Top 10


Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Books on my Spring TBR.

I’m currently reading:

1, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, edited by Sean Wallace

This collection has 30 steampunk short stories.

2, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry

Set in the 18th century this is an alternate universe book where magic is real.

After those two I’m not quite sure what I’m going to read but these are high on my TBR right now:

3, Collinding Worlds vol. 3 by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

An SF short story collection with the theme of time.

4, When Worlds Collide edited by S.C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier

An SF and fantasy short story collection about cultures colliding.

5, A Dragon of a Different Color by Rachel Aaron

The fourth book in the fantasy series Heartstrikers where the main characters are dragons.

6, Last Dragon Standing by Rachel Aaron

The fifth and final book in the dragon series

7, Among Thieves by M. J. Kuhn

A fantasy book I bought last year from Audible’s sale. The main character is an assassin.

8, Gunpowder Alchemy by Jeannie Lin

A steampunk book set in 1842 China.

9, The Illusion of Murder by Carol McCleary

The second book in the historical mystery series centered on the first female journalist Nellie Bly.

10, Murder in the Marais by Phillip L. Wray

The second book in a Musketeer murder mystery series set in 1637 France.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Favorite Book Heroines.

It was hard to choose just ten but here goes:

1, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan by Lois McMaster Bujold

We get only three books from Cordelia’s POV but she’s a significant secondary character in the rest of the Vorkosigan series. When we first meet her, she’s an exploration starship captain, in charge of a group of scientists. She’s practical and level-headed, as you might expect. Later, when she’s getting used to quite a different culture, she uses her scientific mind to make it easier. The first book: Shards of Honor, now available in the omnibus Cordelia’s Honor.

2, the Boss by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

We never get to know the Boss’s real name. She explores very old spaceships. She prefers to work alone but during the first book (Diving into the Wreck) she realizes that she needs a team.

3, Irene Winters by Genevive Cogman

Irene is a Librarian in the Library that exists between alternate worlds. Her mission is to save books from various worlds. To do that, she often has to use cover identities and get into places where she shouldn’t be. While she can fight, more often she uses her wits to get out of dangerous situations. The first book: the Invisible Library.

4, Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde

Another quick-thinking heroine, Thursday is a literary detective; she goes into books.

The first book: the Eyre Affair

5, October “Toby” Daye by Seanan McGuire

Toby is a half-human, half-faerie woman; her father was a human and her mother is a Daoine Sidhe. In the mortal world, she’s a private investigator and in the faerie world, she’s a Knight in her own right which is almost unheard of for a half-blood. At the beginning of the first book, Toby loses her husband and daughter. After that, she’s a loner. Or tries to be; during the series, she gathers a quirky group of friends around her.

The first book: Rosemary and Rue

6, Amelia Peabody Emerson by Elizabeth Peters

Amelia is a very opinionated woman living in Victorian times. She loves Egyptology and Egypt. No wonder then, that she married Radcliffe Emerson who is an Egyptologist. Being a woman, she can only be an amateur Egyptologist. She and her husband solve murders while excavating.

7, Modesty Blaise by Peter O’Donnell

In contrast to the other heroines on this list, Modesty doesn’t age or change. She’s a master martial artist and a crack shot. She used to lead a criminal organization, the Network but is now retired. She sometimes works for MI7 but sometimes trouble just finds her and her right-hand man Willie Garvin.

The first book: Modesty Blaise

8, Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood

Another independent and outrageous woman, the Phryne Fisher books are set in 1920s Australia. She’s currently independently wealthy and the first female detective in Melbourne. However, she was poor for a long time so she knows what it’s like and she tries to help poor people, especially women.

The first book: Cocaine Blues

9, Sethra Lavode by Steven Brust

Sethra is the Enchantress of the Dzur Mountain, a very long-lived Dragaeran, and also a vampire. She’s the oldest character in her world. She’s also the most powerful wizard and best military general. However, she had a side that the vast majority of people don’t know about.

10, Colonel Turyin Mulaghesh by Robert Jackson Bennett

In the second book in the Divine Cities fantasy series (City of Blades), Mulaghesh has retired from her governor’s post. However, the prime minister send her to the distant city of Voortyashtan to find out what happened to the PM’s previous spy. Mulaghesh is tortured by her past and must confront it in Voortyashtan. She’s a career soldier and over fifty.

She’s a minor character in the first book, City of Stairs, and the main character in the second book.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Valentine’s Day freebie.

Here in Finland Valentine’s Day is Friendship day, I chose to list best friends. Because male friendships are more common in fiction (at least in SFF), here are some female best friends:

1, Leetah and Nightfall from Elfquest

Leetah is a gentle healer and Nightfall is a fierce hunter. Since Leetah saved the life of Nightfall’s lifemate, Nightfall has been a faithful friend to the healer.

2, Phoenix and Storm from the X-Men

Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe grew close during Chris Claremont’s era and they’re still best friends.

3, Huntress and Power Girl from DC

In the World’s Finest from 2013 (New 52) Huntress and Power Girl are from an alternate Earth. They managed to escape from it just before it was destroyed. They understand each other in a way that nobody else can.

4, Oracle and the Black Canary from DC

The backbone of the Birds of Prey team (and comic) Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance support each other through everything.

5, Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman from Marvel

Carol Danvers and Jessica Drew have been friends in comics for decades.

6, Storm and Shadowcat from the X-Men

When Ororo Munroe and Kitty Pryde first met, Kitty was quite young and Ororo was like a big sister to her. Kitty has matured over the years. Ororo has sometimes had trouble accepting that and Kitty had trouble accepting changes in Ororo, but now they’re both X-Men leaders.

7, Starfire and Wonder Girl from New Teen Titans

The alien Koriand’r and the Amazon Donna Troy were best friends when they were in the Teen Titans together.

8, Shadowcat and Magick from the X-Men / the New Mutants

Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin were roommates and close in age. When Illyana was thought to be dead, her Soulsword and armor came to Kitty (in 1990’s comics, I think). They’re still very good friends.

9, Shadowcat and Phoenix from Excalibur and the X-Men

Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers were in the Excalibur together and went through a lot.

10, Buffy and Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Nuff’ said.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Top 10 new-to-me authors I discovered last year.

1, Alix E Harrow

I read her novella Spindle Splintered. It’s a very modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty and I loved it.

2, Adian Tchaikovsky

I’ve been meaning to read Tchaikovsky for quite some time and when I finally did, I wasn’t disappointed. Children of Time was a great read.

3, Blake Crouch

Dark Metter was a great thriller.

4, Lawrence Block

Another writer I’ve been meaning to try. The Burglar in the Closet was very entertaining.

5, Alexis Hall

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter was a very good homage to Sherlock Holmes and has a lot of weird fantasy elements, too.

6, S. K. Dunstall

Stars Uncharted was a fast-paced space opera with mystery. It has very entertaining characters.

7, Jason M. Hugh

Zero World is an SF thriller, set mostly in an alternate Earth.

8, Edward Ashton

Mickey7 is also a fast-paced SF adventure.

9, Matthew Costello, Neil Richards

These authors write a cozy mystery series set in a small English town of Charringham.

10, Tracey Deonn

Legendborn has a new twist in the King Arthur mythos.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Last week, the topic was Favorite Books of 2022.

In 2022 I read 59 books and rated 23 comics on GoodReads. Only two books got a five (out of five) rating:

1, Alix E. Harrow: A Spindle Splintered

An excellent and very modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

2, Blake Crouch: Dark Matter

A fast-paced thriller with mysteries.

The next eight are hard because I gave 27 books book four rating.

3, Genevieve Cogman: Dark Archive

The penultimate book in the excellent Invisible Library series was just as entertaining as the others.

4, Rachel Aaron: Nice Dragons Finish Last

The first in a fantasy series where a dragon in the main character.

5, Martha Wells: Fugitive Telemetry

The first book in the Murderbot series.

6, Dan Kobolt: Silver Queendom

An enjoyable heist story in a fantasy setting.

7, Theodora Goss: European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

I’ve enjoyed her whole Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series.

8, T. Kingfisher: Paladin’s Strength

A humorous fantasy romance.

9, Lois McMaster Bujold: Orphans of Raspay

A Penric and Desdemona fantasy novella.

10, Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children of Time

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Typographic Book Covers.

Usually, I don’t pay much attention to typography but a couple of books came immediately to mind.

29475447._sy475_3472892548727813._sy475_34128219-125372801

These covers are also really focused on the text:

49078927833670._sy475_16245510761324983

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Books with Geographical Terms in the Title.

This was a fun topic. I almost went with books that have the word planet but I think that would have been too obvious.

33507

10783217

1679200._sy475_34848658._sy475_652880581073._sx318_639364429739795._sx318_35394356._sy475_71677

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Completed Series I Wish had More Books.

I’m in the middle of quite a few series, so this was harder than I thought. And looking up some series, I realized that more books have come out! Here are the series with delightful characters I’d love to read more about:

1, Lois McMaster Bujold: the Vorkosigan series

2, Randall Garrett: Lord Darcy short stories

3, Anne Logston: Shadow

4, Naomi Novik: Temeraire

5, Liz Williams: Detective Inspector Chen

6, Peter O’Donnell: Modesty Blaise

7, Elizabeth Peters: Amelia Peabody

8, C. J. Cherryh: Chanur series

9, Theodora Goss: the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club

10, Roger Zelazny: Amber

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Books I Love That Were Written Over Ten Years Ago.

Most of the books I’ve read were published over ten years ago. Here are some of my favorites:

1, Lois McMaster Bujold: Barrayar

2, Steven Brust: Issola

3, Anne Logston: Shadow

4, Naomi Novik: Temeraire (or His Majesty’s Dragon)

5, Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters

6, Liz Williams: Snake Agent

7, Kerry Greenwood: Cocaine Blues

8, Elizabeth Peters: The Last Crocodile Died at Noon

9, Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Diving into the Wreck

10, Connie Wills: To Say Nothing of the Dog or How We Found the Bishop’s Birdstump Again

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Hilarious Book Titles.

I think these are funny, especially if you’ve read the book, for example Caine’s book is about a zombie that has to work for a living, and Haverstock’s murder mystery book is set in a cheese convention.

1, Rachel Aaron: Nice Dragons Finish Last

2, Rachel Aaron: Minimum Wage Magic

3, Rachel Caine: Working Stiff

4, Arthur Byron Cover: Night of the Living Rerun (Buffy the Vampire Slayer book)

5, Diane Duane: So You Want to be a Wizard

6, Jasper Ford: Lost in a Good Book

7, Connie Wills: To Say Nothing of the Dog or How We Found the Bishop’s Birdstump Again

8, Nikki Haverstock: Which Mage Moved the Cheese?

9, Kim Harrison: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

10, Stacey Alabaster: A Pie to Die For

Next Page »