Annex

"Annex", by Rich Larson, 2018, 350 pages, 105k words. Book 1 of The Violet Wars.

Reading through Neil Clark's 1st 5 "Best Science Fiction of the Year", the Larson stories really stood out - very fast-moving, smack-you-upside-the-head kind of writing. "Annex" is an alien invasion story with lots of interesting twists. The aliens are being opposed by a diverse band of children calling themselves the Lost Boys, so I guess this is a YA novel. The last 1/3 is "can't put it down" kind of page turning. And when you think you are heading for a great and satifying conclusion, you get an even better one! Nice!

The story was followed by an excerpt from "Cypher - Book Two of the Violet Wars". I had enjoyed the whiz-bang ending of "Annex" enough that I decided to forge ahead into the 2nd book. So, I go to buy it, no dice. He published a 2nd novel "Ymir" in 2022, which was labeled "Book Two of the Violet Wars" somewhere, but whose synopsis makes it sound like its unrelated. ??? He has published 100 or more short pieces, maybe he struggles with longer stuff. He published a short story collection, 23 stories, in 2018 - same year as "Annex". There are bunch of his short stories - TOR originals - for sale for $1.99 on Kobo. I guess I'll get the next "Best Science Fiction of the Year", which is for 2020, and see if he's in there. I hope he's doing OK.