Reading Year in Review - 2014

I’ve done this for a few years now (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006), so in order to maintain my flailing credibility as a a genre blogger/book reviewer I have, I'm doing it again for 2014.

As I have in the past, I’ll start with some stats: I read (or at least attempted* to read) 74 books in 2014, depending on how you count omnibus editions. I say attempted because a few books I simply dropped because nothing about the book compelled me to keep reading. About one third of what I read were new/2014 releases.

In 2014, I posted 34 reviews to SFFWorld and 6 to Tor.com. In addition to the book reviews I posted to Tor.com, I published 7 posts in my Locke & Key reread (6 review/recaps of the Graphic Novel “chapters” plus intro post).

I did more for SF Signal in 2014, too. My Completist column continued with 15 installments in 2014. Keeping with the gender theme, 6 of the 15 Completist columns featured books by women. Still short of a fair and balanced 50%. I also became a regular wrangler of the popular Mind Meld feature, having organized 6 in 2014. Lastly, two of my book reviews appeared at SF Signal.

So all of that said, I think it was a fairly productive year, in terms of what I wrote/edited and posted – a total of 70 things I wrote were posted to those three Web sites. Plus whatever I rambled on about here on my blog. Whew…

Aside from the regular gamut of current year releases, some of my ‘catching up’ reads included a couple of installments of Butcher’s Dresden Files, a re-read of Tad Williams’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy, and a couple of installments of Elizabeth Moon’s Paladin’s Legacy series that fell by the wayside over the past couple of years.

Here are some stats:

• 31 2014/current year releases
• 45 can be considered Fantasy
• 28 books by authors new to me
• 28 books by women
• 20 can be considered Science Fiction
• 13 can be considered Science Fiction
• 13 can be considered Horror
• 6 can be considered 2014 debuts
• *4 books I started and did not finish

I made a concerted effort to read more books by women, and on a quantity basis, I’ve doubled and almost tripled the number for past years, which amounted to 38% of my reading. I’d like to do better than that, but I feel as if I’m on a good path to getting closer to a 50/50 divide.

All that said, on to the categories for the 2014 … which,  I'll continue to call the Stuffies. As I said last year, this isn’t a typical top 10 or 12 or anything, but whatever you want to call them, here are some categories for what I read in 2014 and what I put at the top of those categories.

Rob’s Favorite Fantasy 2014 Novel(s)

I’m lumping Horror into Fantasy because (a) we do that at SFFWorld and (b) the two categories often overlap, at least more than Horror and SF. With all of that having been said, a fair number of novels I read, and those I enjoyed the most, had a mixture of horror and fantasy / dark fantasy.

Determining the Fantasy novel to take my very top spot is probably the toughest nut to crack in years of tallying up my favorite reads so I’ll just call it a draw because these two books worked so well for different reasons.

I’ll go alphabetical, which means for the third year in a row, Robert Jackson Bennett makes an appearance on this list. His offering for this year is set in the imagined city of Bulikov, the novel is the first Bennett has penned which does not take place in a version of our world (although the parallels and echoes are there), but rather a fully realized secondary world., City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett and is one of those two I mentioned splitting the top vote.

Bennett seamlessly brings together elements of spy fiction and epic/secondary world fantasy together in City of Stairs. Think a female James Bond set in a novel of Steven Erikson/Ian Esslemont’s Malazan. Right, that’s not exactly an exact “high-concept” for City of Stairs but rather a jumping off point into something much more complex. In some parts of the world, Bennett’s world feels more technologically advanced even if parts of Bulikov seem to be stuck in time while much of it could be analogous to one or two hundred years in our past. There’s a steampunk/clockpunk feel to the world in places, but I wouldn’t say that is a dominant aesthetic of the setting; Bulikov seems to be at a nexus of many things. I couldn’t help but feel a strong resonance between City of Stairs and the landmark graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Both begin (as superficially), politically charged mysteries, only to unfold into a story with more globally affecting ramifications. While there was only one (two if you include Adrian Veidt) godlike beings in Watchmen with many of the heroes no longer active, the sense of their absence and the void of power left in the wake of their absence felt similar here in City of Stairs in a way that worked very well for this reader.

There’s a lot to unpack in the novel and Bennett is such a smart and engaging writer that none of what he packs really bursts the seams; instead, City of Stairs is a smooth novel of near perfection. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

Myke Cole brought his Shadow OPS ‘trilogy’ to a close with the extremely satisfying Breach Zone:

With Breach Zone being the third installment of the Shadow OPS trilogy, Cole can focus on action and physical conflict since much of the character foundation for the protagonists (Alan Bookbinder, Jan “Harlequin” Thorsson, and to a lesser extent, Oscar Britton) and support characters was laid down so strongly in the first two volumes. This physical conflict is the complete war zone the island of Manhattan becomes when the rogue Probe Scylla makes a bold comeback after disappearing in Fortress Frontier to make war against the human (mostly American) government.


In many ways (as I said on twitter while reading the book), Scylla is like a sexier, younger (maybe more dangerous) version of the Marvel Comics/X-Men ‘supervillain’ Magneto. Over the fifty or so years since the X-Men first appeared, Max Eisenhardt aka Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto has been cast in many different lights (Evil Overlord, Leader of the X-Men, Misunderstood Social Activist), but the one thing that has always remained was the character’s pursuit of mutant rights and that mutants were the next step in human evolution. He was the less peaceful counter-argument to Professor Charles Xavier. Like Magneto, Scylla was wronged by the system and is seeking retribution on a global (or even multi-planar) level. Her clash of ideals with Harlequin both as “Grace” and as “Scylla” is equally fascinating as the dialogue in the past is a strong parallel to her actions in the “present.”

Another top read of the year for me is technically partially a 2013 release, since it is a trade paperback compilation of comics published in 2013. I speak of course of Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega:

I think my copy of “Alpha & Omega” had a lot of dust mites in it or maybe I’m allergic to the glue used on the binding because my eyes kept watering up. Seriously though, it isn’t always the case that storytellers can promise something in the early stages of a story and not only deliver on that promise, but surpass the hopes of what may come. Hill and Rodriguez, for me, far surpassed my expectations.

The final issue, as mentioned, is a coda. Hill and Rodriguez aren’t letting readers go without some more tugging of the heart strings. In some of my earlier posts on the series, I mentioned the potential for redeeming Lucas’s character. I wrote those thoughts that without having read this volume, and I’m more than pleased with how the scenario played out. Tyler truly learned from his father and is not doomed to repeat the mistakes Rendell mad.

Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb is the other fantasy novel sitting atop all others I read in 2014, splitting the number one spot with City of Stairs:

Years have passed since readers were last privy Fitz’s thoughts, he is now married to his boyhood love Molly, his daughter Nettle (whom Molly’s first husband Burrich raised as his own and is now very much enmeshed in the life of Buckkeep court) has appointed him the Holder of the Withywoods Estate she’s been bequeathed. In short, life for the man many know as Tom Badgerlock is far more bucolic than the courtly intrigue in which he spent much of his life embroiled. Then one Winterfest, a traveling group of minstrels and performers arrive; these strangers are very different indeed and bear little resemblance to any folk to have passed through Withywoods as far as any of the staff and people can remember. Life soon returns to its leisurely pace for Molly and Fitz until Molly boldly proclaims she is pregnant. This is something she and Fitz always wanted for many of the children she bore were from Burrich, her first husband and the man who served as a father figure to Fitz.
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I suspect this novel might be a bit divisive for readers, if a few twitter conversations I had can be insightful. When examined from afar, not very much happens in the novel over the course of the many wonderful words Hobb spins into the story. As such, the pacing of this novel is deliberate and because of Hobb’s delightful prose I never felt as if the events needed to be moving at a different pace. That said, the only elements that I found a little problematic is how certain events were recounted multiple times in Fitz’s internal dialogue with himself. Those were the few spots for me that slightly impeded the lovely stroll through our narrators’ voices..

Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire, was also a standout and while not perfect, really blew me away:

Another aspect of Epic Fantasy Hurley plays with in The Mirror Empire (and likely The Worldbreaker Saga) is the trope of Destiny. With two of the main characters, Roh and Lilia, Destiny comes into play over the course of the story arcs. For Roh, he is fighting against his destiny of being a meager farm boy, he wants to be more. For Lilia, she has a destiny, that for most of the novel, which does not become clear to her despite what other people know of her.
Hurley is one of the most brutally honest writers spinning words in the genre today whom I’ve read; nothing is safe in her fiction (or her non-fiction for that matter). The world is uncompromising to a degree surpassed only by some of the more steadfast characters in the novel (Zezili, I am pointing my finger at you, and don’t think I’ve forgotten how much you are sticking to your guns with your promise to your mother Lilia). The world building here is nothing short of imaginative and eye-opening. In addition to the recast genders, Hurley leaves no leaf unturned. Well, rather, some leaves are best left unturned in this world because they’ll eat you, the plant life gets hungry. Some leaves and plant life are fashioned into swords and other weapons; bears are used as draft and mount animals, dogs are used as mounts, too.

Although I read both of Django Wexler’s Shadow Campaigns novels this year back-to-back and enjoyed the first one a great deal (The Thousand Names) the second in the series, which published this year, really took a hold of me - The Shadow Throne

 

One of the things that Wexler does so well in both of these novels is to really lay down a level playing field for gender and sexuality. The groundwork was laid in The Thousand Names with Winter’s character and again, the theme continues when she is reunited with her friend / companion / lover Jane, whom she last saw in the women’s prison from which she escaped prior to the beginning of The Thousand Names. What I found most effective in this point is how matter-of-factly Janus works with Winter and Jane to bring their female-only battalion into the military fold. In fact, Winter is the one who made the biggest deal out of it and was surprised at how amenable (and frankly figured into his plans) Janus was to Winter’s plan. Janus places the same rules and restrictions as he would on any military unit, but adds the caveat that the men alongside whom they serve may not be as friendly.

The Shadow Throne is an extremely successful second-in-a-series book, and nearly perfect in that regard. Wexler takes the characters we know from the previous volume and puts them in challenging situations which allows them to grow along the track charted in the first novel, with some surprises as well. Things hinted at in book one come more into the light as fully formed developments in the world / series and Wexler expands the cast in a smart and exciting fashion. It is a novel that, a week after finishing it, still has me thinking strongly about it, realizing upon reflection how very good it was/is, and anticipating the third book in the series.

Other fantasies that really stood out to me were:

• Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson - "Brandon’s storytelling managed to transport me to Roshar quite quickly and would have done so even had I opened the pages of Words of Radiance without scanning those posts at Tor.com. … Words of Radiance was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for me, it delivered what I’d hoped it would deliver, and has me very excited for where Brandon is taking this series. Much as I thought The Way of Kings was an excellent Epic Fantasy novel, Words of Radiance is even better."
• The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris - "Through a first-person narrative, Loki tries to convince us that, even if he isn’t the hero, he shouldn’t be considered the villain history and mythology have cast him. At best, Loki is a misunderstood being and one who is thrust into a situation that provided little chance for him to be anything other than a heel. At worse, he is the Father of Lies. … The story begins when Loki’s wildfire essence is extracted from Chaos by Odin, who bonds Loki as a brother. When Odin brings Loki back to Asgard, the distrust Odin’s people have for Loki is immediate, and most strongly exhibited by Heimdall, the watcher who sees all who not only distrusts Loki, but shows a great hate for the trickster. "
• Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick - "One could easily say of Sworn in Steel, compared to its predecessor: more of the same. I don’t intend that to be a reductive back-handed compliment because I enjoyed Among Thieves a great deal and I was hoping for just that, more of the same. However, by expanding Drothe’s world, plumbing the depths of its history, and revealing that fact has been glossed over by years of assumption Hulick has brought more to the table. Two books into the Tales of the Kin and Hulick is building something quite enjoyable. The easiest comparisons is Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos novels; as both authors employ a first person, intimate narrative with a healthy dose of snark."
• Revival by Stephen King – Although this one hit some familiar King beats, I was enthralled from the very beginning of the novel. King rarely does first person narratives but after this, I’d love to see more. A fine balance in the story between hinting and revealing.

Rob Favorite 2014 Science Fiction Novel(s)

Rachel Bach / Rachel Aaron brought her Paradox series to a close (hopefully not permantly) with the thrilling Heaven’s Queen is the first installment of Paradox:

Bach builds each novel upon its predecessor extremely well. We start out in a personal story on an intimate level about the adventures of one character (and what a character Devi is) in the first book and by the third book the scale has expanded greatly (though the intimate nature of the narrative is still present). While the story begun in Fortune’s Pawn comes full circle here in the final novel, the universe has plenty of room for more stories about Devi or many for the characters who inhabit the world. If anything, the closure at the end of the novel, which acts as the closure to the series as a whole, was a little too neat and clean. This isn’t to say that Devi didn’t earn her ending, because she did.

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All told, The Paradox Trilogy is edge-of-your seat science fiction that is fun and entertaining. The characters struck a great balance between believable and over-the top. The setting felt fleshed out and rich, Bach revealed enough to both make for a fascinating backdrop and also leave room for conjecture. In short, Wherever Rachel (Bach or Aaron) spins her tales, I’ll follow.

The fantastic two-headed writing machine James S.A. Corey (AKA Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) continue the best space-based science fiction series on the shelves with the fourth installment of The Expanse; Cibola Burn (The TV show kicks off next year!)

Corey has always populated these novels with strong characters. We’ve come to know Holden fairly well over the course of these four novels, and while it is great to see returning characters (Bobbie Draper was a POV character and she returns as a POV character in the prologue here), meeting new people is always a feature. The standout here was Elvi, a determined scientist who fits the mold of ‘scientist hero’ in the same vein as many protagonists from the Golden Age aside from her gender. One of the most telling things we learn through her is how the “life” on New Terra cannot be really measured by any known means.

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While Cibola Burn is the fourth book of an ongoing series, it is really can also work as an entry point for new readers; perhaps the best example of a series novel that can work as such. In other words, the book is set on a new world, with new characters and starting with a relatively new status quo from the previous novels. Not bad timing considering The Expanse is quickly going to be a television show.

The next in my batch of favorite SF is a mash-up of a parallel worlds tale and post-apocalyptic tale Extinction Game by Gary Gibson:

Through Jerry’s first person voice, we get an intimate portrait of a man losing his sanity despite surviving the initial apocalypse. He speaks with his dead wife, he wants to make sure the people responsible for her death, Red Harvest, get their just desserts. When Jerry finally ventures out of his ramshackle hovel, he finds other people.

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One of the many strengths of Extinction Game is Gibson’s well-rounded, inclusive cast. While the protagonist is male, the two most prominent supporting characters are women. Those two women are in a romantic relationship with each other; and other characters come from diverse backgrounds, as well. This is only logical (and a logic many writers might be blinded to seeing) since by definition the characters pulled into the Pathfinder organization are literally from all over not just one Earth, but multiple Earths. Gibson portrays each character quite well and with an emphasis on how important their relationships are, especially how important trust is between them as the novel rushes forward.

I read about half as much SF as I did Fantasy this year, which is a slightly lower percentage than usual. There were a few standouts, but the one that stood out the most was Defenders by Will McIntosh:

What makes Defenders such an incredible novel is McIntosh’s pure elegance, the beauty of its simplicity. Each element of the novel, the characters, the situations, the world, the results of the world’s actions, organically feed into each other as the novel progresses. Oliver could very easily have been the typical geeky scientist and there are elements of that in him; he’s a bit socially awkward for example. However, it isn’t a defining trait. Wiewall could, in the hands of a writer with lesser skill at fleshing out characters, been the proverbial bitch on wheels so many women in power are painted as with shallow strokes.

However, in the (relative to other characters) small amount of space we are in Wiewall’s head, she comes across as a woman who is admirably head-strong, as well as flawed and nervous. In other words, she’s reads like a real, living and breathing person.

Rob's Favorite 2014 Debut(s)

My favorite debut of the year was from Tor in the US and was surrounded with a fair amount of hoopla Brian Staveley’s The Emperor’s Blades, the first installment in his Epic series Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne:

As is par for the course in many fantasy stories, the Emperor is murdered leaving the Unhewn Throne somewhat vacant with Kaden, the next in line, half a world away with the monks. Each of the Emperor’s three children must deal with conflict and pressure in their training; though the majority of the plot focuses on Valyn and Kaden’s training. Like many Epic Fantasies before it, so begins The Emperor’s Blades, the first installment of Brian Staveley’s Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne.
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A recommended debut that brought, if not a sense of closure, a sense of completion to the first stage of Kaden, Valyn, and (to a much lesser extent) Adare’s journey at filling their father’s shoes and determining why they are required to fill his shoes prematurely. Staveley pushed many of the buttons I like to see pushed in Epic Fantasy with The Emperor’s Blades while living ample room to take the story in directions and paths of his own charting. What readers enjoy most about Epic Fantasy and why it is such a successful subset of the greater Science Fiction & Fantasy genres, is that they look for “more of the same but different, and done well.” Here, Staveley has delivered on what this reader seeks; an embracing of what is enjoyable about the genre in a fun, very engaging debut and launch book for Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne.

Another debut which I enjoyed is a slight nudge for 2014; the ebook published in August 2013 and the physical book published in December, which in the publishing world pushes the book to a 2014 copyright year. I wanted any excuse to highlight the very engaging debut from Jacqueline Koyanagi, Ascension, which is the first book of the Tangled Axelon series. Koyanagi takes many of the gender and identity issues highlighted in Anne Leckie’s award winning debut, I found Koyanagi’s storytelling far more engaging.

Alana Quick dreams of the sky and working on starships, she is a sky surgeon. She understands machinery much better than people, especially better than she understands her sprit guide sister Nova. One of Alana’s many complications is the rare illness that can be crippling if left unchecked. People come looking for Nova, and when Alana leaves her world and stows away on a ship at the suggestion of a member of the ship’s crew, Alana gets far more than she expected. Her job doesn’t pay well, so she hopes that stowing aboard the star vessel, the Tangled Axon, will allow her to connect the crew with her sister to help Alana get the money she needs to help bring her disability under control. Alana is also not white and prefers women to men, additional characteristics that set her very much apart from the typical Space Opera protagonist, and this is just one standout element in Ascension, Jacqueline Koyangi’s debut novel.
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So ultimately, what do we have here with Ascension? Well, lots of good things and many of which are what Science Fiction needs. We’ve got a very unique perspective and voice in the main character – a disabled woman of color who finds herself attracted to the same sex. That alone sets the novel apart, and fortunately, the novel is not simply about what makes Alana stand out from a gender/sexuality/disabled perspective. If that were the case, the novel wouldn’t have been so engaging for me. Koyanagi doesn’t use Alana’s uniqueness to be the lone standout element of the novel and tells a good, engaging story, with great character interaction and plot momentum, and sets up a potential foundation for more stories to be told.

Favorite Backlist / Book Not Published in 2014 Read in 2014

Elizabeth Moon has really been impressing with her fantasy writing for the past few years so I shouldn’t have been surprised with how much I enjoyed Trading in Danger, which is the first book of the Vatta's War series. I have the four remaining books on Mount Toberead and I hope to get to them soon.

In Trading in Danger, Elizabeth Moon introduces readers to Kylar “Ky” Vatta as she’s being discharged from the military. Ky, fortunately, is a member of the Vatta family, owners of Vatta Transport Ltd a powerful space trading corporation based on the rich planet Slotter, so she can fall back on her family’s company as a means to an end. However, her heart was in the military and in the first chapter, Moon’s depiction of the Ky’s discharge is one of the strongest novel openings which immediately generates empathy and sympathy for the protagonist. It may seem a simple thing and with little introduction to or knowledge of Ky, but a great sense of emotional turmoil and shock is conveyed through what Ky experiences and how she deals with it through her internal dialogue. I immediately began rooting for Ky to succeed and felt that way over the course of the novel. I think I like the character of Ky Vatta even more than Moon's more famous character Paks.
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Overall, I enjoyed the novel a great deal and plan on reading through the remaining books in the series sooner rather than late, which I define as ‘within the next year.’

A late entry to this section is a book I finished in December, a debut I've been meaning to read for the past couple of years.  Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone was such a novel filled with a wonderful mix of inventiveness and familiarity, a novel that worked for me on many levels.

The spine of the plot is fairly straight-forward as a whodunit/legal thriller, but like a great batch of chili, it is the subtle, evocative spicing ingredients where the novel shines. The back-history which informs the current day events evokes a rich tapestry, especially when characters continually refer to events like the God Wars as a defining time in the world. As the world is powered by gods, the church surrounding the faith to these gods plays a large role in the governing and politics of the world.
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There’s a great balance in the characters who comprise the main cast; our protagonist is female, as is her boss. Another supporting character, Cat, has a strong character arc that parallels and intertwines with the main plot. These women have power in this world, or are the most forthcoming in their quest to gain a foothold with it. Despite the church’s power being represented by a man, Elayne exhibits no qualms about dealing with him and these people if not on an equal level, then a level on which she has a moral high ground. What makes these women such great characters, especially Tara and Elayne, is that they have agency of their own and are not defined by their relationship to men in the novel. Granted, Tara’s relationship with her former professor at college is an integral element in the novel, but it isn’t the only defining aspect of who she is. Cat, on the other hand, is a bit of a dependent character, but that dependency is not intertwined with her gender. She is, in essence, an addict.

I’ve been reading The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher since about 2006, shortly before the first and only season of the TV show premiered on the then SciFi Channel, but I loved the hell out of Cold Days the installment (14th overall) of the series published in 2013 

This is the closest thing resembling a review I’ve put to words for this, or any of The Dresden Files books, but I was grinning the whole time I was reading the book.

I’ve enjoyed every book in the series and this one seemed to increase the speed at which Butcher is driving towards that hinted at Epic Apocalyptic Trilogy set to close out The Dresden Files.

Plus, this one has more Odin in it and I’m a sucker for fun depictions of Odin and Butcher's depiction of Odin as Donar Vadderung is one of my favorites.

Also, Harry pals around with Santa Claus a wild hunt

Butcher often closes out his books with panache and that was no exception for this one.

Favorite ‘New To Me’ Author(s) of 2014

Disclaimer: I’m only considering writers from whom I read more than one book this past year…. There were a couple of writers who could fit this category, the first of whom is Django Wexler – and not because he’s a colleague over at Douglas Hulick published in is Tales of the Kin series: Among Theives and Sworn in Steel and look forward to where he takes these characters next.

Favorite Publisher of 2014

ACE/Roc/DAW

This is a three-way tie and one and the same, because Ace/ROC/DAW although separate imprints, and especially DAW being separate in many ways from Ace & ROC, still is marketed with the other two. So, in other words, I’ll say the SFF Publishing arm of Penguin. Granted, I may have received more books from them than other publishers, but the percentage of those titles which appealed to me, which I read and enjoyed I think is a bit higher, too. (I’m only mentioning my re-read of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams, but not really counting it towards this MVP designation). Of course I’ve already mentioned Django Wexler and Doug Hulick in some detail, as well as Breach Zone the closing novel Myke Cole’s Shadow OPS ‘trilogy.’ Ace published two debuts excellent debuts I enjoyed:

The Bloodbound by Erin Lindsey - “The majority of the novel is told from Alix’s point of view, with some scenes through her King’s eyes. Alix comes across as an honest, almost-too-good-for-her-own-good protagonist torn between duty and passion. She finds her passion and romantic feelings for her closest companion Liam growing, so she acts upon it. The thing that throws a monkey-wrench into their relationship is the king himself. Rather, Alix acting as headstrong as ever; she goes against the orders of her superior Allan Green and breaks formation to save the King’s life. He wakes to find Alix draped over her. That physical interaction leads to more emotional interaction between the two.…I liked this one a great deal. Lindsey does a fine job of building tension as in the narrative and while I was hooked into the novel early on, I felt much more invested and glued to the page as the novel progressed. I genuinely liked the characters and want to read more about them. In a genre landscape where darkness in characters and grimdark tone seem to be rather prevalent, The Bloodbound was a refreshing change from that. There’s a great sense of hopefulness and positivity in the characters and paths through which the plot drives.”

The Midnight Queen (Noctis Magicae Book 1) by Sylvia Izzo Hunter - “Set in an alternate England somewhat reminiscent of the Regency era, where Magic is taught to young men at Oxford’s Merlin College, Sylvia Izzo Hunter’s debut novel wastes no time introducing the protagonist, Graham (nicknamed Gray) Marshall, and the situation which propels his plight through The Midnight Queen. Specifically, some of his college friends encourage Gray to join them in a night time escapade, a heist of sorts, which ends in tragedy and Gray receiving a forced dismissal from the school. Gray is taken by Appius Callender, the Professor who sent Gray and his friends on the ill-fated mission to Callender’s estate where Gray is something of a prisoner and indentured servant. The only thing that gives him respite during his dreary days is young Sophie Callender, the Professor’s middle child…. Hunter pulls off the affected and mannered speech very well, both in dialogue and narrative. Early in the narrative, Gray has a stammer that could indicate a genuine speech problem or simply nervousness. The more he interacts with Sophie; however, the less prominent his stammer becomes. Sophie also has a difficulty of her own to overcome, a block is placed on her magic while she was under the Professor’s roof. As the novel’s plot progresses, we (and Sophie herself) learn Sophie is much more than she initially appears to be.”

I will always sing the praises of DAW for doing such a fine job of ensuring their authors work remains in print and / or available for new readers. This is best exemplified in the Species Imperative omnibus they published in celebration of Julie Czerneda’s fantastic trilogy (comprised of Survival, Migration, and Regeneration.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t once again call out Orbit Books for continuing to publish great books (a few of which I called out earlier in this post, Cibola Burn and Defenders by Will McIntosh, as well as a great second book in Brian T. McClellan’s Powder Mage Trilogy, The Crimson Campaign; The Widow’s House, the fourth installment of Daniel Abraham’s hugely enjoyable Dagger and the Coin series.

Other Stuff

2014 saw the second anthology I helped edit (i.e review stories for inclusion and provide editorial comments) publish – Wars to End All Wars: Alternate Tales from the Trenches, featuring a reprint of an Elizabeth Moon story as well as the following new stories: “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” by Igor Ljubuncic; “Wormhole” by Lee Swift; “Jawohl” by Wilson Geiger; “On the Cheap” by Dan Beiger; “One Man’s War” by G.L. Lathian; and “The Foundation” by Andrew Leon Hudson.

I also appeared not only on a podcast for the first time (SF Signal about Upcoming 2014 books), but three more after that. I suppose my voice isn’t as annoying to other people as it is to me:

• Functional Nerds Episode 203
• Rocket Talk (Justin Landon), the Tor.com Podcast wherein we discuss the reviewer author relationship
• SF Signal Year in Review

I did another series review/catch up for Tor.com this year. Whereas last year I rewatched Orphan Black, in January and February of this year, I did a re-read of the dark, twisty and fantastic Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.

I also re-read Tad Williams’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, but more about that next year except to say that its place as my favorite completed fantasy series was reaffirmed after finishing all three/four books.

Books I Enjoyed Most Thus Far in 2014 - First Half Six-Pack Plus 2 Shots

We are in the first full week of July 2014 which means we’ve passed the half-way point of 2014. Therefore, subsequently, ergo, here is my mid-year six pack – the books I’ve enjoyed most through the first half of 2014. What makes this a bit challenging (besides my natural tendencies to make simple things complex) is that a book I read a few months back doesn’t technically publish until the second half of 2014 and one of the books I enjoyed most was published a number of years ago. I’ll give those two special mention at the end. Also making things difficult is that so many of the books hover in the same qualitative region. Nonetheless, here are the six books published between January 2014 and June 2014 I enjoyed the most, in the order I read the books.

Breach Zone by Myke Cole (Shadow OPS #3) - "Harlequin, who was painted as something of an antagonist in the first novel in the series, grew out of that role in the second novel and for all intents and purposes in Breach Zone he’s the star and de-facto hero even if he shares the spotlight. One of the undercurrents of the novel, from my reading, is how one adjusts to being the hero. Due to his actions in Fortress Frontier, Harlequin is thrust into the spotlight as a voice supporting the rights of Latent people – those who possess magical abilities. He finds this transition from on the battle-lines military man to man in the spotlight difficult, it isn’t something he wanted or something he enjoys. That said, Cole manages to make Harlequin’s ultimate acceptance of this new role a believable growth of character.
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Breach Zone works on many levels; one of which is overriding themes of character evolution in the face of conflict and a globally changing environment. Each of the four primary characters – Britton, Bookbinder, Scylla, and Harlequin are not the same characters they were at the novel’s beginning and more drastically, at their introduction in Control Point. That’s an easy line to map out, characters change, but the true mark of the writer’s skill is illustrating in a believable fashion how characters change and evolve. On both the book level of Breach Zone and the trilogy level of the Shadow OPS series, Cole has exhibited great skill in making me believe in these characters: their motivations, their reactions to events that affect them, and their ultimate evolution because of these things."

Honor’s Knight by Rachel Bach (Paradox #2) - "Bach ratchets up the politics in Honor’s Knight and dials back the romantic element a bit. There’s also an ongoing discussion in the novel about the price of security and safety, in that can the fate of humanity be measured against the life of innocent girls who lose their identity and humanity? A difficult question to answer, and sometimes the easiest answers prove to be the incorrect answer in the long run. In other words, war breeds difficult moral choices, which leads to drastic consequences. The black ink-like substance afflicting Devi also happens to be like kryptonite to the phantoms, but Devi has little control over it and when it comes out on her skin.
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With the Paradox series, Rachel Bach is crafting a sequence that hits so many of the right buttons – compelling characters, great plotting, thought provoking and difficult choices. Bach does some interesting things with character, giving readers a strong woman in a role most often associated with male characters and she does it so well. Readers who enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War novels would very likely enjoy these books."

Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez - "I think my copy of Alpha & Omega had a lot of dust mites in it or maybe I’m allergic to the glue used on the binding because my eyes kept watering up. Seriously though, it isn’t always the case that storytellers can promise something in the early stages of a story and not only deliver on that promise, but surpass the hopes of what may come. Hill and Rodriguez, for me, far surpassed my expectations.
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So, with Locke & Key complete, Hill and Rodriguez have finished taking readers on a journey over five years in the travelling. It had highs and lows, we saw the maturation and redemption of many of the characters. Strike that, Kinsey, Tyler, and Nina were all redeemed by story’s end; Lucas’s soul was saved, Tyler’s conflicted thoughts and feelings with his father were resolved, and Bode was returned to the boy we first met.

Bravo to all those involved in producing Locke & Key; it is a superb literary achievement."

Defenders by Will McIntosh - "In the near future, Earth is attacked by the Luyten, giant alien starfish intent on taking over the world and making it their own. As humanity fights back, the world bands together in their goal to find a weapon that will successfully combat the Luyten forces. Making this more difficult is the fact that the Luyten can read our thoughts. It isn’t to revealing of a spoiler to say that a weapon is crafted in the form of 16 foot tall super-soldiers created from human DNA.
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What makes Defenders such an incredible novel is McIntosh’s pure elegance, the beauty of its simplicity. Each element of the novel, the characters, the situations, the world, the results of the world’s actions, organically feed into each other as the novel progresses. Oliver could very easily have been the typical geeky scientist and there are elements of that in him; he’s a bit socially awkward for example. However, it isn’t a defining trait. Wiewall could, in the hands of a writer with lesser skill at fleshing out characters, been the proverbial bitch on wheels so many women in power are painted as with shallow strokes. However, in the (relative to other characters) small amount of space we are in Wiewall’s head, she comes across as a woman who is admirably head-strong, as well as flawed and nervous. In other words, she’s reads like a real, living and breathing person."

Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey (The Expanse #4) - "Corey tells the story through multiple Points of View: Elvi Okoye, one of the scientists on New Terra charged with cataloguing the various life forms and the environment; Havelock, a security officer aboard one of ships orbiting New Terra; and Basia Merton, one of the first colonists who arrived (squatters, one might say) on New Terra and part of a group unhappy with the RCE.
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Corey has always populated these novels with strong characters. We’ve come to know Holden fairly well over the course of these four novels, and while it is great to see returning characters (Bobbie Draper was a POV character and she returns as a POV character in the prologue here), meeting new people is always a feature. The standout here was Elvi, a determined scientist who fits the mold of ‘scientist hero’ in the same vein as many protagonists from the Golden Age aside from her gender. One of the most telling things we learn through her is how the “life” on New Terra cannot be really measured by any known means.

One narrative trick Corey pulled off very well was showing the same conversation from the sides of both participants. For example, an Elvi chapter may end with a conversation between her and Holden. The next chapter featuring Holden as the POV character will show his side of the conversation early in the chapter. It may seem a simple thing, but it comes across very fluid and gives a natural feel to the narrative."

The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler (The Shadow Campaigns #2) - "The King is dying, people are vying for power with his death on the horizon and as a result, one of our new (and a most welcome one at that) point of view characters is the king’s daughter, Raesinia. However, the young princess is far more than she appears. Soon after Wexler introduces her, she jumps out of her window only to “survive” the fall. Raesinia is also working as something of a revolutionary with the populace, realizing that Duke Orlanko, the true power in Vordan, is close to seizing all the power he has been craving. 

That introduction to Raesinia is one of the most shocking and powerful character introductions I’ve come across in quite some time and with it, Wexler sets the tone for the novel.One of the things that Wexler does so well in both of these novels is to really lay down a level playing field for gender and sexuality.

The groundwork was laid in The Thousand Names with Winter’s character and again, the theme continues when she is reunited with her friend / companion / lover Jane, whom she last saw in the women’s prison from which she escaped prior to the beginning of The Thousand Names. What I found most effective in this point is how matter-of-factly Janus works with Winter and Jane to bring their female-only battalion into the military fold. In fact, Winter is the one who made the biggest deal out of it and was surprised at how amenable (and frankly figured into his plans) Janus was to Winter’s plan. Janus places the same rules and restrictions as he would on any military unit, but adds the caveat that the men alongside whom they serve may not be as friendly."

Those two honorable mentions are Elizabeth Moon’s Trading in Danger (published just over 10 years ago) and Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs, publishing in September of this year which is about when my review will post.

Review Round-up: Addison, de Pierres, and McIntosh / SFFWorld & Tor.com

It's been a couple of weeks since I rounded up the book reviews I've posted, so here goes, starting with the 'oldest' first.  That book is Defenders by Will McIntosh and has become the measuring stick by which I will judge all SF I read this year.  This was a stellar, elegant novel that was as close to perfect as I've read in SF in quite some time:

McIntosh tells the story from three primary points of view: Oliver Bowen, Kai Zhou, and Lila Easterlin and an occasional POV chapter from Dominique Wiewall. Oliver is a scientist working for the government who soon becomes a liaison to the Luyten, specifically to the Luyten known as Five. Kai was mentally connected to Five during the war, Lila’s family was killed in the war against the Luyten, and Dominique Wiewall is highly placed in the government and the creator of the Defenders. Through the first half of the novel, we get to know these characters, how the war with the Luyten affected them (drastically, natch) and the path this put them on to deal with the world once the Defenders were created in to save the human race.

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What makes Defenders such an incredible novel is McIntosh’s pure elegance, the beauty of its simplicity. Each element of the novel, the characters, the situations, the world, the results of the world’s actions, organically feed into each other as the novel progresses. Oliver could very easily have been the typical geeky scientist and there are elements of that in him; he’s a bit socially awkward for example. However, it isn’t a defining trait. Wiewall could, in the hands of a writer with lesser skill at fleshing out characters, been the proverbial bitch on wheels so many women in power are painted as with shallow strokes. However, in the (relative to other characters) small amount of space we are in Wiewall’s head, she comes across as a woman who is admirably head-strong, as well as flawed and nervous. In other words, she’s reads like a real, living and breathing person.

The second review on this round-up is one that didn't work for me nearly as well as did Defenders. I refer to Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor.  This book has been getting nearly universal love/acclaim from the folks in my twitter/blogger stream, but it didn't work for me. In other words, I'll just call this one Ancillary Justice 2014: The Fantasy Version:

The true strength of this novel is the character of Maia. He makes decisions that go against convention and surprise those advisors he takes into his innermost circles. To say his opinions and decisions to problems goes over in a refreshing manner is an understatement. He actually treats all of his subjects as people rather than annoyances, and acts in the personal interests of his siblings who still live. What makes Maia such an easy character to empathize with is that he is experiencing life in the Untheileneise Court for the first time.

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What all of these elements were for me was a barrier erected between the core elements of the novel that worked very well (strong protagonist, inventive setting) and the cumbersome elements (overlong linguistic affectations and idiosyncratic naming conventions) that ultimately prevented me from enjoying the novel. While I understand and enjoy novels that challenge me and challenge conventions of the genre in terms of form, gender assumptions, etc., there’s a line that “challenging” crosses and becomes an impediment to enjoyment. Unfortunately that was the case with The Goblin Emperor.

Last, most recent, and most certainly not least is Peacemaker by Marianne de Pierres, which was a blast and was posted to Tor.com just yesterday. I was very pleased that Marianne jumped into the comments to shed some light on a couple of things. In other words, a case of an author APPROPRIATELY addressing a review of her work:

Told from Virgin’s point of view, de Pierres’s narrative is very intimate. We see everything through her eyes, including the United States Marshall assigned to shadow her on the strange goings-on at the park, Nate Sixkiller. He comes across as polite and mannered in a classic cowboy sort of fashion, yet quite stoic and unbending.

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Virgin Jackson is a very well-rounded character: she’s successful in her chosen vocation, she’s got a romantic life and friends, etc. In some ways she reminds me a bit of the character Kate Beckett from Castle, as both are fierce, strong women who followed in their father’s footsteps. Because we are literally in Virgin’s head, we get a better sense of her relationship to her father. He died under mysterious circumstances, and she has carried on in his place, seeing the park preserved and safe. Virgin is much more than a simple “action girl,” however. Virgin isn’t perfect or invincible—while she does take part in her fair share of daring moments, she is also rescued from danger equally. Much to her consternation, Sixkiller happens to be the one saving her at times.

Books in the Mail (W/E 2014-02-22)

This week's installment of my Books in the Mail post courtesy of Crown Publishing and Orbit Books.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown Trade Paperback 09/14/2014) – I said when I was on the SF Signal Podcast a few weeks ago this was one of the books I am most looking forward to reading mainly because his two most recent (as of 2013) novels The Troupe and American Elsewhere are two of my favorite books of the last few years.

An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city—from one of America’s most acclaimed young SF writers.

The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world’s new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy.

Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.

Defenders by Will McIntosh (Orbit, Trade Paperback 05/13/2014) – I’ve been seeing nothing but praise for McIntosh’s fiction over the past couple of years and this will be the first novel of his that I’ll read. (This book was also featured on the aforementioned SF Signal Podcast.

When Earth is invaded by telepathic aliens, humanity responds by creating the defenders. They are the perfect warriors--seventeen feet tall, knowing and loving nothing but war, their minds closed to the aliens. The question is, what do you do with millions of genetically-engineered warriors once the war is won?

A novel of power, alliances, violence, redemption, sacrifice, and yearning for connection, DEFENDERS presents a revolutionary story of invasion, occupation, and resistance.

Heaven's Queen (Volume 2 of The Paradox Series) by Rachel Bach (Orbit, Trade Paperback 04/22/2014) – I recently finished th is second book in the thrilling Space Opera / Military Science Ficiton / Urban Fantasy hybrid and this series is turning into an absolute blast. My review of Fortune’s Pawn.

From the moment she took a job on Captain Caldswell's doomed ship, Devi Morris' life has been one disaster after another: government conspiracies, two alien races out for her blood, an incurable virus that's eating her alive.

Now, with the captain missing and everyone -- even her own government -- determined to hunt her down, things are going from bad to impossible. The sensible plan would be to hide and wait for things to blow over, but Devi's never been one to shy from a fight, and she's getting mighty sick of running.

It's time to put this crisis on her terms and do what she knows is right. But with all human life hanging on her actions, the price of taking a stand might be more than she can pay.

Lascar’s Dagger (Book One of The Forsaken Lands ) by Glenda Larke (Orbit, Trade Paperback 03/18/2014) – The start of a brand new epic fantasy trilogy from Glenda Larke, author of The Stormlord series—full of scheming, spying, action and adventure. (This is the physical version of the e-Arc I received a couple of weeks ago)

FAITH WILL NOT SAVE HIM.

Saker looks like a simple priest, but in truth he’s a spy for the head of his faith. It’s a dangerous job, and more lives than merely his own depend on his secrecy.

When Saker is wounded by a Lascar sailor’s blade, the weapon seems to follow him home. Unable to discard it, nor the sense of responsibility that comes with it, Saker can only follow its lead.

It will put him on a journey to strange shores, on a path that will reveal terrible secrets about the empire, about the people he serves, and likely lead to his own destruction. The Lascar’s dagger demands a price,