Best books you read in 2021?

[dog-days]

For me I think it would be either Uprooted or Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Both managed to capture a bit of that sense of the numinous and strange that I loved when I read as a child, but have rarely encountered as an adult. Feelings of comfort and danger meshed securely together within the pages of a book on a Kindle screen. 

ETA: Also Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Would feel wrong not to mention that. Now I'd better stop adding things...

[williamjm]

The books I enjoyed most included Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth and Bear Head, S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy, Neil Gaiman's A Game of You, Joe Abercrombie's The Wisdom of Crowds, Naomi Novik's Scholomance series and Josiah Bancroft's The Fall of Babel.

[Clueless Northman]

So obviously not books published in 2021 but books that I read in 2021... Among those, the best imho would be:

 

- Umberto Eco: Numero Zero - significantly shorter than his usual novels; without being a genuine Deus ex Machina, the ending seemed to be quite rushed compared to his previous works. I wonder if he had to make it short due to illness and fearing his death was near.

- Rousseau: Social Contract

- Dan Simmons: Hyperion

- Antony Beevor: 2nd World War

 

[Crixus]

12 hours ago, Zorral said:

These are such interesting books, as is almost anything  Darlymple publishes. So glad to see you like them.

Circe is still on my list -- maybe will get to it finally before this month is over -- we have a big snow bomb cyclone in the offing this weekend . . . .

They really are! I've got 'White Mughals' on my list next, which is about colonial British officers adopting Mughal/Indian culture, habits, dress, language and even marrying Indian women - also by Darlymple. 

Hope everything is safe your end over the weekend! 

[TheLastWolf]

1 hour ago, Crixus said:

They really are! I've got 'White Mughals' on my list next, which is about colonial British officers adopting Mughal/Indian culture, habits, dress, language and even marrying Indian women - also by Darlymple. 

Vikram Chandra's (who's only known by his magnum opus Sacred Games, the Netflix series original) Red Earth and Pouting Rain might interest you. Famous Anglo Indian commander James Skinner (Alexander as Sikander) served as the inspiration, but the scope is way too big, epic. Shashi Tharoor to Amitav Ghosh have gone out all praise, and I say, rightfully deserving 

[Crixus]

1 hour ago, TheLastWolf said:

Vikram Chandra's (who's only known by his magnum opus Sacred Games, the Netflix series original) Red Earth and Pouting Rain might interest you. Famous Anglo Indian commander James Skinner (Alexander as Sikander) served as the inspiration, but the scope is way too big, epic. Shashi Tharoor to Amitav Ghosh have gone out all praise, and I say, rightfully deserving 

Sounds interesting, will defo check out. Thanks! 

[Zorral]

11 hours ago, Crixus said:

They really are! I've got 'White Mughals' on my list next, which is about colonial British officers adopting Mughal/Indian culture, habits, dress, language and even marrying Indian women - also by Darlymple. 

Hope everything is safe your end over the weekend! 

I loved White Mughals, also, his very early book -- his third publication, City of Djinns (1993), a history of Delhi.

His books are really good reads just as reading, with, for me, the single exception of Return Of A King -- the prose was fairly leaden, as were the pacing and organization.  Or was I merely having a bad month when I read it back in 2012, or just so involved in my own writing, that anything unconnected to the project simply did not compute?

[Crixus]

12 hours ago, Zorral said:

I loved White Mughals, also, his very early book -- his third publication, City of Djinns (1993), a history of Delhi.

His books are really good reads just as reading, with, for me, the single exception of Return Of A King -- the prose was fairly leaden, as were the pacing and organization.  Or was I merely having a bad month when I read it back in 2012, or just so involved in my own writing, that anything unconnected to the project simply did not compute?

I think Return of the King was quite dense and packed with info/events, perhaps had less of the flowy narrative style his other books do? It did take me a while to get through it! 

Oh, I forgot to mention my favourite book of his, The Anarchy, which covers the rise of the East India Company. It is utterly fascinating and evokes a lot of emotions while reading, just from the perspective of someone from the subcontinent. I think his handling of the subject is very fair and sensitive; you can see both sides. 

[TheLastWolf]

Just finished Metamorphosis, Kafka. Long time in the list, struck off with pleasure (more like backspace and hold). Sheer Genius!

[Calibandar]

On 1/25/2022 at 2:44 PM, Rippounet said:

Apart from the "classic" series that almost everybody reads (Gaunt's Ghosts, the Horus Heresy, Abnett's Inquisition books...), I'm a fan of the Ciaphas Cain series (a bit repetitive, but still worth a chuckle or two almost every time) and the Shira Calpurnia books (a series that died 15 years ago). I also liked the -old- Ragnar series, but the quality dropped when William King left.
I don't spend that much time for 40k novels anymore tbh (I used to try to read everything the Black Library published, now it's become impossible), but I still try to read whatever Abnett writes, and I'm -slowly- starting the Siege of Terra (I might jump book 2 to book 3, just to get to Saturnine faster). I'm also curious about the Dark Heresy series, as well as all Chaos Space Marine books (on Abaddon, Ahriman, Khârn, and Bile). Ah, and I've been trying to get my hands on Lasgun Wedding (from the Kal Jerico series) for a while now.

There's 2 other Inquistion series you might want to check out, The Vaults of Terra series by Chris Wraight and the Horusian Wars by John French. First one especially is very highly rated, as is most of his work. Watchers of the Throne is acclaimed as well, about the Custodes. Siege of Terra 2 has some nice scenes I thought so dont recommend skipping that.

[Jhogo's Evil Twin]

I was a bit late picking up the Siege series by KJ Parker. I only read Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It in 2021. I was reminded why KJ Parker made into my top 5 favorite authors back when we didn't know he was Tom Holt. These two were the best I read in 2021 and I realized I could still read a book in a few days if the book is good enough. Plus it turns out I had perfect timing since A Practical Guide to Conquering the World just came out recently and I avoided to long wait for the last book in a trilogy.

[Durckad]

The best books I read last year would probably be:

- Dune - Frank Herbert (finally finished it after 3 previous aborted attempts, quite good overall. I'm not a super fan of it, but I liked it enough that I picked up Messiah and will be reading that this year soon-ish.)

- Perdido Street Station - China Mieville (this was a reread but it was still such a good novel. It really held up well in the 15 years since I first read it)

- A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin (I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It can be a bit daunting to read a classic sometimes. Maybe it might not live up to its reputation or you might up "not liking it at all" but this was just such a wonderful read. It really captures the wonder and magic of fantasy that is missing so often in so many newer novels.)

- The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (The polar fucking opposite of A Wizard of Earthsea honestly. Sparse in its prose, bloated in its narrative, and mathematical in its magic, yet it managed to hit that sweet spot of having *mostly* well-drawn characters, good world building, and an intriguing narrative. It's not perfect, it's way too fucking long for the story it tells, but I was invested enough in the characters that I didn't really care too much and was just happy to get on the train of another super epic fantasy series.)

[Tammyrex]

Hope, it's not too late to publish my list of best books that I read in 2021. Want to mention that I came back to reading in 2020 (before that year I just didn't want to read and sometimes had to buy research papers about books that I had to read at the uni) and in 2021 devoured books one by one, but maybe some of them will be banal for you. But my top is: 

1. The Lord of the rings + The hobbit 
2. American gods (also watched a series) 
3. The dark tower (all books and a series) 
4. Good omens 
5. The night circus 
6. The other city 
7. Where the mountain meets the moon 

And just to clarify, for now I have already read 20 books this year, so I will share the best of them with all of you later.

P.S. forgot about Terry Pratchett  - started Discworld last year and I`m just finishing up now. Also great novels, but I want to finish reading to share my impressions. 

[LynnS]

The best reads for me:

1) The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker - sequel to the Golem and the Jinni

2) Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light by Hillary Mantel, sequels to Wolf Hall (Oliver Cromwell) 

3) The Journeyer  (Marco Polo) by Gary Jennings.

[Ser Not Appearing]

I've read a great many of things since Covid hit, many of which I'll forget and none of which do I recall the exact year. Off the top of my head:

-I "read" most to all of Joe Abercrombie works that have made their way to Audible 

-Akata Warrior and Akata Witch

-The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

-A Thousand Li series

-Circe

-Gentleman Bastards series

-A few books in the Clan of the Cave Bear series

-The Prince

-The Art of War

-A Darker Shade of Magic

-A handful of books in the Malazan series