2016 in Review - I Really Need to Read More

Although I never managed to reach the productivity of the early stages of this blog, 2015 was a relatively good year for reviewing. In 2016 I haven't managed to equal that. Mostly because I simply read less and put more time in other activities. I haven't reviewed everything I read either, missing two novels. A total of 47 entries appeared on Random Comments this year. I also contributed 9 articles to Hebban.nl, one of which is a review I didn't also write in English. All in all it is not bad but not quite what I had in mind in January either.

Accounting

I read 34  novels, 4 collections, 3 novellas, 1 anthology and 11 pieces of short fiction this year. A total of 53. Of these I reviewed 51. All but two of these reviews appeared on Random Comments, the exception being the novel The Wan by Bo Balder, and the collection Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. I reviewed Chiang's collection on this blog in 2011 already. The Hebban edition is some 3,500 words long and quite different from the Random Comments edition. My reading amounts to roughly 15,000 pages of material, markedly down from last year. In fact, it is probably the lowest total since I started the blog. Next year's target of beating 2016's total should be easily achievable.

I managed to read an equal number of works by men and women this year, 26 each, with the anthology containing work by both men and women. I didn't consciously aim for an exact balance but it is nice to see that is how it turned out. As usual most of my reading was in English. I read only three translations this year. One from Chinese to English, one from English to Dutch and one from Swedish to Dutch. Three books were read and originally written in Dutch. That leaves 47 read and originally written in English. Although this year's crop is pretty varied as far as the background of the author is concerned, I did not manage to read many translations. Another thing to keep an eye on next year.

Lana contributed one review in 2016. The Stand by Stephen King.

Best of 2016

I read a lot of decent books this year but not that many that really stood out. In that respect, 2015 was a better year as well. There are a few that I do want to mention though, in no particular order. As always, these are drawn from what I read this year, they are not necessarily published in 2016.

1. Central Station by Lavie Tidhar. Everything about this book is strange. It's is something between a collection and a novel but not quite a fixup either. The setting is unusual and the meandering plot is perhaps even more so. It is firmly grounded in science fiction though, with lots and lots of references to the classics in the genre. I would not be surprised to see this one end up on the Nebula shortlist.
2. Planetfall by Emma Newman. A science fiction novel dealing with mental illness. It includes some interesting science fiction elements but the character building is what really attracted me to this novel. The sequel was published in November. I have to remember to order a copy of that.
3. American Gods by Neill Gaiman. I came late to this novel and in hindsight I should have read it sooner. Apparently it is a love it or hate it novel. I loved it, and if you haven't already, you should read it too.
4. Fair Rebel by Steph Swainston. A triumphant return to the world of Castle. Fans of this series will want to read it. It's a book that, despite the fantastic setting, very much deals with the problems of of our present world.
5. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. First book in a space opera trilogy. It is one of the most exciting books in that particular subgenre I have read in ages. Again, this one might end up on an award shortlist or two.

Books that almost made the list are Slaap zacht, Johnny Idaho by Auke Hulst, Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald and The City & The City by China Miéville.

Traffic

Traffic is once again down, which is not surprising given the fact that I produced less content this year. More troubling is the fact that about 10% of it comes from a location in Russia specializing in link spam. They have been very active in trying to get me to vote for Trump (even after the election was done), buying a particular kind of blue pill and other nonsense like that in the past few months. If I weed out all the spam these are the most visited articles.

1. The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel
2. Hex - Thomas Olde Heuvelt
3. Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd
4. The Lucky Strike - Kim Stanley Robinson
5. The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Death's End - Cixin Liu
7. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
8. Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee
9. Interview: Steph Swainston on The Wheel of Fortune
10. The Jesus Incident - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

Three 2016 articles, which is better than last year. Hex rating high is also understandable. I reviewed the Dutch language edition of the novel in 2014 but the English edition appeared this year. My very first author interview made it to the list as well. I'm very pleased with that. The rest are older articles that just keep going. Most of them have been on this list in previous years as well.

Plans

Nothing really drastic. I am considering adding some of my writings in Dutch to the blog. I have enough of those now that it would make a nice addition. It would mean tweaking the site a bit and I don't think I will have the time for that in the next few months however. Maybe a bit later in the year. I also want to review more short fiction. Collections and anthologies tend to dwell on the to read stack too long. Which is a shame. A lot of interesting stuff is published in the short form. To make a start with this I am going to change my approach to reading short fiction a bit an review more individual pieces. I don't have that many unread novels on the to read stack at the moment so January will be short fiction month on Random Comments. I'll try to read and review as many as I can next month.

An that concludes another year on Random Comments. I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2017 and hope to see you all around on the blog again.

Rob

2015 in Review - A Year of Uninterrupted Reviewing

No moves, no personal emergencies and (unfortunately) no trips abroad this year. Which means I managed to write at least one review every week in 2015, a total of 64 entries (this one included). I am very pleased with that. One other thing that is unique about this year is that I reviewed everything I have read this year. It's something I always aim for but for some reason I always manage to miss one or two in a year. This year was a prolific one for Hebban as well. My agreement with them is for one article a month but I ended up writing 19 in total. Among them a 25.000 word, ten part series on George R.R. Matin's Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective, which appeared in abridged form on Random Comments. Not sure if I am ready for something like that again any time soon.

Accounting

I reviewed 56 works in 2015.  44  novels, 4 novellas, 2 short stories, 2 anthologies, 3 collections and one is a work of non-fiction. According to Goodreads these works are good for just over 21.000 pages, which is a lot more than last year. In last year's entry I said I would aim for 60. That has proven to be a bit to ambitious. Next year I will aim for 52. One review a weeks appears to be a pace I can handle.

I've read more books by women this year than by men. That is a first as well. Of the 56 works 30 were written by women, 23 by men and 3 contained work by both men and women. I have been keeping an eye on the gender balance for the past couple of years but I hadn't really noticed I had read more by women than by men. An interesting development. Most of the books I read this year were in English. I read 5 books in Dutch. Of these 2 were translations from French, the other 3 were originally written in Dutch. Of the 51 English language books 3 were translations, 2 from Chinese and one from Russian. Only eight books not originally written in English. Maybe I should keep an eye out for more translated work.

Lana contributed one review this year. Julia by Peter Straub.

Best of 2015

As always it is very difficult to pick the best reads of a year. This year however, it is even harder than usual. I read a great many wonderful books this year so I couldn't possibly limit myself to five like last year. I managed to come up with a list of seven. As usual these are books I read in 2015, not necessarily books published in 2015. They are listed in no particular order.

• Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Possibly the most controversial science fiction novel of the year. Robinson takes aim at one of the staples of science fiction and explains in vivid detail why we won't leave the solar system and colonize other star systems.


• The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard. I haven't exactly  made a secret of my admiration for her writing. This new novel is one of the most interesting books to be published in Fantasy this year. Gorgeous prose and wonderful worldbuilding.


• Segu by Maryse Condé. A reread of a wonderful historical novel. In two volumes she covers the history of the Bambara state of Segu in present day Mali. Condé follows one family starting at the height of the empire in 1796 up to the arrival of the French colonial forces in 1890. A bit of history not many western readers would otherwise be exposed to. 


• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. The first translated novel to win a Hugo Award. I'm not sure it would have happened without the intervention of the puppies but I am glad a translated novel did receive this bit of recognition. The lack of translations is hurting science fiction. Liu shows us that there are many worthy novels out there that deserve a larger audience. 


• Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. A new adult novel by McDonald, set on the moon. This is another book I could read for the beautiful prose alone but McDonald puts in a vision of a colonized near future moon that is absolutely fascinating as well. 


• The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith. The first in a series of three on the character of Aud Torvingen. These books are crime novels, not a genre I read often. This book had a special attraction to be because of the Norwegian background of the main character. I am still trying to get Lana to read it. Aud is a very interesting main character.  It's a hard-hitting novel though, the end felt like a punch in the gut.


• The Just City by Jo Walton. Greek mythology, Plato, robots and time travel. How could you possibly make that into a novel. Walton shows us how it is done in this book. This must be one of the most inventive and surprising novels of the year.

There are a number of works that almost made the list. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson, The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, Dragon Heart by Cecelia Holland, Rook Song by Naomi Foyle  and Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb are all very good reads.

Traffic

Traffic is still somewhere between pathetic and none. No really big hits this year. Like last year the articles that get most traffic are quite old. The most viewed articles are:

The Valley of the Horses - Jean M. Auel
Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd
The Lucky Strike -  Kim Stanley Robinson
The Lazarus Effect - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom
Blood of Dragons - Robin Hobb
Soul Catcher - Frank Herbert
The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu
The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin
The House of Shattered Wings - Alliette de Bodard

Only two 2015 articles on the list. A bit disappointing. Most of the others were articles that did well in other years as well. Soul Catcher got a lot of publicity this year because it is being made into a movie. Apparently they are going to change the rather controversial ending of the book. The one that baffles me is Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb. It is not exactly her most popular novel. The more recent third Fitz trilogy ought to get more attention.

Plans

None other than keep going really. I have a lot of half finished series that I would like to wrap up next year. Other than that the plan is the same as always, review everything I read. I will be opening 2016 with an Alastair Reynolds review. This year I will look at his collection Zima Blue. I'm considering trying to read some more works written in other languages than English. Right now, I have two on the to read stack. An Astrid Lindgren book Lana gave me for my birthday and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which I have already promised to review for Hebban. It would be nice if I could get into double digits in 2016, that should be achievable.

That's it for this year at Random Comments. I wish you all the best for 2016 and hope to see you all around again on the blog.

Rob

2014 in Review - Not Dead Yet

You may have been wondering where I've been in the last couple of months. Or, more likely, you may not have noticed my absence at all. My move to my new house did take a bit more out of me than I expected. Last week the final pieces of furniture were put together and right now, the place is more or less like I had in mind before the move. Which is not to say that it is done, a house is never done, but I should have more time to read again after Christmas. One of the last pieces of furniture to arrive was the new bookcase.

As you can see I have bought it with expansion in mind but I did shelve books double. Some space if also reserved for my girlfriend's books, most of which are still in Norway. All of this means there will be no more reviews this year but one thing I can manage is an end of year post.

Accounting
I've reviewed a rather meager 48 works this year, out of 49 works read. Which is a bit down from last year. According to Goodreads, these 49 works had a combined page count of 15,507, which is not all that much to put it mildly. Of these 39 were novels, 4 novellas, 3 short stories, 1 collection and 1 anthology. Had I been able to continue at the pace I've kept up for most of the year, I would probably have reached sixty so I'm making that the target for next year. Of these 48 works, 23 were written by women, 23 by men and the other two contained work by both men and women. It would seem I have more or less reached parity in that respect. I hope to keep it there next year too.

Just in case you are curious, the one book I didn't review was Een mooie jonge vrouw by Tommy Wieringa. It was this year's boekenweekgeschenk (the Dutch language readers will know what I mean.) It reminded me again why I read so little Dutch literature. Let's leave it at the book not being my cup of tea.

Random Comments had a bit of a novelty this year. My girlfriend has contributed 7 reviews to the blog, one of which was a joint review of a novel we've both read. That brings the total to 54 reviews. I hope to be able to run a few more of her reviews next year but she has made no promises so I won't either. Our reading only partially overlaps so her contributions would certainly add to the diversity on this blog.

Best of 2014

Like last year, I'm going to limit myself to five although in terms of the number of excellent books read, 2014 was a good year indeed. I've read a lot of interesting books but these were the ones that stayed with me most (as usual in no particular order):

1. The Mount by Carol Emschwiller. One of the most unusual science fiction novels I've ever read. I was looking at finding some of Emschwiller's short fiction but ended up with this novel instead. it is a gem.
2. Conservations of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee. The only collection I've read this year but a very good one. I had a lot of trouble finding the words to describe why I liked it so much. I still haven't found them so I guess you'll have to read it yourself and find out.
3. Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb. A return to Hobb's most famous character. Either you love him or you are thoroughly sick of him by now. I still think that Hobb's characterization is marvelous and that talent is very apparent in this novel.
4. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. This one caught me by surprise. I had been sitting on an ARC of this novel for a while but when I finally started it I blazed though this novel. It is one of the most entertaining read I've come across in quite a while.
5. The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert. I'm nearing the end of my project to review Frank Herbet's non-Dune novels. This one is probably my favourite. I've read it several times now and every time I pick it up it leaves a big impression. Got a few more novels to review but I doubt any of them can top this one.

As I mentioned before, quite a few books fell just short of this list. There is Elizabeth Bear's finale of the Eternal Sky trilogy and Nicola Griffith's novel Slow River for instance. I liked Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo a lot as well. Benjanun Sriduanghkaew's Scale-Bright is another highlight of the year although the whole doxxing affair that exploded right before I moved probably hasn't done her career any good. Last one I want to mention is The Apex Book of World SF 3, edited by Lavie Tidhar, which took a different direction than the previous two volumes but still contains lots of interesting stories from around the world.

Traffic
Traffic is down again this year, although not as much as last year. Unsurprisingly, November and December were particularly weak. Had I been able to keep going in those months I think I would more or less hit the level of 2013. Like last year, I've produced no big hits this year. Most of the top ten reviews are pretty close together. The top reviews are not surprising. A number of popular reviews have once again firmly panted themselves in the top 10 this year. The most popular reviews this year were:

1. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. The Valley of the Horses by Jean M. Auel
3. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
4. The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin
5. Blackout by Connie Willis
6. The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
7. Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
8. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
9. The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard
10. Soul Catcher by Frank Herbert

The only 2014 review that made the list is The Waiting Stars, the rest are all pretty old. The Clan of the Cave Bear has been on the list since 2010 and titles like The Valley of the Horses, The Ice Dragon, The Lucky Strike and Sarum have made multiple appearances on this list. I am at a loss to explain Le Guin's sudden popularity as both of these reviews are quite old. Not quite sure what caused Willis' appearance on the list either. Lana's most viewed review is The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg. It comes in at #11.

Plans
I've given up on making plans for next year since I didn't really manage much of what I intended last year. The only thing I will say for certain is that I will start the year with an Alastair Reynolds review. This year it will be Blue Remembered Earth, which, if I am not mistaking, is residing under the Christmas tree in pretty paper at the moment. There are a few titles project that I want to finish this year but all of those are backlist titles of various authors. There's no rush getting those done. Other than that, I will try for sixty reviews. It should be manageable but we'll have to see how things go next year.

I wish you all happy holidays and all the best for 2015. See you around on the blog or elsewhere on the Internet next year!

Rob

2013 in Review

Another year has passed. I have run my last review of the year on Saturday so I guess it is time to look back. 2013 has not been a particularly good year on the blog. I have been seriously distracted by a number of things in my personal life. I must say it was worth it though. I've climbed out of the low that was 2011 and although there is lots more I still need to take care of, I do have the feeling I've pulled my life together again. If that goes at the expense of a book blog I guess that is a small price to pay. I hope to be able to put a bit more time into the blog next year but I can't make any promises on that account. There might be another move for one thing, those are always huge time sinks.

Accounting

I only reviewed three works in the first three months of this year. All things considered it is a small miracle that I have managed to get up to 50 reviews for the whole year. It is still 10 down from last year but all things considered it is not a bad score. I hope to do better next year and get it up to sixty again. I reviewed 40 novels, 4 collections/anthologies, 5 short stories or novellas and 1 work of non-fiction this year. On top of that I read 2 novels, 1 novella and 1 work of non-fiction I didn't end up reviewing, which brings the total to 54. According to Goodreads they contained a total of 20,514 pages. Considerably more than last year, when it was less than 17,000.

Of the 50 reviewed books, 23 where written by men, 26 by women and one contained work of both men and women. This is the first year that I've read more works by women than men. The Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge clearly had something to do with that. It exposed me to a number of books I probably wouldn't have read otherwise. It will be interesting to see if I can keep it balanced without the reading challenge to push me. Note that I might still not have made the 50% by Lady Business' count. I put a work into one category so each work only counts once, they count individual authors. So A Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan is one man for me but two men for them. Hunter's Run even has three male authors. The count for the single anthology I've read this year, We See A Different Frontier, may shift the balance a lot. Given the almost continuous debate on sexism in publishing this year I do hope they repeat there experiment. It would be interesting to see if there is any movement at all.

Best of 2013
Given the small number of books I have to choose from I'm going to limit myself to 5 again this year. The five best books I've read this year in no particular order:

1. Immersion by Aliette de Bodard. Simply one of the best short stories I've ever read. It did well in this year's awards season and deservedly so.
2. Hild by Nicola Griffith. I was very impressed with this historical novel. Griffith manages to create a fascinating tale on the scraps of history that have survived the ages.
3. Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Robinson. I guess some people might prefer his science fiction but this prehistoric novel is very good reading too in my opinion. 
4. We See A Different Frontier edited by Fabio Fernandes and Djibril al-Ayad. I'm probably biased here, I helped fund this project. I'm nevertheless impressed with the selection of stories Fernandes and al-Ayad managed to get their hands on. It's an anthology the genre needed and I would not mind if it got a bit more attention that it has received up to this point. Or see a second volume put together for that matter.
5. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The list is rather heavy on recent works but I did read a few classics this year. Vonnegut is simply a must read. I don't think anybody approaches science fiction with the kind of grim humour that can be found in this novel.

Despite only having reviewed 50 books, it was hard to limit myself to 5 works. Books like The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord, Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay are also very much worth reading. They missed the list by a fraction.

Traffic
Traffic is down by 45 percent this year. I lost a lot of readers in the first three months of 2013. Not surprising given the level of activity back then. What also hurt the numbers is stat I apparently haven't produces a bit hit. Last year the reviews of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire drew an awful lot of traffic. This year nothing really jumped out like that. Maybe I should have reviewed Ender's Game after all.  The top ten most visited reviews of last year were:

1. The Valley of the Horses by Jean M. Auel
2. The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin
3. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
4. The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince - Robin Hobb
5. Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
7. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson
8. Immersion by Aliette de Bodard
9. A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin
10. Blood and Bone by Ian C. Esslemont

I can't really make much of this list. Four titles were in it last year as well. Both Auels, the Martin and the Collins. I guess the debate over whether The Ice Dragon is part of A Song of Ice and Fire still rages. Personally I'm still of the opinion Martin didn't write it with that intend but that if the reader insists it can be passed of as one of old Nan's tales. The Lucky Strike is back on the list. I still suspect it is being used in some kind of literature class because I get a lot of search queries trying to find the answer on very specific questions about this work. Fortunately the review is suitably vague. I'm afraid they will have to read it for themselves. There are four 2013 reviews on the list, none of them very high. The first title in the list got approximately double the number of views as number ten. Things are much closer together than last year. Roadside Picnic had been on the list for the last three years. It has now dropped the the eleventh spot. I guess the new translation that has been released means there are more reviews recent reviews out there.

Plans
Nothing to specific at the moment. I'm considering signing up for next year's reading challenge over at WWend but since they haven't released any details of what it might be I haven't decided on that yet. I trust them to come up with something good though. I want to continue working my way through the works of Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson but I haven't decide on specific titles yet. I also plan on rereading A Dance with Dragons before Martin overtakes me and delivers the sixth volume. I'm also looking forward to reading the final book in Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century and the final book in Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky. I understand Robin Hobb will have a new Fitz book out next year. That one is also high on the list of books to read. Then there are some loose ends from the Women of Genre Fiction reading challenge I want to follow up on. In particular Lord's Redemption in Indigo and the short fiction of Carol Emschwiller.
I indicated that there might be a few movie reviews in the near future on Random Comments. That project has stalled and I don't know yet if and when those will start to appear. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

So that is it for this year. I hope to see you all back on Random Comments in 2014, which will traditionally open with a review of one of Alastair Reynold's works. This year it will be Terminal World. Thank you for visiting my blog. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2014.

Rob

Wrapping up 2012

My blogging over the last six weeks are obviously not everything I would have hoped for. I found a apartment last month, which is something of a miracle all things considered. Unfortunately I couldn't get any time off work in December or January so I've been forced to pour all my free time into this project. It is almost inhabitable, I expect to move in in January, joined a few weeks later by my girlfriend. That does mean I will be without internet for a while in January so I don't expect great things next month either.

Accounting
Despite the poor finish I did review 60 works in 2012. They break down into 41 novels, 5 short stories, 7 novellas and 7 collections and anthologies. I had hoped for more, but realistically that is a decent total. One of the goals was to read more works by women and I certainly did better than last year. Of the 60 works I've read, 26 were written by women, 31 by men and the remaining 3 contained work by both men and women. I hope to do a little better still in 2013. Next year's challenge over at Worlds Without End might help in that respect.

Which brings me to the 2012 Grand Master Reading Challenge. I managed to read all 12 books and review 11 of them. Ten of them were posted on the Worlds Without End blog as well. The rules only required me to write 6 so that is another goal achieved. The complete list:

1. Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
2. Prelude to Space - Arthur C. Clarke
3. Forerunner - Andre Norton
4. I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
5. The Wind's Twelve Quarters  - Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
7. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl
8. White Mars - Brian Aldiss
9. Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey
10. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
11. The Listeners - James E. Gunn
12. All About Emily - Connie Willis (not reviewed)

Books I've read but not reviewed in 2012 (some of them might still get a review later on) are What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank by Krista D. Ball, The Wurms of Blearmouth by Steven Erikson, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm and the aforementioned All About Emily by Connie Wills. I don't have a page total for 2012 handy right now but it should be around 17,000. Significantly down form last year.

Best of 2012
I'll limit myself to five books this year, ten seems too many on a total of 60. The best books I've read this year (not necessarily in that order) are:

1. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. I'm very impressed by this first volume in Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy. She tackles Epic Fantasy in her own unique way.
2. Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm. Somewhere between urban fantasy (sans sparkling vampires) and magical realism, this is probably her most underrated novel.
3. Crack'd Pot Trail by Steven Erikson. Not what you'd expect from a Korbal Broach and Bauchelain. You'll think it either dreadful of brilliant.
4. The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu. This novella should have won some of the awards it was nominated for.
5. Moxyland by Lauren Beukes. Complex and chillingly plausible, this novel is one hell of a début. I prefer it over Zoo City.

Interesting list now that I look at it.

Traffic
My traffic this year has grown considerably compared to 2011 but not as much as last year. I think it could have been a little better if I had continued posting. I've had a couple of very popular reviews this year, mostly tied to movie or TV releases. The most popular reviews this year are:

1. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
3. Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
4. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
5. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
6. Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
7. The Ice Dragon - George R.R. Martin
8. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
9. Reaper's Gale - Steven Erikson
10. The Valley of the Horses - Jean M. Auel

Four reviews showed up on last year's list as well. I wonder if any of them can keep going. The Hunger Games book reviews are way more popular than anything else I've written. Despite being up less than a year they are way ahead of any other reviews in number of pageviews. The Hunger Games has almost five times as many hits as Roadside Picnic got in 2012 and Catching Fire isn't far behind. What is more interesting is that Mockingjay didn't catch on. Nor did A Clash of Kings. Still, generally speaking making it to TV or the big screen does wonders for your sales (and traffic). I'd hate to think what would happen if I reviewed Fifty Shades of Grey :P

Plans
I don't dare make too many given the current circumstances. I want to take part in the reading challenge over at Worlds Without End again and make progress on my Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson projects (I did manage a few of those last year). Other than that it will be a challenge to keep this blog going. If I manage that I'll be happy.

That wraps up 2012. I wish you all a happy 2013 and I hope to see you on Random Comments again.

2011 in Review

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre was the last review of 2011 so I guess it is time to write the yearly overview. On the personally level, 2011 was a quite turbulent year for me, to be honest I'm glad to see this year go, so the numbers won't be quite as impressive as last year. I think I managed reasonably well considering the circumstances.

Accounting
I've read 84 works in 2011, which is seven less than last year. They resulted in 82 reviews, all of which can be found on Random Comments. I also moved two older reviews to this blog. I'm pretty sure I'm done moving older stuff now though. There are plenty more but those are of such low quality that a little polish won't suffice to bring them up to Random Comments level. The two books that did not get a review were George R.R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons and Raymond E. Feist's A Kingdom Besieged (read in Dutch translation). For Martin's novel I felt I hadn't read the previous entries in his A Song of Ice and Fire series recently enough to do this book justice. I have started a reread and expect to review the two most recent volumes sometime next year. Feist I only read for nostalgic reasons these days. He hasn't published anything that is worth reading or writing about in years and this year's effort was no exception. All this leaves me still short of he two reviews a week target. I think I am going to be a little less ambitious for 2012 and aim for 80 reviews.

The total of 84 breaks down into 64 novels, 10 collections of short fiction, 9 novellas and short stories and 1 non-fiction book. In total I read 35,376 pages, just short of 100 a day. This number is comparable to 2010, mostly because I read a larger number of books that get close to, or even pass, the thousand page mark than last year. Of the 84 works, 58 were written by men, 25 by women and 1 contained work of both men and women. A slightly better ratio than last year but I think I can do better still.

Best of 2011
So what is the best I have read this year? As usual I won't limit myself to book published in 2011. I read only 30 of those, which is too narrow a selection. The emphasis of this years list is still in the last decade though. I've read a number of classics this year, but not that many that I though absolutely brilliant. Here's the list in the order I read them in.

1. Act One by Nancy Kress (2009): A novella length piece that was nominated for several awards. I tend to like Kress' short fiction better than her novels.
2. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002): After discovering Chiang last year, I just had to read this. His stories are so well crafted that you can't help but wish he was more productive. On the other hand, if taking your time results in such excellent work....
3. The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi (2010): A novella set in a fantasy universe shared with Tobias S. Buckell. I tend to like short Science Fiction better but this one is a gem.
4. Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (2011): An impressive début. One of the big surprises of the year for me.
5. Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson (2001): This Malazan novel remains my favourite in a consistently very strong epic fantasy series. Such an emotionally powerful novel.
6. The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin (1983): His least successful novel commercially, one that almost killed his career. Why this is the case is beyond me, it is one of the finest in his oeuvre.
7. Harten Sara by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (2011): I still read too few Dutch language novels. This is one that might do well internationally. Olde Heuvelt moves away from his horror roots towards a more magical realistic style. Might be translated in the near future.
8. Troika by Alastair Reynolds (2011): I just loved the concept behind this novella length science fiction.
9. Among Others by Jo Walton (2011): A fantasy novel for science fiction fans. Probably not a recipe for commercial success in the current market but a absolute must-read book for this year.
10. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (1966): At the same time hopelessly outdated and thoroughly impressive. A real classic.

Traffic
Traffic has more or less doubled in terms of visitors compared to 2010. The increase in pageviews is a bit larger, not really surprising with so much more content for search engines to dig up than last year. The top ten reviews with the most hits are:

1. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
3. The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel
4. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
5. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
6. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
7. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
8. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
9. Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
10. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

It's not surprising that Martin takes the throne this year. I think that if I had done the review of A Storm of Swords earlier in the year, or written one on A Dance With Dragons they would have ended up in the list as well. What surprised me is how well The Name of the Wind kept up. This novel is four years old now, but it lead the list for most of the year and finished close behind A Game of Thrones. The Land of Painted Caves was also a big release this year (and one of the worst novels I have read I might add) so no surprise there. Three reviews stayed in the top ten compared to last year's list. I guess reviewing a bunch of evergreens is good for your traffic. I would have liked to have seen some more overlap with the list of favourites but I guess my taste is a bit too eccentric for that.

Plans
Next year promises to be a year full of uncertainty for me on the personal and professional level. I don't want to make too many predictions or resolutions since there is a good chance I will not achieve any of them. Next year will of course open with a review of one of Alastair Reynold's novels. I also intend to continue my project to read and review all of Kim Stanley Robinson's novels (Blue Mars is up next) and to start again on reviewing Frank Herbert's non-Dune books, which I shamefully neglected last year. Other than that I think the budget for new books will be limited so unless I receive a lot of review copies (which isn't likely) the emphasis will be on older works. Of these, I fortunately have a good supply.

I guess that wraps up 2011. Thank you for visiting Random Comments and I hope to see you all around next year. I wish you all a happy new year!

Looking back on 2010

I've seen a number of these posts go up already on other blogs. As usual I was still busy reviewing. I really wanted to get the review of Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard done before the end of the year. That book brings the total number of works I've read in 2010 to 91. Which is actually 2 less than in 2009. I reviewed 90 of them however, which is 11 more than last year. Of these, 88 can be found on this blog, the other 2 were written in Dutch for Fantasy Realm. Not a bad total but I'm still not quite living up to my ambition to average two reviews a week. There's definitely a challenge there for next year.

Of the 91 works 66 were written by men, 19 by women and 6 contained the work of both men and women. Still a bit of gender bias there I suppose. There were 76 novels on the list, 7 collections/anthologies, 7 pieces of short fiction and one non-fiction work. According to Goodreads my reading in 2010 totalled 35,213 pages, or about 96 pages a day. I don't have a reliable total for 2009 but I am pretty sure the 2010 total would be lower if I bothered with a thorough count. Of the 91 works 31 were published in 2010, one will be released in 2011 and the rest is older, sometimes considerably older.

So what are the best books I've read this year? As always a difficult question. I won't limit myself to the book released this year. This are 10 novels that stood out among what I've read. They are listed in the order I read them in.

Platinum Pohl (2005) by Frederik Pohl. A wonderful collection of short fiction spanning much of Pohl's long career in science fiction.
The Prefect (2007) by Alastair Reynolds. The most recent novel in the Revelation Space setting. Combines noir with space opera.
Under Heaven (2010) by Guy Gavriel Kay. Historical Fantasy based on Tang dynasty China right before the An Shi rebellion. Kay is worth reading for the prose alone but the rest of the novel is outstanding too.
Ship Breaker (2010) by Paolo Bacigalupi. His first attempt as YA fiction is a resounding success.
Alien Earth (1992) by Megan Lindholm. Takes a bit to get going but turns into a surprisingly good Science Fiction novel by the author also known as Robin Hobb.
The Dervish House (2010) by Ian McDonald. Wonderfully complex SF novel set in near future Istanbul.
The Radio Magician and Other Stories (2010) by James van Pelt. He produces some of the best short fiction is SF today.
Soul Catcher (1972) by Frank Herbert. His only mainstream work. Somebody please bring this back in print.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) by David Mitchell. I'm totally biased by the choice of topic of this novel.
The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Classic Science Fiction, I don't think it gets much better than this. I really ought to read more of her work.

Traffic has been inching upwards during the year. It's still not a whole lot but I seem to have a nice group of regulars. Hopefully it'll continue to increase next year. The ten most popular review in 2010 were:

1. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
2. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
3. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
4. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
5. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
6. The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
7. The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson
8. Rise of the Terran Empire by Poul Anderson
9. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
10. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

The top book is certainly surprising. I had never heard of Roadside Picnic until it was suggested to me. Apparently there are not that many review s of this book online, Random Comments does very well in Google searches for this title. Towers of Midnight will most likely overtake it in the future but it fished the year at the top of the list by a fair margin. The other title on this list that surprises me is The Lucky Strike. I suspect someone is using this book in a history or literature class somewhere because I keep getting hits from people looking for a summary (it's a forty page text, shame on you!) or trying to Google the answer for what look like textbook questions. Last year I had some Dutch language titles in the top ten. This year the first, Ziel van de Duivel by Adrian Stone can be found at the 20th spot.

My plans for next year are a bit vague. I hope to review a few books more than this year. I also want to finish a couple of long running project. Beginning with finish reviewing the collection of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization being published by Baen at the moment. There are two volumes left. I ought to be able to tackle those next year. I also want to continue my reviewing of Frank Herbert's non-Dune books. There's quite a few left. I don't think I will be able to fit all of those in 2011. My project to reread Kim Stanley Robinson's work seems to have stalled a bit. I hope to continue that next year as well. Quite a few books left there as well. There's a few other series I want to continue and a whole lot of books I look forward to in 2011. Too many to list and most likely too many to read. I mean to finish Elizabeth Bear's Edda of Burdons, finish the original Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, read some more Erikson and tackle another of Edward Rutherfurd's monsters among other things. We'll see how things go.

Hope to see you all around here next year. Best wishes for 2011!

Rob

Obligatory End of Year Post

Well, it has certainly been an eventfully year for me on all fronts and reviewing was no exception. I most certainly didn't expect to be running my own book blog by august of this year. In a way I still wish it would have turned out differently. On the other hand it has been a liberating experience as well so I can't complain. I'm thinking about changing a few things next year but nothing definite yet.

So how did I do? Well, I read 93 books this year, which is more than I expected and certainly more than I expect to be able to manage next year. These 93 books resulted in a total of 79 reviews. Not a bad total but there is one thing thing I mean to improve on in 2010. A review for each book I read if I can manage. Of those 79 reviews 51 can be found on this blog. The remaining 27 are in the archives of BSCreview. I guess I speeded up a little in the second half of the year.

Best of 2009

Like last year, I am going to name the best books I have read during the year. Which is not the same as the best books of 2009. Out of the 93 books I read only 25 were actually published in 2009 so there is really no way I could even make a guess at what the best books of the year are. History will tell no doubt. To avoid any confusion I'll add the year the book was first published in this list. They are listed in no particular order.

1. The Dosadi Experiment - Frank Herbert (1977)
   This book is my favourite Frank Herbert novel. Concise yet wonderfully complex it captures the best of what made his science fiction a great read.


2. Santa Olivia - Jacqueline Carey (2009)
   This book surprised me. After a number of Kushiel books I didn't like all that much, Carey tries her hand at something completely different and the result is a joy to read.


3. The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (2009)
   Finishing someone else's work usually an unenviable task. The way Sanderson handles Jordan's creation makes him deserve every bit of praise this book got.


4. River of Gods - Ian McDonald (2004)
   I read four books by McDonald this year, they could all have made this list. River of Gods is the most accessible. The authors imagination and prose make it into an unforgettable reading experience.


5. Boneshaker - Cherie Priest (2009)
   My first foray into Steampunk. This is one cool novel!


6. An Autumn War - Danial Abraham (2008)
   In my opinion the best book in Abraham's Long Price quartet, some of the best fantasy of recent years.


7. The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
   One of the most anticipated books in 2009 for me. Bacigalupi's fascinating and terrifying future lived up to my expectations.


8. Tuf Voyaging - George R.R. Martin (1986)
   Tuf is probably one of Martin's best creations, this book collects all the Tuf stories. The change in his character over the course of the book is brilliantly done.


9. Galileo's Dream - Kim Stanley Robinson (2009)
   Robinson's portrayal of the father of modern science is just outstanding.


10. The Apex Book of World SF - Lavie Tidhar ed. (2009)
    This collection of science fiction in the widest possible interpretation of the term contains some great short stories from around the world.

Most Popular Reviews

Looking at traffic this blog is still tiny but each month the numbers inch up a bit. Almost 60 percent of my visitors are from the US and the Netherlands. The rest is mostly form various places in Europe, Canada and Brazil. About 50 percent are from English-speaking nations, a quarter from the Dutch-speaking corner of the world. I've reached the conclusion that a little networking wouldn't hurt in trying to improve the numbers but since I have no idea when to actually do this without skipping sleep entirely, I'm afraid the numbers will have to take care of themselves for now. The most popular reviews on Random Comments this year were:

1. The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
2. Dust of Dreams - Steven Erikson
3. The Apex Book of World SF - Lavie Tidhar ed.
4. Boneshaker - Cherie Priest
5. Time Out - Various authors
6. Shadow's Edge - Brent Weeks
7. The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks
8. Het bouwplan - F.H. van Dongen
9. Magií of Cyador - L.E. Modesitt Jr.
10. Black Trilium - Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, Andre Norton

The top book doesn't actually come as a surprise. It was one of the biggest releases of the year. There are some interesting things about this list however. Fantasy does better than SF. I guess given the sales figures of both genres that is not surprising. Something that may have influenced the list is that six out of these ten got a link on Fantasy Book News and Reviews in one of Jeff's Today in Fantasy posts. His blog directs a lot of traffic to Random Comments so I owe him a big thank you. Any way I can convince you to try science fiction Jeff?

Numbers five and eight are books only available in Dutch. Apparently the little networking I did do on a number of Dutch fantasy forums did work. As I mentioned above only about a quarter of the readers are from the Dutch-speaking part of the world so I am still a little surprised that any of the Dutch only books made the list. The Apex Book of World SF is also a surprise. I put this review up on December 27th and it got more hits in the first 24 hours than most reviews get in total. I guess I am going to have to keep paying attention to books from outside the English-speaking world.

Looking ahead to 2010

Which books am I looking froward to... Too many books to actually read next year I guess. I have two huge tomes by Dan Simmons on the to read stack, I mean to read at least one of them. Same goes for the three Edward Rutherfurd books still waiting to be read. I also intend to have a go at China Mieville's The Scar. As for 2010 publications, there's quite a few I have my eye on. I'm looking forward to Ian McDonald's Dervish House, the next Wheel of Time book Towers of Midnight, the final book in Steven Erikson's Malazan series The Crippled God. I'm curious to see what tales Cherie Priest has in store for us in her Clockwork Century and I can't wait to read the final part of Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles. I also intend to read a few more classics of the genre. In other words plenty to do next year.

A happy new year to all of you! I hope to see you all around on Random Comments or elsewhere in the blogsphere. I promise to be a little more active commenting on the various blogs I visit.

Rob