Full disclosure: two titles on this list were started in 2018, but I finished them and read the majority of them in 2019. They're denoted with *.
Titles are listed in the order I read them.
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
The striking, neon-on-black cover art immediately caught my eye in a local bookstore in Minocqua, WI, where I was working for the frigid month of January. The world Miller crafts is cold and icy, a city surrounded by the arctic ocean. Minocqua, WI, is a little island town in the middle of a large lake, and, with temperatures nearing -40º F outside, it was easy for me to feel immersed in the world as I sipped my coffee and read by the hotel's cozy fireplace.
That said, I would say Miller's descriptions of the city of Qaanaaq were the strongest part of the book. I retain a vivid impression of the buildings, the shanty-towns, the dirty streets, the smells of ramen noodles wafting through the air, not unlike my memories of Isengard or the Doors of Durin from when I first read Tolkien.
Miller crafts a cast of characters all of whom struggle with their own flaws/traumas and distinct POVs. However, I never found myself falling in love with any of them, never felt truly invested in their struggles, which made it hard to keep turning the page to see them achieve their goals.
In a unique, deeply developed locale filled with intrigue, class struggles, politics, and plague, Miller hints at plots that I personally would have found more interesting than the one he gives us. There's a lot going on on the macro level in Qaanaaq, but, in the end, our story isn't about it. Instead of diving into the problems the city faces, confronting the class strife directly, those issues are left on the periphery as Miller's plot focuses on the personal struggle of a family. I would normally praise this kind of sci-fi/fantasy story telling. I get so tired of end-of-the-world stakes, and I welcome focused stories where the stakes are deeply personal. However, those types of stories rely on their characters, and, because I couldn't get into the characters, I was less than satisfied with the plot.
One last thing: Miller includes a gender-neutral POV character, which draws the reader's attention to how desperately the English language needs singular gender-neutral pronouns. For the most part, Miller is able to get by with "they," "them," and "their," but there were multiple times where I had to reread paragraphs slowly and mindfully to pick apart whether the pronouns were referring to his gender-neutral character or to some other characters in the scene. I don't fault Miller for this at all; as I said, he does a lot of good work making do with the words we have, but we need to adopt new words as our world and culture marches forward.
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
While no books jump out for my favorite fiction book read in 2019, book 1 of the Expanse series could be a candidate. I had watched some of the (formerly) Sci-fi channel series (now owned/produced by Amazon) before I started reading, but had retained almost none of it. So the book felt fresh and new and engaging and exciting.
Corey (a pen name for two co-authors), alternate between two POV characters throughout the book and do an excellent job of leaving you on cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter. Just when you're really getting into a POV, the chapter ends, and you're compelled to plow through the next Holden chapter so you can back to Miller (my favorite character) only to find yourself getting invested again in Holden's plot only to find the chapter ending and you're back to Miller but now you're wanting more Holden. It goes on like this for several hundred pages.
One of the things I enjoy most about the Expanse books is how much Corey includes real physics/science. The colonization of other worlds in the solar system is very grounded and realistic. We live not in a fantastic Star Wars or Star Trek space adventure, but one more like Black Mirror in that the science is not distant fantasy, but rather realistically plausible based on our current understanding of the universe. Whenever the Rocinante (or any ship) is zipping through space, Corey's characters are very conscious of gravity. Gravity affects every aspect of life. There is no artificial gravity, no constant "ground." Which direction is up can change on a dime. Perhaps it's because I've been reading Carl Sagan and other space science books, but I find it fascinating.
By making the reader conscious of gravity and physics, by feeding us the rules, Corey's use of real science serves a larger narrative purpose which I really respect: it makes it all the more impressive when alien technology breaks these rules. "You can't travel at [x] speed and stop without [y] happening because of inertia!" says a character. Then: *Alien object travels at [x] speed and stops without [y] happening.* All human characters:
Of the 3 Expanse books I read this year, this one was certainly the most plot heavy, which elevates it above the other two for me. A lot happens in this book. It's exciting, intriguing, and does an excellent job of setting up the series to come.
Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
With the 2nd book in the Expanse, Corey adds more POV characters. Some of them were awesome from the get-go, others really grew on me as the story went on. One of Corey's great strengths is forcing his characters to see how actions have consequences, and that's probably most evident (in what I've read so far) in Caliban's War. In fact, the whole book is dealing with the consequences of the first book.
I don't have much to say about this one. It's really just more Expanse. I'll continue reading the series in 2020.
Eagle in Exile by Alan Smale
The second book in Smale's Eagle trilogy. I read the first one in 2017. I enjoyed it enough to finish, but not enough to feel motivated to read the next one right away. Having read book two in 2019, I feel the same way. Smale puts in a lot of work researching history, and it shows. The level of detail explored in the daily life of the Cahokian people, the mindset and thought-process of a man raised in Imperial Rome--it all feels very historically true in this alternative history world. That said, Eagle in Exile can be very boring at times. It takes a long time for plot points to happen, and the time taken to get there does not always make the moment any more fulfilling/satisfying. It takes a long time to get places. Literally. It feels like you're reading about walking or boating places in real time, what filmmakers refer to as "shoe leather" when trying to pad a runtime.
I like historical fiction. I find Native American and Roman cultures extremely interesting. I went to college a couple hours from Cahokia, IL, where the majority of the book takes place. Smale writes some brutal, awesome battle/fight sequences. There's so much for me to like here, but it can just be down right boring.
Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey
Book 3 of the Expanse. Introduces more POV characters; some are awesome, while others are just "meh." Corey has a habit of killing off my favorite POV characters...
In a Sunburned Country* by Bill Bryson
I loved A Walk in the Woods. This is not that, but, once I got a few chapters in, I really enjoyed reading about Bryson's adventures and learning about Australia. I actually worked with an actress this year who told me she was from Australia. "Oh, where abouts?" I asked. "Darwin," she replied, her inflection and facial expression telling me she had no expectation of me ever having heard of her home town. However, thanks to me constantly flipping to the handy map Bryson includes in the front of Sunburned Country, I was able to reply to her, "Oh yeah, up north." I've never seen anyone get so excited at hearing what direction their home city was in relation to the rest of their native country. Thanks, Bill.
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
In Pale Blue Dot, Sagan speculates on the future of humanity in space, from travel to other worlds, colonizing the solar system, and searching for life in our system and abroad. He also gives you a crash-course in astrophysics and goes over the history of humanity's interest in space and our space program.
I found Pale Blue Dot a little more accessible than Cosmos. Cosmos was more traditionally academic and felt like text book at times. Pale Blue Dot feels more like a guided journey, giving you an in-depth review of each of the worlds in our solar system.
The Fisherman by John Langan
This came recommended on some websites as a great, recent work in the "Cosmic Horror" genre. (Maybe I found it looking for titles similar to the Southern Reach trilogy).
The beginning and the end are weird, creepy, properly Lovecraftian entries in the genre. But the story I was pitched on the back cover turned out to be a frame story. The majority of the book is told as a story within a story, and that narrative is much more straightforward (for lack of a better word) than I'd like in a "cosmic horror" book. There's a fine line in dealing with concepts beyond human comprehension. Give away too much, and your mystery is too understandable, lacks that "beyond comprehension" element. Hide too much, and your audience can't follow what's going on, or you come off as being coy for the sake of coy or that you as the author don't know what's going on.
What I felt I was missing in plot, Langan does make up for in character. Every character felt fully developed and three-dimensional, and I wanted to see them survive. The character work was solid, I just could've used a little more mystery.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Reading Rama, I recognized a lot sci-fi aspects which may have been borrowed by the Expanse series. Clarke puts a lot of thought into real-world physics, and, like in Expanse, it's a moment when alien tech breaks the rules and does the "impossible."
Unlike the Expanse, Clarke's characters lack... flaws? Personality? Anything to make them interesting? I can't tell you any of their names. Jimmy? There was the captain who had a lot of sexist internal monologuing. This was actually pretty bad. Sci-fi has always had its share of misogyny, but Rama particularly did not hold up well in a post-"me too" world.
And there was no plot. A mysterious object shows up. Humans explore it. The end. Exploring how an alien object works is not a plot. That's just set up. That's just world building. That's just the notes you make before writing your actual story.
Exoplanets by James Trefil and Michael Summers
My favorite book I read this year, appreciated even more having read Sagan a few months before. Exoplanets explores the discoveries made by the Hubble and Kepler space telescopes. Trefil and Summers explain how humans suffer from the "curse of the single example." The only example of life we have is life on Earth. The only example of a life-giving planet we have is Earth. The only example of a solar system we had was our own. For millennia this has given us a bias when we look out at the stars. However, as we learn more about worlds within our own solar system, as well as worlds outside it (exoplanets), these biases and assumptions begin to break down and change the way we search for exoplanets and the way we search for life. Highly fascinating, easy to read and understand. Would recommend to anybody who has any interest in space.
Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin
After the disappointing conclusion to HBO's Game of Thrones, it felt really good to read something from the Song of Ice and Fire world again. Even in what should amount to a long, dry history book, Martin is able to craft deep, complex characters and fill several hundred pages with emotional conflict and wit.
Another candidate for my favorite fiction book of the year.
Mindhunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
I'm a big fan of Netflix' series Mindhunter, and, after watching season 2 this fall, I decided to read the book. I wasn't disappointed. Before watching the series, I had had no real interest in serial killers. But his isn't about killers and their crimes. It's about characters. It's about the psychology that makes a person commit atrocities. It's about analyzing behavior, extrapolating a personality from a crime scene, and using the personality profile to predict future actions. I tore through it in about a week. Runner up for favorite non-fiction book; runner up for favorite book of the year.
Northland by Porter Fox
Similar in style to Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, Northland follows author Porter Fox on a journey from Maine to Washington along the American-Canadian boarder. Fox seamlessly transitions from paragraphs about local history to ecological issues to the long history of mistreatment of indigenous people to a general sense of life along America's northern boarder. Very interesting and informative, it's another book this year that I just devoured, finishing in a few days.
Runner up for favorite non-fiction book; runner up for favorite book of the year.
Voices of the Winds* by Ella E. Clark and Margot Edmonds
A collection of Native American folk tales, this took me a long time to get through. I think it's best parsed out, reading a couple stories at a time rather than the whole thing at once. Some of the stories were really engaging and entertaining; others were a little dry. One thing I found interesting was the recurring myths from around the country. Several tribes from different regions all had very, very similar stories for the discovery of corn, suggesting a common origin. There were also a number of different "great flood" stories. In Northland, Fox mentions a massive glacier that took up most of central Canada which melted, filling in the Great Lakes, raising water levels all over the world, and providing a possible origin to the "great flood" stories found across the globe. What's truly fascinating is how the Native American oral tradition stretches back to the ice age, meaning some of the stories can offer a rare glimpse into humanity's pre-history.
Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
People warned me that things get weird when you get to the third Dune book; they seemed to equate "weird" with "bad" and imply that I stop after reading the second one. Children of Dune does get weird, even by Dune standards, but I thought it continued the strange, philosophical exploration of the prior two entries and started to give me some broader perspective on the Dune universe. I found myself particularly engrossed in the chapters dealing with the ousted Imperial family. I'll give myself some time, and I'll likely read the fourth book later in 2020.
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
One of Chricton's first books to be published posthumously, Pirate Latitudes was the first of his novels I'd read since Jurassic Park back in sixth grade. While I enjoyed a fair amount of the nautical details and appreciated how often the characters find themselves "out of the frying pan, into the fire," I don't feel I really came away with very much. To me, Latitudes was a simple pulp-style adventure novel; I read it cover to cover in less than a week and was on to my next literary conquest without looking back.
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Growing up along the Mississippi river, Mark Twain was absolutely required reading in school, but somehow I'd never read Pudd'nhead Wilson. Set in the 1850's, the book's title character plays with fingerprints as a hobby; no one views fingerprints as anything scientific. Of course, by the end of the novel, he uses his hobby to solve a murder. Wilson is Twain at his best, full of mistaken identity, poetic irony, and snarky wit as sharp today as it was 100 years ago.
On the docket for 2020:
Currently reading Trevor Noah's Born a Crime.
In the queue:
Borne and Dead Astronauts both by Jeff Vandermeer
Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Several other Star Wars books, more of the Expanse series, and probably God Emperor of Dune.
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