The first quarter of the 21st century has seen an explosion of self-published books, including some that went on to become bestsellers. E.L. James’ erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), for instance, was a notable smash, and the SF thriller The Martian (2014), which first appeared on author Andy Weir’s website, went on to be adapted as an Oscar-nominated 2015 film. Kirkus Indie has been reviewing self-published, small-press, and some large-press books since 2011, when it was first known as Kirkus Discoveries. Here are four books that our editors consider to be among the very best to grace our pages since then:
President of Kirkus Indie Chaya Schechner heartily recommends the Themis Files SF trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel; its first installment, Sleeping Giants (2016), received a starred review. It begins with a girl, Rose Franklin, discovering a giant metal hand buried in the Black Hills of South Dakota; as it turns out, similar giant body parts exist in other parts of the world, and they all appear to be parts of an alien relic. As an adult, Rose becomes a physicist and secretly attempts to put all the pieces back together—but when word gets out, it leads to global chaos. Our reviewer said that the book “masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and apocalyptic fiction.” A film adaptation is currently in development.
Indie editor Arthur Smith sings the praises of All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Velvet Underground Story, a graphic biography by author/illustrator Koren Shadmi that was named one of Kirkus’ Best Indie Books of 2023. It tells the true story of this deeply influential rock band of the late 1960s and early ’70s and details the lives of its members, including the volatile singer-songwriter-guitarist Lou Reed and multi-instrumentalist John Cale. Our critic, in a starred review, called the “stylish, poignant, and intriguing” work “an immersive and enlightening experience, one that fans will appreciate for its scope and honesty, and one that non-fans are also sure to enjoy.”
Former Indie editor Myra Forsberg names Einstein’s Beach House, a set of short stories by Jacob M. Appel, as a favorite; many of its tales involve themes of deception, such as the title story, in which the owner of a beach house runs a scam on tourists until an unexpected visitor show up. Appel, an attorney, bioethicist, and psychiatrist, is a prolific writer whose books have been published by a range of large and small presses; several have received Kirkus stars, including this one, which our reviewer called “sharp, observant, darkly funny and deeply humane.”
I’ve long been a booster of Christy J. Leppanen’s offbeat and creepy SF/horror collection, Bulletin of ZOMBIE Research: Volume 1, named one of the Best Indie Books of 2014. It’s a fictitious scholarly journal documenting studies of people infected with “Zooanthroponotic Occult MetaBiomimetic Infectious Encephalitis” (which, not for nothing, spells the word “ZOMBIE”). The stark coldness of the prose—peppered with hyper-realistic graphs, charts, and occasional upsetting photos—effectively shows how the experimentation that self-publishing allows can yield some startlingly creative works. Kirkus Indie will continue to highlight the best and brightest as the century goes on.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
