Unfettered Blather

Dan Abnett deserves some kind of special prize. He shows up on my lists more than any other author and is so prolific that he even shows up as one of the best and worst authors this year. All-in-all, 2008 showed a propensity towards the Warhammer 40,000 universe with books from The Black Library but we had familiar names join us again as John Scalzi writes his most surprising novel and I discovered Max Brooks.

BEST BOOKS OF 2008
	#10 The Lost Fleet: Courageous - Jack Campbell The Lost Fleet really started out great and the follow-up book, Fearless was great, but the plot is beginning to be drag beneath the weight of its own density. Jack Campbell is a fine author but I feel like the story is beginning to meander.
	#9 The Lost Fleet: Valiant - Jack Campbell The last of The Lost Fleet books to be released in 2008, the story begins to pick up again. Essentially, the Lost Fleet is about just what it sounds like, a fleet of ships trapped behind enemy lines that have discovered an ancient escape pod that just happened to contain the legendary “Black Jack” Geary, who actually wasn’t a legendary starship captain but just some guy who happened to stand his ground during the first attack of a war that has been raging for a century! Jack Geary is astonished to not only found himself alive and the war going on, but that much of the knowledge about fleet tactics and operations has been lost due to attrition. By the time of Valiant, the 4th book in the series, his fleet is starting to catch on, the jealous and mutinous officers have largely been dealt with, and they are still in a desperate circumstance but slowly getting closer to home. Hopefully they can wrap everything up in the next book though.
	#8 Only in Death (Gaunt’s Ghosts) - Dan Abnett “Only in death does duty end” is a saying in the Imperial Guard. Dan Abnett has said in the past that he likes putting the Ghosts in different settings and we’ve seen them do airborne operations, siege fighting, trench warfare, and other classic war settings. Only in Death actually places them in what is essentially a haunted house and the effect is great. Abnett really has the Ghosts down and he does a good job of reminding us of the ensemble cast. The problem at this point is that so many characters have died or left while new ones have been introduced that it is becoming difficult to remember all the players.
	#7 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad The novel that served as the inspiration for Apocalypse Now was only 72 pages unabridged but this is a dense read. While I know it is considered a classic I actually felt it was difficult to follow along because of the rambling style that Conrad adopted to tell the story. This is a good and stirring story that asks a lot of questions about the nature of men. Not something I’d heartily recommend like Great Expectations or White Fang but it is a worthy “classic” all the same.
	#6 Brothers of the Snake (WH40K) - Dan Abnett Dan Abnett, again, writing about the very subject he wanted to stay away from. Well, I don’t know why because when he finally does write about Space Marines he does a great job! The whole story ties together wonderfully and I love the format. Abnett always seems to do his best work when he’s allowed to play in the broader sandbox of the Warhammer 40,000 universe rather than getting tied down to a particular source. He tried to write about the origins of the Alpha Legion, an established Space Marine chapter, and that book came off as contrived and derivative. Here he invents his own chapter and runs wild with it. He’s always mindful of the “rules” but only just. The end result is a very satisfying story that is some of his best work.
	#5 Traitor General (Gaunt’s Ghosts) - Dan Abnett Gaunt, the primary protagonist of the series, takes some of his best people and joins the resistance on a Chaos controlled world in order to stop a traitor general from giving away all his secrets to the enemy. A gripping and emotional novel, bleak even for a book in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Not something to read if you’re suffering from depression. Awesome read, one of the best books Abnett has done.
	#4 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein While I understand Liberatarians love this book, it’s less about Liberatarian ideals and more about the realities of government and how much do we really need them? In a nutshell, the moon has been populated as a modern day Australia and eventually forms its own society. Tired of being exploited, the people of the moon plan a revolt against Earth. One of the odder conventions is the narrator and primary protagonist of the book speaks with this odd dialect consistently throughout. The text reads like someone from Eastern Europe trying to write an e-mail, but it works because Heinlein keeps it so consistent and never drops out of character. Although some of the references are now dated, this was written in the 60’s, I am fascinated to see that some of his ideas about technology have indeed come to fruition. Sadly, some of his political ideals we couldn’t be farther away from. I highly recommend this to anyone who has felt frustrated with the American political system in the last decade or so.
	#3 Zoe’s Tale - John Scalzi John Scalzi has written some of my favorite books, but I balked at the idea of making the protagonist a 16 year old girl and essentially retelling the story of The Last Colony but from her perspective. Oh ye of little faith! I should have known that any author who can tell the tale of a 75 year old man fighting an intergalactic war one of my favorite stories could pull this off. I would say this is one of his best works, right behind the original Old Man’s War.
	#2 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks Something of a sequel to The Zombie Survival Guide, this tells the stories of mankind’s struggle against a global zombie outbreak. While the Guide was written as an instruction manual full of dry wit and black humor, World War Z is just creepy from start to finish. I’m not a big fan of horror or zombie stories, but this is an awesome book. I could not put it down despite the easy to read bite sized chapters.
	#1 Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - Max Brooks Yes, I read this cover-to-cover. The book really needs no description as the title says it all. Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks, writes a dead serious guide to surviving zombie attacks. The humor and wit is there, but always done in a dead serious tone. While the book itself is a great read and interesting in a geeky sort of way, he tops it off with tales of speculated zombie outbreaks. The last part of this book is probably what led to World War Z, but the short tales were still interesting reads and a little extra freaky after reading the recommendations in the guide.

Somewhat discouragingly, I only read 22 books this entire year. That means most books I read ended up as either one of the top 10 best or top 10 worst! On the bright side, the decrease in reading means I have decreased the amount of travel I do, but I also read when I workout (exercise bike or walking days) and I missed quite a bit of that, so bad on me. I digress, as usual. The worst this year is actually a collection of the merely mediocre to the outright bad. Since I still have a propensity towards the Warhammer 40,000 novels, which aren’t exactly Shakespeare, they tend to dominate this field.

WORST BOOKS OF 2008
	#10 His Last Command (Gaunt’s Ghosts) - Dan Abnett Abnett’s previous book, Traitor General, was a gritty, grungy, incredibly bleak story from a catalog of novels that specialize in bleak and grim. Despite the overall atmosphere of unrefined despair, Traitor General was one of Abnett’s finest books. That is a tough act to follow, and His Last Command had big shoes to fill. I think it’s pretty clear that Gaunt is not going to give up command of the Ghosts and anyone who actually wonders “Is this it?” had to be out of their minds! The book really acts like a bit of a place holder until they can get back to the events of Traitor General. In the meantime they have to explain how the Ghosts are going to get reinforced, how Gaunt and other primary characters managed to escape from the last book, and even how they were cleared from having a “Chaos Taint” (A big Imperial No-No in the WH40K universe). The story is enjoyable enough and its the usual solid storytelling from Abnett. A good diversion from his previous outing and satisfies fan need for more of the Ghosts while filling in the blanks of the last story.
	#9 The Armor of Contempt (Gaunt’s Ghosts) - Dan Abnett Two novels later we’re given a follow-up to Traitor General. Abnett is on his game here but the novel seems like its intent on tying up one loose end after another, filling in time before the next story. Really, there are two stories going on here. The first and arguably the main arc is the protagonist, Gaunt, going back to a world he and some of his best troops infiltrated on a secret mission. Now they are back to liberate it and of course, since this is Warhammer 40,000, the liberation may be a worse fate than the enemy occupation. The second arc consists of the tale of a trooper who used to be one of the best but reduced to one of the worst and finding commonality with another trooper who is the adoptive son of one of the more notable characters. I think the split focus is necessary because neither story has enough meat to stand on its own. Still, not the best novel of the series.
	#8 Cain’s Last Stand (Ciaphas Cain) - Sandy Mitchell I love the Ciaphas Cain novels and many of the follow-ups have show an improvement. Overall though, Sandy Mitchell seems to be slipping. First he had the horrible cash-in novel Scourge the Heretic followed up by this one. Cain’s Last Stand is full of potential but seems to have even less of the tongue-in-cheek humor and the whole premise of Cain the Coward who is seen as a great hero has worn paper thin. In fact, by this point I am convinced that Cain’s entire accounts are merely his justification for downplaying his legendary reputation and that he is a bona fide, if somewhat self-absorbed, hero. I’m really hoping this is Cain’s last novel at this point.
	#7 Battle for the Abyss (Horus Heresy) - Ben Counter The Horus Heresy novels were started as a prequel to the Warhammer 40,000 universe and also to tell the story of the infamous uprising that set the stage for the many conflicts therein. The problem is that as the series has gone on it has spun off into many side stories with each one becoming less relevant than the last. I like Ben Counter, he a good author and he builds good characters and interesting conflicts. Of the Black Library authors he is one of my favorites. However, this is a side story about a desperate naval action that may have had a greater impact on the whole conflict but really could have been summarized in an entire paragraph. An entirely unnecessary story that ties itself poorly into the overall series.
	#6 Legion (Horus Heresy) - Dan Abnett Dan Abnett, author of the Gaunt’s Ghosts, Eisenhorn, and Ravenor is easily the best author writing for the Black Library. He is held in such high regard that he wrote the very first novel for the Horus Heresy series, which seems to rotate between the most esteemed of Black Library writers. Unfortunately, this novel is a mess. At some point somebody decided it would be a good idea to write books chronicling how each of the Chaos Legions came to be. Legion tells the story of the Alpha Legion, a secretive group of Space Marines who often engage in misdirection and subterfuge. That sounds interesting until you realize that the Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 universe are 7 foot tall bio-engineered badasses who wear bulky power armor and carry guns the size of great danes. Also, much of the novel actually focuses on the human characters instead and has an Illuminati-style conspiracy going on in the background. The whole story is just a huge mess and by far the worse novel Abnett has ever written.
	#5 Blood Angels: Red Fury (WH40K) - James Swallow James Swallow doesn’t write enough books. His first two Blood Angel novels were fantastic, if a bit too dependent on each other. His unrelated work, Faith and Fire is one of my favorite books out of the Black Library and the only one to depict the Sisters of Battle. Unfortunately, this follow on novel to his previous Blood Angels books is more about internal politics and strife, which is a real waste of badass warriors watching them bicker like a session of the U.S. Legislature. The action only comes at the end and seems to be more intent on setting up a sequel than a means to its own end. An incredibly boring and tedious book that doesn’t even really engage until the last quarter and by then I didn’t care.
	#4 Hammer of Daemons (Grey Knights) - Ben Counter Graham McNeill already covered the fall from grace for Space Marines in Dead Sky, Black Sun so I don’t think we needed another novel about a similar episode. The only real difference is that in Ben Counter’s novel the protagonist, Justicar Alaric, was captured not disgraced. Still, he spends most of the novel without most of the Space Marine trappings doing very un-Space Marine-like things while doing his best Gladiator impression a la Russell Crowe. I enjoyed the original Grey Knights but every sequel seems to degrade in quality. I really start to wish Ben Counter had simply stopped after the first book and focused on his Soul Drinkers stories.
	#3 Scourge the Heretic (WH40K) - Sandy Mitchell The problem with the Black Library is that ultimately it’s about increasing interest in Games Workshop’s products. When Games Workshop decided they were going to try a new game they commissioned this book as a tie-in. The last time they did this we got the Eisenhorn series, which was great stuff even if the game system it was promoting ultimately failed. Inquisitors in the Warhammer 40,000 universe are fearful agents of Imperial vengeance and the mere mention of their office is enough to inspire terror in the citizenry. That’s all well and good, but the game system and this novel focuses not on the Inquisitors and their fearful reputation but rather their large support staff. The Inquisitor is part of the first act and then promptly disappears from the story, focusing on his various specialists and elites who do all his dirty work. Even that has potential as a set-up, except you keep expecting the Inquistor to return and he never does. The story overall is ham-fisted and derivative of the much superior Eisenhorn and Ravenor series and this is the first time Sandy Mitchell has disappointed me.
	#2 Desert Raiders (WH40K) - Lucien Soulban This experiment is clearly not working. Desert Raiders is yet another Imperial Guard novel from the Black Library and it is a terrible book. The beginning and end are actually pretty clever, if somewhat predictable about halfway through, but everything in between is just frustrating. The story is about an Imperial Guard Regiment made up of two tribes from a desert planet who seem to be as intent on fighting each other as they are the enemy. What you expect is for them to find some common ground, come to an agreement, or at least put aside their differences to face a common foe, but they continue to opportunistically kill each other off even as they face an enemy of vastly superior numbers. Look, no matter how much I hate your guts if we’re outnumbered a thousand-to-one I’d rather you fight by my side then occupy a hole in the ground. The entire conceit of the story and the “message” could possibly be seen as offensive to Muslims, Arabs, or whatever but honestly I think the author isn’t going for a stereotype but hit one with his implausible depiction of human stubborness over-riding the will to survive. Fifteen Hours, the very first Imperial Guard novel and the first book I read from the Black Library was a great novel. Every novel that has followed has been terrible.
	#1 The Collectors - David Baldacci I can plow through a few hundred pages of the most awful material, so if I give up on your book by page 30 you’re clearly doing something wrong. I checked out David Baldacci, who has written a large number of books so somebody is reading them and he hardly loses anything by not getting my attention. Still, I hate stories where everyone is a jerk. Why do I want to read about these people? Why does anyone? If I want to deal with jerks I can drive in rush hour traffic. What is the book about? I couldn’t tell you, since he spends the first three dozen pages meandering about without telling us much of anything except to describe a bunch of characters who I suspect probably aren’t the protagonists. One of the worst story set-ups I’ve ever read and the first book I’ve given up on in over a decade. I thought I traditionally read some horrible dreck but this was even worse than the craptastic science fiction I normally read and is all over this list.

Like most people, the classics I’ve read have mostly been while I was in school. Great Expectations, To Kill a Mockingbird, or Huckleberry Finn were compulsory reading. However, I deviated from my classmates in that I would read anything. So around 4th grade I read White Fang by Jack London, which would lead me to his better known (but inferior in my opinion) work Call of the Wild. Jack London quickly became one of my favorite authors.

This year I have mostly focused on bad science fiction, with a handful of decent books thrown in. Two books I’m happy to add to my list was Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein is very hit or miss with me but I see why this is one of his best regarded works. I was not overly impressed with Conrad but at least I can say I read his best known piece.

There is something about reading a classic piece of literature. I like being able to say I actually read Heart of Darkness and it is amusing to see the dated technology that was perceived as futuristic in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress while still telling a very relevant story. They are both thought provoking stories, which is probably why they are considered classics. Yet I think many people leave college and never look back on these kinds of books. I think it’s the approach. I think telling an entire class they must read Book [X] by Author[Y] is a mistake. I think it would be much better if teacher’s would give options. Not everyone will enjoy a historical drama, science fiction, or a Shakespearean play. I did not like Great Expectations because it was depressing. I didn’t care for the protagonist and I wouldn’t have read this book if it had not been required reading. On the other hand, I could not put Starship Troopers down.

I also wonder at what point will today’s excellent stories become tomorrow’s classics? I read Jurassic Park in one day. I was even working road construction at the time. I read it in the morning, on breaks, at lunch, and even inbetween waiting for the road crew to catch up to me. I think I worked extra hard to shovel asphalt just so I could catch a few minutes of reading. Clear and Present Danger is one of the best military thrillers I have ever read. Unfortunately, my appreciation for a good story is entirely self taught. The only lesson I learned from school and college is that most literature is boring. The real world has corrected this misconception, but it’s something we should be learning in school as well.

I like John Scalzi, a lot, but when I found out his new novel was going to focus on the 16 year old adopted daughter of John Perry, the main protagonist of Old Man’s War and The Last Colony I was skeptical. Not that 16 year old girls can’t be entertaining, though the very thought form a stereotype of melodrama I have a hard time shaking, but in a science fiction novel it’s not my cup of tea. I don’t read Twilight, I have no interest in the Jonas Brothers, and I don’t care about what fashions Miley Cyrus is wearing. Teenage girls are just not on my radar. As a 35 year old married man and father of two most people would agree that is a healthy place for me to be.

However, I have great faith in The Scalzi and while I scoffed at the concept this was the same universe of Old Man’s War, quite easily the best science fiction novel I’ve ever read and one of my top 5 favorite books of all time. He’s never done a better book since, but every book I’ve read by him has been at the worst GOOD going up to EXCELLENT. Zöe’s Tale is better than Last Colony. In order, my favorite Scalzi authored books are Old Man’s War, Zöe’s Tale, The Last Colony, The Ghost Brigades, and The Sagan Diaries. I laughed, I was on the verge of tears, and I found a connection with young Zöe that reminded me so much of my affection for the teenage daughter of a good friend of mine. A precocious young woman turning into an adult with a certain touch of sadness because the innocence of youth is quickly fleeing her. Really, the character of Zöe Boutin-Perry hit too close to home for me, but only because Scalzi did such a great job of writing her and making her believable. That said, if Zöe were just another teenage girl it wouldn’t be much of a story, but because she is the daughter of the antagonist of The Ghost Brigades and practically worshipped by a race of aliens because of who her father is she is also very unique amongst an age group that already believes they are all very unique.

I’m trying really hard not to give anything away, but since the novel does run parallel to the events of The Last Colony there are no big surprises. Actually, it hurts to see Zöe being forced to mature faster than what is really fair, but she does it. At the beginning of the novel she is 15 and she does still have a little bit of child in her. By the end of the novel, which spans roughly a two year period there is not much child left. Fine, I’m a parent, maybe I’m connecting too much here. Again, what matters is that Scalzi is so effective in telling the story that I bothered to notice. John Scalzi is amazingly consistent in his story telling. There is one part where it drags a little, a mere five or six paragraphs towards the end. The rest of the narrative is surprisingly well paced. I still think Old Man’s War is a better story, but John Scalzi took an already excellent writing style and has honed it. I should say something trite here like “sharpened to a razor’s edge” I’m sure. I don’t want to say he’s perfected it because why impose a glass ceiling on the man?

So, if you haven’t read Old Man’s War you absolutely should because it is some of the finest science fiction available. Then you should read all the other books I listed, but read them in order please. When you get to Zöe’s Tale do not pass it up because you “Don’t care about the life struggles of an adolescent girl”. She is an engaging character in her own right and truly owns this book.

I may be just another obscure blogger on this vast landscape we call the World Wide Web, but I want to put forth a humble request. Please follow up with a sequel, publisher willing, to Faith and Fire. While I am about to dive into your latest novel, Red Fury, with high expectations I can’t help but be disappointed as to the utter lack of of a sequel to what was probably one of the lesser appreciated gems of the Black Library. I know that stories that are not about Space Marines or Imperial Guards are always a difficult sell, but it was nice to see someone tackle not only one of the less popular armies of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but was forced to write a protagonist that was a woman. I thought the novel was great and acknowledged both the zealotry of the Sisters of Battle but also didn’t gloss over their inherent feminine qualities even though they had to suppress them most of the time.

I’m perhaps not the most charitable critic of the Black Library offerings, I am not blind to what they are. All the same, you are one of my favorite authors and you put a great deal into your stories. I really do hope you can tackle another story that is not Space Marines or Imperial Guard if you can’t follow up to what was one of my favorite novels in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.