This is the second post in my 2021 Year in recap, with this post featuring me discussing my favorite works of the year. Traditionally that's featured me posting my few perfect scores and maybe the books I've graded a 9.5 or a 9 out of 10, and then maybe discussing my favorite characters of the year. I've kind of eschewed the latter because I've read so many characters and books that it's hard to recall who are really my favorites - for that matter, I have over 30 books with a 9 out of 10 this year, so I'm going to skip that list here as well.
Instead, I'm going to post my top 12 graded books here in this post, and discuss what I really found that I liked over this last year of reading. As I mentioned in my last post, this has been a good one.
Note that the books listed below in any category are in no particular order. Books that are Hugo Eligible (published in 2021) are marked with an *.
My Two Favorite Books of the Year:
1. Light From Uncommon Stars* by Ryka Aoki (Review Here)
2. Instructions for Dancing( by Nicola Yoon (Review Here)
I gave five books a perfect score in 2020. I only gave two that mark this year, and they are very different books.
Instructions for Dancing is a young adult romance novel, with a very minor fantastical element - the protagonist is given a magical gift/curse that forces her, upon seeing a couple kiss, to have a vision of the middle and ending of that relationship, which makes her even more jaded about the idea of loving someone. It is a really strong book and one that hits like a truck with its ending, which is a Happy-For-Now ending rather than a Happily Ever After.
Light from Uncommon Stars is by contrast clearly a SciFi/Fantasy work, and one I absolutely expect to see win and/or be nominated for awards next year. It's a story with some wacky concepts - A violin teacher who made a deal with hell finds a video-game-music-loving trans girl runaway to teach while also meeting and falling in love with an alien space captain refugee who runs a donut shop! - that deals with some really great and serious themes such as acceptance, found family, the meaning of home, the power of music and imperfections, and of people coming together. It's just so great.
The Books I Gave a 9.5 out of 10 Too, that were so so close to Perfect:
3. The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry* by C.M. Waggoner (Review Here)
4. Folklorn* by Angela Mi Young Hur (Review Here)
5. Lobizona by Romina Garber (Review Here)
6. The Echo Wife* by Sarah Gailey (Review Here)
7. Cazadora* by Romina Garber (Review Here)
8. The Jasmine Throne* by Tasha Suri (Review Here)
9. A War of Swallowed Stars* by Sangu Mandanna (Review Here)
10. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Review Here)
11. A Chorus Rises* by Bethany C Morrow (Review Here)
12. She Who Became the Sun* by Shelley Parker-Chan (Review Here)
Another ten books here, of which 8 are Hugo Eligible, which is gonna make my Hugo Ballot for next year really difficult. And you have a wide range of books here - Magical Realism and old folktales in Folkorn, fun queer adventure in Ruthless Lady's Guide, Epic Fantasy in The Jasmine Throne, Old Epic Retellings in A War of Swallowed Stars and The Palace of Illusions, and hard hitting thematic YA in A Chorus Rises and Lobizona/Cazadora. And then you have heavy stuff dealing with abuse in The Echo Wife and queer alternate history with She Who Became the Sun.
It's just great stuff, and I can almost not recommend any of it highly enough, as many of these books were JUST short of hitting that 10/10 mark.
Top Novellas of the Year:
I only gave four novellas I read in 2021 a grade of 9 or higher, which will make my Hugo Ballot pretty easy. Those novellas are:
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard (Review Here)
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (Review Here)
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu (Review Here)
The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory (Review Here)
Again, a quartet of very very different novellas, with a locked room mystery with very funny/oddball circumstances in The Album of Dr. Moreau, questions about Empire, Freedom, and Security in In the Watchful City, a horror novella that challenges a classic tale in Comfort Me with Apples, and a sapphic love story dealing with Empire, Colonialism, and Abusive relationships in Fireheart Tiger.
CONCLUSION:
Okay As I've demonstrated above, I loved a lot this year - hell when I did a 2021Faves list, I also included a bunch of books I'd given 9 out of 10s too, because I felt it would be incomplete without them. And this came from me deliberately picking a more diverse set of books and novellas to read, which should be a lesson to other people looking to expand their reading: DO IT. Even if you just want fun stuff to read, or just want serious stuff, or want anything in between, you can find great stuff of that variety from a more diverse selection of books, and you'll find a lot of stuff that will surprise you in the process. You'll even learn to like things you could never have imagined, and will learn more perspectives about the world in the process.
It's more than worth it.
Another ten books here, of which 8 are Hugo Eligible, which is gonna make my Hugo Ballot for next year really difficult. And you have a wide range of books here - Magical Realism and old folktales in Folkorn, fun queer adventure in Ruthless Lady's Guide, Epic Fantasy in The Jasmine Throne, Old Epic Retellings in A War of Swallowed Stars and The Palace of Illusions, and hard hitting thematic YA in A Chorus Rises and Lobizona/Cazadora. And then you have heavy stuff dealing with abuse in The Echo Wife and queer alternate history with She Who Became the Sun.
It's just great stuff, and I can almost not recommend any of it highly enough, as many of these books were JUST short of hitting that 10/10 mark.
Top Novellas of the Year:
I only gave four novellas I read in 2021 a grade of 9 or higher, which will make my Hugo Ballot pretty easy. Those novellas are:
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard (Review Here)
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (Review Here)
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu (Review Here)
The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory (Review Here)
Again, a quartet of very very different novellas, with a locked room mystery with very funny/oddball circumstances in The Album of Dr. Moreau, questions about Empire, Freedom, and Security in In the Watchful City, a horror novella that challenges a classic tale in Comfort Me with Apples, and a sapphic love story dealing with Empire, Colonialism, and Abusive relationships in Fireheart Tiger.
CONCLUSION:
Okay As I've demonstrated above, I loved a lot this year - hell when I did a 2021Faves list, I also included a bunch of books I'd given 9 out of 10s too, because I felt it would be incomplete without them. And this came from me deliberately picking a more diverse set of books and novellas to read, which should be a lesson to other people looking to expand their reading: DO IT. Even if you just want fun stuff to read, or just want serious stuff, or want anything in between, you can find great stuff of that variety from a more diverse selection of books, and you'll find a lot of stuff that will surprise you in the process. You'll even learn to like things you could never have imagined, and will learn more perspectives about the world in the process.
It's more than worth it.
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