January | 2020 | inadaptation

I’ve read a couple of small-press/indie books in the last year or two, and the occasional traditionally-published novel too (most indie stuff these days though). A couple of things I feel like mentioning:

A while back I read Jon del Arroz’ For Steam and Country. I did not like it very much (clunkily written) and got the impression that he’d be better off trying to write comics. At some point he took the advice I would have given him if I had ever met him (sensible man) and started writing comics, and it worked. Flying Sparks is kinda fun, good solid story, good solid characters, I’m interested to see where it goes. (I’ve read volumes 1 and 2.)
Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves by Fenton Wood is the best indie book I read last year, and close to the best thing full stop. The basic plot is a teenage kid setting up his own radio station in the mountain valley where he lives, written well enough to make it riveting. I don’t care at all about radio or amateur electronics, but that didn’t matter; there are people who do, and the protagonist was one of them, and it was a lot of fun to come along for the ride.
It’s in the genre of weird fiction, but in this book the weirdness is a garnish: things happening in the edges or background, tall tales told by untrustworthy characters, sprinkled on top of an already enjoyable story. (There are sequels, but this book stands alone well enough. Things get weirder in future books.)
Bad Dreams and Broken Hearts by Misha Burnett is a close runner-up. A kind of magic-noir set in a fantasy Los Angeles, about an ordinary policeman investigating crimes and tragedies in a world where magic provides new and strange ways for laws (and hearts, as per the title) to be broken. It’s written by someone who understands what makes noir work and knows how to make the fantasy aspects add to it rather than subtract. I’ve been leery of his fiction before (some, uh, weird sex which turned me off his Book of Lost Doors series) but this is something I’d unhesitatingly recommend to anyone who finds the blurb even remotely interesting.
In traditional publishing, last year I also read installments of two very good series – the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher, and book II of the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior (House of Assassins) by Larry Correia. Both of these are unfinished stories (Codex Alera because I haven’t read the last book – I’m on it now – and Forgotten Warrior because the last book hasn’t been written); both are worth reading, and Forgotten Warrior is probably the best thing Correia’s done so far. The setting is unique, the protagonist is memorable (if you’ve ever read Judge Dredd and thought “I like this but I want my protagonists to have less tolerance for lawbreaking and human weakness”, this is the book for you), the monsters are terrifying – both the demons from the sea, and the human villains.
There’s probably something amazing I read last year which I’ve forgotten and in a month I’ll remember it and think, “no! That was the best thing I read in 2019!” I have a pretty terrible memory. But I’d say the best thing I read last year was House of Assassins, followed by Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves and then Bad Dreams and Broken Hearts.