The United Federation of Charles Indie (And Traditional) Book Awards of 2022

Sculpture of HP Lovecraft by Bryan Moore/copyright 2009.

2022 was a pretty good year for me, reading wise. I managed to hit my desired goal of reading over three hundred books. I admit, I cheated with this quite badly by reading a huge ton of comics on Kindle Unlimited and Comixology

Honestly, outside of Roy Thomas, I may now be the world's greatest expert on Red Sonja. However, I still managed to read a lot of books that I had on my reading list before today. Unfortunately, I'm absolutely terrible at narrowing down my lists so I've ended up with no less than four categories of top five books I've read this year. I hope you'll take a moment to read my comments on the ones I've enjoyed the most.

You'll note it's a mix of classics, oldies, indies, and new releases.

Best Detective/Thriller

5. I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane

Mickey Spillane remains one of the controversial big names in Detective fiction. Mostly because he does the hard boiled thing of Chandler and Hammett then amps up the sex as well as violence to the 11. He's more the Punisher than Magnum PI. I, The Jury is the best of his novels and the most entertaining of his cases with Mike still being probably the worst PI ever. Don't worry, he eventually figures out who did it after the rest of the cast is dead.

4. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

James Ellroy is the master of recreating 1940s LA in a hyper-stylized ugly but entrancing image. It is a racist, misogynist, classicist corrupt city that is, nevertheless, full of beautiful women as well as manly men (as well as how those categories limit people). Centered around the real-life murder of Elizabeth Short, it is actually the story of two cops with one significantly more corrupt than the later. It's a shame the movie version cut out so much of the book because it's a really fascinating tale from beginning to end.

3. The Law by Jim Butcher

I know, it's actually urban fantasy but I have to say The Law is probably my favorite Dresden Files book in years despite its short length. While a lot of fans were happy when Jim Butcher tried to move away from noir detective fiction to high stakes urban fantasy. Here, it's trying to help an ex-prostitute turned school teacher and all the better for it. I wish Jim Butcher would do more stuff like this. It's why I love his anthology books.

2. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The classic book that helped start it all, The Big Sleep is the best of Raymond Chandler's work. If you've seen the Humphrey Bogart adaptation, you've seen a 75% faithful reproduction but I think the book works better. Well, ignoring there's a lot less sexual chemistry in the book. Phillip Marlowe is almost celibate in the books, disgusted by all the sleazy goings on around him. He's a much nicer private detective in this book than the others in my list and, ironically, more so than in his later novels.

Winner

1. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The actual detective novel that started the hardboiled genre, I'm a much bigger fan of Sam Spade than I am of Phillip Marlowe. Part of it is the fact that Sam is significantly more mercenary than Phillip. He's certainly after justice for his dead partner but he also wants to make a profit from it as well. I'd say the movie version is actually 99% accurate and the few changes are almost incidental versus The Big Sleep.

Space Opera/Military Sci-Fi

5. Interstellar Gunrunner by James Wolanyk

I really love anti-heroes, I know, how could anyone tell? However, I think Bodhi may be the worst of them all. An arms dealer who liberally sells to both sides during the various civil wars populating the galaxy, he's also someone who tampers with forces beyond human comprehension with the casualness of a used car salesmen hocking lemons. I just found this book and its sequels consistently entertaining. It's also a series with a definitive end.

4.Against All Odds by Jeffrey H. Haskell

I love big heroic space opera stories about guys (or gals) who are on the political outs but rally their crew to pull off some miracle that gets them restored. In this respect, the Grimm's War series is similar to Honor Harrington by David Weber's On Basilisk Station. Jacob Grimm tried to heroically save the day during a mission and a bunch of children were killed as a result (what they were doing there in the first place never answered). However, he's moved to a problem area with slavers and a corrupt local government that is just in need of his touch.

3. Columbus Day by Craig Alanson

The Expeditionary Force series is a drug that I just can't quit. It's the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of wise-cracking protagonists making constant pop culture references while coming up with ridiculous but effective plans. It's a book series that I read pretty much straight through and with fifteen books as well as an audiobook drama, that's impressive.

2. The Last Hunter by JN Chaney and Terry Mixon

I really enjoyed this book because it was remarkably low-stakes compared to the normal space opera I read. That changes in subsequent volumes but I loved how the story is essentially about military embezzlement. Jack Romanoff has been assigned to the last Hunter dreadnought, ships in service a century ago, that receive massive budgets every year to maintain. Except, someone has been siphoning off this one for decades. Wouldn't you know that now would be a very good time to have a mile-long starship?

Winner

1. The Terran Privateer by Glynn Stewart

Glynn Stewart is another comfort food space opera for me. In this case, the Terran Privateer is about a young plucky heroine who is determined to liberate Earth from a conquering space empire. Except, well, the space empire isn't that bad and the alternatives were far worse. It's an interesting political thought experiment I very much enjoyed.

Fantasy

5. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

I was a huge fan of The Goblin Emperor and very eager to see what else she might come up with in the same steampunk fantasy world. What I got was a fascinating noir detective story set in a fantasy world with a medium that just so happens to be gay. I really enjoyed the opera singer murders and all of the crooked blackmail as well as necromancy around it.

4. The Vilification of Aqua Marine by Megan Mackie

I read several great superhero novels this year but loved all of them. The Vilification of Aqua Marine is the story of a young woman who is the daughter of a Catwoman-esque villain who has a really, really crappy power of water manipulation (as in a cup's worth). After discovering that she can use it to kill people and nearly doing so, she decides to retire as she'd rather be nothing than a supervillain. Unfortunately, her dancing arch-nemesis who seems to want to date her and mother refuse to leave matters be. Lots and lots of fun.

3. Miskatonic Universe: Elder Gods 101 by Matt Davenport and Mike Davenport

I'm a huge fan of Matthew Davenport's cheeky fun Andrew Doran novels. Basically, Indiana Jones versus Cthulhu cultists teamed up with Nazis. However, I think I prefer this book tremendously more. A group of college students at Miskatonic University are gathered together to prevent the apocalypse through the power of their plucky heroism! It's a lot like Super Powereds by Drew Hayes but with a bunch of mythos jokes. Urban fantasy rather than horror and all the better for it.

2. The Cape is a Lie: The Ballad of Kevin by MK Gibson

MK Gibson is someone I'm terribly biased toward as a fellow indie author. Confession, I love his books and he loves mine to the point he gave me a cameo appearance in Agents of Mortal (before I was arrested for Cthulhu worship). However, I think The Cape is a Lie is a great superhero novel parody. A social media influencer figures out that a lot of superhero fights are faked and wants to know how deep it goes.

Winner

1. Azure Bonds by Kate Novac and Jeff Grubbs

The Forgotten Realms are not quite as famous as it's most famous resident in Drizzt Do'Urden but it has plenty of other heroes. My favorite of these is Alias, a beautiful redheaded swordswoman and her dinosaur man, companion, Dragonbait. It is a hilarious off-kilter fantasy story and I really enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Cyberpunk

5. Auxiliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter

A detective novel in the age of public surveillance and an AI that manages everything for the police. I really enjoyed this one because it got surprisingly dark and the author is primarily a detective novelist and thriller who just so happens to have written a cyberpunk novel. It's also interesting to see a Chandler-esque story from across the pond. The ending is easily the best part and genuinely shocking.

4. The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese

A delightful cyberpunk parody of detective fiction. In the future of LA where a good chunk of the city has been walled off and left to its own devices, two private detectives are hired by a genetics corporation to recover a missing genetically engineered sheep. They're also hired to protect the star of a popular TV show who thinks she's going crazy with missing time as well as people spotting her in multiple places. Yes, the foreshadowing is thick here but that doesn't mean that it isn't a fantastic ride. I loved the crypt-curency themed sequel, The Last Iota, too.

3. The Blueprint by Wesley Cross

What if Tom Clancy wrote cyberpunk? Combining a technothriller with a cyberpunk novel is an interesting premise as this shows the downfall of a modern democratic state into becoming a megacorp dominated cyberpunk one. It's interesting because our heroes really do want to save democracy, Jack Ryan, style but in the end only end up creating their own megacorp. That's not a spoiler but the premise. Some of it is silly but I really liked this one.

2. Tronic by Rosie Record

California is walled off from the rest of the country and while I question the logistics of that, I absolutely love Fiona Tronick as a character. A spy for the police while keeping all of the punk attitude in public, she is torn by her own hypocrisy and the fact she hates the system but is caught up in it. This is some gritty well-designed cyberpunk and I absolutely loved it.

Winner

1. Nephilim: A Behind Blue Eyes Origin Story by Anna Mocikat

I'm a huge fan of Anna Mocikat's indie cyberpunk series, Behind Blue Eyes, and was interested when she decided to start releasing novellas detailing elements of the series past. Having read the collected version all at once, I actually think it works really well as a horrifying dystopian novel. A young girl has her family killed and is forced into a training school for cyborgs ala Black Widow's Red Room. 

It deals with a lot of horrifying adult topics of violence, indoctrination, and burgeoning sexuality but in a mature well-written way. Definite content warnings, though. We follow her to adulthood, knowing she's going to become another cog in the fascist corporate machine.

Final Thoughts

I absolutely loved this year in reading and it certainly inspired me to do a lot of new writing for my own books. I always try and do a decent mix of the well-known with up and coming writers. Thanks to everyone who read my list, the authors who contributed, and the other readers making their own lists this year.

The United Federation of Charles 2020 Indie Book Awards

Hey folks,

I thought 2019 was a year that was going to be an enormous pair and I actually missed out on doing my awards for that year. Well, it had absolutely nothing on 2020 and I was actually expecting it to be skipped as well. However, being quarantined for as long as I was turned into a chance to read even more books than my normal bibliophile brain.

Sculpture of HP Lovecraft by Bryan Moore/copyright 2009.

You may wonder why I'm presenting a bust of H.P. Lovecraft as my award. Well, for two reasons, the first is the World Fantasy Awards aren't using it anymore and second since this is just a picture of a bust that costs nothing--I might as well actually make it look good.

All of the contest awards are judged and presented by me with no input involved. I am completely fair in my judgement and will explain why I made the choices I need. If you have a problem with my decisions, well, it's just a blog award dude. I know a couple of these authors but that has not influenced my vote and even if it did--it would still be more honest than Hollywood.

For those who are enjoying these awards, they may wonder what the criteria for my awards are for. Well, out of the couple of hundred books I've read this year, I choose those that best fit my categories as well as being published in 2020. They also have been indie books not published by any of the big six publishers. This isn't meant to represent even a fraction of the books published this year but just bring attention to books I think really deserve it.

Enjoy!

BEST OF 2020

 
WINNER: Of Honey and Wildfires by Sarah Chorn

This is going to be a surprising choice to many as it ended up being one of my last reads of the year. However, this wonderful steampunk fantasy story about a mining boom town under the control of an evil corporation was fantastic. Very LGBT friendly too. It was up against some stiff competition but its my pick of the year. It would normally be the winner of my "Best Steampunk" award but it's the only one in that genre I read this year so I decided to give it this award instead.

RUNNER UP: Paternus: War of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

Paternus: War of Gods could have easily won any of the other categories but I think it deserves to be acknowledged as the second best book I read this year. The epic conclusion to Paternus was something that just blew me away and I have to say I mourned the death, cheered the victories, and was very satisfied with the ending.

BEST INDEPENDENT FANTASY 

 
WINNER: A Wizard's Sacrifice by A.M. Justice

This was a tough call because there were so many fantastic books out this year in fantasy. I could name dozens of them really. However, if I was going to say which one affected me the most then I'm going to definitely say the sequel to A Wizard's Forge did it for me. This is just a fantastic book and really steps up the game from what I already felt was a great book.

 RUNNER UP: Black Stone Heart by Michael R. Fletcher

Michael R. Fletcher is a grandmaster of grimdark and fantasy both. Black Stone Heart is one of his best novels yet, though. The protagonist is on a quest to recover the fragments of his heart but is a savage, unspeakable monster until then or perhaps just an animal. However, can regaining his heart actually make him worse? A fantastic dark fantasy novel that easily could have been one of my favorite grimdarks this year.

BEST GRIMDARK

WINNER: Kings of Heaven by Richard Nell

This was always going to happen because the Ash and Sand series has been one of my favorite since Kings of Paradise won a previous "Best Of" on this blog. However, I think it was slightly edged out by its brethren even as it remains the best grimdark work I've read. Ruka's story is one of triumph and tragedy with traditional morality simply not applying to him. It was a satisfying and tremendous conclusion to a fascinating story.

RUNNER UP: The Last Benediction in Steel by Kevin Wright 

Honestly, Kevin Wright should be as famous as Rob Hayes and both of them should be as famous as Joe Abercrombie or Mark Lawrence. Kevin Wright is a fantastic author with a special gift for grimdark. This story follows up Lords of Asylum in a way that's arguably even darker than that awesome book. Religious fanatics have taken over the one town in Europe not afflicted with the Black Death. Unfortunately, a heretic, a pagan, a heathen, a fallen noblewoman, and a Jew are our heroes.

BEST INDEPENDENT SCIFI/CYBERPUNK

WINNER: Neon Leviathan by T.R. Napper 

Neon Leviathan was always going to win this category because it is a fantastic cyberpunk book and if it had been published in the 1980s would have entered the pantheon of Neuomancer, Snow Crash, and other legends. Now, it's sadly still underrated. Basically, a bunch of short stories tied together in a cyberpunk Australia after a second Vietnam War--it just oozes atmosphere from beginning to end. This could easily be adapted into a Black Mirror-esque TV show.

RUNNER UP: Star Quest: All that Remains by Patricia Lee Macomber

This could not be more far removed from Neon Leviathan and had a tough competition with several other novels. However, I just love Patricia Lee Macomber's fantastic homage to Star Trek that is just bursting with bright bubbly optimism about the future. This is the sequel to a previous novel and forming into a kind of television series-esque sequel. I certainly could read dozens of these.

BEST CTHULHU MYTHOS

WINNER: Ashes of Onyx by Seth Skorkowsky

 
I'm a big fan of Seth Skorkowsky's writing and I really recommend his Valducan and Tales of the Black Raven series. Ashes of Onyx is a very different sort of book, though. Dealing with a drug addicted magician who must journey to the plane of Dreams as well as deal with distant Carcosa, it is a wild and psychadelic trip. While not tentacles and Cthulhu, it does make a fantastic homage to HPL's Dream Cycle.

RUNNER UP: War of the God Queen by David Hambling

I am a huge fan of David Hambling's Harry Stubbs series and I hope he continues that for at least twelve books. However, I was also a fan of his book The Dulwich Horror that dealt with a group of turn of the (previous) century English schoolmates. They ended up summoning something they couldn't put down and one of them was cast into the distant past. Now trapped in a time when humans were nomads and monsters were eating people, our heroine has to become a Connecticut Yankee without any knowledge of metallurgy or what Mark Twain's hero was weirdly possessed of.

BEST SUPERHERO

WINNER: Bones of the Past by Drew Hayes

I was a big fan of Drew Hayes' Forging Hephaestus and the fantastic workd that he created here. So I was very pleased to discover that it had a sequel this year. I loved the friendly enemy relationship between the villains and heroes that was severed in the previous book. If you like superhero fiction then this will be a fantastic addition to your collection.

RUNNER UP: Accused Hero by Darius Brasher

I'm probably annoying the author by putting this above his Crisis book. That book has been built up for multiple volumes and is a massive conflict between good and evil. Yet, I have to say I really liked this even more. Accused Hero is a gritty superhero detective story about sex, lies, blackmail, and murder. Perhaps it is more noir than comic book but I still loved it.  

BEST URBAN FANTASY

WINNER: Holy Sheoly by Hunter Blain

Holy Sheoly is the latest book of an amazing series I discovered called the Preternatural Chronicles. They've been recently re-released and have some truly fantastic audiobooks as narrated by Luke Daniels. A vampire vigilante named John Cook has been tasked with fighting the Devil and it only gets crazier from there with missions to hell and places worse than hell.

RUNNER UP: Wannabe Wizard by Rick Gualtieri and R.E. Carr

Wannabe Wizard almost got the main spot here but I admit I kind of gave extra props for how each of the Preternatural Chronicles added up together into something more than the whole of is parts. However, I absolutely love the Second String Savior books that combine Greek mythology, urban fantasy, and teen drama into the funniest thing since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I hope you enjoyed my recommendations!

The United Federation of Charles 2018 Indie Book Awards

Sculpture of HP Lovecraft by Bryan Moore/copyright 2009.

Hey folks,

It occurs to me that I have reviewed a staggering amount of stuff here on my blog but never was so arrogant to give out my own personalized awards. Well, I've decided to be every bit as arrogant as that decision deserves. This is going to be a collection of awards presented to those works of indie literature that I feel like stood above the rest this year.

You may wonder why I'm presenting a bust of H.P. Lovecraft as my award. Well, for two reasons, the first is the World Fantasy Awards aren't using it anymore and second since this is just a picture of a bust that costs nothing--I might as well actually make it look good.

All of the contest awards are judged and presented by me with no input involved. I am completely fair in my judgement and will explain why I made the choices I need. If you have a problem with my decisions, well, it's just a blog award dude. I know a couple of these authors but that has not influenced my vote and even if it did--it would still be more honest than Hollywood.

Take note that I have deliberately chosen to list indie and lesser known books over the more popular books that might have come out this year. This is in part because of the fact I like to promote them but also because I actually primarily read indie. There's a few gems that you should definitely check out that didn't quite make the cut, though, like The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, and Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames.

BEST OF 2018

WINNER: Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell

Kings of Paradise is a work that caught a lot of indie reviewers by surprise for how awesome the work is. A conflict between an ice ridden realm and a tropical paradise rarely happens even in fantasy but in this case, it's a matter of a deformed warlord seeking to bring his people to a promised land. Tradition and lies collide in a story that I think stands up with Martin, Lawrence, and Abercrombie.

RUNNER UP: Son of a Liche by J. Zachery Pike

The Dark Profit series is one of the great indie-fantasy discoveries and if it wasn't going to win here then it probably would have won there. Certainly, if I'd known about it last year then it would have been marked on my awards. The premise of a Dungeons and Dragons-esque world where corporations ("Guilds") have made fortunes exterminating orcs as well as dragons to seize their hordes, only for the economy to collapse is a delightfully messed up but timely premise.

BEST GRIMDARK

 WINNER: Darkfall by M.L. Spencer

The Rhenwars Saga remains one of the best independent gems currently out on the market. The premise being, "what if a ragtag band of misfits ended up failing to save the world?" It's basically a long deconstruction of classic high fantasy stories and one which I think favorably compares to the Wheel of Time (at 1/10th the length). Darien, Kylie, Quinn, and others are all fascinating characters that work well in this saga. Darkfall is the final book in the series and satisfies its readers with a firm but well-written ending.

RUNNER UP: 1000 Scars by Michael Baker

One of my favorite works of 2019, I felt like 1000 SCARS was a surprise as it was an author's first work. It's a story set during a fictional version of the Peloponesian War with ZOMBIES. I have to say the characters are delightfully evil (even the protagonists), the battle scenes are epic, and the story is going in a direction I can't predict.

BEST INDEPENDENT FANTASY

WINNER: Steel, Fire, and Blood by Allan Batchelder

I admit this one is cheating but it was re-printed, redone, and re-released this year. Steel, Fire, and Blood is about a Conan: The Barbarian esque hero who gets hired by a corrupt old queen to take down a genocidal warlord whose armies are marching through her lands like a swarm of locusts. No one in this trio is a good person but whoever brings the conflict to an end swiftest will get to bear the mantle of hero.

RUNNER UP: Shattered Hopes by Ulff Lehmann

I was a huge fan of SHATTERED HOPES last year and this is a direct sequel to it. Unfortunately, that means you should probably read it back to back with Shattered Dreams for it to make much sense. It's a story of a massive war from the perspective of multiple players in it from the ground up and how the return of magic affects it. I'm very much looking forward to the sequels.

BEST INDEPENDENT SCI-FI/BEST CYBERPUNK

WINNER: The Saint of Liars by Megan Mackie

This is a combined award from last year because the best independent science fiction I've read this year came was done in the cyberpunk genre. The first of these is The Saint of Liars, which is like Michael Gibson's Technomancer or the Shadow Run games in that it combines the supernatural with the near-future tech. It's a romance as well as a fantasy/sci-fi novel but I like its depiction of a world dominated by corporations, corporate samurai, and ruthless businessmen where you still might meet centaurs.

RUNNER UP: Drones by Rob J. Hayes

I am absurdly jealous of Rob J. Hayes who continues to put out some of the best independent fiction out there. In this case, the future has come and the most marketable drug out there is emotions. Our protagonist has decided to numb himself to oblivion while using himself as a tap for feelings that are sold on the black market. It's a dark and wonderful decadent story that I think people will really enjoy.

BEST CTHULHU MYTHOS

WINNER: Master of Chaos by David Hambling

David Hambling and Seth Skorkowsky are two of my favorite authors in terms of revitalizing interest in H.P. Lovecraft's classic gumshoe roots. Seth in his massive webvideo series for Call of Cthulhu and David Hambling for creating the magnificent Harry Stubbs series. Set in the Post-WW1 era of Great Britain, Harry is a former boxer turned pseudo-occult investigator that more often stumbles onto the edge of the Mythos than right down Yog-Sothoth's mouths. I've enjoyed all of the books so far with Master of Chaos being my favorite and taking advantage of the archetypal horror trope: the creepy asylum.

RUNNER UP: (Tie) Andrew Doran at the Mountains of Madness by Matthew Davenport/Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys

It was a good year for Lovecraft set in a world of Weird FictionTM. Andrew Doran at the Mountains of Madness was a work set in Matthew Davenports "Indiana Jones meets Call of Cthulhu"-esque setting where the protagonist continues his workd against the Nazis prior to WW2. In this case, they have a demonic desire to steal the power of the shoggoths! Equally awesome in its own way is the revision sequest to WINTER TIDE which follows Aphra Marsh, Deep One hybrid as she struggles to find a place for her people in post-WW2 America. While it's not QUITE indie, I threw this in here because of the niche nature of the work.

BEST SUPERHERO

Winner: Please Don't Tell My Parents You Believe Her by Richard Roberts

I'm rather saddened by the end of the Please Dont Tell My Parents series. It's a lighthearted middle school coming of age drama except coming of age means becoming a supervillain. Here, Penny Akk ("Bad Penny") has been replaced by her evil robot duplicate and she has to figure out how to prove to her parents that she's the good(ish) Penny. It doesn't help she's in a robot body and superheroes don't consider destroying them to be murder.

Runner-Up: Villains Pride by Michael Gibson

 
I'm also cheating on this one due to the fact I made my list for last year without mentioning this one since I didn't know it was out in 2017. Villains Pride is the superhero themed sequel to the original Villains Rule. Really, I am terrible this year for sequels but who isn't. The Shadowmaster is a consulting supervillain for Dark Lords, Ringwraiths, demon princes, clowns, and villainous overlords. Now he's stuck on a Stan Lee-esque world where he's the only monster with any brains. It takes a particular skill to ruin a world--and a willingness to make human centipedes.

BEST STEAMPUNK

Winner: By Fire Above by Robyn Bennis

I'm stretching the definition of indie again because I can and it's my blog so nyah. However, steampunk is such a niche audience that I think it's important to bring attention to this traditionally published work about a young airship captain and her desire to prove herself worthy to the fat sexist jerkasses her control her country. I love this series and I hope Robyn Bennis continues it forever.

Runner Up: Privateer/The Queen's Pardon by J.A. Sutherland

The Alexis Carew series are two great tastes that go great together: steampunk and outer space! In the distant future, humanity is exploring space GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! With sailing masts, rigging, rum, sodomy, and the lash! Well, maybe not the sodomy part or at least young Ms. Carew hopes not. It's a story of a young lieutenant who rises to the role of her status as a burgeoning officer in a horribly sexist navy (we seem to have a theme here). Privateer and The Queen's Pardon are a two part.

BEST URBAN FANTASY

WINNER: Redemptor by Seth Skorkowsky

The Valducan series is a great urban fantasy series that is darker and more serious than the majority of urban fantasy out there. While a lot of authors prefer to fill their books with jokes and pop culture references (guilty), this is just about pure hardcore monster slaying badasses with magic weapons and Redemptor is no exception.

RUNNER UP: Paternus: Wrath of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

Another great innovative urban fantasy series and sequel to the Paternus: Rise of the Gods. I've done a lot of sequels this year but the continuing series have been done exceptionally well. The gods of humanity are an alien race that have been battling behind the scenes for ages. Now a new war is being waged among them with humans caught in the middle. Lots of great mythology research and obscure deities used compared to traditional Greek and Norse myth.

The United Federation of Charles 2017 Indie Book Awards

Hey folks,

 

Sculpture of HP Lovecraft by Bryan Moore/copyright 2009.

It occurs to me that I have reviewed a staggering amount of stuff here on my blog but never was so arrogant to give out my own personalized awards. Well, I've decided to be every bit as arrogant as that decision deserves. This is going to be a collection of awards presented to those works of media that I feel like stood above the rest this year.

You may wonder why I'm presenting a bust of H.P. Lovecraft as my award. Well, for two reasons, the first is the World Fantasy Awards aren't using it anymore and second since this is just a picture of a bust that costs nothing--I might as well actually make it look good.

All of the contest awards are judged and presented by me with no input involved. I am completely fair in my judgement and will explain why I made the choices I need. If you have a problem with my decisions, well, it's just a blog award dude. I know a couple of these authors but that has not influenced my vote and even if it did--it would still be more honest than Hollywood.

Best of 2017

I might as well get the big award out of the way before anything else. After all, it's the one everyone is looking forward to.

Winner: The Dragon's Legacy by Deborah Wolf

I confess, I was actually back and forth on this one because there were a lot of incredibly good books which came out this year. Generally, the awards went to either Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames or Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. It kind of annoyed me this one didn't get nearly the attention it deserved.

The Dragon's Legacy is a massive book which takes place in a fantasy version of the Middle East and China that discusses the nature of everything from family as well as what to do when the world is ending (and there's not a damn thing you can do about it). Deborah A. Wolf's prose is amazing and she deserves every bit of success she can get.

Runner Up: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

What? I didn't say Kings of the Wyld didn't deserve all of the praise it was getting. I just thought it wasn't quite as good as The Dragon's Legacy. It's a hilarious story about a bunch of over-the-hill mercenaries which combines Dungeons and Dragons with This is Spinal Tap. Saga is one of the great collections of heroes in fantasy fiction--and I mean all of it--that it's a shame the book ever had to come to an end.

Best Grimdark

Why best grimdark? Why not best grimdark? If you love gritty and dark fantasy (and you know I do), there's nothing better. Besides, it's what I enjoy reading the most and if you're going to do a book award then you should have categories which reflect your interests.

Winner: A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden

I confess I was surprised by this one as well since, like The Dragon's Legacy, it was a bit of a sleeper hit compared to some other works out there. However, this book is frigging dark and wonderful. The story of the last monster in the dying age of paganism, it has an amazing knowledge of both Norse mythology as well as history. The characters are fascinating but flawed with no one having a claim to good but many having one to evil. Everyone who loves their fantasy bitter and bleak should pick up a copy of this. The fact it ends up on a ray of hope is perhaps the most surprising thing of all.

Runner Up: Where Loyalties Lie by Rob Hayes 

I feel like kicking myself for not giving Rob Hayes the award here but A Gathering of Ravens was so good! Even so, Where Loyalties Lie really is perhaps my "favorite" book of the year. It's got pirates, grimdark, intrigue, sexy pirate wenches, and moral ambiguity up the wazoo. It comes in second here and third for Best of 2017. You'd be a fool not to buy it as well as its sequel The Fifth Empire of Man.

Best Independent Fantasy

Why Independent Fantasy and not Fantasy in general? Well, I think it's better to acknowledge the people who may have fallen through the cracks. Plus, there's been a lot of really good independent fantasy I've read this year.

Winner: Darkstorm by M.L. Spencer

Darkstorm is probably the sleeper hit of my year because it's just damned good no matter how you slice it. It reminds me a bit of the D&D fiction I used to read religiously at my local Waldenbooks in highschool. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and so on but with a lot more edge to it. The story of a coming apocalypse, two feuding brothers, a beautiful young mage, and how the heroes will NOT succeed in saving the world. Darkstorm is actually a prequel to the rest of the series but I have to say it's better by a mile (and I liked the others).

Runner Up: Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehman

This was a particularly tough one as while I liked Darkstorm most out of all the independent fantasy novels I read this year, there were a lot of other really good ones. The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French, which I look forward to being published by a mainstream publisher, and Faithless by Graham Austin King both qualify.

In the end, though, I'm inclined to give this one to Ulff Lehman for the fact he managed to craft a multifacted dark epic fantasy which contained some truly great characters. He came within inches of toppling Darkstorm but I have to say I liked its prose just a wee bit better. Still, an impressive accomplishment and I hope people will pick this book up.

Best Independent Sci-Fi

Same for Independent Fantasy, there's just so many good books out there written by those unencumbered by the machine. Indeed, I actually had to split this award into two given my reading tastes.

Winner: Mercury's Son by Luke Hindmarsh

Where to place Mercury's Son is a work which confounded me for a lot of times because I fully admit to knowing Luke Hindmarsh. I also read the slightly-less awesome version of the book followed by its much more awesome re-write. I'm judging on the version currently out now, though, which is just pure awesome.

So, take my award with a grain of salt but I couldn't not give it to him because it was the sci-fi book I most enjoyed this year. Independent or otherwise. What is Mercury's Son about? The story of a dark and dying Earth, a theocracy, and a cyborg with no memory. There's so much good dystopian fiction out there, it's amazing I can say this is the best right now.

Runner-Up: The Secret King: Lethao by Dawn Chapman

I actually had this one as the winner for a bit because it's such a beautiful space opera with intrigue, social conflict, love, and war. The similarities to the 70s Battlestar Galactica only increased my enjoyment along with its Flash Gordon-esque grandeur. There's some parts which stumbled but I still felt this was an amazing work.

Best Cyberpunk

What can I say? I love cyberpunk so much it needed its own category.

Winner: Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R. Fletcher

There was really no contest for this one as Ghosts of Tomorrow is among the best cyberpunk novels ever written: comparable with Snow Crash, Neuromancer, and Altered Carbon. It's the story of the brain trade of the minds of children in a world where A.I. scans are a premium market but can only be made once from the living (something quantum mechanics says may actually be possible). It's dark, extreme, beautiful, and insane all at once. It also has a cowboy samurai cyborg assassin.

Runner Up: West End Droids, East End Dames by Brian Parker

West End Droids is an interesting addition to this list because it's actually the third book in a series and you don't see too many sequels winning awards. However, this is a great story about cyborgs, crime, as well as casual police corruption in a cyberpunk New Orleans. Zach Forrest is a great character and watching him reach his limit with the men who are supposed to watch is back is great.

Best Cthulhu Mythos 

It's a bit unfair to give an award to a genre completely made of pastiches but H.P. Lovecraft IS on the bust and he's already upset with me for profiting from his work. So, I'm going to appease his ghost with this category.

Winner: The Statement of Andrew Doran by Matthew Davenport
 

There's a lot of crappy Lovecraft pastiches out there and very few novelists bother to take risks. So, really, it was down to either The Statement of Andrew Doran or Winter's Tide for the best of the year. Matthew Davenport wins, in the end, because his novels involved punching Nazis in the face and finding the girl of your dreams actually is just a product of sorcery.

Runner Up: Winter's Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

Is it right to do a story where it turns out all the monsters of H.P. Lovecraft were misunderstood victims of government persecution and racism? Well, maybe, maybe not but Ruthanna makes a powerful story about the last surviving member of the Deep One hybrids after the Innsmouth raid. Not quite as good as the original Litany of the Earth but damn close.

In any case, hope you enjoyed!