Another milestone: 500th review

I've alluded to this milestone a few months ago and I knew it was coming. Still, realizing that I will post my 500th review this month is hard to believe. Then again, if you'd told me back in 2005 that I'd still be active in 2016, I would have said you're crazy!

It's been a long journey and somewhat of a bumpy ride at times. And yet, it's been fun for the most part. In the last decade, I've met some of my favorite authors in person and got to interact with plenty of others, many of them on a semi-regular basis. It's obvious that the Hotlist grew into something that I could never quite envision when I created this humble little blog of mine. And I can't believe that thousands of SFF fans keep on returning to read the drivel that I post, week in and week out.

So let me take this opportunity to thank you all for making this the enjoyable experience it has been since January 2005. God knows it wouldn't be this much fun without an audience. Thank you to all the authors, editors, publicists, marketing directors, agents, and everyone else involved in publishing for helping make the Hotlist what it has become. Thank you to my fellow SFF bloggers, whether they like me or not. Thank you to the online SFF community for being there at the beginning and for sticking around afterward. Basically, many thanks to everyone who has been there along the way.

Wow, 500 reviews! Who would have thought??? Initially, I wanted this one to be for something special. But the timing didn't work out for R. Scott Bakker's The Great Ordeal or for Mark Lawrence's The Wheel of Osheim. Not sure at the moment which book will be my 500th review. I've finished Glen Cook's The Return of the Black Company and Steven Erikson's Fall of Light, and I'm currently reading Paul Kearney's The Wolf in the Attic. One of these, the third one I'll be reviewing this month, will become the 500th work of fiction I review.

I have no idea how long I'll keep doing this, but it's safe to say that I probably don't have another 500 reviews ahead of me. Looking back, it's hard to believe that I got this far. . .

The current state of the genre has made me reticent to attend any conventions, but I'm well aware that I owe lots of authors a drink or three! For the countless hours of reading pleasure they provided over the years, they deserve no less! So for those writers I have yet to meet, like Steven Erikson, Guy Gavriel Kay (who is in my home town tonight and whom I'll somehow miss yet again), Jacqueline Carey, Celia Friedman, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Carrie Vaughn, Brian Ruckley, Myke Cole, Daniel Abraham, Peter V. Brett, Mark Lawrence, R. Scott Bakker, Richard Morgan, Katherine Kurtz, Robin Hobb, Ian McDonald, Peter F. Hamilton, Stephen R. Donaldson, Melanie Rawn, Jim Butcher, Alastair Reynolds, and so many others (you know who you are!), know that the first round is definitely on me should we ever meet in person! ;-)

All the best,

Patrick