Best reads of 2021 post and podcast!
For my 2021 best reads podcast I asked my homey Judge Marc Rothenberg who you might remember from the best horror short stories episode to return and count down our top reads of the year. Featuring my favoriite Retro reads, non-fiction, honorable mentions and top ten. It features books from Rivers Solomon, Hailey Piper, Stephen King, John Shirley, C.Robert Cargil and more.
Books
Retro Reads:
The Compleat Werewolf by Anthony Boucher
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
The best of Judith Merril
Void Captain’s Tale by Spinrad
Non-fiction:
the Divine madness of PKD by Kyle Arnold
In the process of doing the podcast there was nothing in this book about Phil I didn’t know or hadn’t read before. But what makes this book special is Kyle Arnold takes that research and his clear knowledge of the fiction. Paint a vivid picture of the psychological issues Phil had that were made worse by the extensive damage he did to himself.
Favorite PKD I read:
Flow my Tears the Policeman Said.
Honorable mentions:
Lola on fire by RY
Goblin/Pearl/ House on the bottom of the Lake by Josh Malerman
The Book of accidents by Chuck Wendig.
The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller
10. No Gods no Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull
For me, there was that awesome feeling of discovery when you find a new voice you know you will return to. No Gods No Masters is a delightfully powerful and unique piece of work. I would recommend it for all fans of modern dark fantasy but for the ones that enjoy deeper political reading, Anarachist werewolf novel you can’t go wrong
9. The last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
From the very
beginning, the book has a disconnected, and strange first-person style. All the
clues are there but the amount of confusion it causes is one hundred on
purpose. I am fine with confusion as long as I am entertained. The funny, wry
prose was enough to carry me but I get that many readers would not be able to
hang. You have to make it to the end but it all pays off. If a cat POV
and first-person narrators who lie and contradict each the other narrators or
invent characters that don’t exist in one chapter to the next sounds confusing.
It is. If you hang it will make sense.
Yeah, I think this is one you should read.
8. Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Sorrowland is a radical novel, sure it is gothic, it is horror, science fiction, and fantasy. It is all those things but at the core, it is the most radical of coming-of-age stories. It comes from such a fresh, thoughtful, and intensely unconformist place that I hesitate to imply that I understand it. I felt many things reading Sorrowland, I was moved by it and yet I feel from my position I have only seen the parts of the iceberg above water. It is not every novel that is able to comment on race, gender and personal identity, sexuality, misogyny, racism inherent in the American system, Well-intentioned but misguided radicalism, colonialism, religion, the state experimentations on people of color and do it all while telling a coming of age story of a teenage mother.
7. Machinehood by SB Divya
Excellent modern Sci-fi about AI and machine rights.
“Por Que, do you consider yourself enslaved?”
“I belong to you, Welga, but since I don’t have personhood, I can’t be a slave.”
Questions, questions. The book asks plenty of those. The ideas are there that was the most exciting aspect for me. There were times I wished the story committed more to the power cords of Sci-fi action, but in the end, I found the conflict plenty effective.
The grandest of science fiction are the tales you can hold up like a mirror to the issues of today. Even more grand are novels that decades like still feel like they are that mirror. Look at Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar or Butler’s Parable books. I don’t know if Machinehood will have that kind of life. I suspect it will be in conversation during award season. The life of the novel may depend on how slow or fast this future hits us.
6. The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper
I cheating a bit as this is 2020 book. there anything more cosmic in horror when a
monster knows you down to the deepest fabric of your heart? A monster that
knows what you desire in your core and want more than anything. The greatest
scariest moments in the genre of horror can only be achieved if the storyteller
creates characters we care about and monsters who threatened them. The Worm is
Monique’s fear made real.
“And here, in the darkest place, Monique found monsters.
Maybe if her parents knew how far she’d fallen, they would at last regret
having bashed their only child.
Unlikely. That was her imagination preying on her thoughts with something more
painful than monsters in the dark-The illusion that her parents could accept
her.”
Goddamn. Amazing stuff, one of the best things I have read so far this year.
Some of the best modern to come out of the small press in a long damn time.
5. Later by Stephen King
I always point to Stephen King's Delores Claiborne as an example where the narrator NEVER cheats. Later is GREAT first-person written in a kid's voice and it NEVER cheats. SK has skill for writing children and speaking in their voices. In this novel he is doing subtle and genius things to those moments of young person’s POV. Jamie is telling this story as a young man and SK is in perfect command of this. The word LATER is so important to the narrative not just because it is the title. Jamie is telling this story of his childhood with the gift of insight insight, so he often gets ahead of the boy in the story. I didn’t understand that until later, or I would learn later. In my opinion this is the best King novel since Doctor Sleep or maybe 11/22/63. It might be his best in this century. The quality is up there with his Full Dark novellas like Good Marriage or 1922. It may sound like hyperbole but I really happy to report this. I don’t want to spoil the twists but the first one is gnarly and scary, the second is just gross and disturbing. I don’t entirely know how I feel about accept once again King got me in the feels.
4. Good neighbors by Sarah Langan
Good Neighbors is a novel that resists tight genre distinction but if you
really want to know it is I would call it a horror social satire. What blows my
mind is that I read a few reviews so far and not one seems to notice or comment
on the intentional in your face word for word tribute to the classic Twilight
Zone episode The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. The ultimate modern suburban
horror novel, the monsters have indeed arrived on Maple Street. With a heep of
Cli-fi involved too. Do yourself a favor and read Good Neighbors. This book
does for the burbs what American Psycho did for Wall Street assholes and I am
here for its scares and biting satire.
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
There have been thousands of ‘end of the world’ movies, and read as many novels. One of my favorites is Sunshine, and I admit this starts with a similar set-up. I feel like Andy Weir came up with this watching that movie and saying I can come up with something more plausible. I know I am a broken record pointing out the parallels and reversals that make up my favorite stories but this what makes the best stories tick and here Weir sets up a doozy. You see early in the story Grace accepts that he is here and he must be there as a hero. Through the unfolding memories it is revealed he didn’t want to go save the human race he was dragged kicking and screaming. One of the best portrayals of alien contact, on many levels this novel worked for me. Combines Weir’s hard science problem solving with stakes of human survival and first contact. Great Science Fiction.
2. Stormland by John Shirley
Stormland is a warning novel no different from classics like Alas, Babylon or 1984. The issue at hand is the temperature in the Atlantic ocean. The linage is more directly connected to the eco-Science Fiction of John Brunner's bleak horror novel The Sheep Look Up. The best we can hope for is the world moves to avoid this fate.
A welcome return of the master of social satire science fiction with a razor-sharp punk edge. It is a fierce and angry book that confronts climate change with the proper venom the topic needs. It is written with skill and a quality of prose that will remind you quickly how strong of a voice John Shirley has honed over the years. It is not too far from tone and attitude he expresses with a rock and roll beat. It is every bit as urgent. A must science fiction read for 2021.
1. Day Zero by C.Robert Cargill
Day Zero is such an effectively told story that even
as Cargill is manipulating my emotions and I can see the storyteller behind the
curtain I am nothing but impressed. Day Zero is not exactly a masterpiece of
science fiction per se but it is a masterpiece of storytelling. As such C.
Robert Cargill will always have my attention. I say this with utmost respect Day Zero
feels more like Spielberg and Amblin than Asimov. I really like the two very
different takes and remember there is no right or wrong way to tell the story
of the AI uprising.
Day Zero is a more straightforward narrative-wise than SOR, in the sense
that it has human characters and an easy-to-pitch set-up. The swings between
action and sugary sweet moments are what make me think of Amblin movies and
senor Spielberg.
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