Baudolino by Umberto Eco vs. The Border by Robert McCammon
I know this round will mostly be full of easy choices, but this is a no-brainer! I really enjoyed the medieval romp that was Baudolino, and the only romping in The Border was really terrible sex scenes and a lacklustre plot.
Winner: Baudolino
How It Is by Samuel Beckett vs. World of Trouble by Ben Winters
I still feel vaguely ashamed that I only got the barest bones of what How It Is is about. I mean, I get it, but...so what? I like experimentation, but also something a little more, like characters. Or a plot. Or beautiful writing. So this one was not for me. It seems like a book that is meant for English grad students and pretty much no one else. World of Trouble was much more accessible, but also very thoughtful about the world within it, as we come to the end of the Last Policeman trilogy. This was a journey I was happy to be on.
Winner: World of Trouble
Bye # 2: Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro vs. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
In this case, we have two books I enjoyed. I found Abercrombie's vaguely YA much more palatable than his adult grimdark stuff. And if we're talking about worlds with low levels of technology and a vaguely fantastic feeling about them, this is a good match-up. In the end, though, Yarvi's journey really can't match up to Ishiguro's melancholy look at memory and old age in Arthurian Britain.
Winner: The Buried Giant
Half the World by Joe Abercrombie vs. Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
Um...sorry, Joe Abercrombie? I feel bad knocking two of your books out in two successive Dust Cover bouts, but although I enjoyed both, neither were one of my favourites of the year. Particularly not when one of your books is up against financial fraud in space with mermaids.
Winner: Neptune's Brood
Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz vs. This Census Taker by China Mieville
Phew, it's kind of a relief to have fairly easy choices! Although this one is odd - although I liked This Census-Taker well enough, I read it around the time my mother died, and therefore there is no review of it. And I have, quite frankly, gotten more and more bewildered about the book since I read it, and I've taken the step of listening to the audiobook as well. But I am a Mieville fan, and enjoyed this weird and inexplicable book more than I did the sisters being passive-aggressive at each other.
Winner: This Census-Taker
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