I feel like I need to make posts like this every once in a while (see also my 2015 reading resolutions) to remind myself of all the fantastic looking books I’ve actually paid for, but which are just sitting around, waiting to be read. Revisiting reviews and plot descriptions, and remembering why I bought them in the first place, might encourage me to devote more time to reading instead of the hours of aimless internet browsing I do most days.
So I’ve spent a little time looking over my bookshelves (in reality and on Goodreads), and came up with a small list books of each genre that I really should make time to read. These lists don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the hundreds of unread books I own, but they’re a start. I don’t know whether I’ll read them this year, or the next, or later than that, but at least I’ll be able to look back at this post for some motivation.
First up, 15 intriguing looking fantasy books, listed by author. The only rule I’ve imposed on myself is to focus on books by authors I’ve never read. Some of the following are standalones, and others are the beginnings of series. There’s a theme common to many of them of non-human protagonists (probably my favourite trope in all of genre fiction). Let’s hope they’re all as good as they sound!
The Etched City by KJ Bishop
I think this is the book that I’ve owned the longest on this list. I sought it out almost 10 years ago, when I was looking for other work similar to China Miéville. This book has been compared particularly to Iron Council, in that it also meshes western and New Weird genres. There’s a gunslinger, a surreal city on the edge of a wasteland, and melancholic and literary prose. Sounds pretty nifty. It’s a shame that Bishop hasn’t written a novel since.
Out There Books 