Siiiiiiick list, can’t wait to read Memory and Blood over Bright Haven SOON, and Ada Palmer soonish. Thanks for getting me to try Vorkosigan!!!! What an upset for book of the year! Gotta try that one too.
Can wait to get through the replay, couldn't make the initial release premier. Got a lucky pause around 13:30 where you have a sly grin on your face that reminds me of my 5 year old when he gets a good or cool idea about a tower or something he wants to build. I'm hoping the rest of this list past Ruocchio are super-bangers. Happy New Year!
So excited to start Ada Palmer, my library copy of too like the lightning is on its way! Also, your praise for a monster calls is making me want to read it again. I read it sooo many years ago and liked it but I suspect I would get more out of it this time. (You kinda changed my life with the Lions of Al-Rassan recommendation btw, read it last month and cried my eyes out.)
A great list Jake. Great to see De Lint make the list. I am hoping to read some Ada Palmer this year and M L Wang. My top 10 for 2024 contains The Curse Of Chalion which you recommended which adds a nice bit reciprocity to the year. My Top 10 being: 1. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey 2. Memory And Dream - Charles De Lint (re-read) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee 4. Dead Water - C A Fletcher 5. The Curse Of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold 6. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke 7. Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes 8. The Seasons Of Albadone - Elan Marche & Christopher Warman 9. The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter 10. The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld - Patricia A McKillip
Love seeing some Rage of Dragons on here, also recently bought Forgotten Beasts of Eld because it got reprinted. I will allow the reread, although wow, the reread was not #1
Thanks for the video, list, and your thoughts! Happy your reading year was so good. I actually picked up and read A Monster Calls after you mentioned it in your video at Dragonsteel Nexus. While it didn't hit me quite as hard as it did you, I still really enjoyed it. To be as vague as possible, I also cried at the mom part. So thanks for the recommendation! Cheers to 2025 reads
I am soooo happy for you that 2025 was so much better than last year. You've got me beyond excited to start Sun Eater, Vorkosigan and Ada Palmer. And Blood Over Bright Haven was one of my priority reads of last year and it just didn't happen... oops. Gotta rectify that mistake. My top 10 of the year was: 1. Asunder by Kerstin Hall 2. Obsidian: Revelation by Sienna Frost 3. Hell For Hire by Rachel Aaron 4. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows 5. Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff 6. The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch 7. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams 8. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez 9. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall 10. Riven Earth by Zammar Ahmer Happy new year and happy reading!! 🥰
@@jakebishop7822 probably just because half of them are non-SFF and the rest are criminally underhyped hidden gems. If I had to guess, I'd say that Asunder and Riven Earth are most up your alley
War and Peace also demonstrates Tolstoy’s ability to write deeply human truths in such a way that you feel you’re given a revelation that you paradoxically already knew. But it’s also a giant bonkers soap opera with the romance and violence the title implies, told with an expansive cast, rapid POV changes, and punchy chapters. I think it’s honestly one of the easiest classic recs for epic fantasy fans-doubly so since you liked one of his shorts.
Jake, you've completely sold me on Memory & Dream. And l still have to read Ada Palmer, McCammon, & Suneater, jeez! Love that you had such a great year of reading! Here's to another awesome year in 2025. That #1 pick was a proper surprise! I must check it out! You may be happy to know that both LoE & A Brightness Long Ago steamrolled into my own top 10 of 2024 list hehe 😁
I just put A Monster Calls on hold at my library. I'll be reading it very soon because after finishing The Bonehunters I'm taking a break from big books and going to chill out with shorter stuff for a while. 😅 I definitely think you'll like Speaks the Nightbird even more than Boy's Life. I hope you get to it this year! This was a really cool list, I'm excited to try Terra Ignota.
Awesome list! I always end up with so many recommendations after your favorite book videos! I totally agree with what you said about pain and hope!! ❤️🔥 Books with only tragedy end up boring me because it just feels like the author was going for shock factor. 🙃 …A Monster Calls has been on my tbr for forever but I’m scared to read it 😅 Other thoughts: -Bujold is my favorite character writer after Robin Hobb! She has quickly become one of my favorite authors ❤️ (I’ve only read the first two Vorkosigan books so far because I got hooked on the Penric novellas). -I already had Ada Palmer on my wtr, but I just googled her and she’s a historian! 👀👀👀🔥 I need to listen to her podcast with Jo Walton. (Who I also love and need to read more). -I didn’t know Charles de Lint, adding him to my list.
I’d have had DQ in mine if not for feeling absolutely nothing towards Cassandra. Was really looking forward to that dynamic but it didn’t get there for me
A random unsolicited recommendation: check out Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. Has some cringe political commentary, but it is also the best fantasy book set in "dream magic" kind of setting I've read. Reading it really created a feeling of being in another world right on the doorstep of our own like nothing else I have read.
Sounds like a great year of reading! That’s crazy that DG was a favorite Sun Eater book and it didn’t crack the top five! Guess it’s just that kind of year!!! Personally I found all the religious stuff in DG to work pretty well. It’s presented a lot more abstract and…metaphysical than say the Catechism or anything, but I get why some people are turned off. I honestly think Shadows Upon Time is my most anticipated book of 2025. 🤘🤘🤘🤘
@@jakebishop7822 I know you’ve talked about this GGK book, but what is the one that opens with a guy burying bodies after a battle and encounters spirits? (I may have botched that but I vaguely remember an opening like that being described.)
Since you liked de Lint so much, you may like Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood. Also, read Tim Powers. He’s too little read and yet he’s awesome. Ruocchio is a fan :)
Sanderson has always been a pedestrian writer but must have been covered up by his editor Moshe. Now Moshe is gone Sanderson is free to publish his middle grade level prose. Sanderson is like Nickleback - it kind of sounds like music and it's popular but it's not music. Nirvana is music, and Rothfuss is Nirvana.
Holy fuck this is so pretentious, there are a lot of things that matter in a book, prose is just one of them, and not a importante one for many people. Saying something you dont like is not "real" music/litterature/film/... is insane. I can say the same thing to you and make a point that Nirvada isnt real music, real music is Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, and other classical composers who make music in a insanely more complex level than Nirvana. I can also say that fantasy autors are not real autors
Siiiiiiick list, can’t wait to read Memory and Blood over Bright Haven SOON, and Ada Palmer soonish. Thanks for getting me to try Vorkosigan!!!!
What an upset for book of the year! Gotta try that one too.
These are all good ideas
Chosing the unibomber manifesto as his number 1 was kind of brave
Well, you know me, I like to suprise people
Can wait to get through the replay, couldn't make the initial release premier. Got a lucky pause around 13:30 where you have a sly grin on your face that reminds me of my 5 year old when he gets a good or cool idea about a tower or something he wants to build. I'm hoping the rest of this list past Ruocchio are super-bangers. Happy New Year!
Happy new year, I apparently am not hiding that I am feeling sly anymore. Gotta work on that
So excited to start Ada Palmer, my library copy of too like the lightning is on its way!
Also, your praise for a monster calls is making me want to read it again. I read it sooo many years ago and liked it but I suspect I would get more out of it this time.
(You kinda changed my life with the Lions of Al-Rassan recommendation btw, read it last month and cried my eyes out.)
This makes me happy
No sun, no moon, no stars over Al-Rassan
A great list Jake. Great to see De Lint make the list.
I am hoping to read some Ada Palmer this year and M L Wang.
My top 10 for 2024 contains The Curse Of Chalion which you recommended which adds a nice bit reciprocity to the year.
My Top 10 being:
1. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey
2. Memory And Dream - Charles De Lint (re-read)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. Dead Water - C A Fletcher
5. The Curse Of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
6. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
7. Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes
8. The Seasons Of Albadone - Elan Marche & Christopher Warman
9. The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter
10. The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld - Patricia A McKillip
Love seeing some Rage of Dragons on here, also recently bought Forgotten Beasts of Eld because it got reprinted.
I will allow the reread, although wow, the reread was not #1
Thanks for the video, list, and your thoughts! Happy your reading year was so good. I actually picked up and read A Monster Calls after you mentioned it in your video at Dragonsteel Nexus. While it didn't hit me quite as hard as it did you, I still really enjoyed it. To be as vague as possible, I also cried at the mom part. So thanks for the recommendation! Cheers to 2025 reads
Cheers! Here's to more books that make us cry in 2025
I am soooo happy for you that 2025 was so much better than last year. You've got me beyond excited to start Sun Eater, Vorkosigan and Ada Palmer. And Blood Over Bright Haven was one of my priority reads of last year and it just didn't happen... oops. Gotta rectify that mistake.
My top 10 of the year was:
1. Asunder by Kerstin Hall
2. Obsidian: Revelation by Sienna Frost
3. Hell For Hire by Rachel Aaron
4. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows
5. Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
6. The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting by Evanna Lynch
7. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
8. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
9. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
10. Riven Earth by Zammar Ahmer
Happy new year and happy reading!! 🥰
Somehow I have read literally none of your top 10, which feels kinda weird.
@@jakebishop7822 probably just because half of them are non-SFF and the rest are criminally underhyped hidden gems. If I had to guess, I'd say that Asunder and Riven Earth are most up your alley
War and Peace also demonstrates Tolstoy’s ability to write deeply human truths in such a way that you feel you’re given a revelation that you paradoxically already knew. But it’s also a giant bonkers soap opera with the romance and violence the title implies, told with an expansive cast, rapid POV changes, and punchy chapters.
I think it’s honestly one of the easiest classic recs for epic fantasy fans-doubly so since you liked one of his shorts.
I'm very excited for it
Jake, you've completely sold me on Memory & Dream. And l still have to read Ada Palmer, McCammon, & Suneater, jeez!
Love that you had such a great year of reading! Here's to another awesome year in 2025. That #1 pick was a proper surprise! I must check it out!
You may be happy to know that both LoE & A Brightness Long Ago steamrolled into my own top 10 of 2024 list hehe 😁
I'm glad LoE and Brightness were placed in vaguely the correct spot on your top 10
I just put A Monster Calls on hold at my library. I'll be reading it very soon because after finishing The Bonehunters I'm taking a break from big books and going to chill out with shorter stuff for a while. 😅
I definitely think you'll like Speaks the Nightbird even more than Boy's Life. I hope you get to it this year! This was a really cool list, I'm excited to try Terra Ignota.
The Bonehunters is a great place to take a break tbf. That's what I did.
@thatsci-firogue Good to know!
Prepare for emotional damage
Damn I’ve really gotta board the Sun Eater hype train soon, I met Christopher Ruocchio at Dragonsteel and he was such a gentleman
I saw him there to, he looked stressed, but very popular which I like to see.
Awesome list! I always end up with so many recommendations after your favorite book videos! I totally agree with what you said about pain and hope!! ❤️🔥 Books with only tragedy end up boring me because it just feels like the author was going for shock factor. 🙃 …A Monster Calls has been on my tbr for forever but I’m scared to read it 😅
Other thoughts:
-Bujold is my favorite character writer after Robin Hobb! She has quickly become one of my favorite authors ❤️ (I’ve only read the first two Vorkosigan books so far because I got hooked on the Penric novellas).
-I already had Ada Palmer on my wtr, but I just googled her and she’s a historian! 👀👀👀🔥 I need to listen to her podcast with Jo Walton. (Who I also love and need to read more).
-I didn’t know Charles de Lint, adding him to my list.
Next Vorkosigan book you shall meet Miles Vorkosigan
I’d have had DQ in mine if not for feeling absolutely nothing towards Cassandra. Was really looking forward to that dynamic but it didn’t get there for me
Definitely was kinda just there, but it wasn't like I was bored by those scenes because all the stuff surrounding it was so good IMO.
The podcast episode is "Pacing with Ken Liu," on Ex Urbe Ad Astra, hosted by Ada Palmer and Jo Walton. Great episode and great show!!!
Gracias
A random unsolicited recommendation: check out Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. Has some cringe political commentary, but it is also the best fantasy book set in "dream magic" kind of setting I've read. Reading it really created a feeling of being in another world right on the doorstep of our own like nothing else I have read.
I'm usually not that bothered by cringe political commentary if it is not a big part of the story, and the story is good
Obligatory Recommendation:
1. The expanse series by James S A Corey
2. HxH by Yoshihiro togashi
3. Dungeon Crawler Carl
+1 HxH recommendation
The order in which I continue/start these is likely
1. Dungeon Crawler Carl
2. HxH
3. Expanse
@ dungeon crawler carl is very addictive.
@ I am just happy that you will react to hxh.
Please make reviews and hxh community is very welcoming for new readers.
Not trying to be snarky, but just so you know it’s pronounced “Tol-stoy” (stoy like toy with an s before). Glad you loved the book!
This is helpful, thank you
and thank you for not taking it the wrong way
Sounds like a great year of reading! That’s crazy that DG was a favorite Sun Eater book and it didn’t crack the top five! Guess it’s just that kind of year!!!
Personally I found all the religious stuff in DG to work pretty well. It’s presented a lot more abstract and…metaphysical than say the Catechism or anything, but I get why some people are turned off. I honestly think Shadows Upon Time is my most anticipated book of 2025. 🤘🤘🤘🤘
I think Written on the Dark by GGK is my most anticipated book of 2025, but Shadows Upon Time is up there, should be a crazy year for new releases
@@jakebishop7822 I know you’ve talked about this GGK book, but what is the one that opens with a guy burying bodies after a battle and encounters spirits? (I may have botched that but I vaguely remember an opening like that being described.)
@iSamwise Under Heaven
@ nice. Thanks
Interested where Disquiet Gods is in the list!
Lower than I was expecting because it was such a crazy year, would have been #1, or #2 in 2023
Since you liked de Lint so much, you may like Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood.
Also, read Tim Powers. He’s too little read and yet he’s awesome. Ruocchio is a fan :)
Interesting, I have never heard of him, but will keep an eye out
Tim Powers is on the list, can never find his books in stores though
@ Yeah, you’ll likely have to order Powers’s books or get the ebooks. He’s not quite popular enough to get on most shelves these days.
@@jakebishop7822 Mythago Wood is in my top 10 reads of all time. If you can fit it into this year I highly recommend it.
Giving you a view and a like now, but i gotta wait to watch this later
Giving this a reply, but I gotta heart this later
Boy’s Life absolutely rules - one of my all-time favorites. I will make more comments as I go. 😅
Scot! Been a while since I've seen you around.
Yes it does
Expected the 1 and 2 to be reversed but cant complain. Of all the books ive read on this list (8 i think?) they are all great, so we continue to agree
They were very hard to compare
no timestamps? no list?
I will add timestamps just for you (and because I forgot before and should probably have had them in the first place)
Ah but the real question is…….do you like Wind and Truth better than *dramatic pause* ELANTRIS????
It's about 6400% better IMO
Time to Read Perfect run by maxime j durand
I don't know what that is
@jakebishop7822 a web novel
Sanderson has always been a pedestrian writer but must have been covered up by his editor Moshe. Now Moshe is gone Sanderson is free to publish his middle grade level prose. Sanderson is like Nickleback - it kind of sounds like music and it's popular but it's not music. Nirvana is music, and Rothfuss is Nirvana.
Holy fuck this is so pretentious, there are a lot of things that matter in a book, prose is just one of them, and not a importante one for many people. Saying something you dont like is not "real" music/litterature/film/... is insane. I can say the same thing to you and make a point that Nirvada isnt real music, real music is Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, and other classical composers who make music in a insanely more complex level than Nirvana.
I can also say that fantasy autors are not real autors
What a completely original comment