The second of my annual year-end blogs begins my what the heck did I spend my free time on lists, starting with my reading…
In 2017 I felt like I neglected my reading, so I made a better effort in 2018 – but I kinda cheated a little by including a whole bunch of audiobook shorts and novellas (over half my total for the year!).
I especially worked on my backlog of Warhammer 40,000 and Horus Heresy audios, of which there is a rich and deep selection to enjoy. Story is story, it doesn’t matter how you get it, and anyone who gets sniffy about audiobooks and eBooks over dead-tree editions can go kick rocks.
I read a lot of fun stuff this year with hardly any clinker in there; top picks are Andrew Reid’s debut The Hunter, Darius Hinks’s The Ingenious and Words For Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis.
Here’s my full list for 2018:
First Lord of the Imperium (L.J. Goulding), Ahriman: Key of Infinity (John French), The Darkness (Ragnar Jónasson), Stone and Iron (Robbie McNiven), The Rage of Asmodai (C.Z. Dunn), A Lesson in Darkness (Ian St. Martin), Fortune of War (David Mack), American Assassin (Vince Flynn), Lies Sleeping (Ben Aaronovitch), A Rare Book of Cunning Device (Aaronovitch), The Break Line (James Brabazon), The Assassination of Gabriel Seth (Andy Smilie), Heart of Decay (Ben Counter), Unreachable Skies (Karen McCreedy), The Eagle’s Talon (French), Hunter’s Moon (Guy Haley), The Hunter (Andrew Reid), Diary of an AssCan (Andy Weir), The Art of The Division (Paul Davies), One Way (S.J. Morden), A Noise Downstairs (Linwood Barclay), The Last (Hanna Jameson), The October Man (Aaronovitch), The Ingenious (Darius Hinks), The Either (Graham McNeill), Mortation’s Heart (Goulding), Veil of Darkness (Nick Kyme), Trials of Azrael (Dunn), 100 Deadly Skills (Clint Emerson), The Freedom Broker (K.J. Howe), Hot Wheels Classics: The Redline Era (Angelo Van Bogart), The Janson Command (Paul Garrison), The Board is Set (Gav Thorpe), Lanzarote & Fuerteventura Pocket Guide (Berlitz), Iceclaw (Counter), Desperate Measures (Dayton Ward), Stealing Gulfstreams (James Patterson, with Max DiLillo), Kill Shot (Counter), Judge of the Wastes (David Annandale), Forever and a Day (Anthony Horowitz), Smuggler’s Run (Greg Rucka), Repossessed (Sandy Parkes), The Interrogation of Salvor Lermentov (Chris Wraight), Iron Corpses (Annandale), Incorruptable (Annandale), Jar City (Arnaldur Indriðason), Words For Pictures (Brian Michael Bendis), The Autobiography of James T. Kirk (David A. Goodman), Taker of Heads (St. Martin), The Last Guardian (Dunn), The Thirteenth Wolf (Thorpe), The Emperor’s Judgement (Joe Parrino).
