2021: Year in Review

[Rob, Roberator]

So another year is over. Not the greatest year, but largely better than 2020 I hope.

My reading wasn't super great, but still I had some books I really enjoyed.

Here is my top 5 from 2021:

1) Leviathan Falls - 5 Stars - (My Review)
2) Reaper - 4 Stars - (My Review)
3) Project Hail Mary - 4 Stars - (My Review)
4) Bloodline -4 Stars - (My Review)
5) The House in the Cerulean Sea - 4 Stars - (My Review)


And here is my full "review" of my 2021 on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How about you? What were your reading highlights this year?

[Trike]

Hmm, top 5…

1. Elatsoe
2. Project Hail Mary
3. The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant
4. The Hidden Palace
5. The Blacktongue Thief
6. Under the Whispering Door

I can’t count.

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

Project Hail Mary was fantastic!

[Phil]

My 5 star books were:
Escape Velocity by Christopher Stasheff
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Expedition To Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
WWW: Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer
Forever Free by Joe Haldeman
The Last Colony by John Scalzi

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

I gave about a dozen 5 stars to books I read in 2021.
3 of those were Dresden Files books which I read 5 of in 2021.
Here are my favorites I read in 2021 (not all new books):
Battle Ground
The Fold
Neuromancer
Leviathan Falls
Ready Player Two
Project Hail Mary

This list is laser-heavy, but most of the swords & horror I read were 4 stars, which is still great!

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

Phil wrote: "My 5 star books were:
...Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb ..."

The Elderlings saga is great!

[Rob, Roberator]

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "Phil wrote: "My 5 star books were:
...Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb ..."

The Elderlings saga is great!"

Agreed. I think Tawny man in particular was one of my favorite parts.

[Calvey]

I didn't really do by stars as I am stingy...and also weird when rating day-to-day.

Here are my favorites and enjoyable.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built
The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry
Network Effect
Assassin's Apprentice
The House in the Cerulean Sea
A Desolation Called Peace
The Bridgerton Series

[Aaron]

It looks like I had four reads that earned 5-stars from me in 2021:


Finding Baba Yaga: A Short Novel in Verse
Mr. Death (Goodreads won't let me link to an external site, but it can be found on the Apex Magazine website)
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
The Magician’s Nephew

[Scott]

Highlights of my year were…
The Stand by King
The Last Emperox by Scalzi
The House in the Cerulran Sea by Klune
Blood Rites by Butcher
Locke & Key by Hill

Many many three and four star books but those were my five star reads. Not as many books as usual (80) but that’s because I chose to read a lot of really chunky books.

[Iain]

My favourite and best books of the year were:

5 stars
Terra Nullius - Claire G Coleman
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
The Old Lie - Claire G Coleman

4.5 stars

On Connection - Kae Tempest
Artificial Condition - Martha Wells
Exit Strategy - Martha Wells
The Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow

My reading stats for longer form books are

Male - 24%
Female - 76%

POC author - 6%
Queer author - 8%

Audio - 40%

When I started recording my reading statistics I wanted to examine my choices and improve the diversity of authors I read. This I have done successfully to the point where I read far more authors who identify as female than male (and look forward to reading their books more). This reflects the last couple of years at the Hugos which have also been dominated by these same authors.

I have also started reading books by indigenous Australian authors (although that is harder to find in SF&F).

This years goals is to be able to read books in print again after I complete my treatment and things return to normal. Currently with only audio books I will be reading a lot less this year.

[Ruth]

I read 94 books in 2021, which isn't an all-time high but is more than I've managed the last few years.

Some of my favourites (not including S&L picks) were:
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
The Bone Ship's Wake by R.J. Barker
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Various stories in the Xuya Universe by Aliette de Bodard

And, outside the SFF wheelhouse, I loved the non-fiction Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
and the romcom Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

My diversity stats were 60% female-authored books, 30% male-authored, and then a few non-binary authors plus anthologies featuring authors of various genders making up the rest.

In terms of race/ethnicity I'm at 80% White-authored books, 20% BIPOC-authored books, which isn't too bad, although the BIPOC authors are predominantly Asian-American or Asian-European. I'm still mostly reading stuff from the British-American publishing axis, with only two titles in translation.

I didn't keep any stats on how many authors I read in 2021 are queer - this is a tricky one as not all authors disclose this information (nor should they feel obligated to!). I'm broadly satisfied that I'm reading a reasonable selection of LGBTQ+ authors, however, including several of the names already mentioned, plus SF authors Charlie Jane Anders, Arkady Martine and poet Jay Hulme.

[Trike]

I kinda-sorta tracked POC books over the past few years but I’m stopping this year because it simply becomes fraught with loopholes and it seems to be ever-changing.

For instance, I read Barack Obama’s book and by today’s racial conventions he is literally half black and half white, so does he get partial credit or full credit as an author of color?

Then once we start getting into gender and sexuality and all of that, it really becomes kind of a headache to track. Like I said, fraught.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

My top speculative fiction titles include:

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Exhalation by Ted Chiang

[Iain]

Trike wrote: "I kinda-sorta tracked POC books over the past few years but I’m stopping this year because it simply becomes fraught with loopholes and it seems to be ever-changing.

For instance, I read Barack Ob..."

I use the categorisation to help understand my reading and book selection habits. It's more about pushing myself to try new things and having a more varied diet.

I have come to understand that if you don't attempt to measure something you don't really understand it. Diversity falls under this category.

If I look at the number of books with "queer" protagonists that number is significantly higher than the number of authors who identify that way.

[Geoff]

I love the end of the year!

My 5 star books for 2021:
Leviathan Falls
The Fall of Koli
Dune (re-read)
The Wisdom of Crowds
The King of Attolia and Thick as Thieves (thanks for the recommendation Lois McMaster Bujold!)
Fugitive Telemetry
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Gods of Jade and Shadow
Black Sun
The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Silence of the Lambs (they oughta make a movie out of that one!)
A Desolation Called Peace

More 5 stars than usual for me, out of 56 books read. An excellent year of reading!

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

Geoff wrote: "I love the end of the year!

My 5 star books for 2021:
Leviathan Falls
The Fall of Koli
Dune (re-read)
The Wisdom of Crowds
[book:The..."

I love the Hannibal Novels!
I'm halfway through Clarice which I ended up buying to avoid commercials. Have you watched the Hannibal TV series? It's flawless & high art imo.

[Deborah]

My top laser books for the year:

Fugitive Telemetry

A Desolation Called Peace

Agency

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

Plan for the Worst


My top sword books for the year:

The God of Lost Words

A Spindle Splintered

Wayward Souls

True Dead

When Sorrows Come

[Geoff]

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: I'm halfway through Clarice which I ended up buying to avoid commercials. Have you watched the Hannibal TV series? It's flawless & high art imo.

Honestly I didn't even know that was a thing. I'm intrigued...