Happy Birthday to the Archaeologist’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Yes indeed, today marks the one year anniversary of my first post!  I will admit the popularity of the site somewhat astounds me, and its increasing following shocks me even more.  

To mark this day, I’m going to list the top ten most popular posts, and the top ten favorite books I reviewed this year! 

Popularity Contest:

Okay, excluding the posts that got high ranking due to bots skimming the web (God, I hate those… I am interested in what people want to see and those things are the Spam of  the blogging world), the top ten are:

1. Airborn: Matt Cruise Series – Book 1, Kenneth Oppel
2. Terminal World, Alistair Reynolds
3. TOTALLY GEEKY TECH TALK: Star Trek — The Working of The Heisenberg Compensator: or just how big a geek am I?
4. Quicksilver: Baroque Cycle Book 1, Neal Stephenson
5. The Orc King, Transitions Book One, R. A. Salvatore
6. Paradise Passed, Jerry Oltion
7. Feersum Endjinn, Iain M. Banks
8. Surface Details, Iain M. Banks
9. Polyanna Was a Space Marine: Why Military Science Fiction Characters Are Too Good to be True
10. Skinned, Robin Wasserman

There are a couple of notes that should go with this.  First off, Airborn by Kenneth Oppel takes the lead by a very large percentage: 25% again as many hits as the next most popular hit.  Secondly, The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore has only been up since April 14th, suggesting that it may take the lead in fairly short order.  Finally, the frequency with which Iain M. Banks turns up in the top ten is likely skewed.  While he is a very popular writer (and one of my favorites), I have also reviewed more of his works than anyone else’s.  So his accolades are earned, but I think its more interesting to see the other people’s works that have turned up. 

My Top Ten Picks for the First Year:

In no particularly order, these are the reviews of the ten books that I enjoyed the most this year. Ask me in a month, and this list will probably change, not just because I’ve read more books, but because I’m in a different mood.

• The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• The Prefect, Alistair Reynolds
• The Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks
• Paradise Passed, Jerry Oltion
• Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
• A Corpse in the Koryo: an Inspector O Novel, James Church
•  Skinned, Robin Wasserman
•  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
•  Anathem, Neal Stephenson
• Changing Planes, Ursula K. Le Guin

Oh I could go on and on about each book and why I liked it so much, particularly since the placing on this list may not seem to match the ratings I gave them, but why bother?  At the end of the day, these are the ones I remember enjoying the most.  What is more, the rating is not supposed to be a starred system, but rather recommendations to different types of readers about different types of stories. 

Regardless, I have had a great year and thank you, one and all, for the support and readership!

Here’s to next year!

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