I read 50 books in 2018 and made a post that quite a few of you liked. This year I only managed 27 novels (37something books in total). I won't bore you with the bad ones (looking at you, Bone White) but here are the highlights!
1+2. Those Above/Those Below by Daniel Polansky
I was surprised how much I liked these two books. It's a classic revolution overthrowing a fascist (-ish) government plot with a twist. The fascists are weird fantasy alien bird-people and we get to see a lot of things close to their point of view through one of their servants. They've basically created a utopian city that's not utopian for all of those who live on the lower levels. There's a grandma-aged heroine who's just so incredibly smart (tricky!) and snarky you have to enjoy her. The character who you start to hate early on dies in the second book. (Is that a spoiler? Eeehh...) The other characters seem well rounded and their whole lives don't revolve around the revolution. They're just people who live in the bird-people's utopian city and are drawn into the revolution (or not).
3. Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
This was fun! I wasn't really much into the 'romance' plot because it felt mostly silly but the rest of the book was cool. There are some ancient alien whales which are super rad (I forgot their name but I still remember the super-cool concept!) and the imagery in the novel is quite good. It's all about stars and starlight and turns quite romantic while not being over the top or cheesy. 10/10. I already bought the second novel (Machine) and look forward to reading it soon.
(Side note: I liken this book to Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne. If you can only read one of them then go for Ancestral Night. Architects of Memory has nothing to do with either architects or memory and the 'plot' is very... let's say chaotic to be kind.)
4. The Forbidden Stars by Tim Pratt
What can I say about Tim Pratt? As the other Axiom books The Forbidden Stars was FUN! Tim's imagination takes you places and a lot of his characters are great. The main character and her girlfriend are not really my thing (the main character's a meat-head and the girlfriend doesn't have any personality) but there's also two other characters who were absolutely awesome. One is a flying alien squid called Lantern, the other is Ashok, a cyborg engineer who's very fun. The ending of The Forbidden Stars wasn't my thing either. THE WHOLE SERIES HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL I'M MAD TIM WANTS TO STOP AT THREE BOOKS. I get it. Tim probably wants to do other things and has other projects. But come on! A) It ended very inelegantly and B) The series could have been 20 books and I would have read every single one of them. The characters (even meat-head and no-personality) are so entertaining to read about!
5. Planetside by Michael Mammay
I absolutely loved this! It was so fun to read and the action great without being brain-dead. It helps that the main character is an older dude (think grandpa age) and not a young hot-headed (read: brainless) spud. There's some sinister experiments and explosions and soldiers fighting on an alien planet. What's not to like? I recommend you just buy it and read for yourself.
6. The Deep by Alma Katsu
This one was a good read. I didn't like it as much as The Hunger (by the same author) but it was well written and the plot tore me along on a magical journey. In terms of aquatic horror-ish it could have done better. There are books like Mira Grant's Into the Drowning Deep, The Swarm by Frank Schätzing, and The Fisherman by John Langan that use the water that surrounds the characters and out of which the horror comes much better. Heck, there is an absolutely brilliant short story I read last year which uses the water/ocean theme to a much better effect than The Deep (This might have been The Deep by Corissa Baker in Kat Rocha's Whispers of the Abyss but not entirely sure. I'll update once I've got it.). In The Deep the water was circumstantial rather anything else. There was no need to tie any of the plot to water/the ocean if we're going to be strictly honest. But ok, fun premise, good execution, and the characters don't wear layers of layers of plot armor, so that's refreshing as well.
7. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Who hasn't sung the praises of this novella lately? It's short, it's thoughtful, the style is fresh. There's nothing more to be said. I liked all the characters (although the their/they pronoun used for a singular character still confuses me and it makes things more difficult read at times) and the story was... as you'd expect Neo-Chinese ancient mythology to be, full of magical realism, full of lovely imagery. 12/10 I liked it well enough to pre-order the next in the series (hopefully?), When the Tiger came Down from the Mountain, and I don't usually pre-order books.
8. An Unnatural Life by Erin K. Wagner
Another novella, but vastly different from The Empress of Salt and Fortune. This one is sci-fi and deals with AI and AI's rights. I got sucked into it and read it in 1-2 hours. The ending jarred me a bit. It's not the fact of WHAT happened, but that there were no consequences and no segue out of the story. The ending was quite abrupt. Still would read and possibly re-read (another thing I generally don't do) 10/10.
9. Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
The series starts with Ninefox Gambit (read in 2019) and is kind of a space opera and kind of not. It has one POV for the most part (which can make it seem small) but a massive world. That world is great. It's amazing even if you don't understand half of what is going on because you're unfamiliar with the things the author is describing or your imagination fails. The spaceships are (semi?) sentient moths. The space stations (?) are castles with names such as 'Fortress of Scattered Needles'. I won't pretend I read it closely enough to be in any way able to describe what these things look like. I just used my imagination. The books are fast-paced and I just liked the trickery in them! Fun read.
There are some more that I liked but wasn't blown away by. They don't really warrant a whole paragraph so they get a honorary mention instead. These are:
Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett (Virtual reality overlaid across the real world. A kind of battle-royale situation inside the game and outside the main character's struggling with her infamous father and his drug habits. A decent read.)
And Shall Machines Surrender by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (This was a novella and it was neither good nor bad. It didn't have much substance but was a futuristic 'slice of life' with a lot of action/detective-ery. I'm still going to read the author's other stuff when I'm in the mood.)
The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore (gay assassin's creeds in some sandy land. It was a fun read but I'd have loved a happier ending and didn't like the twist that much.)
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (eeeh... I've read better things but it was entertaining.)
Hold back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury (This one would have gotten a paragraph because it was quite a refreshing read. However, the ending was completely unwarranted and went against everything the rest of the story told. There was no sense in the novel ending the way it did.)
I'm looking forward to reading some follow-ups of the above the year. These two are on my reading list and already bought:
Machine by Elizabeth Bear
When the Tiger came Down from the Mountain by Nghi Vo
How did your reading go in 2020? Leave a comment and all that. I'd love to hear what you enjoyed and let me know if you read some of the same books as I did!
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