One of the things that I enjoy about following a lot of the science fiction and fantasy awards is that you get to read great short stories by authors that are getting their first exposure, before they publish a novel.  That's how I was introduced to Ken Liu, through his short story "The Paper Menagerie" which was really good.  Since then, Liu has been really prolific in the short fiction realm, consistently writing really good stories (a collection of his short fiction is coming out later this year, and I'll probably buy it, even though I've read most of its contents already).

All of this is to say that I was very excited to read his debut novel "The Grace of Kings".  It's a fantasy epic that has some steampunk tendencies and a pretty clear basis in Chinese/Asian folklore.  This combination has spawned the term "silkpunk" which Liu has talked about here and there (this podcast was a really interesting - and spoiler free - look at the book and the author's approach and viewpoint on fantasy).

I loved the book.  It wasn't standard fantasy based around a hero's journey, but jumped right in with a large cast and pulled everything together.  It read like the recounting of a legend where various stories were all cast and recast with the same set of characters.  It really played to my enjoyment of his short stories, but at the same time it was cohesive.  It's long (around 700-800 pages), but it felt like it earned that length - the scope is enormous.

It's the first book in a trilogy, but I think it stands perfectly well on its own.  All in all, one of my favorites that I've read this year.

Some short things I read last month:

• Reading "Labyrinth" by Amelia Gray and then reading this short piece about the editing process for the story was pretty interesting.  Some of the things seem petty and weird, but I find the thought process of an author revising a story that's "finished" really interesting.

• Grunion Run by Juliet Escoria.  This was my favorite story from her collection, Black Cloud. I read the entire collecion this month in about two sittings.  It was good, all the stories were about this short and they all tackled influences (positive and negative) and things that pull at you long after you think you've moved past them.  Every story in the collection has a companion video.  Here's the one for Grunion Run, and it's weird (and maybe NSFW - language).

• Ciaran Berry - For the Birds.  I'm not quite finished with Berry's collection, but this poem is one of the many so far that has caught me up in the mix of rustic image and historic allusion.  Here's the author reading the poem:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul8Zb2LCJQY