The 'Big, Fat End of the Year' Post!

And another year comes to an end in a flurry of genre related goodness... Well, not counting yesterday’s review but even that book wasn’t all bad so I’m still going to say that 2011 ended on a high reading wise :o)

2011 was a great year for reading, in my house, although once again there’s a caveat in that you could say that I didn’t take much of a risk with my reading. If 2011 was a year for anything, it was the year of ‘Life being too short to read anything other than the good stuff’. We’ll see if that changes next year...

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the blog in 2011; whether it was to post a comment, answer some questions for an interview or set me straight when I hadn’t got my facts right. I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by and make this blog better than I ever could on my own :o) No thanks at all though to the spammers and spambots who seem to go to a lot of effort to leave comments that never get anywhere near the front page (or any other page for that matter). Guys, take a hint... please?

Like I said, 2011 has been a great year for reading and below is a list of all my favourite reads (complete with handy links to each review just in case you missed them). Apologies to Sykes, Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Martin, Erikson and the rest for not getting round to your books this year. I’ll give it my best shot to get them all read in 2012! :o)

So, list! Here goes (in no order whatsoever)...

‘Zoo City’ – Lauren Beukes (a worthy 'Arthur C. Clarke Award' winner)
‘The Damned Highway’ – Brian Keene & Nick Mamatas (superb)
‘Robopocalypse’ - Daniel H. Wilson
‘Low Town’ – Daniel Polansky
‘The Dragon’s Path’ – Daniel Abraham (can't wait for the sequel)
‘Never Knew Another’ - J.M. McDermott
‘Leviathan Wakes’ – James S.A. Corey (see 'The Dragon's Path')
‘Among Thieves' - Doug Hulick
'Theft of Swords' - Michael J. Sullivan (awesome 'old school' fantasy)
‘The Cold Commands’ – Richard Morgan
‘Manhattan in Reverse’ – Peter F. Hamilton (Hamilton is just as good at writing short stories as he is with the long stuff)
‘Blood Reaver’ – Aaron Dembski-Bowden (the king of Warhammer 40K fiction)
‘The Ritual’ – Adam Nevil
'Blood of Aenarion’ – William King
‘Salvation’s Reach’ – Dan Abnett
‘Dragonmage’ – Chris Wraight
‘The Outcast Dead’ – Graham McNeill
‘Sword of Vengeance’ – Chris Wraight
‘Stories for Nighttime and Some For the Day’ - Ben Loory (highly recommended, please read it)
‘The End Specialist’ – Drew Magary

If you’re looking for a good read then any of these should do the job I think :o)

Well that’s all for me this year, have a great last few hours of 2011 and I’ll see you all on the other side...