2015 in reading and plans for 2016

I meant to do this sooner, but hey, better late than never. 2015 was a pretty good year for me in terms of reading (and given the way Grim Reaper was cutting through beloved celebrities like Leonard Nimoy, it was the only good thing about that year!). I managed to pack away twelve books which in of itself is great, but it was pretty dismal on the sci-fi front, as only four of the twelve were science fiction:

Four books and half of them were Star Trek. I wasn't joking when I said Treklit is my crack. Anyways, I was tempted to count This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams, since I found it in the SFF section of the local library, but I think it was only shelved there because the rest of the Dagmar Shaw series does veer into sci-fi territory, while this one doesn't. I was also tempted to count Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro because it features human cloning, but otherwise lacks any other elements of science fiction.

Not going to lie, four books is downright depressing. If it had been like five, it wouldn't be so bad because then it would be closer to the six fantasy books I read the same year, but four just falls far too short for my own comfort. Which is exactly why I'm bound and determined not to repeat my poor performance this year. I've set the overall goal of at least 15 books read before year's end with the additional goal of making sure a bigger chunk of that is science fiction. I'm already three books into that goal and I'm proud to say that book #3 was the start of that goal.

I'll make a separate post with my thoughts about Mutineer, but it was pretty good. In the mean time, I'm keeping the train rolling by reading another military science fiction novel, Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach.

I'll probably jump back to fantasy after finishing FP, but when I come back around, it'll be a choice between Reap the Whirlwind, Cordelia's Honor, or Neuromancer. But things are going to get really fun this summer. I'm saving up money until late-summer, early fall when I plan on going on a book buying spree. Nothing is set in stone, but I aim to buy some of the following:

• At least two Honor Harringtons - Flag in Exile and Honor Among Enemies. I also want at least the first book in the new prequel series
• The next two Kris Longknifes - Deserter and Defiant
• The three most recent of John Scalzis - Lock In, The Human Division, and The End of All Things
• Andromeda's Fall by William C. Dietz
• Fortress in Orion & The Prison in Antares by Mike Resnick. I know FiO isn't supposed to be good, but I'm willing to give it and the sequel a try

The number is bound to go up or down depending on what I actually find when I hit Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. What they don't have on their shelves, I can just order from them or the small bookstore in town.

In any case, 2016 is definitely going to be the year of science fiction for me.