Honestly, I thought the year would be a lot crappier than it was. It's like books. Sometimes you go into a tome with a certain expectation that just gets blown up like fish in a dynamited pond.
The year wasn't exactly chum. But it did HAVE chum.
Overall, however, at least when it came to books, I had a relatively great time. Tons of LitRPG which is my version of snack foods and popcorn. Lots of classics, which comes out to comfort food and often full, memory-laden 7-course meals. And then there was my fair share of fast, forgettable food.
But my memories are all for the carefully crafted, savory mind-meals. The steaming soup-books, the spicy tomes, the heartwarming oatwords, and yes, the candies. And of course, the non-fiction veggies.
Let me mention a few of my all-time favorites for the year that weren't re-reads of already-favorites.
FRIEREN Beyond Journey's End.
This was something I started as an anime and ended buying every volume I could find, plus plushies. I watched the anime 5 -- yes, 5 -- times. It makes me laugh, and cry, fills my heart to overflowing, and keeps me awake late into the night. When I need real comfort, I turn to this now, and have been turning to it for smiles, deep melancholy, and sometimes deep glee. It has some brilliant fights, but it is all about the quiet moments, the small details, and everything that's utterly human. Even if there is a thousand year elf in it.
My FAVORITE.
There's really nothing that comes close.
As for everything else, I have to include rereads, like Broken Earth or Stormlight Archive. Or Three Body Problem, or Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief trilogy.. All of these are great. Let's not forget Terry Pratchett, of course.
Some books that really stood out for quality and worldbuilding are Ken Liu's fantasy, Alastair Reynold's Prefect books. Or the light-hearted Juveniles of Heinlein.
For LitRPGs, standouts were Mother of Learning books and All The Skills.
For light, fun space operas, my go-to gal is Suzanne Palmer's Finder series. But all-around great SF belongs to just about everything Adrian Tchaikovsky writes. He's a go-to always-trust.
But let's not forget the joy of Robert Greenberg's TLC series for music!
As for all the rest, this is far from being a comprehensive list, but if I'm honest, these are the books that my memory allows in the list late at night after a couple of glasses of wine. In other words, those books that shine brightest in memory.
And who's to say if this is a BAD way to do it? If a book stays with you, it's gotta be GOOD.
Happy New Year!
Personal note: If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.
Throughout my read, I was simultaneously on the cusp of thinking this was brilliant and too annoying to continue. That's just me, however.
Let me explaThroughout my read, I was simultaneously on the cusp of thinking this was brilliant and too annoying to continue. That's just me, however.
Let me explain: While I DID like the whole color thing as a mirror to our horrid society, it was also laborious. The core story with its characters was fine--school stuff with a good comedy of manners thing going on--and while I've read much better, this was solid.
The whole idea of a future society that runs a gene-like thing based on all different colors, was a bit hard for me to follow. I mean, sure, we have doctors that use extremely specific palates to heal others, and mold is an issue, and we get that whole feel that their world-s are paintings, or something like. But that part of the worldbuilding was just too thin for me. I kept butting my head up against it to flesh it out and couldn't.
So. While I LIKE the idea of it and the core story was just okay, it just never quite got under my skin. At all. Sorry, Jasper. I just couldn't do more....more
The combination of mind-blowing absurdity, wit, and Chappelle-level self-aware racism and systematic breI couldn't stop laughing as I read this book.
The combination of mind-blowing absurdity, wit, and Chappelle-level self-aware racism and systematic breakdown of the wrongs while turning the entire structure on its head is next-level funny.
I mean, come on, I know I'm f**king white but funny is funny and this is so crazily courageous that I feel like I'm sneaking into all those black comedies in the theater hoping I won't get my ass whooped because crackers don't belong. And if you think I'm being funny, you're right, because I'm white, and that's kinda the point. Now take this book and turn that shit up and turn this poor black town subsumed in LA into the posterchild of segregation -- DONE ON PURPOSE -- for the blacks by the blacks and their betterment. Clearly delineate all those freaking lines. Give everyone a seat to comfortably sit their fat asses on and let folks start breathing easy again. Own the racism that's so systematically ugly everywhere else and call a spade a spade, stop hiding the shit.
The author presents all this in such a fresh, funny, and ass-whooping way that I was frankly bowled over by the sheer absurd satire of it.
Worthless note: The book won the Booker prize in '15. Another worthless note: It seemed to be overblown back in '15 during the Obama years. Another freaking worthless note: It's one step away from being our current reality.
There is one great takeaway, however:
Humor can mend all bridges. Or at least, I honestly think so. All this shit that's been going on is a nightmare, yes, but freaking hell, ya'll, humor CAN break anything: even the citadels of the self-righteous. ...more
I can totally get why a lot of people might diss it, but I'm pretty sure it's not for the quality of the prose or the storyThis is a hilarious novel.
I can totally get why a lot of people might diss it, but I'm pretty sure it's not for the quality of the prose or the story.
It is, however, a delicious satire that deserves lots of real reads. And let's be real here: it should be read and enjoyed ESPECIALLY for how uncomfortable it makes us. I mean, seriously, it IS Chuck Palahniuk, people. Invisible Monsters? Fight Club? Hell, I chortled my head off in Survivor, too.
This isn't that far off. But where Fight Club (which is not only referenced but is straight-up ANALYZED by the characters in this book) ends, this novel really takes off. It is NOT a sequel, mind you, but it sits us down to show us how f**king insane all the post-revolution ideas are.
Does everyone get dished? Hell yes. Whites, blacks, straights or LGBTQ, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, young or old.
Everyone is pretty much given the opportunity to make their own little separate nation-states and it plays out pretty much as you might expect.
Here's the thing: even when Chuck Palahniuk is playing up all the worst aspects of human nature, all the nasty little horrible crap is full of GOOD POINTS and UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS. What could have been a great little scorcher actually turns out to be a pretty fine mirror.
Our world looks almost like this book already. There's no mass migration, sure, and people aren't putting C4 on arrowheads, and the Second Great American Civil War hasn't officially begun, but Adjustment (lol) Day is a fine, fine example of a modern 1984 that is a lot more than a tired re-imagining. This one takes potshots at everyone.
I'm reflective by nature so I don't mind taking a good long look at myself. I think that's all that's required to have a good time here. That, or a sense of humor. :)...more
When I decided to read this, I thought it was going to be all kinds of good cannibalistic satire and/or a tribute to a Swiftian Modest Proposal crosseWhen I decided to read this, I thought it was going to be all kinds of good cannibalistic satire and/or a tribute to a Swiftian Modest Proposal crossed with a Sinclair Jungle vibe.
The potential is THERE for it to be scathingly funny, dark, and truly horrific. So I thought to myself... Spooktober!
What did I get? A bureaucratic nightmare. A late-stage capitalist inditement. A dry, overly-formal, industry-heavy *forbidden romance* that was oddly bloodless even for operating a slaughterhouse for human meat.
Could it be that I'm jaded by my horror sensibilities or the sophistication of my dark humor? Because I was merely intellectually horrified and I wasn't overly taken by the characters and my dark humor failed to get roused.
Okay. So it wasn't *meant* to be funny. So therefore it wasn't really a satire. Or if it was a satire, it was too close to home for it to be that darkly funny.
After all, aren't most of us working in veal-fattening pens already? Isn't that the whole point of the Great Resignation?
We're selling our domesticated animals a bit too cheap. And by domesticated animals, I mean us. We're the specified meat product.
What does it say about us that we truly do see ourselves this way?
Or, hell, what does that say about me?
I'm thinking this book is more of a 3.5 rating. Together with the zinger at the end and the basic premise, I would have easily given this a 5 star if it had been a SHORT STORY. But, alas....more
This is hands-down the most interesting and funny and QUALITY SF I've read this year. It should be a shoo-in for a Hugo at the very least.
NAll right!
This is hands-down the most interesting and funny and QUALITY SF I've read this year. It should be a shoo-in for a Hugo at the very least.
Not only is it an easy, funny read, but it's also an absolutely scathing a satire with fantastic pacing, dozens of tongue-in-cheek zingers, and a pitch-perfect condemnation of our modern ratings-based society.
I mean, honestly, we ARE all exactly what our profiles say... aren't we? There's NO ONE out there that isn't exactly what the credit agencies say, right? I mean, all those huge conglomerate information-gathering monstrosities have ALL got us dead-to-rights, right?
Of course! In commerce we trust!
(In actual fact, this book is like Idiocracy had a really smart baby, read Rationality: From AI to Zombies before picking up a bunch of misfit grifters made of nuts and bolts. Of course, that was the moment it decided to either run for president or get revenge on revenge-porn viewers. (I can't quite tell, but that last bit might be the same thing.)
This book is the most pleasant surprise of the year! (So far.)
I've been a fan of Tidhar for some time now, picking up book after book not even giving a peso for the contents, sure that I would be amazed and throwI've been a fan of Tidhar for some time now, picking up book after book not even giving a peso for the contents, sure that I would be amazed and thrown into a thoughtful tailspin with whatever I encountered.
So what did I see?
An unapologetic retelling of the Arthurian Legend. :)
"Wait!" -- you say -- "Hasn't the Arthurian Legend been done like a million times?"
And I would say, "Yep! And I've read a ton of them, and THIS one not only builds on the twisty-strides of the others, but it subverts them all. Nastily."
Whoah. But how?
Keep in mind, this is a satire wrapped up in the plausible example of post-Roman occupied London full of thugs and jerks and all kinds of nasties wrapped up in their own legends and they're NOT the nice kinds of legends. Indeed, it reads like a whos-who of modern politics.
By Force Alone glorifies the truncheon.
Practically no one is particularly likable. Some may have redeeming qualities, but damn, the way things pan out, following all the standard events of the Arthurian Legend including all the magic and the inception and his death, this particular retelling is pretty damning. :)
Very enjoyable! A must-read for fans of the genre! (Or anyone that thinks that M. Z. Bradley's work was too tame.) :)...more
Back a few years after the turn of the century, the world was brand crazy. More than that, it was murderously brand crazy. Remember the debacle aroundBack a few years after the turn of the century, the world was brand crazy. More than that, it was murderously brand crazy. Remember the debacle around Nike? Murders in gangland over shoes? Or how about the whole stink surrounding the marketing departments who not only capitalized but doubled down on the policies that made this?
Yeah.
Well, this novel truly capitalizes on THAT. :)
And Max Barry takes it all to its natural conclusion. Governments are gutted, corporations rule everything. Do you want your loyalty rewards? How about unfettered capitalism without any restrictions whatsoever?
Please have your credit card handy if you want ambulance service. :)
Barry is one of my go-to guys now. Screamingly fast writing, razor-sharp commentary, and wonderful character-driven adventures that often pull some great bait-n-switches. Just who are we supposed to feel compassion for? Oh my... that IS horrible. :)
But just WHO is Jennifer Government? She's merely one in a fairly large cast of characters who must be defined by their job. I'd say the conceit is unrealistic but I recently had to change my name to Brad Writer. Branding is everything, you know....more
Maybe if I was 20 years younger and not all that versed in SF except in practically ONLY the classics, I probably would have picked up this little subMaybe if I was 20 years younger and not all that versed in SF except in practically ONLY the classics, I probably would have picked up this little subversive title and chuckled darkly through my reading of it.
I probably would have nodded and enjoyed the relatively light Bad-Is-Good vision of society and admit that I've read much better satire in my life. But it IS satire and it's not BAD satire. It's just LITE satire.
In other words, it fits nicely with a grand sweeping tradition of early SF.
I should say... this is the second Sheckly I've read. He sure has a thing about people sport-hunting people. lol
This was an okay book. Fast-paced, a product of its time, and relatively predictable. :)...more
Let me just say that I'm STILL super impressed that this title ever got out of the gate.
As for everything else going on, this is very much a sequel buLet me just say that I'm STILL super impressed that this title ever got out of the gate.
As for everything else going on, this is very much a sequel but it's hardly needed to read the first book first. Crazy s**t happened. Zoey is way out of her depth. Still.
In fact, this novel goes completely off the deep end. Let's keep the humor running high, make sure our poor Zoey is now super freaking rich, inheriting all the ills of the rich, and feeling the total terror of rampaging human augments, gigantic farting kitties, and even more about futuristic suits.
What's the real issue tho?
Zoey is isolated like crazy and is starting to go crazy. It doesn't hurt that this totally nuts place in Ohio is a privatized anarchistic wonderland that has more in common with an anime than a rational city.
And that's what's awesome about this.
That, and the cat. Any of the cats. I'm all over this book about the cats.
It takes a lot of unusual social takes and maybe even takes an unpopular stance, but I have to grade the balls in this book. Or rather, this is where the focus goes. :)...more
I hesitate in calling this a satire because it's a highly-charged emotional bomb of a great story IN ADDITION to being some of the cleverest novels ofI hesitate in calling this a satire because it's a highly-charged emotional bomb of a great story IN ADDITION to being some of the cleverest novels of scattershot inversions, sly winks, and outrageously funny situations.
You know, as funny as meeting Jesus in Hell is going to be, serving heroin to the damned in a soup kitchen just before they completely obliterate themselves. Or the realization that Jesus has a sister. A modern one. A true begotten daughter of God. Julie: the one who talks to sponges, gets scolded for performing miracles, gets embroiled in a plot of Satan, and who absolutely ADORES science.
I love Julie. She's so earnest. A good kid. And we get to see her grow up, get into trouble with her alcoholic best friend, save Atlantic City from a conflagration, and send herself to hell for 15 years, voluntarily. Where she gets to know her brother.
The aftermath... ah well, the aftermath is the hard part, emotionally, but what a great read it all is. Almost every line has a freaking SHARP comment to be made on religion and its followers. From the conception of Julie by a Jewish man donating to a sperm bank only to have the authorities freak out because it somehow found an egg in the container, to the anticrucification of the antichrist. Or what God actually turns out to be or where Satan winds up. :)
The text is SHARP.
Sure, we've had a number of classics that skewered religion before, but few do it as regularly and consistently and as cleverly as this one. The real devil is in the details, and this one gets under your skin like the buckshot of a shotgun.
I think, after reading only two of James K. Morrow's books, I've found one of my top favorite authors of all time. :)...more
This book defies easy description by the plain simple fact that it transcends itself, over and over.
I mean, it starts out with Doctor Rat, a grant-subThis book defies easy description by the plain simple fact that it transcends itself, over and over.
I mean, it starts out with Doctor Rat, a grant-subsidized scientist performing experiments on other animals in a way that seems like a diatribe against animal experimentation, but along with his poetry and his singing, he goes well beyond that kind of tale by out-doing the sheer evil of the Nazi scientists in WWII, becoming an anti-revolutionary bastion, and out Darth Vadering Darth Vader.
Did I laugh my head off at the point where he had his commentaries about human musicians pulling a David Attenborough on the whales while they waxed rhapsodic about how smart they were? Yes!
But when we get to a full revolution (remember, this book came out in 1977) of the animals versus the humans, with Doctor in his finest, most horrific mode, this book becomes a full world-war as tragic, scary, and bats**t insane as any of the best war documentaries. It's bloody, full of truly terrible biological warfare, and when whole battalions of elephants get... hey! Well... no spoilers... it's... brilliant. Disgusting. And amazing.
This satire goes WELL beyond its humble beginnings and skewers everything it touches.
Oh, and it makes a good case to stop castrating rats. Just imagine... if this one rat had not been castrated, then so much tragedy could have been avoided...
It's gonna be rough rating my favorites out of nearly 600 books this year, but I'm in luck: I have my amorphous and totally unreliable intuition to guIt's gonna be rough rating my favorites out of nearly 600 books this year, but I'm in luck: I have my amorphous and totally unreliable intuition to guide me! Yay!
Let's face it. I have an iron stomach. I can handle all the over-the-top violence a comic can throw at me. I like a good bit of horror, too. But what Let's face it. I have an iron stomach. I can handle all the over-the-top violence a comic can throw at me. I like a good bit of horror, too. But what I like best of all?
Good Satire.
And let's face it, mate, this one goes all bollocks on every superhero franchise we've got. Who are the bad guys? Who are good? It doesn't matter. They're all summed up quite nicely by Butcher's Great Power observation. It sums up nicely that great power corrupts absolutely. And no, I'm not using the word he uses. I may enjoy a great R-rated comic but it doesn't mean I have to write an R-rated review. :)
I'm telling you, the big blowout oat the end of this, with the war, the coup, the everything... was freaking amazing. I even got that huge sinking feeling in the whole wrap-up that turned into a dark depression. And yet, the comic still kept coming on strong. And ended strong.
This is right up there with The Watchmen for me. Maybe, in some ways, it is better. Not all the way better, but **** me, mate, I had me some great laughs. This is a classic. I'll be making no bones about it....more
You know those times when you just HAVE to have something that pushes all the limits, dives deep into satire, and still manages to tell a great, epic You know those times when you just HAVE to have something that pushes all the limits, dives deep into satire, and still manages to tell a great, epic story?
Look here. The Boys does it all. We're deep into the backstories of the main characters, seeing a little bit of the innocents in the superhero category, and watching Hughie descend ever further into the cauldron of bloody caution.
But what about the satire, you ask? Oh, it's all here, mostly making fun of comics and individual heroes, twisting it all super dark, but Ennis is also stabbing the military-industrial complex, American politics, over-sexualization in the media, and the whole freaking category of humanity and all the s**t we put each other through.
This revels in the enormity of our basic incompetence.
What a grand treat this is! I mean, I fell in love with the Amazon show and I've been a diehard fan of the Preacher (also Garth Ennis),MUahahahahahaha
What a grand treat this is! I mean, I fell in love with the Amazon show and I've been a diehard fan of the Preacher (also Garth Ennis), so it's kinda a no-brainer that I would have gone gung-ho over this one as well.
What I DIDN'T expect was just how far, how raunchy, how purely, gloriously satirical Ennis would take it!
A lot of the iconic scenes and character twists are exactly the same in both the tv show and the comic, but in some cases, it's much MORE. Starlight, for example, got cornered by three of the Seven on first meet-and-greet. The Serum is much more widespread than we were lead to believe in the show, as well. And the embarrassing moments? The blackmail attempts? The full-out craziness of the supes, everywhere? These are worse in the comics. And by worse, I mean deliciously horrific and entertaining.
The satire is god-awful brilliant. I was really blown away by Tech-Knight (aka Batman) and his little problem. Getting to know The Legend (aka Stan Lee) was also great. But you know what blew me away the most? The f**k-up with the airplane. It was this alternate history's 9/11, taking out the Brooklyn Bridge. And the cluster-F surrounding big corporations owning the government is pretty much the same... only the big players are different. Supes are BIG BUSINESS, ya know?!
So delicious. And I'm only a third done in the Big Omnibus. I can't wait to see how this war ENDS. :)...more
I can't remember when I last read a book as delightfully satirical, exciting, and brilliantly multi-layered as this.
It's very firmly couched in bloodI can't remember when I last read a book as delightfully satirical, exciting, and brilliantly multi-layered as this.
It's very firmly couched in bloody-minded literalism, but don't let that fool you. This is one SMART COOKIE.
Yes, God is a main character. But unlike so many other humorists, this version is dead. But unlike any number of humorist novels out there, Morrow throws out all the lame ideas and goes ahead and picks the most interesting choices. Every Single Time. Like choosing a God that is FREAKING HUGE before dumping him in the ocean.
Add the Vatican with some really anxious and embarrassed angels hiring a disgraced captain to tow the Godhead to his makeshift burying ground, throw the boat into a rather awesome reversal of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, raise an island that is a crude, glitsy porn palace as a post-deist playground of unnatural selection, some mutineers, a hardcore rationalist subplot, and a bunch of nutty WWII re-enactment hobbyists, and you might get a tiny idea about where this might be headed.
This ain't philosophy. But then again, maybe it is. Hardcore philosophy behind a leering, jeering, madcap Monty-Pythonesque prose. Including the parrot.
I will never forget the parody of the transubstantiation.
I have found my next best favorite book. No holds were barred. Everyone, no matter who you are, is invited up to the table to get a punch in the nose. :)
All this aside, you know what I really, really want?
I want this book done as an Amazon Prime or a full-budget HBO miniseries. Including the gigantic corpse. All the frantic sailors trying to keep the predators off God's body. The air battle. The quiet, desperate times with full close-ups for the actors to show the deep conflict, the absurdist humor, the pathos.
It works on SO many levels.
This book has the probability to become one of the most brilliant adaptations ever.
This is clearly a top-notch book for its rabblerousing racial-hate mob-inducing polemics that plays to both conservatives and liberals at the samWow.
This is clearly a top-notch book for its rabblerousing racial-hate mob-inducing polemics that plays to both conservatives and liberals at the same time while convincing me that everyone in New York City during the '80s is some of the most hateful, despicable politics-led morons on the planet. I hated the socialites and I hated the mob of the people led by the nose.
As a whole, this entire book can only be described as the enthusiastic stirring of a huge steaming pot of poo.
Satire? Oh, hell, I guess it is, just so long as us readers look at it like the over-the-top circus of buffoons that it is. Some great writing, of course. This is Tom Wolfe. But I'll ALWAYS love his nonfiction best.
So what's my problem? It's neither the all-out skewering of a wall-street idiot or outright caricatures of the media, judges, lawyers on both sides, or preachers. In fact, since this novel, I've read and watched enough lawyer shows, good ones, mind you, that this book seems rather paltry and lame.
But here's the kicker. This came out before OJ. It's almost like a silly premonition trying to put a rich entitled WASP on a pedestal even if he never gets out from under the heel of "justice". I'd have to make a pretty long case on this, but the outline is pretty clear. They were both farcical and absurd for the same reasons if not for the underlying causes. And yet, the causes are just a flip-side.
Public perception, racial politics, wagon-training justice, and people being people. Out for blood and damn reality. And you know what? I DIDN'T CARE FOR THE MAIN CHARACTERS AT ALL. None of them. Not sympathetic in the slightest. I wanted to see everyone burn. But they didn't.
Instead, we had a three-ring circus of a satire that doesn't go far enough and the subversively-angled conservative arguments playing out in this text are laughable. The liberal caricatures are even worse.
Reading both sides of this just makes me want to puke.
So? It's a modern novel holding a big stick and stirring a big pot of poo.
For some, maybe it's as entertaining as a car wreck. But not me. There are MANY better examples of satire that work so much better....more
Oldschool Dick but still a few years after The Man in the High Castle, this particular little novel is the most comic-book zany of all of his works. POldschool Dick but still a few years after The Man in the High Castle, this particular little novel is the most comic-book zany of all of his works. Pulp to the max.
I mean, that shouldn't be too surprising in the middle of the sixties when his output was insanely high, when he was dragging out a novel as fast as he could to attempt to make a living... and a poor living at that.
And yet, he still manages to write something quite akin to Dr. Strangelove. Half satire, half comic book wacky. Quirky enough to encompass idiot savants, time travel, shifting mazes, and a futuristic arms race that is a setup from the get-go. Everyone's in on the plot except for the normal joes.
Sound familiar?
Well, it's pretty okay for what it is. Slapdash and quick, there's plenty of odd females to go along with the odd guys, and together they discover that the whole world is not what it seems. In that case, it's pretty classic PKD... it just didn't strike my fancy all that much.
The other novels are a lot more polished, deep, and deeply strange rather than just surface strange. So, unfortunately, I must dub this novel the worst of PKD. It's a shame, really. It's still okay. lol...more
