Fantasy Book Critic: 2020 Review / 2021 Preview

As this sad, strange year comes to a close, it’s interesting to sit back and reflect about what stood out for me in the media I consumed. To be honest, it didn’t feel like a very rich year, and maybe that’s partly because movie releases were so limited.

Tenet was interesting, but left me fairly cold. Knives’ Out was a lot of fun, though I finally got around to seeing Snowpiercer and liked it a lot less than I thought I would. Mulan was another big disappointment – to me it felt like the creation of a bunch of empty suits sitting around a corporate board room table.

Television remains the visual medium I really enjoy, though I probably only sit down and watch 3-4 shows a year. Watchmen was simply phenomenal, some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. The Umbrella Academy’s second season was really strong – the characters and concept and the charismatic actors compensated for a fairly nonsensical plot. The Expanse remains my favorite science fiction show.

I didn’t play very many new games (I’m avidly awaiting Baldur’s Gate 3, though I don’t want to play the Alpha that’s out now) but I did have fun building bases and running away from sea monsters in Sub Nautica.

Books are where I spend most of my leisure time. The first few months of the year I worked my way through Malazan for the first time, and that was quite an interesting experience. I really liked Midnight Tides in particular, though the last few books I was a bit impatient for it all to be over. Still an experience I’d suggest for every fan of epic fantasy. Other than Malazan, the best books I read this year were Wintersteel by Will Wight, The Curse of Chalion by Luis McMaster Bujold, and the Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

On a personal level, I finished two books this year: The Hollow God, the concluding volume in my Swords and Saints fantasy trilogy, and The Shadows of Dust, a space-fantasy adventure that will release on January 3rd. In 2021 I’ll be returning to the world of The Raveling, writing the first book in a new trilogy that takes place five years after the events of The Shadow King.