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15 great fantasy and science fiction books from 2020 you may have missed

By Daniel Roman

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Joe Abercrombie attends the 2012 Orion Authors' Party at the Natural History Museum at the Natural History Museum on February 20, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Orion Books)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 20: Joe Abercrombie attends the 2012 Orion Authors' Party at the Natural History Museum at the Natural History Museum on February 20, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Orion Books) /
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12. Colonyside by Michael Mammay

Michael Mammay’s Colonyside — the author’s third book about Carl Butler, a cynical military hero who is put through one ringer after another — snuck in right at the end of 2020. The first two books, Planetside and Spaceside, saw Butler being manipulated into webs of scheming and corporate greed.

You might think a guy would learn…or maybe it’s just that someone’s got it out for him. Book three of this military sci-fi series sees Butler going off to a remote colony to solve a missing persons case, but of course, things get way more complicated than expected.

"Carl Butler was once a decorated colonel. Now he’s a disgraced recluse, hoping to live out the rest of his life on a backwater planet where no one cares about his “crimes” and everyone leaves him alone. It’s never that easy. A CEO’s daughter has gone missing and he thinks Butler is the only one who can find her. The government is only too happy to appease him. Butler isn’t so sure, but he knows the pain of losing a daughter, so he reluctantly signs on. Soon he’s on a military ship heading for a newly-formed colony where the dangerous jungle lurks just outside the domes where settlers live. Paired with Mac, Ganos, and a government-assigned aide named Fader, Butler dives head-first into what should be an open and shut case. Then someone tries to blow him up. Faced with an incompetent local governor, a hamstrung military, and corporations playing fast and loose with the laws, Butler finds himself in familiar territory. He’s got nobody to trust but himself, but that’s where he works best. He’ll fight to get to the bottom of the mystery, but this time, he might not live to solve it."

Being a third book, it’s hard to talk too much about this one without giving away anything about the previous entries. Suffice it to say that Mammay just seems to be getting better with each novel, and his books are excellent for scratching that military sci-fi itch.

The author’s next book, The Misfit Soldier, is a standalone book not connected to the Planetside books. It’s due out on February 2, 2022.

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