromancer - still feels relevant all this time later
The Steerswoman - a fun retro feel read.
4 stars:
Piranesi
2 star:
Fate of the Fallen
Black Sun
Master of Djinn.
1 star:
Deeplight
DNF:
We are Satellites
The Quantum Magician
Velocity Weapon
The Dragonbone Chair
Cage of Souls
We are Legion
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
Vanished Birds
Overall, maybe a below average year for me with club reads, but still a few good ones to make it worthwhile.
This year I didn't do too many group bookshelf reads. I preface my remarks by saying I have 2 more planned this month. Overall, I my favorite so far surprisingly was The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Audiobook was well done. I do have Piranesi and Ancillary Mercy coming up this month so this could change. Piranesi is the more likely to possibly dislodge Vanished BirdsThe book I disliked the most was Grass by Sheri S. Tepper.
I try not to dnf books but I did dnf The Best of All Possible Worlds and have no plans to return to it. I couldn't get into Velocity Weapon nor Doomsday Book this year but I will be trying again for both eventually...
I managed to read 18 of the 24 this year with 4 read previously.The two I skipped were Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and The City of Dreaming Books
Highlights were The Steerswoman and Piranesi
Wish I had skipped Hench
DNF The Library of the Unwritten
I still have a couple of BOTMs to finish this month (Fellowship and Piranesi) so will come back to this thread in a week or two.
Highlights this year: Cage of Souls
Blood Song
Spinning Silver
The City of Dreaming Books
She Who Became the Sun
DNF
The Library of the Unwritten
More Than Human
I think I only read 6 books with the group this year, although I’m currently reading both of December’s books, one in audio and one in print. I read several of the past group reads though. I’m currently up to 46 group shelf reads this year, not counting the two I’m reading now.Read with Group
Of the 6 I read during the original group reads, I wasn’t super enthusiastic about any of them. I probably should have said nein to The Quantum Magician, which I rated at only 2.5 stars. I think I liked A Master of Djinn the best (3.5 stars), but it’s also the one I read most recently so my memories of it are stronger.
I also gave 3.5 stars to More Than Human, We Are Legion (We Are Bob), and The Best of All Possible Worlds. I liked all of those ok but wasn’t particularly enthralled by them.
I had mixed feelings about The City of Dreaming Books which I gave 3 stars.
Other Group Reads
Of the other 40 books I read from our group shelf this year, these are a few that have stood out to me, both good and bad:
China Mountain Zhang – 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this and got more wrapped up in it than I expected to.
Furies of Calderon – 4 stars. I enjoyed this whole series. It has several common epic fantasy tropes and wasn’t very twisty, but it was written well and I enjoyed both the characters and the story. Plus epic fantasy is my favorite subgenre.
Three Parts Dead – 2.5 stars. I think the audio narrator had a big impact on that rating. She was way too cheerful and Mary Poppin-ish for the story, and voiced the characters inconsistently. There were a few sections where every other sentence was read with a different tone, like they’d made two separate recordings of those passages and then alternated the sentences between the two recordings. I felt like I was in some sort of audio nightmare.
Foreigner – 4 stars. It was my first time reading anything by Cherryh and I was impressed.
Six of Crows – 4 stars. I would have rated it higher but I did it in audio and was annoyed by the different POV narrators because they read the characters’ voices differently. This story really hooked me for some reason; it was probably the only audiobook this year where I was looking for extra excuses for audio time.
Elantris – 4.5 stars. Another one I really loved. This was right up my alley.
Dragonflight – 2.5 stars. I think this is the lowest rating I’ve ever given an epic fantasy book. The story didn’t hold my interest very well and I hated the main characters.
The Sword of Kaigen – 4.5 stars. A little unpolished, but I thought it had a lot of depth, particularly in the character development. I loved that there were a couple elements of the story that didn’t go where I expected them to based on common tropes.
Special Awards
The award for Grossest Scene from the books I read this year goes to Consider Phlebas. (view spoiler)
The award for the most poorly timed almost-sex scene goes to Soulless.
The award for the most horribly abusive "romantic" relationship that readers were apparently supposed to feel invested in goes to Dragonflight. (With apologies to all the people who did love it. I think if I'd read it when I was younger like many people did, a lot of the things that bothered me would have gone over my head and I might have had a different reaction.)
(Edited to fix a couple typos.)
YouKneeK wrote: "...The award for the most poorly timed almost-sex scene goes to Soulless...."You're aware that I now HAVE to read this XD.
This year I've read 19 of the 24 BotMs (the rest mainly because the books were to expensive at the time of reading and most probably will be caught up on later when they are affordable).
5 stars for sure:
Cage of Souls (one of my most beloved books of all time)
The City of Dreaming Books (such a wonderful surprise this was)
5 stars at time of reading, but perhaps more like 4.5 stars (both read before)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (lovely loveletter to the SF genre)
We Are Satellites (simply loved the family dynamic here)
4 stars
The Book of Koli (great start of the series)
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (total surprise, I thought I would not like it)
The House in the Cerulean Sea (sometimes it just has to be fluff)
Deeplight (^^' ... damn can't remember much, but I apparently did like it)
More Than Human (it's Sturgeon - 'nuff said)
The Dragonbone Chair (one of the better Fantasy authors)
Blindsight (one of the most brillant books - but sometimes over my head)
She Who Became the Sun (another surprise where I hadn't thought I'd like it)
Piranesi (the good stuff - still hope it gets the Hugo)
3 stars
Black Sun (well ... yes ...)
2 stars
Velocity Weapon (this one was bad)
1 star (my only 1 star ever)
The Library of the Unwritten
DNF (I dare more dnfs than I used to do, which is healthy)
Fate of the Fallen
Hench
The Quantum Magician
Two out of three of your DNFs match mine, Gabi, and I stalled out (temporarily?) on the third.
Beth wrote: "Two out of three of your DNFs match mine, Gabi, and I stalled out (temporarily?) on the third."*High Five*
Gabi wrote: "You're aware that I now HAVE to read this XD."I just want to make sure I don’t lead you astray since my comment was a little ambiguous! It was more a case of the author choosing a completely ridiculous and unrealistic time for it, rather than the situation itself being funny.
However, after I first realized I'd been tricked into reading a romance with lots of tropes, I did enjoy it more than I expected to. I listened to the audio and the narrator added a lot of humor to it, so I think that helped.
Now that I’ve finished this month’s fantasy read, Piranesi, I just had to append a note to my earlier post (#111) to say that I really liked that one and rated it 5 stars. It was short, but fun.I’m also about 7 hours into the 32.5(!!) hour audiobook of this month's SF read, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and so far I’m enjoying that one quite a bit too. Good picks this month. :)
I'm also in the "haven't read that many" (yet) category for this year's group books. I have opinions anyway:Thanks: House in the Cerulean Sea, The City of Dreaming Books, Piranesi
Nein: Velocity Engine (DNF early on - twice)
Mod
The highlights for me were The Quantum Magician and The Steerswoman. My undying love and appreciation for whoever nominated them in the first place. You're both awesome!
I was fully expecting Deeplight to be an unremarkable 3 star read but it was really good at times (irritating at others). Glad I got round to it.
I keep meaning to find out if A Hack with a publishing deal was an intentional joke or someone just living up to their name cause I really didn't like A. J. Hackwith's The library of the Unwritten.
Blindsight and More Than Human were fine. I didn't pick up everything the authors put down in those books but I'm old and my back just isn't what it used to be.
A Cage of Souls was a not quite 5 star but more than 4 star read for me. It speaks well of Tchaikovsky's writing ability that he's able to use tools that I generally resent but I have no issue with in his hands.
The City of Dreaming Books didn't work for me at all. I blame its union rep.
I can't remember anything about The Dragonbone Chair which justifies it's 3 star rating. All that comes to mind when seeing the title is an Iain M. Banks story.
The groups discussions in VBC have been highlights for me this year. I think there's something in the format that allows people to voice opinions about books that they're reluctant to post on a forum. It's resulted in some insights that don't quite make it into the discussion threads here. So thanks to everyone who participated in those chats.
I'll save any commentary of the older group reads for another time as I can't remember which ones I got to.
https://forms.gle/3SE6wpVGFrU5TMCU6Let's rate the 2021 group reads! You can fill it in now and edit later if you read more books or change your mind. You can leave the rating blank if you haven't read the book, and if you accidentally rate something and want to clear it, just click on the rating again.
Gmail login is required, but we're not saving the addresses. Basically it's the same as the rereads voting form.
We'll share results later! :)
Links to all the books on the form, so you can check your rating!
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Fate of the Fallen
The Book of Koli
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Everfair
Deeplight
Cage of Souls
Hench
More Than Human
Dragonbone Chair
Blindsight
The Library of the Unwritten
Velocity Weapon
The City of Dreaming Books
The Quantum Magician
She Who Became the Sun
We Are Satellites
Black Sun
The Steerswoman
A Master of Djinn
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Piranesi
Mod
At the moment there is one book with an average* rating of 5.0 but it's not Steerswoman. I don't expect this book to stay at the top when more votes start trickling in.* multiple ratings
I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I added links to the books, so it's easier to check your rating. Above that is, not in the form.
A 4x4 for me on this poll: 4 finished books, each rated 4 stars.
I think you should win a prize for that, or four! :D
There are also the five that I didn't finish, which I didn't count on the poll. (/me sweeps them under the rug, takes prize)
lol, you could rate them 1 star if you truly didn't like them! Or just leave them unrated, whatever you feel is right :)I have my spreadsheet set up to calculate both average and mode automatically. At this very moment we have one book with a mode of 1 and an average of 1.8 :D
Voting 1 for that particular book is very a la mode right now.
I voted but I may still finish one more, so I'll revisit if necessary.
This should be fun to see the results on, thanks for setting it up Anna! Those links were helpful, too. I’ve submitted my ratings and will come back to add my rating for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars someday when I finish it.I have now checked The Library of the Unwritten on at least 3 separate occasions to verify whether or not I’ve read it. (I haven't.) I keep getting it mixed up with our other “Library” books and for some reason the title is also blurring in my mind with The City of Dreaming Books. I need to just read it so I know I’ve read it. :) I did get the first book when it went on sale a while ago, so I tentatively have it planned for 2022.
Done. Thank you for the organization of this!
I read 25 from the group shelf this year, with 12 from the 2021 picks (including Cerulean Sea which I read last year). I also had 2 DNFs (Gunslinger and Shadow of the Torturer. Double nein!)5 stars: Deeplight
I had 17 4-star reads (lots of good stuff!), so here are the standouts:
2021 group reads:
She Who Became the Sun
Black Sun
Steerswoman
Book of Koli
Back list:
Alphabet of Thorn
Oryx and Crake
Wool
China Mountain Zhang
I hadn't even thought about also finding out how many people have read each book, but that's kind of interesting! Or how many people have chosen to rate each book is more accurate, but I'm assuming those who rated it also read it. So far our most read books this year are The House in the Cerulean Sea and Deeplight.(Didn't rate yet? The form is in msg #120.)
Mod
/sarcasm
I assume you're the one who rated all the books? You're the first one! ^_^(I can't see who rated, but I can see how someone rated. This means I can't stalk anyone unless they tell me something by which I can identify the ratings.)
Mod
I voted on all three books I read. Not my best year for SFFBC...Fingers crossed next year will be better.
Read 5 of the list so far. Currently on Piranesi which I am finding a fast read. 3 fours and 2 threes, with Piranesi shaping up as a four so far. Perhaps I'm being a bit non-committal but I don't think so.
Hi it's me again, asking everyone to please rate any 2021 group books you've read :) Link above!(Yes, I will keep harping on about this until sometime in January.)
Anna wrote: "Hi it's me again, asking everyone to please rate any 2021 group books you've read :) Link above!(Yes, I will keep harping on about this until sometime in January.)"
aaaggghhh - more work
sighs and complies, but I'm not writing reviews
Ryan wrote: "If anything other than The Steerswoman comes out with the highest average rating then people are on a windup or its a fix!"huh? I might rate Dragonbone Chair higher than The Steerswoman
You don't have to! :D And no reviews necessary :)
I voted! I didn't read all the books but my favorites were Steerswoman, House of the Cerulean Sea, Master of Djinn, Black Sun I did enjoy the Best of All Possible Worlds, Velocity Weapon and Fate of the Fallen. My ratings make no sense, sometimes 4 stars are on my favorites list and 5 stars aren't 🤷🏻♀️. Also want to mention every time I text or type Steerswoman it tries to auto correct to Steersman 😒😒😒😒😒
Mod
huh? I might rate Dragonbone Chair higher than The Steerswoman"
Dragonbone Chair may well be the anti Steerswoman judging by Allison's review. I've not gotten round to it myself. When I think of bone chairs I think of Iain M. Banks and heck if I'll deliberately alter that.
What do you love about it? I think The Steerswoman excels in many things including introducing a new and interesting concept. Playing with the secret society concept by creating the exact opposite. I can't say many of the books added to the shelf this year did anything new with SFF. :/
Of the 15 books I read, I liked Remnant Population, Warbreaker, The Well of Ascension, Moon of the Crusted Snow, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Brown Girl in the Ring. The others were around 3 stars for me, which I mostly saw weren't for me but not completely badly written books. I didn't hate any of them.
https://forms.gle/3SE6wpVGFrU5TMCU6Let's rate the 2021 group reads! You can fill it in now and edit later if you read more books or change your mind. You can leave the rating blank if you haven't read the book, and if you accidentally rate something and want to clear it, just click on the rating again. It's OK to only rate one book!
Gmail login is required, but we're not saving the addresses. Basically it's the same as the rereads voting form.
We'll share results later! :)
Links to all the books on the form, so you can check your rating!
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Fate of the Fallen
The Book of Koli
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Everfair
Deeplight
Cage of Souls
Hench
More Than Human
Dragonbone Chair
Blindsight
The Library of the Unwritten
Velocity Weapon
The City of Dreaming Books
The Quantum Magician
She Who Became the Sun
We Are Satellites
Black Sun
The Steerswoman
A Master of Djinn
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Piranesi
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Ancillary Justice (other topics)Thistlefoot (other topics)
The Broken Earth Trilogy (other topics)
The Will of the Many (other topics)
Spirits Abroad (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)Cherie Dimaline (other topics)
Simon Jimenez (other topics)
Ann Leckie (other topics)
Garth Nix (other topics)
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Best:
The Carpet Makers
This Alien Shore
Biggest disappointments:
The Humans
The Killing Moon