Ry Herman's Blog, page 4

Favorite Books — January 2025

In the first month of the new year, there were two stellar titles I want to rave about, both fairly recent, but very different from one another.

GLIFF, by Ali Smith

An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A not-very brave new world. Add two children. And a horse.

This was a brilliant book from one of my absolute favorite authors. A subtly-written novel about authoritarianism, resistance, and the refusal to be categorized. I loved it.

THE MERCY OF GODS, by James S. A. Corey

Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.

Another excellent sci-fi epic from the authors of The Expanse. This one is a far-future space opera with a very well-done focus on the psychology of subjugation and resistance. I’m very much interested in seeing where it goes in subsequent books!

Other books I enjoyed very much in January included THE LOTUS EMPIRE by Tasha Suri, WOMAN WORLD by Aminder Dhaliwal, A CITY ON MARS by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, A SWEET STING OF SALT by Rose Sutherland, LIFE LESSONS FROM HISTORICAL WOMEN by Eleanor Morton, ALIEN CLAY by Adrian Tchaikovsky, NETTLE by Bex Hogan, and MINA’S MATCHBOX by Yōko Ogawa.

This Is Happening!

Got my advance proof copies today!

Write, Rinse, Repeat

40,000 words written on the current Work In Progress.

If I do that again, I’ll have me a book.

The Ry Awards 2024!

The year is new, so let us reject the future and look to the past with THE RY AWARDS 2024, the shockingly unprestigious awards given to the best books read in 2024 by Ry!

As always, we start with the genre I read the most.

THE RY AWARDS, PART I – FANTASY:

Best Fantasy: HALF-WITCH by John Schoffstall

Best Fantasy Series Opener: THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett

Best Fantasy Sequel: WICKED PROBLEMS by Max Gladstone

Best Long-Awaited Fantasy Sequel: RED SIDE STORY by Jasper Fforde.

Best Children’s Fantasy: MAISIE VS ANTARCTICA by Jack Jackman

Best Horror Fantasy: RULES FOR VANISHING by Kate Alice Marshall

Best Queer Fantasy: THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by Simon Jimenez

Best Historical Fantasy: ITHACA by Claire North

Best Adventure Fantasy: THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA EL-SIRAFI by Shannon Chakraborty

Best Dystopian Fantasy: I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF by Marisa Crane

Best Fairy Tale Retelling: A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher

Best Literary Fantasy: THE HUSBANDS by Holly Gramazio

Best Fantasy Short Story Collection: MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS by Kelly Link

Best YA Fantasy: TO SHAPE A DRAGON’S BREATH by Moniquill Blackgoose

Best Portal Fantasy: AND PUT AWAY CHILDISH THINGS by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Best Weird Fantasy: GOGMAGOG by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard

Best Fantasy With A Musical Number In It: LONG LIVE EVIL by Sarah Rees Brennan

The second set of awards, logically, go to the genre I read the second-most:

THE RY AWARDS, PART II – SCIENCE FICTION:

Best SF: THIRTEEN WAYS TO KILL LULABELLE ROCK by Maud Woolf

Best Tie-In SF: WARP YOUR OWN WAY by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio

Best Dystopian SF: LIBERTY’S DAUGHTER by Naomi Kritzer

Best Historical SF: OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY by C. E. McGill

Best Mystery SF: THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older

Best Classic SF: HIS MASTER’S VOICE by Stanislaw Lem

Best Retro SF: BLACK SAILS TO SUNWARD by Shelia Jenné

Best SF Series Opener: THESE BURNING STARS by Bethany Jacobs

The third set of awards generally goes to a category I happened to read more of than usual in the previous year. This year that turns out to be…

THE RY AWARDS, PART III – CLASSICS:

Best Humorous Classic: CRANFORD by Elizabeth Gaskell

Best Surrealist Classic: THE HEARING TRUMPET by Leonora Carrington

Best Roman-à-Clef Classic: A TOUCH OF MISTLETOE by Barbara Comyns

Best Gothic Classic: REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier

Best Autofiction Classic: THE YEARS by Annie Ernaux

Best Religiously-Themed Classic: THE POWER AND THE GLORY by Graham Greene

Best Mystery Classic: DRIVE YOUR PLOUGH OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD by Olga Tokarczuk

Best Classic That Had To Change Character Names To Avoid Lawsuits: THE PAINTED VEIL by W. Somerset Maugham

And the final set of awards goes to the ones that didn’t fit in the other award categories.

THE RY AWARDS, PART IV – GRAB BAG:

Best Historical Fiction: MENEWOOD by Nicola Griffith

Best Mystery: KNIFE RIVER by Justine Champine

Best Queer Fiction: MRS. S by K. Patrick

Best YA Romance: 6 TIMES WE ALMOST KISSED (AND ONE TIME WE DID) by Tess Sharpe

Best Non-Queer Romantic Fiction: ONE DAY by David Nicholls

Best Memoir: ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED by Miep Gies

Best Nonfiction: DOPPELGANGER by Naomi Klein

Best 2024-Published Novel: MENEWOOD by Nicola Griffith

Favorite Books — December 2024

I was surprised by which book ended up being my favorite for this month:

WARP YOUR OWN WAY, by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio

Mariner just wants to have a normal day, but no matter what side of the bed she wakes up on, the world is ending. Literally. If she has coffee, Borg attack! If she has raktajino, cue the Romulan boarding party! And in each scenario, Mariner and her friends end up dead, sometimes the ship is destroyed—and the day starts all over again.

Yep, my favorite for the month was a Star Trek: Lower Decks tie-in choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel. Why? Because it may be the cleverest choose-your-own-adventure of all time, incorporating both the interactive and branching nature of the medium into the story itself — although revealing any more than that would be a spoiler. And it’s also funny as heck.

Other great books included OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY by C. E. McGill, CRANFORD by Elizabeth Gaskell, A GUEST IN THE HOUSE by Emily Carroll, YOUNGBLOODS by Scott Westerfield, WIND AND TRUTH by Brandon Sanderson, and I SHALL NEVER FALL IN LOVE by Hari Conner.

Favorite Books — November 2024

The standout for me this past month was a sequel that, in my opinion, outshone its predecessor:

WICKED PROBLEMS, by Max Gladstone

A deadly force has been unleashed into the world. With apocalypse on the horizon, a girl and a god have joined in order to turn back the coming end. Young, brash, and desperate, they are willing to destroy anything and everything that stands between them and their goals. A dead god will rise. A mountain will fall. Ancient fire will be stolen. And the end draws ever closer, skittering across the stars to swallow the world.

Wow. This one rocked. A leap up in quality from the previous book (Dead Country), Wicked Problems is the Craft Universe equivalent of The Avengers. All the heroes from all the previous books band together to save the world, fighting against villains from the previous books who have… also banded together to save the world. It’s a Max Gladstone plot, so the ethics aren’t exactly clear-cut. The plethora of characters does lead to some issues; it can sometimes be difficult to remember exactly why one set of characters went somewhere to do something when we’ve spent a long time away from them dealing with other sets of characters. But overall, it’s a spectacular book.

Other books I liked included MISTER MAGIC by Kiersten White, LOVELESS by Alice Oseman, FAIRY TALE by Stephen King, NIGHTBITCH by Rachel Yoder, and 6 TIMES WE ALMOST KISSED (AND ONE TIME WE DID) by Tess Sharpe.

Chugging Along

Up to 120 pages on the current Work In Progress. Since my goal is 150 pages by the end of the year, that seems like a pretty good point to be at.

Cover Reveal for This Princess Kills Monsters!

Here’s the cover of my next book, THIS PRINCESS KILLS MONSTERS, out 6/17/25 from Dial Press. EEEEEEEE it’s so pretty!

A princess with a mostly useless magical talent takes on horrible monsters, a dozen identical masked heroes, and a talking lion in a quest to save a kingdom—and herself—in this affectionate satire of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale The Twelve Huntsmen.

Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal.

Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she’s been commanded to marry a king she’s never met.

When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen. Soon, she has to contend with near-constant attempts on her life, a talking lion that sets bewildering gender tests, and a king who can’t recognize his true love when she puts on a pair of trousers. And all the while, she has to fight her growing attraction to not only one of the huntsmen, but also her fiancé’s extremely attractive sister.

If Melilot can’t unravel the mysteries and rescue herself from peril, kingdoms will fall. Worse, she could end up married to someone she doesn’t love.

Favorite Books — October 2024

There aren’t any books I wanted to especially highlight this week, but there are quite a few I liked a lot:

THE LAST SONG OF PENELOPE by Claire North, SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy, THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND EYES by Frances Hardinge, SUNBURN by Chloe Michelle Howarth, LUCY UNDYING by Kiersten White, THE VOYAGE HOME by Pat Barker, THE FAMILIAR by Leigh Bardugo, NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART by Lex Croucher, A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher, LONG LIVE EVIL by Sarah Rees Brennan, and THE IRON PRINCESS by Barbara Hambly.

Woo!

Spotted in a bookstore in the wild: