The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

6

Really easy to read, I finished it in about 24 hours (I'd say about 8-10 hours solid reading).  A cool dystopian story very similar to Battle Royale (the film).  Enjoyed this quite a bit, I found the pacing to be excellent.

Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

5

I was kinda disappointed with this book, mainly because I'd read some good reviews and comments and so was looking forward to reading it.  The plot was ok, but I found that the characters were unrealistic (just about everyone is super evil to a ridiculous degree), and the world building was lacking quite a bit.  Maybe I'll read the sequel (its reviewed better than this one) but I'm not in a rush to do so.

A Memory of Light - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

4

It was about 10 years ago when I started reading the Wheel of Time, and it feels even longer than that.  Finally the series has been brought to a close and I feel the book was suitably fitting for the end of such a long and epic (in the truest sense of the word) series.  There was not much in the way of build up before the book really got going, that's what the last 13 books were for.  It is pretty much action from start to finish, with a few breaks for everyone to take a breather before plunging right back in.

I don't want to say too much here because I think you really have to have read the past 13 books to understand why this is such a big deal, so I'll just say that I loved it and leave it at that.

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

3

Speaker for the dead is the sequel to Ender's Game (which is one of the best and most well regarded Science Fiction books released).  While it is a sequel it is very different in style and subject, being less plot based and a lot more philosophical and analytical.  Its much more slow paced than Ender's Game, and the events from the first book aren't that important to the story.  Apparently it wasn't written as a sequel originally and was converted into one later.  I did find some of the characters a bit unbelievable, like they were being unreasonable just to ensure that there was some plot later in the book.  I didn't like it anywhere near as much as Ender's Game, but I thought it wasn't bad in the grand scheme of things.

Legion - Brandon Sanderson

2

Legion is a very short (less than 100 pages) novella by one of my favourite authors, Brandon Sanderson.  While he normally writes fantasy, this book is a modern day mystery/thriller about a man whose brain is capable of learning new skills extremely quickly and thoroughly, but handles this by personifying each skill as a hallucination of another person who he talks to in order to gain access to the knowledge in his head.  I finished this book in one evening so its not a challenging read, but it was interesting none the less.  Cost less than £2 on Amazon too so I don't mind that it didn't take long to read.

Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson

1

My first book this year (which also ran over from last year) was Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon.  It's the first book of the massive (10 books) Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which is renowned for being one of the most epic fantasy series ever written, with a scope of an entire planet and 100,000 years of history.  Its also renowned for being complicated and difficult, with little exposition other than what occurs naturally through the story.  I tried to read this quite a few years ago but gave up, but managed to finish it this time round.  I'm glad I did, because the ending is very good and based on what I've heard/read the rest of the series has a dramatic improvement in readability and awesomeness.  I didn't find it that hard to read (compared to what I'd come to expect), but it has left me with many questions and I'm not sure I fully understand what is going on, even one whole book in.  I'm keenly looking forward to reading the next book in the series, but I'll be reading something lighter next to give my brain a rest.

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I came across this website today, which inspired me to start this blog and to go ahead and try to read 52 books this year.  I don't intend to keep to precisely 1 book a week since my schedule probably won't allow this, but my aim is to finish at least 52 books by the end of the year.

I've recently been reading fairly long books so I've got the feeling that I might need to read a few shorter titles in order to succeed, but we'll see how that goes :).

I predominantly read Science Fiction and Fantasy so expect most of the books I read to belong in those genres, but I hope to also branch out somewhat.

Anyway, wish me luck!

Andy