Welcome to my 2020 review! In this post, I’ll talk about what I wrote, what I read, what I learned, and what’s ahead for next year.

(Check out my 2019 review here)

1)      The Big C

First of all, the bid Covid-shaped elephant in the room. I don’t want to make light of how hard it’s made things for so many people. But for me, I had the incredible fortune of living in Perth – the world’s most isolated capital city. We had a few weeks where everyone worked from home, but for the most part, I was lucky to be mostly unaffected by the pandemic.

2)      Drowning Sands

I spent January and February writing The Sands of Truth (Drowning Sands # 1). It’s an epic fantasy story about a magician who has doomed the world, who now desperately seeks to understand how. I’d describe it sort of as The Name of the Wind meets Macbeth, but set in a desert with nomadic tribes.

The desert drowns.

Standing atop the Pillar of Eternity, we watch the waves roll across the sand dunes, crashing against the rock far below. The great flood has come, as the stories foretold. And I am to blame.

They once called this land the Endless Desert. Now, it’s water that stretches out to the horizon. We are safe up here on the Pillar of Eternity – the highest point in this world, a column of rock that pierces a league or more into the sky. But we are not safe for long. Far below, the floodwaters are rising. Soon, they will consume us.

From the prologue of The Sands of Truth

(Members of my newsletter might recognise that passage. A few weeks ago, I shared most of the prologue with my newsletter subscribers, and I got a lot of great responses! If you’re not already signed up, you can join my newsletter here and get a free novella right away).

The Sands of Truth was an interesting process. At times, it was hard. Not to sound too pretentious or anything, but the book’s epic scope was well beyond anything I’d written before, and it’s probably the most I’ve focussed on voice and prose. Yet writing some passages felt amazingly profound and even transcendent. Some of my favourite scenes I’ve ever written are contained in this book.

But for the million dollar question – is it ready? Is it good?

I’m not sure!

See, after finishing it, I planned to take a few weeks off before diving back into edits. But I was feeling a little burned out on the world, so I procrastinated by dabbling with something else – and that something else became my favourite book yet. More on that later.

But, before I stop talking about The Sands of Truth: I don’t know if it’s good, because I haven’t read it! Since finishing the first draft in early March, I haven’t read anything apart from the opening prologue. One of my goals for the next few months is to do a proper read through and see how it stands. I’m really excited about this. My palate is well and truly cleansed thanks to working on a bunch of other stories, so this might be the most ‘fresh’ I’ll ever be able to experience my own writing!

3)      Across the Broken Stars

Publication date: 3^rd February 2020.

Across the Broken Stars is a space fantasy novel about a cowardly war deserter who seeks redemption by helping a young fugitive search for a mythical safe haven. I started writing this way back in late 2017, so it’s been a long time coming.

After self-publishing my debut novella (Fires of the Dead, in September 2019) and being happy with the process and results, I decided that Across the Broken Stars was also ready for the self-published treatment. It released on Feb 3^rd, 2020, with a launch party at my local library on Feb 4^th (my 22^nd birthday!). The launch party was one of my favourite nights, ever. And we got the whole thing on tape! You can watch it here:

In terms of the book itself, I’ve been extremely happy with the response. It’s garnered a lot of awesome reviews, sold a fair few copies, and – above all – looks really awesome whenever I glance at it on my shelf and think ‘Damn. I made that!’

Click here to check out Goodreads reviews.

4)      The Thunder Heist

Publication date: 18^th October 2020.

After finishing The Sands of Truth, I felt a little burned out by the sheer epic scale of the story. I wanted to explore something tighter, grittier, and faster. So I dipped my toes into outlininga heist story set in an oceanpunk fantasy world – and the second my toes touched the water, I was yanked down into the depths.

Two days after finishing The Sands of Truth, I started outlining The Thunder Heist.

After five days of that, I had a complete outline.

Forty-two more days later, and I had a first draft.

Looking back, it staggers me how well that all turned out. The Thunder Heist is the fastest story I’ve written, and I think it’s my best, too; it’s certainly the one that I got the least sick of when it came to the constant re-reads later in the editorial process.

A key lesson from this, I think, is that (at least for me – your mileage may vary) the best way to recover from finishing a book is to start another one. In a lot of ways, The Thunder Heist was intentionally oppositional to The Sands of Truth (Set at sea, not in the desert; set in a confined city, rather than following an adventure across a sprawling land; about characters bouncing off each other, rather than delving into the psychology of a lone hero). It was just what I needed. I even had two days where I wrote 4,000+ words each day, which remains a record for me. It felt fresh, it felt snappy, and I’m really proud of the result.

In a lot of ways, I’m relieved with that. The Thunder Heist is book one of the Twisted Seas series, and my enjoyment for Kef Cutmark and the world she inhabits filled me with eagerness to explore her further adventures. (More on that later).

Click here to check out Goodreads reviews.

5)      The Siege of Treboulain

And now, in probably the biggest news for 2020 … I started writing a game!

An text adventure game, to be precise, for Choice of Games – an American company I’ve wanted to work with since 2016. After several months of sending them pitches, synopsises, and outlines, I managed to snag a contract in mid-2020. It felt truly validating and awesome to get this. Other authors had told me it was hard to break into COG these days, and I fully expected to be rejected at every stage of the process. But, somehow, I made it through! 

(If you’re interested in me talking more about the application process, which was very educational from a creative process perspective, leave a comment below!)

My game is called The Siege of Treboulain. Here’s the pitch I sent in:

Your great city is under attack! After conquering everything in their path, a vicious hoard of elite warriors besieges Treboulain’s Golden Walls. Your city is a strategically crucial gateway to the east, with water surrounding you on three sides. This battle is your last chance to stop the enemy hoard from destroying your nation. Martial your troops, rally the people, and defend your walls against an enemy army determined to capture the city.

As Treboulain’s ruler, how will you bear the burden of defending your people? Will you take to the walls yourself, using your magic and skill with a sword to inspire your soldiers? Or will you command the defence from a distance, using your sharp tactical mind? Should you prepare more infantry troops, allocate resources for training elite magicians, or recruit mercenaries for a surprise attack? With rival politicians attempting to usurp you, what will you sacrifice to maintain order?

Manage your population’s morale (and your dwindling resources) with wise leadership, use spies to sow discord amongst the enemy, and deal with their own attempts at sabotaging your defences. Whether this will be your city’s death or a triumph for your people, let the legends say that this was your bravest hour!

It has been so creatively challenging and rewarding to work on this. I’m about 85,000 words into the game, and if I hit my 200,000 word target, it will be 250% longer than my currently longest book (Across the Broken Stars at 80,000 words). It has been a blast to write. Getting to explore so many side stories within the same narrative has been a delight, and creating difficult choices for players has pushed my brain into so many interesting directions (mwah ha ha!). Learning how to code has also been super fun!

I’ve enjoyed writing in this world so much that I’ve already been considering potential sequels (whether in game or prose form, I’m not sure). In particularly, Arborturgy – my plant-based magic system – has opened up a ton of interesting avenues.

In terms of release date – I’m not too sure. I’ve never done one of these games before, so I have no idea how quickly the editing and production tasks take. Having said that, I’m aiming to finish the first draft by the end of April. Hopefully that means we’ll get a release date around the middle of the year, but unfortunately, I can’t make any guarantees. What I can guarantee (with at least some measure of confidence) is that The Siege of Treboulain is my most immersive story yet. If you enjoy my world building, you’ll definitely get a kick out of it, especially since you can interact with the story to shape it yourself.

Stay tuned on this one. Hopefully, we can get a beta version of the game up for play testing soon! If you’d be interested in sampling an this early version, email me at jed.herne1(at)gmail.com, with the subject line ‘BETA TESTING FOR YOUR GAME.’

6) Project Statues & Summary

New fiction published in 2020:

• Across the Broken Stars – Feb 2020
• The Language of Lies (Short story prequel to Across the Broken Stars. read for free here) – Feb 2020
• The Thunder Heist – Oct 2020
• Sailor’s Gambit (Prequel novella to The Thunder Heist. Read for free here) – Oct 2020

Progress on other projects:

Hunt the Fallen Sky (Twisted Seas # 2) – sequel to The Thunder Heist

Kef’s getting her crew back together! I got about 25% through the first draft before starting to work on The Siege of Treboulain, which has been occupying most of my writing time for the last half year or so. Once The Siege of Treboulain is done, I’ll be returning to Hunt the Fallen Sky, ideally for an October/November release date. It’s fully outlined, and there’s a ton of cool scenes I really, really want to write in this, so hopefully it should be easy to jump back in. But I’ve never resumed a project mid-draft before, so it will be an interesting challenge!

Unnamed Twisted Seas # 3 Novel 

I’ve got a loose outline for this, with most of the major beats ironed out. Hopefully I should start writing by the end of 2021, in time for a launch in early 2022.

The Sands of Truth

First draft completed in early 2020, waiting for me to edit. No expected publication date to announce yet, although I will hopefully get a revision done on this sometime soon. I imagine it will be a few years until this is ready, as I want to dedicate my time to the Twisted Seas series for now.

Masks of Steel

My steampunk spy novel about a street urchin who infiltrates a fantasy air force academy to revenge her father. I finished the 2^nd draft in late 2019, but didn’t touch it in 2020. I’ll probably give it another read in 2021 to see how it sits, but for now this project probably has a few years until it launches.

(Fun fact: at 110 000 words, this is the longest novel I’ve written!).

The Siege of Treboulain

First draft is about 45% complete. (85 000 words done of an intended 200 000). This is the first interactive fiction project I’ve done, so I’m hesitant to give an exact launch date, especially since Choice of Games will want to control that stuff. But (fingers crossed) it should be out around the middle of 2020. Hopefully, I should be able to set up samples and beta tests before then for you to get a taste of what it’s like to protect Treboulain from an almighty siege…

Fires of the Dead sequels

Eager-eyed browsers might notice that Fires of the Dead is billed as ‘Pyromancer # 1’, even though it’s a stand-alone book. I certainly have vague plans to do more sequels involving pyromancy, but I haven’t made any progress on them yet. I think they’ll be taking a backburner (sorry for the pun) until a later date.

7) Podcasting

After around 80 or so episodes, I put the Novel Analyst podcast on indefinite hiatus. All the episodes are still available to listen to (and you crazy people have racked up 5 figures worth of downloads over the show’s life!) right here.

Thank you to everyone who supported the show. Although I’m talking about it in past tense, it’s certainly not dead. While I’m not regularly posting to the feed, chances are that I might use it for more author interviews in the future.

And speaking of author interviews, I had some cracking ones on The Novel Analyst in 2020 – including interviews with 2 of my current top 5 authors (Rob J. Hayes and Gabe Bergmoser). Here’s some highlighted episodes:

Episode 54 – Gabriel Bergmoser talks about adapting his bestselling thriller, The Hunted, into a movie (which he wrote the screenplay for!).

Episode 53 – Rob J. Hayes talks about overcoming crippling doubts while writing The War Eternal trilogy.

Episode 48 – Where I analyse The Magician’s Workshop by Kate Heartfield – an interactive fiction game from Choice of Games that inspired me to apply to write for them!

Now, podcasting certainly hasn’t seen the last of me, because I started a new show: The Wizards, Warriors, & Words fantasy writing advice podcast, co-hosted with Dyrk Ashton, Michael R. Fletcher, and Rob J. Hayes (yup – I’m on a podcast with one of my top 5 fave authors. Life is swell!).

It’s available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all the usual podcast places. I also just figured out how to embed the full episodes below – hurray!

Starting Wizards, Warriors, & Words (hereby shortened to WWW) was one of my best decisions of 2020. I’ve loved hanging out with my co-hosts, and our guests have been incredible. At first, I was nervous to chat with such well-established authors on a regular basis. You can probably hear that in the first episodes. But they’re all such wonderful people that I quickly became accustomed to their presence, and now it feels natural and extremely fun to chat with them ever few weeks. 

I don’t have the data to prove that podcasts help sell books (although I have a bit of anecdotal data to suggest that a few readers have heard of me through this medium). What I do know is this: podcasting with other authors was the single biggest source of motivation for me in 2020. There were many times where writing was kind of burning me out. Getting on a Zoom call with other authors, and hearing them talk passionately about their books – it reignited my own spark and reminded me how awesome it is to write. Even if no one listened to our show, it’s been worth it for that.

8) Books read

I read 44 books in 2020 (compared to 49 in 2019, and 61 in 2018). Click here to check out the full list of everything I read on Goodreads. (Also, as a bonus, most books in this list have reviews from me, which you can read by clicking on each book’s title).

Also, if you don’t already follow me on Goodreads, click here to do so – this will keep you updated with the books I’m reading in the future.

9) Favourite books

And now, for the big ceremony! Picking favourites is a difficult and elusive concept. This list represents how I feel right now as I write this, but it’s possible that my appreciation of these books will ebb and flow over time. Having said that, I’m going to share my top 3 fiction and non-fiction reads from 2020, along with a brief snippet about why they meant so much to me.

(Note: To save me from repeating myself, books that I re-read in 2020 are excluded from these rankings.)

Top 3 Non-Fiction:

3) Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Leonardo da Vinci has long been one of my most-admired historical figures. Walter Isaacson’s fantasy biography only made me have more respect for the man. Perhaps what I appreciated the most was discovering how much Leonardo seemed to genuinely enjoy life and people – too often, driven artists can have this stereotypical reputation for being isolated, lonely, miserable figures. As an author who very much plans to commit myself to a creative life, it’s great to have people like Leonardo to model my life after (not that I’d consider myself anywhere near his league!). This book has given me a new appreciation of one of history’s most fascinating figures, and it’s a good reminder to always be curious.

2) Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee

An incredibly inspiring comic-book-style memoir from Stan Lee – the creative genius behind Marvel. Chronicling his life from a poor upbringing as the son of an immigrant father (he once wished he had enough money to buy an apartment that looked onto the street instead of a wall, and when his parents got a blender that let him make milkshakes, he thought he was in heaven) to building the massive franchise that is Marvel, this is a funny, motivating, and ultimately quite touching tribute to the man who created many of our modern legends. Comic books were a big part of my childhood (there was probably a two year period where I only read comics, which staggers me to think about now), and so this was a very nostalgia-filled read – especially considering Stan’s recent passing.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from this was that while art matters, life matters more. In the closing pages, Stan reflects on how his proudest achievement was his loving marriage to his wife of 60+ years. The ending deserves special mention for how emotionally it closes. The final panel involves a touching image of Stan, with his arm draped over the shoulder of his younger self, walking towards a New York skyline filled with characters of his creation – Spiderman, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, and more. And to his younger self, Stan promises to buy him a milkshake. Will it be as good as the one they made with their parents blender when they were kids? Not even close.

Ultimately, this is an incredible memoir for an incredible man. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to be creative and tell stories – heck, it’s for anyone who wants to live a fulfilling life by learning from a man who lived every one of his 95 years. Excelsior!

1) Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

For the last few years, Springsteen has been my favorite musician by a mile – and reading this book only increased my respect for him. His prose is magical and vulnerable at the same time, with an equal willingness to dazzle you and reveal destructive parts of his own psychology at the same time.

Perhaps the biggest quote I took away was that “life trumps art … always.” It seems to be a common theme most artists realise when they look back on their career (Stephen King says much the same in ‘On Writing’, his own memoir), and as a young author who looks up to these creatives as role models, it’s something that I feel grateful for knowing at this early stage in my life. As Springsteen sings in ‘Long Time Comin”:

“Well if I had one wish for you in this god forsaken world, kid
It’d be that your mistakes will be your own
That your sins will be your own.”

And therein lies for me the true beauty of memoirs like this; that ability to experience another artist’s journey, to see the highs and the lows of the ride, to see the struggles they navigated, the joys they experienced – and to hopefully learn from that for your own adventure.

Bravo to the Boss!

Top 3 Fiction:

3) The Lessons Never Learned by Rob J. Hayes

The Lessons Never Learned is book 2 in The War Eternal. It’s a grimdark fantasy trilogy about Eska, a young magician struggling to reconcile her urges for revenge with her longing for human connection. It follows on from book 1, Along the Razor’s Edge, and while the characters, themes, and plots continue, it couldn’t be a more different book. Along the Razor’s Edge is set in an underground prison. It’s claustrophobic, tense, and at times I found it a little slow. The Lessons Never Learned, however, opens the world up. We follow a much older Eska – fleeing from ruthless hunters – who takes refuge in a flying city and reluctantly agrees to do a dangerous mission for the god that rules it.

“I’ve heard people talk about hell as though is it some place that awaits them when they die. A land of eternal torture for those who have committed the worst of atrocities. They’re wrong. Life is hell. Living is hell. And there is no greater torment than the ones we fashion for ourselves.”

This was the 3rd Hayes novel I’ve read (Never Die and Along the Razor’s Edge are the other two). Hayes has always had a gift for characters. Complex, morally ambiguous, and usually just so dang fun – there’s plenty of his excellent characterisation in The Lessons Never Learned. Hayes is a ‘pantser,’ an author who writes without an outline, letting the story take him where it wants to go. This approach can lead to great characters that drive the story, but can result in lacklustre plots and flimsy endings. The plotting in Hayes’ other books (at least the ones I’ve read), isn’t bad, per se, but it’s not the thing I enjoyed the most about those books, and I always felt that it was a slight weak point.

“Any fight is a trade. The combat is merely the act of haggling for how many lives are lost.”

Then came this novel. Perhaps the biggest reason why I liked The Lessons Never Learned was because he finally fused his incredible characters with an equally tight, well-structured, and highly suspenseful plot. It’s original, too. I’ve read hundreds of fantasy books, and there were beats in here that I’d never seen before, but made perfect sense and were wonderfully executed. (Pun intended)

“Strange how you can accept an apology for a thing, but never accept the wrong done in order to require one.”

In book 1, you got all kinds of hints about a vivid fantasy world, but they stayed like that: hints, and nothing more. Book 2 pays off all of these setups, carrying the reader through an incredibly realised fantasy world with rich backstories, lore, and plenty of secrets.

“The truth locks you in, determines a set way of thinking, of feeling, of believing. The truth is the opposite of freedom. Lies, on the other hand, can be whatever we want them to be.”

When I reviewed book 1, I commented that the first half felt slow. There’s no worry of that with The Lessons Never Learned. We’re kept constantly moving, propelled from one mystery about the world to another. At the same time, there’s no sense of rushing, no sense of desperately trying to keep us entertained. What we see is a master storyteller at work, weaving compelling characters, an innovative plot, and an incredibly original world into a gripping knife-blade of a novel. And that knife cuts deep … Amongst the intense fight scenes (which involve Sourcery, one of my favourite magic systems I’ve ever read), there’s plenty of tender moments. These do a wonderful job of humanising Eska, whose strange mixture of ruthless greed and a deep desire for affection are synergised perfectly, eliciting way more sympathy than you’d expect for an antihero.

“Opinions are like children. Those who have them want them to be special, rarely realising they are just as dumb and ugly as all the others.”

(And not, that’s not spelled wrong. It’s like that because magicians swallow Sources – little crystal orbs of power. These Sources can let magicians summon fire, open portals, even bring monsters into this world from another realm. But there is a great cost to using them. Sourcerers are only attuned to some Sources, and swallowing the wrong ones will kill you within minutes. Even if you are attuned to a Source, it will slowly kill you over time. This makes magic less of a ‘get out of jail free card’ – which I detest – and more of a ‘yay, I’m out of jail, but now the mobster bosses can kill me.’ Much better.)

“And that is the ultimate truth of playing a hand of blame. Regardless of who you drag into the hand with you, you always end up playing against yourself.”

I recently interview Rob for my podcast. When we did the interview, I was 80% through The Lessons Never Learned, and reeling from all the twists. I told this to him. He smiled and said, “Wait until the end.” And holy cow, was he right. The climax of this book is epic and heart wrenching, making you feel torn between looking away and also not wanting to blink, because so much cool stuff is happening. The ending took me by shock. If you’ve read it, you’ll know what I’m saying. That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s fantastic, and has me desperate to dive into the final book in the trilogy, From Cold Ashes Risen. Luckily, I only have to wait another two and a bit weeks. It releases May 26th. The corpse queen comes …

“Only those with something to hide tell you their secrets do not matter.”

Overall Verdict:

5/5. An explosive and captivating grimdark fantasy adventure, merging compelling, flawed characters with an intense, twisting plot. Highly recommended.

2) The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

I’ve described The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1) by Scott Lynch as ‘The Godfather meets Renaissance Venice – with magic!’ If that premise made you excited, stay like that. The book is every bit as amazing as it sounds, and then some.

The Lies of Locke Lamora follows the Gentlemen Bastards, a group of highly skilled con artists who steal from the rich nobles of Camorr (not to give to the poor, but because the rich are the only ones worth stealing from). Two plotlines interweave: in the present, the Gentleman Bastards struggle against a mysterious Grey King, who’s trying to take over Camorr’s criminal underworld (hence The Godfather allusions). This alternates with interludes describing Camorr’s rich history and the backstories of the Gentleman Bastards.

Camorr is a fantasy version of Renaissance Venice, with canals and gondolas coexisting alongside magical alchemists and soaring towers crafted by a long-extinct race. Venice has always intrigued me. In a former life, I was an architecture student, and we often explored Venice during our history lessons. Not only am I fortunate to know a bit about its architecture, but I’ve been lucky enough to explore it in the flesh. Wandering through its crooked back streets, away from the bustle of tourists and puttering boats, squinting through grey mist as rain fell from the sky – it was mysterious and elusive and intriguing. It’s always felt like a fantasy world to me; a preserved sliver from another universe.

Lynch built upon this rich foundation to craft one of my favourite fantasy worlds. Camorr takes everything awesome about one of the world’s most unique cities, then blends it with his own incredible imagination. Throughout the book, we get plenty of interludes that give us deeper insights into Camorr. In a less-skilled author’s hands, these might’ve felt grandiose and self-absorbed, like he was presenting us with an encyclopedia instead of a story. Not here. Lynch weaves these threads into a remarkably cohesive and fascinating tale that makes me so impressed as a reader, writer, and architecture enthusiast.

These interludes are a great demonstration of Lynch’s writing prowess. I’ve read far too many books where backstory-type chapters feel distracting and annoying. Did that happen here? Not a chance. There wasn’t a single interlude that felt out of place. They all deftly wove into the plot, characters, theme, and world building with breathtaking skill. Here’s a snippet from one of my favourite backstory interludes, when Locke is a 14-year-old child, talking to his thieving mentor, Chains:

“Someday, Locke Lamora,” he said, “someday, you’re going to fuck up so magnificently, so ambitiously, so overwhelmingly that the sky will light up and the moons will spin and the gods themselves will shit comets with glee. And I just hope I’m still around to see it.”

“Oh please,” said Locke. “It’ll never happen.”

And I haven’t even reached the plot! The Lies of Locke Lamora is fundamentally a heist story. Like all good heists, it’s even cleverer than you expect – and I was expecting a lot. Locke’s ability to overcome setbacks through improvisation was phenomenal. The pacing is perfect, the tricks are varied and logical, and the reveals are jaw-dropping. Lynch makes incredibly brave choices throughout. I definitely didn’t expect his more heartbreaking choices, and while my inner reader wailed, my inner author cheered with respect. For his debut novel (this came out in 2005), he shows a deft hand for plot.

What really shines, though, are the characters. From the first chapter, I knew that Locke was exactly my type of guy: a quick-witted yet complex rogue who wins through brains instead of brawn. The other characters, too, are rendered with loving detail. I came for a fast-plotted, twisty heist – and I certainly got it – but I stayed for the attachment Lynch created for the characters. When bad things happened to them, I grew genuinely emotional and felt desperate for them to see their way through the mess.

My only critique is the ending. Compared to the rest of the novel, it feels a little rushed. Likewise, both Locke and the Grey King’s thinking seems less clever and logical than it was earlier in the book, and some plot threads were resolved too easily. It’s a shame that my brain works like this, but I tend to overvalue endings. Unfortunately, the relative ‘easiness’ of this ending took it from being ‘one of the best books I’ve read, EVER’ to ‘probably in my top 2-3 books this year.’ That’s not to say the ending was horrible. It was incredibly cathartic and not without a few grin-inducing surprises. For me, however, it just didn’t quite match the awesomeness of the previous 80% of the book.

Overall, Locke is probably one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, and Camorr takes the prize for being one of the best fantasy worlds I’ve ever experienced. If you love fun heist stories, inventive fantasy worlds, and complex characters who make incredibly interesting choices, then this is the book for you.

Character: 10/10
Setting: 10/10
Plot: 7/10
Overall verdict: 4.5/5.

1) Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Simply put, this was one of the most innovative and suprising books I ever read. It definitely takes the cake for me as one of my all-time favourite sci-fi novels.

But let me back up. For those who aren’t familar with Children of Time, it’s essentially a story about humans trying to terraform an alien planet, so that they can genetically engineer apes to become as smart as us. But then…things go wrong, because humans aren’t that smart. Instead of apes, spiders evolve to become the dominant species on this alien world. And the story goes from there, in directions that are straggering in scope, striking this insane balance between insane originality and of-course-that’s-how-it-would-work logic. Tchaikovsky studied zoology, and his expertise comes across wonderfully. It almost felt like watching a David Attenborough documentary, but about an alien species.

Although, of course, the aliens really aren’t that alien. Because what this book does, in the grand tradition of science fiction, is to use the idea of aliens to reflect truths about humanity back on us, with stunning effect.

And the ending…I though I had predicted all possible options. After all, Adrian had written himself into a corner, hadn’t he?

Nope. The bugger came up with a third option which was one of the most complex and naunced endings I’ve ever read. I don’t want to talk more about it, because it would spoil the gradeur for you. Just know that if you want a quality science fiction read that will constantly pull the carpet (spiders) out from underneath you, Children of Time will do that – and then some.

And, to cap this off, I got to interview Adrian on my podcast!

10) Wrap-up & Miscelaneous Stuff

I wrote over 250,000 words this year, which is a new record! For comparison, I did about 160,000 in 2019. I feel exceptionally proud about this, especially since I only realised that I’d crack the quarter-of-a-million mark with about a week left in the year.

And in case you’re wondering how I track this stuff, here’s a screenshot of my writing word count spreadsheet, which I update daily. (This screenshot comes from the first draft of The Thunder Heist)

I find that this regular tracking helps to improve my motivation. I don’t like blank days!

However, it’s important to remember that sometimes you’ve been productive even if you’ve written no words. For instance, when it’s time to produce, package, and publish a book, I’ll start to see more blank spaces – and that’s fine, because it’s about focussing on what’s most important.

(Although 95% of the time, writing is the most important!)

Summary stats from 2020:

total words	253119
writing days	194
editing days	89
outlining days	14
attendence	81%
words per day:	693
words per writing day:	1305
Total mins:	20444
Total hours:	341
Avg wph:	743
avg wpm:	12.4
non-write hours	160
Total hours:	501
avg. mins/day:	82

To wrap things up, 2020 was great from a writing standpoint. It was the first full year I had as a published author, and I learned a ton. There were plenty of mistakes along the way, but also plenty of victories and joys as well.

After doing a lot of experimenting with the production and marketing side of things in 2020, I imagine that 2021 will see me putting my head down and focussing more on a handful of core activties, which means more writing and a more focussed approach to marketing.

I certainly haven’t gotten it all figured out, but I’ve really enjoyed the progress so far. And I’ve been blown away by how many people have read my books and liked them! Thank you for your support, and I hope that I can give you some awesome new stories this year :).

– Jed Herne,

8th January, 2021.