The last of 2016’s reading posts.
It was a bit touch and go as to whether I was going to be able to meet my 50 book goal, but I can now say that yes, I did it. Just.
To kick off the round-up, read Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is part of the book series that the Witcher video games are based on. It is dark fantasy with alot of European mythology thrown in. It turns out, I managed to miss a book in between reading The Last Wish and Blood of Elves but that didn’t stop me enjoying it, in fact Andrzej Sapkowski does a great job of summarising the events in past books that you could pick up Blood of Elves without reading the previous books. If you enjoy fantasy books like Game of Thrones and Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, then I would recommend trying the The Witcher books.
Moving onto the next book, which I didn’t enjoy as much, The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman. Oh boy.The story is about a young man, Cale, and his group of friends who escape a religious organisation that wants to raise them as fanatical soldiers. OK, sounds interesting so far. They end up taking refuge in a nearby city (I think its nearby, the geography is kind of confusing and poorly explained) where they help the rulers of the city prepare for the fanatics invasion. It does sound like a unique plot in the fantasy genre but that is all there really is for The Left Hand of God. The characters are very one dimensional and few are likeable. Apart from Cale, the protagonist, I can’t even remember the name of one other character and its been one month since I read the book! The Left Hand of God held a lot of promise but ultimately, I didn’t enjoy it and I won’t be reading the rest of the trilogy.
Despite having a rather long title , The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals
from Comic Book History by Jon Morris, it is a rather short book. This is actually the shorter version, exclusive to Loot Crate, which my brother gave to me as he doesn’t read comic books. Anyway, in the book, Jon Morris takes us on a trip down memory lane by talking us through some of the stranger and odder villains in comic books, that have been largely forgotten about. It was fun and quick read but you would probably only enjoy it if you had an interest in comic books.
Speaking of comic books, the next book is The Avengers vs. The X-men, which is a collection of the comics that tell the the avengers vs. x-men story arc. I’ll try and summarise the plot, before the book, the mutant race was almost eradicated. Then along comes Hope, aptly name as she is the first mutant since the incident. It turns out Hope is destined to be the next host for the Phoenix- which is not a good thing for any living being in the universe. So Captain America and the Avengers want to take Hope into their custody but Cyclops and the mutants don’t trust them and want to use to Hope to save the mutants. Things escalate pretty quickly. Overall I enjoyed the story arc, I will say that the two sides weren’t divided neatly into X-men and Avenges, as some X-men were siding with the Avengers. Anyway, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to Avengers and X-men fans.
Moving away from comics but sticking with a drawn genre, we have Fairy Tail Vol. 10 by Hiro Mashima. This volume focuses on my favourite character, Erza, and her backstory as a child slave forced to build a magical tower for a religious cult. This is probably one of the best written volumes of Fairy Tail that I have read so far. It certainly is the most emotional. Volume 10 reminded me just how much I enjoyed the characters and story of the series, as well as demonstrating how well character development is handled. I will certainly be reading more Fairy Tail in 2017.
Moving onto a Christmas present I received, The Pokemon Encyclopedia. When they call this an encyclopedia, they aren’t exaggerating. This covers pretty much everything to do with the Anime from the 90s, all the way to the 6th generation, X and Y. I would definitely recommend this as a gift to a Pokemon fan.
And finally, last but by no means least, Theft of Swords by Michael 
J. Sullivan. This is in fact the first two books in The Riyria Revelations series, an epic fantasy series about two thieves who find themselves in the middle of global conflict for power. Add an ancient legend, a diverse fantasy world and a religious organisation obsessed with finding the heir of said legend and you have the recipe for a great fantasy novel. I’m glad that I finished this year on a fantasy novel that I really enjoyed and I will be continuing the series into 2017.
And that is the reading challenge for 2016! I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was going to make the target but I just made it. It definitly has been a mixed bag (or should that be bookshelf?) 0f books, some great, like Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn novels to some not so great ones. So come back next month, when I’ll be kicking off 2017’s reading challenge!
All book cover images came from goodreads.com
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