Category Archives: Article

Track of Words in 2024

I’ve been running Track of Words for 10 years now (well, technically my 10 year anniversary is at the end of January, but who’s counting?!), and over that period I’ve constantly adjusted how much time and energy I’ve put into the site. In recent years I’ve cut down quite heavily, but over the course of the last few months I’ve come to an incontrovertible conclusion – I need to slow right down. I’m tired, basically. I need to step back a bit from what’s coming perilously close to feeling like a job, rather than a hobby, and I think 10 years marks a good time to draw a line under things. I’m not stopping entirely, but now’s the right time to change focus and try to remember what life was like before I started this website.

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Yearly Roundup: 2023 In Numbers

Welcome to 2024 – it’s a new year, so as usual (and like almost every blogger/reviewer out there) I’m taking a look back at the last year in numbers. This isn’t just a new year for me though – the end of 2023 marks 10 years of Track of Words, which is a milestone I never expected to be writing about. I’m planning on writing a couple more end of year/start of year posts soon, including a retrospective of the last 10 years, but for this article I’m going to stick with looking back at 2023 in numbers. I’m going to look at various types of numbers – two sets of site stats, in terms of articles/words written and pages viewed, a breakdown of the different kinds of posts I published in 2023, and my reading stats for the year.

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TBR: Most Anticipated Books of 2024

The last couple of years I’ve written articles looking ahead to the following 12 months and picking out upcoming books I’ve been looking forward to reading…so let’s carry on and do the same thing this year! From last year’s list, nine of the 10 books I chose were published (we’re still waiting on Alecto the Ninth, sadly) and I did manage to read six of them, so that’s not too bad. Let’s see if I manage more from this list! For each of the books I’ve chosen for this list I’ve included the official publisher’s synopsis and added a few of my own observations – and I’ve listed these books by their month of expected (UK) publication, based on the release dates that were correct at the time of writing.

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On The Nature of Trilogies And Tie-ins – Thomas Parrott Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where today I’m delighted to welcome back Thomas Parrott, whose third Tom Clancy’s The Division novel – Hunted – is coming out in January from Aconyte Books (completing the Operation: Crossroads trilogy)! Tom has kindly contributed a thought-provoking article discussing the journey he’s been on with this trilogy of tie-in novels, which begins with 2022’s Recruited before continuing with Compromised (also 2022) and then onto Hunted, which is out in just a few days (at the time of writing this). I’m always fascinated by writers’ experiences working on novels and series, so to me this is an intriguing exploration of the realities of working on this sort of project, and the work that goes into it!

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Ten Years of Black Library

It’s been almost 10 years since I started Track of Words, and over that time I’ve read somewhere north of 400 Black Library books (not to mention goodness knows how many short stories), and reviewed a large proportion of those! As I draw to the end of this 10-year period, I thought it might be interesting to look back at all those BL books and pick out my personal highlights from the last decade. I’ve gone through each year from 2014 to 2023 and, from the books that a) were published that year, and b) I actually read that year, selected a single book as my pick for each year – and I tell you, that was not an easy task!

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Behind The Scene: Exclusive Excerpt From Do Or Die by Josh Reynolds

Hello and welcome to this Behind the Scene post here on Track of Words, where today I’m joined by one of my absolute favourite authors – Josh Reynolds – with an excerpt from the first chapter of his third Zombicide novel Do Or Die. I’ve covered a lot of Josh’s work here on Track of Words, and Zombicide as an IP really feels like an ideal fit for his style – that’s certainly the impression I got from his first novel in this setting, Last Resort. If you’re keen to get a sense of what to expect from Josh’s Zombicide work, this excerpt is exactly what you’re been looking for!

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Five(ish) Stories About Weird Trains – Sarah Brooks Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this extra-special Track of Words guest post; special because I’m delighted to be hosting my very own sister – Sarah Brooks, author of the upcoming novel The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, coming in June 2024 from W&N Books! I am, as you can probably imagine, very excited about this particular book release, and I can’t wait to read it (at the time of writing, I’ve just got my hands on an advance copy), and to see it out in the wild in 2024. In the meantime though, I’m so pleased that Sarah has agreed to contribute this guest post, in which she’s going to talk a bit about the magic of strange train journeys in fiction, something that will be relevant for anyone interested in The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands! So without further ado, over to Sarah.

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Best of Black Library 2023

Following on from my Best SFF Books of 2023 article, this time I’m turning my attention to Black Library in particular (as I always do), and picking out the best BL books that I’ve read over the last twelve months. It’s always interesting to go back through and think about what the highlights have been, and as ever there have been some really great releases this year. Compared to previous years (like 2018 for example, when I read a whopping 65 BL books) I haven’t read quite as many BL books in 2023, but the 24 I did read this year still gave me a decent pool to choose from, and all the books I’ve picked out are genuinely fantastic, and very much worth reading!

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The Future of SFF – Sunyi Dean Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post where today I’m joined by the brilliant Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters and cohost of the Publishing Rodeo podcast. Each year as part of the ToW Advent Calendar I invite an author to write about where they see SFF publishing going in the coming year(s), and with her unique perspective from both her writing and her work on the podcast, I couldn’t think of anyone better-placed to talk about this than Sunyi! If you have any interest in SFF publishing (and if you’re reading this then I’m guessing you probably do), read on for some fascinating thoughts about what might be around the corner for both readers and writers.

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Same Stars, New Views: Writing my Second Novel in an Established Universe – Ren Hutchings Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where I hope you’ll join me in welcoming the fantastic Ren Hutchings, author of the brilliant “accidental time travel” space opera Under Fortunate Stars, back to the site! I absolutely loved Under Fortunate Stars, and it’s always a pleasure to be able to host Ren. She’s previously written a great post about why the idea of a ‘ragtag crew’ remains such enduring appeal, but this time she’s back to talk about what’s coming next for her, and what it’s been like writing further stories in the same setting! So if (like me) you loved Under Fortunate Stars and you’re keen to see more of that universe, you’re in luck – read on to find out more.

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