Your best reads of 2011 ...

**Randy M.** · December 2nd, 2011, 03:10 PM

... regardless of when it was published.

Just curious who enjoyed what over the last 12 months, which books hit hardest and/or entertained the most. There will be other threads, I'm sure, focusing on books published in 2011, so lets open this up to any books you read, regardless of when it was published.

Randy M.

**Loerwyn** · December 2nd, 2011, 03:48 PM

Hmmm, very interesting, Randy. I'm glad you've opened it up to reads rather than just a read.

1. Black Blade Blues - J.A. Pitts.
I won't deny that I'm now a fangirl for this series. Great characters, great approach to the themes involved, and really I was pretty gripped.

2. Ash & Huntress - Malinda Lo
The language is really not all that far above children's stuff, but that only serves to improve them. They're fairy tales/fairy tale inspired, with Ash being a retelling of Cinderella and Huntress being just a rather magical tale, but the introduction of lesbian themes really makes them something different. Huntress also has non-white characters pretty much all the way through, and I believe it's sparked a couple of discussions in YA circles about "assuming" the race of characters if it's not mentioned.

3. Abarat - Clive Barker
Weird, but in a genius way. Not sure how to explain it... Roald Dahl meets Stephen King? Something like that.

4. Snow Queen's Shadow - Jim C. Hines
End of a brilliant, brilliant series. I don't want to go into more detail as really it needs to be experienced.

5. The Green Mile - Stephen King
Uh... yeah. I don't think I need to explain this one.

**Whiskeyjack** · December 2nd, 2011, 04:05 PM

Jasper Kent's Twelve is certainly on my short list, due to its historical backdrop, creepy atmosphere, multiple plot twists, and the overall entertainment value of the read (with further instalments to come).

**Heather Myst** · December 2nd, 2011, 04:12 PM

Here are my favorites from this year:

Dance With Dragons Martin
Wise Man's Fear Rothfuss
Among Thieves Hulick
Black Prism Weeks
Wintertide Sullivan
Way of Kings Sanderson
Kings Wrath McIntosh
King Rolon's Kin: The Usurper Daniells
River of Shadows Redick
Farlander Buchanon

Best of the rest:

The Heroes Abercrombie
Palace of Impossible Dreams Fallon
Dark-Eyes War Coe

**Erfael** · December 2nd, 2011, 04:24 PM

Looking through my list of books read, here were my favorites of the year:

The Affirmation by Priest - This is one of my top books for the last several years...well, ever, really. Wonderful exploration of madness and reality in a nice, concise package.

Both The Soul Mirror and Transformation by Carol Berg - As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's quickly moved to the top of my favorites list and I'm working through her back catalogue much more quickly than I usually read books by one author. These two are her latest book and her earliest book, respectively.

I also quite liked Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King as a non-romanticized Arthurian tale set in a pretty well-researched post-Roman Britain. Engaging throughout.

Those are my top few reads so far this year...if I look through the list of books read when in a different mood, there might be some different ones there.

**Winter** · December 2nd, 2011, 04:55 PM

Hate to do it this early, but I'll play along.

No particular order:

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
The Narrator by Michael Cisco
Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia
Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham
Leviathan Wakes - James S.A. Corey

**suciul** · December 2nd, 2011, 05:02 PM

For 2011 releases my top 10 books are in order:

co-1: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
co-1: Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
co-2 The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan
co-2 ADWD by GRR Martin

#5-10 Dancing with Eternity by John P Lowrie
Heirs of the Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A Place Called Armageddon by CC Humphreys
Leviathan Wakes by James Corey
The Hammer by KJ Parker
Cold Fire by Kate Elliott

Non-2011 (older as I read some 2012 ones) releases that I read and blew me away:

The Repetition by Alain Robbe Grillet
Recollection of the Golden Triangle by Alain Robbe Grillet
A Transylvanian Tale (or Trilogy) aka The Writing on the Wall by Miklos Banffy
(They Were Counted, They Were Found Wanting, They Were Divided)

Overall I would rank these last in between my top four and the 5-10 positions

**Obtuse** · December 2nd, 2011, 05:05 PM

This is an easy one for me this year...

Prince of Nothing

It's the best I've read this year and some of the best fantasy I've read ever.

**Contrarius** · December 2nd, 2011, 05:55 PM

This covers mosty the period from May through today. I didn't keep a written list before then. Keep in mind that this time period includes over 150 books that I actually got on a list, plus some that I never wrote down.

Here's what's on my "favorite recent reads" shelf over on Goodreads, in no particular order:

The Steel Remains (Morgan)
The Cold Commands (Morgan)
the entire Vorkosigan series (Bujold) -- reread
Whip Hand (Francis) -- reread
Come to Grief (Francis) -- reread
Shadow of the Torturer (Wolfe) -- reread
the entire First Law Trilogy (Abercrombie)
The Last Werewolf (Duncan)

Worthy honorable mentions from this year have included:

The Last Unicorn (Beagle) -- reread
Black Cherry Blues (Burke) -- reread
the Rai-Kirah trilogy (Berg)
the Doctrine of Labyrinths series (Monette)
the Fitz and Farseer books (Hobb)
the Dresden Files (Butcher) -- reread
the Joe Pitt series (Huston)

**spaziocain** · December 2nd, 2011, 06:07 PM

I really liked Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, which blends epic fantasy and gritty realism in a uniquely African way.

I also quite liked Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis. Despite its flab I found Willis' epic about heroism during the Blitz very bittersweet.

I really loved The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. This book will transport you to a fully realised near-future Istanbul, while simultaneously opening up an enormous cavern of history and legend.

**murf99** · December 2nd, 2011, 07:01 PM

1. The Prince of Nothing trilogy
2. The Heroes
3. A Dance with Dragons
4. Amoung Thieves
5. Prince of Thorns
6. Lies of Locke Lamora
7. Wise Mans Fear
8. The Adamantine Palace
9. Retribution Falls

**PeterWilliam** · December 2nd, 2011, 07:20 PM

Hmm, in descending order by when it was read...

In Legend Born, by Laura Resnick
Spellbound, by Blake Charlton
The Sea Watch, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Riddle-Master {omnibus}, by Patricia McKillip
Spellwright, by Blake Charlton
The Scarab Path, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R. Martin
Salute the Dark, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Blood of the Mantis, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Dragon's Path, by Daniel Abraham
Dragonfly Falling, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Empire in Black and Gold, Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Ruins of Gorlan, by John Flanagan
The White Luck Warrior, by R. Scott Bakker
Heaven's Needle, by Liane Merciel
Crack'd Pot Trail, by Steven Erikson
Chronicles of the Black Company {omnibus}, by Glen Cook
The King Beyond the Gates, by David Gemmell
The Heroes, by Joe Abercrombie

**Westsiyeed** · December 2nd, 2011, 08:00 PM

There's been quite a few very good reads this year for me:

The Well Built City trilogy by Jeffrey Ford blew me away with such imaginative characters and fantastic places, plus the author's brilliantly fluid and descriptive prose.

I read Mistborn, the first in Sanderson's series and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the magic system using metals and the characters.

Leviathan Wakes was a great space sci-fi that kept the pace going for the whole book.

Eric Brown's Kings of Eternity was another great read in which the characterization was a real strength.

Raising Stony Mayall was a very well done zombie theme novel by Daryl Gregory, I also read his other two books and really enjoyed The Devil's Alphabet as well.

My first Peter F Hamilton book to read was this year - A Second Chance at Eden, which would be one of my favourite sci-fi short story collections.

I also read Chris Wooding's The Fade and thought it was such a vivid, book with fantastic world building within 300 pages!

I've read a few Christopher Priest novels this year but still like Inverted World the best.

I also started reading Alastair Reynolds at the start of the year and every book has been good, but I still think House of Suns is my favourite.

..and almost forgot Wise Man's Fear - a bit too long but still a great read.

**hawkeyye** · December 2nd, 2011, 08:19 PM

For 2011:

1. Way of Kings. Sanderson.

1.a. The Heroes. Abercrombie.

3. Prince of Thorns. Lawrence.

Abercrombie is my #1, must buy, jumps to the top of the list author but Way of Kings was just so damn good!

**Seak** · December 2nd, 2011, 11:20 PM

Really enjoyed quite a few this year (in no particular order):

1. Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel
2. Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
3. Songs of the Dying Earth Edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois (amazing anthology, can't say enough good things about it)
4. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
5. The Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands by Stephen King
6. The Name of the Wind by Pat Rothfuss
7. Tigana by GGK
8. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer (this was a big surprise, it's awesome)