Top Five Books of 2018
Greetings readers,
So you probably know from here or my social media thingys that I read a lot. Now with the Burkelings both at elementary school, I have some free time during the day (don’t tell my wife though) to catch up on all the great books I’ve missed over the last eight years or so. This year I set myself what I thought was a high but achievable Goodreads goal of 70 books (see here). I surpassed it in early June. Granted some are short stories, but that’s a solid number (and it’s still June). I’ve read a lot of terrific books and reviewed them on Goodreads, so I’m not going to wax reviewingly here. They’re not necessarily new, and I’ve read other books that barely missed the cut, but these are the standouts. Impressively, the top three are debut novels. So here goes:
- Blood Song, by Anthony Ryan: Dark and brooding, in my opinion this is how all epic fantasy should be written (review)
- Darkwing, by Ed McDonald: Bleakly written and beautifully plotted, this is the finest book of the 2017 crop (review)
- Beyond Redemption, by Michael R Fletcher: Pitch dark in humour and tone, a grimdark philosophical treatise like no other (review)
- The Thief That Pulled on Trouble’s Braids, by Michael McClung: Going by the title you can tell this is humorous, but it so much more. The world in which it is set is a character in it’s own right. It’s also self-published, a bonus point for that (review)
- The Grey Bastards, by Jonathan French: Pulse-pounding action, ribald humour, and a plot that will keep you on your toes. Half-orcs have never been so much fun (review).
As you can see, they’re all fantasy. They’re also all dark in tone, which gives you a hint to what kind of stuff I like. I also read some sci-fi and horror. And sci-fi horror. I read some regular fiction too, just not as much as I used to. So sue me.
Next whenever I’ll do my favourite shorts (as in stories), self-published books and also audiobooks. I listen to audio a lot, particularly when out walking. Which is often. Talk soon.
Keep watching the skis.
Al
