Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Anyway, these are a few of my favorite things from this year...
The
Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu is an excellent and multiple award winning series. The first in the series,
The Three Body Problem, was the first novel by an Asian author to win the Hugo Award (in 2015) and was also nominated for several other major science fiction awards. The language is poetic and the translation is excellent. This is a book that really highlights some of the wonderful differences in culture between the East and West. The second book was released last year and the final book was released earlier this year so this is a complete series for those who don't like to start unfinished ones.
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein is another interesting work of speculative fiction that we enjoyed for the book club in May. The author even joined us for the discussion thread (
spoilers).
Quote:
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Steerswomen, and a very few Steersmen, are members of an order dedicated to discovering and disseminating knowledge. Although they are foremost navigators of the high seas, Steerswomen are also explorers and cartographers upon land as well as sea. With one exception, they are pledged to always answer any question put to them with as truthful a response as is possible within their own limitations. However, they also require anyone of whom they ask questions to respond in the same manner, upon penalty of the Steerswomen's ban; those under the ban do not receive answers from the steerswomen.
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The
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch starring Police Constable Peter Grant. This is a mashup between urban fantasy and police procedural and is very enjoyable. It starts with
Midnight Riot (or
Rivers of London depending on where you are) and so far there are 5 others in the series. This series is not complete but at least the first book does not have a major arc that is continued into the others so you can read the first book and not be left at a cliffhanger. There are also some (optional) graphic novels in this series if you like those.
An honorable mention is the
Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton,
Pandora's Star and
Judas Unchained. I started these in 2015 but didn't finish until early 2016. There are some very memorable characters and it is an epic scale story that was completed in only 2 books so we weren't left waiting forever for a conclusion. I need to check out the later books (same world, different series) soon.
I have several books in the works that may also get on this list but these are my favorites from so far this year.
Also, I apologize if the tune is stuck in your head. I can find some Christmas lyrics to post if you prefer something seasonal.
