Best books I read in 2019

[+Extesian]

I put together my top 10 books I read during 2019, a way to remind myself of everything and relive some, and thought I'd share them. Note that it is a pretty artificial top 10, some are entire series, and not also it is read, not published, in 2019. The first book there is almost 70 years old...

Feel free to post your top 10 from the last year!

 

Foundation - Isaac Asimov (Original trilogy plus two sequels - yet to read two prequels, or the Robot or Empire series)

There's a reason I've heard about it all my life, when it's from the 1950's, and why even though so many movies are made about his robot books, the Foundation books are still so well known. I haven't read scifi like it despite its age. 

Assuming you haven't read the Robot or Empire series (I haven't) it's just straight into a galaxy-spanning human empire some 30,000 years in the future that, unbeknownst to all but one mathematical genius, will soon collapse. He comes up with a secret plan to ensure that the time of chaos following that disintegration is minimized. It's epic, it's wonderfully written (it's not all about big battles but about the internal motivations of key individuals) and it's utter genius for something 60 years old. 

It's Asimov, right? Gotta read eventually, as I finally did. 10/10

 

Broken Earth trilogy - N K Jemisin

Best known for being written in the second person perspective, like a Choose Your Own Adventure - "you" instead of "they" or "I". (FYI it's also in the first and third persons). A post-apocalyptic world (maybe Earth) with catastrophic tectonic activity. 

The magic is geological, which I've never heard of, and involves interacting with the planet. The lead characters are female and grippingly written. It's grim, but not grimdark (things are physically tough and emotionally brutal but it's not a story devoid of hope). And it is easily the finest written fantasy I've read outside of Gene Wolfe and Patrick Rothfuss (and even then Rothfuss writes more beautifully but maybe not with as amazing a literary style). Not everyone seems to like it but I think it's extraordinary, and I think once you finish the first book it reveals so much you want more. Oh and the author is an African-American woman, which is so unusual in fantasy but so great to be seeing.

Read it if you love fantasy. Try it even if you don't. 10/10

 

Bobiverse trilogy - Dennis Taylor

This came out of nowhere for me (or more accurately, from a youtube reviewer) and has a claim to be one of the most enjoyable set of books I've ever read. It's one of the most fun stories you've never heard of (and two sequels should come out in 2020). 

A dude, Bob, pays a company to freeze his brain when he dies, and he ends up as an Artificial Intelligence implanted into a spaceship designed to explore the galaxy, which has 3D printers and can self-replicate (a von Neumann probe). It's all written in first person, including when he clones himself...then his clones clone themselves etc until you end up with a few dozen first person perspectives from different Bobs. It's written in such an easy, humorous, optimistic and believable way that I was utterly immersed. All the science and technology is just so believable that you feel it's realistic - even down to not cheating with faster than light travel, but actually dealing in relativistic time scales - as they're AIs, they are immortal and the story takes place over centuries. And Bob is just a delightfully rational, selfless and positive guy that he carries the story even if you don't love the science. Not many battles, just a dude and his clones exploring the galaxy, coming across new planets and finding ways to make places habitable for humans. 

Read it. 10/10

 

The Body - Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was initially a travel writer and one of the funniest writers I've read. Years back he spent years writing A Short History of Nearly Everything, one of the best books I've ever read, exploring every branch of science, largely from the perspective of little biographical stories of the people who made breakthoughs. He followed it with At Home, a similar exploration of social development and invention through looking at the things in your house. His third such effort is The Body, about human biology.

It's just as brilliant, going through every aspect of the human body and leaving you with wonderful nuggets of knowledge.

Read it for human biology, At Home for inventions, Short History for science more generally. All 10/10.

 

The Truth - Terry Pratchett

I read a few Discworld books when I was young and never got around to the rest of them. But I tried The Truth. It's a discworld story but you don't need to have read any. It's barely even fantasy, it's a normal story set in a mystical world. 

It's about the development of the printing press, the realities of the media industry in terms of competition and changing editorials to make sales (or refusing to) and about the influence press publishers can have. It's all an incredibly insightful allegory for the real world (and history) but without ever being preachy. It's just a nice guy with a great invention trying to make his way. Brilliantly written of course, it's Pratchett.

Great light read for soft fantasy with direct relevance to the real world. 9/10.

 

Underlord - Will Wight (Book 6 of the Cradle series)

I got into Will Wight last year after a recommendation from a friend. He has several series (one concluded) in an interconnected universe. This is the sixth book. It's progression fantasy (each story, as a general rule, the main character 'levels up' in power and the world gets correspondingly broader and more threatening), with an anime inspiration. I've loved the series since the third book, took some time to really get passionate. Now almost every book gets better (my order is 6, 5, 7, 4, 3, 1, 2). They're about a well meaning guy who wants to save his village from a future threat and so does what he can to get powerful enough to meet it. And I do mean what he can. You may know he'll keep progressing but ooohhh boy does he earn it. 

This is my favourite book of the series (his other great series, Elder Empire, involves each 'book' being two books from opposing protagonists' perspectives - one is a pirate, the other is a ninja, and it's amazing - but I didn't read it this year, so no more). 

And Will Wight is an amazing guy, one of the nicest in fantasy.

Try him, 8.5/10

 

The Blood Mirror - Brent Weeks (Fifth and final book of the Lightbringer series - if I read the whole series this year, it would be number 2 on this list)

The Lightbringer series is one of my favourite fantasy series. Books 3 and 4 were weak, and 5 (this one, the last) had its flaws, but books 1 and 2 were some of the most exhilarating fantasy I've read, and the final book at least does justice to the series, even if it's not the best. The series has one of the most wonderful magic systems I've ever read, one of my top 5 characters in all of fantasy, and is just so readable. 

Fitting, if not amazing, end to a spectacular if inconsistent series. 7.5/10 for the book but 9/10 for the series.

 

Starsight - Brandan Sanderson (Book 2 of the Skyward series - not a Cosmere book - if it were any Cosmere book it would be number )

 

Brandon Sanderson is my obsession. I've read all his books multiple times, know the lore and magic systems intricately, engage in constant online theorizing - it's my thing. His adult books are mostly in a connect universe, the Cosmere, which is 10/10. This book is essentially scifi (though blending into fantasy - but its a scifi setting) and is not set in the Cosmere. It's actually Young Adult, but it's adult enough for adults.

The worldbuilding in these books (the first is Skyward) is fantastic, and they're nicely written. The characters are a bit as you'd expect from YA (thought they're 16 or 17, not 13 or 14). But they're very enjoyable books. I recommend anything Cosmere first but these are a fun read - but would I read them if I didn't already love Brandon? Maybe not. 

Enjoyable, but not Cosmere - 7.5/10

 

The Rage of Dragons - Evan Winter

Fantasy is all medieval castles and knights and such? This is African-inspired fantasy, the language, the dress, the weapons, the landscape, the culture. It's pretty fantastic, but moreover it's the dude's first novel and it's self-published (well, was, a publisher has now bought it), so for a debut self-published novel it's spectacular. Just wonderful worldbuilding, the whole setting and feel is so different from classic fantasy.

Really looking forward to the next book, well worth a read if you're after non-typical fantasy or something with an African feel. 7.5/10 (but, for a debut self-published novel, 9.5/10).

 

Books 1 and 2 of Gods of Blood and Powder - Brian McClellan (3 is out, next on my list)

Brian McClellan's second series (the first is known as Powder Mage, and was really very interesting). Never grabbed me like the first one did, but the characters are compelling, the plot is quite good and you do get some interactions with certain characters from the first series that really lift it. Looking forward to the third book, which is out, but I delayed to read Foundation.

Solid fantasy, read it if you've read everything else, 7/10

 

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

This comes very highly recommended and well awarded. It's fantasy but in a very fairy tale manner. It's mystical and whimsical and the plot is very much like a fairy tale. I enjoyed it, and found some aspects of it very intriguing, but found it a bit forgettable. Very nicely written though. 6.5/10 for me (though note that that is for me - critically, I may give it more like 8, it was very nicely done).

 

[+Doomstick]

You said blood mirror instead of burning white

[+ILuvHats]

Huh, I read 5 of the 10 books/series you listed this year as well. Plus, the Burning White is the next book I'm planning on reading, though I doubt I'll both start and finish it in the two days left until the end of the year. Pretty good list I'd say.

[Ammanas]

In no particular order:

1. Crowfall by Ed McDonald. Less humor than the previous books but a fitting conclusion 

2. A memory Called Empire-Martine. Not a lot of action but really focused on politics, and the semantics of language in a fun scifi setting

3. The Ravens Tower- Leckie. Really unique. Told half in second point of view. Didn’t see the ending coming

4. Witchwood Crown and Empire of Grass by Williams. The author writes beautifully. Love the world he writes about

5. Seven blades in black by Sykes. What a wild ride! A mashup of weird west, a Clinton Eastwood film, final fantasy and a revenge thriller.

6. The burning white by Weeks. Very impressive conclusion to the series

7. Dark Age by Brown. Thes best Red Rising book yet

8. Iron Codex by Mack. This series is turning out to be a lot of fun!

9. The Hod King by Bancroft. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

10. Embers of War by Powell. I preferred the first book but still really enjoyed this middle book which sets up what looks to be a really interesting conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

[+Sorana]

13 hours ago, Extesian said:

Broken Earth trilogy - N K Jemisin

I loved that one! I reread it twice so far, and it's one of the rare books that never really left me alone after reading them.

I'm still working my way through the Cradle Series, I'm currently listening to the third one, and so far I liked it, but they didn't stand out that much. Excited for the sixth one though, now that you named it.

I added Foundation and Rage of Dragons to my to read list, for sometime after I'm done with licanius 3.

 

My highlights this year definitely were Black prism 5, Gods of Blood and powder 2&3, The Raven's Tower and Starsight no need to add anything else to each of them, as they were already mentioned.

I also discovered City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty, and I immediatly read the second one. It's fantasy set in egypt with well written characters and an enticing worldbuilding. I enjoyed a lot that it wasn't the typical medieval fantasy setting, but something else entirely. Definitely worth a read, and the third book will come next year, so no long wait for the conclusion either.

I also enjoyed both The Ember Blade and Foundryside a lot. Both were interesting, had some interesting approaches to fantasy and I liked how the characters changed over time.

[Zachary Holbrook]

Funny, I've read lots of reviews of the Lightbringer series by people who liked the beginning better the ending. I had the exact opposite experience: The Black Prism held no appeal for me, but I enjoyed each book in the series better than the last. The Burning White had me more enthralled than any other non-Brandon fantasy book ever has.

[Orlion Blight]

5 hours ago, Sorana said:

I also discovered City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty, and I immediatly read the second one. It's fantasy set in egypt with well written characters and an enticing worldbuilding. I enjoyed a lot that it wasn't the typical medieval fantasy setting, but something else entirely. Definitely worth a read, and the third book will come next year, so no long wait for the conclusion either.

I need to get back to that series. I really liked it once the story got to the city. The politicking is superb!

Sounds like her next project will involve pirates. 

[NottTheBrave]

I finished 8 books last year, which is about 8 times more than the previous year.  My favorite was probably Way of Kings, to be fair, but there wasn't anything I disliked at all!  

-Way of Kings

-Words of Radiance

-Mistborn: The Final Empire

-Wheel of time 1-3

-The Last Wish

-Skyward

[Ghanderflaffle]

On 12/29/2019 at 10:55 PM, Extesian said:

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

This comes very highly recommended and well awarded. It's fantasy but in a very fairy tale manner. It's mystical and whimsical and the plot is very much like a fairy tale. I enjoyed it, and found some aspects of it very intriguing, but found it a bit forgettable. Very nicely written though. 6.5/10 for me (though note that that is for me - critically, I may give it more like 8, it was very nicely done).

 

I actually just read this a couple weeks ago, and it was really good! I have a tough time finding good books (storm you, Sanderson! ) but I really enjoyed this one. I finished it rather quickly as I was so intrigued by everything.

[Elegy]

On 30.12.2019 at 5:55 AM, Extesian said:

Foundation - Isaac Asimov (Original trilogy plus two sequels - yet to read two prequels, or the Robot or Empire series)

There's a reason I've heard about it all my life, when it's from the 1950's, and why even though so many movies are made about his robot books, the Foundation books are still so well known. I haven't read scifi like it despite its age. 

Assuming you haven't read the Robot or Empire series (I haven't) it's just straight into a galaxy-spanning human empire some 30,000 years in the future that, unbeknownst to all but one mathematical genius, will soon collapse. He comes up with a secret plan to ensure that the time of chaos following that disintegration is minimized. It's epic, it's wonderfully written (it's not all about big battles but about the internal motivations of key individuals) and it's utter genius for something 60 years old. 

It's Asimov, right? Gotta read eventually, as I finally did. 10/10

Very nice. Sometimes I'm still surprised how few people here know of Asimov's stuff since Brandon frequently states his work as a huge inspiration for the whole Cosmere project. It's the brand of diplomatic, thoughtful sci-fi that I prefer over the more action-based variants most of the time (although that's only a vague rule of thumb, naturally). As you said, it's very forward-thinking and feels astonishingly modern, apart from the severe lack of female people in the galaxy (like, how does an empire that large even last for tens of thousands of years if there aren't any women around?).

The Mule and Search By the Foundation are some of the most entertaining sci-fi stories I've read. I also liked The General a lot, but the ending was very disappointing - not only because it was anticlimatic (I can live with that, at times), but because it was a cop-out and didn't feel earned by anyone at all. Search By the Mule was also fantastic, albeit a bit too much on the campy side for my taste. The mind battle at the end is just hilarious. A very well-rounded and complete story though. The two sequel books could have been cut down to a much shorter length without losing a significant amount of depth (I read he was forced to stretch them out due to the publisher's requirements, since that was the Dune-dominated era and longer sci-fi books sold better). Foundation's Edge still has a very well-done story though, nice build-up and a good ending, it just didn't need to be that long.

I've also read the Empire books and they have aged badly. Asimov considered Stars Like Dust his weakest novel, and he was not joking - ridiculous story and dumb macho characters ... it gets better toward the end, but the last few pages are pure cringe. Currents of Space and Pebble in the Sky are somewhat better, but both lack any truly memorable aspects. I actually love a lot of the basic ideas of Pebble in the Sky (which is why it's my favorite of the three), but the story never really manages to make them fit together. So yeah, bottom line, the Empire books are severely lacking altogether, in my opinion.

Haven't read the Robot books in full. I started with Caves of Steel once but felt I wasn't in the mood for it, moved on to something else and didn't return yet. My impression was that it aged much more harshly than the Foundation books, but was well-written, albeit a bit dry.

Asimov as a whole is such a fascinating author. Certainly not one of my favorites - I thought he struggled with writing characters (especially character voice) and made some very questionable story decisions (in particular in the Empire books, but like I said, The General has those as well) - but in terms of structure and approach, his Foundation Verse is certainly one of the closest things to the Cosmere I've found. I also recommend some of his short stories, particularly The Last Question. It's amazing.

[+Extesian]

Thanks @Elegy that's a really nice summary of Asimov. I'm looking forward to the rest, but read Foundation first as I always heard it was best and figured if the others aren't quite as good at least I'm treating them as prequels. But I'll certainly temper my expectations of Empire!

Oh as a small update, I've since read the last Gods of Blood and Powder book and it was great. Brought back the series for me very well and I'm now looking forward to the next McClellan book more than I was after the end of Powdermage I think (not that the trilogy is better, but that it finished better and I think his writing is improving).

Also read Ann Lecie's Raven Tower. Loved it. Really loved it. Strange book. I was quite sceptical of loving it, but i really did. The voice, the combination of fast and slow pacing, the PoV, the chronology, the worldbuilding. Such a simple magical premise (gods can only speak truth and must have the power to make their words true if not) taken to such interesting extremes. Interwining timelines. No chapters. Just an ancient, unmoving god recounting their history in between narrating events in the present day. It's stuck with me more than I expected. 

Started Black Leopard Red Wolf last night, enjoying the voice and worldbuilding and really enjoying the writing. Its showing promise. 

[Elegy]

3 hours ago, Extesian said:

Thanks @Elegy that's a really nice summary of Asimov. I'm looking forward to the rest, but read Foundation first as I always heard it was best and figured if the others aren't quite as good at least I'm treating them as prequels. But I'll certainly temper my expectations of Empire!

If you can squeeze them in somehow, why not! Each of them is like 70,000 words at most, so a third of the average Cosmere book, plus they're an easy read. So they will hardly be a waste of time, regardless of quality.

[The Kraken's Daughter]

@Extesian and @Ghanderflaffle, if you liked Uprooted, you might also enjoy Novik's "Spinning Silver." It's set in a similar Eastern European fairy tale-esque setting, and I liked it even better than Uprooted.

 

My top ten for 2019:

1. The Way of Kings

2. The Kingdom of Copper, by S.A. Chakraborty

3. The Wrong Stars, by Tim Pratt

4. Oathbringer

5. Words of Radiance

6. The Dreaming Stars, by Tim Pratt

7. The Forbidden Stars, by Tim Pratt

8. Edgedancer

9. In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire

10. Snowblind, by Christopher Golden

[kaellok]

I found 2019 to be a weird year for books I read.  I had set out to read twenty new books/novels, and a whole lot of them (even those that I had every reason to expect to be better) were disappointing or just bad.  Below are the ones that I found the best, even in cases when I didn't necessarily like them.

The Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells proved to be the exception--these are just stunningly wonderful stories.  I cannot recommend them enough.  There's four in total.  The first and second each tell a story which begins and ends, but 4 picks up immediately after 3 ends.  Do read them in order, but as far as breaks go I would say don't read 3 if you don't also have 4.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine was overall pretty good, but the story focused a lot on the exact opposite of the most interesting part of the premise.  I pretty much always enjoy a good sci-fi political yarn, though, so it was still enjoyable, and the writing style was fantastic--I definitely want to read more by the author, I was just disappointed in them taking the 'easy' route and not fully engaging more directly with the transhuman aspect (which, quite admittedly, the back of novel blurb tells you straight up, so it wasn't a surprise).

Jade City by Fonda Lee is probably exactly what you want if you love mobster stories and kung fu stories, especially with some fantasy/magic thrown in for good measure.  Neither are up my alley, but the author is a wonderful person so I figured I'd give it a try.  Not for me, but absolutely for other people.

The Poppy War by R F Kuang forced me to come to grips that I absolutely love the 'fantasy school of magic' trope in basically every single permutation in which it exists.  My engagement and enjoyment of the novel went down substantially when they left at the half-way mark, and there is zero reason to expect there to be a return in sequels.  Still pretty engaging, with one of the most beautiful (and terrible) sequences of inevitability that leaves you screaming at the characters; there's a point when it becomes clear exactly what the ending will be, and how, and it's impossible to stop reading because maybe, maybe the characters do something different, but you have to read to find out, you can't stop, you can't put it down, you have to keep going and maybe if you believe enough--no.  You were wrong.  Overall a pretty intense and draining read; not sure I'm up to the sequel any time soon, but probably later this year.  After all, it's on my shelf, waiting for me.  Maybe things won't be terrible and awful.  Maybe not.  (On a serious note, it's a fantastically well-written novel, but also pretty dark, with a few linked scenes in particular that are incredibly and intentionally dark that are also based on real-life events in Nanking, so be pre-warned if you decide to read.)

Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear probably wins my nomination for best-written book which I feel I should like but remain utterly ambivalent about.

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson was great, but in all ways seemed weaker than Skyward to me.

The Raven's Tower by Ann Leckie was interesting, because there's two stories being told (although one of the stories is more like a dozen or so linked short stories).  Anyway, around 2/3 of the book (possibly closer to half) is taking place in the 'present', written in 2nd person, and presumably following Eolo, and almost completely forgettable and boring and uninteresting.  Ann Leckie tends to do interesting things with language in her prose (and I'm honestly really curious how well that aspect can be translated to languages other than English without losing vital parts of what makes them interesting) which is in full force and fully integrated into the only part of the plot with Eolo that is interesting.  Well-crafted overall, but abundantly clear that the Eolo line was meant only to serve the plot and the interesting language bits.

The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire.  I love her October Daye series and look forward the new novel published the first week of every September; this one was Book 11 or 12 I think.  Sort of similar to Dresden Files, except if all of the magic was from Faerie and I don't think there are human mages.  Very enjoyable series to fill that urban fantasy itch, if you have it; first novel is by far the weakest, and isn't terrible.  She has a number of other novels and series, and is probably as prolific as Sanderson is, but writing style is very different.  She also writes horror under the pseudonym of Mira Grant.

Feed by Mira Grant.  This was a re-read.  Still as engrossing and completely, utterly, unavoidably devastating as the first time.