2021 was a year of reading comfort fiction, mostly because I was in cancer treatment for so much of the year that I just wanted to read what I already knew I would enjoy. Hence, a lot of later volumes in various series.
Normally I list the twelve books I enjoyed the most, but this year because of all the series' reading and because I mostly read volumes back to back, I'm just going to group everything by series and include book/volume numbers. I didn't start any new series. This is all ongoing stuff.
My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 4: Strategem by Yoshiki Tanaka
We finally see all the politicking in the previous volume pay off as the Dominion of Phezzan makes its move and Reinhart decides to make use of their subterfuge, bringing him one step closer to claiming the imperial throne for himself. He feels a lot better in this book, less distant, perhaps because he's getting over his grief. Yang's chapters aren't quite as good this time around, perhaps because he has less to do. This isn't a particularly space battley volume and while his grand strategy insight is as good as ever, his government doesn't like to hear what he has to say, as usual.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vols 2-3 by Satoru Yamaguchi
In Vol 2 Katarina continues her quest to avoid getting a "bad end" as the villainess of the otome video game she's been reincarnated into. Now that she's a teenager she finally goes off to the magic academy, beginning the game proper, but this time around due to her bond with her potential adversaries it's clear the story will play out differently. There is surprisingly a "bad guy" character who shows up to give the story a little oomph in the finale, but otherwise it ends just about the way you'd expect.
Vol 3 is a little stranger since Vol 2 wraps up the premise of the series, but it was clearly popular enough that the author or his editors wanted to continue so what we get is a stand alone volume of Katarina meeting new people, getting into more trouble, and causing more people to be smitten by her. It's all right, but feels a bit like filler.
Baccano! Vols 8-10 by Ryohgo Narita *
Baccano volumes 8-10 cover the 1934 Alcatraz storyline as well as Nebula Corporation shenanigans in Chicago. For anime-onlies, this arc covers where Ladd Russo wound up after he was pulled off the Flying Pussyfoot and finally puts Huey Laforet's plans into action. Firo gets some pretty awesome moments as he has to operate solo inside Alcatraz for much of this arc and he really gets to put his alchemic knowledge to good use. The best mostly new to us characters are probably the twin homunculi, Sham and Leeza, who have been mentioned before, but get to finally take the stage in this arc.
Shadow of the Fox Vols 2-3 by Julie Kagawa
Soul of the Sword and Night of the Dragon are the second and third books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, continuing and concluding Yumeko's journey to stop the summoning of the dragon god in a pseudo-medieval Japanese setting. We get more POVs as characters previously denied a spot in the narrative limelight get their own stories to tell, but I found I didn't like the diluted focus as much. The ending was similarly mixed for me. Parts I liked, parts I didn't, though the journey towards getting there was very good.
The Protectorate Vols 1-3 by Megan E. O'Keefe *
Velocity Weapon, Chaos Vector, and Catalyst Gate are the three books in the trilogy. If you like action sf with careful worldbuilding, this is an excellent choice. It's got spies, military operations, government conspiracies. The two timelines running through the first book are amazing as I couldn't help wondering how they were going to resolve. I love Sanda and Tomas, they have great chemistry together, even when things aren't working out, and Bero is possibly one of my favorite AI characters ever. (There's nothing quite like a sulky warship.) It's all quite good.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol 3 and 4 by Martha Wells *
Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy are the third and fourth novellas in the The Murderbot Diaries, bringing the titular Murderbot full circle with the decisions it's made since the end of the first novella. It still hates caring about people, because oftentimes people are stupid and caring makes this hard, but it still cares anyway, making Murderbot highly relatable.
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