I decided that over the next couple of days that I would write a couple of blog posts looking at my most popular posts for the year. Splitting the posts into book reviews and other posts.
Today it is the turn of my 5 most popular book reviews for 2017 and following on tomorrow it will be my 5 most popular blog posts.
Massive thanks to everyone who has supported my blog this year. Each and every single one of you rock and are all awesome. Also, a massive thanks to the authors for writing the great books that we get to read.
My Top 5 Most Popular Reviews for 2017.
In no particular order:
The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carey.
You can find my full review:
A review snippet:
The book is told from multiple perspectives. Undoubtedly for me, Stephen Greaves is the best character, offering a unique and interesting perspective due to his autism. He is very clever, also having an eidetic memory (eidetic memory is the ability to recall detailed images from memory that are vivid with extreme clarity and accuracy).
The Boy on the Bridge is both story and character driven, both propel the story forward, and it’s down to both of these aspects together that make the book such an engrossing read. The pacing is good throughout, Carey knows how to write a quality story and draw you in.
The Boy on the Bridge has a serious and sombre tone, this is a thinking person’s zombie book, comprised of harsh and heartbreaking moments, it’s a gripping, deep and thoughtful read.
A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) by Kevin Hearne.
You can find my full review:
A review snippet:
I’m not a professional, I’m just a normal guy who is a reader and a lover of fantasy. I’ve read enough books in the genre to know what I like and what I dislike in fantasy and apart from a couple of very minor slight grievances (I found the large amount of PoV characters to be confusing at the beginning – which I already mentioned at the start of the review. And due to that large cast of characters it also takes a good while for all of the players to be introduced into the story) overall I really couldn’t fault A Plague of Giants. I found it to be an outstanding read and I look forward to continuing the series.👌
A Plague of Giants is fantastic giant-sized epic fantasy.
Godblind by Anna Stephens.
You can find my full review:
A review snippet:
Come the end of Godblind and in typical grimdark fashion, hope is a commodity sorely lacking, throughout the book you have been left looking down an ever-growing gaping maw of bleakness, anguish and desperation, that gets progressively worse with the final hundred pages ratcheting up the despair even more, it’s a fitting ending to a quality book and first installment in the trilogy. But damn, the conclusion is like a punch to the gut, leaving you reeling as you turn the final page, realising that Stephens, whilst closing of this first part and phase, has also simultaneously left the story balancing on a precipice, can you say cliff-fucking-hanger! You want to continue delving deeper into the story, see how it’s all going to play out, find out what the next moves are, the characters fates, it really gives you the feels and you are left wanting more.
Fast paced, visceral, bloodthirsty with plenty of gore-drenched action, an abundance of colourful language, humour, the occasional splattering (not the more common smattering, because, you know, blood splatters) of emotion, characters to root for, and assholes to hate all added together make Godblind a tremendous debut from Stephens and a fantastic read.
If I had to describe Godblind in one sentence, I’d give you this: Godblind is grimdark on steroids!
Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1) by Nicholas Eames.
You can find my full review:
A review snippet:
A conclusion that is fitting, fulfilling and has the emotional pull that just feels right. With the chance for the younger bands to take centre stage and headline the sequel and hopefully the possibility from Eames of some prequel novellas in the future regaling us with some of the legendary adventures and crazy exploits of Saga from days gone by.
Eames builds Kings of the Wyld up to a soaring crescendo with a breathtaking final track, culminating in one epic battle that cranks the volume all the way ‘up to eleven!’
Kings of the Wyld is an action movie with heart in the guise of a fantasy book and is an outstanding debut from Eames. Quality writing and pacing throughout, core characters you care about, crazy scenarios, action, action and more action with plenty of humour and a side helping of emotion all make Kings of the Wyld one hellacious and entertainingly wyld ride!
Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence.
You can find my full review:
A review snippet:
I don’t feel that there’s much I can say about the writing as for me it was nigh on perfect, the pacing, the chapter lengths, the book length, the action and emotion were all bang on when reading and the pages just flew by.
Jorg Ancrath and his brothers in The Broken Empire and Jalan and Snorri in The Red Queen’s War are two trilogies that along with their respective characters hold a place in my heart as two of the finest grimdark fantasy trilogies there is. Now Red Sister, with its cast of captivating characters, story, setting, magic and cliffhanger ending that leaves you wanting more should broaden the appeal of Lawrence from just grimdark fantasy fans to a wider audience of readers.
By the years end, I fully expect Red Sister to be included in the lion’s share of top ten fantasy books of the year lists and fully deserving of that accolade it most certainly will be. With Red Sister, Lawrence not only gives us his best book yet but also his most accessible.
You will find Nona’s story to be one of the best coming of age tales that you will ever read.
So there you have it my 5 most popular reviews for 2017. Remember to check back tomorrow folks when I will be posting my 5 most popular blog posts for 2017! 🙂
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I haven’t read any of these yet. They sound good…I can see why they were the top 🙂
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They were all great reads. Not my top books of the year but the most popular reviews on the blog. Though, a couple of books will be in my top ten of the year.😉📚
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Ah! Makes sense 🙂
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Kings of the Wyld was amazing. So glad to see it showing up on so many year-end lists.
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It was and it is, definitely deserves the recognition that it is getting. 🙂
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Enjoyed reading these reviews again. It has been a good year (if we forget all the bad stuff) in books.
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Lol, yeah, bad stuff does suck. Still got my top reads of the year post so another cool post to come and hopefully less bad stuff both blogging and world related.
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Great post! I’d love to do something similar but not sure how to find my most popular posts/reviews amongst my stats 😄
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Thanks. It’s under the stats tab. Click on the stats tab and then click on year (you can choose day, week, month or year) and it’ll give you a list of your posts and pages with the views next to them.👌📚
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Thanks that’s brilliant 😊
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Stephens, Eames and Lawrence! 😍
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Yep.👌 A couple of them might well make my top ten books of the year list too.😉
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Ooh interesting! Kings and Red Sister are still stuck on my wishlist, Godblind still on my tbr 🙄
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All awesome reviews!! You definitely made me want to read Godblind and Kings of Wyld!
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I don’t have a copy of Godblind or A Plague of Giants and might just have to hunt for those throughout 2018. Looking forward to trying out Kings of the Wyld though! 😀 I vouch for the awesomeness of these reviews too. 😉
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Must…read…KOTW! 😂
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