January was a good month for reading, I was on vacation until the 11th so I had lots of time to read. None of the books here was made a bad review, even if I wasn’t as fond of Multireal as I was of Infoquake, sorry David. It was really hard to rank the 7 first books this month, they all blew my mind. Ask me again tomorrow and I might change the order. If I included re reads into the list it would be different.

The picture was taken by me not very far from where I live in Norrbotten, Sweden. January is cold, it is -13C here today and darkness comes early so I prefer to stay at home with a good book.

Novels

1. WE by Dickinson, John
2. Darkship Thieves by Hoyt, Sarah A.  (DarkShip Thieves 1)
3. Infoquake by Edelman, David Louis [profile] (Jump 225 Series 1)
4. Cosmopath by Brown, Eric (Bengali Station Series 3)
5. Multireal by Edelman, David Louis [profile] (Jump 225 Series2)
6. Migration by Czerneda, Julia E (Species Imperative Series 2)
7. Regeneration by Czerneda, Julia E (Species Imperative Series 3)
8. Eye of the Storm by Ringo, John (Hedren War Series 1, Posleen universe)
9. The Tuloriad by Ringo, John & Kratman, Tom (Posleen universe) sequel to Yellow Eyes
10. Fire by Cashore, Kristin (The Seven Kingdoms 2)
11. Valor’s Choice by Huff, Tanya (Confederation of Valor Series 1)
12. Better Part of Valor by Huff, Tanya: (Confederation of Valor Series 2)
13. The Heart of Valor by Huff, Tanya: (Confederation of Valor Series 3)
14. Valor’s Trial by Huff, Tanya (Confederation of Valor Series 4)
15. Starship: Flagship by Resnick, Mike (Starship Series 5)

Re reads

1. Old Man’s War by Scalzi, John [profile] (Old Man’s War Series 1)
2. Peace & War by Haldeman, Joe - omnibus version of Forever War, Forever Free, Forever Peace

Novellas and Short stories

1. High Stakes by Hoyt, Sarah A. (DarkShip thieves universe) a free online short story
2. Judge Sn Goes Golfing by Scalzi, John [profile] (Android’s Dream universe) a novella
3. Neptune’s Orphans by Hoyt, Sarah A. (DarkShip thieves universe) a free online novelette

Fire is a free standing prequel to Kristin Cashore’s debute novel Graceling.

Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all – a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she’s more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising.

But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her . . . and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power.

Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed – a day when, for her king, she has to take a stand not only against his enemies, but also against herself . . .

The novel starts up a bit slow as the protagonist Fire search for her own way as she tries to come to grip with her own devastating powers.  She comes across as a real mensch. Much of what happens circles around her inner journey.

The characterizations are good, Fire’s inner struggle combined with a charming straight forwardness  makes her easy to love. Even the horses have real personalities, you have to love Small, her horse.

One interesting aspect with Fire is how she deals with her own beauty, she can’t even look herself in the mirror with out being affected.

Romance is an essential part in this kind of story and here it sneaks up on the main character, but we readers saw it from a mile away. It is charming and fits well into the storyline.

It falls a bit short in the world-building business. It is not as chiseled out as I would like. But that might be a purely personal issue. I am used to David Weber and the likes of him that are regularly accused of info dumping, like thats a bad thing.

Anyway, I enjoyed Fire a lot, and read it in one go.

The Fantasy books is something I found while idly browsing Amazon. I think my son will love them, he is much more into fantasy than I. I want to read them too of course, that’s a bonus.

1. Judge Sn Goes Golfing by John Scalzi
2. The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller
3. The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller
4. Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (Revalation Space 2)
5. Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds (Revalation Space 4)
6. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds (Revalation Space 5)
7. WE by John Dickinson
8. Fire by Kristin Cashore