Naturally, as soon as I saw this week’s TTT prompt, my brain went blank: “Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series”. But after some digging around on my shelves in the blog, I do have some answers! I’ve probably left out something perfect and amazing, but here goes. I’ve linked to my review in each case, assuming I have one posted on the blog!

1. Death of an Author, by E.C.R. Lorac. Of the British Library Crime Classics series, this is one of my favourites. This is perhaps not the conventional sense of “series”, and perhaps I should’ve picked my favourite Lorac of her series about Inspector Macdonald… but, well, I didn’t.
2. Mirror Lake, by Juneau Black. It’s hard to pick a favourite of this series, because it’s less about any individual book (at least so far) and more just enjoying the setup. Still, Mirror Lake is very clever.
3. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, vol 3, by MXTX. Okay, maybe it’s cheating to count this as a series, but we’re not being marked on accuracy here. I like book three the most because Shen Qingqiu starts to realise some things — and starts to finally understand Luo Binghe and treat him a little more fairly. And of course, they get their happy ending.
4. Two Rogues Make A Right, by Cat Sebastian. I didn’t choose this just because a major character has TB, but that kinda factors into why I find this so memorable. But I also enjoy how Sebastian’s series usually take a character who seemed an unlikely love interest in a previous book, and get into why they acted that way, and make them worthy love interests after all, and — if I remember rightly, anyway — this was the first book where I noticed that pattern.
5. A Fashionable Indulgence, by KJ Charles. I wouldn’t always expect a first book in a series to be a favourite, but I think there were things I found frustrating or just not to my taste in the latter two books — while appreciating the arc and story over the whole trilogy, and liking the second and third books quite a bit, to be clear! And I do enjoy the characters (and their relationship) a lot in this first installment.
6. Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis. I’m not absolutely positive I shouldn’t pick Voyage of the Dawn Treader here, but on the other hand, this has all four of the Pevensies, and as a kid I ate up the introductory chapters with the secret midnight meetings in the tower…
7. Tropic of Serpents, by Marie Brennan. This book is where that series fell into place for me, and it’s a perfect illustration of how Isabella is as a person (and a scientist). I just had a lot of fun with it, and always do.
8. Feed, by Mira Grant. Honestly, this book has lived rent-free in my head for so long. I’m not as big a fan of the rest of the series — not that I dislike it, just, this is the book that I like the best.
9. Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is another series where it was the second book that made things really click for me. It was very unlike the first book, and went some bold places.
10. Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Perhaps a controversial choice, compared to Strong Poison or Gaudy Night, and there’s a strong argument to be made for The Nine Tailors, in my book. But ultimately I love Peter and Harriet’s early friendship and the wittiness this particular book is written with.

Those are my choices, and I’m sticking to them!

What about everyone else? Would you/did you find this one difficult to answer?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “Books I Wish Had More/Less [Insert Your Concept Here] In Them”. I decided to go slightly off-piste and talk about characters I want more of in given books, because there are some characters I’d love to understand more about or see the further adventures of.

Without further ado, here are my ten!

1. Csethiro Ceredin, from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. She’s really cool, but we only really see her through Maia’s eyes — and early in their acquaintance, at that. I want to know about why she learned fencing, I want to know about all her other interests, and of course I want to know how she and Maia work out as a couple.
2. Liu Qingge, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. He’s a fairly prominent character, given the amount of time he spends protecting Shen Qingqiu and fighting Luo Binghe, but I’d love to know about his childhood, how he and Mingyan both came to Cang Qiong Mountain, more about his past animosity toward the original Shen Qingqiu… I just like him a lot, okay!?
3. Ning Yingying, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. It’s fairly obvious that her “demotion” from love interest to side character actually allows her a chance to develop and grow. I’d love to have seen more of that.
4. Liu Mingyan, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by MXTX. Pretty much the same story here! And why did she decide to wear a veil, and when? What will she do when she’s not Luo Binghe’s love interest, and with her brother alive?
5. Faramir, from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This has been a long-term wish for me. I loved the brief glimpse we got of Faramir from a very young age, and that interest in him hasn’t abated at all. How’d he come to be the best of his family, far nobler, braver and kinder in many ways than Boromir or Denethor?
6. Don Abene, from Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. And her whole group, really. How do they get on after meeting Murderbot? Does Murderbot ever join them again?
7. Tom Wilker, from A Natural History of Dragons (and sequels) by Marie Brennan. He’s a major character of the books, and we do get to see him succeed, but what would he write in his memoirs? What did he make of his life after he and Isabella’s great discoveries?
8. Cal, from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. He’s a bit-part, really, coming or going as needed by the plot — but I wanted to know more about how he gets along in the world.
9. Thimble, from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. I think this might just be because he was cute. But also we didn’t get to know a lot about his thoughts and feelings, and I’m curious.
10. Sun Li, from Shady Hollow (and some of the sequels) by Juneau Black. We know a bit about where he’s come from and why, but he’s developing a friendship with Vera and Lenore, and I’d actually like to see more of it — more than just them eating at his restaurant with him, for example. Do they hang out other than that? What does he do with his free time?

In the end, these are books I love just as they are… but it really wouldn’t hurt to see more of these characters.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is “debut novels I enjoyed”, which I found a bit tricky as I don’t generally keep track of whether a book is an author’s debut or not. Still, let’s have a crack at it…

1. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. I should reread this trilogy at some point, it’s been ages. I remember reading the first book vividly, and curling up with it to just get started, and of course ending up reading most of it.
2. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù. Remembering that the Scum Villain webnovel was MXTX’s first, I couldn’t resist including this one! I wrote ten reasons why I loved it last week, if you’re curious.
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. A chunky historical fantasy with liberal use of footnotes that not everyone enjoyed. I say this because I can hear the comments coming and I want to get out ahead of it: I know! Not everyone liked it! But I did, and have read it at least twice (and am partway through a third read).
4. Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. What a saga this one launched! Once again, it has its detractors (particularly for its flowery language and, of course, the masochism and sex), but I enjoyed the story and characters very much: I found the worldbuilding rich and exciting, and Joscelin is a heck of a love interest. “If I’m to be damned for what I’ve done, I’ll be damned in full and not by halves.”
5. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I keep wondering if this will enchant me as much if I read it again, and I think I should probably give it a shot.
6. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. I admit that when I first read it, I didn’t entirely get it: it’s one of those books that stayed with me, and which I had to read again to fully fall in love. Still, I was convinced by the end of the first book, and have enjoyed all Leckie’s other work since.
7. Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw. Not always accurate about what it’s like to be a GP in Britain in general (said Mum when I eagerly made her read the series), but enjoyable nonetheless — and some inaccuracies can be forgiven since the patients are vampires, ghouls, banshees and mummies. And the story has such a good heart.
8. Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. It took me a while to get into the right mindset for Ninefox Gambit when I first read it, and I have no doubt it’ll take the same again: there’s just so much going on with the worldbuilding and the politics. That said, everything you need is there in the story, if you give it the time. It’s not always easy to trust readers to do the work, and I know some people who bounced off for that reason, but I found it entirely worthwhile.
9. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. I’m unapologetic in my love for this series, even though (like most others on this list) it has its detractors. It may be about aliens and a galaxy far, far away, but it’s also about people, the connections between people, and how small lives go on amongst much bigger events — with an unapologetic interest in those small lives.
10. The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s been quite a while since I read anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, and his more recent work didn’t get me so excited somehow (though I still need to give it a shot). The Summer Tree has flaws, yes — but the story of Paul, Kim, Dave, Kevin, Jennifer and Fionavar has stuck with me. Maybe I should reread it soon!

Whew, we got there! Looking forward to seeing everyone else’s lists.