It's been a long time since I've read a good meaty fantasy epic. The last one I read ended up being one of my favorite books of all time, The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Since then I've had major trepidations about jumping into another one in the fear that it wouldn't live up to the big shoes of both Rothfuss and the George R.R. Martin fantasy epics A Song of Ice and Fire. And yet I purchased a book a couple years back called The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Its easily one of the best rated books on my Goodreads "to-read" list and I finally took the plunge.

I've made it. After thinking it might be a good idea to start deciding ahead of time which books to read I'm now on my last "Reading Challenge" post for 2015. I've done four of these already (Books 1-5, 6-10, 11-15,16-20) and this will be final one plotting out books 21-27 to hopefully make my goal of reading 27 books in 2015. So without further ado here are the remaining books in my pile to read for the rest of the year. 

You would think that with a series that has been running as long as Jim Butcher's Desden Files series it must have started with a great debut novel. At least that's what I expected. Sadly after jumping into Storm Front a week ago I did not see what all the fuss was about. My guess is people were captivated with the world more then a story. It's an urban fantasy novel that follows Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden (amazing name) a wizard in what at least in the first book seems to be in our world and time frame although I don't believe its explicitly pointed out.

I've been really looking forward to diving into An Ember in the Ashes. After reading the overwhelming praise for the book I purchased it and immediately put it in my rotation to read. The one concern I had going into An Ember in the Ashes was that it was put in the Young Adult category. Outside of Brandon Sanderson's Reckoner trilogy I haven't been the biggest fan of many recent Young Adult books. And sadly my biggest complaints on An Ember in the Ashes are that it feels constrained by the shackles of the genre. 

I've read more Stephen King in the last couple of years then any other author. What you might find interesting is that Mr Mercedes the first in the Bill Hodges trilogy was one of my least favorite books that King has written. It wasn't bad but it just came across disingenuous. He's such a prolific author and to do what felt like a standard summer thriller felt out of character. So I went into Finders Keepers not expecting much. That feeling expanded exponentially when I got through the first chapter and found out what the main crux of this book was all about. 

I truly hate being down on any book. I have a deep respect for all authors. I assume that Paolo Bacigalupi poured his heart and soul into his book, The Water Knife. But I'm sad to say that it was probably my least favorite read so far in 2015. The one thing The Water Knife had going for it was that it was short, so I forced myself to finish it. Outside of that it was a major disappointment.