I'm afraid I've mostly been reading series last year. Since I don't read as often as I used to, but I really like novel series, my reading is increasingly crowded by newer series and older series I'm trying to keep up with. That said, I did manage to squeeze in a couple of stand alones.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed enough to finish, and in the order I read them. Maybe you'll want to check them out too. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
I usually don't like pan-Asian fantasy worlds, because it feels like the mixing of real world influences is arbitrary, but that's not the case here, perhaps because JY Yang is Asian and lives in Asia where different Asian ethnic groups are able to meet without being viewed through the lens of an outsider. If you're looking for some queer Asian fantasy with prophecies and non-western technology you can't really do better than this, and it's the first in a series.
Murder of Crows by Annie Bellet
This is the second book in the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series and I've been reading it on-off since 2016. Contemporary urban fantasy isn't really my thing (especially something with pop culture references), but the story is entertaining enough that I intend to continue the series anyway. What's happened is that this series became my go-to "I have five minutes and I'm not at a computer, let's read off my Kindle" series because as long as you know the characters you don't need to remember a lot of other details. I can come back months after my last reading and pick up where I left off without rereading more than a page.
The Island Deception by Dan Koboldt
The sequel to The Rogue Retrieval. I got into this one easier than I did the last, and overall it was more entertaining, save that I have serious beef with the Quinn and Jillaine relationship. (I really hate relationships where we're supposed to be sympathetic to somebody who is also manipulating their love interest for outside gain.) If I could have just cut that out I would've had a massively better time.
Spice & Wolf Vol 12 by Isuna Hasekura
Another installment in the long-running Spice & Wolf series. Lawrence and Holo have postponed their journey to her homeland for the sake of enjoying each other's company while they can, but they finally receive a tip about a mapmaker who might be able to draw them a map to her long lost village. If you enjoy the series, this is one of the better volumes, featuring a mystery about a holy phenomenon and Fran Vonely is one of the more interesting side characters.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 1: Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka *
I forgot that I'd actually pre-ordered this when the series was first announced for English translation, but the 2018 anime reminded me that I had it, so I read through it after I finished watching. This has to be one of the best written Japanese novels I've read in translation so far and the best space opera I've read in a long time. If you like the new anime (which doesn't finish the book!), I'd recommend checking this out. While the anime is good, the source material gives a lot better context as to what's happening.
The Iron Beast by Andy Remic
This is the third and final novella in the trilogy that started with A Song for No Man's Land. Robert Jones is still stuck in the alternate world and spends almost the entire book there, so if you weren't won over by the change in setting in the second novella, the third isn't going to change your mind.
Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone
Second book in the Craft Sequence. I really liked the world building in this one, featuring a Mesoamerican-inspired setting, but modernized with the hallmarks of Gladstone's world of Craft. There's a lot to unpack here with themes of colonization with multiple perspectives from the POV of the colonized, who comprise most of the cast. I didn't like it as much as Three Parts Dead, mostly because Caleb did not click with me nearly as much as Tara, but his rocky relationship with his father is one of the highlights of the book.
Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel by Rachel Aaron
I'm surprised this book exists, as spin-off novels for Japanese properties rarely originate on this side of the Pacific, but Garrison Girl is an English language original, and because it's by an American author, it reads differently from a Japanese light novel and more like an American YA. It covers old ground as far as the source material is concerned (the Trost arc is the finale), but it's an engaging read with an original cast. You can tell that Aaron has an affection for the series and I feel like it fits in almost seamlessly with the greater Attack on Titan world. (Almost. A couple things will likely stick out for the lore nerds.) Though I would not call this a romance, for those who wished there was a little more of that in the main series, what's here might be enough to scratch that itch.
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine *
I received this book as a gift from my dad, who heard it was good and thought it would give me more insight into my ancestral country. It's a middle grade book, but packs a punch even for adults, especially if you have or know someone with young children. Ling is growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution and doesn't understand why some things (and people!) are considered bad or have to be taken away. There are a couple things that stuck out as me as being concessions for the American audience, but for the most part the book is a chilling view of the revolution through the eyes of a child, and reading it as an adult is no doubt much different from reading it as part of the intended age group. It's not fantasy or science fiction, but worth checking out.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells *
Though I ended up enjoying this book tremendously, I had multiple false starts with it. Murderbot has an entertaining and relatable narrative voice, but I start my Kindle reads in short bursts (usually under five minutes and sometimes even less) and the personality was not enough to draw me in when Murberbot's job was still business as usual. However, given a longer reading period the situation quickly gets interesting and the rogue Murderbot tries to do its best at the job it actually doesn't like very much. Despite the name though, Murderbot doesn't do any murdering in this book.
Saga of Tanya the Evil Vol 1 by Carlo Zen
This was a really difficult read, which is a shame because there's a lot of nuance that the anime adaptation loses, primarily that the protagonist is well aware of the fact he's actually a thirty-something year old man reborn into the body of a little girl, and it's very clear that he does not consider himself and Tanya as one and the same. Unfortunately the author is also very intent on showing his homework, so there is a lot of rambling historical and tactical discourse in the book, which was mercifully cut in adaptation. It gets better towards the end of the volume, but I'm rather torn about whether to continue the series.
Baccano! Vol 4: 1932 Drug & The Dominos by Ryohgo Narita
I can't let the year end without getting another dose of Baccano!, which wraps up the last of the books adapted for the TV series. One of the main plots of this book (Eve looking for her brother) is lifted for the 1932 storyline in the anime, but the rest of it wasn't integrated into the series, probably for running time. Narita's penchant for simultaneously running multiple plot threads is in full force here, with a number of unrelated characters eventually all ending up in the same place through various circumstances. If you wanted more of the Gandor brothers and the reason why Claire Stanfield was recalled back to New York, this is the book to read. Several other leftover plot details from the Flying Pussyfoot arc wrap up here as well.
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