The Best - Substack 2024 In Review

A look back on my best of the year, both in terms of performance and my personal opinions.

The winter season, as well as the holidays that come with it, are times of reflection for a good many of us. With the approach of a new year imminent, it stands to reason why we’d want to look back and contemplate on what was. Tis a very human thing to do, ruminating on our past deeds and accomplishments. Indeed, I’ve seen a good many of my contemporaries here on Substack doing the same thing, including the likes of

Kathrine Elaine

,

Josh Tatter

, and

Eric Falden

, all of whom I consider myself fortunate to have met.

I consider this of a great many of you, if I may be frank. Just as with the end of last year, 2024 has been fantastic for introducing me to a plethora of talented fiction writers and new authors, some of whom I’m happy to say have become good friends over that time. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to take those friendships outside of this digital world and meet face to face in reality. One can hope.

Ah, but that is looking to the future where we’re meant to be looking to the past. Last time we took a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at my worst performing work of the last year. Today, we look in the other direction. This list will cover the best of my work across the year of 2024.

As previously, before I dig deep into my best of the year, I’d like to give caveat similar to the one Eric gave in his own best of the year article. Terms like “best” and “worst” can be approached in many ways, and my list for the year’s best will be looking at the following:

- My best performing essays, book reviews, and stories/serial chapters of the year as determined by audience engagement.
- My personal favorite essays, book reviews, and stories of the year.
- My single best accomplishment of the year, which is probably an obvious entry.

Now then, onto the list!

Best Performing Story

The Claws of the N'longu, Ch. 1

It seems somehow fitting that my most successful fiction post of the year is not just my first of the year, but one my first Sword & Saturday post to really take off, too. (As some of you may recall, S&S passed its first full year last week, too.) “The Claws of the N’longu” was written as part of the very first joint Warrior Wednesday/Sword & Saturday prompt shared by my compatriots,

The Brothers Krynn

, and the results speak for themselves.

A fantastical novelette that follows the brothers Blackpaw and White-eye, my goal with this story was simple: write a fun, action packed pulp adventure that had familiar sword & sorcery elements as viewed from the eyes of primitive man. Simple though the goal itself was, though, the process of reaching it proved quite challenging. Since the story is told through Blackpaw’s perspective, I was forced to be both thoughtful and creative with how I approached the story’s narrative. Creatures, items, and ideas that we all recognize had to be written about in a manner that felt genuine to the primitive man Blackpaw is, while still being recognizable to the readers.

Positive feedback across the course of the story affirmed many times over that I was successful in this endeavor. The most notable of these comments was given to me by

The Delinquent Academic

after reading chapter 3. A student of cultural psychology who’s pursuing his PhD, if memory serves, to say I was surprised to see him gush about genuine accuracy in my portrayal of Blackpaw’s behaviors is something of an understatement.

Now that I find myself looking back at this story, I feel tempted to revisit these savage brothers and take another swing at a primitive fantasy adventure. Perhaps once I’m further along with The Jarl’s Son I’ll do just that.

Most Resonant Essay

The Spiritual Battle that Predator Hides in Plain Sight

Looking at the interaction metrics of this essay tells quite the tale, but it’s not always a clear one. Inspired by

Librarian of Celaeno

’s examination of the emasculating forces present in the narrative of the 1987 action/horror film Predator, I quickly found myself thinking on the film in a deeper manner than I previously had. This isn’t to say I’d never thought deeply about Predator’s story before. Being one of my favorite films, it’s only natural that I’d think more deeply about its story and structure the more I watched it.

However, I’d never taken the time to deeply consider the spiritual elements present in the film before reading Librarian’s essay. Once I did, though, I found myself struck with an epiphany about a character that initially seems less important than he actually is: scout and tracker, Billy Sole. You see, Billy has a rather unique role within Dutch’s extraction team. As their scout and a tracker, he’s highly in tune with the natural world around him, an aspect furthered by his obvious Native American ancestry.

This understanding of the jungle surrounding them goes beyond knowledge of the flora and fauna, or the skill to trek through such dangerous and confusing terrain. Billy has something close to a sixth sense about his surroundings, a means of sensing when something isn’t right that’s born of his sharpened senses and finely honed intuition. As such, even though he doesn’t come to realize what it is until much later, Billy is the first to realize the Predator is out there, stalking them. He’s the first to sense that something is wrong, the first put on edge, the first to engage in a spiritual battle against this outside evil.

Much like Librarian’s own wonderfully written piece, this idea resonated well with readers, but the proof isn’t in the likes or comments. Instead, it’s in the other essays and discussions which spun off of this one, resulting in discourse on the deeper themes of the movie cropping up over the course of nearly a full week.

Best Received (And My Favorite) Book Review

"The Last of the Mohicans" is Storytelling Excellence

The classics attain their status for a reason. There’s always something to be said about them, an element of timelessness to them which keeps them relevant across the ages. The Last of the Mohicans, the second of James Fenimoore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, is one such American classic, with its timeless tale influencing far more than just the various movies that were based on it.

When looking strictly at the numerical metrics, a debate could be had between this and my preceding review on Fritz Leiber’s first four Lankhmar books taking this top spot. If we’re talking numbers alone, the Leiber review got more likes and more comments from the readership. However, if we look in terms of thoughtful discussion, my review of The Last of the Mohicans received significantly more both on and off site.

It’s not hard to see why that is, either. Much beloved though the Lankhmar books are in the right circles, which just so happen to be the circles I most commonly write in, The Last of the Mohicans is the sort of story that speaks to something greater. It is, as The Brothers Krynn might put it, one of the great romances; a story that isn’t just about the love between a man and a woman, but the love of a people, of a nation, and of the ideals which they support. A single reading was all I needed for this book to become one of my all-time favorites. This review helped to show why that is.

My Favorite Story

White Curls

“Have another, Western Man.”

I will admit, I wasn’t entirely sold on this one at first. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the idea, or that I disliked the process of writing this story or anything else of that sort. In fact, I had a wonderful time putting this one together.

The result of the second of the three “fiction trades” that Kathrine Elaine and I have done with each other thus far, “White Curls” was birthed from prompts she gave me that were meant to push me out of my comfort zone. Amusingly, at least for myself, Kathrine wasn’t aware of the fact that I’ve written stories in the past that were a good deal spicier than what she requested of me here, so this didn’t end up being quite the uncomfortable fit she expected.

Where my uncertainty came in was the reception. I knew I had a fun story on my hands, and I knew that in part because of the fun I had writing it. What I didn’t know, and certainly didn’t expect, was a good number of people to say this was among my very best. That took me by great surprise, and in my disbelief I reached out to other writers whom I respect for their own opinions, mostly in private. Call it vain if you like. I personally don’t see it that way, but I can see why people would. All the same, they shared similar sentiments and showed me the elements I’d blinded myself to. I thought I was just writing a fun, darkly romantic tale. It turned out to be much more than that, and as I realized it, my own appreciation for it grew.

My Most Meaningful Essay

Embracing Darkness - Finding the Source of Dark Fantasy's Strength

When I started on this list, I expected that the most difficult debate I had to face was going to be what my favorite piece of fiction was for this year. Turns out I was wrong, the most difficult debate was for my favorite essay.

Not to sound arrogant, but I wrote some damn solid essays this year. Enough that I had to do some serious thought about which of them was actually my favorite. Between more high-minded pieces like “The Intrinsic Value of Doing” or “The Word Independent Creatives Fear Most,” explorations on character and genre like “The Heroes of Howard” or “Revered King, Virtuous Father,” and the occasional foray into current events like “A Shift in the Wind? - How the Entertainment Landscape Might Be Changing for the Better,” I’ve managed to put out quite a few essays that left me feeling deeply satisfied with the work I’d done.

Yet every single time I revisited these in my efforts to pick a favorite, I always found myself coming back to my first “Embracing Darkness” essay.

As I said in the start of that essay, I love a good dark fantasy story, and I’ve made it no secret that it’s both my favorite genre to read, and to write in. However, it’s a genre that comes with numerous pitfalls, many of which I’ve come to recognize over the years. As such, I took it upon myself to highlight what I felt was the greatest of them, the single most common misunderstanding of the subgenre referenced both by those who write and read it, and those who dismiss it - the colossally important element of hope. Of all the essays I’ve written this year, this is the one that keeps coming back to my mind. This is the one I still think about all the time, even in the face of the higher minded ideas I approached. What else could it be but my favorite?

And with that, we come to the final category of this look back at my best of the year…

My Greatest Accomplishment of 2024

The Publishing of In the Giant's Shadow

Could it really be anything else? 2024 was the year that I finally saw the completion of a goal I’ve had since I was a high school freshman, the publishing of my first book. Nothing else I’ve done this year could hope to top that.

Speaking of, In the Giant’s Shadow is available for purchase it in hardback, paperback, or digital on Amazon now:

• Hardcover

• Paperback

• Digital

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