2018 Year in Review - SciFi/Fantasy Reading, Part 2: My Favorite Books and Novellas

Having read 182 books this year, there were obviously a few books I really liked more than others, which I want to highlight.  As with 2017, I did a really good job at curating my list of books to read, with 110 of the 182 books receiving a grade of 8 (on a 10 point scale) or better from me.  For those curious my ten point grades tend to work something like the following:

7 stars - A solid book, but not a great one that I'd really recommend to anyone, but certainly one I'd consider a sequel to.
7.5 stars - A solid book that verges upon being being recommendable to others, with just a few things holding it back.
8 stars - A good book I would definitely recommend to others, based upon what others are looking for.  Will definitely be back for a sequel.
8.5 stars - A good book verging on great, definitely recommending to others.
9 stars - A great book that I will recommend to pretty much everyone unless there are specific aspects that other readers might dislike and want to avoid.
9.5 stars - An almost must-read that I'll recommend to practically everyone, although the book still has a fault here or there that might hold it back from absolutely effusive praise.
10 stars - An absolute must-read I will recommend to everyone, a book that is utterly brilliant.

So that's 110 books that I would definitely be recommending with an 8 or better, 43 books that I considered great and really really worth recommending with a 9 or better, and 3 books that I gave the perfect ten out of ten grades.  That's a lot of books that I really would recommend.  So let's get into what those books were:


Note: Books marked with an asterisk(*) are Hugo eligible for the 2019 Hugo Awards.  Books are not in any particular order.

The Absolute Must Reads (10 out of 10 Stars):
1. Terra Nullius* by Claire G. Coleman (Review)
2. Impostor Syndrome* by Mishell Baker (Review)
3. Tess of the Road* by Rachel Hartman (Review)

The Close to Perfect Books (9.5 out of 10 stars):
1. The Devourers by Indra Das (Review)
2. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Review)
3. The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner (Review)
4. Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold (Review)
5. Vita Nostra by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko (Review)
6. Blood and Tempest by Jon Skovron (Review)
7. Foundryside* by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review)

The Books That Were Simply "Great" (9 out of 10 stars):
1.  Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn (Review)
2.  Heroine's Journey* by Sarah Kuhn (Review)
3.  The Brilliant Death* by Amy Rose Capetta (Review)
4.  Record of a Spaceborn Few* by Becky Chambers (Review)
5.  Starless* by Jacqueline Carey (Review)
6.  Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng (Review)
7.  Cold Fire by Kate Elliott (Review)
8  Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr (Review)
9.  Ruin of Stars* by Linsey Miller (Review)
10 The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (Review)
11 Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (Review)
12 In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan (Review)
13 The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells (Review)
14 The Ships of Air by Martha Wells (Review)
15 The Calculating Stars* by Mary Robinette Kowal (Review)
16 The Defiant Heir* by Melissa Caruso (Review)
17 League of Dragons by Naomi Novik (Review)
18 Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (Review)
19 The Poppy War* by R.F. Kuang (Review)
20 City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review)
21 City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett (Review)
22 Deep Roots* by Ruthanna Emrys (Review)
23 Zero Sum Game by SL Huang (Review)
24 The River Where Blood is Born by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
25 The Monster Baru Cormorant* by Seth J Dickinson (Review)
26 The Invisible Valley* by Su Wei (Review)
27 Empire of Sand* by Tasha Suri (Review)
28 The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt (Review)
29 Robots v Fairies by Various Authors (Review)
30 The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Review)
31 Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw (Review)
32 The Fall of Io by Wesley Chu (Review)
33 Revenant Gun* by Yoon Ha Lee (Review)

Whew, that's a lot of books!  And they comprise a wide variety of sub-genres between them, with a decent mix of fantasy and sci-fi (and everything in between), stand-alones and parts of series, etc.  It's going to be a rough job for me to figure out my Hugo Nominees when the nomination list opens, because I have four books clearly above the rest and then a number of books tied at 9 out of 10.  Still, the 10 books I have graded 9.5 out of 10 or above are truly remarkable and I cannot recommend them highly enough.  They may not work for all readers, but they are all well worth an attempt at reading as remarkable works of literature in the genre.

Of course, I managed to read more than just novels this year.  I don't keep great track of the short fiction I read, but I do try to track the novellas that I read over the course of the year, and I managed to read 19 books I classified as novellas*, several of which I really really enjoyed.

*Note: Some of these books do not qualify for the novella category for the Hugos due to being too long or too short, but they're all novellas per my own classification.  

A few works in this category I'd like to highlight:

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander (Review) - (Technically Novelette Length)
The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang (Review)
The Black God's Drums by P Djeli Clark (Review)
In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard (Review) (Technically Novel Length)

I could also add the three Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells (Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy) but I assume most of you are reading those already.  These four in particular are fantastic, with stories that range from adventures to romances to tragedies just within these four alone, and each features as main characters people/beings from extraordinary backgrounds.  They're all so damn good and well worth tracking down.

Now Last Year I concluded this post by going over my favorite characters of the year - I'm skipping that this year due to the sheer amount of great characters I read being so damn hard to narrow down, and this post is taking long enough already.  You'll find great characters in practically every book or novella highlighted above, and I strongly advise you to pick a few books from the list and give them a try - I suspect you'll be extremely happy you did.

Next post we'll deal with the few books I read - or tried to read - that just did NOT work for me.