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mnemeFrom a conversation with Bruce Neiger, my picks on the best books I read (mostly this year) written last year:
Catherine Valente's Orphan's Tales duology (hands down the best)
Holly Black's Ironside (which was kinda a sequel to her Tithe and Valiant).
Derek Landry's _Skulduggery Pleasant_ -- kinda Potterish, but written for older readers (still YA, but older YA).
Delia Sherman's Changeling -- a modern changeling tries to solve a fairy challenge on the streets of NYC.
Nancy Springer's Dussie -- girl hits puberty. Girl's hair turns into snakes. Humor and character growth ensues.
Kate Thompson's New Policeman: Irish music, fairy, and time. What's not to like?
Garth Nix's Keys of the Kingdom. Ongoing series about an "ordinary" boy pulled into, more or less, a war in heaven; the "real world" is actually a science fiction alternative present. Really cool; up to book 5 (of 7) at this point.
And from the high faluting end of things:
Hopkinson's New Moon's Arms: A not entirely likable mother going through menopause starts having parts of her life back while also trying to deal with a Selkie orphan. She also has a few secrets in her past, some of which she has issues facing.
Theodora Goss's _In the Forest of Forgetting_ -- various short stories, some painful, some poignant. Some lovely stuff in there;best are the ones about the witchy Mary Poppins equivalent.
Honorable Mention goes, of course, to the conclusion of Harry Potter.
Some are YA, some are not, all are fantasy (I did read some SF too, of course, though nothing immediately pops out)
Catherine Valente's Orphan's Tales duology (hands down the best)
Holly Black's Ironside (which was kinda a sequel to her Tithe and Valiant).
Derek Landry's _Skulduggery Pleasant_ -- kinda Potterish, but written for older readers (still YA, but older YA).
Delia Sherman's Changeling -- a modern changeling tries to solve a fairy challenge on the streets of NYC.
Nancy Springer's Dussie -- girl hits puberty. Girl's hair turns into snakes. Humor and character growth ensues.
Kate Thompson's New Policeman: Irish music, fairy, and time. What's not to like?
Garth Nix's Keys of the Kingdom. Ongoing series about an "ordinary" boy pulled into, more or less, a war in heaven; the "real world" is actually a science fiction alternative present. Really cool; up to book 5 (of 7) at this point.
And from the high faluting end of things:
Hopkinson's New Moon's Arms: A not entirely likable mother going through menopause starts having parts of her life back while also trying to deal with a Selkie orphan. She also has a few secrets in her past, some of which she has issues facing.
Theodora Goss's _In the Forest of Forgetting_ -- various short stories, some painful, some poignant. Some lovely stuff in there;best are the ones about the witchy Mary Poppins equivalent.
Honorable Mention goes, of course, to the conclusion of Harry Potter.
Some are YA, some are not, all are fantasy (I did read some SF too, of course, though nothing immediately pops out)
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Date: 2008-08-29 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 07:59 pm (UTC)Catherynne Valente will be appearing at SalonCon (http://www.salonconvention.com/) two weeks from now.
She, along with the commedia dell'arte panel that's supposed to be taking place, are pretty much the main reasons I'm going to the con. :-)
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Date: 2008-08-29 11:53 pm (UTC)Context? Is this "best written" or "most enjoyed", and is this off the top of your head or did you check a booklog or something?
Looking at my booklog for 2007 (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=kgbooklog&keyword=2007&filter=all) copyrights (and excluding webcomics (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14) that (http://project-apollo.net/mos/archive.html) ended (http://indepos.comicgenesis.com/) then (http://inverloch.seraph-inn.com/volume1.html)), my list would be:
Steven Erikson, Reaper's Gale: volume 7 of an EPIC high fantasy series
Laurie J. Marks, Water Logic: third book high fantasy series
Austin Grossman, Soon I Will Be Invincible: amusing superhero story
Jessica Day George, Dragon Slippers: juvenile fantasy in the style of Wrede
Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension: middle of a high fantasy trilogy
Lois McMaster Bujold, Legacy: second half of the first part of a duology
Kristine Smith, Endgame: conclusion of a science fiction series
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Date: 2008-08-30 07:32 am (UTC)Also, the Strahan anthology I finished was very good.