The best SFF published in 2015...in your opinion

Roxxsmom

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I'm reading Updraft by Fran Wilde right now. It's really different, and she definitely doesn't info dump with the world building. Lots of mystery about why in the heck the world consists of a bunch of bone towers that seem to have no bottoms below the clouds, and where the ground is and why no one seems to ever see it (and why are the clouds so scary anyway). This makes sense, since the pov character wouldn't be aware of things that are absent from her world and just takes the way her world is for granted. I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing the setting, and what the people look like overall (I'm imagining them as white folks, because some of them have blond hair and/or blue eyes, and there are descriptions of people turning pallid) but the culture seems pretty from scratch. But I'm wondering if they might be built differently than we are, or not entirely human, since they fly with these strapped on wings (so maybe gravity works differently in their world or something).

I'll be irked if the answers to some of these questions don't materialize by the end, though, because I really want to know what's below the clouds and why these bone towers grow from there. It's an imaginative book, and nicely written for a debut novel (I think it's a debut), but it's right on the cusp for me of being so fanciful I almost have trouble relating to what the central conflict looks to be shaping up as. We'll see.

I'd definitely recommend it to people who are tired of fantasy set in worlds that resemble a set historical time or place from our own, though. I'll know if I think it's for sure hugo-worthy by the end.
 
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Am reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik. My, it's good.

It really is. One of the best things I read from 2015. Up there with The Library At Mount Char.

Also loved all three of the Anne Leckie Ancillary books.
 

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I'm still not sure I'd call Updraft fantasy; I think it's post apocalyptic SF, me. And yes, it's good.

There's a short story in the same universe up at Tor.com, and the sequel Cloudbound is available for preorder.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765377853/?tag=absowrit-20
 
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Roxxsmom

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I'm still not sure I'd call Updraft fantasy; I think it's post apocalyptic SF, me. And yes, it's good.

There's a short story in the same universe up at Tor.com, and the sequel Cloudbound is available for preorder.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765377853/?tag=absowrit-20

It's very interesting book, and the writing was crisp, tight, and very readable. It felt like fantasy to me because of the invisibility of the flying monsters and the way people are able to use singing in various ways (including as a weapon), plus the bone towers seem kind of magical. Though maybe they're alien organisms of some kind, or engineered? I think this shows, though, how speculative fiction can be hard to classify sometimes. I went in expecting fantasy, so that's how I framed things.

It's really a fascinatingly different kind of world, one I'd like to learn more about in the future.

Am reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik. My, it's good.

I really liked it too. I'd read a couple of her Temeraire books and enjoyed them, but I think this one is even better.

I just discovered the Lady Trent "dragon" books too. The first one came out in 2013, I believe, but the second (or was it the third) one in the series was published in 2015. I've actually been enjoying the voice and Victorian sensibilities told in the guise of a memoir (and that's not usually my kind of thing).
 
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The Ancillary books by Ann Leckie. At least one of those got to have been published in 2015, I am sure. Best sci-fi I ever read.
 

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I finished The Library at Mount Char last night around 3 a.m. I usually find one book a year that really drags me in and doesn't let go, and Mount Char was that book for me this year. There were several moments I just stopped to stare at it, thinking, "What IS this?" For a debut novel, Hawkins pulls off a lot of a fancy footwork, things I've seen many writers try and trip over, myself included. For the first few chapters, I didn't know what on Earth was happening plotwise outside the most immediate, "Oh, I guess she's talking to a stranger in a bar now?" but I didn't care. The way Hawkins wrote made even the mundane details fascinating, and it helped that each PoV had an impressively distinct voice. This is definitely getting shelved with the five stars.
 

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I finished The Library at Mount Char last night around 3 a.m. I usually find one book a year that really drags me in and doesn't let go, and Mount Char was that book for me this year. There were several moments I just stopped to stare at it, thinking, "What IS this?" For a debut novel, Hawkins pulls off a lot of a fancy footwork, things I've seen many writers try and trip over, myself included. For the first few chapters, I didn't know what on Earth was happening plotwise outside the most immediate, "Oh, I guess she's talking to a stranger in a bar now?" but I didn't care. The way Hawkins wrote made even the mundane details fascinating, and it helped that each PoV had an impressively distinct voice. This is definitely getting shelved with the five stars.

I loved it. It's been a great book to buy for picky readers, too.
 

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I loved it. It's been a great book to buy for picky readers, too.

It really is, Hawkins does a lot of things well. I laughed often, found myself thoroughly creeped out several times, and a fascinating weirdness ran through the whole story in general.
 

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It really is, Hawkins does a lot of things well. I laughed often, found myself thoroughly creeped out several times, and a fascinating weirdness ran through the whole story in general.

I'm going to re-read it this fall, probably in October.

Just before I do my annual re-read of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.
 

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I'm going to re-read it this fall, probably in October.

It's a good fall book.

Just before I do my annual re-read of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

Now there's a book I haven't read since university. Maybe I'll have to re-read it myself, now that you've got me thinking about it.
 

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It's a good fall book.



Now there's a book I haven't read since university. Maybe I'll have to re-read it myself, now that you've got me thinking about it.

SGGK is one of my favorite things to read, ever. It's the central text of my dissertation, even.

There's a really good annotated edition from Andrews and Waldron, if you want the original (it includes a CD-ROM with a literal translation). But Marie Boroff's translation isn't bad at all, and there's a Norton Critical Edition of it.

And if you want a poetic translation, Tolkien's is super, and includes Sir Orfeo, another of my favorites.
 

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I finished The Library at Mount Char last night around 3 a.m. ...snip... This is definitely getting shelved with the five stars.

Good morning to you too! :) Glad you liked it, and thanks. Thanks also to Lisa for the heads-up.

I recently read one called The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis that I thought was fantastic. It was kind of a western / thriller / SFF mashup--hard to categorize, but brilliantly written. It didn't come out in the states until a couple of months ago, but I believe it was published in the U.K. in 2015 (and thus technically qualifies for this thread). It might have been a tad too dark for some tastes, but I loved it.
 

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Good morning to you too! :) Glad you liked it, and thanks. Thanks also to Lisa for the heads-up.

I recently read one called The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis that I thought was fantastic. It was kind of a western / thriller / SFF mashup--hard to categorize, but brilliantly written. It didn't come out in the states until a couple of months ago, but I believe it was published in the U.K. in 2015 (and thus technically qualifies for this thread). It might have been a tad too dark for some tastes, but I loved it.

Going right now to check out The Wolf Road.