Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants need to list their top ten favourite books that feature a colour in their title. This proved to be a particularly interesting topic to do, and I was rather curious to see just how many of the books that I have read had a colour in the title.
While I had a few titles in the top of my mind when I first saw what this topic was, I had to dive through the bibliographies of some of my favourite authors and through my blog archives to see what I could find. This worked out well, and I was able to come up with a final list that I am rather happy with. This list is filled with a great range of different books which includes a combination of recent novels I have read and reviewed, as well as some old favourites. I managed to eventually cull this down to my absolute favourites, as well as including a few special honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions:
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
When I first heard about this week’s topic this was the book that I initially thought of, even though technically it does not have a true colour in the title. Because of this technicality, I decided to include it as an honourable mention, rather than on the main list, but there was no way I could not mention this amazing first entry in Pratchett’s iconic Discworld series.
Gray Man books by Mark Greaney
This is another one that is technically ineligible for this list, as it is the series name which has the colour in it rather than the individual book titles. However, I have really enjoyed the two Gray Man novels that I have read (Mission Critical and One Minute Out), so I thought I would include it as an honourable mention.
Greenlight by Benjamin Stevenson
Top Ten List (no particular order):
Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
The first book that I am featuring in this list is the Demon in White, which I only just finished reading today. This was a fantastic and epic read which serves as the third book in Ruocchio’s amazing Sun Eater series of science fiction novels. This book has a couple of different cover designs, but I decided to go with the one above, as not only is it really striking but it features so much of the titular colour in it.
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
There was no way that I could create a list about books with colours in their title without featuring this incredible book. I absolutely loved Red Seas Under Red Skies, which is the second book in Lynch’s iconic Gentleman Bastards fantasy series, especially as, in some ways, it is a better novel than the incredible first entry in the series, The Lies of Locke Lamora.
Red Metal by Mark Greaney and Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV
Talon of the Silver Hawk by Raymond E. Feist
I had to include at least one book from one of my favourite authors, Raymond E. Feist, and I actually found a couple of good options here. While I was tempted to use Feist’s second book, Silverthorn, I ended up going with Talon of the Silver Hawk. This is mainly because Talon of the Silver Hawk was the first of Feist’s books that I ever read and it started my life-long love for the author’s novels, as I immediately went back and checked out the rest of the books in the epic Riftwar Cycle after I finished reading it.
Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 24: Return of the Black Soul by Stan Sakai
Readers of this blog will know that I am a major fan of the Usagi Yojimbo series of comics, so when I started working out what to include in this list I made sure to check out which collected edition had colours in their titles. I ended up being spoiled for choice here as three full volumes had titles that could be featured on this list, and while I could have included Grey Shadows or Red Scorpion, both of which are truly outstanding comics, I decided to use the 24th volume of the series, Return of the Black Soul, for this list. Return of the Black Soul contains an amazing story that reveals the origins of the compelling and terrifying antagonists, Jei, and it is a major and impressive volume in the Usagi Yojimbo saga.
Star Wars: Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson
Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore
R. A. Salvatore has written a phenomenal number of fantasy novels in his 30+ year career but only one of them has had a colour in the title, his second novel, Streams of Silver. This was a particularly good book from Salvatore, which served as a really strong sequel to his awesome first novel, The Crystal Shard, and it is a wonderful example of classic fantasy fiction.
Red War by Kyle Mills (based on the series by Vince Flynn)
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Well that’s my Top Ten List for this week. I think it turned out rather well, and I liked the intriguing collection of different novels that I ended up featuring. Not only are all the above books really amazing reads, but each of them have impressive covers and there are some great colour centric titles in there. It looks like the colour red is very popular for book titles, although black and silver are both also used a lot. Make sure to let me know which of the above books you enjoyed, as well as which are your favourite books with colours in their titles.
I really ought to read The Priory of the Orange Tree sometime.
My TTT .
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It’s a good piece of epic fantasy fiction, you’ll probably enjoy it.
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Found this one quite tricky. Here’s my top 5
Empire of silver (Conn Iggulden)
Red seas under red skies (Scott Lynch)
Throne of jade (Naomi Novik)
Rose water (Tade Thomson)
White wolf (David Gemmell)
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That’s a great top 5, I almost included Spinning Silver by Novik and I am currently kicking myself for not including White Wolf, that was an awesome book.
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What did you think of Priory? I have heard so many mixed reviews and…its not a small book so I keep balking. Love your colorful choices!
Molly @ SilverButtonBooks
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Yeah it is a bit of a commitment to read Priory, but I think its worth it. It had a pretty good story, split across a bunch of great characters and I ended up getting through it rather quickly. It’s definitely good if you want a standalone adventure as the author introduces and wraps up everything extremely well.
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Thank you!
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Great list! I hope to read the colour of magic at some point!
My post!
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Thanks, all of Pratchett’s Discworld novels are amazing and Colour of Magic is a great first entry to check out.
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Despite the fact that I love fantasy and some SF, the only one of these I have read is The Colour of Magic, and I have to admit, it’s not a favorite, though I know many people love it. There are several I will be checking out, though! And The Priory of the Orange Tree is on my TBR list (and my Kindle.)
My list ended up being even more eclectic, with everything from children’s books to epic fantasy, historical mystery, and contemporary romance.
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Wow, that’s an interesting list you pulled together, a really fun mix. I do like The Colour of Magic although a lot of his later Discworld novels are better (my favourite is probably The Last Continent, mainly because I’m Australian). I hope you enjoy The Priory of the Orange Tree when you get around to it, I thought it was quite a good read.
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Ooh fab list! Red Seas Under Red Skies and The Colour of Magic are great. I also would have gone for Silverthorn as I’ve not read Feist widely enough… must read more! 😀
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Silverthorn is great, although it has been a while since I have read it. I definitely have to go back and do a major Feist reread at some point as there are a lot of good books in there. I actually just finished reading his latest novel last week and I’m hoping to get a review up for that soon.
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I’ve only read The Riftwar Saga which I absolutely loved. Can’t say I’m sorry to have such a large amount of books to get through though… it’s just where to get started! 😀
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