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I never did give the full list. Here it is:
1. The Root: Na'amen Gobert Tilahun: One of the most original sff books I've read recently. First in series, and I have the second. 2020: Still true, both parts. Need to read the second and see if the third's out.
2. The Last Sun: K. D. Edwards:I've described this as like Brust's Vlad books, but way gayer, which does both an injustice, of course. I immediately wanted the next one after finishing this, but had to wait a while. Content warning: sexual abuse in some characters' backstories.
3. A&E #218: Alarums & Excursions, an rpg gaming apa I follow and contribute to.
4. Any Old Diamonds: K. J. Charles: m/m with snark, heists, and twists, as well as a nod to her Sins of the Cities trilogy.
5-8. Return to Labyrinth volumes 1-4: Manga sequel to the film. I special ordered and read it for a larp I was in and was happily astonished at how good it is. I can't guarantee any given Labyrinth fan will be as happy with it, but I loved these dense, magical books. (I also took the opportunity to rewatch the film and was surprised at how fast it moves.)
9. A&E #519
10. Legacy of Arrius Lurca (reread): Oscar Rios: Oscar Rios: Call of Cthulhu campaign set in the Roman Empire. 2020: Currently doing the first editorial pass for the revised and expanded 7th edition version.
11. Fangirl: Rainbow Rowell
12. Carry On: Rainbow Rowell
These are all in dialogue with the Harry Potter books, though in different ways. The first is set in close enough to our world and is about a woman who writes fan fiction and her first year or so at college. The second is an alternate universe -- by which I mean this universe -- version of the work which inspired the fan fiction from the first book. I enjoyed them and will probably read Wayward Son, which is the sequel to Carry On, at some point.
13. In Other Lands: Sarah Rees Brennan: My description was: Imagine if Harry Potter had joined Slytherin instead of Gryddindor and then proceded to explain what everyone was doing wrong, but that's not quite accurate, and the folks I pushed this book on pointed out. There are some things I kinda wish went in different directions, but on the whole, I liked this.
14. School for Scandal: Sheldon: We've been doing some group play reading, and I'm counting these, as I am literally reading along as other folks read and doing cold readings when it's my turn.
15. A Blade So Black: L. L. McKinney: YA urban fantasy with a Black protagonist and a curtsy to Lewis Carroll. First in a series. What I liked best was the grounding in our world. It's not essential to urban fantasy -- it's often good enough for me if the author doesn't get it wrong -- but it's very satisfying, even if often painful, when it's done right. There's a good review of it on Tor.com (https://www.tor.com/2018/09/26/book-reviews-a-blade-so-black-by-l-l-mckinney/).
16. Dinosaur Princesses: Child-friendly RPG where all the characters are dinosaurs and princesses too.
17. Black Butler #27: One of the manga I follow.
18. Prism: RPG that covers a lot of ground in a small space while leaving plenty of space for creativity. I want to play this.
19. A&E #520
20. The Complex draft (ArcDream)
21. Control Group draft (ArcDream)
22. Riding the Northbound draft: Oscar Rios
Editing lovely, lovely material. The Complex is a detailed sourcebook for what Kenneth Hite calls the best setting of all time, the real world, for Delta Green, while Control Group has lovely, lethal scenarios. My favorite is probably "Sick Again", followed closely by "BLACKSAT". Riding the Northbound started as an essay on playing hoboes, tramps, and bums in Call of Cthulhu. Then there was an unpublished proof of concept scenario, almost a joke, and I was lucky enough to get to play in it. (My character didn't survive.) This is the expanded version of the essay and scenario.
23. Good Society RPG: Haley Gordon and Vee Hendro, art by Raven Warren: Essentially the Jane Austen RPG, with a solid structure, including epistolary phases, no random elements, and high consent mechanics. As of when I am typing this in 2020 May, I have played this game twice online and once at a convention, full campaigns, and am about to be in a different online campaign. I've yet to play the base version of the game. (I've been in 2 1/2 Tolstoy hacks, which are 95% of the same mechanics (just 2 new character types) and a change in country, and one test of the Fae Court supplement). It is very well written and ups the bar for online support of RPGs. (2020 September: I've played online once or twice more, and still haven't played the base version of the game.)
24. North Step Station Season 1: Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen: Really good. I need to catch up on Season 2.
25. Good Society add ons: Pride, Prejudice, & Practical Magics; Sense, Sensibility, & Swordsmanship; The Gentry's Guide to Mixing Swordsmanship and Magics: These are great. S, S, & S adds a Rooftop Phase for masked vigilantes (and others) to brood or battle on the heights. Rooftop Phase!
26. The Stars Change: Mary Anne Mohanraj: It took me a while to read this because my tablet had some issue with kindle books. I'm still not sure why. I love this book, and not just because of an unexpected Tuckerization of a woman I knew. (I wouldn't be surprised to learn I missed other Tuckerizations.)
27. Abbott: Saladin Ahmed, art Sami Kiveli, colors Jason Wardie, letters Jim Campbell: I bought this when it was up for a Hugo for Best Graphic Story. I knew I'd like it, and I was right. If there is a sequel to this, I want to know.
28. Labyrinth: Coronation: Book One: The first of three parts of a prequel to Labyrinth. Well done and in color, though I confess I liked the sequel manga series more.
29. Good Society Larp Rules: These seem solid. I've not yet seen them in play.
30. A&E #521
31. Spinning Silver: Naomi Novik: I did not care for Uprooted, and I'm hard pressed to say why. It had many things I liked, including a solid friendship between two women. This one, though, I loved.
32. Miss Subways: David Duchovny: Plays with the myths of NYC and of Emer and Cuchulain.
33. Occam's Razor draft: Brian M. Sammons: Call of Cthulhu is a game where, occasionally, the PCs should find out that there's nothing supernatural going on. I can think of about two scenarios written that way, but there will soon be a book of seven such scenarios. And, while a mythos explanation is provided in case GMs want to use it, I tell you, most of these are scarier without a supernatural element.
34. Companion's Tale: Laura Simpson
35. Star-Crossed: Alex Roberts
Two solid games I want to play, both, like Prism, covering a lot of ground with relatively few words.
36. A&E #522
37. Blanca & Roja: Anne-Marie McLemore: A very odd, very beautiful reworking of the story of Snow White and Rose Red.
38. Circe: Madeleine Miller: A retelling of Greek myths, well done, though not to my taste.
39. Study in Emerald (graphic novel): I loved the original story, and I loved this. Perhaps some day, I'll figure out how to run an RPG set in this world.
40. Imposter Syndrome: Mishell Baker: The third in her Arcadia Project series. I liked the first two; unsurprisingly, I liked this one as well.
41. The Black God's Drum: P. Djeli Clark
42. The Tea Master and the Detective: Aliette de Boddard
Two novellas I knew I'd like, and I did.
43. All Systems Red: Martha Wells
44. Artificial Condition: Martha Wells
Okay, the first sentence of the first Murderbot novella won me over, and it got better from there. I now have two more novellas and the novel to read.
45. A&E #523
46. Temper: Nicky Draves: This blew me away. It's amazingly good. Read it.
47. Middlegame: Seanan McGuire: I am not convinced it is the best thing she'll ever write, but it's her best to date. I wondered if the imaginary book she quotes from would be written, and discovered that I had asked the wrong question. I should have asked if it would be published. Fortunately, the answer is yes.
48. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach: Kelly Robson: There are books you understand why people like; they're just not to your taste. There are books that you don't get why others like, which is the category this fell into for me, and in this case, I'm fairly sure I'm missing something. Maybe if I reread it in a couple of years, I'll figure it out.
49. Trail of Lightning: Rebecca Roanhorse: Another case where I knew I'd like the book. I need to read the second one. 2020: Yep, still need to read second book.
50: Labyrinth: Coronation: Book 2
51. Binti: Nnedi Okorafor
52. Binti: Home: Nnedi Okorafor
53. Binti: The Night Masquerade
I liked the first one the best. I expect the others will grow on me on the reread, when I'm not expecting them to be -- I don't know, probably more like the first one? This has happened before -- I've read standalones and sequels that I enjoyed far more on the second read when I wasn't trying to make them into my idea of what the book should be instead of what the book was. Fr'ex, when I first tried to read Tim Powers's Drawing of the Dark, I bounced off it for the exact reasons I liked it when I tried it again years later -- it wasn't your typical fantasy. I liked Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's The Fall of the Kings much better the second time when I wasn't trying to make it into a reprise of Swordspoint. I picked up the Binti omnibus, which has an extra short story in it that I've not yet read.
54. A&E #524
55. 2019 Hugo Short Stories and Novelettes: I consider these together the equivalent of a novel. 12 items. Only 2 that I disliked, and that had to do with my taste, not the writing. "The Thing About Ghost Stories" (not one of the two) got thoroughly under my skin for reasons which won't surprise anyone who knows me and has read the story. "If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" was delightful.
56. A&E #525
57. Fate of Cthulhu Backers' Preview: I participated in the alpha and beta playtests of this game. I think this version (basically, the published version, sans art) is even better, and I want to run it to find out. 2020: I got to play in a 4 part game of it at Online Gen Con, and I loved it. I think I understand the parts that I was shaky on before -- what the GM does and doesn't share of the timeline and how the whole timeline ripple business works.
58. Hither, Page: Cat Sebastian
59. A Little Light Mischief: Cat Sebastian
M/M and F/F historical romances respectively, both enjoyable.
60. Fair's Point: Melissa Scott: The fourth of the Astreiant books, urban fantasy mystery in a world with Renaissance-ish tech (i.e., my knowledge of what tech existed when in our world is weak) and magic (astrology works and everyone knows it). Has a different pace that I like, leisurely, but not dragging.
61. A&E #526
62. Desdemona and the Deep: C. S. E. Cooney: I've described this as "kinda like a Patricia McKillip book if McKillip were drunk on champagne" because both authors are writing amazingly good fantasy works and both have language I happily lose myself in. Come to think of it, both authors celebrate the ordinary in the fantastic. I clearly need to read more Cooney.
63. Night and Silence: Seanan McGuire
63a. Suffer a Sea Change: Seanan McGuire
I tend to count novellas as their own thing, but apparently, in 2019, I counted the ones in Seanan's books as "part a". I recall I said, "Oh. Oh!" a lot as one shoe after another dropped. Part of the Toby Daye series.
64. A Gathering Storm: Joanna Chambers: Light m/m.
65. Gideon the Ninth: Tamsyn Muir: Lesbian necromancers exploring a gothic palace in space. A warped Westing Game-like tale. Snark. Skulls. Sunglasses. Is it second book o'clock yet? No? Now? 2020: I've now read the 2nd book. Is it third book o'clock yet?
66. Magic for Liars: Sarah Gailey: Very well done, but not to my taste, I think because of where the focus is at the end. This is NOT a criticism of the mystery or its solution, which were very satisfactory, nor about the world itself. Note, though, I'd read a sequel.
67. Red Carnations on a Black Grave: Catherine Ramen et alia (draft): Inspired by games like Montsegur 1244 (which is free online in etext) and Ten Candles (which I've not played yet), this is about people in the Paris Commune. History will not be changed, and it is understood going in that everyone has two characters, one of whom will die. Very well done, but be aware that this is often a high bleed game.
68. The Rat-Catcher's Daughter and The Price of Meat: K. J. Charles: More light reading, for, ah, certain definitions of light.
69. Tails of Valor (near final): Three Call of Cthulhu scenarios where the player characters are all cats, along with information about the cat council of Kingsport.
70. The Unkindest Tide: Seanan McGuire
70a. Hope Is Swift: Seanan McGuire
Currently the latest Toby Daye book, though not for much longer, resolves a number of things and raises a question in my mind. 2020: Okay, there's now one more book in the series, and it's in a stack to my left.
71. Labyrinth: Coronation: Book Three
72. Loki: Where Mischief Lies: Mackenzi Lee: mneme didn't finish this one, bouncing off, among other reasons, because the attitude the Asgardians displayed toward magic didn't seem to him to fit what he'd seen from Marvel. I managed to finish it, but was disappointed because it didn't fit with what I've seen of how Odin operates, and this could have been fixed very easily. I should probably rewatch the Thor movies to make sure what I remember is what I think I remember.
73. Monstress #4: Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: Beautiful and monstrous, as always.
74. Gods of Jade and Shadow: Sylvia Moreno-Garcia: This one is solidly wonderful. I lapped it up.
75. A&E #527
76. The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl: Theodora Goss: Concludes the Athena Club trilogy. A fun romp, and a fine premise for an RPG.
77. Amberlough, reread: Lara Elena Donnelly: The third in the trilogy came out, so I reread the first before going on to the other two. It's astonishing how much Amberlough comes to life. Don't read if you're not up for a tale about a country's slide into facism.
78. Call for the Dead: John Le Carre
79. A Murder of Quality: John Le Carre
There was an article on a good order in which to read the Smiley novels, so I started reading them. (https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/best-john-le-carre-george-smiley-books.html) I'd read the first two by now, so went on to the next two.
80. Gilded Cage: K. J. Charles: Romance with jewel theft and murder, in the same series as Any Old Diamonds.
81. The Big Time, reread: Fritz Leiber: A reread of a book where, as womzilla noted, the dramatic unities of time and space are preserved in a mystery set in a messy time war.
82. The Looking Glass War: John Le Carre: The next of the Smiley books.
83. Calla Cthulhu, volume 1: Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Erin Humiston, Mario A. Gonzalez, and Bill Mudron: Fighting Mythos While Black and a Woman, with oddly adorable moments interspersed among the tense ones. I really hope there's going to be more!
84. Every Heart a Doorway: Seanan McGuire (reread)
85: Black Butler, volume 28
86. Down Among the Sticks and Bones: Seanan McGuire (reread)
87. Beneath a Sugar Sky: Seanan McGuire (reread)
88. In an Absent Dream: Seanan McGuire (reread)
89. Come Tumbling Down: Seanan McGuire
I reread the first four Wayward Children books so I could read the fifth, Come Tumbling Down. I am, of course, now eagerly awaiting the sixth.
90. Armistice: Lara Elena Donnelly
91. A&E #528
92. Amnesty: Lara Elena Donnelly
I think I like Amberlough the best of the three books, but that might change on a reread.
93: The Ruin of Kings: Jenn Lyons: A fun read, if somewhat exhausting for me. I have the next one, which I am told is somehow even more epic.
94. Call the Hawk Down: Maggie Steifvater: First of the trilogy about Ronan from the Raven Quartet. Absolutely wonderful, and ends in medias res, so I'm now waiting for the next.
95. Fate Accessibility Toolkit: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry + many others: The most important RPG book of 2019.
96. PET: Akwaeke Emeze: About as gentle a way to talk about abuse and what a community does not want to think about as I've seen. Also about the tension between a belief in the goodness of a changed world that some might call utopian and the same human problems that some might call inevitable. (My mind goes to the Terra Ignota series -- the books are doing very different things, but that tension is present in both.)
97. Gatways to Terror (CoC): A nearly perfect collection of 3 adventures that are very friendly to new GMs as well as new players. Each has pregenerated characters and can be run in an evening -- or in an hour.
98. Assorted gaming: Lost City, The Camping Trip (Samantha Hancox-Li) The Game at the End of This PDF (John Tynes) Cthulhu Dark Green (Dissonance), Future Echoes, Shepherd of Moths, The Vernissage (Zgrozy) Hourglass, Jack Frost (Delta Green): An assortment of jewels, er, scenarios, along with a very meta game from John Tynes. I'm counting these as a singel item.
99. Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card #6: CLAMP: Another manga I follow, having got hooked on this when mneme decided a few years back that we'd watch Cardcaptor Sakura (subtitled, all the episodes and the two movies). If you'd told me even five years before we watched it that we'd be bawling our eyes out over this story about a ten-year-old girl collecting magical cards, I would not have believed you. Now -- I have #7, I want #8, and when is there going to be another season of the Clear Card anime? (Okay, probably when there's enough manga for it.)
100. A&E #529
101. That Ain't Witchcraft: Seanan McGuire
101a. Measure of a Monster: Seanan McGuire
This is the InCryptid novel where a very large check is finally cashed, one which has been built up over the series and hits perfectly.
102. The Bone Key: Sarah Monette: I tracked this one down because this series of occult detective stories sounded very much to my taste, similar to and different from K. J. Charles's Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal. I'd gladly read more of these. 2020: Apparently, there are some more, and I'm wondering about tracking them down, whether this will need to be done story by story or whether there might be another volume. I'm guessing the former, but hoping for the latter.
103. The Apple-Tree Throne: Premee Mohamed: A ghost story set in alternate history Britain, not easy to describe, but very good. I wanted to read more by this author. Fortunately, there's a novel that came out this year (2020).
1. The Root: Na'amen Gobert Tilahun: One of the most original sff books I've read recently. First in series, and I have the second. 2020: Still true, both parts. Need to read the second and see if the third's out.
2. The Last Sun: K. D. Edwards:I've described this as like Brust's Vlad books, but way gayer, which does both an injustice, of course. I immediately wanted the next one after finishing this, but had to wait a while. Content warning: sexual abuse in some characters' backstories.
3. A&E #218: Alarums & Excursions, an rpg gaming apa I follow and contribute to.
4. Any Old Diamonds: K. J. Charles: m/m with snark, heists, and twists, as well as a nod to her Sins of the Cities trilogy.
5-8. Return to Labyrinth volumes 1-4: Manga sequel to the film. I special ordered and read it for a larp I was in and was happily astonished at how good it is. I can't guarantee any given Labyrinth fan will be as happy with it, but I loved these dense, magical books. (I also took the opportunity to rewatch the film and was surprised at how fast it moves.)
9. A&E #519
10. Legacy of Arrius Lurca (reread): Oscar Rios: Oscar Rios: Call of Cthulhu campaign set in the Roman Empire. 2020: Currently doing the first editorial pass for the revised and expanded 7th edition version.
11. Fangirl: Rainbow Rowell
12. Carry On: Rainbow Rowell
These are all in dialogue with the Harry Potter books, though in different ways. The first is set in close enough to our world and is about a woman who writes fan fiction and her first year or so at college. The second is an alternate universe -- by which I mean this universe -- version of the work which inspired the fan fiction from the first book. I enjoyed them and will probably read Wayward Son, which is the sequel to Carry On, at some point.
13. In Other Lands: Sarah Rees Brennan: My description was: Imagine if Harry Potter had joined Slytherin instead of Gryddindor and then proceded to explain what everyone was doing wrong, but that's not quite accurate, and the folks I pushed this book on pointed out. There are some things I kinda wish went in different directions, but on the whole, I liked this.
14. School for Scandal: Sheldon: We've been doing some group play reading, and I'm counting these, as I am literally reading along as other folks read and doing cold readings when it's my turn.
15. A Blade So Black: L. L. McKinney: YA urban fantasy with a Black protagonist and a curtsy to Lewis Carroll. First in a series. What I liked best was the grounding in our world. It's not essential to urban fantasy -- it's often good enough for me if the author doesn't get it wrong -- but it's very satisfying, even if often painful, when it's done right. There's a good review of it on Tor.com (https://www.tor.com/2018/09/26/book-reviews-a-blade-so-black-by-l-l-mckinney/).
16. Dinosaur Princesses: Child-friendly RPG where all the characters are dinosaurs and princesses too.
17. Black Butler #27: One of the manga I follow.
18. Prism: RPG that covers a lot of ground in a small space while leaving plenty of space for creativity. I want to play this.
19. A&E #520
20. The Complex draft (ArcDream)
21. Control Group draft (ArcDream)
22. Riding the Northbound draft: Oscar Rios
Editing lovely, lovely material. The Complex is a detailed sourcebook for what Kenneth Hite calls the best setting of all time, the real world, for Delta Green, while Control Group has lovely, lethal scenarios. My favorite is probably "Sick Again", followed closely by "BLACKSAT". Riding the Northbound started as an essay on playing hoboes, tramps, and bums in Call of Cthulhu. Then there was an unpublished proof of concept scenario, almost a joke, and I was lucky enough to get to play in it. (My character didn't survive.) This is the expanded version of the essay and scenario.
23. Good Society RPG: Haley Gordon and Vee Hendro, art by Raven Warren: Essentially the Jane Austen RPG, with a solid structure, including epistolary phases, no random elements, and high consent mechanics. As of when I am typing this in 2020 May, I have played this game twice online and once at a convention, full campaigns, and am about to be in a different online campaign. I've yet to play the base version of the game. (I've been in 2 1/2 Tolstoy hacks, which are 95% of the same mechanics (just 2 new character types) and a change in country, and one test of the Fae Court supplement). It is very well written and ups the bar for online support of RPGs. (2020 September: I've played online once or twice more, and still haven't played the base version of the game.)
24. North Step Station Season 1: Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen: Really good. I need to catch up on Season 2.
25. Good Society add ons: Pride, Prejudice, & Practical Magics; Sense, Sensibility, & Swordsmanship; The Gentry's Guide to Mixing Swordsmanship and Magics: These are great. S, S, & S adds a Rooftop Phase for masked vigilantes (and others) to brood or battle on the heights. Rooftop Phase!
26. The Stars Change: Mary Anne Mohanraj: It took me a while to read this because my tablet had some issue with kindle books. I'm still not sure why. I love this book, and not just because of an unexpected Tuckerization of a woman I knew. (I wouldn't be surprised to learn I missed other Tuckerizations.)
27. Abbott: Saladin Ahmed, art Sami Kiveli, colors Jason Wardie, letters Jim Campbell: I bought this when it was up for a Hugo for Best Graphic Story. I knew I'd like it, and I was right. If there is a sequel to this, I want to know.
28. Labyrinth: Coronation: Book One: The first of three parts of a prequel to Labyrinth. Well done and in color, though I confess I liked the sequel manga series more.
29. Good Society Larp Rules: These seem solid. I've not yet seen them in play.
30. A&E #521
31. Spinning Silver: Naomi Novik: I did not care for Uprooted, and I'm hard pressed to say why. It had many things I liked, including a solid friendship between two women. This one, though, I loved.
32. Miss Subways: David Duchovny: Plays with the myths of NYC and of Emer and Cuchulain.
33. Occam's Razor draft: Brian M. Sammons: Call of Cthulhu is a game where, occasionally, the PCs should find out that there's nothing supernatural going on. I can think of about two scenarios written that way, but there will soon be a book of seven such scenarios. And, while a mythos explanation is provided in case GMs want to use it, I tell you, most of these are scarier without a supernatural element.
34. Companion's Tale: Laura Simpson
35. Star-Crossed: Alex Roberts
Two solid games I want to play, both, like Prism, covering a lot of ground with relatively few words.
36. A&E #522
37. Blanca & Roja: Anne-Marie McLemore: A very odd, very beautiful reworking of the story of Snow White and Rose Red.
38. Circe: Madeleine Miller: A retelling of Greek myths, well done, though not to my taste.
39. Study in Emerald (graphic novel): I loved the original story, and I loved this. Perhaps some day, I'll figure out how to run an RPG set in this world.
40. Imposter Syndrome: Mishell Baker: The third in her Arcadia Project series. I liked the first two; unsurprisingly, I liked this one as well.
41. The Black God's Drum: P. Djeli Clark
42. The Tea Master and the Detective: Aliette de Boddard
Two novellas I knew I'd like, and I did.
43. All Systems Red: Martha Wells
44. Artificial Condition: Martha Wells
Okay, the first sentence of the first Murderbot novella won me over, and it got better from there. I now have two more novellas and the novel to read.
45. A&E #523
46. Temper: Nicky Draves: This blew me away. It's amazingly good. Read it.
47. Middlegame: Seanan McGuire: I am not convinced it is the best thing she'll ever write, but it's her best to date. I wondered if the imaginary book she quotes from would be written, and discovered that I had asked the wrong question. I should have asked if it would be published. Fortunately, the answer is yes.
48. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach: Kelly Robson: There are books you understand why people like; they're just not to your taste. There are books that you don't get why others like, which is the category this fell into for me, and in this case, I'm fairly sure I'm missing something. Maybe if I reread it in a couple of years, I'll figure it out.
49. Trail of Lightning: Rebecca Roanhorse: Another case where I knew I'd like the book. I need to read the second one. 2020: Yep, still need to read second book.
50: Labyrinth: Coronation: Book 2
51. Binti: Nnedi Okorafor
52. Binti: Home: Nnedi Okorafor
53. Binti: The Night Masquerade
I liked the first one the best. I expect the others will grow on me on the reread, when I'm not expecting them to be -- I don't know, probably more like the first one? This has happened before -- I've read standalones and sequels that I enjoyed far more on the second read when I wasn't trying to make them into my idea of what the book should be instead of what the book was. Fr'ex, when I first tried to read Tim Powers's Drawing of the Dark, I bounced off it for the exact reasons I liked it when I tried it again years later -- it wasn't your typical fantasy. I liked Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's The Fall of the Kings much better the second time when I wasn't trying to make it into a reprise of Swordspoint. I picked up the Binti omnibus, which has an extra short story in it that I've not yet read.
54. A&E #524
55. 2019 Hugo Short Stories and Novelettes: I consider these together the equivalent of a novel. 12 items. Only 2 that I disliked, and that had to do with my taste, not the writing. "The Thing About Ghost Stories" (not one of the two) got thoroughly under my skin for reasons which won't surprise anyone who knows me and has read the story. "If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" was delightful.
56. A&E #525
57. Fate of Cthulhu Backers' Preview: I participated in the alpha and beta playtests of this game. I think this version (basically, the published version, sans art) is even better, and I want to run it to find out. 2020: I got to play in a 4 part game of it at Online Gen Con, and I loved it. I think I understand the parts that I was shaky on before -- what the GM does and doesn't share of the timeline and how the whole timeline ripple business works.
58. Hither, Page: Cat Sebastian
59. A Little Light Mischief: Cat Sebastian
M/M and F/F historical romances respectively, both enjoyable.
60. Fair's Point: Melissa Scott: The fourth of the Astreiant books, urban fantasy mystery in a world with Renaissance-ish tech (i.e., my knowledge of what tech existed when in our world is weak) and magic (astrology works and everyone knows it). Has a different pace that I like, leisurely, but not dragging.
61. A&E #526
62. Desdemona and the Deep: C. S. E. Cooney: I've described this as "kinda like a Patricia McKillip book if McKillip were drunk on champagne" because both authors are writing amazingly good fantasy works and both have language I happily lose myself in. Come to think of it, both authors celebrate the ordinary in the fantastic. I clearly need to read more Cooney.
63. Night and Silence: Seanan McGuire
63a. Suffer a Sea Change: Seanan McGuire
I tend to count novellas as their own thing, but apparently, in 2019, I counted the ones in Seanan's books as "part a". I recall I said, "Oh. Oh!" a lot as one shoe after another dropped. Part of the Toby Daye series.
64. A Gathering Storm: Joanna Chambers: Light m/m.
65. Gideon the Ninth: Tamsyn Muir: Lesbian necromancers exploring a gothic palace in space. A warped Westing Game-like tale. Snark. Skulls. Sunglasses. Is it second book o'clock yet? No? Now? 2020: I've now read the 2nd book. Is it third book o'clock yet?
66. Magic for Liars: Sarah Gailey: Very well done, but not to my taste, I think because of where the focus is at the end. This is NOT a criticism of the mystery or its solution, which were very satisfactory, nor about the world itself. Note, though, I'd read a sequel.
67. Red Carnations on a Black Grave: Catherine Ramen et alia (draft): Inspired by games like Montsegur 1244 (which is free online in etext) and Ten Candles (which I've not played yet), this is about people in the Paris Commune. History will not be changed, and it is understood going in that everyone has two characters, one of whom will die. Very well done, but be aware that this is often a high bleed game.
68. The Rat-Catcher's Daughter and The Price of Meat: K. J. Charles: More light reading, for, ah, certain definitions of light.
69. Tails of Valor (near final): Three Call of Cthulhu scenarios where the player characters are all cats, along with information about the cat council of Kingsport.
70. The Unkindest Tide: Seanan McGuire
70a. Hope Is Swift: Seanan McGuire
Currently the latest Toby Daye book, though not for much longer, resolves a number of things and raises a question in my mind. 2020: Okay, there's now one more book in the series, and it's in a stack to my left.
71. Labyrinth: Coronation: Book Three
72. Loki: Where Mischief Lies: Mackenzi Lee: mneme didn't finish this one, bouncing off, among other reasons, because the attitude the Asgardians displayed toward magic didn't seem to him to fit what he'd seen from Marvel. I managed to finish it, but was disappointed because it didn't fit with what I've seen of how Odin operates, and this could have been fixed very easily. I should probably rewatch the Thor movies to make sure what I remember is what I think I remember.
73. Monstress #4: Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: Beautiful and monstrous, as always.
74. Gods of Jade and Shadow: Sylvia Moreno-Garcia: This one is solidly wonderful. I lapped it up.
75. A&E #527
76. The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl: Theodora Goss: Concludes the Athena Club trilogy. A fun romp, and a fine premise for an RPG.
77. Amberlough, reread: Lara Elena Donnelly: The third in the trilogy came out, so I reread the first before going on to the other two. It's astonishing how much Amberlough comes to life. Don't read if you're not up for a tale about a country's slide into facism.
78. Call for the Dead: John Le Carre
79. A Murder of Quality: John Le Carre
There was an article on a good order in which to read the Smiley novels, so I started reading them. (https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/best-john-le-carre-george-smiley-books.html) I'd read the first two by now, so went on to the next two.
80. Gilded Cage: K. J. Charles: Romance with jewel theft and murder, in the same series as Any Old Diamonds.
81. The Big Time, reread: Fritz Leiber: A reread of a book where, as womzilla noted, the dramatic unities of time and space are preserved in a mystery set in a messy time war.
82. The Looking Glass War: John Le Carre: The next of the Smiley books.
83. Calla Cthulhu, volume 1: Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Erin Humiston, Mario A. Gonzalez, and Bill Mudron: Fighting Mythos While Black and a Woman, with oddly adorable moments interspersed among the tense ones. I really hope there's going to be more!
84. Every Heart a Doorway: Seanan McGuire (reread)
85: Black Butler, volume 28
86. Down Among the Sticks and Bones: Seanan McGuire (reread)
87. Beneath a Sugar Sky: Seanan McGuire (reread)
88. In an Absent Dream: Seanan McGuire (reread)
89. Come Tumbling Down: Seanan McGuire
I reread the first four Wayward Children books so I could read the fifth, Come Tumbling Down. I am, of course, now eagerly awaiting the sixth.
90. Armistice: Lara Elena Donnelly
91. A&E #528
92. Amnesty: Lara Elena Donnelly
I think I like Amberlough the best of the three books, but that might change on a reread.
93: The Ruin of Kings: Jenn Lyons: A fun read, if somewhat exhausting for me. I have the next one, which I am told is somehow even more epic.
94. Call the Hawk Down: Maggie Steifvater: First of the trilogy about Ronan from the Raven Quartet. Absolutely wonderful, and ends in medias res, so I'm now waiting for the next.
95. Fate Accessibility Toolkit: Elsa Sjunneson-Henry + many others: The most important RPG book of 2019.
96. PET: Akwaeke Emeze: About as gentle a way to talk about abuse and what a community does not want to think about as I've seen. Also about the tension between a belief in the goodness of a changed world that some might call utopian and the same human problems that some might call inevitable. (My mind goes to the Terra Ignota series -- the books are doing very different things, but that tension is present in both.)
97. Gatways to Terror (CoC): A nearly perfect collection of 3 adventures that are very friendly to new GMs as well as new players. Each has pregenerated characters and can be run in an evening -- or in an hour.
98. Assorted gaming: Lost City, The Camping Trip (Samantha Hancox-Li) The Game at the End of This PDF (John Tynes) Cthulhu Dark Green (Dissonance), Future Echoes, Shepherd of Moths, The Vernissage (Zgrozy) Hourglass, Jack Frost (Delta Green): An assortment of jewels, er, scenarios, along with a very meta game from John Tynes. I'm counting these as a singel item.
99. Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card #6: CLAMP: Another manga I follow, having got hooked on this when mneme decided a few years back that we'd watch Cardcaptor Sakura (subtitled, all the episodes and the two movies). If you'd told me even five years before we watched it that we'd be bawling our eyes out over this story about a ten-year-old girl collecting magical cards, I would not have believed you. Now -- I have #7, I want #8, and when is there going to be another season of the Clear Card anime? (Okay, probably when there's enough manga for it.)
100. A&E #529
101. That Ain't Witchcraft: Seanan McGuire
101a. Measure of a Monster: Seanan McGuire
This is the InCryptid novel where a very large check is finally cashed, one which has been built up over the series and hits perfectly.
102. The Bone Key: Sarah Monette: I tracked this one down because this series of occult detective stories sounded very much to my taste, similar to and different from K. J. Charles's Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal. I'd gladly read more of these. 2020: Apparently, there are some more, and I'm wondering about tracking them down, whether this will need to be done story by story or whether there might be another volume. I'm guessing the former, but hoping for the latter.
103. The Apple-Tree Throne: Premee Mohamed: A ghost story set in alternate history Britain, not easy to describe, but very good. I wanted to read more by this author. Fortunately, there's a novel that came out this year (2020).