As a tribute to the Visions of Paradise blog, I decided to start doing a year end review posting.2014 saw the sixth anniversary for the blog. Overall I did not get to post as much as I would have liked but I did read and watch a lot of good science fiction and fantasy this year.
FAVORITE BOOK
I was torn between a few titles this year but the winner was "A Night in Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny. As anyone who has read this blog or spoke to me can tell, I am a huge Zelazny fan. This year I read four of his books (the others were "Roadmarks", "Jack of Shadows", and "A Dark Traveling"). I plan on continuing my Zelazny reading with "This Immortal" in January.
What made this my favorite book of the year was the combination of prose, storytelling and characterization. Any time a writer can make a dog the main character and have it seem so human(?) is a gift not everyone has.
FAVORITE SHORT STORY
This was another close race. In the end I went with "Old Paint" by Megan Lindholm. While it's own story, the author managed to invoke the spirit of Roger Zelazny's short fiction. I can't think of any greater compliment.
LOOKING FORWARD...
I plan on doing more features inspired by the late Bob Sabella (of the aforementioned "Visions of Paradise"). They will revealed in the near future. In 2014 I became more involved with NetGalley and that will continue in 2015. I am joining more reading challenges than I did in the past. It is a way to help motivate me to keep up to date on my reviews. In 2014 I read many books that I did not get reviewed.
Short story reviews will be a regular feature in the upcoming year.
Expect to see more reviews of Zelazny and my other favorite who I did not review in 2014-Isaac Asimov.
2015 will be a year where I am stepping up my game. I want to look back at the end of 2015 and be happy with my production and level of quality.
