Monthly Roundup – January 2021

Welcome to my first Monthly Roundup of 2021, in which I’m taking a look back over what’s been going on with Track of Words this January! As usual I’ll link out to all of the reviews, interviews and blog articles that I’ve published over the last few weeks, and then talk a bit about the month as a whole. After two months of posting something every day at the end of 2020 (in fact I managed 73 days in a row) I’ve slowed back down to a comfortable four posts per week, which is roughly what I’m going to aim to maintain for the majority of 2021. I might throw in an extra post here and there (potentially in the week I’m publishing this article, in fact), and maybe try for one a day again in November and December, but for the most part I think this is going to be the shape of things to come.

I’m always interested to know what you think, so once you’ve read through the article, do let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of on Track of Words!

Reviews

Considering my reduced output overall compared to last month, I’m very pleased to have still published seven reviews in January. Only one of those was a quick short story review, although two were in my more informal ‘A Few Thoughts On’ style.

QUICK REVIEW: Precious Little Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky – a magical story of puppet-like Homunculi living in a wizard’s tower, borrowing power from their distant maker.

Avenging Son by Guy Haley – the first book in the new Dawn of Fire series, exploring the early stages of the Indomitus Crusade. There’s a lot going on, but it’s very well put together and definitely worth checking out for any 40k fan.

Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky – an unusual but highly effective novella/short novel, this is a powerful tale of biomechanical animal soldiers and what it means to be human.

Champions of the Mortal Realms – one of two ebook-only Black Library anthologies released recently, this is a really good anthology overall, but it’s had an unusual release history.

Servants of the Imperium – the second of BL’s recent ebook-only anthologies with slightly strange publication history. The individual novellas in here are excellent, even if it doesn’t quite sing as an overall anthology.

Widow’s Welcome by D.K. Fields – an unusual but really interesting fantasy/crime crossover, with fantastic world building and intriguing stories within stories. Definitely worth checking this out if you’re after something a little different.

Inscape by Louise Carey – a fantastic new dystopian SF thriller set in a post-apocalyptic London in which vast corporations dominate all walks of life. While it’s pacy, action-packed and utterly gripping, its main strength lies in the (quite creepy) psychological programming its characters have to deal with.

Author interviews

The equivalent of one interview each week, this is probably the fewest author interviews I’ve published for quite some months, but I think there’s still some really interesting content in here!

RAPID FIRE: Mike Brooks Talks Alpharius: Head of the Hydra – what secrets will be revealed in this novel about the most ambiguous of all Primarchs? Here’s the lowdown on Mike Brooks’ first Horus Heresy Primarchs novel.

RAPID FIRE: David Guymer Talks The Shield of Daqan – this is David’s first non-Warhammer novel, and it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Check out this interview to find out more about the book, which is out now.

RAPID FIRE: David Annandale Talks The Deacon of Wounds – this is the latest Warhammer Horror novel, out now. Read this interview to get the lowdown, and some thoughts on writing a plague novel during a pandemic!

RAPID FIRE: Marie Brennan Talks The Night Parade of 100 Demons – this is the third Legend of the Five Rings novel from Aconyte Books, and it’s fantastic. Check out Marie’s thoughts on the novel, the setting and some of the themes she explored in the book.

Blog articles

My second cover reveal, a few yearly roundup articles and some Black Library ‘guide’ articles – it’s been a pretty busy month on the article front! Of all of these, my updated ‘New 40k’ reading list has been comfortably the most popular – incredibly so, in fact, which just makes it even more strange that BL doesn’t seem interested in curating this sort of content itself! Ah well, at least BL fans have got my article to refer to…

Yearly Roundup: 2020 in Numbers – all the important Track of Words stats for the year just gone, from the total number of page views to the most popular reviews, interviews and articles.

Yearly Roundup: 2020 Highlights – 2020 wasn’t all bad, and in this article I looked at some of my highlights for the year just gone, including my favourite articles and reviews.

Aconyte Books – January 2021 Releases and 2020 Recap – my usual roundup of what came out in January from Aconyte (two very cool-sounding novels), along with a look back at the impressive first few months of Aconyte’s publishing schedule.

Yearly Roundup: 2021 Goals – I had varying success with my 2020 goals (which I talk about a bit in this article), but hopefully I’ll do better with this year’s objectives. Overall, they’re all aimed at making sure I’m enjoying everything I read and write.

Black Library: ‘New 40k’ Reading List – if you’re wondering where to start with the ‘current’ 40k timeline, or confused at which books fit where, this guide should help! I’ve updated it with some new releases, new information, an adjusted reading order and a few other useful bits and bobs.

Black Library: Getting Hold of Limited Editions – it can seem a bit daunting to get hold of LEs (especially when the GW website breaks), but it’s usually doable. There’s no way of guaranteeing success, but follow these suggestions and you’ll give yourself the best possible chance.

Cover Reveal: The Splinter King by Mike Brooks – with the first book in this series not yet out I tried to keep this spoiler-free, so check it out to see the great new cover art and find out a bit about this series as a whole.

A Guide to John French’s Ahriman Series – I really, really hope there will be more Ahriman novels from French, but until then here’s a guide to what’s available with a reading order and links out to all of my reviews.

General update

I managed to read a pretty decent twelve books in January, six of which I’ve already reviewed (including Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky which I covered for Grimdark Magazine), while I’m planning on writing reviews for two or three more if I can. That feels like a reasonably good balance, with a few books chosen purely for entertainment amongst all of the books to be reviewed. Of the just-for-fun books, I had a great time revisiting William King’s Trollslayer in audio, read my first ever PD James novel (The Black Tower, which was a bit odd but entertaining, and set in a part of England that I love), and enjoyed my second LJ Ross mystery in Sycamore Gap.

If I had to pick a favourite out of January’s 12 books it would probably be Marie Brennan’s The Night Parade of 100 Demons (check out my review here), which ticked all of the right fantasy boxes for me and offered a different take on Legend of the Five Rings fiction to what I’d read before, while also delivering an emotional impact that I really wasn’t expecting. Speaking of emotional impact, I haven’t yet written my review of Bethany Clift’s Last One at the Party, but that really hit me in the feels too! It’s a little bit different to what I normally read and review, but absolutely brilliant and definitely worth covering – so keep an eye out for that review. My only caveat would be that it’s a pandemic novel, so if you’re struggling a bit at the moment in lockdown…it might not be the right time to read this one.

All told it was a good month for reading, on my part – as usual I tried to choose books that I was confident I would enjoy, and I wasn’t disappointed. The calmer post schedule has definitely helped me to relax a bit, to not worry too much about what I’m reading and when and just make sure I’m enjoying each book, so hopefully I can maintain that schedule and my overall reading momentum – fingers crossed! There are so many great-sounding books that I can’t wait to read, and my TBR list/pile is growing longer and more intimidating by the week…but that’s a good thing overall, with loads to look forward to!

A quick note on Black Library content, before I finish off this article. Looking at my TBR list, most of the books I’m most excited about are from other publishers, so for at least a month or two I think it’s safe to expect that I won’t be reviewing all that many BL titles. I’ll try to get to at least one or two, but my attention is likely to be mostly on publishers like Aconyte Books (who I continue to be incredibly impressed by), other independent publishers, or bigger names in the wider publishing industry. There are just so many amazing SFF books coming out soon, and I’m very grateful to have been sent or given access to quite a lot of them to read in advance – books like A Master of Djinn, The Archive of the Forgotten, A Desolation Called Peace, Sistersong, Litany of Dreams…the list just keeps going!

Don’t get me wrong, there are some BL books I’m looking forward to as well, but if anything I think I’m more likely to be digging back into the archives for older novels. I’ve got a hankering to revisit things like Brothers of the Snake and Pariah by Dan Abnett, for example…and if I can find the time I’ll see if I can review those too. The one recent-ish BL book that I really do want to read and review, however, is Guy Haley’s Darkness in the Blood, so keep an eye out for that. Don’t worry though, I’m still planning to keep up the BL content in the shape of author interviews (I’ve got quite a few lined up) and blog articles – I’ve got plans for more series/faction guides, but would love to hear what you’d be interested in reading about! Do let me know if you’ve got any requests or suggestions…

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I think that’s about it for another month. I’m always keen to hear about what you’ve enjoyed reading or listening to recently, what you think about the interviews and articles I’ve been publishing of late, whether you’ve read and enjoyed any of the books I tackled this month, and whether there’s anything you’d like to see in these roundup articles! Do drop me a line in the comments below, or get in touch on Twitter.

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