I feel like the title says it all.
Still! To clarify:
It’s time to talk about books you’re digging. So, your goal is to drop into the comments and give us one book — and I hate that I have to say this but not your own book — that you read this year and loved. And do tell us why you dug it, yeah? This can be new books from this year, but isn’t restricted to this particular slice of temporal pie.
I’ll offer up two books I just read —
The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs, and Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer. The former is a Gunslingery fantasy with demon-bound steamships and guns and bloodthirsty elves in an alternate version of America. It’s short, but richly-layered, and John’s writing is like quicksand: one step in and you’re already drawn down and trapped within the prose. The latter book is about a thousand miles from the former, but equally amazing. Authority is the follow-up to Annihilation, and does a great job at answering questions from the first book while introducing a multiplying rabbit litter of enigmas all its own. It is a masterpiece of creepy, queasy discomfort. Vandermeer wields unease like a weapon. His prose is dense, a thicket you sometimes need to chop through, but worth the effort.
And yes, I know I told you to recommend one book and I’m recommending two but IT’S MY BLOG I CAN VIOLATE THE RULES IF I WANT TO and also cry if I want to and also eat cake frosting with my fingers if I want to SHUT UP AND DON’T JUDGE ME.
See you in the comments, word-nerds.
Cari Hislop says:
Just One Damn Thing After Another, Vol 1 in The Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor. I LOVED it!!!!
St Mary’s is an organization of crazy over-educated historians who, using future technology, are paid to travel back in time to attempt to discover what really happened at various events/dates (and hopefully return in one piece and or alive). It’s funny, it’s sad, it has romantic bits, it has scary bits, it makes you think about history and time. It’s a fast paced novel where the characters suffer one freaking thing after another. I read the next two books in the series within about two days and now I’m on a freaking cliff hanger waiting for the next installment.
March 25, 2014 — 11:20 PM
Michael says:
Just finished HANG WIRE by Adam Christopher. His books are always a blast. Such a decadent blend of genre. Believe me, if you’ve read his other books and liked them, then you will love HANG WIRE. I’m impatiently awaiting the arrival of THE BURNING DARK.
March 26, 2014 — 2:16 AM
emmakosborne says:
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes! I picked this up at GenreCon and Eliza and I fought over who got to read it first. I adored it – a time-travelling serial killer and a series of extraordinary women whom he hunts through the years. Creepy characters, beautiful writing. Great stuff.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16131077-the-shining-girls
March 26, 2014 — 8:35 PM
Alan says:
Best book I’ve read so far in 2014 is Rupetta, by Nike Sulway. I bought it on the strength of a sample on Weird Fiction Review and wasn’t disappointed.
One part the story of a living mechanical woman and how her existence over 400 years reshapes the world around her, told through her close relationships with her female “wynders”; another part the story of a young woman aspiring to become a Historian in the culture shaped by Rupettan Law (where students aspire to be fitted with a mechanical heart); and where those stories intersect.
Beautifully written, with interesting themes on the rejection of nature for technology, and on the way history and religion is defined by those in power. Shortly after I finished reading I was pleased to see the announcement that it had won the Tiptree Award. I’m sure I’m not quite doing it justice here with my description.
March 27, 2014 — 10:04 AM
Jaxx artz says:
Really enjoyed Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” (!!!!) so good and kept me on my toes. Just heard they’re making it into a movie this year…drag
March 27, 2014 — 7:37 PM
Carolina says:
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. It’s a little slow to start, mainly because there’s a lot of complexity that has to be built up for things to make sense, but I loved it.
March 28, 2014 — 9:24 AM
Alicia says:
2 for me – a new discovery and an old favourite.
New discovery is the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K Jemisin. Amazing characterisation and great world-building.
Old favourite is A Dance to the Music of Time, by Anthony Powell. 12 books spanning 300 characters and 60 years it is an exceptional work.
March 31, 2014 — 3:09 PM
Graham Vingoe says:
The Echo, by James Smythe, sequel to last year’s The Explorer. and part 2 of the Anomaly Quartet. Bleak, depressing and horrific and beautifully written. One of my only 5 star books of the last year or so- under the terms of the original post I can’t say what the other was!
April 23, 2014 — 11:01 AM