Nick Bryan

joe abercrombie

Best of 2015 – TOP TEN BOOKS

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It’s the end of the year, I’m running out of reading/viewing/listening time, should get my best-of-year posts filed away before 2015 dies and I miss the zeitgeist.

So, let’s see what I can fit in before I need to cut this shit out and wrap some presents. To give these posts more structure (and recreate the glee I feel when writing my Top Ten TV post), I’m gonna mess with the format a little, possibly do a top ten for the categories I feel can sustain it, and post them as I’ve done them. First up: THE BOOKS.

As of this writing, I’m one book away from hitting my 50-books Goodreads challenge target, but I have a novella lined up that will hopefully take me over the top. Or I could just start counting my comic reading on Goodreads, which would win it instantly.

But what were the best of the proses?

10) Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill – and immediately we slip out of current releases, but this creeped the shit out of me. I don’t read many ghost stories, so may have been an easy mark for it, but nonetheless, an easy and scary read.

9) Half The World by Joe Abercrombie – last year, I mentioned Half A King, this year it was the sequel, and as you’d expect from Abercrombie, top-notch wry action. Must read the end of the trilogy soon.

8) Rickshaw by David McGrath – full disclosure: I know the author from my MA course, but nonetheless, this is an exhilarating, visceral London dark comedy-drama about a rickshaw driver losing his grip and you should try it.

7) Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson – you’re more likely to know Wilson for her (excellent) Ms. Marvel comic, but she also wrote this modern urban fantasy which really hit my imagination.

6) Dual – A Love Story by James Priest – I mostly know Priest for his comics (as Christopher Priest), but his recent self-published novels have very much captured the smart, funny, pragmatic tone that drew me to his other work, and Dual is the strongest of the two complete ones I read this year. His sci-fi series 1999 might be even better, but I haven’t finished that yet.

5) Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch – this is me cheating, as I read all five of these books in 2015 and didn’t want them to dominate the chart. They’re great, though – a witty, well-thought-out, relatable take on magic, which has found entirely deserved success.

4) Envy of Angels by Matt Wallace – a unique, imaginative culinary urban fantasy novella that kept me hooked from start to finish. Already pre-ordered the sequel.

3) The Death House by Sarah Pinborough – a strange, spacey, atmospheric one-off book about a group of teenagers in a grim facility in the middle of nowhere. Hard to describe but good, read it.

2) The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey – a zombie book better than most, through sheer strength of character writing. Technically came out last year. Amazing stuff.

1) Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell by Susanna Clarke –  technically came out a while back, but a lovely, charming, painfully British fantasy book which packs enough plot for a trilogy into a single (admittedly very long) book, full of memorable characters and funny jokes. Also footnotes almost as long as the ones in that Stewart Lee book.

(There is also a very well-done BBC TV adaptation if you can’t face the brick-sized novel, but I’d recommend reading it if you can.)

And that, readers, was the books of the written word of the year 2015. Comics hopefully with you in the next few days.

BEST OF 2014 – Books

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My original plan, as threatened in last week’s podcast/film/music summary, was to dig into my favourite books and comics of the year in this single post. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (me banging on for too long), I am going to leave this one with just the books and return to the comics at a later date. Probably quite a soon later date, as I still harbour the ambition of getting these blog posts out before 2014 itself ends, and I still gotta do the TV as well.

If you want to see how my tastes have evolved, you can consult the 2013 equivalent of this blog post. For now, though, let’s dig into the best printed prose stories of the year, most of which I read digitally.

YA – Why, eh?

My major shift in books-direction this year was to start reading YA, because I’ve begun to socialise with a lot of YA-likers and also (inevitably) started to wonder if I could write it myself. So, if anyone else wants a good entry point, I’ll lay out the best of my mostly-scifi/fantasy sampling.

I’ve read The City’s Son and The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock, the first two in his Skyscraper Throne trilogy set in a fantastical London. Although the first one is a strong opening adventure that set out a potentially fascinating world, the second was a year-highlight, a genuinely excellent emotional journey through cool concepts that I’d recommend to anyone. Must track down the third one. (By which I mean: I’ll buy it when it gets cheaper on Kindle.)

Elsewhere in the YA exploration, Pantomime by Laura Lam is a lovely, fragile book about Micah Grey, a teen coming to terms with his own identity under confusing circumstances – and also set in a circus. Control by Kim Curran is the sequel to her alternate-reality-wrangling scifi book Shift, and in a similar way to the Tom Pollock series, the first one does some interesting world building, but the second is the one which really made me pay attention. Happily, the third and final part is coming soon.

Also read The Curse Workers trilogy by Holly Black, about magical con-men, and although they never quite top the excellent first book, it’s all an exciting adventure.

At the younger end of the target-age spectrum, but also among the most excellent: Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens is a mega-likable school detective story and Close Your Pretty Eyes by Sally Nicholls is beautifully characterised and creepy. Very creepy.

Aged To Perfection

I’m going to creep back towards adult novels now, via the bridging method of fantasy author Joe Abercrombie. I read the last two books in his adult trilogy The First Law, as well as his new YA book Half A King this year and all were great. The biting wit and intense adventure are strong across the board.

Tore through The Cormorant, the most recent in Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black supernatural crime series too, and it’s the best one yet. The first two were fun adventures, but this third part was blow-me-away good, and I’m pleased to hear it should be continuing this year with Thunderbird. His urban fantasy book The Blue Blazes was fun too.

I also read Feed by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) and although I’ve not read her work before, I did enjoy the combination of genuinely creepy horror plotting and someone writing about the internet/blogging in a way that suggests they actually understand it. All too rare.

Getting into sundry other territory now, I also liked:

  • The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, a sweet robot-romance by Cassandra Rose Clarke
  • Fight Or Flight by Chele Cooke, the second in her Out Of Orbit scifi adventure series
  • Deadlines, a weekly newspaper-crime serialised thriller by Chris Brosnahan
  • Gun Machine, a heavily armed crime novel by noted comic writer Warren Ellis
  • Mayhem, Jack-The-Ripper-esque gritty crime by Sarah Pinborough.

Phew. I read a lot of books this year, and that was just over a third of them.

I refrained from listing my own book, as that seemed like supreme arrogance, but if you want to see The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf on a similar list, you can head on over to Nimbus Space here. Just popping that in. Coming soon: the comics!

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie – A Recommendation

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Joe Abercrombie - First Law Trilogy

I am self-publishing a book soon, so will be talking about that quite a lot. You can see all the details of that venture here, but to mix things up, I thought I’d recommend someone else’s books in this post.

To be specific: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings, aka The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It’s a fantasy trilogy, revolving around the politics, prejudices and (eventually) magic in a world not quite our own and it’s really good. I was recommended it whilst in the midst of Thrones-fever, fancying something else in the fantasy arena, and it really hit the spot – smart, character driven action with the fantastical elements playing around the edges, sometimes screaming into the forefront.

So since those who started reading the A Song Of Ice And Fire series with the TV show are probably finishing soon, I figured I’d point this out as a next step.

In fact, The First Law might even be a better bet for readers who enjoyed the Thrones TV series than the George R.R. Martin books themselves – it’s a short, accessible, witty read and with a conclusion that already exists.Although it is potentially even more depressing than Thrones at times – Abercrombie is LordGrimdark on Twitter, after all.

Anyway. It has a large, memorable cast tied together through clear threads, including the obligatory love-to-hate character in Inquisitor Glokta. He does all the worst things yet gets the best lines, as always. Although, to be honest, there are a few reluctant favourites to go around – I’d take another Logen Ninefingers book in a heartbeat.

There’s a little of the inevitable mid-trilogy sag in book two, but the big set-pieces in that book are so impressive that it hardly bothers you. Great work as a whole, hits the right balance of epic sweep whilst remaining rooted in character, and manages a three-dimensional universe without bogging down in detail. Abercrombie also writes a great fast, meaty fight scene.

And even better, there are three standalone books in the same setting to read next. Sadly, though, they seem to centre on characters outside of the primary ones from The First Law, and I loved those folks. Still be reading them though.

Oh, and Abercrombie also just released Half A King, the well-reviewed first chapter in a whole new series. Excellent.