Books 2008
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Carnival (Elizabeth Bear)
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
Magic Street (Orson Scott Card)
Pyromancer (Don Callander)
The Magicians’ Guild (Trudi Canavan)
Time of the Twins (Weis & Hickman)
The Novice (Trudi Canavan)
American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
Smoke & Mirrors (Neil Gaiman)
Falling Awake (Jayne Ann Krentz)
Rollback (Robert J. Sawyer)
Blue Moon (Laurell K. Hamilton)
Dust (Elizabeth Bear)
Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)
Storm Front (Jim Butcher)
Dead Witch Walking (Kim Harrison)
A Lick of Frost (Laurell K. Hamilton)
Fool Moon (Jim Butcher)
Grave Peril (Jim Butcher)
The Virtu (Sarah Monette)
His Majesty’s Dragon (Naomi Novik)
A Companion to Wolves (Monette & Bear)
Summer Knight (Jim Butcher)
Magic Burns (Ilona Andrews)
The Skewed Throne (Joshua Palmatier)
Blood Engines (T.A. Pratt)
Owlflight (Lackey & Dixon)
Owlsight (Lackey & Dixon)
Zinnia (Jayne Castle)
Melusine (Sarah Monette)
The Cracked Throne (Joshua Palmatier)
Deep Waters (Jayne Ann Krentz)
Horns & Wrinkles (Joseph Helgerson)
Twilight (Stephanie Meyer)
Poison Sleep (T.A. Pratt)
The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)
Wild Magic (Tamora Pierce)
Emperor Mage (Tamora Pierce)
In the Realm of the Gods (Tamora Pierce)
Firebird (Mercedes Lackey)
Cry Wolf (Patricia Briggs)
Blood & Iron (Elizabeth Bear)
On the Prowl (anthology)
Agnes & the Hitman (Jenny Crusie)
Swallowing Darkness (Laurell K. Hamilton)
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (Douglas Adams)
The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
A Countess Below Stairs (Eva Ibbotson)
The Morning Gift (Eva Ibbotson)
The Devil You Know (Mike Carey)
The Raw Shark Texts (Steven Hall)
General list of the books I’ve read this year, in approximately chronological order. I stopped keeping track at one point, so I may have missed some. The vast majority of these are new — I think the exceptions are Lackey & Dixon’s Owl books and Tamora Pierce’s Wild Magic series. Some I intended to write something about, some I didn’t think it necessary, and some I will be getting to in the next few weeks.
Except for The Lies of Locke Lamora — I read it too long ago to write anything, but it definitely lives up to its hype. Read it.
On the other hand, Twilight? Does not. It’s YA romance with some vampire tropes slapped on — Laurell K. Hamilton without the blood, gore, or sex. (What’s that leave, you ask? Good question. And what’s with the stone metaphors? Are they stone or not? A gargoylic version of a vampire would actually be a nice twist.) As YA romance, it’s fine, but it shouldn’t be marketed as fantasy. Or rather, shouldn’t be trumpeted as groundbreaking fantasy. In fantasy, you have to build your own world. And ideally, that world should be saying something about this world. "The view becomes the reflection, and the reflection, the view." (The Raw Shark Texts)