[polishgenius]

I didn't read a lot of books by my standard this year- I finished 31, which is pretty rubbish especially when you consider I was on 10 by the end of February - but it was a pretty good one nonetheless. No books that blew my mind or totally obssessed me the way a Victoria Goddard or Ada Palmer had in previous years, but a lot of good stuff and some solid new series and authors to be getting on with it.


Best book I read all year: it's not always that the best book I read in a year came out that year, but this year it was probably Georgia Summers' The City of Stardust, so this year it did. It managed the rather impossible trick of being a whimsical, Valente/Morgenstein/that guy we don't talk about anymore-esque tale of magic, yearning, and mystical realms, and a page-turning espionage thriller. Really, really good.

Runner up: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is a post-Arthur Arthurian tale which does a lot and will probably stick with me for a while. Great balance of fable, legend, genuine political and cultural commentary, charm, character... don't be put off if you didn't enjoy the Magicians trilogy, it's not at all similar, far less acerbic. You do have to enjoy a diversion, though.

Best space thing: you can tell there was a high standard because I read books by both James SA Corey and Ann Leckie this year but the winner is neither: instead, The Red Scholar's Wake, by Alliette de Bodard, takes it. It's a piratey space adventure and a romance between a woman and her ship (who is also a woman, more or less), and it's rolicking good stuff.


Best book about mysterious events happening on a large, luxuriously outfitted, but isolated vehicle: if I had a Euro for every book that fit this category this year, I'd have two euros, but it's weird that it happened twice. I'm not going to pick an actual favourite, because both Voyage of the Damned by Frances White- a delightfully witty, plotty, twisty murder-mystery about magical heirs being murdered on their big yacht- and The Cautios Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks - imagine a journey on the Trans-Siberian express but Siberia is Area X from Vandermeer's novels and you're a good portion of the way there- are excellent.


Best new series: I'ma give another joint award here, between Elijah Kinch Spector's Kalyna books- of which two are out, I am cheating in that the first one came out last year but I read it in January so it sneaks in - and Rogba Payne's Dance of Shadows, which is the first book in an as-yet-unnamed series but I'm all in.


Best non-SFF book: trying to up my non-SFF reading, not doing that well, but I have become enamoured by the writing of James McBride- his brand of rambling yet insightful community tale really appeals to me, and Heaven and Earth Grocery Store hit the spot.


Best comic: the Warworld Saga, the Superman-vs-Mogul story by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, was superb, in my view an all-timer Superman story. The kind of big epic I love when Superman writers get it down, and he did here.

[Chance]

Last two years I have been reading less and even listening less than I'm used to just not been in the mood to try out as many decent but perhaps not brilliant books as I've been used to do so its been a lot of safe bets. 2024 has been more some quality reads reaching 37 books with only a couple of re-reads compared to the for me more normal numbers doubling that.

The brilliant The Sword Defiant, Lightbringer, Disquite Gods, Evil Empire, Breaking Hel, Deep Black,

The very good Rythm of War, Traitor of Readwinter, Innheritance of Magic, Art of Prophecy, Art of Destiny, The Sword Unbound, Suicide Kings, Angelina, The Weavers of Sarmyr, Hate Machine, Homecoming, Sabriel, Instruction in Shadow.

Best in class is probably Breaking Hel, Miles Cameron has been on fire since the Red Knight and his last trilogy is a step above the Traitor Son and Masters and Mages. He does not have the most beautiful prose but he is easily sailing up as my favorite currently productive author. I eagerly hope for even more crossover between his three current worlds in the next installment of what is obviously a well thought out shared universe.

Best new author: Probably Gareth Hanrahan whose The Sword Defiant is brilliant and its follow up The Sword Unbound being only somewhat less awesome.

Biggest Surprise: Probably Rythm of War I really disliked Oathbringer when it came out but Rythm of War gave me a new appreciation for the entire series and what Sanderson is doing. He may never become my favorite author but he is really good when he is good.

Biggest Surprise 2: Probably Lightbringer as with Oathbringer above I quite disliked how Dark Age worked out but Lightbringer is to me a perfect return to form and I eagerly anticipate the next installment.

Worst Books: Due to being a lot more picky recently I probably never read more than a chapter or two of anything that can be called bad all books where average or better and most where good

This post has been edited by Chance: 08 January 2025 - 03:08 PM

[Abyss]

Fun fact my peoples... this, 2025, is the TENTH year we've done the 'Best Reads of the Year' thing in this thread! S'true, go look at page one, the original post by Apt was made in Dec 2016.
HOW COOL IS THAT?

(I ack there's a whole decade of so of forum history before that, but that was another thread in another time and place and dimension and reality and what were we talking about oh right....)


TELL US OF THE
BESTIEST THINGS
YOU FED YOUR EYES
AND/OR EARS
AND/OR BRAINZEZ
THIS YEAR!

[Tiste Simeon]

Best was probably The Book That Held Her Heart which was a stunning end to the story.

Biggest surprise is how much I'm enjoying Stormlight Archive.

Best audiobook was probably The Devils or Stone & Sky.

Not got to No Life Forsaken yet (I think it's going to be a Christmas present)

[QuickTidal]

Best middle of the road, but still very enjoyable read: RISE OF THE RANGER by Philip Quaintrell

Best Re-read: THE FARTHEST SHORE by Ursula K. LeGuin

Best Welcome Surprise Random eBook sale purchase Read: THE GONE WORLD by Tom Sweterlisch

Best Classic Novel I'd never read before: THE ISLE OF GLASS by Judith Tarr

Best Foreign Translated Read: UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD by Hiromi Kawakami

Best 80's Fantasy I'd seen a million times on the shelf and never read: COUNT ZERO by William Gibson

Best Comic series I read: I read no full series this year actually.

Best Book Everyone Else always raved about: RED RISING by Pierce Brown

Best new Setting Fantasy: THE DEVILS by Joe Abercrombie

[amphibian]

Best book I read this year: The Spear Cuts Through Water

Best action movie style jaunt through a story read: The Lost Cube by Phil Tucker

Most I laughed at anything on TV this year: the episode of Love on the Spectrum where Dani makes an animation about her boyfriend and her. I damn near peed my pants while I couldn't breathe after the whole sequence starting from the taco of success line ended.

Best movie I saw this year: Sinners, haven't seen One Battle After Another

Best follow on BlueSky: Jamelle Bouie

Best drink I had this year: a Ms Pineapple at Moon Rabbit in Washington DC

Best concert I went to: Tedeschi Trucks Band with Govt Mule supporting. Susan Tedeschi is a big time star and she + Trucks have assembled a stellar band.

Honorable mentions to the MurderBot series and James Cambias's Miranda Conspiracy.

[Abyss]

amphibian, on 05 December 2025 - 03:59 PM, said:

...
Best action movie style jaunt through a story read: The Lost Cube by Phil Tucker...

I think i need you to tell me more about this IMMORTAL GREAT SOULS thing Amphi?

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 05 December 2025 - 04:40 PM, said:

amphibian, on 05 December 2025 - 03:59 PM, said:

...
Best action movie style jaunt through a story read: The Lost Cube by Phil Tucker...

I think i need you to tell me more about this IMMORTAL GREAT SOULS thing Amphi?

The third book looks like it has a Succubus on the cover...this is not a complaint.

[Abyss]

k my turn... quite the diverse read set this year, from the simple/entertaining (ELI MONPRESS, 13TH PALADIN) to the sublimely complex (MACHINERIES OF EMPIRE). My numbers were consistent w the last few years, 36 books to date, mostly earbook, will probably fit in another 2-3 before year's end, plus a fair amount of audiodrama eartime and a small but glorious set of comics.

BEST OF THE BESTEST OF THE BESTESTIEST - With respectful Honorable Mentions to MACHINERIES OF EMPIRE for complexity and insanity, and ART OF LEGEND for sticking the end on a glorious trilogy, this comes down to two books, Abercrombie's THE DEVILS and Erikson's NO LIFE FORSAKEN. And i'm torn because Devils was massively entertaining but NLF was the Malazan fix i wanted and needed and also just a deeper read overall... as i write it out i think that last bit is what decides this for me, i enjoyed the hell (hee) out of DEVILS, but NLF was just a better read overall, it gave me the action and humor but also the brain buzz i want from a genuinely great book. Devils was a glorious steak. NLF was master class sushi. I loved both but i'll remember the sushi more.

BEST RETRO - i blame my read of Carol Berg's SONG OF THE BEAST late last year for sparking a 'need' in my readbrain from some olde schoole easy reading fun fantasy, which the five book LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS absolutely delivered. Ffwd after some sf and grimdark, and then in July THE 13TH PALADIN, which has drawn me in beyond any expectation 11 books later, so that gets the prize. Great fun.

BEST PRITTY PICY - less comics reading overal this year, but the 1-2-3 of BEASTS OF BURDEN, then DIE, and finally SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW... yeah, it was a good year. I give DIE the win for sheer mindfuckedness and originality, but any of those was a top tier read. FIREPOWER was fun too but not at the same level. Same could be said for the DEMON SLAYER manga.

BEST NEW WRITER: Yoon Ha Lee was a revelation to me. Tnx Forum!

BEST OLD FRIEND IT WAS NICE TO SEE AGAIN - a STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE book is always a treat, and say wharever the online haters will, i enjoyed WIND AND TRUTH overall. Rivers of London also came through with STONE AND SKY and MASQUERADES OF SPRING and i cannot deny it was a pleasure to be back w those characters. Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children bk 10 ADRIFT was a pretty glorious read. That said, the sheer random find of Ilona Andrews' SANCTUARY solo about death priest Roman was a treat, and gets this slot, not the least for giving a death priest a menagerie of nasty monsters and making them all the good guys in the story.

WORSE READ? - if i finished a book, it wasn't that bad, because while hate reads can sort of almost be fun, lifes too short for that. Even so, Mike Cole's Sacred Throne bk 2 QUEEN OF CROWS jumps out for the sheer archetypical by the numbers of it. Good enough, but not great.

SO MUCH DRAMA - in the audiodrama side of things MIDNIGHT BURGER / WELCOME TO THE HORIZON continued to blow me away monthly, DERELICT thrilled, but i have to ack the wild ride that was THE SILT VERSES. Creative, clever, deep (pun intended), as well written and executed as any book could hope to be. If this had been a novel literary people would have been losing their minds over it.


So, great year of reading. Looking fwd to what the next year has in store, notably new Dresden from Butcher, Amina bk 2 from Shannen Chakrabortay, Stross' conclusion to The Laundry, whatever Clines is up to w GOD'S JUNK DRAWER, and maybe just maybe a new Richard Morgan fantasy.


Thanks all of you for the chats and suggestions and nonsense, you complete me.



....except for those of you who are just clones i haven't harvested yet.