Welcome to Smugglivus 2013! Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2013, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2014. Who: The G, one of the voices behind the righteously nerdy speculative fiction blog Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together. Please give it up for The G! First off, let me thank Ana and Thea for asking me to participate in this year’s Smugglivus event. I’ve long been a fan of this site, and am thrilled to be writing alongside so many authors and bloggers whom I deeply respect, and whose “best of 2013” lists have now transformed into a rather large “to-read” list for me. However, I’m going to take a slightly different approach to my contribution: rather than review the best books I read in 2013 (and there were many), I thought I might look at how some of these books intersect with a theme of great critical interest to me and contention within fandom: gritty or “grimdark” fantasy. I began 2013 by writing a piece that was intended as an exploration of both why I’m attracted to the style and why […]