I admit, I really lost my momentum on this project after 2019 ended. I eventually got back on track and, with a bit of grim determination, finished.
Here then are the last batch of books I read from this list:
| My Soul to Keep | Due, Tananarive | This was difficult to finish, but not the fault of the writing, which is deft and elegant. Simply, I hated the main male character and couldn’t relate to the religious main female character. Not that she’s religion, but that a huge part of her thoughts and dialogue center around it, which made it extremely difficult for me to connect with her. Utterly refreshing to have immortals who aren’t white — that’s a huge plus. |
| Alanna: The First Adventure | Pierce, Tamara | Great fun! I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. |
| Palimpsest | Valente, Catherynne M. | Lush prose and a fantastically imagined world bring this novel to life. This is an elegant and evocative world. |
| Throne of the Crescent Moon | Ahmed, Saladin | The author struggles to find their voice through much of this novel, but I fell in love with City and it’s tales. |
| The Changeling | Lavalle, Victor | Dark, dark, DARK story. It seemed like a fairy tale, but then went very strange and kind of awful. I’m really not good with stories of children being harmed. |
| The Chronicles of Chrestomanci | Jones, Diana Wynne | A little slow to get started, I ended up liking this tale a lot more than I expected. I’m looking forward to reading more stories in this world. |
| Blood of Elves | Sapkowski, Andrzej | So this is where The Witcher came from. A confusing start, obviously coming from the short stories that came before. Great world, intriguing sub-sub plots. |
| Mistborn | Sanderson, Brandon | Complicated plot; I just could not get interested in the characters |
| Brown Girl in the Ring | Hopkinson, Nalo | A dystopian novel in an unusual setting with a convoluted, interesting, plot. |
| City of Saints and Madmen | Vandermeer, Jeff | I skipped this, not liking the author (based on four novels) |
| City of Stairs | Bennett, Robert Jackson | Not at all interesting. |
| Crown Duel | Smith, Sherwood | Clearly a young adult novel, it did not engage my interest. |
| Crystal Shard | Salvatore, R.A. | I know it’s iconic, but it’s also dated and (sorry) mediocre. |
| My Father’s Dragon | Gannett, Ruth | Charming child’s book with a clever and fun plot. |
| Perdido Street Station | Miéville, China | I was attracted by the steampunk aspect, but the writing was overblown gore porn that lost me within the first couple of chapters. |
| Running With the Demon | Brooks, Terry | I wanted to like this story (which one person described as a kind of prequel to his Shannara series . . . It’s not). In the end, I found it sad and didn’t care to continue the series. |
| Sabriel | Nix, Garth | Another author loved by many, but not by me |
| The Dragonbone Chair | Williams, Tad | An author and book loved by many, but not I |
| Monstress | Liu, Marjorie M. | graphic novel |
| Amulet of Samarkand | Stroud, Jonathan | graphic novel |
| The Blade Itself | Abercrombie, Joe | NOT AVAILABLE |
| Tales of the Dying Earth | Vance, Jack | NOT AVAILABLE |
| Gardens of the Moon | Erikson, Steven | Impenetrable; crazy-making that you apparently need to read at least three books in this series before I begins to tie together. |
| Wizard and Glass | King, Stephen | Super trippy and odd. |
| The Dreamstone | Cherryh, C. J. | Classic fantasy created in a glorious dying world. |