Here it is! The year-in-review. I read 42 books in print and listened to 50 books via audio. Here were my favorites (and as usual, links go to Amazon):
THE ONLY PIRATE AT THE PARTY by Lindsey Stirling
I joined the realm of Stirlingite Fandom back in 2014, having heard her music before, but not having really appreciated it until then. Once aboard, I was all-in. I picked up this book when it came out in January, and listened to the audio version whilst at work. I’m glad Stirling read it herself, as it’s such a personal story that her own voice was the only one that could tell it and have it hit you right in the heart like it should. Very inspiring, and I found it was great fuel for my own dreams of creative success.
A NIGHT DIVIDED by Jennifer A. Nielsen
I was reading this one as I wrote 2015’s best-of list, and since I hadn’t finished it, I didn’t include it, but this definitely crosses the threshold. Nielsen is a fantastic middle grade writer, and she brings all her talents to the table in this book about a family that was on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall as it went up, and how they tried to get back together.
GIRL GENIUS: AGATHA AWAKENS by Phil and Kaja Foglio
I’d heard of this but hadn’t read it. Glad I finally did, and I want to keep up with the rest of the series. It’s a great graphic novel bursting with color, fun characters, and an exciting story. I really got into it.
This is the third installment in the Red Rising sci-fi trilogy, about a Roman-esque empire 700 years in the future, which has terraformed and colonized most of the planets in our solar system. When I first read RED RISING, I didn’t get all crazy about it the way everyone else had, but I decided to give GOLDEN SON (book 2) a chance, and it was a big improvement. When book 3 came around, I couldn’t stop listening to it, so much so that I re-listened to 1 and 2 afterword, and both were amazing. So much so that I’m not sure why I didn’t love RR in the first place. Nevertheless, the error has been rectified 🙂
Content warning on this one, there’s a lot of violence, a fair amount of language (F-bombs pop up in book 3) and sexually suggestive stuff in it. (Like I said, space Romans.)
The fifth in his Ex-Heroes series, which is about superheroes during a zombie apocalypse. I won’t link to all of the previous installments, this was just another great book in a highly entertaining series. (Content warning here, similar to the content of the Red Rising books.)
LADY MECHANIKA by Joe Benitez, and contributors
Wow. I hadn’t heard of this comic until I was looking up steampunk clothing pictures for my Engines of Liberty trilogy. A picture popped up of some woman cosplaying as ‘Lady Mechanika’. Naturally curious, I followed the link and discovered Benitez’s work, and was floored at the greatness of it. Lady Mechanika is an amnesiac steampunk woman who’s equal parts special forces/secret agent, like a Victorian Jane Bond. Or maybe Jason-ette Bourne. Either way, the stories are great, the science is interesting, and the artwork is superb. Both omnibus editions made the list this year.
THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO AMERICAN HISTORY by Thomas E Woods Jr
I wanted to work more non-fiction reading into my annual consumption, and I had this one on the shelf from my brother, so I lugged it around to work. It touched on a ton of stuff that was taught wrong in public school, and included a bibliography of sources that I’ll want to look into in order to expand my understanding. As I said on my Goodreads review, I wouldn’t suggest that it be a forced replacement for any history class, but rather a complement to it, because public school textbooks do not get it right, on purpose.
Cole is an author whose book was actually, literally banned by a publisher (as opposed to the sensationalist marketing tactic of calling something “banned” because it didn’t get published.) Naturally this piqued my curiosity, so I read up on it to learn why, and decided to try the book out. It’s a prequel to his already-established post-apocalypse novels, so you don’t need to know anything going in. The hook of the story is about how an AI monitors human behavior, sees how a slightly-ahead-of-us human generation is so obsessed with a reality TV show that it becomes, in effect, the world religion, and when a character on the show opts to have a convenience abortion, the AI learns that it’s okay to end a life if it’s an inconvenient obstacle to your own plans. Chaos ensues. Entertaining, well-written chaos. (And a mild content warning for the prologue: it’s delicate in its descriptions, but nevertheless deals with sex on a reality TV show, so yeah.)
MIDNIGHT SOCIETY: THE BLACK LAKE by Drew Edward Johnson
Another excellent comic, not unlike LADY MECHANIKA, about a faerie woman who is inducted into a secret society that keeps paranormal stuff under wraps around the world. Delicious, superb artwork, and a really intriguing story. I hope Johnson writes more.
Eventually I’ll see the movie, but I wanted to read the book first. Just wonderful. I thought it might do what many literary books do, and drag on and on about the boring parts, but this thing moves, like Elmore Leonard or a good Louis L’Amour. (L’Amour drags on in some of his books, but not all of them.) Anyway, I really want to see the flick, about a mountain man left for dead after getting mauled by a bear, only to survive, heal, and go on a revenge bender.
SKULLKICKERS #6: INFINITE ICONS OF THE ENDLESS EPIC by Jim Zubkavich and contributors
I’ll be here all day if I gush about this hilarious, HILARIOUS graphic novel series. The cartoonish art is perfect, the humor is unique and original, and the dialogue is just ace. It’s a fearless, mind-bending series that isn’t afraid to be weird, and is smart enough to be good at the same time. This one was simply the final collection in the series.
MEDITATIONS by Marcus Aurelius
With the electoral climate being what it was in the USA all throughout the year, I wondered what kind of philosophy would be prudent for all Americans to embrace regardless of political values. Plenty of people suggested Stoicism, so I looked into it, starting with Aurelius’ MEDITATIONS. I grabbed a free edition off of Gutenberg.org (free public domain ebooks) and loved it. Some of the stuff grated with my own beliefs, but was presented in such a way as to be approachable in a discussion. America really needs this book, these writings. As a side note, I recommend THE DAILY STOIC by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, which also incorporates the writings of Seneca and Epictetus, who were Stoics like Aurelius.
THE CREEPING SHADOW by Jonathan Stroud
Another flawless installment in the Lockwood & Co series, about teenaged ghost-hunters in modern day London. Every fall, Stroud releases one of these books, and I devour them in their perfection.
HEARING THE VOICE OF THE LORD by Gerald N. Lund
On the religious front, I picked up Lund’s piece on revelation. After having heard him give a conference on the subject in February of 2005, I was interested in reading more, and this book goes into great detail about how revelation works, how it doesn’t work, and how we can recognize when God is communicating with us. I found it very enriching.
Up-front confession: Aprilynne is a friend of mine. That said, I’m friends with a lot of writers, and they publish once or twice a year, and after a quick scroll-up through this list, only one other had a book that made it, and that’s Jennifer Nielsen. Books make this list because they deserve it, and GLITTER is no exception. Branded as a mashup of Marie Antoinette and Breaking Bad, it’s set in a futuristic France, where the Palace of Versailles is equal parts historical landmark and corporate headquarters. In an act of corporate hostility/palace intrigue, our heroine Danica is suddenly engaged to the young King, and desperately wants a way out, so she starts dealing designer drugs mixed with makeup. Aside from knowing that this can only go horribly wrong, the story is pretty unpredictable from there (at least it was for me, I don’t watch Breaking Bad). This book did what I want books to do: it pulled me in and made me want to keep reading, so I did, and you should too. (Minor content warning, there are a few PG-13 words in the book, and part of the intrigue centers on non-explicit sexual blackmail.)
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM STRANGER, INTERDIMENSIONAL INSURANCE AGENT by Larry Correia
Available in audio only, narrated by Adam Baldwin (aka Jayne Cobb, from Firefly.) If you’re familiar with Larry’s blog, you’ll get a lot of the inside jokes in this wacky, wacky, wacked out wacky story. If you’re not familiar with the blog, you’ll still laugh at this crazy funny tale, which wraps up at just the right point in its wacky progression. I hope more writers do funny crazy stuff like this as a palate cleanser, because Larry scratches an itch with it.
DreadPennies: The Mind of Graham Bradley 