Fiction consumed in 2017

[firecat]

It was the year of gobbling long series. I usually don't read series straight through, but starting in March I read the Jurisdiction Universe (7 books), most of the Faith Hunter series (11 books total; I had already read 3 of them), the Lymond Chronicles (6 books) and the House of Niccoló (7 books).

50 e-books read—44.5 books by women, 6 by POC.
14 audiobooks listened to—7 by women, 1 by POC.

Comment if you want my opinion about any of these. The ones I especially recommend are in bold.

Books:
Nigel Bennett & P.N. Elrod, His Father's Son (Ethical Vampires #2)
Fiona Buckley, Queen Without a Crown (Ursula Blanchard #9)
Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake (Marlowe #4)
Agatha Christie, They Do It With Mirrors; A Pocket Full of Rye; 4:50 from Paddington (Miss Marple #6–8)
Charlaine Harris, Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3)
Dorothy Dunnett, The Lymond Chronicles (6 books); The House of Niccoló (7 books)
P.N. Elrod, The Hanged Man (On Her Majesty's Psychic Service #1)
Jeaniene Frost, Into the Fire (Night Prince #4)
Faith Hunter, Jane Yellowrock #4–11
N.K. Jemisen, The Obelisk Gate; The Stone Sky (Broken Earth #2–3); The Awakened Kingdom (Inheritance #3.5)
Laurie R. King, Locked Rooms (Mary Russell #8)
Ann Leckie, Provenance (Imperial Radch #4)
M. Louisa Locke, Maids of Misfortune; Uneasy Spirits (Victorian SF Mystery #1–2)
Susan R. Matthews, Jurisdiction Universe series (7 books)
Neil Gaiman, American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition
Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death
Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper Cypher #1)
Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country
Nisi Shawl, Everfair
Rex Stout, Too Many Women (Nero Wolfe #12)
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Hôtel Transylvania; The Palace (Saint Germain #1–2)

Audiobooks:
Rebecca Cantrell, The World Beneath (Joe Tesla #1)
M.R. Carey, The Girl With All the Gifts; The Boy on the Bridge
Agatha Christie, Lord Edgware Dies (Poirot #9)
Jasper Fforde, The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next #7)
Ian Fleming, Octopussy & Other Stories (Bond #14)
C.S. Harris, What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr #1)
T. E. Kinsey, A Quiet Life In The Country (Lady Hardcastle #1); In the Market for Murder (#2)
Walter Mosley, Six Easy Pieces
Loretta Ross, Death and the Redheaded Woman (Auction Block Mysteries #1)
Olen Steinhauer, The Tourist (Milo Weaver #1 of 3)
Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
T. H. White, The Once & Future King (volumes #1–3 of 5)

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I agree that Sword in the Stone reads aloud better. I think it's aged a lot better than the other 3 books. I'm not sure White really knew how to write about women without making me cringe a little bit, but in Sword in the Stone he mostly doesn't try. (Marian is a girl, Morgan le Fay is meant to make the reader cringe.)

And I'd love to see what you thought of the Lymond story!

[jazzfish]

In this case it's that Sword in the Stone in particular is the book of my partner's heart. She's twice made me dig up her battered paperback when the e-copy I snagged was a later edit. (Morgan's castle and, um, something previous, I forget what.) I'd love to push through and read the rest of OFK but she doesn't want to come to the end of SiS, so here we sit.

[firecat]

I loved The Lymond Chronicles. I feel like I got to go on a trip around the world and through history without leaving my armchair.

I love all the obscure vocabulary Dunnett uses in these books. I got a subscription to the OED online so I could look up all the words I didn't know, and created a vocabulary list (1,140 entries—and I have a pretty big vocabulary so not knowing so many words was a really fun experience for me).

I bought the Dorothy Dunnett Companion books (extensive notes on the historical characters and references) and the next time I read LC I will have them in hand. (I didn't use them for my first read because they contain spoilers.)

I confess to having a hard time relating to some of Lymond's emotional struggles. I spent a lot of time saying "just [redacted] already!"