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What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-06-16 9:02 AM (#7950)
Subject: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Since we are in our 6th month of challenges, I thought I'd throw this question out. 

Mine are: Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt; Walton, Among Others; and Stephenson, Cryptonomicon. 

 My list was easy to determine because these three are stand-outs among the others that I've read.

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dustydigger
Posted 2014-06-16 12:16 PM (#7951 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		My thee favourites were
Roger Zelazny - This Immortal
Gene Wolfe - Shadow of the Torturer
Vonda Macintyre - Dreamsnake
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2014-06-16 1:06 PM (#7952 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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My three would be:

John Crowley - Little, Big.
Ursula K. LeGuin - Tehanu
George Alec Effinger - When Gravity Fails

Although they weren't my top favorites I would give special mention for literary skill to:

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Marguerita
Michel Houellebecq - Atomized (The Elementary Particles)

Rhonda - Although I didn't read the three you mentioned for the challenge they would have been among my favorites too except for the KSR. I thought it was great up until the ending which seemed rather slapdash. I'm not a great fan of KSR but I would rate "Years" to be his best of those I have read.

Edited by justifiedsinner 2014-06-16 1:10 PM
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-06-16 2:28 PM (#7953 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: SC, USA		Justified Sinner, I agree with you about the ending of Years, but I give him extra credit for the concept and all the history he used/revised. The only other book I've read by himis Red Mars, which I thought was too long with unlikeable characters. Most people recommend 2312 maybe I'll get to it next year.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-06-16 2:29 PM (#7954 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: SC, USA		Dusty, I have not read any of those, but know thatnI should ... Eventually.
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daxxh
Posted 2014-06-16 4:02 PM (#7955 - in reply to #7954)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer - very tense and creepy. One of the best books I've read period.
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Maelstrom - Peter Watts

I read Authority, sequel to Annihilation, which although good, didn't have the same mood as Annihilation. I'm looking forward to the third book, Acceptance, which is supposed to be published in September. Maelstrom was the sequel to Starfish. I actually liked the sequel better than the first book. I have both volumes of Behemoth, the third and fourth books in this series, and will be reading them soon.

Honorable mention to Hild by Nicola Griffith and Servants of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard. I really liked these as well. I've already read the sequel to Servants of the Underworld and am looking forward to reading the third in the trilogy. I am also looking forward to the sequel to Hild.

Edited by daxxh 2014-06-16 4:06 PM
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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-16 4:05 PM (#7956 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Nalo Hopkinson - Brown Girl in the Ring
Helene Wecker - The Golum and the Jinni
Richard K. Morgan - The Steel Remains

I'm not loving Morgan's sequel "The Cold Commands" as much. It's much more mopey, less tension. Suffers from second in a trilogy slump.

I also gave 5 stars to Peter Heller's "The Dog Stars" and Connie Willis' "Blackout/All Clear". I haven't reviewed it yet, but I'm leaning toward 5 stars for Wolfe's "Shadow of the Torturer" as well. I read it right before Morgan's "Cold" which may be why I'm struggling now.

Dusty, I read "Dreamsnake" last year and loved it! I read "This Immortal" as well, but didn't like it as much as his "Lord of Light"

Rhonda, I just saw Jo Walton at a reading last Tuesday here in Portland, OR at Powell's Books. If she comes to your area on her latest book tour, I recommend seeing her. She's quite fun and wonderful in person. And her new book sounds awesome.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-17 7:59 AM (#7962 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Nicola Griffith - Slow River
Barry Hughart - Bridge of Birds
Joan Slonczewski - A Door into Ocean

Pretty tough to pick three. The Griffith is a definite, the other two are subject to changing whims, and could easily have been Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master of Hed or Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale or Ursula Le Guin's Tombs of Atuan.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-18 7:27 AM (#7968 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Hmm, I feel a bit like I'm self-censoring in that previous post, trying to stick to classier works.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Soulless by Gail Carriger and Surface Detail by Iain M Banks. I didn't mention them before because they felt like they were too much within a certain subgenre - epic fantasy, paranormal romance and space opera, respectively - and that maybe they'd only appeal to people who like that sort of thing. On the other hand, I don't like the middle one of those, and I still enjoyed the Gail Carriger, so perhaps they would work for everyone, and perhaps I shouldn't be excluding them for mildly snobbish reasons.

It's interesting that the three I listed in my previous post all won awards, whereas only one of the above was even nominated.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2014-06-26 3:25 AM (#7989 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: RE: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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All of my three have been from last year - Leckie's Ancillary Justice, Barker's The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic and Priest's The Adjacent.

On KSR, most of what I've read by him I've liked better than his Mars trilogy.  Some of my favorite reads of his have been from his lesser known works.  The Orange County trilogy (The Wild Shore / The Gold Coast / Pacific Edge) was quietly great.  And A Short, Sharp Shock was spectacular and completely unexpected - who would have thought that KSR would have written a masterful surreal fantasy?!?!

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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-26 6:59 PM (#7993 - in reply to #7989)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		That's good to know about KSR. I struggled through the Mars trilogy. I'm particularly intrigued by Short Sharp Shock.
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-06-26 9:10 PM (#7996 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Mine are Caitlin R. Kiernan's The Red Tree, Veronica Schanoes' Among the Thorns, and Genevieve Valentine's The Girls at the Kingfisher Club. The latter two are 2014 releases.

Since my perception is quite colored by my remembrance of dark fantasy and mythic fiction above all other things, if I had to pick a sci-fi top three it'd be Mary Doria Russell's Children of God, Karen Russell's Sleep Donation, and The Other Half of the Sky, ed. by Athena Andreadis and Kay T. Holt.
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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-28 11:29 AM (#8005 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hey FF,

I'll be reading Russell's Children of God next. It's good to know it's in your top three SF. I absolutely loved The Sparrow.
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FeminineFantastique
Posted 2014-06-28 10:04 PM (#8010 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Spoltz, I loved The Sparrow too but I spent a week or so on it. I read Children of God in two days. I stayed up way too late and my husband made a fierno. I think it helped that CoG didn't have to spend nearly as much time on character development.

BTW, in case you didn't see it, Nalo Hopkinson tweeted your review of Brown Girl in the Ring. :D It showed up on my feed and I was like, hey, wait -- SPOLTZ!
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pauljames
Posted 2014-06-29 4:45 AM (#8011 - in reply to #8010)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		Assassin's Quest - still reading it, so detailed and very beautiful, sadly the end of a great trilogy.
Babel-17 - can see why this is so highly thought of, not for everyone, but I know i will read it again.
Hyperion - possibly the best i have read, looking forward to the sequels.
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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-29 11:16 AM (#8012 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: Re: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hey FF, Thanks for letting me know about the tweet! I'm not on twitter so I didn't know about it. When I got the 80 first-day hits on that blog page instead of the usual 10, I thought it was some aberrant search bots stuck in a loop! You made my day1
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HRO
Posted 2014-08-30 4:52 AM (#8381 - in reply to #7950)
Subject: RE: What are your 3 favorite challenge books thus far?		Quote Reply



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Location: Neither here...nor there		My top three reads - all receiving a 5 Star rating - so far this year:

A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren (dystopia-apocalyptic)
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (historical fantasy, mythic fiction)
The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier (short stories)

Also receiving 5 Stars, and in 4th place:

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis (dystopia-apocalyptic)

And next in line, with a 4.5 Star rating:
When She Woke by Hilary Jordan (dystopia-apocalyptic)
In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss (short stories)
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