19 December 2008

Best of 2008 -- First Book in a Series

Word Nerd has reached the point in the year again where she bequeaths her "Best ofs" on books she's read this year.

Just to clarify on the awards, they aren't for books released this year (although some are), but rather what Word Nerd deems the best of what she's read this year, regardless of publication date.

Today's award is "Best First Book in a Series." Monday, she'll reveal "Best Discovered Author" and Tuesday will be the coveted "Word Nerd Top Ten Books in 2008."

This year, Word Nerd had some trouble with this category, because it was tending to overlap with "Best Discovered Author" but after some reflection she's declared a winner.

And the winner is...

Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover.

This first book in Chercover's series about Ray Dudgeon takes home the prize because the book was so darn readable and unputdownable. There was a fairly graphic torture scene, but there's also a great scene where Ray drives a car into a swimming pool and that helps balance things out.

This year's runner up for Best First Book in a Series is City of Pearl, by Karen Traviss. The reason it didn't win is that the series starts slow. Things pick up by the end of the book, but it takes a while to get going.

What book would you bestow this award on this year?

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