Annual TLDR book reviews
Every year I say I'm not going to do this anymore because nobody is interested, but every year I still do it anyways. Go me.
Behind a cut tag because it is a wall of text.
Listing the furry and anthropomorphic books first, since those are probably of greater interest to most people.
**** A Pack’s Closing Story (Lost Stories of the Wild 1), A Fox Child’s Journey (Lost Stories of the Wild 2) by Jim Galford
Two novellas set in the same world as his Fall of Eldvar series (a mixed-world fantasy series with furry main characters, but also mages, elves, humans, dwarves, zombies and dragons), one is a prequel (A Fox Child’s Journey) and one is a side-story (A Pack’s Closing Story). These aren’t really stand-alone, so it definitely helps to have read at least the first book in the Eldvar series. A Pack’s Closing details the last stand of Feanne’s parents against their enemies. A Fox Child’s Journey is about Feanne’s early life up until she meets Estin, and is probably the superior story, but both are excellent.
*** Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
This could be considered a breakout furry book, since it was published by a mainstream company (TOR books). Unfortunately, it also falls into the category of furry-in-name-only, where the characters don’t really need to be furry. Because the other uplifted animals find their appearance icky, elephants are exiled to a backwater world, from which they developed a drug that allows a select few to interact with the dead. Some of the off-world animals arrive to try and break the monopoly on the drug. Main characters include an elephant who is one of the dead speakers, and the bastard son of his deceased best friend, who is ostracized because of his birth. But like most outcasts in stories, he has special abilities that will prove unexpectedly useful. Despite its furry-in-name-only characters, it was good enough that I’ll read any other books in the series.
*The Builders by Daniel Polansky
I don’t remember a whole lot about this. A bad-ass mouse that used to head a company of soldiers or mercenaries or something decides to get them back together for some nefarious purposes of his own. The book’s animal characters are animals in name only-there’s no reason they can’t be replaced with humans. The author also makes the blatant mistake of making a calico cat male, which takes major points from his furry street cred. The author also works overtime to try and make the characters seem as bad-ass as possible, which gets tiresome. For some reason this thing was nominated for a Hugo award, too. (it didn’t win.)
*** Centaur of the Crime (Fantasy and Forensics #1) by Michael Angel
I generally don’t like whodunits. I can never figure out whodunit, which makes me feel stupid, and who wants to read books that make you feel stupid? But this had a bunch of mythological creatures in it, so I thought I’d give it a try. A female forensics expert is brought into a fantasy world to solve the murder of a king. She’s assisted by a centaur, a griffin and a fairy deer, (plus some talking owls) and the investigation eventually leads back to our world. A decent read, but so far I haven’t read any of the rest of the series, because, in the end, I still don’t really like whodunits regardless of who the cast is.
**** Culdesac (War with no Name)
Not a sequel, but a novella side-story to the earlier (and quite excellent) Mort(e), detailing an incident in the career of bobcat military operative Culdesac , interspersed with flashbacks from his early, pre-sentient life. For those unfamiliar with the original novel, all mammals are suddenly ‘uplifted’ by an immortal ant queen, and given not only human-level intelligence and speech, but hands and the ability to walk on two legs. In exchange for those gifts, the ant queen wants the uplifted animals to help her wipe out humanity in the War With No Name. However some animals, mostly former pets, sympathize with the humans…
*** DogForge by Casey Calouete
This is a YA novel in the vein of recent YA dystopia novels, except this is with dogs. Labrador retriever Denali is an outcast on a planet where most of the dogs are big fighting breeds like Rottweilers, pitbulls and mastiffs. (these are all 4-legged dogs, but they have human-level intelligence.) In order to gain the gifts of the ‘machine gods’ like metal teeth and armor, she has to undergo a series of life-or-death trials, which lead to multiple revelations about her background and the truth of her world. This was a decent (if somewhat cliché) book, but I’m pretty sick of orphaned bullied teens with a secret heritage, regardless of whether they’re dogs or human or anything else. This is the first of what’s supposed to be a series.
*** Doglands by Tim Willocks
Another dog book (obviously), this one is regular talking dogs in our world, although there are some fantasy elements. Furgul is born to a greyhound in a greyhound racing kennel (with the obligatory brutal owner) but is actually only half greyhound, his father is a famous outlaw wolfhound Argal. When his owner discovers this Furgul will be killed along with his littermates, which leads to him escaping to various adventures and misadventures among wild and domestic dogs. The fantasy elements include the mythical Dogways, where dogs can travel a great distance much faster than normal, and the fact that some humans can speak to and understand dog-speech.
***** Domino by Kia Heavey
A talking-animal book about barn cat Domino, who has to deal with an interloper Siamese cat with some unusual ideas about how predator and prey should get along. When the Siamese is able to convince the other neighborhood cats that rats are friends rather than a meal or vermin to be hunted, that sets in motion a catastrophic series of events. This book could be viewed as a social commentary, but I honestly think it was meant to be just an adventure book with cats. The only real problem I had with it was the author sometimes describes the cats as ‘meowing’ their dialogue, and as anyone who owns multiple cats knows, cats don’t meow at each other, only at us clueless humans. This book also contains some pretty brutal scenes, so it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
*** Dragon of Ash & Stars: The Autobiography of a Night Dragon by H. Leighton Dickson
By the author of the excellent Tails from the Upper Kingdom, this delivers what the title promises-the story of a dragon, told from his POV, from hatching until late in life. He lives quite an adventurous life, from wild beginnings, to being a captive fisher-dragon, to fighting pits and farm work and beyond. An entertaining read.
** The Furred Reich by Len Gilbert
Nazis meet furries! If you ever thought about what would happen if WWII German soldiers ended up in a furry world, this is the book for you. Sticking Nazis in a furry fantasy world means you don’t have to deal with unpleasantness like the Holocaust, and clears the way for the real action-the naïve (but extremely open-minded!) German soldier jumping into bed with furry babes. There’s also an invasion of lizard-creatures that the Nazis help the local wolf packs deal with. This isn’t an awful book, just kind of eye-rolling when you have characters from the 1940’s dealing with things as a modern furry fan would (for example, I don’t think anyone from the 40’s would refer to a furry babe he’d been banging as his ‘mate.’) But what the hell, I’ll read the sequel when or if it comes out.
*** Kingdom of the Sun and Moon by Lowell H. Press
Two field mice brothers living in and around a historical palace in Austria have to deal with both corrupt leaders and natural dangers. A Watership Down-type scenario with talking, ‘realistic’ mice. Not bad, but not particularly memorable either.
** The Legacy (Shadow of the Unicorn book 1) by de Montigny
In a world where unicorns, dinosaurs and humans inexplicably coexist, the young unicorn protagonist first has to deal with a world-changing asteroid strike, then with invading humans. Overall too juvenile for my tastes, but then again I’m probably not the target audience. Your mileage may vary.
*** Man: It’s What’s For Dinner by Mike Beaske
Now this was a weird book. Remember the old Muppets skit Pigs in Space? Well, this is it. Space pig invaders have conquered Earth, and humans are reduced to livestock, vermin, pets and experimental subjects. The author tries to reduce the impact of what would read like a horror novel by giving the pigs cute names: the protagonist is Wilbur, his teacher is Miss Piggy, is girlfriend (sowfriend?) is Babe, etc. Wilbur’s girlfriend is trying to convince him to become a vegetarian, but he just loves meat soooo much… The space pigs also have racial tension, with the wild boars at the top of the pecking order, followed by regular pigs, with warthogs the oppressed minority. Cute names aside, the book does read like a fucked-up horror novel, which I suppose was the point of it. It’s also written in a very odd second-person narration that is kind of distracting. Be that as it may, the book definitely stuck with me, which is more than I can say for a lot of the others I read this year.
*** The Mosque Hill Fortune, Guardian’s Rise (The Sons of Masguard 1 & 2) by Vivienne Mathews
A traditional funny-animal tale about two separated otter brothers, one a decorated by-the-book captain and the other an outlaw marauder (with a heart of gold, of course), and their fights against each other, the enemies of the kingdom, and attempts to reach a mythical land and treasure. An entertaining if not earth-shattering tale.
**** Persimmon Takes on Humanity: The Enlightenment Adventures, book 1 by Christopher Locke
What would happen if PETA and ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were formed by animals? Raccoon Persimmon, her brother Scraps, and an opossum friend take interest in the veal calves on a nearby farm and eventually decide to rescue them. The leads to other rescue attempts at a mink fur farm and a circus, with Persimmon’s original group being joined by others. The book takes a realistic approach in showing the practical problems of trying to free veal calves (most of them can’t even walk any more), or freeing circus animals in the middle of a city. The group eventually splits over ideological differences, with one group advocating fighting humans directly, and the other wanting to educate them. Like a couple other books I read this year, this moves back and forth between overly cute and surprisingly brutal. I had trouble believing some of the animals deciding to become vegetarian, but do give the author props for being realistic in other areas. If the series continues I’ll definitely get the next book.
** The Stone God Awakes by Philip Jose Farmer
An old (from the 1970’s) book by SF grandmaster Farmer, I’d been meaning to read this for a while and finally picked up a copy at a used book store. There’s multiple versions with different covers. By all that’s holy get the one with the hot cat babe on the cover, not the ugly-ass bat-creature. A man from (around) our time who is accidently petrified is accidently un-petrified in the far future to find the world inhabited by humanoid cats, bats, etc. A lot of the book is taken up by his adventures in a continent-spanning tree.The book is a bit dated, obviously, but still not bad.
*** The Taken Trilogy (Lost and Found, The Candle of Distant Earth, The Light years Beneath my Feet) by Alan Dean Foster
A man from earth is abducted by privateer aliens, who kidnap unusual species to sell to other aliens as curiosities. I’m including this with the furry and anthro books because all the other characters are various aliens, and one of the main characters is a dog from earth who has been artificially uplifted to sentience. Other main characters are an octopus-like alien, and a big monster-type alien. The first book of this was the best, and I was very disappointed with how the trilogy ended. The word cop-out comes to mind. I really liked some of Alan Dean Foster’s early works, but nothing he’s done since the 80’s has really grabbed me.
**** Theo and the Forbidden Language, The Queen and the Dagger by Melanie Ansley
Reading is outlawed and a capital crime, but young rabbit Theo was taught in secret. After being caught reading one too many times he faces exile, but is rescued by a bear warrior. It soon becomes apparent the entire region is in danger from an invading human army, which is able to revert animals to an unintelligent state. The first book is basically a set-up for the rest of the series, introducing the characters and the world, with the main downside being there is no second book out yet. The Queen and the Dagger is a novella prequel, showing the background of the rabbit princess Indigo, one of the main characters from Theo, as she deals with politics and treachery from within. Both come highly recommended.
Everything else.
*** ½ Alien Species Intervention #6609: books1-7 by J.K. Accinni
This was one of the stranger books I read this year. Although it’s broken into 7 books, it reads like one long story, so I’ll treat it like that here. I don’t know if the world needed a book that’s a cross between ET and Mad Max, but here it is. An adorably cute alien with glowing antlers arrives on earth during the great depression and befriends an abused woman. Various weird and horrible things happen as a result. Later on that first alien’s adorably cute and innocent offspring befriends a single mother and her children in a miserably depressing near-future, with more weird stuff happening. The cute alien is tasked with wiping out humanity, but also ordered to save some animals. So eventually the book segues into end-of-the-world misery, which leads to more weirdness. I couldn’t give this a poor rating because it definitely held my interest and kept me reading, but I couldn’t give it 4 or 5 stars because it had a lot of problems. For example, it definitely didn’t need a whole chapter devoted to the bad guys torturing some helpless victim just to show how awful they were, and that girl being 9 months pregnant for 100 years was just freaky (and that’s just part of the weird shit in this book). But if you want a ‘different’ type of story, this does deliver.
*** Apocalypse Machine by Jeremy Robinson
A book in the ‘Kaiju’ (humongous monster) genre, with a side-dose of end-of-the-world. This is a really BIG monster (a couple miles long and wide) and does a whole lotta damage. But with a protagonist with the name of Abraham, who has two sons by two different women (and lives with them in a surprisingly modern poly relationship) it quickly becomes apparent that there’s going to be some religious overtones here. And if you’re familiar with the biblical account of Abraham then the climactic scene shouldn’t be too hard to guess. But still, it has a monster that’s a couple miles long and wide, and might be worth reading just for that.
*** Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Stephen King’s haunted house/ghost story. Not one of his more memorable books, but entertaining enough.
** Child of the Daystar (The Wings of War book 1) by Bryce O’Connor
A winged draconic creature is rescued and raised by some nomads/gypsies. Facing prejudice against his kind, this is a nature vs. nurture tale, and sets up the scenario for the next volume. I havn’t gotten it so far, which tells you this story didn’t really grab me.
*** Cyclops Road by Jeff Strand
A novel by the author of the outstanding Wolf Hunt, this takes the familiar trope of a hero (heroine, actually) that has to gather a group of champions to defeat an evil creature, in this case the Cyclops of the title. Oh yes, this all takes place in our contemporary world. There’s little in the way of explanation here (no explaining about where the prophecy came from, or a lot of other things that happen) but I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It’s a fun trip and held my attention.
**** Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This was a seriously strange page-turner by the author of the Wayward Pines books. The protagonist is a physics professor that gave up a promising career to marry the girl of his dreams and have a family. He unexpectedly kidnapped by an unknown person for unknown reasons, and finds himself in an alternate reality where instead of giving up his career, he invented a way to travel to infinite realities. I did read a review that complained the science behind this was kind of dubious, but since I’m not a physicist I sure don’t know. I do know I’d definitely recommend this book as one wild ride.
** Darker than You Think by Jack Williamson
An early werewolf book. I found the female character really annoying.
*** Darth Plagueis: Star Wars Legends by James Luceno
Yeah, I’m a geek, I wanted to read more about Emperor Palpitine’s background and how he became a Sith. The book certainly delivers on that, but since it had to follow the cannon already set the author was constrained about how well he could develop certain characters and side stories. This book was also kind of odd in that there were no female characters, except a very few in minor walk-on roles.
**** End of Watch (Bill Hodges #3) by Steven King
The series comes full circle as Bill Hodges and friends have to deal with the machinations of the Mercedes Killer. Not a stand-alone book, but if you liked the first two, then you’ll like this one.
**** Flame of Requiem trilogy by Daniel Arenson
A nation of shape-shifting dragons is conquered and enslaved for centuries by Seraphs (angelic beings in appearance if not actions), until a slave family starts a rebellion. Lots (and lots) of brutality here. But the books are fast-paced and interesting, if not terribly original (shades of the story of Moses are apparent). Gave it 4 stars because it certainly kept me reading.
*** Hell Divers (Hell Divers trilogy #1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
There’s a trope called ‘crapsack world,’ and this definitely qualifies. After WWIII the small remnants of humanity are sheltering in giant, failing airships over the poisoned planet. Everyone on them is living a miserable existence, on starvation rations and/or slowly dying from radiation poisoning from the ship’s engines. The only way the ships keep working are teams of Hell Divers, who parachute down to the toxic surface to scavenge parts that keep the ships in the air. This so dangerous the Hell Divers typically don’t survive more than a year or two, or sometimes only months. Now things have gotten even worse with civil unrest in the ship, and a new type of cannibalistic mutant on the ground.
*** Joyland (Hard Case Crime Book 112) by Stephen King
This doesn’t really count as a ‘hard case crime’ story, but I honestly think this series would’ve published anything by Stephen King regardless if it fit the theme or not. A young man takes a summer job at a seaside carnival in the early 70’s, eventually befriending a single mother with a terminally ill child. This is more a nostalgia piece, with the mystery and crime aspect only really coming in late in the story. But as a story it worked and I enjoyed it: classic King.
*** Kronos Rising: Kraken (volume 1) Max Hawthorne
Kronos Rising, the Next Generation. A sequel to Kronos Rsing (duh), which starred a studly guy and a gorgeous scientist battling giant prehistoric reptiles freed from a collapsed volcano (don’t ask), this follows the adventures of their equally studly and gorgeous sons fighting not only giant prehistoric reptiles, but giant octopus (octopi?). One son is a brilliant scientist but sort of a nerd, the other is a super-athlete alpha-male, but the author makes sure to point out they’re both hung like horses, and can fuck like porn stars. At the end you’re kind of rooting for the giant octopus. And this is just the first volume!
*** Kronos Rising-Diablo by Max Hawthorne
A prequel to the previous previous books, this shows how the giant prehistoric sea reptiles got trapped in the crater, the obligatory primitive tribesmen that worship them, and the volcanic event that freed them.
**** MEG: Nightstalkers by Steve Alten
More giant sea monsters eating people, this time megaladon sharks. Not much more to say than that. At least the author doesn’t describe how big the lead character’s cock is. Kind of a dopey book, but it held my interest.
** Sawfish: A Deep Sea Thriller by Rick Chesler
A disgruntled scientist that accidently created some giant sawfish lets them loose in Florida, with mayhem ensuing. As opposed to the previous book, this book was really dopey.
** See How They Run (The Gripping Thriller Everyone is Talking About) by Tom Bale
And speaking of dopey, yes I bought into the hype and gave this a try. A British couple and their baby inadvertently get mixed up in some sort of criminal activity. This was one of those books where you want to bitch-slap the characters because they keep doing stupid things.
** Tepui: The Last Expedition by John Oehler
I got this becauseI thought it was one of those lost-world books where a bunch of idiots stumble upon a hidden world of cool animals and mayhem ensues. Instead a bunch of idiots stumble upon the lost tribe of Amazons. Yawn.
*** The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog by W. Bruce Cameron
Bought it for the dogs and wolves, ended up with a caveman romance and politics ala Clan of the Cave Bear. So if you like caveman and prehistoric sagas, this definitely has that. Not so much wolves and dogs, however.
*** ½ The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
This book started out really, really good, with a number of young children being held for an unspecified reason in an underground bunker. Then, about halfway through --
(spoiler alert spoiler alert spoiler alert )
--it turns into yet another zombie apocalypse novel. Still gets a good rating for the excellent beginning.
**** The Hunter From the Woods by Robert McCammon
A sequel to McCammon’s excellent Wolf’s Hour, about a Russian-born British spy during WWII who is also a werewolf. This is a series of chronological short stories and novellas rather than one long novel, but should definitely not be missed by anyone who enjoyed the first book.
*** The Invasive by Michael Hodges
A sudden army of alien animals starts to take over an area of Montana, trapping a husband and wife in a fight for survival.
**** The Leaves of October: a novel of the Scattered Worlds by Don Sakers
Like The Hunter from the Woods, this is a series of interconnected stories rather than one long novel. Spanning millennia, this details an ancient race of alien trees and their interactions with humanity. Very interesting worldbuilding and xenofiction.
*** The Origin Mystery books 1-3, (Atlantis World, Atlantis Plague, Atlantis Gene) by A. G. Riddle
This series was a huge e-book bestseller, although I’m not completely sure why. I’m not going to bother to summarize it other to say that it has aliens, Nazis and ancient conspiracies. I thought it was pretty dumb, but I read all three books, so maybe there was something to it after all…
***** Written in Fire (The Brilliance Trilogy book 3) by Marcus Sakey
Five stars for the series as a whole, which details the internal strife the US goes through trying to deal with the ‘Brilliants,” 1% of the population born with savant-like abilities. An excellent near-future thriller.
*** Zero World by Jason M. Hough
Alternate world SF, where an assassin is sent to a second earth to try and eliminate a corrupting influence there. But everything is not as it seems. A bit too long, and it ends up being the first book of a series (which was sprung on me unexpectedly at the end.) But it has its moments.
Behind a cut tag because it is a wall of text.
Listing the furry and anthropomorphic books first, since those are probably of greater interest to most people.
**** A Pack’s Closing Story (Lost Stories of the Wild 1), A Fox Child’s Journey (Lost Stories of the Wild 2) by Jim Galford
Two novellas set in the same world as his Fall of Eldvar series (a mixed-world fantasy series with furry main characters, but also mages, elves, humans, dwarves, zombies and dragons), one is a prequel (A Fox Child’s Journey) and one is a side-story (A Pack’s Closing Story). These aren’t really stand-alone, so it definitely helps to have read at least the first book in the Eldvar series. A Pack’s Closing details the last stand of Feanne’s parents against their enemies. A Fox Child’s Journey is about Feanne’s early life up until she meets Estin, and is probably the superior story, but both are excellent.
*** Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
This could be considered a breakout furry book, since it was published by a mainstream company (TOR books). Unfortunately, it also falls into the category of furry-in-name-only, where the characters don’t really need to be furry. Because the other uplifted animals find their appearance icky, elephants are exiled to a backwater world, from which they developed a drug that allows a select few to interact with the dead. Some of the off-world animals arrive to try and break the monopoly on the drug. Main characters include an elephant who is one of the dead speakers, and the bastard son of his deceased best friend, who is ostracized because of his birth. But like most outcasts in stories, he has special abilities that will prove unexpectedly useful. Despite its furry-in-name-only characters, it was good enough that I’ll read any other books in the series.
*The Builders by Daniel Polansky
I don’t remember a whole lot about this. A bad-ass mouse that used to head a company of soldiers or mercenaries or something decides to get them back together for some nefarious purposes of his own. The book’s animal characters are animals in name only-there’s no reason they can’t be replaced with humans. The author also makes the blatant mistake of making a calico cat male, which takes major points from his furry street cred. The author also works overtime to try and make the characters seem as bad-ass as possible, which gets tiresome. For some reason this thing was nominated for a Hugo award, too. (it didn’t win.)
*** Centaur of the Crime (Fantasy and Forensics #1) by Michael Angel
I generally don’t like whodunits. I can never figure out whodunit, which makes me feel stupid, and who wants to read books that make you feel stupid? But this had a bunch of mythological creatures in it, so I thought I’d give it a try. A female forensics expert is brought into a fantasy world to solve the murder of a king. She’s assisted by a centaur, a griffin and a fairy deer, (plus some talking owls) and the investigation eventually leads back to our world. A decent read, but so far I haven’t read any of the rest of the series, because, in the end, I still don’t really like whodunits regardless of who the cast is.
**** Culdesac (War with no Name)
Not a sequel, but a novella side-story to the earlier (and quite excellent) Mort(e), detailing an incident in the career of bobcat military operative Culdesac , interspersed with flashbacks from his early, pre-sentient life. For those unfamiliar with the original novel, all mammals are suddenly ‘uplifted’ by an immortal ant queen, and given not only human-level intelligence and speech, but hands and the ability to walk on two legs. In exchange for those gifts, the ant queen wants the uplifted animals to help her wipe out humanity in the War With No Name. However some animals, mostly former pets, sympathize with the humans…
*** DogForge by Casey Calouete
This is a YA novel in the vein of recent YA dystopia novels, except this is with dogs. Labrador retriever Denali is an outcast on a planet where most of the dogs are big fighting breeds like Rottweilers, pitbulls and mastiffs. (these are all 4-legged dogs, but they have human-level intelligence.) In order to gain the gifts of the ‘machine gods’ like metal teeth and armor, she has to undergo a series of life-or-death trials, which lead to multiple revelations about her background and the truth of her world. This was a decent (if somewhat cliché) book, but I’m pretty sick of orphaned bullied teens with a secret heritage, regardless of whether they’re dogs or human or anything else. This is the first of what’s supposed to be a series.
*** Doglands by Tim Willocks
Another dog book (obviously), this one is regular talking dogs in our world, although there are some fantasy elements. Furgul is born to a greyhound in a greyhound racing kennel (with the obligatory brutal owner) but is actually only half greyhound, his father is a famous outlaw wolfhound Argal. When his owner discovers this Furgul will be killed along with his littermates, which leads to him escaping to various adventures and misadventures among wild and domestic dogs. The fantasy elements include the mythical Dogways, where dogs can travel a great distance much faster than normal, and the fact that some humans can speak to and understand dog-speech.
***** Domino by Kia Heavey
A talking-animal book about barn cat Domino, who has to deal with an interloper Siamese cat with some unusual ideas about how predator and prey should get along. When the Siamese is able to convince the other neighborhood cats that rats are friends rather than a meal or vermin to be hunted, that sets in motion a catastrophic series of events. This book could be viewed as a social commentary, but I honestly think it was meant to be just an adventure book with cats. The only real problem I had with it was the author sometimes describes the cats as ‘meowing’ their dialogue, and as anyone who owns multiple cats knows, cats don’t meow at each other, only at us clueless humans. This book also contains some pretty brutal scenes, so it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
*** Dragon of Ash & Stars: The Autobiography of a Night Dragon by H. Leighton Dickson
By the author of the excellent Tails from the Upper Kingdom, this delivers what the title promises-the story of a dragon, told from his POV, from hatching until late in life. He lives quite an adventurous life, from wild beginnings, to being a captive fisher-dragon, to fighting pits and farm work and beyond. An entertaining read.
** The Furred Reich by Len Gilbert
Nazis meet furries! If you ever thought about what would happen if WWII German soldiers ended up in a furry world, this is the book for you. Sticking Nazis in a furry fantasy world means you don’t have to deal with unpleasantness like the Holocaust, and clears the way for the real action-the naïve (but extremely open-minded!) German soldier jumping into bed with furry babes. There’s also an invasion of lizard-creatures that the Nazis help the local wolf packs deal with. This isn’t an awful book, just kind of eye-rolling when you have characters from the 1940’s dealing with things as a modern furry fan would (for example, I don’t think anyone from the 40’s would refer to a furry babe he’d been banging as his ‘mate.’) But what the hell, I’ll read the sequel when or if it comes out.
*** Kingdom of the Sun and Moon by Lowell H. Press
Two field mice brothers living in and around a historical palace in Austria have to deal with both corrupt leaders and natural dangers. A Watership Down-type scenario with talking, ‘realistic’ mice. Not bad, but not particularly memorable either.
** The Legacy (Shadow of the Unicorn book 1) by de Montigny
In a world where unicorns, dinosaurs and humans inexplicably coexist, the young unicorn protagonist first has to deal with a world-changing asteroid strike, then with invading humans. Overall too juvenile for my tastes, but then again I’m probably not the target audience. Your mileage may vary.
*** Man: It’s What’s For Dinner by Mike Beaske
Now this was a weird book. Remember the old Muppets skit Pigs in Space? Well, this is it. Space pig invaders have conquered Earth, and humans are reduced to livestock, vermin, pets and experimental subjects. The author tries to reduce the impact of what would read like a horror novel by giving the pigs cute names: the protagonist is Wilbur, his teacher is Miss Piggy, is girlfriend (sowfriend?) is Babe, etc. Wilbur’s girlfriend is trying to convince him to become a vegetarian, but he just loves meat soooo much… The space pigs also have racial tension, with the wild boars at the top of the pecking order, followed by regular pigs, with warthogs the oppressed minority. Cute names aside, the book does read like a fucked-up horror novel, which I suppose was the point of it. It’s also written in a very odd second-person narration that is kind of distracting. Be that as it may, the book definitely stuck with me, which is more than I can say for a lot of the others I read this year.
*** The Mosque Hill Fortune, Guardian’s Rise (The Sons of Masguard 1 & 2) by Vivienne Mathews
A traditional funny-animal tale about two separated otter brothers, one a decorated by-the-book captain and the other an outlaw marauder (with a heart of gold, of course), and their fights against each other, the enemies of the kingdom, and attempts to reach a mythical land and treasure. An entertaining if not earth-shattering tale.
**** Persimmon Takes on Humanity: The Enlightenment Adventures, book 1 by Christopher Locke
What would happen if PETA and ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were formed by animals? Raccoon Persimmon, her brother Scraps, and an opossum friend take interest in the veal calves on a nearby farm and eventually decide to rescue them. The leads to other rescue attempts at a mink fur farm and a circus, with Persimmon’s original group being joined by others. The book takes a realistic approach in showing the practical problems of trying to free veal calves (most of them can’t even walk any more), or freeing circus animals in the middle of a city. The group eventually splits over ideological differences, with one group advocating fighting humans directly, and the other wanting to educate them. Like a couple other books I read this year, this moves back and forth between overly cute and surprisingly brutal. I had trouble believing some of the animals deciding to become vegetarian, but do give the author props for being realistic in other areas. If the series continues I’ll definitely get the next book.
** The Stone God Awakes by Philip Jose Farmer
An old (from the 1970’s) book by SF grandmaster Farmer, I’d been meaning to read this for a while and finally picked up a copy at a used book store. There’s multiple versions with different covers. By all that’s holy get the one with the hot cat babe on the cover, not the ugly-ass bat-creature. A man from (around) our time who is accidently petrified is accidently un-petrified in the far future to find the world inhabited by humanoid cats, bats, etc. A lot of the book is taken up by his adventures in a continent-spanning tree.The book is a bit dated, obviously, but still not bad.
*** The Taken Trilogy (Lost and Found, The Candle of Distant Earth, The Light years Beneath my Feet) by Alan Dean Foster
A man from earth is abducted by privateer aliens, who kidnap unusual species to sell to other aliens as curiosities. I’m including this with the furry and anthro books because all the other characters are various aliens, and one of the main characters is a dog from earth who has been artificially uplifted to sentience. Other main characters are an octopus-like alien, and a big monster-type alien. The first book of this was the best, and I was very disappointed with how the trilogy ended. The word cop-out comes to mind. I really liked some of Alan Dean Foster’s early works, but nothing he’s done since the 80’s has really grabbed me.
**** Theo and the Forbidden Language, The Queen and the Dagger by Melanie Ansley
Reading is outlawed and a capital crime, but young rabbit Theo was taught in secret. After being caught reading one too many times he faces exile, but is rescued by a bear warrior. It soon becomes apparent the entire region is in danger from an invading human army, which is able to revert animals to an unintelligent state. The first book is basically a set-up for the rest of the series, introducing the characters and the world, with the main downside being there is no second book out yet. The Queen and the Dagger is a novella prequel, showing the background of the rabbit princess Indigo, one of the main characters from Theo, as she deals with politics and treachery from within. Both come highly recommended.
Everything else.
*** ½ Alien Species Intervention #6609: books1-7 by J.K. Accinni
This was one of the stranger books I read this year. Although it’s broken into 7 books, it reads like one long story, so I’ll treat it like that here. I don’t know if the world needed a book that’s a cross between ET and Mad Max, but here it is. An adorably cute alien with glowing antlers arrives on earth during the great depression and befriends an abused woman. Various weird and horrible things happen as a result. Later on that first alien’s adorably cute and innocent offspring befriends a single mother and her children in a miserably depressing near-future, with more weird stuff happening. The cute alien is tasked with wiping out humanity, but also ordered to save some animals. So eventually the book segues into end-of-the-world misery, which leads to more weirdness. I couldn’t give this a poor rating because it definitely held my interest and kept me reading, but I couldn’t give it 4 or 5 stars because it had a lot of problems. For example, it definitely didn’t need a whole chapter devoted to the bad guys torturing some helpless victim just to show how awful they were, and that girl being 9 months pregnant for 100 years was just freaky (and that’s just part of the weird shit in this book). But if you want a ‘different’ type of story, this does deliver.
*** Apocalypse Machine by Jeremy Robinson
A book in the ‘Kaiju’ (humongous monster) genre, with a side-dose of end-of-the-world. This is a really BIG monster (a couple miles long and wide) and does a whole lotta damage. But with a protagonist with the name of Abraham, who has two sons by two different women (and lives with them in a surprisingly modern poly relationship) it quickly becomes apparent that there’s going to be some religious overtones here. And if you’re familiar with the biblical account of Abraham then the climactic scene shouldn’t be too hard to guess. But still, it has a monster that’s a couple miles long and wide, and might be worth reading just for that.
*** Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Stephen King’s haunted house/ghost story. Not one of his more memorable books, but entertaining enough.
** Child of the Daystar (The Wings of War book 1) by Bryce O’Connor
A winged draconic creature is rescued and raised by some nomads/gypsies. Facing prejudice against his kind, this is a nature vs. nurture tale, and sets up the scenario for the next volume. I havn’t gotten it so far, which tells you this story didn’t really grab me.
*** Cyclops Road by Jeff Strand
A novel by the author of the outstanding Wolf Hunt, this takes the familiar trope of a hero (heroine, actually) that has to gather a group of champions to defeat an evil creature, in this case the Cyclops of the title. Oh yes, this all takes place in our contemporary world. There’s little in the way of explanation here (no explaining about where the prophecy came from, or a lot of other things that happen) but I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It’s a fun trip and held my attention.
**** Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This was a seriously strange page-turner by the author of the Wayward Pines books. The protagonist is a physics professor that gave up a promising career to marry the girl of his dreams and have a family. He unexpectedly kidnapped by an unknown person for unknown reasons, and finds himself in an alternate reality where instead of giving up his career, he invented a way to travel to infinite realities. I did read a review that complained the science behind this was kind of dubious, but since I’m not a physicist I sure don’t know. I do know I’d definitely recommend this book as one wild ride.
** Darker than You Think by Jack Williamson
An early werewolf book. I found the female character really annoying.
*** Darth Plagueis: Star Wars Legends by James Luceno
Yeah, I’m a geek, I wanted to read more about Emperor Palpitine’s background and how he became a Sith. The book certainly delivers on that, but since it had to follow the cannon already set the author was constrained about how well he could develop certain characters and side stories. This book was also kind of odd in that there were no female characters, except a very few in minor walk-on roles.
**** End of Watch (Bill Hodges #3) by Steven King
The series comes full circle as Bill Hodges and friends have to deal with the machinations of the Mercedes Killer. Not a stand-alone book, but if you liked the first two, then you’ll like this one.
**** Flame of Requiem trilogy by Daniel Arenson
A nation of shape-shifting dragons is conquered and enslaved for centuries by Seraphs (angelic beings in appearance if not actions), until a slave family starts a rebellion. Lots (and lots) of brutality here. But the books are fast-paced and interesting, if not terribly original (shades of the story of Moses are apparent). Gave it 4 stars because it certainly kept me reading.
*** Hell Divers (Hell Divers trilogy #1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
There’s a trope called ‘crapsack world,’ and this definitely qualifies. After WWIII the small remnants of humanity are sheltering in giant, failing airships over the poisoned planet. Everyone on them is living a miserable existence, on starvation rations and/or slowly dying from radiation poisoning from the ship’s engines. The only way the ships keep working are teams of Hell Divers, who parachute down to the toxic surface to scavenge parts that keep the ships in the air. This so dangerous the Hell Divers typically don’t survive more than a year or two, or sometimes only months. Now things have gotten even worse with civil unrest in the ship, and a new type of cannibalistic mutant on the ground.
*** Joyland (Hard Case Crime Book 112) by Stephen King
This doesn’t really count as a ‘hard case crime’ story, but I honestly think this series would’ve published anything by Stephen King regardless if it fit the theme or not. A young man takes a summer job at a seaside carnival in the early 70’s, eventually befriending a single mother with a terminally ill child. This is more a nostalgia piece, with the mystery and crime aspect only really coming in late in the story. But as a story it worked and I enjoyed it: classic King.
*** Kronos Rising: Kraken (volume 1) Max Hawthorne
Kronos Rising, the Next Generation. A sequel to Kronos Rsing (duh), which starred a studly guy and a gorgeous scientist battling giant prehistoric reptiles freed from a collapsed volcano (don’t ask), this follows the adventures of their equally studly and gorgeous sons fighting not only giant prehistoric reptiles, but giant octopus (octopi?). One son is a brilliant scientist but sort of a nerd, the other is a super-athlete alpha-male, but the author makes sure to point out they’re both hung like horses, and can fuck like porn stars. At the end you’re kind of rooting for the giant octopus. And this is just the first volume!
*** Kronos Rising-Diablo by Max Hawthorne
A prequel to the previous previous books, this shows how the giant prehistoric sea reptiles got trapped in the crater, the obligatory primitive tribesmen that worship them, and the volcanic event that freed them.
**** MEG: Nightstalkers by Steve Alten
More giant sea monsters eating people, this time megaladon sharks. Not much more to say than that. At least the author doesn’t describe how big the lead character’s cock is. Kind of a dopey book, but it held my interest.
** Sawfish: A Deep Sea Thriller by Rick Chesler
A disgruntled scientist that accidently created some giant sawfish lets them loose in Florida, with mayhem ensuing. As opposed to the previous book, this book was really dopey.
** See How They Run (The Gripping Thriller Everyone is Talking About) by Tom Bale
And speaking of dopey, yes I bought into the hype and gave this a try. A British couple and their baby inadvertently get mixed up in some sort of criminal activity. This was one of those books where you want to bitch-slap the characters because they keep doing stupid things.
** Tepui: The Last Expedition by John Oehler
I got this becauseI thought it was one of those lost-world books where a bunch of idiots stumble upon a hidden world of cool animals and mayhem ensues. Instead a bunch of idiots stumble upon the lost tribe of Amazons. Yawn.
*** The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog by W. Bruce Cameron
Bought it for the dogs and wolves, ended up with a caveman romance and politics ala Clan of the Cave Bear. So if you like caveman and prehistoric sagas, this definitely has that. Not so much wolves and dogs, however.
*** ½ The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
This book started out really, really good, with a number of young children being held for an unspecified reason in an underground bunker. Then, about halfway through --
(spoiler alert spoiler alert spoiler alert )
--it turns into yet another zombie apocalypse novel. Still gets a good rating for the excellent beginning.
**** The Hunter From the Woods by Robert McCammon
A sequel to McCammon’s excellent Wolf’s Hour, about a Russian-born British spy during WWII who is also a werewolf. This is a series of chronological short stories and novellas rather than one long novel, but should definitely not be missed by anyone who enjoyed the first book.
*** The Invasive by Michael Hodges
A sudden army of alien animals starts to take over an area of Montana, trapping a husband and wife in a fight for survival.
**** The Leaves of October: a novel of the Scattered Worlds by Don Sakers
Like The Hunter from the Woods, this is a series of interconnected stories rather than one long novel. Spanning millennia, this details an ancient race of alien trees and their interactions with humanity. Very interesting worldbuilding and xenofiction.
*** The Origin Mystery books 1-3, (Atlantis World, Atlantis Plague, Atlantis Gene) by A. G. Riddle
This series was a huge e-book bestseller, although I’m not completely sure why. I’m not going to bother to summarize it other to say that it has aliens, Nazis and ancient conspiracies. I thought it was pretty dumb, but I read all three books, so maybe there was something to it after all…
***** Written in Fire (The Brilliance Trilogy book 3) by Marcus Sakey
Five stars for the series as a whole, which details the internal strife the US goes through trying to deal with the ‘Brilliants,” 1% of the population born with savant-like abilities. An excellent near-future thriller.
*** Zero World by Jason M. Hough
Alternate world SF, where an assassin is sent to a second earth to try and eliminate a corrupting influence there. But everything is not as it seems. A bit too long, and it ends up being the first book of a series (which was sprung on me unexpectedly at the end.) But it has its moments.