The Mole's pick of 2015

It always surprises me to look back over a year and see what I have read. The biggest surprise is to find books that you really did read this year, not two or three years ago and books that you enjoyed but have not thought about since.

2015 for me brought about some discoveries of new authors and new books by old favourites. Once again I cannot compare and say what order these all come in because how can you compare crime with steampunk? BUT... in Oscar tradition there is one that sticks out above all the rest - and it will come last.

On the subject of crime, once again Leigh Russell figures amongst my picks of the year with books in each of the Geraldine Steel and Ian Patterson series. Steel goes from strength to strength with Killer Plan bridging the gap between thrillers of the first three in the series and the whodunnits of the later books, while Patterson, in Blood Axe, becomes a more rounded character and one I grow to care about more.

Denzil Meyrick found his way onto my reading list this year and having read and enjoyed The Last Witness I went back and read the first two starting with Whisky from Small Glasses, the first in the series which gives a far more complete introduction to all the characters involved. I am sort of hooked on these books now and look forward to what 2016 may bring.

Regular readers to this blog will know that I am partial to short stories and 2015 was a good year for them. Of course the Unthology anthologys continue apace and are never dull or repetitious. You might think that choosing short stories would be simple but these guys manage to put them together thematically to make each story part of a bigger picture and give greater enjoyment. A must and the next collection is sitting on my TBR pile already.

Another short story find of 2015 was Refrigerator Cake by Dickson Telfer, his second collection ad every bit as good.

One find  this year was Last Bus to Coffeeville by J Paul Henderson, a harrowing account of alzheimers disease, although it is eased with lighter moments and eccentric characters. It sounds heavy going but is surprisingly light and I am so glad that I read this one.

Before I lighten the mood - and it could do with a bit of lightening - I will mention Intercept by Gordon Corera. I haven't read a lot non-fiction in 2015 but this was a must for me having seen him speak about it at Edinburgh International Book Festival. It told me nothing about the technicalities of cyber hacking that I didn't know but it explained a great deal of history about it that came as a huge surprise. Given our growing dependence on IT in today's world this, perhaps, should become compulsory reading and could lead to people taking greater care.

We can't get the mood much lighter than nominating Jane Hissey's Old Bear's Bedtime Stories for inclusion in the pick. I used to read Old Bear and his friends to our youngest and this year a new collection has been released that contains some old stories and many new ones. A book well worth keeping in your collection "in case".

The next find was The Shield Of Kuromori by Jason Rohan - a fantasy adventure that drags the reader into impossible fantasy and holds them hostage until the last page.

The last two books were from small independent publishers who we met in Nottingham. The first of these two was Greaveburn by Craig Hallam. I haven't read a lot of steampunk in recent years but this was one of the best I have ever read.

And now... the pièce de résistance... Oy Yew by Ana Salote. This is one of the most memorable books I have read and I can't tell you why but it left me wanting to see it succeed above everything I have read in a long time. If you get chance, pick up a copy and find out what I mean.

Greaveburn by Craig Hallam

Review by The Mole

After the murder of the King Greaveburn is being ruled by Archduke Choler because Abrasia, the rightful heir, is only seventeen. The Archduke's sanity deteriorates by the day and he orders the death of people on a whim. Darrant was Abrasia's bodyguard and was eliminated by such request, and then he orders the death of Abrasia. The task is given to Professor Loosestrife, a genius who has invented a machine to restore to health anyone with any illness or injury but he is hardly philanthropic. He invents things as a challenge to himself and hides the results from the world so when this instruction comes in he sends his assistant,Wheldrake, out to buy poison and leaves the job to him.

Wheldrake recruits Abrasia's new bodyguard into the plot but meanwhile Darrant managed to survive, despite a run-in with a crocodile in the sewers and is out to see justice for himself, Abrasia and the Broken People he has fallen in with in the sewers.

It's easy to see love angles building up, obvious plot twists and devices and guess the ending... except this is steampunk and steampunk authors either don't read the manual or just set about rewriting it.

Brilliantly funny throughout but not comedic, gripping and tense with plenty of action, plenty of violence and a grand finale of an ending.

I didn't so much enjoy this book as loved it. The characters came over as plausible - you can't often say "real" and anyway steampunk is like fantasy without the fantasy and so the situations the characters are in don't relate to what we would expect. Darrant the leader and hero is also a screaming coward. Steadfast, the new bodyguard, is loyal and honourable and a racist. Lady Choler, the Archduke's sister, is your average wicked witch of child fantasy, Loosestrife is trying to find a cure for the Ague which is killing more and more of Greaveburn's citizens - not that he's going to share it with anyone though. And as the author has created such a contradictory cast of characters he then inserts comedy throughout to show them as the ridiculous stereotypes that they are.

I am really excited to see what else Hallam can come up with - but keep it steampunk please.



Publisher - Inspired Quill
Genre - Steampunk