Hey all! It’s time again for my rundown of my favorite reads of the year. As always, these aren’t books that were necessarily published within the calendar year; a couple of them are twenty years old or more, and I only wish I’d read them while they were coming out! I missed some great stuff because of my early blind spots.
This year I found myself reading (and enjoying) a lot of sci-fi, particularly some fascinating series by female SF writers. I had only ever dabbled in sci-fi before; for most of my life I read pulp fantasy almost exclusively. I just wasn’t in the mindset for SF, I guess. But boy, was I missing a lot. Last year was the year of CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner series (which I infected my co-conspirator Erica Dakin with). This year, I read:
The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold.
I really wish I’d started reading this back when it was first being written. I would have learned a lot about writing great female protagonists. Not that the series follows female protags much, it being mainly about the exploits of Miles Naismith/Vorkosigan, but the highlight of every book she showed up in was Miles’ mother Cordelia. Just…CORDELIA, you magnificent matriarch. Everything to do with Cordelia’s story is fabulous, from the very first book (Shards of Honor) where she meets Miles’ eventual father Aral Vorkosigan (who is just my type for a tragic-hero-romance-target, hi Aral!) to her exploits in the most recently published novel. Oh Cordelia, you’re fantastic.
And I guess you’re pretty good too, Miles, all told.
Just a heads-up for anyone interested in more world-building content!
