TOP 20 OBSCURE / UNDERRATED NOVELS IN MY BOOK COLLECTION

[00:00:01]All right, everybody. Welcome back to the number one television program in the history of the entire universe. I am Brian Lee Dery, author of The Forgetting Moon, The Blackest Heart, and The Lonesome Crown. All three books published by Simon and Schusters Saga Press. Today I'm going to be showing you my top 20 sort of countdown of the most underrated, obscure, maybe forgotten books that I have in my collection. And we'll just pan through my library up here. I mean, I've got 6,000 some odd books here in my library upstairs. I've got probably got another couple thousand downstairs. I've got a lot of books that I've been reading in my 17,000 years I've been on this planet. I've been collecting books for a long time. And most of my top 10s, most of my book reviews are of, you know, pretty popular books. You know, stuff like Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson, Wheel of Time, um, you know, really popular thriller writers, mystery writers, horror writers, science fiction writers. I've done top 10 lists of all the top ones. This is going to be a list of books that some of you will maybe have never heard of before. Some of you will probably be like, "Oh, I remember those books because they were quite possibly popular back in the 70s or 80s or 90s." And some of the books that I show you, a lot of you will be like, "Oh, yeah. I've got those in my collection, too." and not a lot of people talk about them anymore. Those are kind of the rules of this top 20 countdown of obscure, underrated, possibly forgotten books and I guess writers, too. Um, now just because these are underrated or obscure or possibly forgotten doesn't mean it doesn't diminish the authors in any way. Because most people on the internet that love my books say that my books are obscure, underrated, and quite literally forgotten. So, with that being said, let's launch into the top 20. Now, I I do have a handful of honorable mentions, and we'll we'll just get right to them. So, my honorable mentions are W. Michael Gears Warriors of Spider series and Kathleen Oneal Gears Light series. Now, these are just epic space opera science fiction novels written by a husband and wife team, Michael and Kathleen. And they are some of my favorite science fiction, just gritty, R-rated, absolutely fun, action-packed science fiction novels ever. These are the first books in some trilogies that they wrote. I they don't get a lot of mention anywhere anymore, although they were popular in the late 80s. And on top of that, I also wanted to throw in their series, The People of the Wolf. A little bit more popular of a series, um, where they, uh, wrote a lot of stories about the indigenous Americans. So, I wanted to just do honorable mentions of those authors and those books particular. So, let's get into the top 20. Starting at number 20, I am going to go with Dana Stabanau's A Cold Day for Murder, book number one in her Kate Schugak, Alaskan mystery series, starring the detective, the former police officer, Kate Schugak, as she solves mysteries in Alaska. Um, and I'm from Alaska and so I love everything about Alaska.

[00:04:13]This is a mystery series. It's got some 20 some odd books in it. Book number one is a great place to start. Kind of a forgotten, underrated series of books.

[00:04:27]Coming in at number 19, I've got Jonathan Mayberry's horror novel Ghost Road Blues. Now, this is also a first book in a trilogy that Jonathan Mayberry did. Great horror novels, great small town horror novels. If you love Stephen King's sort of small town nostalgia, coming of age horror novels, you will love Ghost Road Blues and the two other books in this series.

[00:04:55]And if you love serial killers, you're going to love this, too, because it's got that in spades. Coming in at number 18 is Rally Cry by William R. Forschen.

[00:05:08]Now, this is another book number one in a series of about eight books, but this is about a Civil War regiment that gets whisked back into time. Well, no, they don't get whisked back into time. They go to kind of an alternate universe where they have to fight like orcs and goblins and build castles and use their Civil War wartime strategy to fight off these medieval monsters and it's just absolutely great fun. These came out in the late 80s, early 90s. I I collected them all. They're just absolutely fantastic adventure stories. And again, pretty gritty, grim, and R-rated if you're into that kind of thing. Coming in at number 17, Ryold by Stephen Grundy. This is a standalone novel. It's kind of a alternate universe historical epic about Vagner's ring cycle oporadic symph symphony um poem.

[00:06:10]It's just G. I mean, it's based on the same Norse myths that inspired Wagner's magnificent ring cycle.

[00:06:19]Absolutely great. If you love German history, if you love love uh mystical mythological tales, Ryan Gold is just an underrated historical epic fantasy novel with a great cover by um John Jude Palenc.

[00:06:41]Coming in at number 16, it's one of my favorite writers of all time. One of my favorite western writers of all time. does great western novels and not a lot of people have heard of this writer and that is Terry C. Jston and this is Sue Dawn. This is book number one in his Planesman series of fantastic historically epic western novels. I've kind of been reading and reviewing a lot of these on the channel lately. They are absolute gems. Just great westerns. I consider Terry C. Jstone sort of the Bernard Cornwell of American history.

[00:07:24]You know, Bernard Cornwell is one of my favorite historical novelists. Did the he did the um Saxon tales, he did the Sharps Rifles, and he did um the great King Arthur books and his writing, Bernard Cornwell's writing style is very similar to Terry C. Johnstone. So, if you want to read a lot of historical stuff set in the American Southwest and just the American West, and if you want to read someone that writes every bit as well as Bernard Cornwell, get Terry C.

[00:07:57]Johnston. And he's got a lot of westerns, a lot of Western series, but Sue Dawn, great underrated book. Coming in at number 15 is a fantasy series that gosh a fantasy author that I really really really like and that is JV Jones and this is the Baker Boy. It is my favorite of her novels. She's got a couple of fantasy series epic fantasy. This is um Baker Boy book number one in the Baker Boy trilogy.

[00:08:29]No, it's the Book of Words trilogy.

[00:08:33]Baker Boy, book number one in the Book of Words trilogy.

[00:08:39]Daryl K. Sweet just does classic fantasy art covers. I love this cover. Uh anyway, that is a very, very kind of forgotten series that was quite popular back in the 90s. Coming in at number 14 is Open Season by Archer Mayor. This is a mystery novel set in Battleboro, Vermont.

[00:09:03]And uh it's book number one in a massive like 30 book series that Archer Mayor did on the character Joe Gunther, the policeman Joe Gunther.

[00:09:15]These are police procedurals. They're murder mysteries. They're all set in and around Vermont, Battleboro, that area.

[00:09:23]And I just these are delightful books.

[00:09:25]These are kind of underrated, little known mystery novels that I've been collecting ever since the '9s. And I love Archer Mayor books, and I love great murder mysteries set in um great locations.

[00:09:40]I consider Vermont a great location.

[00:09:43]Coming in at number 13 is The Lost King, book number one of The Star of the Guardians by Margaret Weiss.

[00:09:52]Now, Margaret Weiss is super well known for collaborating with Tracy Hickman on the Dragon Lance Chronicles. So, it's not like Margaret Weiss is underrated or forgotten or obscure. But, I do think this epic science fiction space opera adventure series that she wrote is kind of underrated and a little bit forgotten.

[00:10:17]Um, and I just absolutely thought these were as great as Star Wars or any other epic space opera that's ever been written. And Margaret Weiss did a great job on these. I think these need to be just more widely read nowadays. Coming in at number 12 is Open Carry by Mark Cameron. This is another mystery series set up in Alaska because I love Alaska.

[00:10:46]Um, in fact, the first ever time I heard the Bay City Rollers was when I was a little kid in Alaska talking about underrated, obscure, kind of forgotten things. I mean, let me know if you know who the Bay City Rollers are in the comments, but when I was a young kid, I listened to the Bay City Rollers in Alaska. And uh Mark Cameron has done a fantastic job of creating these police procedurals set up in Alaska staring starring uh Arlus Cutter, the um the uh cop that solves mysteries, the US Marshall, Open Carry is book number one. I think there's about seven or eight books in the series so far. Coming in at number 12 on my kind of underrated books.

[00:11:32]Coming in at number 11 is, of course, gosh, this I don't even know if this one belongs on the list cuz I think a lot of people still read this and know about it, but that is um Janney Wart's Curse of the Mistrath.

[00:11:46]I mean, these this is book number one and again like a 12 book fantasy series.

[00:11:51]Just epic, huge, epic, gorgeously written fantasy series. Just the world building is next level. The writing is just like lyrical poetry. Janney Wartz is so good. So good. And uh I think these books deserve a lot more um credit than well they get a lot of credit. I I may maybe this one doesn't necessarily belong, but I I I included it. Coming in at number 10 is Steven Sailor, Roman Blood, Gordinius the Finder. He's a private investigator in Julius Caesar's time in the Roman Empire. And if you're like me and you find yourself thinking about the Roman Empire every minute of the day, cuz I'm a guy, this will scratch that itch. This is these books, these Gordinius, the Finder murder mysteries that Steven Sailor has written, starting with Roman Blood.

[00:12:47]There's about 12 books in the series.

[00:12:49]They're all fantastic. So impeccably researched. You want to learn about Julius Caesar's time and place and and and read about some fun murder mysteries that are happening in that area, start with Roman Blood. It's it's underrated.

[00:13:06]Not a lot of people know about it, but it's just fantastic. Number nine, gosh, this should have could have and maybe should have finished number one on my list as just underrated and forgotten, but that is David Wing Groves Chung Cao Chung. I don't know how to say it. I'm saying it wrong. I'll just stop saying it. But this is a magnificent science fiction novel. And again, it is number one in the Chong Cow series. Um, uh, the Middle Kingdom, Chong Cowo, the Middle Kingdom is number one. If you, I mean, this is grand, grand science fiction with huge, huge science fiction ideas and huge science fiction cities and huge science fiction politics. that it's just a absolutely kind of fantastical horrifying look at our m our possible future as um you know technology just takes over and the population of the planet just explodes. That's number nine, Chong Cowo. I shouldn't even try.

[00:14:18]Coming in at number eight is Jack White's um Uther. This is my favorite book in Jack White's 10book series about King Arthur. This is about book number four or five, but this is my favorite book in that series, Uther, about King Uther, the father of King Arthur. And Jack White's gritty, realistic interpretation of the King Arthur mythos, is absolutely gorgeous. And the way he writes this is so it's so rearch researched. It's so um detailed in its description. I should just I should learn English before I I attempt. It's a it's a awesome book.

[00:15:08]Coming in at number seven is Deathstalker by Simon Green.

[00:15:13]probably. God, I mean, this is just this could be the top greatest space opera adventure story ever, you know? I mean, I just I love these books.

[00:15:25]These books are twisted fun. These books are mayhem and absolute bananas. If you've read these and and they're underrated and a little forgotten, but if you have read these, you know that these books are 100% just wild in every way. I mean, it is space opera adventure at its finest. Death Stalker kind of forgotten, but certainly needs to be resurrected and become bestsellers again. Coming in at number six is a horror novel, probably in my top three most disturbing horror novels of all time. And if you want to have a good time, read this book or actually type in my last name Dery into your YouTube search bar and then urban Gothic. type that in and through some sort of pagan sorcery that a book review that I did will magically appear upon your television screen and you can watch my book review of this. Probably my favorite book review I've ever done is of Urban Gothic by Brian Keane. One of the most disturbing, creepy, crawly, just WTF horror novels you will ever read. And if you want more information on that, watch my review of this. You will laugh out loud at the review and you will be like, I have to get this book. I have to get this book. Coming in at number five is my favorite pirate novel of all time.

[00:17:04]Very little known.

[00:17:07]H, but it's so good. That is on Stranger Tides by Tim Powers with a great cover by Jim Gurnie. Now Jim Gurnie, James Gurnie did the Dintopia books. He did a great cover on this. I love this. This is absolutely It is the most fun pirate novel I've ever read. It's got magic. It's got adventure. It's got everything that like Robert Lewis Stevenson would throw in.

[00:17:39]Plus, it's got everything from Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, this one of the Pirates of the Caribbean novels or novels movies was based off of this book.

[00:17:53]And I also interviewed Tim Powers on my channel. If you want to watch my interview with Tim Power Powers, just type in my name, Tim Powers. That interview will magically appear upon your television screen. And I do believe he signed this for me.

[00:18:08]Hey, he signed this. I probably should have s shown you my signed copies of uh I got a signed copy of Mark Cam. I got a lot of I can't just go back. I can't backtrack and show you all my signed copies, but Mark Cameron signed copy.

[00:18:22]There's a bunch of them here, trust me.

[00:18:26]Book number four of kind of forgotten and underrated books is um Exiles Volume One by Melanie Ron. Now Melanie Ron isn't necessarily forgotten or underrated. Her, you know, her Dragon Prince series was massively popular.

[00:18:45]Now, this one is a little bit more obscure because book number one and book number two came out some 30 odd years ago and then book number three was never released. Although, I still think this series is worth reading even though it's only two books out of the three have been published.

[00:19:03]It's still an absolute.

[00:19:06]I've been using the word absolute.

[00:19:07]Somebody count how many times I use the word absolute or absolutely in this video and leave it in the comments. My god, I bet it's at least 70,000.

[00:19:19]What was I saying?

[00:19:22]The series is not complete, but it's still worth reading. It's a great mashup of science fiction and fantasy and kind of horror that's absolutely I swear I will not use that word again.

[00:19:38]Coming in at number three is King's Dragon by Kate Elliot. One of my favorite fantasy series of all time.

[00:19:49]Now, this is another one where I don't think it's been forgotten. I don't think it's really underrated and it's not that obscure, but I just wanted to include it on this list because uh you know, I've also met Kate Elliott. I always will show off the uh the uh things here. The the uh what do you call them? Signatures.

[00:20:14]The Crown of Stars seven book series brings begins with The King's Dragon and it's just I think it's underrated. I think I think this is as epic as Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones or Malazon Book of the Fallen. It's absolute God.

[00:20:33]All right, coming in at number um two.

[00:20:36]Coming in at number two is Jennifer Robinson's Lady of the Forest, her retelling of the Robin Hood myth. This is my favorite Robin Hood book of all time. It is fantastic. I was going to say it's absolutely fantastic, but I promised you would not use the word absolute or absolutely again. But this book is so good. If you ever remember that series, that TV series, the Showtime series, Robin of Sherwood, starring Michael Prra and and uh Shan Connory's son. I can't remember what Shan Connory's son's name was, but it was this book really reminded me of that old Robin Hood TV show uh with uh that was on a long time ago.

[00:21:32]And it's uh again Jennifer Robinson, one of the great fantasy writers of the 87s, 80s, 90s, still writing today, but I think her Robin Hood book here was a little bit forgotten, a little bit overlooked, and it's probably her best work. And um that's coming in at number two. So coming so I'm going to hold these three up again. Coming in at number four was a Melanie Ron book.

[00:22:00]Coming in at number five, three was a Kate Elliot book. Coming in at number two was a Jennifer Robinson book. Now, which leads me to my number one underrated obscure book in my collection, and that is The Golden Key by none other than Melanie Ron, Jennifer Robinson, and Kate Elliot.

[00:22:32]This is this is a collaboration that is so well done. The strengths of all three of the authors that I just showed you are evident in this and it is a collaboration. It is like a divinely inspired collaboration with another great cover illustration by Michael Whan. And the cool thing about my book is, speaking of showing off you signed copies here, is all three authors signed my copy when I went to the World Fantasy Convention in Tempe, Arizona back in 2004.

[00:23:17]But yeah, not a lot of people know about this book or that these three authors, Robertson, Elliot, and Ron, collaborated and wrote one of the most epic fantasy novels ever written. I mean, it is I will say this one is pretty obscure, pretty underrated, and largely forgotten. And that's a shame. They could should just start reprinting this and throwing it back into the bookstores because it is worthy of every fantasy fan's attention.

[00:23:55]And so if you can find a copy of this somewhere on eBay or anywhere, I suggest you get it because it's a it's just a absolutely fantastic book. And that is my top 20 list of underrated, obscure, semi forgotten books that I have in my collection.