So here we go, 2018 through my readers eyes:
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Until a couple of years ago Mira Grant (pseudonym of urban fantasy author Seanan McGuire) confined herself exclusively to zombie fiction (they didn't call the monsters in the Symbiosis trilogy zombies, but that's what they were). That changed when she wrote a novella called Rolling in the Deep (also made this list in its year of publication).
Into the Drowning Deep is the sequel to Rolling in the Deep. In the novella a TV network (it's not called SyFy or National Geographic, but it's an amalgamation of the two) set out to make a mockumentary about the existence of mermaids. The boat turned up, but all the crew members had disappeared.
The premise of Into the Drowning Deep is that the same network wants to find out what happened to the crew of the Atargatis and are sending another expedition, even better equipped than the initial one to uncover what exactly does lurk in the depths of the Marianas Trench. The cast all have their own reasons for wanting to go on this journey, some because of a personal connection, some because of personal vanity and others for entirely scientific reasons.
I say cast like it's a cinematic term, because both the novella and the sequel read like they were written to be filmed (in fact Into the Drowning Deep has been optioned and will hopefully be made as a film). There's a lot of the disaster movie in the book. As the various members of the cast are introduced, I found myself having fun as a reader trying to work out who and who wouldn't survive the coming ordeal, just like I often do when I'm watching a disaster film for the first time.
Having read Rolling in the Deep (and I do recommend reading that before trying Into the Drowning Deep), I knew what the monster was, and so it's testament to the skill of the author that she was still able to create a great sense of tension in the book, even though I as the reader knew what was coming.
The cast is quite diverse and well handled, the majority of them are given enough time on the page to grow and allow the reader to make a connection. There are some that made me angry and others that made me cry, some made me laugh, too. Being an Aussie I was particularly appreciative that the Australian character was not a Steve Irwin clone, the temptation to do that must have been strong.
Fantastic book that keeps the pages turning and whitens the knuckles while doing so. Hopefully the film will do justice to the source material.
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
This isn't fantasy, so much as it's secondary world fiction. It's not even an alternate history, because it is set on a world that is like ours, but at the same time isn't. I've read a few low magic fantasies, but it's not often I read one that is no magic, unless it's an alternate history. Amberlough is such a beast. It's also utterly brilliant!
The city of Amberlough is kind of like a cross between 30's New York and Weimar Republic Berlin. The book concerns itself with a few characters in that city just before the hammer comes down. They are a spy (one quibble, the spy was called Cyril and try as I did, I just couldn't see him as a Cyril), a black marketeer and a dancer. They're all connected in one way or another and all have an interest in what is about to happen to their world as it will directly affect them and those close to them.
Because the reader knows what this is based on and what ultimately happens in our world, there could be a lack of tension, but there isn't and this is because I became invested in the characters and wanted to see how events would both affect and involve them.
It's hard to say what drew me in about Amberlough, it's not a standard sort of fantasy and not a hell of of a lot happens, but it is remarkably atmospheric and compelling and I did love the people I was reading about. It does end on a bit of a cliff, but the sequel Armistice is out and did let me off that particular cliff. I liked Armistice, but not quite as much as Amberlough and that's why it's not in the list, although when the series is complete, it may make the list as a whole. In fact when the 3rd book comes out this year I may read the first 2 again, because they are that good.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
I picked this one up on a whim in of all places a bookstore in Cairns (I seem to have luck with random bookstores in Cairns. I found D'Shai, in a second hand bookstore in Cairns many years ago and I had been searching high and low for that for ages). I liked the idea of what it promised to combine.
Meddling Kids is basically Enid Blyton's Famous Five and Scooby Doo combined, they even have a dog, and grown up.
The years when the kids were a group of sleuthing youngsters uncovering the mysteries in a small town are long gone and they've all gone their separate ways into less than stellar futures, one of them has even died. That's when something draws those that remain back to the little town where they first made their names. There's also more than a bit of Stephen King's It about the book, and that's a good thing because I absolutely love It, probably makes my all time favourite list.
Meddling Kids is one of those sort of books that just draws the reader in and won't let them go. I started it on the plane on the way home and read it fairly intently until I had it finished. I found myself reading it whenever I had a spare moment and also resenting whatever took me away from it when I had to go back to work or sleep or whatever else I do when I'm not reading.
I hope they make this as a film or a TV series, because it honestly would work in a visual medium.
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
There is only one author in the world who could take The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and cross it with the Eurovision Song Contest then throw in a homage to glam rock, specifically David Bowie and somehow it make it all work. The author is Catherynne M. Valente and the book is Space Opera.
I adore Valente and have ever since I first encountered her and her work at Worldcon 2010. I was however unaware that she could do comedy. Some of her books have funny moments, but never out and out comedy. Space Opera destroys that misconception. It is screamingly funny from start to end
It's one of the weirdest concepts that there is. The other many many sentient species throughout our universe and all its countless galaxies have discovered each other and abandoned war in favour of a gladiatorial talent contest. Compete or cease to exist.
The fate of the world hangs on the skinny shoulders and fading vocals of washed up, alcohol and drug affected former rock star Decibel Jones.
When the term space opera is used the mind immediately goes to laser firing rocket ships and hotshot pilots. Star Wars is pure space opera. It doesn't think of what happens in Valente's book, but it kind of fits the term even more than the accepted idea.
As well as being really funny, Space Opera also contains Valente's incredibly magical prose and we get some genuinely alien aliens. I'm kind of sick of vaguely humanoid aliens, I want ones that are so different I have trouble getting my head around them and that's what Space Opera gave me.
While I often say I can see things being made into films and I'd like someone to try it, I don't want that done to Space Opera (it has apparently been optioned), because I just don't think anyone can do it justice. I want this on to live on in my head and all the heads of other people who have read it.
Catherynne M. Valente knocks another one out of the park!
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
I really liked Matt Ruff's Mirage, so that's what made me pick up Lovecraft Country.
It was one of those books where I knew I was on a winner almost from the opening lines.
Creepy as fuck were the words that kept popping up in my mind as I read it. It's not only the supernatural elements, either. It's the attempts of people of colour in certain parts of 50's US trying to live in a country that is theirs, but does everything possible to make them feel like they don't belong.
Ruff infuses this into very Lovecraftian stories. Lovecraft Country isn't one single narrative. It's a series of interconnected stories that weave in and around each other. It's very well done and makes the reader really sit up and think. While there is major creep factor and plenty of ick moments, there's also a good deal of humour and humanity in this. I got a sense of real about it and it's characters and that's not easy to do these days, or at least not too many authors do it well.
Hollywood and I must be on a wavelength at present, because after reading Lovecraft Country I found out that a TV series based on it was in the works. Hope it can do the same thing to me that the book did.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
I really liked Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist Histories, I also enjoyed the film Hidden Figures. The Calculating Stars combines the two.
Admittedly subject material for Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamourist Histories and The Calculating Stars are vastly different. One is a series about magic being used in a Regency setting and the other is about a how useful a mathematical genius is when a meteorite hits the Earth and the space program has to be accelerated greatly as a result.
The two do a little more than share an author, though. They're both alternate histories, they both feature strong female protagonists that have talent in traditionally male dominated areas. Because she is not talking about magic, though The Calculating Stars is far more granded in reality.
A lot of The Calculating Stars hinges on Elma and her struggle as a Jewish woman with a facility for numbers who also happens to be a highly talented pilot to make not only the males around her (her husband is one major exception) take her seriously, but also her fellow female 'computers' and pilots, who often seem to feel that Elma is given advantages by the colour of her skin, her family connections (Dad was a highly ranked and regarded military official) and her marriage (husband is an engineer, although Elma as a mathematical genius is actually smarter and better qualified than he is).
The book is actually a prequel to the author's Hugo award winning novelette The Lady Astronaut of Mars, but it doesn't need to be read to help with The Calculating Stars (in fact I'd recommend not reading it before, because it does contain some very slight spoilers).
Kowal captures 1950's America beautifully in this. Meteorite and its effects, aside, this is a great view of the period. Again it's not an action laden book, but no less compelling for it's talk of numbers and trajectories as well as the moral and gender politics of the time. In fact for a fairly 'hard' science fiction novel, there's not a lot of jargon and I found myself merrily zipping through the pages and I am an extremely unscientific reader.
Elma's story is well worth discovering. There's also a sequel; The Fated Sky and I believe there are plans for a 3rd novel.
Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
Nicholas Eames debut Kings of the Wyld was probably my favourite book of 2017, so I awaited the publication of its sequel Bloody Rose with a mix of anticipation and trepidation.
So often sequels are the difficult second album and they just don't live up to expectations. I am happy to report that Bloody Rose is not one of those. I still personally prefer Kings of the Wyld (having read it 3 times since I picked it up just over a year ago), but this is a worthy follow up.
Eames resisted the temptation of making Clay 'Slowhand' Cooper and rest of Saga the focus of Bloody Rose and instead gave us a brand new protagonist; Tam Hashford, totally unconnected to Saga, well at least until she joins the band headlined by Bloody Rose, the daughter or Golden Gabe, the front man of Saga.
Kings of the Wyld was very male dominated and Eames redresses that with Bloody Rose by flipping it around. Rose's band is more girl than boy, although she has male associates and they're an important part of her group.
Despite the book's title, the story is told through the eyes of Tam, not Rose, and I felt that Tam, not Rose was more the focus. Whereas Kings of the Wyld was about an old band getting back together (can't help thinking it was based more on Led Zeppelin than anyone else), Bloody Rose is about a newbie starting out with a currently hot band, so that gives it a different dynamic.
Bloody Rose also makes it very clear that this is a duology, not a trilogy or an open ended series. I like that to be honest, and I'll be interested to see what Nicholas Eames does next.
Small Change by Jo Walton
This is where I'm cheating a bit, although technically this is 3 books (Farthing, Ha'Penny and Half a Crown), it's a very closely connected trilogy, so I think I can include it as one story.
Small Change is a clever alternate history, it works on the theory that small changes can have massive effects. The 'small change' is that Rudolf Hess' attempted peace mission to Great Britain actually worked. This ended hostilities between Nazi Germany and Great Britain in 1941 and meant that the US never entered the European Theatre of war, it also kept Hitler in power and altered the path that Great Britain took.
The first book in the series; Farthing, takes place in the late 40's and has the feel of a British cozy mystery. While that is the focus of the story, there's also a sinister side story going on about how Great Britain is inexorably sliding towards a fascist style of government. The story is told using two points of the view. The story of Lucy Kahn (one of the Farthing set and a bright young thing married to a successful if not socially acceptable Jewish banker) is told in first person and the story of Inspector Peter Carmichael of Scotland Yard investigating the murder at the heart of the mystery is told in 3rd person. Carmichael is the hero of all 3 books and each time his story is written in 3rd person.
The second book; Ha'Penny, is another mystery, but this one centres around a terrorist plot with Hitler being one of 2 targets. The first person part of the story features the voice of Viola Lark; an actress and also loosely based on one of the real life Mitford sisters (I'm actually quite interested in the Mitfords and I could pick most of them mentioned in Ha'Penny, but Viola's character eluded me. I suspect she was a combination of a few of them and not meant to be any one of them in particular, the timing's also out. The book is set in the late 40's and the Mitford's real hey days were in the 20's and 30'). Peter Carmichael's investigation into the plot that Viola is drawn into forms the other part of the book, and details how he finds himself going further down a slippery slope he never wanted to be on.
Half a Crown is a bit of a departure. One the title references currency that is a worth a good deal more than the first two (a farthing is equivalent to a quarter of a penny, and a ha'penny is slang for half a penny. Half a crown is worth two shillings and sixpence, which is one eighth of a pound). This time the mystery Carmichael is investigating is a lot closer to home as it concerns his 'niece' or adopted daughter Elvira Royston (and she takes the first person narration). The other departure was the timing of the book. The first two were set in the late 40's, this one is in the early '60's.
There's a happy ending to Half a Crown, which is in contrast to the other two and everything seemed to end too neatly, tied up in a bow, While it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I think a more bleak ending would have suited the whole thing better. The happy ending seemed tacked on and contrived. Overall a great series, but the ending left me slightly dissatisfied.
The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams
Remember how before I spoke about space opera and how the book named that was absolutely not what people think of when the sub genre is mentioned? Well, The Stars Now Unclaimed is what people think of when the term space opera is mentioned.
There's a quote on the front of the book by author Becky Chambers: 'come for the exploding spaceships, stay for the intriguing universe' and that sums up The Stars Now Unclaimed perfectly.
What begins as a fairly standard extraction for Justified mercenary Kamali soon turns into a massive space battle that Kamali not only has to win to save the life of the gifted young telepath that she's rescued from a dying back water planet, but to secure the existence of the Justified from inexorable power hungry hive mind that calls itself The Pax.
There's a lot of action in this and that includes plenty of battles and snarky, pithy quips as well of heaps of stuff going boom, but there's also time to build a bit of a world and a back story about exactly how this particular universe found itself in the situation that it is in.
The characters are, as in most things that push my buttons, likeable and relateable. One thing I did love were the ships themselves. They're AI's, but they have personalities and make the reader feel for them and support them. It's essential in anything like this to get reader buy in and that's what The Stars Now Unclaimed does. It's been successful and I really hope there's a sequel, because it is perfectly set up for one.
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
This is an example of why I do my best of lists at the end of the year, not in October or November, which many others seem to do. That way this one would have missed out (I read it mid December) and that would have been a great shame, because this was a fantastic fun book.
I don't really like grim dark. I find it too bleak and often contains content that seems to be dark just of the sake of it, however something about The Grey Bastards made me pick it up off the shelf. I think it may have been the fact that the half orcs were the focus of it and it's always interesting to see something from the point of view of characters that are often seen as villains.
Right from the beginning I got a very strong feeling that I was reading a fantasy version of Sons of Anarchy. The half orc bands came across as being organised like outlaw biker gangs, they ride giant war pigs, which they refer to as 'hogs'. The main character, tough as nails, but intelligent and with a bit of a soft spot is called Jackal, but many refer to him as Jack. The leader of The Grey Bastards has a shadowy past, is largely out for himself more than the band, conflicts with Jackal and is called the Claymaster. Jonathan French couldn't have really made his inspiration much more obvious. This was actually fine by me, because I really liked Sons of Anarchy and occasionally thought that it would make a really good fantasy novel.
French had me with his characters. I loved Jackal, Oats (you have to love a character who's steed is called Ugfuck) and Fetching. I sat up reading way later than I had intended one night because I hit a key moment in the book and I just couldn't stop at that point.
The world itself was interesting, it was a different setting, The author admitted to being inspired by spaghetti westerns and Reconquista Spain. Nice to see different views of some of the standard races like the orcs (called 'thicks'), elves, centaurs and I think the halfings were hobbits, but they could have as easily been gnomes.
There's a lot more story to come and a new book is due this year. I'll be getting a copy.
So that's 2018, 2019 could be worse than equalling that lot.
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