Books Read in 2018

[clong]

We haven't had much participation in our reading log thread in the past few years....please feel free to join in. Something you read might spark a discussion or comment!

Here's my list updated as July 22 (I'll come back from time to time and edit as the year progresses):

1. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson - after finishing the massive new Sanderson book, I decided to go back and reread some of his early novels.
2. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson - another re-read. I found it a bit of a letdown after the first book, although the ending has a stunning surprise.
3. The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. Another reread. An improvement over book two on multiple levels--both characters and world get quite a bit more complex.
4. The Space Merchants by Kornbluth and Pohl - another reread in preparation for reading the sequel for the first time. This one has really stood the test of time.
5. The Merchant's War by Frederik Pohl - This felt like a darker and less inspired retread of the same material, but with a much less likeable protagonist and more focus on addiction.
6. Catch a Falling Star by John Brunner - I kind of liked this, until the very end.
7. Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss - a couple of excellent stories, intermixed with several so-so stories, with a couple of unconvincing preachy stories to round things out.
8. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - a quick reread of one of my all time favorite fantasies. Almost done with revisiting all of my books by him.
9. Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks - Yet another Culture novel that explores fascinating concepts but fails to deliver compelling characters.
10. The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross - not nearly as good as The Atrocity Archive
11. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson - This one was better than I had remembered.
12. The Deceivers by Alfred Bester - The worst science fiction novel I have ever read.
13. At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft - first half was reasonably entertaining, second half was painfully monotonous and boring.
14. The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker - not a particularly compelling story, but it does add layers of complexity the Company Universe.
15. The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber - this was pretty awful.
16. Look into the Sun by James Patrick Kelly - some thought-provoking content, but weighed down by unsympathetic characters and a slow pace.
17. A Feast Unknown - by Philip Jose Farmer - starts off really awful, improves to being only sort of awful.
I seem to have picked out some real stinkers of late.
18. Beyond Apollo by Barry Malzberg - A book in which essentially nothing the protagonist relates to you is to be trusted. Malzberg is a fascinating and unique voice.
19. Mouse and Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - continuation of a story that I have absolutely loved when I read it several years ago...This was fine but not great.
20. Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber - good stuff. A re-read.
21. Sturgeon in Orbit and 22. E Pluribus Unicorn by Theodore Sturgeon - Each of these contained several stories that were new to me (somewhat surprising, given that LibraryThing says I have now read 147 different Sturgeon short stories!). I found Orbit to be somewhat disappointing, and Unicorn to be consistently quite good.
23. Cruel Zinc Melodies by Glen Cook - this one took a long time to develop any momentum (and the edition I bought at a used book store had a section misprinted, so that didn't help). This is a fun, entertaining world, but both it and the characters in question seem to evolve at a glacial pace.
24. The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley - I liked this quite a bit; I think maybe I understood the ending.
25. Black Legion of Callisto by Lin Carter - dated but fun.
26. Tactics of Conquest by Barry N. Malzberg - surreal story with a typically unreliable narrator who is playing a chess tournament (sanctioned by mysterious aliens) on which rides the fate of the universe.
27. Interstellar Empire by John Brunner - so-so space opera.
28. Marsbound by Joe Haldeman - somewhat of a dud.
29. Virtual Light by William Gibson - very interesting world building and a moderately interesting story. As I seem to often find with Gibson, I didn't particularly care about what happened to the characters.
30. Worlds Apart by Joe Haldeman - Not bad, but not really my cup of tea. This one felt pretty Heinleinesque to me (not that I've read much Heinlein since my teens). Our young brilliant female protagonist spends a lot of time thinking about and having sex older male engineers in a society with open and varied marriage structures.
31. Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire edited by Paula Guran - This collection of mostly-new-to-me stories proved a bit of a mixed bag.
32 Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber - more F&GM fun...
33. Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber - and more
34. Swords Against Wizardry and 35. The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber - fun... I need to get my hands on a copy of book 6.
36. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (audiobook containing only five of the stories from this collection)
37. Good Omens by Neai Gaimand and Terry Pratchett -
38. I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson -
I listened to the last three as books-on-cd during a recent road trip. Unfortunately some of the discs (checked out from the Library) were damaged...so I missed parts of Good Omens and some of the King short stories.
39. Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg - this one had potential, but in the end didn't delve very deeply into the issues it raised.

[Kvetch]

We are quite a way into 2018 now, but here is an incomplete list for me:

1. Armada by Ernest Cline - Not as good as Ready Player One, nor Terry Pratchett "Only You Can Save Mankind", which it resembles far more than any of the sci fi novels/films/series it binds into its conspiracy theory narrative. Enjoyable but forgettable.
2. The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich - a reread - this is one of my favourite urban fantasy series, and bore a reread very well, although I did notice more of Aaronovitch's flaws as a writer.
3. Kanban by David J Anderson - Non-fiction book on one of the modern "agile" work methods for the IT industry. Interesting, and I find the underlying idea compelling, but frustratingly vague in places
4. Accelerate by Forsgen, Humble and Kim - More IT non-fiction, this one much more concrete (it is a series of papers arising from an ongoing longitudinal study into "DevOps" repackaged as a book) but again, not as number-heavy as I would like. I guess I should find the actual papers.
5. Starless by Jacqueline Carey - What felt like a solid fantasy trilogy commendably condensed into a stand alone novel. It reminded my of Brunner's Traveller in Black stories, and I enjoyed it, but found the wrap up curiously rushed.
6. Outcasts of Order by L.E. Modesitt - Enjoyed, but not a stand-out entry into the Recluce Saga.
7. Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher - another massive urban fantasy reread while on holiday. Another urban fantasy author who can't write female characters worth a damn. Still, I enjoy the books.
8. Magic Ex Libris series by Jim Hines - I read Libriomancer years ago, and enjoyed it very much. How Hines snuck out the rest of the series without me noticing, I don't know - but it was fun to read them all in one go. Far from challenging reading, but the series speaks to me.
9. The Last Full Measure by Jack Campbell - The last item in Jack Campbell's back catalogue. I think it would have meant more to me if I'd had a more than nodding acquaintance with early US history.
10. Vallista by Steven Brust - I adore Steven Brust, but this made curiously little impression on me. Some months later, I can't even recall what happened in it. Time for a reread, methinks.
11. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome - One of the great children's adventure novels, of all time IMO. I hadn't read it for over a decade, and reread this year just before a visit to Windermere. As good as I remembered.
12. Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome - see #11
13. Machinery of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee - Well worthy of their Hugo/Nebula nominations. I enjoyed the "calendrical math" elements of the story, although it isn't for everyone. I've just noticed the third book in the series is now out, so I'm going to stop dredging up books I've read, and go read a new one.