2017 is almost over! We hope you’ve had a wonderful reading year and that our work here at FanLit helped you achieve that.
Now we want to know: What is the best book you read in 2017?
It doesn’t have to be a book that was published in 2017. Just read in 2017. It doesn’t even have to be speculative fiction.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
Next week we’ll be telling you about our favorite SFF books published in 2017.
And, as always, we have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page. And we’ve also got a constantly updating list of new and forthcoming releases.
One commenter will choose a book from our stacks.
We’ve got a couple of giveaways still current.
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Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. OMG, it blew my mind…..incredible and awesome.
I loved this one too! It put me straight into “mark all sequel release dates on my calendar and purchase them even though you have no physical space for them” mode.
Just looked this up on Amazaon. What a great premise. Cool title too. It’s on my reading list for next month.
I’ll go with one fantasy and one sf:
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
Link to my favorite books out of the forty I’ve read this year.
https://eugenekanefiction.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/favorite-books-2017/
I liked Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country a lot. I also just finished Jack McDevitt’s The Hercules Text and was carried away by his very first novel, for a first novel to affect the reader like that one did, is quite an accomplishment.
I was curious about Lovecraft Country. Glad to hear some feedback on it.
The Lies of Locke Lamora. Amazing plot, lovable characters, and one of a kind fantasy.
SUCH A GOOD BOOK. And such a fantastic heist story. I’m excited to read the rest of the series, too.
Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher. I just finished it and it was so exciting! There were new races with abilities that I have never read about before. The story was absorbing. Can’t wait to read the next book!
Tad Williams’ The Witchwood Crown-genre fantasy at its best, a more mature return to a classic series with its young hero plausibly middle-aged & some cool new characters.
Just remembered I also reread The Lies of Locke Lamora this year,seconding what Gabriela said-love that book!
I loved Junji Ito’s scary graphic novel about killer spiral shapes, “Uzumaki”!
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
I really enjoyed The Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemisin. I felt it to be very well written and original. If you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend it!
There were two fantasy series books that I had to pick between, and I think I will go with The Gates of Tagmeth by P. C. Hodgell, since I’ve been reading that series for around 30 years and I still enjoy each new installment. In fact, I’m ambivalent about wanting it to finally finish, as it really should at some point.
The runner-up is City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett, which is the concluding volume in that series and provides an excellent finish. Love the three different individuals who were the viewpoint characters for the three books.
For non-series novels, I think Amatka by Karin Tidbeck may have been the best. It was definitely the weirdest and most Twilight Zone-ish book I read all year.
Based on my Kindle app history, I reread a LOT this year. Of the few new books that I read, some standouts are Provenance by Ann Leckie and Murderbot: All Systems Red by Martha Wells.
Other interesting new books included the Penric books by Bujold and Tremontane stories by Melissa McShane
The rereads include the Ile Rien and Raksura novels by Martha Wells, a bunch of Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the Order of the Air series by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham, and Chanur series by Cherryh.
Destiny’s Conflict by Janny Wurts. Simply brilliant!
Most of my 5 star reads this year were either re-reads or later books in established series. So I’ll just give you guys the ones that were first in the series or an underrepresented series:
Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3 by Kate Baray which is just what it says on the tin.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers has been mentioned here before but it is relatively new so I included it.
Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani is an independently published new fantasy (there are two out in this series so far and the third in process) which is new and different in good ways and fits into recognized patterns in other good ways too.
Persepolis Rising (The Expanse) by James S.A. Corey. Book 7 and still original.
It’s extremely hard to single out one book as the best, especially from several different genres. I read the last 5 books in the Harry Potter series in ’17 and they were all equally fantastic. I think I’ll have to go with:
Fantasy: The Heart of What Was Lost- Tad Williams
Mystery: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore- Matthew J Sullivan
Historical Fiction: The Silence of God- Gale Sears
The best book I read all year was Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan. He has taken the Powder Mage universe to a new level with the 1st book in his new series.
David Currie, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!