Every Favorite-of-the-Year Honoree

Another rip-roaring outing with the crew of the Keiko. Really felt like it came into its own. Expertly blends a spy thriller with an action heist. Cashes in on some emotional payoff that authors really only get as they get farther into their series. Is a good time overall!

A stellar mix of fantasy, humor, and finance. Story and characters are trope-y but compelling. Sounds absurd on paper, but it absolutely works. Ultimately pulls a "Galaxy Quest", managing to be both an excellent parody of traditional fantasy novels and an exemplar of the genre in its own right.

Pretty spectacular in its scope and scale. Is a stellar conclusion to a trilogy with a slow burn. I think this is my favorite of the 3 - it focused the most on the things I found interesting: examining humanity in the face of large threats and classic hard scifi. It's a pretty packed book, but it flowed well. The characters and prose are still pretty weak, but the plot and philosophy cement it in the canon of science fiction.

Just spectacular. Intricately planned, delicately spooled out, and kept me guessing until literally the final word. What a ride. Felt the closest to a modern Christie I've read in a while. I'm hungry for more.

Really picked up after the first one. Characters are still bad and the writing is still pretty dry, but this one leaned much more heavily into the speculative sci-fi aspect that was promised. Loved the time jumps too- great to see how everything played out over years and years. No clue where the third one will go, but I'll definitely be reading it (eventually).

I loved the framing of magic as a series of rules. Fun, heist-y read and a good setup for more to come.

Exciting spy thriller. Big focus on martial arts and maybe 3 too many similarly named characters, but it's a great mystery and a fun read overall.

Wears its Firefly inspiration on its sleeve, but in a good way. Good characters and a decent world. I liked the story too. Good romp all around.

Great expansion on the first book. Good character work and plotting. Cool expanding of the world.

Great heist. Cool magic, if a little unexplained. Good characters, though their ages are real weird. Character motivations are good and the development feels natural. Pacing at the end felt a little odd, but it's a pair of books, so this is really only part 1.

I had sort of a love/hate thing going with Becky Chambers' debut novel. There was a bit of eye-rolling when it came to unnecessary romantic pairings - I didn't expect the romance in a book I assumed was about space politics. But, at its core, it does what sci-fi does best: it imagines a world reminiscent of, but distinct from, our own. A lot of time and effort is spent explaining each character's elaborate gender journey, which didn't feel relevant to the story. But it makes sense that other planets wouldn't have a gender setup like ours and learning to navigate that would be a very real need for an intergalactic society. Given that, it helps the reader re-examine how we interact in our own society. And dang it if that's not what sci-fi is all about.

Great setup to more goodness. Superb worldbuilding and prose. Pretty good characters. Good sense of wonderment and discovery.

Really great, intense book. Breakneck pace. Mix of Ender's Game and Game of Thrones. There were a lot of characters and it was a little hard to track at times, but that didn't really hold me back. Enjoyed the world and am very curious to see where the trilogy goes.

Really great book. Good frame, superb worldbuilding, pretty good characters. The way magic was explained felt fairly satisfying. It sort of throws you into the deep end and everything makes more sense as you go. Doesn't stray from tradegy. Definitely a good start to a series and I'm excited to see what comes next.

Really amazing worldbuilding. Exciting story without a lot of filler. I liked the non-linear nature of the first part. Plenty of swashbuckling. Lacking interesting female characters, but overall a very fun read.

This book was a lot of fun. The first third or so was all character work that was setup, but once the story got rolling it was fun. Good job of describing life in mid century Spain, i'd imagine.

Pretty awesome read. Felt a lot like name of the wind, but with less flowery language. Not a bad rung, but a different style. Felt very direct. That was good though, seemed like lots of time for things to happen.