The best books I read this year, 2023 edition

Kinda, mostly

I love a list. I love my yearly most-played lists from Spotify that stretch back to 2015. And I love to list and share what I read each year because I am a book snob, and someone who has been taught by corporate America to revere the organizational prowess of the spreadsheet.

Sadly, this year, unlike 2019, 2020 and 2021 and 2022, I have no running tally of books read from the year to reference. Instead I have our poorly organized family library, old lists of what I read in the past, and a pile of audiobook files to trawl through.

What changed? Ada. Our first child arrived last December, throwing our life into the very standard, and very confusing whirlwind of caring for a newborn. It’s harder to maintain longitudinal personal projects like keeping precise count of what I read, and when I finished it, when there is a small human trying to either pull the laptop off your knees, bite one of the dogs, bite the table, or escape up a staircase. This year’s list won’t be exhaustive, in other words.

I managed to find 54 titles that I am certain I read this year, but I am missing some of the stuff I got through on paternity leave while the baby was sleeping, including several books on childcare and parenting, and a few poetry collections. So consider this more of a ‘list of some of the best stuff I read this year apart from all the stuff that I forgot about and also liked.’ Next year I’ll try to do better! — Alex

The Best

• Vita Nostra + Assassin of Reality: Translated from Russian, these books are a series that builds on the dark academe foundation that is a well-loved fantasy trope for a reason. But these titles — I cannot wait for the third to make its way to English — are insane. Insane not in a ‘Gideon the Ninth’ sort of way, but more of a ‘what were they on when they wrote this, it’s bonkers’ sort of way. These books require a bit more focus than most, so I would heartily recommend them in print over an audio format so you can easily reread bits as needed. But read them; they are amazing.

• Cradle, series: 2023 was the year that I discovered progression fantasy as a subgenre, thanks to Andrew Rowe (see below). Cradle is the pinnacle of its ilk, spanning twelve titles that are not too long individually, but together I believe add up to more than one million words. Every single word kicked ass, and kept me company across hundreds of kilometers of pushing Ada about in her stroller after work. These books were so ‘cannot stop where is the next one’ that I am actually planning to go back through them in the new year. Yes, yes, and yes again.

• The Goblin Emperor and associated texts: Katherine Addison is a damn genius. I was new to the fantasy of manners style of writing, but the Goblin Emperor grabbed me by the heart and dragged me through its story without my feet touching the ground. Then, to my surprise, Addison wrote two more books in the same world, but centered around a minor character from the first tome. Shit, I did not know that I needed what she was cooking up — murder mysteries that center around an opera? — but I hope to any higher power you wish that there is more coming from this author. Also I want to be an emperor. Or an opera manager.

Honorable Mentions

• Andrew Rowe’s Arcane Ascension, War of Broken Mirrors, and Weapons and Wielders series: Fun, and lots of it. Do you want a big world with a fascinating magic system, lots of fighting and characters that wind up being your friends? Well, good news, Rowe is busy with his pen and I am here for it. These three series intersect, and have different reading orders you can try!

  • (As a corollary, I am reading Rowe’s books written with Kayleigh Nicol that take place in the same world, albeit with an older cast and a more fighting-focused storyline. Google ‘Shattered Legacy’ for more.)

• Mother of Learning: Time-loop novels are somewhat new to me, let alone an entire series of books that are predicated on a single, repeating recursion of time. And yet these books were a ripping good time. Short? No, I think that the total word count for the series is over the 750,000 mark, so they are incredibly detailed and unafraid of giving the reader ample time to enjoy the journey, and I love it. A big thumbs up from me.

• The Mirror Visitor, books 3 and 4: Ok, a small fib here as I am still finishing the fourth book, but I will have that wrapped shortly. I started this series last year on a recommendation from my local bookstore. Lucky me that I took their advice. I love everything that Christelle Dabos did with these works because they are inventive, vivid, and feature a protagonist who is non-traditional in a way that resonates with my little nerd self.

• The Immortal Great Souls: The first two books of this are out and are wild, bonkers shit if you are into the progfantasy niche. The first book is something like 800 pages, so I cannot really recommend the series to folks outside the most dedicated of fantasy readers. But if that is even close to you, buy and read both books right away. And then thank me afterwards. You are welcome in advance.

The Rest

I enjoyed the entire Mage Errant series. The first four books of the Weirkey Chronicles that I read were also very good fun. Towards the end of the year I read the first two books in the 12 Miles Below series, and am waiting on the third to come out in 2024. Any of those groupings could fit in one of the above categories, frankly.

Then there was the rest. The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons was fascinating, if slightly strange. I know that the entire four-book Hyperion Cantos (loosely) is controversial for several reasons, but the sheer inventiveness of Simmons works for me. This title however, the final in the extended riff, was good but I cannot really recommend it by itself. Read Hyperion, however, if you haven’t.

Failure Mode was the final book in a long scifi series that I loved because it was unabashed, relaxed space trash. I shall miss my dear friend Skippy, the rude, racist cats (Maxolhx), and the gambling space bugs (Jeraptha). And yes I am still in the market for Elder weapons, if you have any lying around.

Throne of Glass was a flier on an author that I had not read before. It was fine if a little hard to get settled into. The entire ‘most feared assassin in the world’ bit was undercut by the age of the protagonist being set to 18, the precise age at which ‘spicy’ writing is considered safe. And like much of the romantacy genre, Throne of Glass was hornier than what I am accustomed to reading. Which brings us to:

Fourth Wing. Look, don’t judge. I did not find this via BookTok. I instead found it via an algorithmic recommendation from a mega-tech company. Much better, right? (Wait, that’s the same thing! You just swapped Amazon for Bytedance!) Of all the books that hit the charts in 2023, this is the most controversial because it’s not good. But it does poke along at a quick clip, includes dragons, a love triangle, and more lusting after hot bodies than I was prepared for. It was not good. I did not like it. But I may read its sequel because why the fuck not.

Hmm, Alex, did you read anything serious this year?

Not really! I did read sixty eleven trillion news articles, reports, and papers this year, of course. But that was all for work. I tried to have an even stiffer work/life boundary in 2023 because I needed it to be an active parent. I don’t miss Ada’s dinner → bath → bedtime routine, if that makes sense. So, no, I did not have the time I had in years’ past to read big, long, serious books. And that’s just fine by me. I will get back to that when I have the time and spare mental energy. (2034 is going to be my year!)

In 2023 I read for pleasure so that I could bask in the sunlight that is human creativity and ingenuity. I’m going to do it again in 2024. There’s just so much joy in the world that I want to imbibe, so many new characters to become fond of and bond with over long, tricky adventures. God I love reading. Heck yeah, books!