Again, having read 182 books for the second year in a row, as well as 21 novellas, there were obviously a few works I really liked more than others, which I want to highlight. If you follow me on twitter, you'll note I do give each work a score on a ten point scale. 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.
Now mind you, I don't select books randomly. My book selection comes from a mix of methods, but mainly it comes from me reading authors I already trust or from recommendations from those authors or from source reviews which led me to a lot of those authors in the first place. As a result, I get far more books I enjoy to at least some extent than those I actually dislike: my average review score this year was a 7.74, basically the same as last year's 7.7, and my grade distribution easily skews high:
Anyhow, enough with this general talk, let's get into the specific best books. 106 of the 182 books I read this year earned an 8 or better (meaning I would recommend them to others) and 38 earned a 9 or better (meaning I would really really recommend them). Two books got my perfect score of 10/10, to go along with one novella (more on that below). Let's quickly break these all down (in no particular order):
My Ten Out of Ten Reads of 2019:
1. Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender (Review Here)*
2. Tigerman by Nick Harkaway (Review Here)
My 9.5 Out of 10 Reads of 2019:
3. War Girls by Tochi Onybuchi (Review Here)*
4. The Warrior Moon by K Arsenault Rivera (Review Here)*
5. A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay (Review Here)*
6. The Call by Peadar O'Guilin (Review Here)
7. Version Control by Dexter Palmer (Review Here)
8. The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Review Here)
9. The Holy Dark by Kyoko M (Review Here)
My 9 Out of 10 Reads of 2019:
10. Of Wars, and Memories and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard (Review Here)11. Null Set by S.L. Huang (Review Here)*
12. The Intuitionist by Colsen Whitehead (Review Here)
13. She Who Fights Monsters by Kyoko M (Review Here)
14. Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger (Review Here)*
15. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Review Here)*
16. Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Review Here)
17. A House of Rage and Sorrow by Sangu Mandanna (Review Here)*
18. Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri (Review Here)*
19. The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas (Review Here)*
20. Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone (Review Here)*
21. Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed (Review Here)*
22. Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay (Review Here)
23. A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham (Review Here)
24. An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham (Review Here)
25. The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan (Review Here)
26. A Study in Honor by Claire O'Dell (Review Here)*
27. The Wonder Engine by T Kingfisher (Review Here)
28. The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Charkraborty (Review Here)*
29. Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear (Review Here)*
30. The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley (Review Here)*
31. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (Review Here)*
32. The Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (Review Here)*
33. The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire (Review Here)*
34. The Outside by Ada Hoffmann (Review Here)*
35. Grave Importance by Vivian Shaw (Review Here)*
36. A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy by Alex White (Review Here)
37. The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham (Review forthcoming)
38. The Hound of Justice by Claire O'Dell (Review Here)*
Books marked with a * were published in 2019 and are Hugo eligible for next year. And as you can tell there's a lot of books that I'm going to have to make a tough pick between for my Hugo Nomination ballot - I have 4 books 9.5 or higher, but you get five slots on the ballot....and I have a lot of 9 out of 10 novels that are eligible.
But the above are just novels, and i read 21 novellas as well last year, several of which were absolutely tremendous and worthy of your time. In particular, I'd recommend the following VERY VERY Highly:
1. This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar (10 out of 10!)
2. Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
3. The Deep by Rivers Solomon
4. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
They may not be as long as novels, but they are absolutely tremendous works of fiction that I highly recommend.
And that's it for this post. Next up, the books I didn't finish and the ones I really disliked, and I think you should avoid.
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