It’s about the end of the year, and I know there will all sorts of lists of the best books published this year, so this is a different question: regardless of when published, which SF books that you personally read this year did you enjoy the most. I’m also asking which you enjoyed instead of which you thought were the best, so feel free to include fluff without shame.
I’ll go first. Of the 60+ books I read this year, here are the ones I liked most. No significant spoilers, not in any order.
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky
- A project to uplift monkeys on a terraformed world, at the peak of human civilization, is sabotaged by people who don’t think humans should play god. There follows a human civil war that nearly destroys civilization. A couple thousand years later, an ark ship of human remnants leaving an uninhabitable earth is heading towards that terraformed planet. This is a great book, with lots to say on intelligence, the nature of people, and both the fragility and heartiness of life.
Kiln People, David Brin
- Set a couple hundred years in the future, technology is ubiquitous that lets people make a living clay duplicate of themselves that has their memory and thoughts to the point they were created, lasts about a day, and whose memories can be reintegrated with the real person if desired. The duplicates are property, have no rights, and are used to do almost all work and to take any risks without risking the humans. A private detective and some of his duplicates gets pulled into an increasingly complex plot that could reshape society. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with lots of twists, and an interesting narrative as we follow copies who may or may not reintegrate with our detective.
Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel
- A little girl falls down a deep hole in the woods and lands on a gigantic, glowing, metal hand that’s thousands of years old. This is a wonderful alien artifact story with some interesting twists. I really enjoyed this book. Not exactly hard SF, but checks a lot of the boxes for me, including the wonder of discovery.
The Peripheral, William Gibson
- A computer server links the late 2020s to a time 70 years later, allowing communication and telepresence between the two times. A young woman in the earlier time witnesses a murder in the later time and gets sucked into a battle between powerful people in both times. This is a great book; I think I could have recognized it as Gibson’s writing even if I hadn’t known it in advance. Very interesting premise, engaging characters, and fun without feeling like fluff.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
- A coalition of human planets has sent the first envoy to an icy world where the people are gender neutral and sterile most of the time, but once a month become male or female (essentially randomly) and fertile. This is a classic, written in 1969, and my second reading - the first being in the late 80s. Le Guin creates an amazingly rich world, even with its harsh, frozen landscape. The characters grow to understand how gender impacts their cultures, and the biases they didn’t know they had. It’s also aged remarkably well for an SF book written 55 years ago. There’s nothing about it that feels outdated.
A couple notes:
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If I hadn’t stuck to my own “enjoyed” constraint, the list might have looked different. For instance, Perdido Street Station, by Meiville, is a really great book, but there’s so much misery and sadness that it’s hard to say I “enjoyed” it.
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I hesitated to put The Left Hand Of Darkness on the list, simply because Le Guin is so widely recognized as a great master, and the book one of her greatest, that it seemed unfair. In the end, it seemed unfair to exclude it for such an artificial reason.
Just today, I finished the Revenant Gun from the Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee. I love the quote from his bio – it’s apt. “Yoon’s hobbies include composing music, art, and destroying the reader.”
This was a series you have to submit to the ride. The world is weird, but you will pick up on what is going on as you go. In this way, it reminds me very much of Dune, and of trying to understand the language in the HBO show Deadwood (an audio version of submitting to the weird language). When I read Dune, I ended up spending almost as much time talking about passages on forums as I did actually reading. This book doesn’t have as much written about it – I suppose because it is newer – but I would love a reading group for this series.
I spent the early part of the year and most of last year reading the Wheel of Time Series. I started the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jamison, but didn’t finish before my library check-out expired – and it hasn’t become available again.
Machineries of Empires series sounds interesting.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Leviathan’s Wake
Book one of The Expanse series - really good. Had you watched the show?
I watched the first episode, but it didn’t hit like the book. I didn’t really care for it. The book was very good though.
I thought the show was a great companion to the books. I would watch in tandem while reading switching up where i was a bit further ahead in the book. Of course i didnt realize the show was cramming different stories from multiple books all together. It also gave me a better look at the characters and it helped get to know them in a way by comparing tv and book characters. Very good series! Ive read up to book 8 in the past few months.
Ended up binging season 1. It’s good, just a little different.
Thats good to hear! It is a bit different but they are trying to capture the magic of the books. Once you pick up the second book you’ll already be aware of background info you wouldn’t be other wise
Yeah, definitely gonna be starting book 2 soon, then season 2.
So hows it going?
Translation State by Ann Leckie, and Fall, or Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson.
I loved them both: the Leckie because the cultures of her characters are so varied and interesting; and Fall despite me not being into computer games at all. It’s fascinating though, having a main character become digital and see how that would play out.
Livesuit was really good. Though a bit too short
The Peripheral, William Gibson
Seconded.
It was the only one I read but I say it anyways: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
If audiobooks are considered reading then I will include I, Robot, Foundation and Empire, amd Herbert West - Reanimator.
People usually count audiobooks.
I haven’t read the last title, but all the others are excellent.
Man, I really enjoyed Hyperion, but the rest of the series kind of lost me. It also doesn’t help that Simmons is an actual nut case.
Children of Time is probably the only book I’ve read in two or three years, and it was phenomenal. I’d love to read the sequels next, it’s just so hard to get my brain in the right headspace to read!
I loved all the exploration of (arguably) non-human perspectives and cultures and all the friction from the virus. And that ending was pretty wild, I sorta saw some of it coming but not like quite like that
I worked through both the Sprawl trilogy and the Three Body Problem trilogy and they were both fantastic. Almost ruined the rest of my reading for weeks after that. The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest might be the most original science fiction since Neuromancer
While Cixian Liu coined the words “dark forest” to describe this particular solution to the fermi paradox, he did not invent it.
Having also read the series, I find myself always having to mention that while the books do some of the best exploration of more complex sci-fi concepts, they are WEIRD about gender.
The whole thing with men becoming “feminized” by an age of peace, reeks. The author goes out of his way to equate competence, decisiveness and conviction with the male gender, and tries to very akwardly make the point that without strife, these things become unnecessary, and even abhorred. To the point that “masculinity” as a social construct disappears from society. Then replaced entirely by “femininity” which the author VERY explicitly equates with “beauty”, naivete, indecision and weakness.
As if women choose to be with men only out of necessity, and if given a easy life and therefore the choice, they would pair off with other women. Which is effectively what happens because according to the author such a society would pressure men into becoming indistinguishable from women in order to remain appealing.
If I had to boil the trilogy down to a message about gender, it would be “men are ugly but useful, women are beautiful but useless”. That’s not exactly progressive…
A major female characters entire character is that she is the “perfect” woman, and she is literally given as payment to the main-character, by the government. And no-one in the story bats an eye at this! Including the woman herself!
I kept expecting her to be disingenuous. You know, because she was literally treated like an object, given as a prize. But then it time-skips to her having the dudes kid! So apparently shes’s fine with it?
Execept then when the government says so, she’s perfectly down with up and leaving the guy, this time to force him into action by withholding her. Again she’s a mere plot device, treated like a thing that can not only be given, by also taken. She barely exists as anything more than the concept “perfect woman”. But you can’t just have a human character without there being a person in there. Yet Liu goes ahead anyway.
The subtext about gender in the writing isn’t subtle, and it really fucking bothered me when reading the series. I tuned out a lot when listening to the audiobooks.
The sci-fi concepts are some of the best! Only one example is the way the books explained FTL travel, and it is some of the most compelling I’ve seen!
But I really can’t imagine recommending the series without a disclaimer about it containing some of the most sexist writing I’ve ever come across.
I know I’m an outlier, but I didn’t really care for The Three Body Problem. Characters did too many things that just didn’t seem like likely responses, and some of the premise felt unrealistic to me. But I know I’m in the minority.
The Sprawl trilogy is great. I read it when it was out originally, and reread Neuromancer more recently. Oh, but if you’re ever tempted, don’t listen to the Neuromancer audiobook narrated by Gibson. Wonderful writer, atrocious reader.
If you liked the Three Body Problem, might I recommend The Killing Star by Pellegrino, Charles R? It’s another slant on some similar themes.
I’ll check that out right after I finish the Imperial Radch series. Ann Leckie is a great author
The most memorable reads from this year were:
The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin. While at first, the setting appears to be a fairly standard fantasy, there is a sci-fi depth to the world, its climate, cataclysms, history, and orogeny (“magic power” of the world).
And, if you are a fan of heavy-handed dystopian satire, Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. It takes place in a not-too-distant future where a somewhat-apathetic researcher and a corporate scammer are trying to find the last living Venomous Lumpsucker, a highly intelligent fish species. There is climate change, corporate greed, half-baked international agreements, hackers, horrible AI, and, of course, delusional megalomaniac billionaires.
I LOVE the broken earth trilogy.
Murderbot Diaries was my top this year by far. Probably top series since I first read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It’s so fun and well paced and the audiobook is well made.
the Culture series by Iain Banks sucked me in completely! it starts with Consider Phlebas for anyone looking to jump in.
I discovered and absolutely devoured The Expanse this year (books first, then series). So that was awesome.
Just working my way through a reread of the expanse since it’s been a few years and the…final? book has been released. I definitely enjoyed the first 4 books more than 5 and 6. But book 7 is back up to snuff!
It’s Fantasy but I need to mention that I’ve been devouring The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson! These books might just be my all time favorites for fantasy!
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Don’t force it! I think if you read books solely because other people say it’s good then you’re doing it wrong! :)
If you were interested in the Cosmere but wanted something light…much lighter. Then try Tress and the Emerald Sea. The narrator breaks the 4th wall a bit and speaks directly to you but if that isn’t an immediate deal breaker the story is light-hearted and adventurous. It follows a girl, Tress, as she leaves home to save her beau.
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I started reading The Expanse series (including the short stories) after watching the series. I got through The Churn, which is the short story after book 3, and haven’t read further. I didn’t decide not to read more, but every time I go to pick the next book from my list, I don’t feel motivated to read the next Expanse book. They’ve all been good - not sure what the issue is for me.
Have you read The Mistborn series and, if so, do you think it or Stormlight Archive is the better starting place for Sanderson?
I read Mistborn and loved it, my partner finished it a week or two later and then we both struggled to get into the second book. Vin, the main character treats a creature that is in her thrall with extreme prejudice. While it certainly fits the character it was such a change of tone that it threw both of us right out of the series. Mix in a whole new world of politics and coalition building and the story plods. I dropped the Mistborn series like 7 or 8 chapters into The Well of Ascension.
I’ll come back to it in audiobook form.
Speaking of audiobooks, I’ve listened to all of The Stormlight Archive. Audiobooks have one major advantage to actually reading the words, it is easier to multitask. If the story is boring I’m less likely to notice while preparing dinner. With Stormlight however I listened to the books 12 hours a day. The voice actors are Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, they only work on books they like. They also did all of Wheel of Time together.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that I frequently sat down and just listened to the story throughout the day because I am so engrossed in the world and the lives of Kaladin, Syl, Shalan, and others. It’s a storytelling medium that lends itself to multitasking and I frequently stopped to just listen.
I think it’s hard to go wrong with a starting point in the Cosmere. The magic system in Mistborn is really interesting and the world is dark and gritty like chewing charcoal; Unpleasant not offensive. The Stormlight Archive is bold and wide ranging with concepts, ideas, and exploration of pain, trauma, and metal health. I recently read Tress and the Emerald Sea, a light-hearted romp about a girl who lives on a desolate rock in the middle of an ocean and wants to stay there.
Just jump in, the worst thing that can happen is you find it’s not to your taste. When that happens it’s all good and I find some other masterpiece to chew on. It happens for me with videogames all the time. Elden Ring is not for me. :)
I’d recommend starting with Mistborn, it’s a bit less all at once in your face and a great read regardless. Plus all his Cosmere books are interconnected to a degree, with Stormlight being the most by far, and I’d say you’ll get a bit more out of it having read some of the other Cosmere stuff.
All that to say though, Stormlight’s fantastic and if you just want to yolo in you’ll get it fine!
To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars - one of the most action-packed books I’ve read, even with a few lengthy “hibernation” space travel sections. Felt like an entire trilogy happening in a single book. Seems prime for a movie treatment, but would also be next to impossible to do in a single movie without completely butchering.
From your recommendation and others, I’m reading it now. Ten percent in and, yes, it sure has fast pacing.
Great! It evens out a little with space travel sections, but when it’s up and running it’s very fast.
The laundry files.
It’s crazy they are not more famous (it’s a series). I bet they’ll make films from them as soon as someone who likes miney sees the potential.
Totally unique world! Magic is real and can be controlled with computation. As we add more computational power to the world, Lovecraftian horrors get easier and easier to stumble upon. Every major government has a secret group like the CIA or MI6 that tries to keep shit under control. If you’re an IT nerd and stumble across something, The Laundry recruits you, and you don’t get to leave. That sounds dark, but it can be funny as hell.
“I thought I was just generating weird new fractals; they knew I was dangerously close to landscaping Wolverhampton with alien nightmares. Apparently you’re only allowed to demolish Wolverhampton if you’re a property developer like Donald Trump. Crawling eldritch horrors don’t get planning permission unless they’re Trump’s hairpiece.”
Love the one where the financial wizards accidentally turn themselves into vampires! (Just now understood that on another level.) The first several books all follow a theme. For example, there’s one that’s all about James Bond. The one where he goes to America to deal with an evil televangelist is eye opening, funny and WTF. Also loved the one where random people start turning into super heroes.
The Annihilation Score was the first one where we get a new protagonist, Bob’s wife. First one I read, didn’t know it was a series. She has a cursed, sapient violin named Lecter, made from the bones of people the Nazis tortured to death. She’s the only one that can control it, barely. Love that woman!
The last couple of books left me confused as to which evil god was which. Haven’t read the latest. After I finish Doctorow, I’m taking a third pass at The Laundry.
tl;dr: If you’re into IT and Lovecraft, this Buds for you.
