New post: "The Dawn Watch review – ‘redefines how we see Joseph Conrad’" https://t.co/DyIzRT8bD4 William Dalrymple Maya Jasanoff brilliantly places Conrad as a pioneer of understanding the forces that shape the modern world
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) January 1, 2018
In November 1889, just as the chugging compound engin…
#10: Poverty Safari https://t.co/UbxT6YuLOX
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) January 1, 2018
#5: A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind https://t.co/7Pr2QVxfH6
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) January 1, 2018
#5: A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind https://t.co/q915i162pZ
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) January 1, 2018
(192)#10: With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial https://t.co/2lyNTR4ITt
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#6: Sophie Scholl and the White Rose https://t.co/4EHsabH5nc
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#5: Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food https://t.co/zUbhG8HBLp
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#10: Dark Water: A totally gripping thriller with a killer twist (Detective Erika Foster Book 3) https://t.co/nXjn1NPaCl
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#5: The Dawn Watch https://t.co/UytNKY8vJX
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#3: Marvel Heroes Annual 2018 (Annuals 2018) https://t.co/JBlRtsujK4
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#7: Self-Care for the Real World https://t.co/wbpVXktBQI
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
The latest The UK Books Daily! https://t.co/Qw35EywfaS Thanks to @TantraBensko #books
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#10: Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions https://t.co/49wPS4nRNE
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
(119)List of Canadian Children's Book Publishers https://t.co/F97TzESTzs #amwriting
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
The latest The UK Books Daily! https://t.co/Qw35EywfaS Thanks to @JessicaJayhawk @AlvaradoFrazier @CazApr1 #amreading #books
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
New post: "Love & Fame by Susie Boyt – going through the emotions" https://t.co/Fe8HNYYhxX Hannah Beckerman The novelist’s sixth outing is good on life’s great challenges but suffers from a tendency to be too clever with language
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
Halfway through Susie Boyt’s sixth novel, the p…
Book World, the fourth-largest bookstore chain in the USA, to close. https://t.co/XgC0hNjv3c https://t.co/A0zkhqIUQy
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
New post: "How I chose my list of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time" https://t.co/qjJOi94UgR Robert McCrum What makes a nonfiction classic? Robert McCrum reflects on his two-year odyssey to compile a list of the best 100 nonfiction books in the English language – moving…
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
New post: "The 100 best nonfiction books of all time: the full list" https://t.co/VXDMrG06UF Robert McCrum
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
After two years of careful reading, moving backwards through time, Robert McCrum has concluded his selection of the 100 greatest nonfiction books. Take a quick look at fi…
New post: "Julian Barnes, Sebastian Faulks, Leïla Slimani… the best fiction for 2018" https://t.co/2mgBDnfJA0 Alex Preston …Rupert Thomson, Aminatta Forna and a clutch of brilliant debuts – the novels to look out for this year
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
It feels like 2018 has more than its share of …
What can you see? 😀 http://pic.twitter.com/JceElgVi3L
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What about you?😀☕️ http://pic.twitter.com/6dhvrnh5uU
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New post: "January's Poetry Contest Winner: The Blizzard" https://t.co/plyr8bxpfJ
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
New post: "The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson – review" https://t.co/baWXUJT1IT Geoff Dyer All the slipshod magnificence and crazy wonder of the late, venerated American writer are present in this posthumous collection of short stories
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
If the circumstances of a no…
In which we Book Smugglers present our top 10 books of 2017 and other assorted goodies…
Ana: Hello, I’m Ana.
Thea: And I’m Thea.
Ana & Thea: And we are…BOOK SMUGGLERS!!!!!!!
*play facemelting riffs on air guitars*
We’ve brought you some of our favorite authors and bloggers with their reflections on 2017… We’ve once again proved that the hardest Feat of Strength is to restrain ourselves NOT TO BUY ALL THE THINGS after so many awesome lists… And now it’s finally time to get our own hands dirty! We have scoured our personal libraries, gone through all our reviews for the year, and we are happy to report that we finally have our final picks ready to go.
We Smugglers are proud to present you with our Most Excellent Books of 2017!
Ana’s Most Excellent List:
Remember how 2016 was a terrible year and we were all “what a trash fire of a year”? Good times. 2017 proved to be even worse in many ways – and yet, somehow through it all, I did manage to read MORE than last year. It was just the ONE book more – 61 as opposed to 2016’s 60 – but hey, I will take my victories where I can.
And just like last year, I had to be extremely careful picking the books I’d read – not only because of time constraints but also because I wanted to read happy, light books. My average rate for 2017 is pretty dam high at 7.9, an all-time high. Predictably, picking a mere top 10 was a super difficult task and at one point, I emailed Thea to ask if my top 10 could be a top 12.
With that said, here is the nitty-gritty of stats. Out of those 61 books read, 47 were by – as far as I am aware – either female-identifying and trans authors, 78% of what I’ve read in total. The vast majority of those 61 books were unsurprisingly, under the Speculative Fiction umbrella. I read more Adult SFF fiction than ever before with 64% of the books read hitting that category, with the rest split more or less evenly between Middle Grade and Young Adult.
27% of the books read this year were written by authors of colour – more than last year’s 25% so I am pleased with that, but could do so much better. 27% of the books I read featured LGBTQIA characters as protagonists – last year the number was 8% and I had vowed to do better this year, and I did!
And now, without further ado: here is my top 10 of 2017, in no particular order.
10. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
There are multitudes within the pages of Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give, a powerful, heart-wrenching, hopeful, beautiful debut that has made waves in publishing this year and will be a movie (which I can’t wait to see) in 2018. This is an incredibly political, topical, essential book. It’s harrowing in many ways and also so beautiful, because it’s about families (of blood and found) and about community. If you have to read one book from my list, read this one.
Review HERE
9. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Squirrel Girl is one of Marvel’s most powerful superheroines and her comic run is a delight that has given me many hours of joy. When I heard about this Middle Grade novelisation, I was a bit dubious but oh boy, does this deliver. As joyful and as fun as the comics, this is SQ’s origin story perfectly transporting Squirrel Girl from comic to novel and it encapsulates not only Squirrel-Girl-the-superheroine but it also does so in the context of an origin story for kids. It works as a superhero story, as a middle grade novel and as an origin/coming-of-age story.
Review HERE
8. The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley
A SF novel with an unreliable narrator, featuring a lesbian couple at its center and about a brutal, broken world that is against all odds, fixable. It’s a powerful, bloody, dark novel that also manages to be fun and hopeful. I loved it to bits.
Review HERE
7. A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
OK, so. I have been reading this series for years and I was SO happy with how the trilogy ended – because it made the characters happy (well, most of them) and therefore it made me HAPPY because I love these characters and this world SO MUCH – and like I said before, happiness was important to me even more in 2017. Anyone who loves adventure, magic (dark, dark magic), action + consequences, love, romance, did I say adventure and above all, fantastically well drawn characters, should read this series ASAP.
Review HERE
6. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Adorable, romantic, thoughtful, I fell utterly in love with Rishi and Dimple and their love story. A story about love, commitment, finding oneself, family and companionship told with charm and humour.
Review HERE
5. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The AI protagonist – a robot finding itself – of this super awesome novella is Murderbot, hands down the best character voice of the year for me.
Review HERE
4. A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a year with a Frances Hardinge novel published is a year with a Frances Hardinge in my top 10. A young girl finds herself at the center of a family tradition that if followed, would mean losing her very self to the past. Set in one of the bloodiest periods of British history, this novel is a novel of second chances, “for people who usually don’t get them”. There is also a bear who lives inside the protagonist’s mind and there is only one author who could ever make that work and that author is of course, Frances Hardinge.
Review HERE
3. Buried Heart by Kate Elliott
Another trilogy ender that made me SO happy for how all plotlines were revolved. Change, conviction, revolution, love and family are all part of this fantastic YA series by Kate Elliott. Efea will rise! Efea has risen!
Review HERE
2. Jane, Unlimited by
I am utterly baffled by the lack of buzz, lack of coverage for what I consider to be the hidden gem of 2017. I can’t even begin to describe this utterly amazing book but I will try: multiple genres, each chapter a different genre and a different strand of reality, all possible choices our main character Jane could make in one single moment. This is unique, I have never read anything like it and I ADORED IT.
Review HERE
1. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
You may remember what I said last year with regards to the second book in this series, The Obelisk Gate: Another year with a N.K. Jemisin book published, another year with a N.K. Jemisin book as a favourite book of the year. In an incredibly harrowing series, this particular book felt more restrained and personal than its predecessor, but still in an earth-shattering, life-changing, revolutionary way. I don’t think that my heart will cope with book 3.
Well, here we are and it’s book 3 and the end of the trilogy, and my heart was broken into a bazillion pieces but in the best possible way. I consider this book and the entire trilogy not only the best thing Jemisin has written but the best book and trilogy ender published in SFF this year.
Review HERE
Thea’s Most Excellent List:
It’s been a couple of years of diminishing output for me–at least in terms of volume. This year, I’ve reviewed only 50 books, which is my lowest EVER. That said, there were a lot of other things that happened in 2017 to account for that lower amount… and all things considered, I’m really happy with the books I *did* decide to read and review this year.
Like Ana, I am becoming increasingly selective with the books I choose to read and review–I don’t have as much free time, and I try to pick my battles. With that in mind, my 2017 average rating for a book is 7.5, which is pretty damn good. Of the books I reviewed, 34% were written by authors of underrepresented diverse perspectives (authors of color, lgbt identifying, for example). My split for Adult vs YA was even–22 books reviewed of each–with the remainder representation coming from Middle Grade. This was a Fantasy-heavy year for me–surprising, given my more recent years have been focused on science fiction–accounting for 42% of my total reviews. But enough of the statistics. Let’s get into the good stuff, shall we? In descending order, my top 10 books–all written by self-identifying women, I might mention–of 2017 are…
10. Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
A debut novel about a gender-fluid pickpocket in a historical fantasy world, Mask of Shadows was an unexpected delight. Incredibly brutal–Sal is auditioning to become one of the Queen’s jewels, and must literally kill every competitor for the job–yet somehow still hopeful, I loved this book and cannot wait for the next one in the series.
Review HERE
9. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Ah, Laini Taylor. Your writing is imaginative and brutal, enchanting and infuriating in equal measure. Strange the Dreamer follows Lazlo Strange–orphan, librarian, nobody–on a journey to the ends of the world to find a place that has been plucked from the memory of all. There is a love story, a hidden history of gods and slaves, and the souls caught inbetwixt it all. I loved almost every step of this perilous journey, deeply flawed as it may be at times, and cannot recommend it enough.
Review HERE
8. A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas
This is a little bit of a cheat, since my review won’t be up for another few days–but A Conspiracy in Belgravia is worth it. The second novel in romance author Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series, Belgravia follows Charlotte Holmes as she dives deeper into the mystery of Moriarty and his web of agents. DAMN, but this series is good. I was skeptical of yet another Sherlock reboot–do we really need more of them?–and color me delighted to have Sherry Thomas prove me wrong. The answer is YES, yes we really do need Charlotte Holmes, and Mrs. Watson, and Livia in our lives. If you haven’t read this series yet, start with A Study in Scarlet Women and don’t look back.
7. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
A television show binge watching murderbot–that calls itself murderbot–suddenly finds itself responsible for the livelihood of several scientists on an expedition. What could go wrong? Martha Wells has been a Smuggler favorite for years now, and this novella is one of her finest books yet. (Case in point, both Ana and I have it on our top 10 of 2017!)
Review HERE
6. The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
This novel follows two unlikely allies–Lady Amalia, heir to the Cornaro ruling seat atop the council that controls the Raverra Empire, and Zaira, a balefire mage of unprecedented power. After a chance encounter leaves Amalia the falconer to Zaira’s tethered mage, the pair face a formidable plot that threatens the existence of the Empire itself. Nuanced world-building, complicated characters, and a lot of potential for plot development make The Tethered Mage pure awesomeness.
Review HERE
5. Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
With the amount of amazing Star Wars novels coming out each year, I’m amazed that only one made my top 10 list (Phasma was an honorable mention). Claudia Gray is the master of Leia Organa’s voice–a truth I discovered with last year’s outstanding Bloodline. In this novel, Leia is sixteen and ready to accept her role as the heir to Alderaan’s rule; she must undergo three tasks in order to be worthy of the position. This novel is heartbreaking in that we readers know exactly what happens to Alderaan in a few short years; it’s even more profound because of the personal relationships between Leia and her family (her father and especially her mother). Bonus: for those who were curious about Laura Dern’s character in The Last Jedi, read this novel and you will get Holdo’s backstory.
Review HERE
4. Buried Heart by Kate Elliott
OH MY GOD THIS BOOK. The third and final novel in the Court of Fives series by the always astounding Kate Elliott, Buried Heart is everything I wanted–and more–from a concluding volume. With civil war brewing and tensions rising, Jessamy confronts harsh truths about her family, her parents, and her own desires. Nothing is ever as easy or as clear-cut as it may originally seem–Buried Heart is proof of that, over and over again. I loved this book dearly; I loved this series even more. Please do yourself a favor and read it now.
Review HERE
3. Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter
A scientist discovers an anomaly at the end of the universe: something that signifies life, or at least something constructed and not by mankind. To discover the source of the noumenon–that is, an event or object that exists independently of human senses–Earth sends a genetically-selected group of individuals aboard a generation ship. But instead of relying on human procreation through natural means, the population is carefully controlled through cloning. Noumenon is the story of these clones over generations as they make their way through the cosmos to the noumenon, and what they do afterwards. Deeply profound and utterly human, Noumenon is a soul-shaking book.
Review HERE
2. A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
Another joint review on the list! I loved this trilogy deeply for its stellar worldbuilding, its fascination with dark magic, and–most of all–because of its exceptional, empathetic characters. This concluding volume does our Kel, Lila, and the crew right, bringing the tale of the parallel Londons to a dramatic and fitting end. I love this series so much.
Review HERE
1. Forest of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
And the top spot on my list goes to Julie C. Dao’s Forest of a Thousand Lanterns–an eastern asian interpretation of the evil queen’s story from Snow White. A dark fairy tale featuring an epic anti-hero, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is brutal and unflinching, showing us the creation of an evil sorceress queen, one decision after another.
Review HERE.
As with every year, we have a hard time sticking to just one list. Because we’ve read SO MANY AWESOME BOOKS this year, we feel it’s only fair that we give a shoutout to those titles on our Best of 2017 longlist (all of which have been published in 2017). In no particular order:
Ana’s Most Honorable Mentions:
1. Battle Hill Bolero by Daniel José Older, 8 (Urban Fantasy)
2. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, 8 (SF)
3. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, 8 (Paranormal Romance)
4. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey, 9 (Fantasy)
5. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, 9 (Fantasy YA)
6. Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, 8 (SF)
7. Provenance by Ann Leckie, 8 (SF)
8. Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner, 9 (Fantasy, YA)
9. The Long Past and Other Stories by Ginn Hale, 8 (Fantasy)
10. Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns, 8 (SF)
Thea’s Most Honorable Mentions:
1. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, 8 (Fantasy, Historical)
2. The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman, 8 (Historical, YA, SFF)
3. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray, 8 (Science Fiction, YA)
4. Rosemarked by Livia Blackburne, 8 (Fantasy, YA)
5. Weave A Circle Round by Kari Maaren, 8 (Middle Grade, Fantasy/Science Fiction)
6. Goldie Vance by Hope Larson, 8 (Comics, Mystery)
7. Phasma by Deliliah Dawson, 8 (Science Fantasy)
8. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, 7 (Fantasy, YA)
9. No Good Deed by Kara Connolly, 7 (SFF, YA)
10. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas, 8 (Historical, Mystery)
1. Viscera by Gabrielle Squailia, 9 (Fantasy)
2. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, 9 (Fantasy)
3. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett, 9 (Fantasy)
4. Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett, 9 (Fantasy)
5. Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi, 8 (SF)
6. The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones, 9 (Fantasy)
Thea’s Most Excellent Oldies:
1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Science Fiction)
2. Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi, 8 (Science Fiction)
3. The Reader by Stacy Chee, 9 (Fantasy, YA)
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, 8 (Fantasy, MG)
5. Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin, 7 (YA, Fantasy)
And with that we, your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers, close the books on 2017. Bring on 2018 and don’t forget:
Be Excellent to Each Other!
The post The Book Smugglers’ Best Books of 2017 appeared first on The Book Smugglers.
#10: The Book of the Year https://t.co/7cNQm1KPh4
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#6: Magika Swordsman and Summoner Vol. 10 https://t.co/zRe1JAKNsU
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
#9: Eat Well for Less https://t.co/qUhaAEvE3v
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 31, 2017
New post: "Resurrection woman: crime writer revives reputation of the ‘Scottish Jane Austen’" https://t.co/i3bxkMOqx8 Vanessa Thorpe
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Val McDermid hopes to revive the memory of 19th-century author Susan Ferrier
Edinburgh’s eerie gothic past, with its notorious “resurrection me…
#9: Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold (Hogarth Shakespeare) https://t.co/771Wu22ZzA
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Welcome to Smugglivus 2017! Throughout this month, we will have guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2017, looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2018, and more.
For our last Smugglivus post of 2017, we welcome back to the blog Brazilian, author, editor and agent Taissa Reis!
I feel like this is a repeating theme, but 2017 wasn’t easy. I made less money, spent all of my financial reserves, had a major anxiety crisis that kept me from working for a while (and it’s making a comeback just in time for Christmas!) and watched as my country is turning inch by inch in the direction of conservatism in the imminence of the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil. But 2017 for me was also the year of being grateful for other people in my life and, honestly, that was the main thing that held me up through the whole year. We don’t have thanksgiving in Brazil, but Christmas and New Year are the time we take to look back at the year that has passed, so here are the things that kept me at bay in 2017.
I was grateful to work with an amazing business partner and incredible authors in my literary agency, allowing me to have not just presented an writing and publishing workshop for 50 people in November, but also to have published an own voices short story collection about LGBTQIA people with happy Christmas stories.
I was grateful to see friends being extremely happy because they have reached unexpected goals in their lives, such as writing their first comic book, publishing a short story or being nominated for an award. And also for the friends that reached carefully planned and expected goals, such as organizing the first YA convention in Brazil, signing a contract with the publisher of their dreams or launching their book in partnership and as the main product of the biggest comic festival in Brazil.
I was grateful to see friends finishing their first novel and for the ones that are still figuring it out, but keep trying.
ADIVINHA QUEM TERMINOU DE ESCREVER O FIRST DRAFT DO ROMANCE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!
— Sofia Soter ?? (@sofiasoter) October 1, 2017
I was grateful for being able to help support artists I deeply care about (Alliah, Emm Roy, Bogi Takács, Fangirl Happy Hour) and see the difference that just a little money can make in their lives. I was grateful for authors I love getting new book deals and publishing new books.
I was grateful to see real change happening in the SFF and YA market in Brazil, with big publishers and editors looking outside the “box” and publishing more diverse books.
I was grateful for musicians releasing great albums that spoke truly to my heart, and for the people that introduced them to me.
I was grateful for being able to have an amazing community around me, and to see that each and every one of these people are unique and mean the world to me.
No matter how bad things are, we are never truly alone. And I’m grateful for that.
Taissa Reis is a literary agent at Agência Página 7, freelance editor and translator, and master of gifs.
The post Smugglivus 2017: On Other People’s Achievements appeared first on The Book Smugglers.
#1: Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots https://t.co/Eiz7q19x04
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.- Isaac Asimov #quote #quoteoftheday
— Tim Fargo (@tim_fargo) December 30, 2017
"Sell your #cleverness and buy #bewilderment."
— Andrea Zimminger (@ZimmingerAndrea) December 30, 2017
— #Rumi #amwriting #writing http://pic.twitter.com/siKl7gV02E
A poem can find a lost soul on a dark night. http://pic.twitter.com/m0vE1sSDIg
— Realistic Poetry (@RealisticPoetry) December 30, 2017
"I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most."
— Novelicious (@noveliciouss) December 30, 2017
— Margaret Atwood#reading #writing http://pic.twitter.com/FsykVEYb10
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
— Novelicious (@noveliciouss) December 30, 2017
Virginia Woolf #writing #writerslife #writingden #writersblock http://pic.twitter.com/e0eDqdWRBT
Check out The Sea King's Daughter: A Russian Legend by Aaron Shepard https://t.co/peO8FnoMZR via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Illustrated Norse Myths (Usborne Illustrated Story Collections) by Alex Frith https://t.co/pdo3pd2Xaj via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Illustrated Tales of King Arthur (Illustrated Story Collections) by Sarah Courtauld https://t.co/fyV8jScrUJ via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths (Usborne Illustrated S... by various https://t.co/MC1YsjQ61X via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Tales From the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Lov... by Donna Jo Napoli https://t.co/cki2ydl5nH via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Treasury of Norse Mythology: Stories of Intrigue, Trickery, Lov... by Donna Jo Napoli https://t.co/6MER0KHcMg via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddes... by Donna Jo Napoli https://t.co/0rEPn9KN4h via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses... by Donna Jo Napoli https://t.co/KEPPIjdSyq via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition by Robert Graves https://t.co/Yt1uC2QOOk via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings by Kevin Crossley-Holland https://t.co/QrbTFOIm9r via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends (Mammoth Books) by Peter Berresford Ellis https://t.co/L23G4ZAN8p via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman https://t.co/MYXKbLgNL9 via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry https://t.co/28mmWjan1a via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out More Nation's Favourite Poems (Poetry) by Sandi Toksvig https://t.co/Zj6ziktZSZ via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Nation's Favourite: Twentieth Century Poems by Griff Rhys Jones https://t.co/djLBfvWmrG via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Nation's Favourite Poems by Griff Rhys Jones https://t.co/BcLoBcuVJa via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out 100 Best-Loved Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) by Philip Smith https://t.co/xi9JtjTIl9 via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out Penguin's Poems for Life (Penguin Classics) by Laura Barber https://t.co/HXxQolkT3i via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart... by William Sieghart https://t.co/CTatDSAwKL via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out The Everyday Poet: Poems to Live By by Deborah Alma https://t.co/Ub41XYqqzC via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out A Poem for Every Night of the Year by Allie Esiri https://t.co/0F0KbgZh0H via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
Check out A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri https://t.co/zPE4itfYgG via @
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
#1: Siege of Stone: Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles, Volume III https://t.co/OxVI8POp44
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
#10: Mildreds: The Vegetarian Cookbook https://t.co/JPFW7iRNtf
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
#6: Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series) https://t.co/exrVVpza3l
— UK Books (@GreatUKbooks) December 30, 2017
#10: A Modern Way to Cook https://t.co/QP3eoh2uty
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Welcome to Smugglivus 2017! Throughout this month, we will have guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2017, looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2018, and more.
Our next Smugglivus guest is one of our favourite writers, Andrea K. Höst, author of the Touchstone Trilogy which we just had the pleasure of releasing a special paperback edition of!
“Wow! There’s a palm frond floating in the water!”
The smallest things delight in the current generation of games. Footprints! Water you can swim in! The ability to not only hop over tiny walls, but to climb almost anything! We’ve come a long way from Pong.
1. Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Game water used to be a wall, or instant death. Now you can swim, sail, or be ravaged by hippos!
Because I’ve been working on a novel about a virtual reality game, I’ve been over-indulging in games over the past couple of years. I’ll discuss the games later, but first a digression into where games are, and how much further we’d really like them to go.
Most of the games I’ve been playing are the big, free-roaming open world games that attract me with their pretty scenery and exhaust me with their 100+ hour full completion times. Great big, amazing sandboxes…that still have as far to go toward true virtual reality as they’ve come.
Some parts of a true virtual experience simply aren’t yet in play. Taste and smell are not on the board. Touch…well, a little haptic feedback (vibration) is the merest shadow of all that a true virtual experience would be expected to offer.
[I keep saying ‘true virtual’ because we do, of course, already have virtual reality gaming. It’s limited to a sight and sound experience (possibly with some motion if you throw in a lot of extra equipment), and while it adds an immediacy that’s great for horror, it’s frankly an inferior gaming experience to console-and-control games.]Current console/pc games offer a limited, highly artificial experience. But would players truly want to play anything like current games in a true virtual world? Play a mystery game where you could interact with every single object in a crime scene? The blood, the maggots, the gore? Where you’d have to endure any of the environments game characters are regularly thrown into?
Even in comfortable environments, the physical punishment game characters go through would make any sensible player long for the days when computer games were confined to pictures and sound.
But in the current state of game worlds, deliberate unreality is an important factor in game enjoyment. You can push on through a stomach wound, catch yourself one-handed from a twenty foot drop, and run with unrelenting endurance. But what would we – or, at least, I – really want from a true virtual game?
Scale
Open world games are staged over expansive play areas: sandboxes that allow players to wander in any direction, to leave the ‘rails’ of the main plotline and make their own fun – or encounter the carefully crafted fun dotted about waiting for them.
It takes sixteen minutes to ride across Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ Egypt. Fallout 4‘s Boston region is a 41 minute walk, the main continents of The Witcher 3 around 45. In true virtual, it would definitely be tempting to retain this compact world design – or to restrict the play area to make it feasible for everything to be within a short walk or ride.
Either way, we would simply have to retain those spectacular views. Games have evolved to the point where you can look into the distance, and know you can visit that building on the horizon – or all the places in between. So I’d vote for true virtual being a serious foot slog, with plenty of rapid transport options, and countless things to discover on the way.
3. Pyramid surfing a surprise highlight of Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
Living worlds
Every second game I’ve played recently has foliage in four different forms. Trees (some climbable). Painted background/obstacles. Things you can pick for crafting. Hiding places.
4. Horizon: Zero Dawn. Here we see Ubiquitarius Convenientgrassius.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins (the most recently released of all the games I’ve been playing), pleased me by having more than one variety of plant you could hide in, which was a change from the majority of recent open world games, which have had the same plant growing on mountain tops, in deserts, and through lush jungles. Origins gave me the chance to crouch in floral planters – and firmly ignore the fact that I would leave a trodden and very obvious path.
Plant life makes a huge difference to my gaming experience (the sear post-apocalyptic landscape of Fallout 4 was one of the game’s big negatives). I like variety in plants, and I love sunlight effects through long grass. I will frequently stop and play with the camera for ages because I’m admiring the trees.
5. The Witcher 3. This is a crapsack world, but so pretty!
I am, of course, all for more of this in a true virtual environment, at which point I will be able to properly look at these plants and gripe: “This ‘daffodil’ looks like a petunia!”.
Living creatures in game environments have become increasingly sophisticated, and while they are still relatively limited in terms of pathing and activities, it’s hard not to appreciate a flock of birds bursting out of the cover ahead, or dragonflies drifting over water, or cats that run up to you in hopes of a pat.
Whether computer-controlled characters with limited dialogue trees will be at all tolerable in a true virtual world is another matter altogether.
6. Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Someone got to model all those adorable Egyptian cats.
Hell is other people
Almost all the games I’ve been discussing are either single player, or limited co-op games. But true virtual may eventually reach online multiplayer games, and then a whole different world of Do Not Want will open up.
Verbal abuse is already a massive problem in online games, and game developers don’t seem able to moderate it effectively. How attractive will true virtual be if torture and assault are possible? Perhaps online virtual gaming will be restricted to carefully controlled friend lists, or there will be a rise of player reputation based on whether you would really trust them in a virtual environment as consequence-free as many current online games.
My recent open(ish) world games
These are not by any means the most recently released, but in order of least to most enjoyable, these are the games I’ve played in the last couple of years.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
This was not as bad as all the mockery about the animations made it seem, but it was still sub-par on so many levels. Leaving the Milky Way for a Brave New World style settlement in Andromeda, we follow a newly-minted ‘Pathfinder’ whose role is to find solutions to a wide range of settlement and first contact issues (mainly by shooting people and hopping about ancient but surprisingly active ruins).
The main takeaway I took from the game was a strong impression that the Andromeda Initiative recruited on some hidden agenda to rid our galaxy of people with no common sense whatsoever. Or that the Initiative HR people were actively trying to sabotage the Initiative by placing the least suitable people into key roles.
Story and character relationships are one of the big sellers of Bioware games such as the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Unfortunately, the concept of Pathfinder was outright unconvincing, and I didn’t really warm to any of the crew. I still played through the main plot without flagging, but it’s not a game I’d revisit, even if the poor reception hadn’t killed the series outright.
Verdict: Mass Incompetence: Andromeda.
7. Mass Effect: Andromeda: I’ve lost count of the games that present me with dancing nearly-naked women, so it was at least refreshing to see some balance.
Final Fantasy XV
The Final Fantasy series has flagged in the last few years. The three main FFXIII games never really achieved a compelling plot or rewarding character arcs, and combined that lack with frustrating, uninteresting gameplay. FFXV was a big improvement in character and gameplay, but the plot was a muddy, gutted mess, the remnant of someone’s bright idea to split out large parts of the story into later downloadable content, or other media such as movies and comics.
The bare bones of the story were interesting enough – a prince and his three male retainers/friends set out on a road trip on the way to the prince’s long-arranged wedding. But then invasions happen, and the four need to work out what next, renegotiating and firming their friendship while dodging attacks and earning vehicle upgrades.
While the four party members were all distinct, enjoyable characters, FFXV sadly abandoned the long tradition of Final Fantasy games featuring playable female characters. Additionally, the female character you see most frequently is dominated by fan service angles and outfit.
The whole game feels like missed potential: there was a solid foundation, and then a hollow sketch of a conclusion, as if all the emotional impact had been carved away. And perhaps it was: I spent a ton of time in the opening zone(s), and hardly any in the elaborate Venice-inspired city.
8. Final Fantasy XV. Boy band in sky gondala.
I would recommend this game to Final Fantasy stalwarts, but to newcomers to the IP, I would suggest the recent re-release of FFIX instead.
Verdict: Somebody stole my dénouement!
Rise of the Tomb Raider.
I played the original Tomb Raider with my (not-usually-a-gamer) sister, way back on the original PlayStation, and it was just the sort of game I liked. Climbing puzzles! Hidden treasures (and the Ah-ha! sound Lara would make when she found a secret). And Lara, dry and competent and unrelenting. She had stupidly short shorts, but was still more sensibly dressed than many female game characters. The bit I probably liked least was occasionally encountering goon-like bad guys, and having to have shoot-outs, but even that was made entertaining by Lara’s very unlikely dodging animation.
The 2013 reboot was barely Tomb Raider. There were very few tombs involved, and plenty of shooting. And every time Lara died, there were these lingering death porn scenes that were immensely off-putting. Lara spent a lot of time whimpering.
Not to say it was a bad game – just that it had shifted away from the core gameplay and characterisation of the original series. Which meant I was in no hurry for the next release, Rise of the Tomb Raider, picking it up cheap more than a year after it came out.
9. Rise of the Tomb Raider. No short shorts here.
There were more tombs! Most of them were non-essential side possibilities, but they were good and fun tombs. Less whimpering as well, and the death porn scenes had been shortened. One particular disappointment was the limited number of locations. Starting a new zone in the original series, and getting used to the new limits and possibilities, was always a particular treat.
Verdict: Still with the Daddy issues, though.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
The Assassin’s Creed series involves delving into genetic memory to trace the long conflict between the public-protecting Assassins and the rule-the-world Templars. I played the very first entry in the series, released in 2007, but did not finish it, defeated by the repetition of the game structure: go to area, climb towers, synchronise, trail people and kill them, rinse repeat. Since then, there’s been a new game every year, and this is the first one I’ve picked up at release, because it’s set in Egypt (in the Ptolemy era).
10. Assassin’s Creed: Origins: No point stopping to smell the flowers. They’re not interactive.
Origins takes us all the way back to the beginning of the Assassin’s Brotherhood, and focuses on Bayek and Aya, a married couple out for vengeance after the death of their son. Both of these characters have enough passion to make you want them to succeed, although they are of the focused, dedicated type that doesn’t produce the kind of snappy banter that provokes “will follow them to DLC” status.
You play a lot more as Bayek than as Aya (whose sections are more limited and appear less polished, and I could totally have done without the ship battles), and overall the gameplay is well done. The repetitious structure is not quite so prominent, and there’s more personality to sidequests.
But the reason I’m playing this is Egypt. Boating on the Nile. Desecrating pyramids. Gawping at all the monumental statues.
11. Assassin’s Creed: Origins. The first time you climb someone is always special.
I wouldn’t say I really learned all that much about life in Hellenic-controlled Egypt during this game, but I gather there’s going to be a later expansion of the game which is a kind of ‘history mode’, which will treat the world like a living museum. I just enjoyed visiting one of the great African civilisations, and looking at all the scenery.
Verdict: Pretty, with kitties.
Horizon Zero Dawn.
Every other game in this list is part of a long-established IP, but HZD didn’t have a pre-established fanbase. It had robot dinosaurs.
It also had excellent gameplay, an increasingly snark-prone protagonist, and the compelling mystery of who is Aloy, and why are there robot animals everywhere?
The mystery is worth going into without spoilers, and while the graphics did not have the draw distance quality (the amount of detail going out to the horizon) that many other recent AAA (top tier) games have had, it was still very nice to look at, and demanded frequent stops to try to capture some of the pretty.
12. Horizon: Zero Dawn Dawn.
HZD makes a firm effort to be diverse (and my questions about why such small communities seemed to be so genetically varied was actually resolved once I knew more about their background), but some players did raise concerns about primarily white groups seeming to ape Native American forms of dress. The characters themselves cannot know the context: it’s a question for the designers to be respectful about where they draw their inspiration.
I liked Aloy, and would like to see who she becomes. Will she develop actual solid relationships with people, or will she always be the mysterious stranger who saves everyone and moves on? Will she forgive the Nora for the way they treated her and start to consider them ‘home’? I would definitely like the game more if she had a few travelling companions, but even if she’s still in outsider mode I will very likely pick up the next game. At the same time, I didn’t pick up the recent DLC (it looked like a long, pretty sidequest), and I wonder whether the game will lose some of its compelling nature now that we know the reason for the robots. Running around just hunting the rest of the Greek Pantheon, rather than unravelling a mystery, might well be less compelling.
Verdict: Actually has an important mother figure!
The Witcher 3
Astonishingly, I enjoyed this a huge amount. I say astonishing because I’ve rarely encountered a series so thoroughly situated in the fantasy of being the studliest badass around. The first game in the series, The Witcher, was so overtly aimed at heterosexual men that you received an achievement collectible for every woman you had sex with (in the form of a picture of that woman in a post-coital pose). So it was only constant praise from many sources (and a very cheap game of the year edition) that lured me into trying this.
And, truly, The Witcher 3 is one of the best-crafted open world games I’ve encountered. Pleasing gameplay, lovely to look at, and with an expansive (crapsack) world constructed with just the right level of detail to keep drawing you on to the next point and the next.
13. The Witcher 3. Geralt’s habit of attaching the heads of his kills to his horse, Roach’s, saddle made me ever more grateful I couldn’t smell this game.
Based on a series of books, the games revolve around Geralt, one of an order whose members were modified in childhood to give them abilities suitable for fighting monsters. There is a very firm sense of history, of interconnecting and conflicting loyalties. Old friends, enemies and lovers crashing into new priorities, as the powerful but declining schools of witchers are used for political ends.
The Witcher series is frequently accused of being sexist, and the defence I’ve most often seen against the charge is that a game with such strong female characters can’t be sexist. It’s very true that the series has a plethora of powerful women, all with their own aims (and not all of them willing to have sex with Geralt!). It’s also true that by the end of the series, quite a few of those women have been brought low in some way or another (they’re mostly a circle of female mages, who do not fare well when magic is outlawed in one of the major kingdoms).
While a game can have good characters and still be sexist, I think that only the first game falls into this category outright. Once the sex card trophy thing is ditched in the second game, we’re left with several sexist societies, and a focus on the fantasy of being a studly badass whom a large number of women find attractive. But, with the exception of the Bloody Baron plotline, I’d suggest that anyone who had the same reservations about the series as I did can safely skip the first two games, and enjoy this one.
Verdict: C’mon, Roach!
Uncharted: A Thief’s End and A Lost Legacy
I played this twice. That is so impossibly rare for me. But it is so pretty, and so fun.
14. Uncharted: A Thief’s End. Agonising fingertip grips.
I did not follow the Uncharted series until the recent remaster release. When the first game came out (back in 2007), it looked to me very focused on shooting, and I was not overly interested. And it does indeed have quite a bit of shooting. But it turns out the series is pure, focused adventure, with lots of fun climbing puzzles (more than the rebooted Tomb Raider, I’d say), fantastic action sequences, and on-point characterisation.
15. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Bulrushes confusingly growing on mountain tops. Bonus dragonflies!
Uncharted (and The Witcher 3) top this list in part because there is a big focus on character connection. Geralt has extremely complicated relationships with various people. Nathan Drake, and Chloe and Nadine in the Lost Legacy DLC, have complicated buddy relationships. Uncharted, in particular, shines because we often see a pair or group of characters working together, bantering, sniping at each other, and making us care not just about the cool things on the screen, but these people.
If you do decide to pick this up, go through the remaster of the first three games before playing A Thief’s End. There is a lot of emotional payoff that you’ll miss out on otherwise, and the whole series is a true high point in game-delivered storytelling.
Verdict: Indiana Drake.
So that’s my list. There are no big open world games on the horizon that are on my instabuy radar. I will probably check out Anthem, which is a mechasuit game from Bioware that looks rather different from anything they’ve done before. If you’ve any recommendations, I’d love to hear them! I like them pretty, preferably with interesting women, adventure, and a good solid story.
Andrea K Höst was born in Sweden but raised in Australia – mainly in Townsville, Queensland. She now lives in Sydney.
Andrea writes fantasy and science fantasy, and enjoys creating stories set in worlds which slightly skew our social expectations, and most especially give her female characters something more to do than wait for rescue.
Her novel “The Silence of Medair” was a finalist for the 2010 Aurealis Awards for best fantasy novel, while her novel “And All the Stars” was a finalist for both the 2012 Aurealis Awards and 2012 Cybils Awards.
You can catch the latest news from Andrea at her site: andreakhost.com
The post Games of Smugglivus with Andrea K Höst appeared first on The Book Smugglers.
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