Hello, and welcome to my Monthly Roundup post for November, here on Track of Words. Life continues to be up and down a little bit, and I’ve been kept busy this month trying to find a suitable balance between all the things I want to be doing now that I’ve started my new job out in the real world. Nevertheless, this is my tenth post on Track of Words in November, so that’s two up on October – I was aiming for 12 or 13 this month, but 10 isn’t bad. I’m also pretty happy with how these posts have come out, and (pleasantly) surprised that I’ve found both the time and headspace to write six reviews and publish the first ever guest review on the site. In these roundups I’ve repeatedly talked about being hopeful that I can get into a more productive headspace each month, but this time I’m actually quietly confident that I will be able to do that – check out the general update section later on for a few thoughts on what I’ve got planned for December!
Anyway, I’ll do the usual quick run through of everything that I’ve posted in November, before going on to talk a bit about the month as a whole.
Reviews
After managing four reviews in October, I’m very pleased with six of my own reviews and one guest review in November. Hopefully there’s plenty here for Black Library fans to enjoy, with a Warhammer Crime review and two long-form Horus Heresy retrospectives, but I hope you’ll also check out the other reviews as I really, really recommend all of these stories!
Grim Repast by Marc Collins – comfortably my favourite release in Black Library’s Warhammer Crime range so far, this impressive debut novel manages to be both a compelling detective story and an evocative exploration of ‘domestic 40k’. It’s as grim and dark as you might expect – perhaps more so in fact – and it’s well worth checking out.
Revisiting Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter – I first read this (book 8 in the Horus Heresy) many years ago, and since then I’ve seen it get a lot of criticism from Black Library readers. I thought I’d give it another go and see if I agreed with the criticism or not! The TL;DR version is that while I wouldn’t say this was one of my favourite Heresy books, I don’t think it deserves the bad reputation it’s somehow developed.
A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark – I’ve devoured all of the shorter stories set in this world of djinn, angels, mechanical wonders and societal change on the streets of an alternate 1912 Cairo, and I’m delighted to say that the first full-length novel in the series is an absolute belter of a book! Everything I hoped it would be, and more.
Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre by Lavie Tidhar – this is the third in a series of Golden Age detective short stories with added vampires, and it’s a total joy to read. If anything I think it might be the best of the bunch so far, and I really can’t recommend it (and the other two) enough!
Revisiting Nemesis by James Swallow (Guest Review) – coming hot on the heels of my Battle for the Abyss retrospective, here’s my good friend Tim to talk about Nemesis, another ‘orphan novel’ from Black Library’s Horus Heresy series which doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. It’s another long review, but I really think Tim has done a great job of analysing this book (and he’s got me really tempted to reread it myself)!
Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon – if you ever wondered what Star Wars might be like if told solely from a Japanese perspective, this incredible novel has the answers. Based on the story from the first episode of Star Wars: Visions (The Duel), this is IP fiction at its absolute best, reframing all the familiar themes and elements of Star Wars in a totally new light that’s absolutely fascinating. I can’t recommend this one enough!
Absynthe by Brendan P. Bellecourt – imagine if The Matrix was set in an alternate 1920s America with retrofuturistic technology, telepathy and mind-bending illusions, and you might get somewhere close to this fantastic novel. It’s the sci-fi debut from an already established fantasy writer (Bradley P. Beaulieu), and it’s as full of warmth and compassion as cool technology and bonkers sci-fi weirdness.
Author interviews
While I managed more reviews than usual this month, my interview count dropped a little (although I’ve got more planned for December). That being said, both of the interviews I did publish are a little different to usual – the first one by virtue of being longer and more in-depth than most (not to mention exploring a truly fascinating-sounding SF series), and the second by also containing some sample chapters of the book.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ada Palmer Talks the Terra Ignota series – as part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of the fourth and final novel in this series (Perhaps the Stars), I asked Ada for an overview of the setting, the themes of the series and what to expect overall. If you’re interested in complex, thought-provoking science fiction then definitely check this out.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jaleigh Johnson Talks Triptych (plus sample chapters) – here’s Jaleigh with the lowdown on the latest instalment in Aconyte Books’ range of Marvel: Xavier’s Institute novels, which this time features clones, heists and fine art. I’ve also included the first couple of chapters in the book, so once you’ve read Jaleigh’s answers you can also get a feel for the novel itself!
General Update
At the time I’m writing this I’ve got a lot to work on and I’m hoping to get on top of things, so I’ll aim to be reasonably concise here (although we’ll see how that works out). As I mentioned earlier, November has been all about trying to find a good life balance – I’m a month and a half (and counting) into a new job, I’m trying to settle into a routine after the difficulties of my friend’s death and travelling to Germany for his funeral, and I’m doing my best to find time for all the different things I’d like to be doing. That means reading (both for fun and for review), working on Track of Words, playing music, getting out for walks, painting or assembling miniatures, not to mention having a life with friends, family and my partner!
This is definitely still work in progress but I think the fact that I managed a good few (hopefully interesting) reviews is evidence that I’m slowly moving in the right direction. I missed a whole week of posting in the middle of the month (that wasn’t planned, just worked out that way), but I really just needed the headspace, and I’m getting better at accepting that rather than forcing myself to get things done. What’s been interesting this month though, has been that in terms of Track of Words I’ve been juggling November content and planning for December. If I’m perhaps a little bit down on what I wanted to get done for November, I’m at least starting to get a few things organised for next month, which feels good.
Speaking of December, if you’ve followed Track of Words for a while you may remember that I normally publish something every day in the run up to Christmas. It started off as a case of reviewing each story in the Black Library Advent calendar (back when they released a new story every day for Advent, rather than every other day), but in the last couple of years I’ve gradually moved away from that and filled the month with a variety of reviews, interviews and articles. This year I’m planning a slightly more structured approach to a Track of Words Advent calendar – I don’t want to give away any of the details but I will say that it’s going to be loosely themed around ‘looking back at 2021 and looking ahead to 2021’…and that there might just be a few guests from among the SFF community contributing posts this year! Keep your eyes peeled for some cool stuff from some (hopefully) familiar names!
I tend to finish this section with a quick recap of where I am with my 2021 reading challenge, so let’s take a look as usual. At the time of writing this I’ve read eight books in November, and I’m reasonably close to finishing two more – a physical novel (The Hood by Lavie Tidhar) and a non-fiction audiobook (Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett). Working on the basis of 8 though, in case I don’t manage to finish those two before the end of the month, that takes me to 127 for the year so far – it’s been a slightly slower reading month than usual, but I’m delighted with the overall total and as always I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve been reading. Continuing one of my unexpected but enjoyable themes for 2021, four of my eight November reads were audiobooks, proving that even when I struggle to carve out regular reading time I’m still enjoying listening to books while I go out for walks!
Out of those eight books I’ve only actually read two with a view to reviewing them (Battle for the Abyss and Absynthe), although I’m also planning to review The Hood once I’ve finished that. Interestingly, the other six are all detective stories, which in hindsight (given that this kind of reflects what I’ve been doing for a lot of the year) is interesting as it suggests that without really intending it, I’ve been leaning heavily towards crime fiction for my ‘just for fun’ reads. SJ Bennett’s The Windsor Knot was very much crime of the cosy variety (featuring the Queen of England herself as the central detective character) while all the rest were varying degrees of the regular sort-of-depressing-but-strangely-easy-to-read detective stories – I’m not sure any of these are likely to be in my best of the year list, but they were entertaining nonetheless.
To finish off, let’s take a quick look at my ongoing challenge this year to read more books written by women (or rather not written by men). Six of my eight books in November were written by women, which takes me to 66 for the year – that’s 52% of my total, which is great! Add in five written by male/female writing partnerships and one by a non-binary author, and overall I feel like I’ve managed a good balance this year – hopefully I can continue that in December. Next month when I put together my yearly roundup I’ll talk in a bit more detail about how I’ve found this challenge overall, but I will just say now that I still think this was the right decision – it’s prompted me to think more carefully about what I read, and given me opportunities to read things that I maybe wouldn’t have done otherwise!
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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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