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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.
STUFF OF THE YEAR.
It has been, as you’ve probably noticed, a very peculiar year. I’m sure I’ve consumed more media than I ever would in a normal year, but it also seems to have passed my by in a haze – barely taken in, just buzz in the background.
I’ve hardly read anything at all, my concentration had been shot to bits so that by the time I’ve finished whatever writing and editing I’ve been doing I’ve been struggling to concentrate. Still, I managed to read a couple: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and A Private Cathedral by James Lee Burke as well as more non-fiction, which I could dip in and out of. Both the McCarthy and the Lee-Burke books are works that I am still thinking about months after finishing. Then there was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke which I enjoyed but didn’t love. Though beautiful it felt curiously empty, to me, though I think that may be a deliberate decision.
In visual stuff, and like most people I was blown away by The Queen’s Gambit which is held together by astounding performances by Marielle Heller as Beth’s brittle, disappointed mother and Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth. Taylor-Joy’s ability to convey so much in just a flick of her eyes is astounding. Though if you had already seen her in Emma (and many horror films I am informed, though I am too much of a wuss to watch them) then you wouldn’t be surprised by this. I think what I really liked about the Queen’s Gambit was everyone found their bit of happiness, and I think that’s a large part of why it’s been a such a hit. I also liked the fact she didn’t just magically get good at chess. She had an aptitude but she had to work at it, she always had a book in her hand or was thinking about chess, or talking about chess. It’s something who will resonate with anyone who does a thing (like writing) that is as much compulsion as it is ‘work’. We also watched The Magicians, and though I can imagine it would annoy some people I found the ‘knowing winks’ within the story about story and how it works immense fun. I’ve enjoyed Star Trek: Discovery but I wasn’t quite as taken by The Mandalorian as most people, I thought there was a lot of filler in the early episodes but when it was good it was really good.
The other thing I’ve really enjoyed this year as been the podcast ‘Finding Drago’ where Australian comedians Alexei Toliopoulos and Cameron James try to track down the mysterious author, Todd Noy, who wrote the novella ‘Drago: On Mountains We Stand.’ They end up going on an adventure and if I told you anything about it then it would ruin it for you, but I think it is really worth your time. It’s a fascinating dive into people and so very satisfying.
Gamewise I really enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima which made me the Kurosawa hero I’ve always wanted to be. Was underwhelmed by Outer Worlds which I really wanted to like more but never really rose above ‘well, it’s alright.’
As to what I’m looking forward to next year, well, obviously the final book in the Tide Child trilogy is released, ‘The Bone Ship’s Wake’ and I think it’s probably the strongest thing I’ve written to date. But I’ve been so busy with that and other projects that I’ve been a bit out of the loop really and I don’t know what else is coming next year. I think what I’m really looking forward to next year is that I might be able to meet up with people again. Do some bookshop appearances and go to some conventions as I didn’t realise how much I missed seeing everyone until I did. I’ll enjoy that more than any film or game. Maybe not books though. Books are special to me.
This year did not go quite like I planned. In another universe, I would have gone on to having two panels at the Cape Town Comic Con and would have participated in two prestigious South African book festivals. This was supposed to be my year. I won’t lie. I was salty as all hell about how my dreams imploded after my YA SF novel Sing down the Stars won gold in the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature. Let’s not even discuss my long-anticipated trip to the US – a bucket-list item I had long saved up for.
I always hesitate to indulge in these listicles, primarily because my reading habits are so eclectic. However, if you’re like me and enjoy reading across a broad range of topics and books, you might find something new to like.
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.
Best of 2020
First off, I must say that I consume way too much media in the best of times, and so with being confined to my home, that only increased this year. I got through 48 books, around 60 movies (which is a shorter list than usual, for obvious reasons), over 60 seasons of TV (and that's just for new 2020 seasons, not including rewatches or things that came out in past years. Yikes), and I don't even know how many games. All this to say that narrowing down to a "Top Whatever" list is always very difficult for me, but I will do my best to narrow it down (and to keep it relatively short).
2020 Review / 2021 Preview
So I’ll start by saying it’s been an odd year, and I’ll wager most people can agree with that. My reading slumped a little and I’ve even slumped in playing new games, falling back to playing the latest CoD with my friends mostly because SOCIAL INTERACTION!!! I’ve watched a ton of TV though, so I’m gonna do a favourite reads and favourite series I consumed in 2020.
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