9. Change Agent

By Daniel Suarez 

Ok, I didn't mean to read three books by the same author in one year, but Olman found this at the communal bookcase at his mum's apartment complex in Kits and quite enjoyed it. 
 

8. Among Others

By Jo Walton

Welsh-Canadian author.

7. The Alienist

 By Caleb Carr

Had this on my list for a while, but when I saw that Netflix had adapted this into a series, I promptly ordered it so I could read it first.

6. Ask The Dust

 By John Fante  

 

5. Freedom

By Daniel Suarez 

4. Daemon

By Daniel Suarez

 

3. The Wild Beasts of Wuhan

By Ian Hamilton

 

2. Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

My BIL got this for Olman for Xmas.

 

1. Replay

By Ken Grimwood   

Amazing.  What a way to start off the year - a great contemporary fantasy novel with a great premise that was really well-executed.  I would not have read Replay if it hadn’t been for my boss Louis, who had originally lent me Dark Matter, which I really enjoyed.

 

When I later googled Dark Matter, I learned that Ken Grimwood’s Replay was a big influence on Blake Crouch.  When I was in Berkeley, I found two copies of Replay at Dark Carnival – one was a vintage hardcover edition that was $50, and the other was a 1987 paperback edition that cost several bucks.  I went with the paperback and must have started reading it not long after I returned to Montreal. 

 

Naturally, back at work, I ended up lending Replay to Louis, telling him that this was the inspiration for Dark Matter.  A fellow co-worker Mikael observed our exchange and mentioned how much he loved Replay, which seemed to cement the deal.  Little did I know that Louis’ life was about to get busy and that his contemporary sci-fi reading blitz was about to slow down quite suddenly….

 

Weeks and months went by.  Although he had started Replay, he never ended up reading it. I’d ask him once every now and then about his progress, but at some point I just stopped asking because it got too awkward.  Then the pandemic happened, 98% of my team have been WFH ever since, and I kind of forgot about Replay, or more like, given up on ever getting my copy back from Louis.

But fast-forward to October 2025 (I’m actually writing this review in November 2025). A Flame All-Hands was being planned for October 30^th.  I had only thought of Replay because I was writing about how The Midnight Library reminded me of a feel-good version of Replay. A few days before the All-Hands, I pinged Louis on Slack and asked if he could bring Replay with him, but mentioned that if he couldn’t find it, it wasn’t a big deal (it has been, like, several years since I first lent it to him!).  Sure enough, he found it right away and said that he had put it inside his bag so he won’t forget to bring it to the office on Thursday.  So I finally have Replay back and I can take a photo of the cover and put it up because I can’t find an image of this edition on the internets at all.

 

It's also been so long that I can’t be bothered to write a review.  I remember the premise and some details, but I may just end up re-reading it one day!