I'm pretty much still exclusively reading SF and Fantasy, with the occasional non-fiction book thrown in (but very occasional) and these are the best of what I read in 2016:

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, a first contact novel set in Nigeria

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin (though you need to read The Fifth Season first)

A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen

Updraft by Fran Wilde, which finally came out in paperback in the UK

City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which subsequently went on to win the Nebula and World Fantasy Award

The Silver Tide and The Iron Ghost, both by Jen Williams

There is also ongoing love in my heart for Saga, Ms Marvel and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

More detailed commentary is available at my Booklikes blog if you're interested in any of the above.

Meanwhile, on the idiot box, this is how it falls out at the moment...

Still watching (though in some cases massively behind): Brooklyn Nine Nine, Elementary, iZombie, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Vikings, Lucifer

Got bored and/or annoyed and wandered off from: Sleepy Hollow, Blindspot, How to Get Away With Murder, Empire, The Blacklist, Jane the Virgin

Unexpectedly enjoying: The Good Place (and I usually loathe US 'comedy', so that's saying something) and Pitch (even though I know less than nothing about baseball!)

Happy to discuss any of the above in the spoiler-laden world of comments!

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Since I've been mostly blathering about what I've been up to in my personal life, I thought I'd also do a post about what I've been consuming in terms of media, since it's been quite a lot.

So, first off let's talk about books - I'm pretty much exclusively reading SF and Fantasy now, with the occasional non-fiction book thrown in (but very occasional) and these are the best of what I've read this year so far, mostly newly published but a few older books too:

A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab (loved the first book, loved the sequel)
The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide by Jen Williams
City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett (boy, this series is so good!)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel yesterday)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
Down Station by Simon Morden
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
The Grass King's Concubine by Kari Sperring
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson
City of Bones by Martha Wells
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip

More detailed commentary is available at my Booklikes blog if you're interested in any of the above. The only books I've given 5 stars to this year so far have been Uprooted and City of Blades.

Meanwhile, on the idiot box, this is how it falls out at the moment...

Still watching (though in some cases massively behind what's currently airing): Brooklyn Nine Nine, Elementary, Orphan Black, iZombie, Person of Interest, Vikings, Turn, The Americans (season 4 starts on UK television this week!)

Got bored and/or annoyed and wandered off from: Sleepy Hollow, Blindspot, How to Get Away With Murder, Empire

Unexpectedly enjoying: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (considering I ditched The Flash fairly early on, this one has stuck mostly because of the combo of Sarah Lance and Leonard Snart) and Limitless

Feeling ambivalent about: Arrow, The Blacklist (which I mostly watch for Spader but...) and Jane the Virgin

Happy to discuss any of the above in the spoiler-laden world of comments!

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Apologies to the folks who find my recent foray into the world of fitness etc. of zero interest - in recognition of that, I've put the next part of my post behind a cut so you can skip onto me whittering about other things instead!

( blah, blah, rowing machines and fencing...Collapse )

In other news, well there's not a whole bunch to say. I'm still teaching two classes, though I've now been given a student teacher for a few weeks so she can see what life is like in adult education - she came today and I asked my learners to talk about their course and they immediately told her what a good teacher I was, which made me laugh a lot. I've been given an idea of what I'll be teaching from September and it's pretty much the same, unexpected funding cuts permitting!

I'm also reading a lot (no surprises there) and went to see Captain America: Civil War on Friday when it opened in the UK. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I loved it, though I still prefer the Russos' previous movie. Without spoiling anyone, since I know it's only opening elsewhere this week, I'd say that it probably tries to do too much but still manages most of it. Also Chris Evans' eyelash game is very strong. ;)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

It's funny how you run across snobbishness in the oddest of places... I recently had a passing conversation with a couple of folks at the place where I teach, which went a little like this:

Teacher A: I bet you read a lot of books, don't you?
Me: Well, I read about 120 last year, so yes.
Teacher B: Oh, what kind of books do you like?
Me: Most of what I read was science fiction and fantasy. I used to read a lot of crime books, but I got a bit bored with them.
Teacher B: Oh. I only read non-fiction.

Yes, because that's clearly much more worthy than me spending my time with (enjoyable but obviously) shameful genre books. Poor me, thinking that actually reading is a good thing when I could be aspiring to the lofty heights of non-fiction!

Actually, I do occasionally read non-fiction, but not across the board. Mostly history and cultural stuff, with the (very) occasional biography thrown in.

Pfft.

E.T.A. Fortunately, I stopped myself from saying 'oh, and I also read a lot of gay porn based on TV shows and movies, what do you think about that?' ;)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

This was tough, especially where books were concerned, so I've bent the rules a little (hey, this is my journal, so no griping about that!) - all of the following are in no particular order...

Top 5 books:

1. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - wonderful, beautifully-written with top notch world-building and characters who grow and learn as the book progresses.

2. Binary and Regeneration by Stephanie Saulter - I came across the first book in this trilogy at WorldCon, now it's complete and I recommend it highly to everyone. It's set in a recognisable future-London where the people living there are dealing with the aftermath of genetic engineering and dealing with how we decide just who is human.

3. The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard - you know a book is good when you're left going 'what?' at various points while reading it. A fantasy book set in a Paris shattered by a magical war, this book is populated by fallen angels and dragons, among others.

4. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin - what a fantastic book, again wonderful world-building as I've come to expect from this author, and absolutely gutting emotionally at points. First book of a new trilogy, that's the only complaint I would have about this...

5. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie - I'd all but prepared myself for this, the final book of the Imperial Radch trilogy, being a bit of an anti-climax but needn't have worried. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading these books at some point in the future.

E.T.A: Honourable mentions to Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen, A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Copper Promise by Jen Williams, Hunter's Moon by Rebecca Levene and The Traitor by Seth Dickinson, among (many) others...


Top 5 graphic novels:

1. Saga volumes 3 & 4 - I can just repeat what I said last year about the first two volumes: 'I'd heard a lot of good things about this series, all of which were true. Clever and funny, with some great characters, it's also stunningly drawn.'

2. Bitch Planet volume 1 - there's going to be a lot of folks getting 'non-compliant' tattoos after reading these books, which are dystopia set in a world where pretty much any behaviour (by a woman, at least) can get that label slapped on.

3. Ms Marvel volumes 1-4 - wow. If the idea of a Pakistani-American teenage girl as a superhero isn't enough on its own to get you interested, then there's probably not much hope for you. Great writing, encounters with various classic Marvel characters and also some new faces in the mix as well.

4. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl volume 1 - I loved this book. It ought to be dumb, rebooting a character like this, but it's been done with so much humour and humanity that I couldn't help falling for Doreen and her squirrel sidekick, Tippytoe.

5. Hawkeye volumes 3 and 4 - to be perfectly honest, I liked volume 3 (which was mostly about Kate) much more than volume 4 (about the return of Clint's brother, Barney) but it's still all good.

Honourable mentions to Princeless volume 1 and Sex Criminals volume 2.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

I posted here about the best books I'd read till then back in June, so I thought I'd do a follow-up post about what I've read since then which has also been good. In late December, I'll probably do a best books of the year post but expect a number of these to make a good showing then as well:

California Bones - Greg Van Eekhout

The Broken Kingdoms and The Kingdom of Gods - NK Jemisin

Smiler's Fair - Rebecca Levene

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North

Midnight Robber - Nalo Hopkinson

Regeneration - Stephanie Saulter

Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho

The House of Shattered Wings - Aliette de Bodard

Penric's Demon - Lois McMaster Bujold

Point of Honour - Madeleine E. Robins

Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie

The Copper Promise - Jen Williams

The Traitor - Seth Dickinson

Wheel of the Infinite - Martha Wells

The Fifth Season - NK Jemisin

If you're interested in finding out what I thought of particular books above, you can find my reviews over at Booklikes.

I'm also still finishing up the current books in the Vorkosigan series (as I write, I am midway through Diplomatic Immunity with just two more books to go before the new one comes out in February) and subscribing to Tremontaine, which is a serialised prequel to Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

I'm reading a lot of books this year. This should come as no surprise to anyone at all.

I've signed up for the book challenge over on Booklikes and Goodreads, though I'm actually posting reviews of some of what I'm reading on Booklikes if anyone is interested... Anyway, 100 books and I've read 62 so far. This does not include books I started but didn't finish, but does include some graphic novels (which you may feel is cheating?)

Best books this year (so far) have been:

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin

All of the Vorkosigan books (I'm up to A Civil Campaign) by Lois McMaster Bujold

Redemption in Indigo and The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan

Fever Season and A Free Man of Colour by Barbara Hambly

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Range of Ghosts and Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear

The Humans by Matt Haig

Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

Feast of Souls by CS Friedman

The more perceptive among you may realise that many of these books are the first in a series or trilogy, which means I have lots more (hopefully equally good) reading ahead of me! :)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Okay, it was going to be five (as per previous posts) but then I realised that wasn't going to work. So it's 10 this time, 10 places you can find interesting short SFF to read if you're so inclined - other websites are also available, and lots of them. I have also been reccing profic from these on recs_by_grac, in case anyone is interested in seeing what I like/what I fruitlessly nominated for the Hugo this time around.

1. Lightspeed - what I like about Lightspeed is that you can get both text and audio version of anything they publish, if you so desire. They also do reviews and non-fiction columns, as well as excerpts of books (which I stay away from, because the TBR pile is already too large, thanks very much).

2. Beneath Ceaseless Skies - BCS is more interested in fantasy than SF, so if that's your thing you may find something you like here. What I like about BCS is that I can download the entire issue as one PRC file, rather than futzing about with the individual stories.

3. Giganotosaurus - they only publish one story a month but it's usually novelette or novella length.

4. Shimmer - publishes what it calls 'speculative fiction' with an emphasis on 'odd, unclassifiable stories'.

5. Strange Horizons - fiction, poetry, editorials and reviews for SF and fantasy. Again, does audio versions of stories, if that's your thing.

6. Tor - all sorts of opinions and posts about all sorts of things (including a load of re-reads and re-watches that I pretty much delete from my RSS reader on sight - I don't care what professional tie-in writer Keith deCandido thinks about Stargate SG-1, thanks so much!) and also some fiction.

7. Uncanny Magazine - another one that does both text and audio versions of SFF stories, as well as non-fiction and interviews with the writers whose work appears there.

8. Kaleidotrope - a new one to me, SFF and horror (which really isn't my thing, to be honest).

9. Clarkesworld - monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in October 2006. Each issue contains interviews, articles and at least three pieces of original fiction. Again, does audio versions of stories.

10. Crossed Genres - thematic issues published monthly, including new authors never before published; if you're looking for stories about minority groups and individuals, this is probably a good place to start.

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

I don't know how many people reading this (if anyone is, given the lack of comments on a regular basis, but that's by the by...) but last year I bought a supporting membership for this year's WorldCon. This was mostly to support the Helsinki bid for the WorldCon in 2017, as each location is decided by the members of the convention held 2 years earlier. Go Helsinki! \o/

Another reason people might get a supporting membership for a WorldCon is to do with the Hugo Awards, the nominations of which were announced yesterday to much kerfuffle. In short, there's a bunch of folks who think that the awards have long been taken over by groupthink (because how else would all these lefty non-male and/or non-straight and/or non-white people win things?) and the best way to counter that was with more groupthink. Namely, pushing a slate of nominations and squeezing out the people who are Not Like Us.

Which they managed to do quite successfully last night in those categories where there are lots of nominations and it's always a close-run thing to see who gets in the 5 places on the final ballot. For example, last year saw over 500 different short stories nominated for Best Short Story and iirc only 3 got the required 5% of the nominations to get onto the ballot. This year our groupthink folks have managed to get all 5 places filled and with their choices alone.

Things got a little trickier in categories like Best Graphic Story, where 4 of the 5 slots got taken up by Saga, Ms Marvel, Rat Queens and Sex Criminals. Decidedly not suitable reading material for righteous straight white menfolks. So sad. It's going to be interesting to see the full details of all the nominations when they release the figures in August.

Clearly those of us who are supposedly mind-controlled by the lefty Illuminati didn't get our thought control properly in time to get our shit together. My messages must have been mixed last year too, because I didn't agree with some of the 2014 winners - what, is that allowed? - for example, thinking Max Gladstone should have won the Campbell Award. Gosh, yes, I voted for a straight white guy to win. But probably not the right kind of straight white guy, eh?

I know, it can't be that people who don't agree with you and like what you like all of the time, actually aren't members of a grand conspiracy? Does not compute, I know, but there it is. Sadly, time travel does not exist and you can't put the genie back in the bottle or make us folks who don't like what you like suddenly change their minds. And the rules say if I don't think the nominations are good enough to merit a Hugo, I can vote 'no award'; got to stick to the rules, right? ;)

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.

Yep, I know it's April but still, here's my top 5 books that I desperately want to read (with the assistance of either my local library system, or what little spare cash I can rustle out of the back of the sofa):

1. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie - no surprises there, as Ann finishes off the Imperial Radch trilogy, even if I have to wait till October 8th.

2. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - I have heard such good things about this book, so I think it will hit all my buttons. It's now out in paperback and my library hasn't bought it, alas...

3. Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho - this isn't out till October, so there's still time for the library to pick this up. I was hooked the moment I read this: In Regency London, Zacharias Wythe is England's first African Sorcerer Royal. *falls over*

4. The Just City by Jo Walton - out in paperback in July, but my local library has bought it! \o/

5.The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu - this was on my wishlist pretty much the moment I heard about it. First of a trilogy, described by some as a 'wu xia take on Game of Thrones', it's out in hardback in the UK next week but again will have to wait for a bit...

Honourable mentions go to City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (waiting for the call from the library!) and The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard (alternate history, Paris and magic), which isn't out till August.

So, dear flist, anything in terms of SFF you think I ought to add?

Also posted at my Dreamwidth account - happy to receive comments on either post.