What I read in 2018

 Image courtesy of Goodreads

As we approach the end of another year, it's time to review the books I read in 2017. This year, I read 85 books, one more than the 84 books I read last year.

The average rating for the books I read was 4.07 (out of 5) stars per book, broken down as follows:

• 5 stars - 29 books
• 4 stars - 33 books 
• 3 stars - 23 books 

The 4.07 stars average was a slight increase from the 4.05 stars per book in 2017. It's also the highest average for a year since I started recording my ratings.

This year, I also continued my efforts to read through the books I already own from my TBR list. I managed to read more than my goal of two TBR books per month, finishing 32 in all.

The ratings for these books were as follows:

• 5 stars - 9 books 
• 4 stars - 14 books 
• 3 stars - 9 books 

The average rating for my TBR books was 4.00, lower than the ratings for the other books I read this year. I attribute it (and the reason for a higher average rating in general across all books) to the fact that many of the books I read this year were sequels to books I read and enjoyed in previous years. Since I already had a predisposed bias toward the author or the series that the books belonged to, it was natural that they were rated highly.

Next up, I’ll post my top ten favorite books of 2018. Stay tuned!

2018 holiday sale

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here! What better way to celebrate than with a book sale? Between now and the New Year, most of my e-books will be on sale for 99 cents or FREE on Amazon! Get these titles before prices go back up!

99 CENTS:

Beneath the Earth		All That Remains of Me		Beyond New Eden		Gifted

Transmissions		In the Hands of Children		Keep Your Enemies Close		George and the Galactic Games

A House in the Woods		Protect		Search		Rescue

FREE:

Drive		Through a Tangled Wood		Celestial		Spectral Tales

Happy holidays, and happy reading!

NaNoWriMo 2018 recap

For the fifth year in a row, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and for the second year in a row, I wrote fewer than 50K words in November. In fact, I wrote fewer words than last year's 30K. This year was particularly disappointing because I thought that 20K words was a realistic target, but I didn't even reach that goal. :-(

As you may be able to tell from the chart above, most of my progress came on the weekends. My word count barely budged during the work week. I attribute it to a particularly hectic month at my day job. On top of that, Thanksgiving weekend, usually the time I catch up if I'm falling behind in NaNoWriMo, was also busier than I thought it would be. It all added up to a woeful output of 18,907 words.

Excuses aside, I'm not completely dissatisfied with what I accomplished this month. Adding 18K+ words to my manuscript in 30 days is nothing to sneeze at, and it was more than what I wrote from June to October. My WIP is also now about three quarters complete by my estimation, giving me hope that I'll finish the first draft early next year. Overall, although I didn't make as much progress during NaNoWriMo as I'd liked, it still gave me a much needed boost. For that reason alone, NaNoWriMo was worth doing again this year, even if it meant I didn't receive the shining badge for reaching 50K (or 25K) words.

Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2018

It's almost November, which means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is just around the corner. I've participated in NaNoWriMo the past four years, reaching the 50,000 word count goal my first three years before falling short last year.

This year, I plan to participate again but with a twist. Whereas I had always started working on a new novel for NaNoWriMo, I'm in the midst of a novel now and want to use the event to finish the first draft if I can. It's the thriller that I eluded to back in June, but between June and October, I only wrote 15,000 words. My hope is that NaNoWriMo will be what I need to kick myself in gear.

Last year, I fretted about not being able to write 50,000 words in November, but I'm not worried anymore this year. My day job has gotten even busier this year, and there's less likelihood of my winning NaNoWriMo next month, but last year taught me that I don't need to hit 50,000 words. Just participating is good enough. There's something about NaNoWriMo that gives my writing productivity a boost, and that's what I need right now.

Is anyone else participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

I'm an anti-rainmaker

This post has nothing to do with books or writing, but I thought it'd be interesting to share some random news about me. I think I have a superpower: I can make it not rain wherever I am. I'm an anti-rainmaker.

Let me explain. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we've received little rain for the past ten years, leading to drought conditions. All this time, I thought it was because of global warming or other weather patterns. Then, I had to take a business trip to Houston last week. It had been raining every day in Houston the week before my trip (I know because I was watching the weather in order to prepare), and the meteorologists predicted rain every day I was to be in Houston. I was worried about how the rain would affect my plans.

On the day I arrived in Houston, I was surprised and relieved to find that it wasn't raining. My flight was largely uneventful due to the nice weather. However, the forecast that night was for rain all day long the next day. I woke up to a sunny morning, and it didn't rain at all. The forecast that day called for rain the following day. Again, there was no rain. This pattern of rain in the forecast followed by no actual rain continued for all four days I was in the city. On the day that I left, as my plane was leaving the terminal, it finally rained.

There are probably other explanations for what I experienced, but I like to think that the change in weather from forecasted rain to sunny skies was because of some formerly unknown superpower of mine. It would also explain the lack of rain here in California.

If this is true, then I could use my superpower for lots of good deeds. Planning an outdoor wedding or social event that you don't want to have ruined by rain? Call me. Worried about making that driving trip on slippery, wet roads? The anti-rainmaker can help with that.

Let me know how my anti-rainmaking powers can help you.

I can see why B&N is in trouble

It's no secret that Barnes & Noble is in big trouble. Lower sales, a declining stock, employee layoffs, and CEO troubles have plagued the company. It's a shame to see this once vibrant book chain in the state that it is now. There used to be a Barnes & Noble bookstore in my town, but it closed a few years ago. It was my go-to place to browse and to buy books because of their large selection. Even compared with the new Amazon brick-and-mortar bookstores, I prefer shopping at Barnes & Noble because I can find almost anything I want at B&N, while Amazon's physical bookstore selection is sorely lacking. During my last two experiences with Barnes & Noble though, I can see why it's losing out to Amazon.

The first experience was in store. I went on a weekend afternoon, and the store was empty, of both customers and employees. While I was browsing, I checked their website for a book I wanted to buy and found that it was available at this location. However, when I saw the book on the shelf, the price was significantly higher than the cost on the website. I waited in line and asked the cashier (yes, the cashier, because there was only one working at the time) how I could get the price on their website instead. She referred me to the Customer Service desk. When I arrived at the desk, it was unmanned. I waited over five minutes before someone showed up. I asked my question about price-matching again, and the Customer Service person said I needed to place an order via the website for pickup at the store if I wanted the website price. The reason, he explained, was that the website and physical locations weren't integrated. Big red alert! So I spent more time placing the order from my phone. Did I get the book then? Of course not! It took another twenty minutes for the order to be routed from the website to the store. Finally, after half an hour wasted, I was finally able to get the book I wanted. You can bet I'm never going through that again. If I see that a book is cheaper online than in the store, I'm walking out, even if I already have the book in my hand and am ready to pay for it. Sorry, B&N, that's a lost sale right there.

More recently, I placed an order through the B&N website for four books, this time to be delivered to my home. For some reason, despite ordering all of the books at the same time, B&N shipped one book right away and delayed sending out the rest. There was no indication that the other three books were out of stock, so I don't know why it took so much longer to receive them. If I had known that I would be receiving the books so far apart from each other, I may have chosen different books.

I relay my experiences not to bash Barnes & Noble but to point out a couple of examples of why I understand its decline. It seems that in the two decades that the retailer has had to compete against Amazon, it still hasn't figured out (1) how to integrate its online and physical stores and (2) how to offer an online buying experience as painless as Amazon's. It really is unfortunate because B&N had the time and money to still be the leader in book-selling, but I can see why it continues to lose customers.

Why I love libraries

In the last week and a half, I've seen several articles talking about the value of libraries. It started when the author of a now-retracted Forbes article claimed that we'd be better off if Amazon replaced our local libraries. I'm not going to go into the absurdity of that claim, nor will I reiterate the many good arguments I've read since about why our library tax dollars are worth every penny. (I also won't dive into the many beautiful libraries that can be found around the world, but that would be a nice topic for a future date.) Instead, I wanted to reflect on my own experiences with my local libraries and why I love them so much.

• I owe my love of reading (and writing) in part to libraries. The first public library I remember going to as a child had so many interesting books that I wanted to read them all. I didn't come close to doing it, but I was exposed to a variety of books, many of them great and even classics, and many which I never would have read if not for the library.
• Nowadays, I read one or two books a week. From a purely financial perspective, if not for the library, I'd be broke just from buying books.
• There is no longer a bookstore near where I live. The Barnes & Noble and Borders that used to be in my town closed down years ago. Where does a book lover go to immerse himself in books or to see what the latest releases are if there are no bookstores? The library, of course!
• I don't go to the library just for paper books. At one point or another, I've checked out e-books, audio books, magazines, DVDs, and CDs. Yes, you can satisfy all of your entertainment needs in one place!
• Libraries also have some handy reference materials that you can read there. Among books I've used in the reference section are encyclopedias, study prep books, job aids, and stock guides.
• There have been times when I used the internet at the library when my connection at home wasn't working or wasn't available (back in the days before wi-fi routers). And our library has better wi-fi than Starbucks.
• The library is a quiet place for working, studying, or just relaxing. What other public place can you hang out for hours where the people around you are also quietly working?
• When my kids were younger, we had a family tradition of going to the library every Saturday morning. Sometimes there was story time. Sometimes, the library provided other kid-friendly programs. Even when nothing special was going on, my kids borrowed lots of books and DVDs during their childhood.
• Our library has a summer reading program where you can earn prizes just for reading. Getting rewarded for reading? Sign me up!
• A public library that I used to go to held book sales. I could buy paperbacks for a quarter and hardcover books for a dollar. Those sales have definitely contributed to my current book collection. :-)
• This may be unique to my local library, but it's located next to a large park. There's a room with floor-to-ceiling windows that faces the park, and if I want to relax, I can sit in one of the chairs that face out toward the trees and grass and watch the ducks and geese as I read. There aren't many better ways to spend a weekend morning than that.

The best part is, all of the things I mentioned above are free! So why aren't you taking advantage of your local library?

My favorite series

I recently finished reading Obsidio and Only Human, the final books in the Illuminae Files and Themis Files series, respectively. Both series were great, which got me to thinking about what my all-time favorites are. So I tried to determine that in a somewhat scientific way by going through my Goodreads ratings to determine which series had the highest average ratings across all of the books in the series. There were several (including Illuminae Files and Themis Files) where I rated all of the books 5.0, and some where the average rating was 4.67 or above.

I picked the top ten for the list below, and they are sorted alphabetically by the name of the series. If you're looking for something to read, it can't hurt to start with one of the books below. You can't go wrong with any of them!

• Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor - The writing is beautiful, and the story is creative. Laini Taylor is a master story-teller.
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - How could any favorite series list not include Harry Potter?? Not only did I think the series was great, but these books have influenced reading habits around the world like no other series I know of.
• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Possibly my favorite YA series of all time, and the one that kicked off the YA dystopian wave of the last decade.
• The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - I'm not sure if it's because I just finished it, but of all the series listed here, this might well be my favorite. A must read for everyone!
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - This series is not only the best set of fairy re-tellings I've ever read, they're also really good books.
• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - I'm only counting the first trilogy that tells of Vin's and Elend's story, but from what I've read of the second trilogy so far, I don't expect the quality to suffer.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan - A great series for middle school readers to adults, and my favorite of Rick Riordan's mythology-based MG books.
• Razorland by Ann Aguirre - This was a rare trilogy where, not only were all three books great, but they got better as the series progressed.
• Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry - Even if you don't like zombies, you've got to read this series. This was one of the few series where I wished it wouldn't end because I liked the characters and the universe so much.
• Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel - A great trilogy for sci-fi fans, and if you happen to like giant robots like I do, you'll love it even more.

About that series I was planning to write...

In February of 2017, I posted that I was starting on a new YA Fantasy series. Some of you may be wondering how it's going. (And others of you may be wondering how you stumbled upon this blog in the first place and how you can leave, but that's a different story.)

I spent a good part of last spring and summer working on the first book in the series. I finished about 15,000 words but couldn't get any further. I tried writing a different part of the story line, revising my series outline, and taking a break to write other stories. None of it worked, and I was stuck. I'm still stuck.

The good news is that one of the other stories I wrote instead of working on the series became Beneath the Earth, which was published last month. However, the YA Fantasy series is unfortunately dead in the water for the time being. It's possible that I'll come back to it later, or a better idea for another YA series will come to mind.

I haven't completely given up the idea of writing a series though. I've actually been working on an adult thriller series this year. I've mentioned before that thrillers are my second-favorite genre after YA, and I once wrote a thriller for NaNoWriMo, although it was never published. The thriller series is coming along better so far. I've already completed 20,000 words and hope to finish the first draft this year. If things work out, the first book in the series could see the light of day next year!

Release announcement: Beneath the Earth

I'm excited to announce the release of my newest novel, Beneath the Earth! If you're a fan of "Tremors" or "Jaws" or stories about teenagers who run into something bad while camping, this book is for you!

Description:

Laura and her classmates have been looking forward to their senior camping trip for weeks. Three days on an island paradise, away from school and their parents. What more could they ask for? 

The camping trip starts out well enough. The island is scenic and just the kind of escape to nature that Laura had hoped for. However, cracks soon begin to appear in her plans. Her boyfriend ditches her to hang out with his friends. She has to share a room with one of the teachers. But those are the least of her worries. 

A student disappears, and no one can find him. Soon, Laura and the other students realize that the camping trip is anything but a dream vacation. There’s something else on the island. Something large and frightening. Something that lurks unseen beneath the earth. Something that welcomes the presence of the students because they will satisfy its appetite.  

Beneath the Earth is now available on Amazon for $2.99!

Cover reveal: Beneath the Earth

I'm getting ready to release a new book! It will be called Beneath the Earth, and I'm excited to show off the cover for it.

Description:

Laura and her classmates have been looking forward to their senior camping trip for weeks. Three days on an island paradise, away from school and their parents. What more could they ask for? 

The camping trip starts out well enough. The island is scenic and just the kind of escape to nature that Laura had hoped for. However, cracks soon begin to appear in her plans. Her boyfriend ditches her to hang out with his friends. She has to share a room with one of the teachers. But those are the least of her worries. 

A student disappears, and no one can find him. Soon, Laura and the other students realize that the camping trip is anything but a dream vacation. There’s something else on the island. Something large and frightening. Something that lurks unseen beneath the earth. Something that welcomes the presence of the students because they will satisfy its appetite.  

Beneath the Earth will be available in a few weeks!

Writing better female characters

 A few weeks ago, I started writing a thriller because thrillers are my second favorite genre to read (after YA speculative fiction). I was pretty stoked to dive into a new genre. Then I heard about the Stanch Book Prize, which is awarded to the best thriller in which "no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered." I'm not eyeing a Staunch Book Prize, but I thought that was a great thing to recognize because it does seem like every thriller I've read includes harm to women. Looking at the story I'm writing, though, it wouldn't qualify for the Staunch. I was going to follow the same tropes that I've read over and over again, and I was perpetuating the theme in the thriller genre of women as targets to be beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped, or murdered. Now I'm trying to figure out how to tell the story I wanted to tell without including those elements. I honestly don't know if I'll be able to meet the Staunch criteria, but I won't be treating my female victims differently than how I would treat male victims.

Shortly afterwards, I read Kameron Hurley's essay, "We Have Always Fought." (I urge everyone to read it. It's short. I'll wait for you.) It talks about what I had been thinking after learning of the Staunch Book Prize. It's easy to believe something if what you read and what you see on TV portrays it that way, even if it's not the truth. As Ms. Hurley says in her essay, "Populating a world with men, with male heroes, male people, and their 'women cattle and slaves' is a political act. You are making a conscious choice to erase half the world. As storytellers, there are more interesting choices we can make."

Finally, to top it off, I learned of the recent meme asking women authors to describe themselves as a male author would. If that didn't drive the point home, how about some examples of how male authors would have described their male characters the way they describe women?

As an author, I write primarily to entertain, especially for readers like myself who would enjoy the types of stories I enjoy reading. However, the longer I've been at it, and the older I've grown, the more I've become aware of the responsibilities of my writing. My words will be read by people I don't know and impact them in a way that's out of my control. I don't get to sit down and explain to them what I really believe or what I really meant by my stories.

YA happens to be a genre with many strong female protagonists, and by writing in that genre, it has made it easier for me to have strong female protagonists in my books. Yet, in reflecting on my own works, I see that I've still been lazy in following some gender stereotypes. Take my Driver series, for example. The protagonist is a teenage girl named Claire, and when I wrote the series, I made sure that she was the one in charge of what happens in the stories. Claire was the agent; she was not a passive bystander or just some guy's love interest or sidekick. Hopefully, I've succeeded in that. However, why is she the Driver? Why is a boy her Protector? There are two Drivers who figure prominently in the series, and they are both women. Their Protectors are both men. I imagined a world in which Drivers can be female or male (or non-binary), and the same goes with Protectors, but what I wrote doesn't support that. I should've done better.

The more I read in my favorite genres and the more I read about gender equality, the more I'm learning about what a true strong female character is like, and the kind of world they should inhabit. Authors have the advantage of not just writing to reflect the real world, but to create our own worlds to perpetuate the themes we want others to believe in. If enough stories are out there that portray women and men equally, maybe that will be the default thinking one day. I, for one, plan to work harder to do that in my stories.

National Chinchilla Day Sale

Some holidays don't get enough recognition: National Hat Day, Waffle Day, World UFO Day, and National Chinchilla Day, to name a few. I want to rectify that in a small way by celebrating National Chinchilla Day, which falls on March 23. And what better way to celebrate than by having a book sale! (Book sales make everything better!)

From now through the end of the weekend, YA author M.A. George and I are holding a National Chinchilla Day Sale. You can get all of her books and most of mine for the low, chinchilla-sized price of 99 cents, or in some cases, for FREE! Don't miss these savings. The chinchillas in your life will thank you.

Check out some of the titles available for sale:

    

Make sure to head over to M.A. George's site and check out her books as well. You won't be disappointed! Not only is she an awesome author, but her book covers are much prettier than mine!

A Spoonful of Stories recap

26 months ago, I got this crazy idea to write 26 flash fiction stories, each titled after a letter of the alphabet. I would publish one story each month over the course of 26 months until I got from A to Z.

Believe it or not, it actually happened. I'm happy to announce that all 26 stories are available to read for FREE on Wattpad! Check out "A Spoonful of Stories" here.

Table of Contents:

• An Armful of Armadillos
• A Batch of Bugs
• A Cornucopia of Candy
• A Deluge of Demons
• An Excess of Emotions
• A Flurry of Footsteps
• The Gift of Giving
• A Horde of Horses
• An Icon of Incorruptibility
• A Jar of Jokes
• A Kettle of Kimchi
• A Labor of Love
• A Multitude of Mothers
• A Nexus of Nonsense
• An Offering to the Ocean
• A Pile of Parachutes
• The Quest for Quiet
• A River of Rain
• A Smidgen of Sorcery
• Towers of Turtles
• An Unprofitable Unicorn
• The Village of Vampires
• A Wealth of Weekends
• Xeniatrophobia on Xmas
• A Year of Youth
• A Zest for Zombies

Happy reading!

NaNoWriSat

You're probably familiar with NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Every November, authors attempt to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I attempted NaNoWriMo last year but didn't hit the 50K mark. However, in examining my writing habits that month, I found I wrote a lot more during the weekends than the weekdays, particularly on Saturdays. This makes sense since I work a full-time job during the week. It led to me thinking how I can incorporate a realistic yet productive writing routine into my hectic life.

Which led me to NaNoWriSat: National Novel Writing Saturdays! The name is clearly borrowed from NaNoWriMo, and it's not a national phenomena (yet), but the idea is that, within a year, I should be able to write a 50,000 word novel by writing only on Saturdays. That's about 1,000 words every Saturday, which is certainly a realistic goal for me.

Considering how little I wrote last year before NaNoWriMo, I think this will be a good way for me to continue to produce more new books on a regular basis. I'm getting a late start to NaNoWriSat this year because it's already February, so I'd better go catch up!

Between awake and asleep

There is a state between being fully awake and being asleep that kicks my brain into overdrive. It happens at night when I'm in bed but haven't fallen asleep yet or first thing in the morning when I've just woken up. If I'm thinking about a story at that time, I'll come up with lots of great ideas for it. If I'm thinking about work (which is more often the case), it helps me figure out what I need to do for the projects I'm working on.

What is it about this state of mind that fuels creativity? As it turns out, when I did some research on it, there is a word for the period between awake and asleep: hypnagogia. It's also known that hypnagogia is wonderful for creativity. From my experience, it's true that during this state, my mind wanders all over the place, making associations that I wouldn't normally make when I'm fully awake. I think those associations are more freely made because whatever mental filters I have in place during the day have come down, allowing me to think along unconventional lines. What also facilitates creativity during hypnagogia is just the lack of distractions. During the day, I'm constantly aware of my surroundings and trying to multi-task. But when I'm falling asleep or just waking up, the environment is quiet. The reason why I believe distractions play a part is that if I'm falling asleep when there are things happening around me, I don't enter that creative state. I just go from awake to asleep or vice versa.

Here is an article that teaches you how to enter hypnagogia. I haven't tried the suggestions yet, but I prefer doing it the old-fashioned way. Just give me more opportunities to sleep!

Favorite reads of 2017

It's time again to reveal my favorite reads of last year! These were the top ten books I read in 2017.

1. Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof
Illuminae was my favorite read of 2016, and its sequel lived up to the high expectations I had for it. Gemina was every bit as good as its predecessor. Despite featuring a new set of protagonists, the novel's blend of action, sci-fi story line, and unique format made it my favorite read of 2017. I can't wait for the third book in the series!

2. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Last year, I finished reading the remaining Rainbow Rowell books that I hadn't already read, and Fangirl was my favorite. This book shows why Ms. Rowell has become one of my favorite authors. I love the way she writes characters and dialogue. I wish I had half her skills. Even a quarter would be nice. She can turn mundane activities into the most interesting stories in the world. I can't believe it took me so long to finally read her books. Don't make the same mistake that I did. Read Rainbow Rowell now!

3. Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor is another author whose writing skills I can't hope to ever match. The first chapter of Strange the Dreamer read like poetry, and the rest of the book was just as good. I loved the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series, and this book is just as good, if not better! This is another book where I can't wait for the sequel.

 4. Heartless - Marissa Meyer
With the Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer showed that she can write great fairy tale re-tellings. Heartless continues the trend with the origin story of the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The way Meyer sprinkled Lewis Carroll's work into her own was masterful. There's also some Edgar Allan Poe added for good measure. I'll never look at the ill-tempered queen the same way again.

5. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel
Giant robot meets unconventional storytelling format? Where do I sign up? I found the plot of Sleeping Giants to be engaging and fast-moving, and I was surprised by how much I was drawn toward the characters, given how little the book describes them.

6. Eliza and Her Monsters - Francesca Zappia
Interestingly, this is the second YA story about fandoms (after Fangirl) on my list this year. I had a feeling I was going to like this book from the description and reviews, and it sucked me right in from the beginning. The writing was engaging, and the characters were interesting. The last part of the book was a bit bumpy for me, but overall, I really liked it. I need to check out more of Francesca Zappia's writing.

7. Traitor's Masque - Kenley Davidson
This retelling of the Cinderella story mixes fairy tale with political intrigue. Sabotaging the crown is a common enough trope in fantasy books, but I haven't seen it applied to the Cinderella story. Overall, the author pulls it off well. The characters are flawed but sympathetic, and the prose flows . If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, this novel is for you.

8. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
Last year, I read the Mistborn series and loved it. In 2017, I started the second Mistborn series. I have to give Brandon Sanderson credit for having the vision to write a sequel that takes place hundreds of years after its predecessor, where the world has progressed to a very different state. The characters from the first Mistborn series have passed into history as religious icons, but allomancy and feruchemy are still alive and well. The protagonist of The Alloy of Law, Waxillium Ladrian, reminds me of Kelsier, and Wayne and Marasi are likeable companions. If there's any complaint about this book, it's that I wished Marasi played a bigger role rather than just as a damsel in distress. I'm hoping this will be addressed in the later books of the series, which I definitely plan to read.

9. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel
The second book of The Themis Files was almost as good as the first. Waking Gods was bleaker than Sleeping Giants, which didn't suit my taste, and some of the wonder of giant robots wore off after for me, but this was still a really good book. I recommend The Themis Files to fans of sci-fi and giant robots.

10. Half a King - Joe Abercrombie
This was the first Joe Abercrombie book I've read, and it convinced me that I need to read more of his books. Half a King was fast paced, with an action-filled plot, complete with mysteries and twists. The events of this book would have spanned over 500 pages or multiple books in the hands of other fantasy authors, and I'm very pleased that Mr. Abercrombie trimmed the unnecessary fat to produce an engaging story in 300+ pages.