It’s time for my favorite post of the year, where I share all the best sci-fi and fantasy I read from 2024. I write two versions of this post each year. The second comes out in late February, once I’ve had a chance to read works from everyone else’s Best of the Year lists. And… Continue reading Tar Vol’s 2024 Recommended Reading List (Holiday Edition)
I posted the first edition of my 2022 Recommended Reading List back in early December. But then everyone else posted their own lists, and there’s no better way to blow up a favorites list than spending a couple months reading everyone else’s favorites. There was a lot of amazing sci-fi and fantasy published in 2022,… Continue reading Tarvolon’s 2022 Recommended Reading List: Award Season Edition
It’s been a good year of reading, and I have already amassed quite a few favorites–more than enough to throw my hat into the ring with another entry in “Best of the Year” season. But with so many annual favorites posts reshuffling the TBR, I recognize that today’s post is far from final. There will… Continue reading Tarvolon’s 2022 Recommended Reading List: Holiday Edition
I’ve finished a year of judging for the first annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, and it’s been both fun and instructive. I’ve learned a lot of things about myself as a reader, about slush pile reading, and about organizing a contest with such massive scale. So with this year’s competition in the books and the… Continue reading SPSFC Reflections and Ranking
I’ve talked a lot about my favorite reading challenge, r/Fantasy Book Bingo, and how spreading out your reading among so many authors leaves you dangling off a lot of cliffs. So this year, I decided to complete a themed card with all sequels to see who’s kidding who. As with my previous card, I’ve ranked… Continue reading 2021 Fantasy Bingo: The Sequel
My second year of completing an r/Fantasy Book Bingo card was also my first year of recording a card that hit Hard Mode for every single square. As with last year, I’m finishing with a ranking of the books I read this year, along with some mini-reviews, and a brief note on how bad the… Continue reading 2021 Fantasy Bingo Card (Hard Mode)
This will be my second year nominating and voting for the Hugo Awards, and while I have a ton of reading to get to in the couple of months before nominations are due, I thought it was a good time to go ahead and share the works on my radar for potential nomination. This can… Continue reading Way Too Early 2022 Hugo Nomination Draft
I’ve read a lot of amazing books in 2021, and I may have some new additions to my all-time favorites list. But the list of all-timers is a lot shorter than the list of authors who have me really excited for their next projects. So let me take a moment to share some sci-fi/fantasy authors… Continue reading SFF Authors I’m Even More Excited to Read in 2022
I’ve had a great reading year, and there have been plenty of works of sci-fi/fantasy that I’ve rated at five stars (17+ on my 20-point scale). But it takes something truly special–something that’s worthy of my all-time favorites list–to register a score of 19 or 20. So let me share my absolute favorites of the… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Works I Rated 19 or 20 in 2021.
This has been my first year participating in the r/Fantasy book bingo, which has quickly become one of my favorite reading challenges. To complete the board, you need to read 25 books (well, 24 books and a handful of short stories) by 25 different authors, all fitting into various bingo categories. It’s been a wonderful… Continue reading So Long and Thanks for All the Cliffs: A Year of Book Bingo
