My notes and current rankings for the 2015 Novel category.
- Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie
4 stars / An enjoyable read that left me wondering what I didn’t like about the first one. I’ll have to go finish it and see. - Skin Game, Jim Butcher
4 stars / A standard Dresden Files book, Harry gets his ass kicked throughout, smarts off constantly, but pulls it out in the end. I really loved the first two or three books but they got repetitive by number five and I lost interest at that point. Not sure that number 15 of a series is really deserving of an award, especially when it doesn’t stand out over it’s predecessors. Also, shouldn’t the “best” novel of the year do something besides just entertain? There’s nothing wrong with entertaining but saying it’s the “best” feels like saying the Kardashians deserve to be famous. - The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)
3.5 stars / Good stuff with annoying names and barely there conflicts. Would rank lower if the Puppies had put something better against it. I’ve been wobbling between 3.5 & 4 stars and finally decided on 3.5. - The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu translator
2 stars / Not bad but kind of depressing and I had a lot of trouble with the pessimistic scientists. I’m sure there are plenty of those but everyone in this book seemed ready to slit their wrists at the first sign of trouble. - No Award
- The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson
1 star / DNF. Made it through 28% (with a lot of skimming) of this overly wordy tome that time traveled from the 50s and multiplied to five times the necessary length during the trip. Advice to the author: Get an editor who understands the maxim “brevity is the soul of wit”.