For what it’s worth, here is my review of Ryan Campbell’s “God of Clay”.
It’s too late to make any difference in voting now, but it’s very much worth reading at any time. Note that it’s the first volume of a trilogy – more properly, the first part of a single three-volume novel. Will the second and third volumes get more attention?
Since my criticism of “The Cat’s Eye Pub” has been noted, in fairness this should be added from my review of its sequel, “Chakat in the Alley”:
“My reviews of Jordan’s two previous novels were generally favorable, but were particularly condemnatory toward their lack of basic proofreading, with misspelled and missing words, floating punctuation, and other glaring errors on almost every page that interrupted the flow of the story. I am delighted that there is none of that here. There is a credit: “Editing by Charles Honeycutt”. Thanks, Charles, for improving the readability of Chakat in the Alley.
Jordan has confirmed in an e-mail that Honeycutt deserves the credit for this, and that, when he has time, he will go back and correct Jordan’s two previous novels as well.”
I gather that Honeycutt has not corrected them yet, but when he does, my complaints will no longer be accurate. This is one of the biggest flaws of print-on-demand publishing: errors that are called attention to can be corrected almost immediately, but with no notice of the correction, while the criticism in the reviews goes on forever.
Okay. My picks for 2014? Some furry novels that impressed me were “A Wilder West” by Ted R. Blasingame, a standalone novel in his Furmankind series; “The Northern Approach” by Jim Galford, #4 in his The Fall of Eldvar series; “Huntress” by Renee Carter Hall, which most readers will probably consider a novella because it’s contained within my anthology “Five Fortunes” even though it’s over 40,000 words long; “Laisrathera” by M. C. A. Hogarth, the conclusion of her Her Instruments trilogy (WARNING: it doesn’t stand up well unless you’ve read the 2013 first two volumes); “Spirit Hunters, Book 1: The Way of the Fox” by Paul Kidd; “Snow Storm” by Hallan Miryas on the Metamor Keep website; “The Bees” by Laline Paull; and “Off the Beaten Path” by Rukis, a first volume in a series. I see several titles on the ALAA’s 2014 Recommended List that I haven’t read yet. Also Kyell Gold’s “Red Devil” in his Dangerous Spirits series, and “Uncovered” in his Forester University series. Gold has withdrawn his work from Ursa Major eligibility, but I don’t think that he’s withdrawn it from the Cóyotls. Of course, it remains well worth reading whether it’s for award consideration or not. I enjoyed James Jordan’s “Chakat in the Alley”, but not as much as these others.