I love best-of lists and reading wrap-ups. As 2023 comes to a close, it's time to sit, think, and write such a post. I always do it with pleasure.
It was a rather good year. I've read a lot and discovered some excellent reads. Contrary to previous years, my 2023 wrap-up is dominated by fun, pulpy, and entertaining, with just a few "serious" works thrown in the mix.
I guess it's because the year has been intense and I simply gravitated toward easier, more accessible books. I've rediscovered my love for thrillers and mysteries but I won't list them because it's a fantasy website, after all. That said, some of my most thrilling reads this year were all thrillers. I'll mention a few standouts here, in case someone here is interested: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, False Witness by Karin Slaughter, The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson, and The Traitor by Ava Glass.
I hope some of you will find inspiration here and maybe discover something worth attention :)
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FORMAT/INFO: Sun of Blood and Ruin will be published on February 20th, 2024 by HarperVoyager in the US; it was published in the UK on September 28th, 2023. It is 384 pages and told in the first person from Leonora's POV. It will be available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook format.
Book review: Murder on The Lamplight Express (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries # 2) by Morgan Stang
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Morgan Stang lives in the humid part of Texas. He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA. By day he works in accounting and by night he sleeps, and sometime in between he writes in a wide variety of fantasy genres, ranging from dark fantasy (The Bartram's Maw series) to gaslamp murder mystery (The Lamplight Murder Mysteries) to cozy fantasy (The Bookshop and the Barbarian). He is a fan of all things nerdy, and lives with an immortal ball python.
Publisher: Morgan Stang Length: 298 pages Formats: ebook, paperback
A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself by Katherine Howe (Reviewed by Shazzie)
Book Review: A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself by Katherine Howe
Official Author Website
Buy A True Account here - U.S. | U.K.
FORMAT/INFO: A True Account was published in November 2023 by Magpie Books in the U.K. and by Henry Holt and Co. in the U.S. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL Q&A: The Storm Beneath The World (Children Of Corruption #1) by Michael R. Fletcher
Q] Welcome back to Fantasy Book Critic Michael. How are you doing since the release of A WAR TO END ALL, the end of your Manifest Delusions saga?
Buy Fearless
FORMAT/INFO: Fearless was published on September 8th, 2020 by Flame Tree Press. It is 362 pages long and is told in first person from multiple POVs, including Captain Shann. It is available in paperback, hardback, and ebook.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.
Publisher: Dark Horse Books (March 28, 2023 ) Page count: 264 pages
Buy System Collapse
Book Review: The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
FORMAT/INFO: The Invocations will be launched in January 2024 by Bonnier Books UK. It contains 400 pages long and told from multiple POVs.
Labels:
bonnier books,
horror,
Krystal Sutherland,
shazzie,
supernatural,
the invocations,
thriller
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Book Review: Generation Ship by Michael Mammay
FORMAT/INFO: Generation Ship was released on October 17th, 2023 by HarperVoyager. It is 608 pages long and told in third person from multiple POVs. It will be released in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Generation Ship by Michael Mammay is a science fiction book that follows the space faring journey of the people on a ship on it's way to colonise a viable planet.
A big crew of people leave the Earth and go on a space voyage to find another planet to colonize. It's been 250 years, and their probes give them data indicating the possibility of a suitable planet, and what follows is this story. They left our planet behind, but not all of our problems. Micheal Mammay uses this premise to create a fantastic and engaging novel that follows five of them: a farmer, a scientist, a politician, a security officer and an engineer.
This book is not short by anyone's standards, but it is immersive. I read about a quarter of it before picking up another book, and when this happens, it's very difficult for me to be able to get back to reading the previous one. But in this case, that wasn't an issue at all. Once it got going, I read a big chunk of it in one go. What I loved the most was the tiny little details meticulously dropped in about everyday life on the ship, on the different things experienced by the characters that made it feel so lived in. I lapped up all those mentions, and while I generally express a preference for more compact books, I just want more.
The pacing is even, and all the characters are given equal(ish) page time, and while I have no affection for any of them, there were times when I did stop reading and ask myself "Is this person right?", and that is a testament to the skill with which the author deals with real people dealing with problems that are complicated by the implications of any stance they take, and the effect this has on a story that's mainly furthered by a balance of political and personal objectives.
From the beginning, it is clear that this story isn't really about the exploration of the new planet, and that a large part of it takes place in the ship. This I enjoyed, and it paved the way for some unfamiliar beats as the personalities clashed, bickered, made decisions in a way that brought disaster after disaster, as well as makes a lot of points for and against democracy, technocracy, autocracy, as well as the sustainability of a civilisation that wears blinders in its push toward extreme reliance on technology. At the end though, it's a little bit of an unexpected whirlwind with everything that happens, but in a way that makes sense to the characters we follow.
While I was able to appreciate all the manoeuvres of the clashing personalities, at the end of it all, I remember more vibes than plot in a way. For such an intricately woven story, this is not the aftertaste I wish for. While I understand the cases made by all the characters, I felt like I was following the story without any deep investments in any of their successes, and this was a slight dent in my enjoyment of the book.
CONCLUSION: Generation Ship is a fantastic political drama about the different players and their motives, and how those can shape the future of a civilisation. I highly recommend this to fans of science fiction, and you bet I'll load all of Michael Mammay's work onto my kindle.
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Long Way Down
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Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Loot
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Read Fantasy Book Critic's Interview with Craig Schaefer
Read Fantasy Book Critic's Harmony Black Series Interview with Craig Schaefer
Read Double Or Nothing Cover Reveal Mini-Interview with Craig Schaefer
Read Part I of Fantasy Book Critic's In-depth Interview with Craig Schaefer
Read My Sworn To The Night Cover Reveal Q&A with Craig Schaefer
Read 2020 State Of Schaefer Interview with Craig Schaefer
FORMAT/INFO: One Dark Window was published by Orbit Books on September 27th, 2022. It is 392 pages and is told in first person from Elspeth's point of view. It is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook form.
Buy The Fractured Dark HERE
Read Caitlin's review of Book 1, The Blighted Stars
FORMAT/INFO: The Fractured Dark was published on September 26th, 2023 by Orbit Books. It is 544 pages long and is told in third person from multiple POVs, including Naira and Tarquin. It is available in paperback, audiobook, and ebook formats.
Order Kraken Rider Z over HERE
Book Review: Grievar's Blood by Alexander Darwin
Outside of writing fiction, Alexander has written for publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine and SF Signal. His latest piece - "The Lost Diary of Anthony Bourdain" - was a featured piece in Rolling Stone’s January 2022 issue.
Cover Reveal: The Blood Curse (Gardens of War & Wasteland Book #2) by Jessica McMinn
Book Review: What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
Book Review: Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
FORMAT/INFO: The Queen of Days was published on October 24th, 2024 by Harper Voyager. It is 384 pages long and is told from Balthazar and Tass's point of view. It is available in hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats.
Book Review: The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater
Buy The Witchwood Knot here
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Olivia Atwater writes whimsical historical fantasy with a hint of satire. She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her fantastic, prose-inspiring husband and her two cats. When she told her second-grade history teacher that she wanted to work with history someday, she is fairly certain this isn't what either party had in mind. She has been, at various times, a historical re-enactor, a professional witch at a metaphysical supply store, a web developer, and a vending machine repairperson.
Buy These Burning Stars HERE
Lord Of A Shattered Land by Howard Andrew Jones (reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
Order “Lord Of A Shattered Land” HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of The Desert Of Souls
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carissa Orlando has a doctorate in clinical-community psychology and specializes in work with children and adolescents. In her “day job,” Carissa works to improve the quality of and access to mental health care for children and their families. Prior to her career in psychology, Carissa studied creative writing in college and has written creatively in some form since she was a child. It was only a matter of time before Carissa, an avid horror fan for much of her life, merged her understanding of the human psyche and deep love for storytelling into a piece of fiction.
Publisher: Berkley (Sep 05, 2023) Length: 352 pages Formats: ebook, audiobook, paperback
Labels:
book review,
Carissa Orlando,
Gothic,
horror,
Paranormal Fiction,
Suspense&Thriller
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Book Review: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
Official Author Website
Buy The Hexologists here - U.S. | U.K.
Read Caitlin's review of the book here
Labels:
epic fantasy,
fantasy,
Josiah Bancroft,
mystery,
orbit books,
shazzie,
the hexologists
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Book Review: Star Bound by Rex Burke
Buy Star Bound HERE
When he was young, he read every one of those yellow-jacketed Victor Gollancz hardbacks in his local library. That feeling of out-of-this-world amazement never left him – and keeps him company as he writes his own SciFi adventures.
When he's not writing, he travels – one way or another, he'll get to the stars, even if it's just as stardust when his own story is done.
Labels:
feel good,
indie,
indie author,
odyssey earth,
rex burke,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
self-published,
shazzie,
star bound
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Book review: The First Ancestor by J.D.L. Rosell (Ranger of the Titan Wilds #2)
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J.D.L. Rosell was swept away on a journey when he stepped foot outside his door and into The Hobbit, and he hasn't stopped wandering since. In his writing, he tries to recapture the wonder, adventure, and poignancy that captivated him as a child. His explorations have taken him to worlds set in over a dozen novels and five series, which include Ranger of the Titan Wilds, Legend of Tal, The Runewar Saga, and The Famine Cycle.
When he's not off on a quest, Rosell enjoys his newfound hobby of archery and older pastimes of hiking and landscape photography. But every hobbit returns home, and if you step softly and mind the potatoes, you may glimpse him curled up with his wife and two cats, Zelda and Abenthy, reading a good book or replaying his favorite video games.
To check out his writing for free, pick up his series starter story bundle at www.jdlrosell.com.
Publisher: Jdl Rosell (May 1, 2023) Length: 362 pages Formats: ebook, paperback, hardback, audiobook
SPFBO9 Finalist: The Last Ranger by J. D. L. Rosell (reviewed by Esmay Rosalyne)
Official Author Website
Order the book HERE
