Fantasy Book Critic: 2020 Review / 2021 Preview

Given the wonderful hellscape of 2020, I put a lot more effort into reading this year, particularly outside genres I’d normally gravitate toward. With the kiddos distance learning, and therefore our house being a disaster of toys, drawings, tablets, and noise, reading outside in a hammock was my momentary escape. So to narrow down the big three I adored, and would practically beg anyone to read, they’d be:

Books I read:

Under A Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng – Impossible not to fall in love with this one. This story oozes gothic atmosphere, and takes place in a world almost unparalleled in its imagination and creativity.

Velocity Weapon / Chaos Vector by Megan O'Keefe – I feel it is fair to combine the two given that I devoured the both of them back-to-back. The Protectorate is the twistiest, most expertly-plotted sci-fi being published today. Enjoy having the rug pulled out from under you again, and again, and again.

Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – My favorite read in years. It’s hopeful, angry, raw, and achingly beautiful. I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t become a genre classic.

Books I look forward to:

Catalyst Gate by Megan O'Keefe – Given how much I loved the first two, this inclusion should be obvious.

The Unbroken by C. L. Clark– Possibly cheating, since I’ve already read this, but it’s gonna be big, and I’m looking forward to the fandom it will absolutely develop.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – So this came out late this year, but whatever, it’s my list. Bone Shard Daughter is my next read after I finish Essa Hanson’s Nophek Gloss (which is also super imaginative, btw, but I’m not finished yet!), and I’m eager to sink my teeth into this one.

I also feel it’d be incomplete to finish a 2020 list without at least acknowledging some of the other media that helped get me through it. On TV, that’d be HBO’s Lovecraft Country. Episode after episode, it was filled with some of the weirdest and wildest moments I’ve ever seen on screen.

On the game side, I’ll scream it from the rooftops that anyone should be playing Supergiant Games’ Hades. The music, the artwork, the gameplay, the phenomenal characterization – everything is top notch. I’ve put 130 hours into that masterpiece, and I expect I’ve still many more to go.

Own projects:

This February, I’m finishing the Keepers trilogy that’s pretty dear to my heart with the release of Voidbreaker. I wrote it to be a hopeful trilogy of characters enduring a dark world, and that optimism will be nice to start out a new year.