2012 Review Round-up

With 2012 running on its last few days and we over at Fantasy Book Review have a planned break starting this 15th of December. I finally got some time to reflect back on this year and what I have read so far. I must admit that in the first half of the year I did not have that many review books and the season turning into summer my too be read pile started growing and it still is growing weekly. I tweeted on the 28th of September that I hit the 50 reviews for Fantasy Book Review... and last week I hit the 100th one, people at work call me insane.. Well maybe on some level they are correct, but to defend my own honor, there are so many interesting books out there and each month more and more are coming out that often catch my eye. I do love to read and get lost in a good book :-). Added to this is that I am pleased that I have had the change to read some awesome novels, and not only published by the big publisher but also those daring self published authors who took a chance and got their own books edited and published.

Now comes the hardest part and that I looking back on a year of reading and decide which my favorite books where. I think the best strategy is to go by it by category and use a top 3 list.

Best Epic Fantasy
1. Hats off to Brandenburg by Graham Thomas
2. The Kings Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells
3. Tomorrow the Killing by Daniel Polansky

Best Urban Fantasy
1. The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
2. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
3. Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan

Best Steampunk
1. Phoenix Rising by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris
2. The Janus Affair by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris
3. The Falling Machine by Andrew P. Mayer

Best Young-Adult
1. MetaWars: Fight For the Future by Jeff Norton
2. Runemarks by Joanne Harris
3. Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Best Alternate History/Historic Fantasy
1. Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
2. Insurrection by Robyn Young
3. The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick

Best Science-Fiction
1. Gridlinked by Neal Asher
2. Alexander Outland Space Pirate
3. Halo: Glasslands

I do also want to highlight some of the outstanding self-published books that I have read so far. One thing that I have to say about authors who publish their books is that they show a great inventiveness and creativity.

Best Self-published
1. Forging of a Knight by Hugo V. Negron
2. Breaking the Devil's Heart by HA Goodman
3. Zak Corbin Master of Machines by Tony Russo

2012 was not a stranger for debuts and there were many interesting debuts this year as well. Here are my favorites of the newcomers

Best Debuts
1. Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan
2. Hats off to Brandenburg by Graham Thomas
3. MetaWars: Fight for the Future by Jeff Norton

Well this pretty much round up my favorite books of 2012. All in all it was a pretty fruitful year for me and I had a great time reading all the books for Fantasy Book Review. I can only hope that 2013 well be just as great as this year. But now it is time to celebrate the holidays.

Finally I want to give very big thanks for everyone; authors and publishers, who have send review copies to me, without you I could not have done this!

So everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Jasper

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