This year I'm unofficially taking part in 50bookchallenge, where the goal is to read at least 50 books in a year. I'm always reading something and almost all of my books are either science fiction or fantasy. I like to read all of the Hugo and Nebula novel nominees, as well as the book recommendations on SFsite.com and anything else that strikes my fancy. So I'm writing this entry, predated December 31st 2008 to keep it on the top of my journal, to post what I've read, a brief synopsis, and what I thought of it. Here goes!

( Entire list under the cut )

Wow. Robert Jordan, best known for his "Wheel of Time" fantasty epic, died today. The series is on its twelfth book and had no major indication that it was close to ending.

I read WoT up through the seventh book and then I gave it up. The first few books were great but then Jordan kept on adding new story threads instead of tying up old ones, ala X files. Plus he added character after character until I just couldn't keep track of them anymore. And I started to get tired of Rand and get irked over how Jordan tended to write women as manipulative, haughty, and controlling.

Still, a damn shame for all those WoT fans still sticking with the series. I don't know what's going to happen with it now. Hopefully Jordan left notes for how he wanted to end the series so someone can pick it up and give it its long overdue ending.

Now that I (finally!) finished, some thoughts on HP and the Deathly Hallows

( And yes, I spoil the entire book! :P )

Well, we've made camping reservations for Yellowstone in the beginning of August. How exciting! We were there several years ago and now we're going to go back with all the camera gear. We may also rent some large lenses for wildlife. I love that park for all the thermal features and waterfalls and gorgeous scenery. We'll be taking the bf's brother and his gf as well.

One caveat - we're going for a week and we're not going to take a cooler. I just think it would be too much of a pain to go get ice every day. We may have cool items on the first day like hot dogs but then it's all room temp, baby! I figure things like PB, instant pasta and rice dishes, and canned chicken and tuna will work just fine. Has anyone done cooler-less camping before and has recommendations for food?

I have a reading recommendation for all Pern lovers. I'm currently reading "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novak. I picked it up because it's in the running for the 2007 Nebula award for best novel. It's an AU set in Europe at the beginning of the 1800s. A British navy captain acquires a dragon egg which hatches and Temeraire, the dragon inside, bonds with him. They're then sent off to serve Britain by flying in battle against Napoleon's dragon forces. It's a great book so far - pick it up if you're in the mood for something like Pern! :)

There are 4 books in the series so far, so it looks like I'll have plenty to read!

I like to keep up on the nominees for the Nebula and Hugo awards because it gives me some new SF to read. I haven't read any of the 10 novels nominated here, can't wait to start!

Nebula nominees: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/004832.html

(In the script category, BSG's "Unfinished Business" is going up against a Dr. Who ep, Howl's Moving Castle, and Batman Begins. IMO, there were stronger scripts for BSG than UB and I will always partially hate that ep for giving fire to the shippy quadrangle of doom, but whatever.)

Hugo nominees: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/004923.html#more

(In the TV show category, BSG's "Downloaded" is going up against three Dr. Who episodes. Oh, and SG1's "200". Yeah, no shit. The SG1 episode that reads like a bad fanfic, is rife with fandom injokes and PTB backpatting to confuse any outsider, and contributes little to nothing to the SF genre as a whole. For shame Hugo, FOR SHAME.)

ETA: That's odd, the Hugo list that I linked has BSG going up against 4 Dr. Who eps and no 200 in sight, while other lists have 200. Hmm...

WOOT! George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice" is going to be turned into a TV series! And on HBO no less! Oh, happy happy day!

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117957532.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1&p=0

Of course, it will probably take forever to adjust it to TV and whatnot so we probably won't see the show for several years at least. Still, it's inspired me to get on over to the library and check out book 4. YAY!

Books

Ian Bank's The Player of Games - Set in Bank's "Culture" scenario, where a progressive, ancient civilization has expanded throughout the universe. The protagonist is a game player who is sent to a backwards world outside of Culture just so he can play their ultimate game. A fun read.

Charles Stross's Accelerando - I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this one. Stross likes to throw tons of science fiction ideas into one book, and it doesn't help that he's a fan of Vinge and his often confusing "technological singularity" concept. This book has aliens, space travel, AIs, the future of the internet, humans uploading themselves into computers, turning into hive minds ala the Borg, and redownloading themselves into whatever bodies or animals they choose, and the deconstruction of the solar system in order to turn the components into processors to "run" the post-humans. The ideas were fascinating, but I found the book as a whole to be quite confusing and the characters hard to empathize with.

Anime

Strawberry Marshmallow - Four cute as hell grade school girls doing cute as hell things. Not overwhelmingly saccharine as to be cloying, with just enough snark from one girl in particular to pleasantly remind me of Azumanga. A wonderful, gentle, quiet anime.

Juuousei - Twin brothers see their prominent parents killed and then are mysteriously shuttled off to a terraformed planet where violence rules, ala Lord of the Flies. Strong plot and characters so far, with pretty, pretty animation thanks to Studio Bones.

Ergo Proxy and Ouran High School Host Club - The fansubs stalled for a while until another fansubbing group picked them up. EP is still awesome, and Ouran is still funny though not as hysterically so as in the beginning.

School Rumble - Now on the second season (semester). Unfortunately, the interesting love triangles introduced in the first season have been pushed to the background in favor of nonstop parodies of Japanese anime, movies, and TV shows. Still fun to watch, but not as compelling.


TV
Six Feet Under - Just finished the third season. Awesome, awesome, awesome. One of the best shows I've seen, period. Wonderfully complex and real characters and a compelling storyline, especially toward the end of this season. I can't stop watching it.

Babylon 5 - Started the fourth season, but have put it on hold in favor of SFU. I'll pick B5 back up once I finish that series.

Update for my huge scifi/fantasy booklist (a mishmash of all the recent Hugo/Nebula novel nominees and other recommendations on Amazon.com) I'm reading this year:

( Click here to see what I've finished and what's still to come )

All in all, I'm making much more progress than I thought. At this rate I figure I'll get through the entire list before the end of the year. :)