Marked for Plot

A novella (available free here) is a dark fairy tale story about a shitty (but charismatic) rat. Maurice promises to help his longtime unrequited crush (a Swan) the get revenge for a dead sister. It’s a morbid tale, but Maurice’s voice is impossible to resist. He’s melodramatic, self-serving, and ruthless. You’d never want to be in a room with him, but damn does he make for a compelling main character you love to hate.

Aliens take over Earth and turn it into a Hunger Games-esque TV show for the universe. What starts as a funny and dark action book develops into something surprisingly dense by the time later entries come around. Everyone’s slow descent into the worst versions of themselves under the pressure of surviving and the alien’s uncaring joy in their death. Oh, and Carl’s cat eats a magic pet biscuit that lets her talk.

This melancholy but hopeful tale of an unlikely ruleris surprisingly dense as a boulder and mushy as a stuffed animal. Maia becomes Emperor after his father and half-siblings death and returns from exile to rule in a court that doesn’t particularly want him there. His isolation and desire to use his role for good is captured by Addison’s phenomenal prose. Prepare yourself for some confusing terminology without much explanation however.

This series novellas can be read in any order, and are not written chronilogically. They all follow Chih and their talking bird Almost Brilliant as they collect various stories. Each entry has a bit of its own tone (ranging from fun action stories to gothic horror), with running themes of storytelling, the value of all voices, examining ‘truth’ as a thematic element, and framing narratives. The Empress of Salt and Fortune is the first and best, but there hasn’t been an entry yet that I’ve disliked.

This trilogy follows a prisoner-ship seeking to rebel against the will of the government. In an oceanic setting with no trees, they sail on ships of bone. This is a gritty nautical story with plenty of action and some truly wild (but well executed) worldbuilding. It’s as if Epic Fantasy decided to write with a New Weird style. Joron (our lead character) is pretty passive, whiny, and annoying in book 1, but this trilogy has character development that rival Robin Hobb.

Hansel is pretty fucked up after the gingerbread house. He’s got no family, an unhealthy relationship with food, and no hope for a happy life. This book follows him through adulthood and a variety of heartwrenching (and heartwarming) experiences. It’s mostly a meditation on healing written in 2nd person with some 4th wall breaking elements. It’s made me cry more than anything else, and it’s frustratingly out of print at the moment.

Welcome to Forever is a dark acid trip of a book. It follows a memory editor in rehab trying to get his own memories back. Get lost in his edited recollections of how his marriage fell to pieces and his struggles in trying to become a better person. This is a deeply weird and nuanced examination of trauma couched in a cyberpunk thriller. Just don’t expect to agree with everything Fox has done with his life.

An elderly storyteller is accused of witchcraft and espionage. He’s guilty of neither, but must act otherwise to manipulate his way to freedom from prison bars. Expect stories within stories, an unreliable narrator, and a vividly imagined world. The sequel follows Chant’s apprentice several years later (now a full storyteller in his own right) wrecking havoc in a different city with the power of storytelling.

Book 1 is The Godfather with a Yakuza set dressing mashed together with a Wuxia film. And it does a phenomenal fucking job with that. The sequels expand to international politics, cultural exchange, and the pressures of both tradition and modernity. Expect a few intense action scenes in each book, but the primary focus is on the tangled family relationships of the lead family of No Peak Clan.

This is an ode to epic fantasy, oral storytelling, and the history of the genre. It’s also experimental and emotionally intense and epic in scope. Two young men escort The Moon away from her captor: the Emperor. The Three Terrors seek to stop their journey to the ocean, where the Moon will be free. Their story is told by a grandmother reciting myth to her grandchild, and by actors of the Moonlit Theater. It is told in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person narration, and it is the best book I’ve ever read.