Books Read in 2015
Posting this now as it is unlikely I'll read any more whole books between now and midnight on the 31st! :-) Here are the books I
FICTION
1. Lost Fleet: Courageous by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
2. Lost Fleet: Valiant by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
3. Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
4. Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
5. Descent by Ken McLeod (science fiction)
6. The Night Sessions by Ken McLeod (science fiction)
7. Sand by Hugh Howey (science fiction)
8. The Martian by Andy Weir (science fiction). One of my favourite books of the year.
9. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (YA science fiction). 2nd in trilogy. Bit meh. Mainly because the hero and heroine get tricked by the adults into doing something they don’t want to do again and again and again…
10. Of Monsters & Men by Patrick Ness (YA science fiction). 3rd in trilogy. Back on track.
11. Tripwire by Lee Child (thriller). Jack Reacher volume 3.
12. The Visitor by Lee Child (thriller). Jack Reacher volume 4.
13. Paragenesis edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling (science fantasy). Anthology set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
14. Para Kindred: Enigmas of Wraeththu edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling (science fantasy). Anthology set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
15. The Hienama by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
16. Student of Kyme by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
17. The Moonshawl by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
18. The Wraeththu Chronicles by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). This is a collected edition of the first trilogy in the Wraeththu Mythos. I’d read the originals several times, but never read these expanded editions before. Lots of nice new stuff in volume one. Can’t say that I noticed what the changes were in volumes two and three, apart from some dialogue in three for a person with a broken nose being written as normal speech instead of trying to mimic a nose clotted with blood.
19. Breeding Discontent by Wendy Darling & Bridgette Parker (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
20. The Wraiths of Will & Pleasure by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe. On re-reading them all, I think this volume has now become my favourite.
21. The Shades of Time and Memory by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
22. The Ghosts of Blood and Innocence by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
23. Riot by Sarah Mussi (YA science fiction/technothriller). This is the first YA novel I’ve read where the premise failed at the first hurdle, for the simple reason that not one adult in the whole of the UK piped up to say "If you do this to my child or grandchild I will never vote for your political party again!".
24. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy). Another in the Peter Grant series.
25.Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy). Another in the Peter Grant series.
26. The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones (historical).
27. Cuckoo Song by Francis Hardinge (YA fantasy). I’m so glad that Francis Hardinge got a nomination for the BSFA Award - she writes such lovely quirky adventures.
28. The Race by Nina Allen (science fiction). Too much slice of life and not enough genre in it for me. And unfortunately a lot of the slice of life is sport related…
29. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (science fiction). Delightful.
30. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (science fiction). Thoroughly enjoyable sequel.
31. I, Phone by David Wake (science fiction). Very funny and a delight to read.
32. A Glass of Shadow by Liz Williams (fantasy, science fiction & horror). Lots of gems in this anthology. Liz Williams does do a nice spooky story.
33. The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (science fiction). One of the Hugo nominations and I can’t say that I’m impressed. It’s the sequel to another trilogy and has at least 20 viewpoint characters, most of whom only get about 4 pages before you are scooted off to another of them. It takes aeons before any of these plot threads start to interact with each other and the damn book ends before anything of note has been resolved. I much preferred Kevin J. Anderson’s disaster novel Ill Wind.
34. The Night Crew by Brian Haig (crime/military). Another Sean Drummond book. Yay!
The Possessors by John Christopher (science fiction). Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the Alps. Rather turgid and heavy going, but mercifully short.
35. Doll Parts by Wayne Simmons (horror). Sequel to Drop Dead Gorgeous. I loved the first book. This one is just okay.
36. The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas (fantasy)
37. The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (science fantasy).
38. Empires: Extraction by Gavin Deas (military science fiction). Terrific fun, and I loved all the pop culture references.
39. Empires: Infiltration by Gavin Deas (military science fiction). Not as good as the Extraction volume. I think that knowing the outcome of some of the battles because I’d already read the parallel plot in Extraction rather detracted from the experience of reading it. Also had fewer amusing SF pop culture bits in it.
40. Not of Woman Born edited by Constance Ash (science fiction). Anthology on the theme of future reproduction.
41. On the Plains of Deception by Brenden Dubois (science fiction). Short fiction, really poignant.
42. The Dark Snow by Brenden Dubois (thriller) An anthology of linked stories.
43. The Quiet War by Paul McAulay (science fiction). Apparently first in a series. Wish they’d write that on the damn cover.
44. Iron Tigers by Michael Farmer (military thriller). Good, but has a huge plot hole (character hole?) where a gay French chef is revealed to be straight CIA agent in disguise and no-one in the Russian security services has noticed that the boyfriend he mentions all the time does not actually exist! Well either that or the boyfriend does exist and would have been arrested and then died a horrible death that the author couldn’t be bothered to even write a sentence about…
45. War Dogs by Michael Farmer (military thriller). Again mostly enjoyed this, but it has one of those unrealistic I am a Major Character so am immune from true nastiness happening to ME bits in it. The Sworn Enemy of the Hero has captured the Hero and an NPC and needs to torture some secret codes out of them. The poor old NPC gets taken through the A to Z of torturing, including being raped. The Hero gets beaten up and gloated at a lot. Because, you know, the only way the Sworn Enemy can think of to break him is to kidnap his wife and threaten to torture her. Oh, and because suicide-by-charging-at-unsurmountable-odds is the only way a manly-man can deal with the aftermath of rape, and that suicidal option can’t be used by continuing characters.
46. Alien Encounter: A Scientific Novel by Dirk Schulze-Makuch (science fiction). Science is fine, the novel is fairly dire, mainly because of the poor writing and cardboard characters.
47. Riding the Red Horse edited by Tom Kratman & Vox Day (military science fiction). An anthology of fiction and non-fiction. Stories and articles are fine but the editorial introductions to them are sometimes wacko rant-tastic. Instead of the usual "Bob has a PhD in biochemistry, so he wrote a story about the inadvisability of teaching biochemistry to aliens", every now and then there is one that is more along the lines of “Bob has a PhD in biochemistry despite all the lefty bastards in the university system conspiring against biochemists. Oh and here’s a story about aliens.”
48. The Mind’s Eye by Christopher Nuttall (science fiction).
49. If Pigs Could Fly by Jonny Nexus (urban fantasy/humour). Delightfully silly.
50. Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos (military science fiction).
51. The Testimony by James Smythe (er…genre? It’s not post-apocalypse as the whole mess is in the process of happening… horror is the nearest genre, but it’s not exactly that either…).
52. Cavalry Scout by Dennis Patrick Michels (military thriller).
53. The New Recruit by Andy McNab (YA military thriller)
54. The Child Goddess by Louise Marley (science fiction). This was terrific. Why have I never heard of Louise Marley before?
55. Death Is A Welcome Guest by Louise Welch (science fiction). I suspect that this is marketed as ‘thriller’ rather than SF but it is about the disintegration of British society after a global pandemic, so SF it is!
56. Earth Flight by Janet Edwards (YA science fiction). Third in the Earth Girl series.
57. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (science fiction/humour).
58. Iron and Rust by Harry Sidebottom (history). Throne of the Caesars volume 1. Not as engaging as his Warriors of Rome series, possibly because it has multiple viewpoint characters instead of concentrating on the one for 90% of the book.
59. The Amber Road by Harry Sidebottom (history). Warriors of Rome, volume…er… 6? Last in the series.
60. Mermaids & Other Mysteries of the Deep by Paula Guran (anthology, fantasy).
61. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (science fiction).
62. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (science fiction). I think this is my favourite book of the year.
63. Regeneration by Stephanie Saulter (science fiction). Third in the ®Evolution series. Okay - not as good as the first two.
64. Symbiont by Mira Grant (science fiction). Parasitology volume 2. Loved the first volume, but this plodded a bit. Not sure I’ll bother with the third one…
65. Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper (science fiction). Okay. Apparently a sequel to something, but I didn’t feel that I was missing too much backstory, as the protagonists are all new characters.
66. Veteran by Gavin Smith (military science fiction). Schlocky but immensely entertaining, with lots of humour (quite often black humour). And large parts of it are set in a dystopian Dundee. I kept hoping they’d go up the coast a bit and destroy my home town!
67. Music in the Bone and Other Stories by Marion Pitman (various). Anthology of genre stories. Lovely writing, and I’ve heard Marion read a couple of them at cons.
68. The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Vol 1 by David Drake (military science fiction). I’m re-reading some of the Slammers stories because I’m running the RPG.
69. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (thriller). Entertaining. Bit too easy to guess who the bad guy was, but then there’s not many people to choose from… Book is much better than the film.
70. Tales From the Insulan Empire by Louise Stanley (fantasy).
71. The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro (science fiction).
72. Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs (crime). For some reason this was in Forbidden Planet. Perhaps they thought the title sounded like a fantasy novel and ordered it by mistake? Enjoyable, will look for more Kathy Reichs at the library.
NON-FICTION
1. Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction by Charles E. Gannon
2. British and Commonwealth War Cemetaries by Julie Summers.
3. Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live by Marlene Zuk.
4. Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? by Horace Greasely (and Ken Scott). Military history.
5. The Silk Industry by Sarah Bush.
6. Looms & Weaving by Anna Benson & Neil Warburton.
7. Chocolate: The British Chocolate Industry by Paul Chrystal. Apparently there used to be a chocolate factory just up the road from me…
8. Inside the US Army Today by Gordon L. Rottman. By ‘today’ they mean the 80s, since that was when the book was published. Military history.
9. We Will Destroy You Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee. I wasn’t sure whether to put this in fiction or non-fiction! It has lots of science in it, but is written as an instruction manual for aliens. Enjoyed it enough to give a copy to friends as a Xmas prezzie.
10. Carnivore: A Memoir of a Cavalry Scout At War by Dillard Johnson & James Tarr. Military history.
11. US Mechanised Infantryman in the First Gulf War by Gordon L. Rottman & Adam Hook. Military history.
12. Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy. Military history.
13. Coade Stone by Hans van Lemmen.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
1. Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon by Fraction, Aja & Pulido.
2. Men of Wrath by Jason Aaron & Ron Garmey.
3. Mara by Wood, Doyle, Bellaire & Cowles.
BOOKS I DIDN’T FINISH
1. The Sat Nav of Doom by Will MacMillan Jones (fantasy/humour). Started out really funny, but swiftly degenerated into the ‘comedy’ of thick people misunderstanding everyday phrases simply because they’re thick.
2. Grid-Linked by Neal Asher (science fiction). The first Agent Cormac novel. A major plot point is that the hero has spent too long plugged into the internet/silicon heaven and can no longer relate to human emotions. Which means that both the inscrutable alien and the dyed in the wool sociopath are both more interesting to read about than he is…
3. Fire With Fire by Charles E. Gannon (science fiction). Has a ludicrously Mary Sue protagonist who, despite being frozen in time, never spares a thought for any of his friends, family or co-workers who have been dead for decades. Also has the weird structural feature of building for several chapters to a 'First Contact with Oppressed Aliens' scenario, then has the aliens magically just know that Our Hero is the good guy without any evidence to back this up. Next chapter the alien plot has been dropped like a hot potato and Our Hero is light years away, about to have a woman thrown at him by the Powers That Be so that he can have a relationship. Because. Reasons. My lack of interest in the hero knew no bounds by that point, so I gave up.
FICTION
1. Lost Fleet: Courageous by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
2. Lost Fleet: Valiant by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
3. Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
4. Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell (military science fiction)
5. Descent by Ken McLeod (science fiction)
6. The Night Sessions by Ken McLeod (science fiction)
7. Sand by Hugh Howey (science fiction)
8. The Martian by Andy Weir (science fiction). One of my favourite books of the year.
9. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (YA science fiction). 2nd in trilogy. Bit meh. Mainly because the hero and heroine get tricked by the adults into doing something they don’t want to do again and again and again…
10. Of Monsters & Men by Patrick Ness (YA science fiction). 3rd in trilogy. Back on track.
11. Tripwire by Lee Child (thriller). Jack Reacher volume 3.
12. The Visitor by Lee Child (thriller). Jack Reacher volume 4.
13. Paragenesis edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling (science fantasy). Anthology set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
14. Para Kindred: Enigmas of Wraeththu edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling (science fantasy). Anthology set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
15. The Hienama by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
16. Student of Kyme by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
17. The Moonshawl by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
18. The Wraeththu Chronicles by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). This is a collected edition of the first trilogy in the Wraeththu Mythos. I’d read the originals several times, but never read these expanded editions before. Lots of nice new stuff in volume one. Can’t say that I noticed what the changes were in volumes two and three, apart from some dialogue in three for a person with a broken nose being written as normal speech instead of trying to mimic a nose clotted with blood.
19. Breeding Discontent by Wendy Darling & Bridgette Parker (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
20. The Wraiths of Will & Pleasure by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe. On re-reading them all, I think this volume has now become my favourite.
21. The Shades of Time and Memory by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
22. The Ghosts of Blood and Innocence by Storm Constantine (science fantasy). Set in the Wraeththu Mythos universe.
23. Riot by Sarah Mussi (YA science fiction/technothriller). This is the first YA novel I’ve read where the premise failed at the first hurdle, for the simple reason that not one adult in the whole of the UK piped up to say "If you do this to my child or grandchild I will never vote for your political party again!".
24. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy). Another in the Peter Grant series.
25.Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy). Another in the Peter Grant series.
26. The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones (historical).
27. Cuckoo Song by Francis Hardinge (YA fantasy). I’m so glad that Francis Hardinge got a nomination for the BSFA Award - she writes such lovely quirky adventures.
28. The Race by Nina Allen (science fiction). Too much slice of life and not enough genre in it for me. And unfortunately a lot of the slice of life is sport related…
29. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (science fiction). Delightful.
30. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (science fiction). Thoroughly enjoyable sequel.
31. I, Phone by David Wake (science fiction). Very funny and a delight to read.
32. A Glass of Shadow by Liz Williams (fantasy, science fiction & horror). Lots of gems in this anthology. Liz Williams does do a nice spooky story.
33. The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (science fiction). One of the Hugo nominations and I can’t say that I’m impressed. It’s the sequel to another trilogy and has at least 20 viewpoint characters, most of whom only get about 4 pages before you are scooted off to another of them. It takes aeons before any of these plot threads start to interact with each other and the damn book ends before anything of note has been resolved. I much preferred Kevin J. Anderson’s disaster novel Ill Wind.
34. The Night Crew by Brian Haig (crime/military). Another Sean Drummond book. Yay!
The Possessors by John Christopher (science fiction). Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the Alps. Rather turgid and heavy going, but mercifully short.
35. Doll Parts by Wayne Simmons (horror). Sequel to Drop Dead Gorgeous. I loved the first book. This one is just okay.
36. The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas (fantasy)
37. The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (science fantasy).
38. Empires: Extraction by Gavin Deas (military science fiction). Terrific fun, and I loved all the pop culture references.
39. Empires: Infiltration by Gavin Deas (military science fiction). Not as good as the Extraction volume. I think that knowing the outcome of some of the battles because I’d already read the parallel plot in Extraction rather detracted from the experience of reading it. Also had fewer amusing SF pop culture bits in it.
40. Not of Woman Born edited by Constance Ash (science fiction). Anthology on the theme of future reproduction.
41. On the Plains of Deception by Brenden Dubois (science fiction). Short fiction, really poignant.
42. The Dark Snow by Brenden Dubois (thriller) An anthology of linked stories.
43. The Quiet War by Paul McAulay (science fiction). Apparently first in a series. Wish they’d write that on the damn cover.
44. Iron Tigers by Michael Farmer (military thriller). Good, but has a huge plot hole (character hole?) where a gay French chef is revealed to be straight CIA agent in disguise and no-one in the Russian security services has noticed that the boyfriend he mentions all the time does not actually exist! Well either that or the boyfriend does exist and would have been arrested and then died a horrible death that the author couldn’t be bothered to even write a sentence about…
45. War Dogs by Michael Farmer (military thriller). Again mostly enjoyed this, but it has one of those unrealistic I am a Major Character so am immune from true nastiness happening to ME bits in it. The Sworn Enemy of the Hero has captured the Hero and an NPC and needs to torture some secret codes out of them. The poor old NPC gets taken through the A to Z of torturing, including being raped. The Hero gets beaten up and gloated at a lot. Because, you know, the only way the Sworn Enemy can think of to break him is to kidnap his wife and threaten to torture her. Oh, and because suicide-by-charging-at-unsurmountable-odds is the only way a manly-man can deal with the aftermath of rape, and that suicidal option can’t be used by continuing characters.
46. Alien Encounter: A Scientific Novel by Dirk Schulze-Makuch (science fiction). Science is fine, the novel is fairly dire, mainly because of the poor writing and cardboard characters.
47. Riding the Red Horse edited by Tom Kratman & Vox Day (military science fiction). An anthology of fiction and non-fiction. Stories and articles are fine but the editorial introductions to them are sometimes wacko rant-tastic. Instead of the usual "Bob has a PhD in biochemistry, so he wrote a story about the inadvisability of teaching biochemistry to aliens", every now and then there is one that is more along the lines of “Bob has a PhD in biochemistry despite all the lefty bastards in the university system conspiring against biochemists. Oh and here’s a story about aliens.”
48. The Mind’s Eye by Christopher Nuttall (science fiction).
49. If Pigs Could Fly by Jonny Nexus (urban fantasy/humour). Delightfully silly.
50. Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos (military science fiction).
51. The Testimony by James Smythe (er…genre? It’s not post-apocalypse as the whole mess is in the process of happening… horror is the nearest genre, but it’s not exactly that either…).
52. Cavalry Scout by Dennis Patrick Michels (military thriller).
53. The New Recruit by Andy McNab (YA military thriller)
54. The Child Goddess by Louise Marley (science fiction). This was terrific. Why have I never heard of Louise Marley before?
55. Death Is A Welcome Guest by Louise Welch (science fiction). I suspect that this is marketed as ‘thriller’ rather than SF but it is about the disintegration of British society after a global pandemic, so SF it is!
56. Earth Flight by Janet Edwards (YA science fiction). Third in the Earth Girl series.
57. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (science fiction/humour).
58. Iron and Rust by Harry Sidebottom (history). Throne of the Caesars volume 1. Not as engaging as his Warriors of Rome series, possibly because it has multiple viewpoint characters instead of concentrating on the one for 90% of the book.
59. The Amber Road by Harry Sidebottom (history). Warriors of Rome, volume…er… 6? Last in the series.
60. Mermaids & Other Mysteries of the Deep by Paula Guran (anthology, fantasy).
61. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (science fiction).
62. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (science fiction). I think this is my favourite book of the year.
63. Regeneration by Stephanie Saulter (science fiction). Third in the ®Evolution series. Okay - not as good as the first two.
64. Symbiont by Mira Grant (science fiction). Parasitology volume 2. Loved the first volume, but this plodded a bit. Not sure I’ll bother with the third one…
65. Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper (science fiction). Okay. Apparently a sequel to something, but I didn’t feel that I was missing too much backstory, as the protagonists are all new characters.
66. Veteran by Gavin Smith (military science fiction). Schlocky but immensely entertaining, with lots of humour (quite often black humour). And large parts of it are set in a dystopian Dundee. I kept hoping they’d go up the coast a bit and destroy my home town!
67. Music in the Bone and Other Stories by Marion Pitman (various). Anthology of genre stories. Lovely writing, and I’ve heard Marion read a couple of them at cons.
68. The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Vol 1 by David Drake (military science fiction). I’m re-reading some of the Slammers stories because I’m running the RPG.
69. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (thriller). Entertaining. Bit too easy to guess who the bad guy was, but then there’s not many people to choose from… Book is much better than the film.
70. Tales From the Insulan Empire by Louise Stanley (fantasy).
71. The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro (science fiction).
72. Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs (crime). For some reason this was in Forbidden Planet. Perhaps they thought the title sounded like a fantasy novel and ordered it by mistake? Enjoyable, will look for more Kathy Reichs at the library.
NON-FICTION
1. Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction by Charles E. Gannon
2. British and Commonwealth War Cemetaries by Julie Summers.
3. Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live by Marlene Zuk.
4. Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? by Horace Greasely (and Ken Scott). Military history.
5. The Silk Industry by Sarah Bush.
6. Looms & Weaving by Anna Benson & Neil Warburton.
7. Chocolate: The British Chocolate Industry by Paul Chrystal. Apparently there used to be a chocolate factory just up the road from me…
8. Inside the US Army Today by Gordon L. Rottman. By ‘today’ they mean the 80s, since that was when the book was published. Military history.
9. We Will Destroy You Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee. I wasn’t sure whether to put this in fiction or non-fiction! It has lots of science in it, but is written as an instruction manual for aliens. Enjoyed it enough to give a copy to friends as a Xmas prezzie.
10. Carnivore: A Memoir of a Cavalry Scout At War by Dillard Johnson & James Tarr. Military history.
11. US Mechanised Infantryman in the First Gulf War by Gordon L. Rottman & Adam Hook. Military history.
12. Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy. Military history.
13. Coade Stone by Hans van Lemmen.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
1. Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon by Fraction, Aja & Pulido.
2. Men of Wrath by Jason Aaron & Ron Garmey.
3. Mara by Wood, Doyle, Bellaire & Cowles.
BOOKS I DIDN’T FINISH
1. The Sat Nav of Doom by Will MacMillan Jones (fantasy/humour). Started out really funny, but swiftly degenerated into the ‘comedy’ of thick people misunderstanding everyday phrases simply because they’re thick.
2. Grid-Linked by Neal Asher (science fiction). The first Agent Cormac novel. A major plot point is that the hero has spent too long plugged into the internet/silicon heaven and can no longer relate to human emotions. Which means that both the inscrutable alien and the dyed in the wool sociopath are both more interesting to read about than he is…
3. Fire With Fire by Charles E. Gannon (science fiction). Has a ludicrously Mary Sue protagonist who, despite being frozen in time, never spares a thought for any of his friends, family or co-workers who have been dead for decades. Also has the weird structural feature of building for several chapters to a 'First Contact with Oppressed Aliens' scenario, then has the aliens magically just know that Our Hero is the good guy without any evidence to back this up. Next chapter the alien plot has been dropped like a hot potato and Our Hero is light years away, about to have a woman thrown at him by the Powers That Be so that he can have a relationship. Because. Reasons. My lack of interest in the hero knew no bounds by that point, so I gave up.