My favorite book I read this year was "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin and the rest of her Broken Earth Trilogy was fantastic as well. It's such a uniquely dangerous and i I'mnteresting world full of mystery and horror. It really grounded with fantastic characters and a compelling plot. Plus it deals with issues like systemic oppression and climate change in a way that just doesn't just feel like it is copying real world but slapping fantasy/sci Fi paint over it.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery did grab my attention with its themes of class conflict and gender. Its most unique feature is prioritising philosophical and intellectual discussions through the protagonists' journals; the plot comes in second.
“Little Eyes” by Samanta Schweblin, a story about how a new technology connects people around the world, and the varied happy and horrific consequences. Samanta Schweblin is my new favorite author. Her best work (imo) is Fever Dream, a hallucinatory novel that feels like a fever dream, about the negative impact of some environmental issues in Argentina.
The Wizard of the Crow is a book I picked up randomly at a used bookstore and it ended up being an all time favorite. It gets into some pretty heavy topics but some well placed humor keeps it from being overwhelming.
I really enjoyed **The Kaiju Preservation Society ** by John Scalzi. Very fun read and how a group of scientists would interact on an everyday basis is very on point.
River of Gods by Ian McDonald. I've read a lot of books this year but River really stood out. The world building, prose and characters were all top notch.
Ann Patchett continues to impress, both Bel Canto and The Dutch House were excellent. Loved Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Also discovered T. Kingfisher; read Thornhedge and Nettle & Bone, and definitely want to read more of her stuff.
I read The Locked Tomb series this year and I got really into it. I'm currently listening to the audio books now.
I'm also reading the first book in the Wayfarers series at the recommendation of my husband and so far it's really fun too.
Red rising, it's been so long since I read a book like ender's game but I do always enjoy the story of youth in a violent world coming to terms with the society they live in, but this one had so much more than I was expecting.
I was worried it was going to be some pale imitation of ender's game but instead it was an entirely new story that ended up providing a more brutal look into the viscera of a sick society.
Honorable mention: Logan's run which I finally read a couple days ago. Brief but wildly exciting.
You know I have this book sitting on my shelf for a few months but haven't gotten around to it yet. I heard good things about it, but I just kinda forgot about it
Red Rising had some excellent world building and I really enjoyed the early books. The further along it went, the less I enjoyed, but that may be me. I found myself lost a few times and Brown keeps on chugging.
The further along you went just in that book, or in the series?
That is interesting, I was pretty captivated the whole time and read it in a few days basically when I had any free time, but two of those times were walking around drunk during back to back snow storms listening to the audiobook, so if a particular scene was slow I may have missed that hahaha.