My Favorite Books of 2021

2021 was a year of reading comfort fiction, mostly because I was in cancer treatment for so much of the year that I just wanted to read what I already knew I would enjoy. Hence, a lot of later volumes in various series.

Normally I list the twelve books I enjoyed the most, but this year because of all the series' reading and because I mostly read volumes back to back, I'm just going to group everything by series and include book/volume numbers. I didn't start any new series. This is all ongoing stuff.

My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 4: Strategem by Yoshiki Tanaka

We finally see all the politicking in the previous volume pay off as the Dominion of Phezzan makes its move and Reinhart decides to make use of their subterfuge, bringing him one step closer to claiming the imperial throne for himself. He feels a lot better in this book, less distant, perhaps because he's getting over his grief. Yang's chapters aren't quite as good this time around, perhaps because he has less to do. This isn't a particularly space battley volume and while his grand strategy insight is as good as ever, his government doesn't like to hear what he has to say, as usual.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vols 2-3 by Satoru Yamaguchi

In Vol 2 Katarina continues her quest to avoid getting a "bad end" as the villainess of the otome video game she's been reincarnated into. Now that she's a teenager she finally goes off to the magic academy, beginning the game proper, but this time around due to her bond with her potential adversaries it's clear the story will play out differently. There is surprisingly a "bad guy" character who shows up to give the story a little oomph in the finale, but otherwise it ends just about the way you'd expect.

Vol 3 is a little stranger since Vol 2 wraps up the premise of the series, but it was clearly popular enough that the author or his editors wanted to continue so what we get is a stand alone volume of Katarina meeting new people, getting into more trouble, and causing more people to be smitten by her. It's all right, but feels a bit like filler.

Baccano! Vols 8-10 by Ryohgo Narita *

Baccano volumes 8-10 cover the 1934 Alcatraz storyline as well as Nebula Corporation shenanigans in Chicago. For anime-onlies, this arc covers where Ladd Russo wound up after he was pulled off the Flying Pussyfoot and finally puts Huey Laforet's plans into action. Firo gets some pretty awesome moments as he has to operate solo inside Alcatraz for much of this arc and he really gets to put his alchemic knowledge to good use. The best mostly new to us characters are probably the twin homunculi, Sham and Leeza, who have been mentioned before, but get to finally take the stage in this arc.

Shadow of the Fox Vols 2-3 by Julie Kagawa

Soul of the Sword and Night of the Dragon are the second and third books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, continuing and concluding Yumeko's journey to stop the summoning of the dragon god in a pseudo-medieval Japanese setting. We get more POVs as characters previously denied a spot in the narrative limelight get their own stories to tell, but I found I didn't like the diluted focus as much. The ending was similarly mixed for me. Parts I liked, parts I didn't, though the journey towards getting there was very good.

The Protectorate Vols 1-3 by Megan E. O'Keefe *

Velocity Weapon, Chaos Vector, and Catalyst Gate are the three books in the trilogy. If you like action sf with careful worldbuilding, this is an excellent choice. It's got spies, military operations, government conspiracies. The two timelines running through the first book are amazing as I couldn't help wondering how they were going to resolve. I love Sanda and Tomas, they have great chemistry together, even when things aren't working out, and Bero is possibly one of my favorite AI characters ever. (There's nothing quite like a sulky warship.) It's all quite good.

The Murderbot Diaries Vol 3 and 4 by Martha Wells *

Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy are the third and fourth novellas in the The Murderbot Diaries, bringing the titular Murderbot full circle with the decisions it's made since the end of the first novella. It still hates caring about people, because oftentimes people are stupid and caring makes this hard, but it still cares anyway, making Murderbot highly relatable.

VN Talk: The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

In which I talk (write) about visual novels from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: Switch (also on PS4 and Windows)
Release: 2021

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve is the second of the two games included in Capcom's The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles collection, making its English language debut after originally appearing on the 3DS. I was originally thinking of saving this one for a rainy day since I don't know when we'll ever see another Ace Attorney game again, but the two-part nature of Adventures and Resolve left me wanting to know how the rest of the story plays out, so I played them back to back.

Since this game came out within the past year, this is your obligatory spoiler warning that I'll be covering most of the game including the ending and there will be spoilers for Adventures as well since it's impossible to talk about the second game without discussing the first!

The most pressing question I had when I started the game was: Does Resolve answer everything I was left wondering about in Adventures? And the answer is yes, it does. It doesn't always do it well, but it does. And for that, I'd like to give credit where credit is due, because I honestly thought they weren't going to get around to it with the plot thread pile-up they were having as even more story material is introduced in the second game!

VN Talk: The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures

In which I talk (write) about visual novels from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: Switch (also on PS4 and Windows)
Release: 2021

The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is making its English language debut fairly late compared to its mainline cousins, being a port of the original 3DS and only as part of the The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles collection, but that's not so bad because the GAA games are a paired set and an incomplete experience without each other. It's nice not to have to wait a couple years for the next installment.

On the other hand, because you have to play the sequel to see the resolution to questions brought up throughout Adventures, it can be disappointing to play as a stand alone experience. While the Ace Attorney games are a series, this is the first installment that requires you to play a sequel to complete the story.

Since this game came out within the past year, this is your obligatory spoiler warning that I'll be covering most of the game including the ending and the unresolved plot threads! I wrote this prior to playing Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve so everything brought up here are issues that a player might have when they have only experienced the first game.

VN Talk: Steam Prison - Part 8: Grand Ending

There is one more ending! The Grand Ending is the last to unlock and it's a romance agnostic golden route where Cyrus not only gets to prevent her parents' murder in the first place, but the primary cast comes together in pursuit of a common goal, making this the only route where all the love interests are ever in the same room together.

Normally Cyrus goes out to the dining room unarmed when she hears a noise the night of the murder, but in the Grand Ending she decides to take her sword with her, which means that would-be murderer Fitzgerald doesn't stand a chance. She arrests him, reads him his rights, and she and her family are left baffled as to why he would break in in the first place.

Warner Evans tries to get Cyrus to drop the charges against his son, offering her any favor she would like, but of course she's the one girl who can't be bribed, and when Yune finds out that Fitzgerald was acting on Warner's orders, Warner agrees to face the assembly for punishment, kicking off the meat of this route.

Yune decides that the Heights have gotten too corrupted and wants to rebuild the assembly with input from the Depths, who have been ignored and looked down upon for too long, and he decides to send Cyrus to find a good representative from the Depths who'd been willing to help with the reconstruction of the government.

It doesn't make much sense why he'd choose Cyrus, who he's met all of two times, briefly, but it does the job well enough, giving her an excuse to meet Ines again, who recommends Eltcreed as a knowledgeable person to bring back. But Eltcreed needs to bring a radio transmitter with him so Ulrik comes along to maintain it, and then they worry Eltcreed could get attacked in the Heights so they bring a doctor, Adage, to look after him, and before you know it, a crowd of five is stuffed in the elevator for four and they're heading up the Heights. Just in time to interrupt a coup.

Fin joins, betrays, fake betrays (I don't really understand it) the group to add himself to their number and the team does a pretty good job of rolling through the Temple, eventually freeing Yune and defeating Warner, who finally spills the beans on his side of the Tistella murder story.

I'd wondered how Warner's relationship with Glissade worked, and the answer is that Warner is the boss and Glissade his subordinate. Glissade keeps an eye on the HOUNDS and the Depths for Warner, and in return Warner sends him people to experiment on. He describes it as feeding a dog. I can kind of understand that Warner might have wanted someone who was not a part of the HOUNDS and not a criminal for his stooge, and there aren't many people who are neither who are willing to go down to the Depths, but I think he would have been better off finding a biddable HOUND and offering him a chance to return to the Heights in exchange for info. Sure, he'd probably have to get a new spy every few years, and eventually word might get around in the Heights that he sponsered a HOUND to come back, but it'd be more gray area legal rather than the outright illegal he's gotten for human trafficking.

That said, it was nice seeing all the love interests working together and interacting with each other in a way that they don't do in most routes. For some, this is the only time they're in the same room with each other. A lot of their personal storylines are touched upon, from Adage meeting his father and realizing he's no longer the man he loved, to Ulrik and Yune meeting each other as the last of the Ferries and one who had been adopted by the Ferries.

That alone makes the Grand Ending quite grand, but it goes a step further with Yune addressing both the people of the Heights and the Depths about his wish for them to cooperate again. The Heights has better agricultural technology and medicine. The Depths has better engineering. The lots of both could improve if they work together. I loved the unconventional ending credits which is simply Yune making a heartfelt speech about bridging the divide as someone who has lived through the flood that separated the two populations, and has lived in the both pre-flood Depths and the post-flood Heights.

Post-credits, we find out that a few months later the Heights now use an election system, ending lifelong appointments and propelling many people who were not previously politicians into government. The sanctuary district has reps in Adage, Ines, and Sachsen. I found Adage a bit odd since he's a criminal and there's no mention of his sentence being commuted, but I understand the sentiment of wanting all the love interests to be involved. Sachsen was also a surprise, mostly because enough people voted for him to win, but it's suggested that he's not as bad as he initially appeared in the prologue so maybe he's become more humane now that the system that exiled him is no longer around.

Oddly enough, half of the representatives are from the Depths, which includes the area outside the sanctuary district. Symbolically that's nice, but realistically makes no sense because the Heights does not govern beyond the sanctuary district. It would be nice to have their input, but that's not necessary for trade or cultural relations.

Perhaps most importantly though, the authoritarian laws binding the denizens of the Heights have been lifted, so the government no longer requires marriage nor selects a spouse for its citizens. Cyrus is thrilled. And you'd think that'd mean Fin would be ready to go with a love confession and marriage proposal, but he doesn't confess and goofs on the marriage proposal, which pretty much makes him want to curl up and die (though Cyrus is oblivious).

So the game ends with a look forward to what everyone does with their lives in the future and Cyrus still single without a care about romance.

And that's fine. She's a gal who loves her job and doesn't need a man to feel complete.

That said, it's worth playing the optional epilogue to the Grand Ending where the guys meet up a year later and Cyrus is delayed, leaving the six of them free to talk with each other. It ends with them dog-piling on Fin for having made zero progress with Cyrus even though he simultaneously makes it clear that he won't tolerate any weirdos trying to court her, which of course leads the other guys to suggest that maybe they could give it a shot, assuming he doesn't think they're weird too.

It's pure fluff, but a good laugh and nice way to close out the game.