Month: January 2021

“2020’s Best” – you may not believe that 2020 had anything best about it–but it did. Let’s start with Fun.

By the way, did I ever tell you I have a book called Zombie Turkeys? It’s fun too.

2020’s Best – The Best Facts

Yes, we know 2020 contained a worldwide pandemic, but it’s all good when you get giant turkey memes for Thanksgiving.

Let me know what you think of this fantastic factual video about the progression of the world’s highest jump. I’ll give a free ebook of Zombie Turkeys if you contact me. Or if you subscribe to my newsletter.

You want more science facts? I’ve got them here in this blog post:

Squirrels, Jet Packs, Nanobots – and Free Fiction

2020’s Best Fantasy and SciFi

Let’s begin with a wonderful review from 2020.

You’d think after three oddball novels, Zombie Turkeys (How an Unknown Blogger Fought Unkillable Turkeys), My Undead Mother-In-Law (The Family Zombie with Anger Management Issues), and Paranormal Privateers, that Andy Zach would have exhausted all the comic possibilities in his world of killer zombie turkeys and superhero zombie human.

You’d be wrong.  How about flying zombie pickles? Zombie zucchini? Zombie caterpillars? (How can you tell a zombie caterpillar from a normal one? Andy Zach can tell you.) 

How about being injected with zombie blood which can cure any ill, regrow any lost limb, and be quickly cured with a widely available antidote? Who needs insurance with that sort of help?     How about organizing a zombie worker union at Amazon when zombies can outperform robots? And suggest the story is based on two real people, Anthony and Ravan Jones who contribute the foreword to the book?  Or zombie residents of a nursing home taking over the place?

But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops.  He has included other short stories by other authors like “The Story of Sound” by Olivia Smith and his own “A Phoenix Tale”   before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled  middle-schoolers who become superheroes,  the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government.  The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe. 

From Dr. Wesley Britton on Book Pleasures

2020 SciFi and Fantasy reviews Part 2

But all this silliness is just part of what Andy Zach has collected in Oops.  He has included other short stories by other authors like “The Story of Sound” by Olivia Smith and his own “A Phoenix Tale”   before diving into his zombie world. Then he offers a batch of stories based on his other book series featuring disabled  middle-schoolers who become superheroes,  the Secret Supers. Oh yea, there are the aliens who first appeared in Paranormal Privateers who are defeated by zombies working for the U.S. Government.  The aliens can provide you legal assistance in the form of a sexy avatar who looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe. 

If you’re getting the impression that one Mr. Andy Zach has a wide and wild imagination, you are on the right track. One obvious audience for his quirky tales is the YA readership, especially for all the contemporary references like video gaming and computer lingo. But even grumpy old sixty-somethings like me can have a lot of fun with Andy’s characters, scenarios, and plots. I’m still laughing at the image of migrating flying zombie pickles.  Hard to get more original, unique, or surprising than Zach’s “Life After Life” series. Have some fun with Andy Zach in 2020!

From Dr. Wesley Britton on Book Pleasures

And here’s the book in question:

You can learn all about Dr. Wesley Britton and his science fiction in my interview of him here.

But wait! There’s more of 2020’s Best!

Do you like fantasy? Check out my review of . . .

Be prepared for a fantasy experience like no other. Sybil, a child and grandchild of wizards, has a magical menagerie under her control. She has a giant black swan, a death-dealing hawk, a golden lion, a talking boar, a magical cat, and, of course, a dragon. She calls them to her and controls them with her thoughts.

Then a man brings her the baby of a king, Tamlorn, or Tam. He would be killed to preserve the king’s rule.

Sybil learns to love through the child and a strange witch on her mountain of Eld. Sybil tries to stay aloof from politics, but cannot, because of her love for Tam. But she is now enmeshed in politics of Eld and the king and his enemies both come to her, wanting to use her, and Tamlorn.

Then a mightier wizard calls her, just as she called her animals. And she is powerless to resist.

That is the merest sketch of the beginning a complex and utterly delightful tale. 

From Andy Zach’s review on Goodreads.

This is just one of 138 books I read in 2020. But it’s 2020’s best, in my opinion. Check them out on Goodreads.