williamjm Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 What were your favourite books that you read in 2023 (not necessarily just new publications)? I think the best that I read were (in no particular order): The Word For World Is Forest by Ursula Le Guin World's End and Death : The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman City of Last Chances and Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St. John Mandel A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny Dead Country by Max Gladstone Underfoot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underfoot Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Great topic! Looking through my Goodreads I'm surprised at how many I must not have liked much (most 2 stars I've ever seen) and how many just weren't particularly memorable. In reading order: - A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. If fantasy were a cup of warm cinnamon and honey tea this is it. - The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher. A retelling of a classic fairytale, but with LGBTQ+ representation and plant dreams and talking animals. - City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An interesting plot in an interesting world that pulled me along the ride so fast I barely came up for air. - Blade of Dreams by Daniel Abraham. Abraham can do no wrong and this was no different. I am immensely enjoying the puzzles and unfurling plot in this trilogy. - The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Once you get used to the sardonic tone and iffy likeability of the main character, the world building and increasingly important plot pulls you in to this DnD-inspired escapade. - The Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia Butler. I could talk and think about this series for ages. The first (Dawn) was my favorite but man the whole thing so satisfying and so discomfiting at the same time. I'm likely to finish Starling House by Alix E. Harrow today and it will probably be on this list unless it falls apart in the final quarter. That's out of 36 read this year (including some re-reads). Kind of sad nothing else worth mentioning. joanellis, williamjm, JGP and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGP Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 I loved The Blacktongue Thief s0o0o0o much. Really looking forward to getting my hands on The Daughters' War. Underfoot and Infidel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 5 hours ago, Underfoot said: Great topic! Looking through my Goodreads I'm surprised at how many I must not have liked much (most 2 stars I've ever seen) and how many just weren't particularly memorable. That's out of 36 read this year (including some re-reads). Kind of sad nothing else worth mentioning. I hope that you have better luck with your reading being memorable in 2024. I should pick up some of the books you did like, particularly Blade of Dreams and Starling House. Underfoot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Glad to see a some love for Christopher Buehlman in this thread. His Between Two Fires was easily my favorite book that I read this year, and The Lesser Dead is my favorite horror novel ever. The other two I would say were exceptional that I read this year are The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley (I'm apparently the outlier in this though, but damn, I loved it) and My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (another of my favorite horror authors). Also really enjoyed The Licanius Trilogy, The Scholomance, Amongst Our Weapons, King Bullet, and the final three books of Shadows of the Apt. williamjm and Calibandar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I always struggle to remember when I read books for the purposes of these end of year threads so it's probably got a bit of a bias towards what I read in the last few months. The stand out books I definitely remember reading this year were probably Daniel Abraham's Blade of Dream and M.R. Carey's Infinity Gate. I also liked Adrian Tchaikovsky's Lords of Uncreation although I'm not sure it was my favourite of the series. williamjm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 (edited) Best book I read last year: At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard. Goddard is some kind of wizard, evoking a feeling of nostalgia for a series I started reading a year ago and doing something completely different with each book I read, yet all full of whimsy and joy. Feet of the Sun is a very different book to Hands of the Emperor, but just as delightful. Honourable mention: The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, a weird-as-shit story of revenge, redemption, and love. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea just because it's so bizarre but the storytelling on show is superb. I think of it as something of a cross between Book of the New Sun and Acts of Caine in style- it'll take a while before I can decide if it's on that level, but it's very good. Honourable mention: The Ballad of Perilous Graves,by Alex Jennings - a sort-of-New-Orleans based jazz-and-blues-led coming of age adventure fantasy. A delight. Best book I read last year that came out last year: probably Shadow Baron, the second in the Burnished City series by Davinia Williams. Improved on the already-rolicking Notorious Sorcerer, which I read at the start of the year. It's just really good high-magic city-based rogue fun. Honourable mention: The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon is a bit too messy at the end to nick the top spot, but it's atmospheric as hell, one of the best premises I've read in ages (the corpses of AI mecha-gods are being revived and piloted by tortured immortal revenants), and characters which are interestingly unusual in a bunch of ways. Also: pulls of a main character who makes a bunch of stupid decisions but I understand why he's doing that rather than shaking my head at what an idiot he is. Honourable mention: Forge of the High Mage, by Ian Cameron Esslemont, because I'm a Malazan fiend and this was a good one. Edited January 19 by polishgenius RedEyedGhost and williamjm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowleo Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 *Checks Goodreads* Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. A masterpiece deserving of all the praise it received. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. Another deservedly well-reviewed novel. These two had been on my TBR shelf for a long time! The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott. A magical-realism-adjacent climate change novel with beautiful writing and memorable POVs. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud. A deliciously written novel of friendship, art and betrayal. Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor trilogy. Just so fun! I gifted myself my husband the companion trilogy for xmas. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Lovely, thought-provoking literary spec-fic. And my most memorable read of the year, Leech by Hiron Ennes. Beautifully written sci-fi-gothic-post-apocalyptic-body-horror-mystery! Loved this. williamjm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Beartown by Fredrik Backman and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir were a cut above anything else I read last year. Calibandar and williamjm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teng Ai Hui Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Mine were Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree) and Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan). Underfoot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanellis Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) On 12/31/2023 at 9:50 PM, Underfoot said: Great topic! Looking through my Goodreads I'm surprised at how many I must not have liked much (most 2 stars I've ever seen) and how many just weren't particularly memorable. In reading order: - A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. If fantasy were a cup of warm cinnamon and honey tea this is it. - The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher. A retelling of a classic fairytale, but with LGBTQ+ representation and plant dreams and talking animals. - City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. An interesting plot in an interesting world that pulled me along the ride so fast I barely came up for air. - Blade of Dreams by Daniel Abraham. Abraham can do no wrong and this was no different. I am immensely enjoying the puzzles and unfurling plot in this trilogy. - The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Once you get used to the sardonic tone and iffy likeability of the main character, the world building and increasingly important plot pulls you in to this DnD-inspired escapade. - The Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia Butler. I could talk and think about this series for ages. The first (Dawn) was my favorite but man the whole thing so satisfying and so discomfiting at the same time. I'm likely to finish Starling House by Alix E. Harrow today and it will probably be on this list unless it falls apart in the final quarter. That's out of 36 read this year (including some re-reads). Kind of sad nothing else worth mentioning. I also read a few other books, but I think no one will be interested in such literature. I'm working on my dissertation, and to write it, I need a lot of materials and information. So I read a lot lately, but I still, face a lot of problems from time to time. But it's good that some time ago my groupmate recommended this service https://essays.edubirdie.com/dissertation-writing-service and I got some help. It was beneficial for me because I'd been struggling with that part for a long time, and now when it's ready, I can move on. And for this year my reading list is not ready yet, because I need to finish my dissertation first, and then think about something else. I read City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I really like this book. It's the first one by A. Tchaikovsky and I really want to read more. And here are a few I read and liked: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells Edited January 22 by joanellis Underfoot and williamjm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerol Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir The Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (why did it take me so long to pick this up?) A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark Starter Villain by John Scalzi I am currently reading the Blacktongue Thief and damn, I'm loving it. Underfoot and williamjm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underfoot Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 13 hours ago, joanellis said: I read City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky and I really like this book. It's the first one by A. Tchaikovsky and I really want to read more. He has another book out in that world, it's on my list for sure: House of Open Wounds. I've also read Guns of the Dawn and the Tiger and the Wolf trilogy, all excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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