Here's what did it for me in 2017.
Note: they're not in any particular order. Basically they're listed in the order I read them.
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
I was quite taken by this. I did a comparison between it and Danielle Paige's Stealing Snow when I first read it. Like Meyer's other work it's a different look at a fairytale, although it's very different from her Lunar Chronicles. They look at classical fairytales of the Brothers Grimm variety and are set in an anime influenced future world.
Heartless is a prequel of sorts to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's a look at the Red Queen and what made her the way she is when Alice falls through the rabbit hole and into her kingdom. It doesn't quite hit the heights of Carroll's vision (I don't think anything ever will), but it comes close and there's a wonderful sense of whimsy about it.
I read it quite quickly (most, if not all, of the books on this list were quick reads for me, they had that unputdownable quality), and weirdly enough it had me on the side of the Queen, she was very different before she lost her heart, and I kind of wished that we'd known more about her.
They're unlikely to make a film of the book, but it kicks those terrible aberrations that have been Tim Burton's view of Wonderland to the curb.
Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
Even though he's an Aussie and writes mostly fantasy I'd never actually read any Garth Nix. He's best known for his Old Kingdom YA series, and they've just never appealed to me.
I couldn't tell you what made me pick Frogkisser! up. I actually think my wife may have been the one who bought it because she enjoyed Newt's Emerald. I haven't read Newt's Emerald, but I don't think it's got anything at all in common with Frogkisser! other than they both came out of the mind of the same author.
Frogkisser! does share something with Heartless, though. It's a fairytale. The difference is that it's a brand new fairytale, which riffs on the old ones. It's a clever twist on the standard fairytale with a quest, a changed frog prince, witches, wizards, princesses and talking dogs. Okay maybe they don't all have talking dogs, but after reading Frogkisser! I'm convinced that this is a quality many fairytales are lacking. Nix, like me, is a dog person.
I really felt that this was one of those rare books that effortlessly spans generational boundaries, and can be read and appreciated on a number of levels. It will appeal to kids and adults who have enjoyed The Princess Bride. I hope there's a sequel because Princess Anya most definitely has more stories in her.
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
Oh my God, this one blew me away! I first read it in March, and I've already read it again since that. The last book to do that to me was Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (18 reads on and I still love that book).
Every so often a reader is lucky enough to encounter a book that is like a shot of nitro glycerine to the head. I get one every so often. Kings of the Wyld was my nitro glycerine book for 2017.
I can't really tell anyone why I love it so much, but I just do. There's the perfectly executed conceit that the mercenary band of Saga are like an old school rock band doing a one last time tour, but going out to rescue their front man's daughter Rose from where she and many other doomed heroes are trapped by a horde of monsters from everyone's worst nightmare.
It's the characters that form Saga themselves, from the lead of Gabe, to the wild, hard drinking ladies man Matrick Skulldrummer, the eccentric and dangerous wizard Moog and the mysterious, ageless hell on wheels Ganelon. Then there's the every man Clay 'Slowhand' Cooper, the glue that holds the band together. Clay is what makes this book, he gives it heart.
The other thing that I loved about Kings of the Wyld was the way it neatly skewered every cliche of grimdark and never took itself too seriously.
I am hanging for the sequel Bloody Rose, if for nothing else than it gives me another excuse to reread Kings of the Wyld.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
In 2016 Seanan McGuire wrote Every Heart a Doorway about Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, it was a wonderful flight of fancy, achingly beautiful, it made me cry. It was nominated for multiple awards and won the Best Novella Hugo. Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the second book in the Wayward Children series.
I say second book in the series, because it's not a sequel, if anything it's a prequel. It covers two of the most damaged characters in Every Heart a Doorway and examines what made them the way they are. Given the home lives of Jack and Jill they would have been messed up individuals even if they hadn't ever discovered a doorway into a world of vampires and mad scientists, but going there not only unlocked their full potential it amplified it and made them so much worse than before.
Seanan actually likes creepy, she does it very well, but never more successfully than in Down Among the Sticks and Bones. This was so dark and cold, that I shivered while reading it and looked around more than twice before turning off the lights.
She may very well have written herself a second Hugo in the novella category.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
After reading Theodora Goss' short story in the Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination anthology about the daughters of a number of famous mad scientists, I knew I wanted this book.
Goss' work had previously been of the short variety, this is her first novel and what a great idea. The daughters of Dr's Morreau, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Rappaccini all meet one another in Victorian London and team up with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson and go on a hunt to solve a number of unexplained and rather gruesome murders.
I adored the ladies in this book and loved Goss' portrayal of both Holmes and Watson. Given the subject matter and the idea it doesn't sound like there's room for much humour, but at times this book is laugh out loud funny.
I think tBac he humour and the warmth and depth of the characters come out because of the very conscious choice that Theodora Goss took in the way she wrote it. To be honest this approach may not work for everyone, and I'm pretty sure that people who didn't like the book, didn't like it because of the style. Done badly it would grate, it's bloody hard to do and Theodora Goss pulled it off flawlessly.
The book is written by Beatrice Rappaccini, but the other ladies involved frequently interject and argue with Beatrice about her style and how she portrays them and how the events actually took place. It's rather like pulling up a chair in the drawing room, in front of the fire and sitting down to an evening of tea and discussion with the ladies.
I can't wait for the sequel and to see what else these thoroughly modern Victorian ladies can get up to.
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
Yes, I am including another novella. When they're this damn good, why not?
River of Teeth is one of those books that had it's genesis in the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction.
The US faced a severe meat shortage in the early years of the 20th century, and an Congressman by the name of Robert Broussard had the idea that they could kill two birds with the one stone by importing a significant number of hippos from Africa, they would solve the meat shortage and at the same time eat the water hyacinth that was a pest in the swamp lands. Had this ever happened it would have been disastrous. Fortunately it failed by one vote.
Sarah Gailey took that odd moment in history and wondered what if? She changed the timing around a little, but gave us an American frontier where the real bad asses ride around on hippos and rule the waterways.
The book reads a little like a classic western with hippos in place of horses. One of the great things is that the hippos themselves have character, far more than any horses in the westerns do. There are gun fights, fist fights, knife fights and con jobs, stuff blows up, people get eaten by hippos, how can this book not be fun, people?
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
I first became aware of Grady Hendrix when he started reviewing (hilariously) Under the Dome for Tor.com. By the end of the show's run the only reason I watched it was to read his reviews (it couldn't have been for the show itself, it was one of the worst most unintentionally farcical pieces of TV ever made).
Then he released a book called Horrorstor, it was about a haunted IKEA shop. They didn't call it IKEA, but that's what it was.
I really liked Horrorstor, so My Best Friend's Exorcism had a lot to live up to and boy did it ever do that, and then some.
It is the story of two girls who are best friends from the time they're 10 years old and then after one disastrous night of skinny dipping and dropping acid, it all changes.
It's a wonderful, funny nostalgia trip into the 80's. A careful look at the cover brings back memories of the many awful, cheesy 80's teen horror direct to video releases.
Despite the humour, and it is very funny, the characters have depth, are likeable and relatable and have every reader pulling for Abby and Gretchen and hope that their friendship can survive whatever has possessed one of them.
