Friday 7 December 2012

You Tell Me | What's at the Top of the Scots?

It's that time of the year, dear readers!

Hard to believe it may be - I'm still wondering where October went, never mind November - but it's time to start thinking about 2012 as a whole. To consider the very best of the very best. And as ever, I need all the help I can get.

I go to the movies as often as I can... I play video games on the PS3, the PC and the 360... I read more books than most humans — but there's only the one of me, and I can't hope to be in any sense comprehensive. What I can do is ask you if I'm missing anything particularly significant.

So here I am, hat in hand... asking.

This post is intended as an open forum for you to put your personal favourites forward. If there's a book you think is brilliant, and I haven't already reviewed it here or on Tor.com - here's my page over there - then it's entirely likely I haven't read it. If there's some magnificent film or obscure video game that I haven't said word one about, please, point me in the right direction. 

Top of the Scots starts on December 17th, which gives us approximately ten days to talk. I can read three or four normal-length novels in that time, watch at least as many movies, and play perhaps a pair of games, depending on how long they're apt to last. I've cleared the slate specifically so I can do exactly as outlined... so let fly your recommendations, folks!

Who needs holidays, eh? :)

8 comments:

  1. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer was really good.

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  2. Lee Battersby's The Corpse-Rat King was probably my favourite read of the year. It's an extremely funny, extraordinarily imaginative tale, and I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.

    My review is here.

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  3. You've introduced me to James Corey, The Macht, and The Bloody Nine. For those three things alone, if ever your travels bring you to Seattle, you won't pay for a single drink.

    In the meantime, I may have missed you mentioning it, but if you haven't picked up Mark Waid's run on Daredevil, you're surely missing out. There's not much I can add here that hasn't been said (by the Eisner's, no less), other than to add my voice to the praise. The covers, the art, the stories - all perfect.

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  4. Not necessarily giving away my favorite 2012 release, but I would note that Junot Díaz's This is How You Lose Her and Mark Helprin's In Sunlight and in Shadow were two fine reads that I don't think you've reviewed anywhere.

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  5. I've heard a lot of good things about The Forest Laird by Jack Whyte (2010). It's the beginning of a trilogy of William Wallace. I plan to read it eventually, and it hope it doesn't have the big historical errors that Braveheart had.

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  6. I can only give comics recommendations since you read way more books than me and I barely watch movies.

    So, comics...If you aren't already reading these, you need to immediately: Prophet, Multiple Warheads, Fatale, Godzilla Half Century War, and Saga. Some of the best comics I've ever read, and all released this year.

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  7. I still have to get my full thoughts together as well, but here are some standouts from this year:

    The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett
    Rapture by Kameron Hurley
    Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck
    Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
    Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
    Faith by John Love
    The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan

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  8. I'd have to go with Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

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