Favourite Reads | 2018

Despite having read quite widely this year, I haven’t read many stand-out books. I’ve read lots of good ones, funny ones, entertaining ones, but few ‘oh my I will reread this for the rest of my life’ books. Apart from those listed below… they have really left their mark on me. Instead of writing full reviews I have chosen some quotes to whet your appetite. If I have previously reviewed them on here or on Goodreads, I will link it so you can investigate further if you so wish. So without further ado, here be some greatness:

Cainsville | series | Kelley Armstrong
Omens, Visions, Deceptions, Betrayals, Rituals, Lost Souls, Rough Justice, Portents & Cruel Fate (coming 2019)

‘Demons are a very human creation. You look for ways to explain evil, and instead of seeing it in yourselves, you offload the responsibility onto monsters. The monstrous exists in the mirror, not in the sulfurous depths of some fantasy world.’

~~~

‘A bad omen is a warning. A sign to stop and reconsider. Proceed with caution.’

You can read my review of the first few books here.

Kushiel’s Legacy | series | Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen & Kushiel’s Avatar

‘It is a fine line, in all of us, between civilisation and savagery. To any who think they would never cross it, I can only say, if you have never known what it is to be utterly betrayed and abandoned, you cannot know how close it is.’

~~~

‘That which yields is not always weak.’

Trail of Lightning | first in series | Rebecca Roanhorse

‘But I had forgotten that the Dine had already suffered their apocalypse over a century before. This wasn’t our end. This was our rebirth.’

~~~

‘…it made me strong, made me vicious when I needed to be. But it was a narrow road that I walked. I had to be vigilant not to let it grow, not to feed it unnecessarily. Because my fate wasn’t decided yet. I could be a monsterslayer, or I could be a monster.’

Guns of the Dawn | Stand alone | Adrian Tchaikovsky

‘The first casualty of war is truth.’

~~~

‘Standing there, her pistol directed downwards at ***, she had a moment of truth come to her, as calm and still as the moment before a battle charge. In her head, fragments whirled and spun, words and conversations… The war anatomized and picked apart like a diseased corpse – to find the cause, to excise the tumour. Lest it spread; lest the disease claim more lives; lest it claim them all.’

You can read my review here.

Veronica Speedwell | series | Deanna Raybourn
A Curious Beginning, A Perilous Undertaking & A Treacherous Curse

‘ “O, the perfidy of men.” “What have I done?” he protested. “Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers.”

~~~

‘I am quite determined to be mistress of my own fate, Mrs Clutterthorpe, but I do sympathise with how strange it must sound to you. It is not your fault that you are entirely devoid of imagination. I blame your education.’

I have reviewed the first three books in this post.

The Song of the Shattered Sans | series | Bradley P Beaulieu
Twelve Kings, Of Sand and Malice Made, With Blood Upon the Sand, A Veil of Spears

For this one I have chosen a quote from the author himself from this Unbound Worlds interview.

‘It’s also a tale of how culture and customs can be lost, how the victors write the history books, and how those written out of it struggle to uncover the truth and right the wrongs committed along the way.’

You can read my review of the first book here.

Children of Earth and Sky | stand alone | Guy Gavriel Kay

‘We live among mysteries. Love is one, there are others. We must not imagine we understand all there is to know about the world.’

~~~

‘Villages or farms on a violent border divided by faith didn’t become peaceful because of pen strokes in courts far away.’

My full review is here.