Top 3 SFF books read in 2023

[Zivan]

We forgot to do a top 3 books this year, so I decided to be the first to go.

I enjoy your recommendations so please join me.

1. Spear by Nicola Griffith.

Outstandingly good as a audiobook.

2. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck.

A mix of a 1984rish dystopia and the uncanny.

3. Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman.

Recently reviewed by LUke on SFBRP #528

Three words: Extinction Credit Economics

[Stephen]

1. Courtship Rite
- Worldbuilding that doesn't quit, and a bizarre mix of disgusting (cannibalism!) and progressive (multi-gender polycules) elements for an early-Eighties book.

2. A Fire Upon the Deep
- Deserves much of the hype.

3. Downbelow Station
- Pacing was slow, but the worldbuilding felt very deep. Good aliens.

Not counting THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS because I've read it before, but it was just as satisfying this year.

The most surprising (if not great) was A BILLION DAYS OF EARTH by Doris Piserchia, never heard of her (the Orion Gateway ebook edition calls her a "lost voice of the New Wave"), bizarro read but now I want to read more of her stuff.

[Lindsay]

Stephen wrote: "3. Downbelow Station
- Pacing was slow, but the worldbuilding felt very deep. Good aliens.."

Just in case you're not aware, Finity's End is a direct sequel to Downbelow Station with a more personal focus.

[Lindsay]

1. Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Conversion therapy with a cosmic horror angle. This author has long done queer erotica as a bizarre sort of performance art, and he's very clever at it, so I was interested to see what he would do with a traditionally published novel. I really liked it.

2. Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey

It's like The Long Earth or The Doors of Eden. Travel and warfare between multiversal Earths. Well I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than Luke did :) A criticism I often have of Luke's reviews is that I think he's not particularly tolerant when an author diverges from his expectations.

3. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

In the aftermath of an interstellar world that destroyed the Earth, a young woman is raised in a militaristic cult dedicated to continuing the war at all costs, even though the cult is tiny and facing a whole interstellar civilization.

[Luke]

Lindsay wrote: "he's not particularly tolerant when an author diverges from his expectations."

My expectation was "a good book" and he diverged into "a shit book".

;)

[Rajesh]

Thanks to Goodreads, I cannot lie. I grade on a curve - ~ 3* is median and mean for me. My top 3, from my records, were:

4* - Shards of Earth and the rest of the trilogy. Just dam gut space opera.

4* - Wool Omnibus (thanks to Daniel CoelhoDHC) Another distillation of high quality (low mental load) for a well-worn trope.

4* - Pairing Up, because why break a streak of 30+ books in a "series" "soon" to be a TV Show on "the Peacock Network" . Hey, Melissa Snodgrass, pull the kanban cord on the alleged production and move on - for the Whole Trust' sake.|

(I read about 42% SF/Fantasy in 2023, shooting for 20% in 2024)

Tough year, no 5* genre fiction works. Looking forward to 2024.