I know the books themselves are very good recommendations, but just looking at your sheer passion and enthusiasm for the books makes me want to read all of them
Very happy to see Dandelion Dynasty, Remembrance of Earth's Past, and Annihiliation. Dandelion quickly became my favorite series (and Ken Liu my favorite author (highly recommend his second short story collection if you ever get the itch for more of his writing) and Remembrance and Southern Reach are both in my Top 10 too. Read some good ass books this year.
I said this on your Annihilation reading vlog but I feel the need to repeat it- PLEASE read books 2 and 3, they are absolutely phenomenal and imo better than Annihilation in many ways. Book 2 *is* a very different vibe from book 1 but it’s still really great, and book 3 is one of my favourite books _ever,_ it’s more similar to book 1 but *_so much better in every aspect_* Edit: ok you just said you do plan on reading the series and AAAAHHHHHH I can’t wait to hear your thoughts
Ik this wasn't aimed at me, but I also read Annihilation for the first time this year and loved it, so it's great to hear that the rest of the series is just as good if not better!!
I also loved Tress it was one of my favorites this year and such a wonderful surprise. I'm a much slower reader than you but, coincidentally, I just finished Dead Beat the other day. I'm with you, it was an absolute blast. I especially love the audiobook for these. Marsters is so good! I also read my first Discworld book this year with Guards! Guards! Such a treat and gotta keep digging down that rabbit hole. Between that and Dresden there are about 60 books to get through. 🤩 I'm a big fan of Abercrombie and looking to read more of him this year. My wife and I are going to start Best Served Cold soon and that will be her first Abercrombie book! Keep doing what you do. Your tastes align so well with my own and so I love catching your videos for recs.
I love your animated, lively style. Always have, Merphy 😊 Your excitement and your endearing personality shines through every time and is infectious!! Thank you for what you do year in and year out!! I appreciate it!! Hope you and your family are enjoying the holidays!!💝
I read my first Abercrombie series this year. His hype can not be overstated! Also I need another entire novel with Sand dan Glokta in my life. What a loveable wretch he is!!
@@joshuabean846 Yeah, no Glokta pov anymore, alas. Lots of other great points of view though. I can't think of any other author who writes pov as well as Abercrombie.
So many of my favs on here! I can’t wait to try Dandelion Dynasty, and I’m so excited to track your journeys through the rest of Dresden and Temeraire!
Annihilation was trippy! Haha The lines “the walls were breathing” “they were descending into an organism” were so eerie in the best possible way. You might also like Vandermeer’s Borne (I loved it!) - also weird but it’s more emotional (with themes of survival, parenthood, etc.) 😁 I’ve only read the first book but it’s one of my all-time faves
Have you read the rest of the Southern Reach series? I really want to since I liked Annihilation so much but I was told the sequels are very different..
To add to the Discworld hype, I read Hogfather this year, a great book for around the holidays and easily an A tier Discworld book in terms of its themes and characters! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that one
And the Three-Body Problem made it!! 👏 I knew Merphy you will love it when I suggested it!! 💙 (The sci-fi is so missed from these channels from the old fashioned type.) You really could give a try to Banks - Culture. It’s for you. 😉
Reading the Dandelion Dynasty from start to finish was not on my bingo card, but I wound up relatively binging the series. And I fell in love. I love the short story-esque structure of the chapters throughout the series. The Veiled Throne being my favorite of the four is apparently an unpopular opinion. If you need recommendations on what next to read from Stephen Graham Jones, I have recs! Haha. The way Octavia E. Butler writes, with such directness, makes everything so much more heavy. No Don Quixote?! 😭 My top nine (for now): 1. Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb 2. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 3. City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky (currently reading House of Open Wounds, which has a very good chance of taking this spot) 4. Sacraments for the Unfit by Sarah Tolmie 5. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology 6. The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu 7. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 8. A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay 9. Evil for Evil by K. J. Parker
Why do sci fi and horror go so well together? Anyway I'm reading The Three-Body Problem and I understand why you got interested in the cultural revolution. Not even halfway done and I already got chills multiple times! Very awesome list with a lot of books I also still want to check out!
Really enjoyed your rundown of the top books of 2023! Your insights on "Tress of The Emerald Sea" and "Discworld" were particularly thought-provoking and will definitely guide my reading list for the year. I appreciate your honesty about the 'cheating', it adds a personal touch to your reviews. Thanks for taking the time to share your literary expertise with us. Looking forward to more such videos!
I'm currently on Malazan book 3 (Memories of Ice). I'm so looking forward to the Age of Madness trilogy but want to read the standalones first so that's a 2024 priority for me. Finally, I'm also starting the Dandelion Dynasty in 2024. Looking forward to it. The Wager sounds really cool too! -Cheers!
Yay for Temeraire getting an honorable mention! You've made me really interested in picking up Blood Over Bright Haven and the Dandelion Dynasty as they both sound like something I'd enjoy
I'm on book 2 of dandelion and the thing that sticks out to me as what really makes the books so good so far I never hear booktubers discussing. They are the themes and philosophies of the characters in the books. The characters are always debating socioeconomics, ethics, philosophy, education, political theory, etc. These conversations and debates alone are really what make this top tier for me even though I'm only on book 2.
OMG !! Temeraire !!! I love the series ❤ you are the first booktuber that I have seen reading the first installment. I read the first one about 16 years ago
I’ve read about half of these, but I have to say the Temeraire series is in my top ten series of all time. Those books are beyond excellent. Nothing she has written since can compare. I also read both the Abercrombie series and you are spot on. Those books are amazing ! I was thinking about getting back into Discworld, but this year is for Sanderson rereading, leading up to the December Book 5. That’s a lot of books, plus everything else on my tbr starting with Ken Liu.
I love how excited you are in this video! It was so fun to watch you cut yourself off and have to back track because you get ahead of yourself. You can truly tell how much you love these books. It felt like I asked you personally to tell me your favourite books of the year 🥰
I’m so glad you enjoyed the beginning of the City Watch series, but man I can’t wait to hear your feelings on Night Watch! I know it will take longer to get there with going on chronological order but I think you’ll love it 😊
My favorite books of this year were Tress of the Emerald Sea by Sanderson and Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson. Pirate Hunters is a non fic story about two treasure hunters uncovering the secrets of Joseph Bannister's pirate ship from the 17th century. I read this book in 3 days and even annotated it, which goes to show how much I loved this book. Highly recommend!
Age of Madness was stellar. I'm still sore about my boy REDACTED at the end, by the way. Abercrombie, we need more! Discworld has IMHO the best depiction of Death as a character I've seen. Looking forward to your thoughts on Reaper Man! Dead Beat, ahh, Dead Beat. "The correct kind of nonsense" is beautifully put, and I will be stealing that phrase for my personal arsenal (with attribution, of course).
Currently reading Temeraire, as someone who's never liked Novik, and yes just as you say, charming is the word. She seems to work best when dealing with a simple concept that is appealing and easy to get into.
Love your best books of 2023! Here are mine: 🥇"Speaking Bones" - Ken Liu 🥈"Blood Over Bright Haven" - M. L. Wang 🥉"The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi" - Shannon Chakraborty "The Book That Wouldn't Burn" - Mark Lawrence "Spinning Silver" - Naomi Novik "Perdido Street Station" - China Mieville "Bloodchild and Other Stories" - Octavia E. Butler "Lone Women" - Victor LaValle "Talonsister" - Jen Williams "Godkiller" - Hannah Kaner
A bit late to this, but Everything Sad is Untrue is an amazing read. I've been following your channel for a while and I am fairly certain it would strike all the right chords with you. It's s fairly sad memoir told through a child in the most sincere and humorous way!
Love the fact that Discworld made your top 10 this year! The City Watch books are probably my favourite parts of the series, though Mort is probably my favourite overall.
Annihilation was one of my favorite reads in the year I read it too! Sci-fi horror is right up my alley and I immediately picked up on the Lovecraftian vibes too. It such a great short atmospheric read. Personally, though I treat it as a standalone. I haven't gone on to the other two books but the way Annihilation ended felt fitting to me.
I think anyone watching you can tell ur not a poser, truly have extreme passion, and how animated you are is genuine. I hope ur channel grows. Ur hubby does a great job editing. How many books do you read a year?
Seeing this makes me want to put The Age of Madness at the top my TBR. I love Abercrombie's characters, and still believe Glokta to be one of the best characters in a fantasy series.
Annihilation is a modern classic. That whole trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time. If you liked it, also check out Roadside Picnic, a sci-fi novel written in the USSR during the Cold War that’s only recently had its full text available in America. Similar story.
I believe that I heard about, and read, Blood Over Bright Haven based on your review of it. I thought it was a very enjoyable read! Thanks for the review and putting it on my radar.
I may have read Butler's Dawn as a teen. Your description sounded familiar and, sure enough, reading the official synopsis it sounds like one of those stories that has tickled my memory for so long, but I never took the time to re-find. Whether I would like it now, I don't know, but I'm adding it to my TBR.
I focused on Discworld in 2023 and managed to read 15. My favorites by far are the Witches books, and Granny Weatherwax is easily my favorite character. I'm hoping we get to hear more about your Discworld journey soon.
I read a fairly recent sci-fi book called Children of Time this year. It was fantastic! Brief summary of the premise: Humanity has almost destroyed itself, but before doing so, it had seeded life on other planets. When humanity rebuilds itself to a point that it can attempt to be space-faring once more, it sends vessels on one-way trips to try to help some vestige of the human race find a more habitable planet. The novel sets up a collision between one ship of such humans and the civilization of intelligent spiders we inadvertently seeded on another planet. (We also see the course of that spider civilization from its inception until its first contact(s) with the remnants of humankind.
I went on a sci-fi horror kick this year. If you love Anihilation, you should try: blindsight by Peter Watts, Blood Music by Greg Bear, and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. All absolutely incredible and fascinating! Blindsight is a first contact that has a very Gothic and fear of the unknown atmosphere. More philosophical ideas in this one. Solaris is also a first contact that and the turmoil of dealing with your past. Blood Music is about a scientist creating AI stim cells that creates a plague and you go through the horrors of that.
Oh sweet and wonderful Temeraire! I just think the series is such a fun blend of historical fiction and fantasy and how it's interesting to see what happens in her alternate Napoleonic Wars universe. I suspect I may like the Powdermage series if I liked Temeraire. But either way, very curious to see what you think beyond His Majesty's Dragon.
My favorite book of the year was The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. It’s sci fi, though it’s often shelved in the horror section. I didn’t find it to fit that label but it did break my brain many times over. I read it in June I think, and I have not stopped thinking about it
Tress was my first Sanderson book and I loved it! I have since only read Warbreaker and really liked that one. I'm just slowly dipping my toe into his worlds
I love Pratchett. If you haven't read it yet, try to squeeze in Hogfather before the end of the year--it's the perfect Christmas/winter holiday read that I reread often in December!
Hi Merphy! I was wondering if you (or the commenters) could recommend a Backman book for my mom? She has very different taste from me, and I haven't read any Backman yet myself, but based on your videos, I wondered if it might be her thing. But I'm not sure which ones would suit her tastes. She likes: - Humorous situations: they can be 'relatable' (like old age problems) or wacky (like a road trip with a mannequin doll, or the poop pie in The Help), or somewhere in between - Deeper observations about life - Hopeful tone (not too depressing) - Topics she finds relatable and/or interesting (old age, toxic or unusual families, intergenerational trauma, other cultures, immigrant stories) - Descriptions of nature (like the rhododendrons in Rebecca) - Memorable details - Books by Elisabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton) and Roy Jacobsen (The Unseen, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles) She's not so into: - Icky, creepy, gory or very violent content - Very depressing books - Most fantasy (besides magic realism which she does like) - Cynical worldview - Types of humor that don’t quite match her own humor, like dad jokes, very dry humor, or very cynical/mean humor - Books that she finds too complicated (especially plot-wise) Any ideas?
@@merphynapierreviews Thank you so much! And thanks to the rest of you too :) She saw Anxious People in the store once but thought she wouldn't like it because of the title (she has anxiety and thought it sounded depressing). Is it a lot about mental health struggles or is that just a misleading title? For the rest, it sounds like something my mom might like.
This is a good list but the one thing I found highly questionable was choosing Night of the Mannequins over Something Wicked This Way Comes. I think it's kinda like choosing The Hunger Games over Red Rising. Not that Night of the Mannequins is bad, because it's actually a good book, but Something Wicked This Way Comes is just on a different level as far as overall quality goes.
I’ve only read some of these, and some are way too intimidating (Malazan) but the mixture of styles of fantasy and science fiction seems to be close to mine The “correct kind of nonsense” is a wonderful way of explaining what made me love the middle chunk of the Dresden books I’m also a big fan of Abercrombie and discworld. I enjoyed annihilation. And am very much anticipating Ken Liu’s books
Haven't been around for a while and am surprised to see naomi nokik here, i read her scholomance trilogy like 3 times this year , now i'm more hyped to get into temeraire, if you havent read the scholomance trilogy in do recommend checking it out
Very strong Sci-fi representation by including Three Body Problem and Annihilation. I'd recommend a nice sci-fi companion read to those with 2006 Peter Watts book "Blindsight".
I'd recommend you check out the book series 'Scum Villain's Self-Saving System' by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It's about a man ending up inside the world of a novel he hates, and he's ended up in the body of the villain. So now he has to figure out how to survive even though his body has already committed a lot of the crimes he'll later be punished for. The POV is written in a comedic way, and I was entertained the whole way through.
Thanks, Merphy. I'm picking up three off your list (Wild Swans, Night of the Mannequins and The Wager). Thanks for bringing them to my attention. I confess I don't get your love for Annihilation. I read it, didn't have a clue what it was about and ditched the series. Sorry, but if I'm supposed to read the series, the author has to give me something to wrap my head around. Annihilation didn't.
"Something wicked this way comes" is one of three Disney movies for children that was truly dark. You can hunt down the DVD of it. I bought it to add to my library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror media for my events that I was running.
You’ve convinced me to read book 2 because I thought book one was a bit difficult to read because of the lack of background in the first quarter of the book and the last quarter of the book had a lot of meaningless descriptions that I didn’t think added to the storyline. It kept going on and on and on about something that could’ve been explained a lot more concise. This is the first book that I’ve read that has been translated from Chinese so maybe that was my block. But I will give The Dark Forest a try. MAYBE a good recommendation would be to read Wild Swans before one reads Three body problem to help understand the cultural revolution in China.
Thank you for recommending Temeraire--I looked it up, did you know his name means "Reckless"?--I read it right after you did and already have "Throne of Jade" on standby at the library! My recommendation is "Temple Alley Summer" - YA novel, recent winner of the Batchelder Award. Here's the hook: What would you do if a ghost suddenly transferred into your school, but everyone around you acted like they were a regular alive person who they had known since kindergarten?
It's that time of the year then ! :D Here's mine: 10- Southern Reach Trilogy 9- Murderbot Diaries 8- The Lies of Locke Lamorra 7- Asimov Foundation universe 6- This is how you lose the time war 5- Kingkiller Chronicles 4- Before the coffee gets cold 3- Project Hail Mary 2- Dresden Files 1- Tress of the Emerald Sea
Yay for Dandelion Dynasty! I read the first one aaages ago when it came out. I really need to re-read that and read the rest of that series because I remember loving it so much! Discworld's amazing too! The Night Watch are my fav group to read about in the series. Second is of course, Death XD If you love Terry Pratchett and have read Neil Gaiman I highly suggest reading Good Omens if you haven't. Cheers to more reading in 2024~
The ridiculousness at the end of Deadbeat is one of the best events in the entire series so far, IMO. There are some moments that top it, but the sheer absurdity of it always makes me smile when I think back to it. I have that whole section of the book bookmarked in the audible app so I can re-listen to it when I'm in a bad mood.
My history teacher recommended Wild Swans to me in high school over ten years ago and I've had it on my shelf unread for almost as long but have for some reason never picked it up. I know I'm going to love it, but fiction just almost always wins when I have to choose how to spend my time. But, maybe next year will be different and I will finally read it!
Please please please please check out Roadside Picnic if you liked Annihilation, it came out in the 70s but it's eerily similar. China Mieville's stuff might also scratch a similar itch (with it being extremely strange) I especially enjoyed Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
My youthful start into enjoyment of reading if you want to give it a go. Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I would love to see your excitement in dealing with dragons or see what you think. Please and thank you. Loving the videos on both channels. Dead beat spoilers so much fun for me ya.
Have you read Armor by John Steakley? It is a sci-fi book about the psychological effects of warfare. It also has in my opinion one of the greatest quotes from a sci-fi novel: "You are what you do when it counts."
I loved Yumi!!! Also, the Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan and the Ryiria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan were very good. Nonfiction-wise, I really enjoyed Adorning the Dark and Orthodoxy.
I read all of the Xenogenesis-trilogy by Octavia E. Butler this year and then I read Kindred. She was amazing author and I really hope to continue reading her work. I actually didn't consider Dawn that much as a horror even though it had those elements. Whole trilogy explores humanity, freedom and xenophopia deeply without being hard to read or follow. On contrary they were really hooking reads.
Sometimes I feel like I read a completely different book when I read The Three Body Problem. So many people seem to like this book but to me it was borderline unreadable. It is the only book I've ever rated a 1 star and didn't DNF purely because I needed to know why it was so highly rated. The dialogue felt like I was reading a caricature of how Asian people would speak english and felt unbelievably shallow. The concept was cool but I still don't understand how the actual implementation of this book hit with so many. Should I stay away from Ken Liu if I hated the The Three Body Problem so much? Love the Age of Madness trilogy though, especially Wisdom of Crowds. Liked this so much more than the First Law. I look forward to some of his other works.
Maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker, but I don't agree with that take. While it's an English translation, the dialogue is still happening in chinese, so obviously it's not going to be perfect in English. Regardless it's not really the dialogue that's hooking me, but rather the atmosphere and mystery (I'm only halfway through the first book though).
Would you ever consider doing a video on book-to-screen adaptations? I think I've heard you say you don't watch much tv but I'd love to hear what you think of the movie adaptation of Annihilation.
I saw the film of Annihilation but never got round to reading the books, I really should! The film was so disturbing and weird, you have convinced me to get the series!
My Top 10 reads of 2023 My Top Favorite Read of 2023, is a tie between «Under Heaven» by Guy Gavriel Kay & «The Veiled Throne» («Dandelion Dynasty #3) by Ken Liu: «Under Heaven» should be teached next to «War & Peace» and «Le Miserables» for GGK’s prose and Ken Liu’s Character Work has few if any rivals! A character that has only one scene in «TVT» (though a series veteran in «The Dandelion Dynasty»), earned with that scene alone my favorite character of 2023: Cogo Yelu! Next is another tie between «The Retreat to Avalon» by Sean Poage & «The Winter King» by Bernard Cornwell: Poage has written my favorite take on «A Historical King Arthur» and the Seige of Yves Trebon/St. Michel in «TWK» shows why Cornwell might be the best at writing battles! The next are unsorted: «The Way of Edan» by Philip Chase «Bold Ascension» by Vaughn Roycroft «The Winter Road» by Adrian Selby «Salammbo» by Gustave Flaubert «The Farthest Shore» by Ursula K. Le Guin «Brigantia» by Adrian Goldsworthy Honourable Mentions «The Little Emperors»/«The Conscience of the King» by Alfred Duggan (Love very dry British humor on ambitions, politics and bureaucracy (so many great quotes!), and excellent descriptions of how (possibly) Roman Britain fell!) «Tortilla Flat» by John Steinbeck (my biggest laughs this year, Great Feelgood Read if you don’t mind some tragedy too!)
I know the books themselves are very good recommendations, but just looking at your sheer passion and enthusiasm for the books makes me want to read all of them
Same. Got into Gentleman bastards just so that I could feed and admire upon merphy's enthusiasm UwU
I know Merphy and I don't always align on books, but her enthusiasm and delivery are always worth listening to.
Very happy to see Dandelion Dynasty, Remembrance of Earth's Past, and Annihiliation. Dandelion quickly became my favorite series (and Ken Liu my favorite author (highly recommend his second short story collection if you ever get the itch for more of his writing) and Remembrance and Southern Reach are both in my Top 10 too. Read some good ass books this year.
I said this on your Annihilation reading vlog but I feel the need to repeat it- PLEASE read books 2 and 3, they are absolutely phenomenal and imo better than Annihilation in many ways. Book 2 *is* a very different vibe from book 1 but it’s still really great, and book 3 is one of my favourite books _ever,_ it’s more similar to book 1 but *_so much better in every aspect_*
Edit: ok you just said you do plan on reading the series and AAAAHHHHHH I can’t wait to hear your thoughts
Ik this wasn't aimed at me, but I also read Annihilation for the first time this year and loved it, so it's great to hear that the rest of the series is just as good if not better!!
I also loved Tress it was one of my favorites this year and such a wonderful surprise.
I'm a much slower reader than you but, coincidentally, I just finished Dead Beat the other day. I'm with you, it was an absolute blast. I especially love the audiobook for these. Marsters is so good!
I also read my first Discworld book this year with Guards! Guards! Such a treat and gotta keep digging down that rabbit hole. Between that and Dresden there are about 60 books to get through. 🤩
I'm a big fan of Abercrombie and looking to read more of him this year. My wife and I are going to start Best Served Cold soon and that will be her first Abercrombie book!
Keep doing what you do. Your tastes align so well with my own and so I love catching your videos for recs.
I love your animated, lively style. Always have, Merphy 😊
Your excitement and your endearing personality shines through every time and is infectious!! Thank you for what you do year in and year out!! I appreciate it!! Hope you and your family are enjoying the holidays!!💝
I read my first Abercrombie series this year. His hype can not be overstated! Also I need another entire novel with Sand dan Glokta in my life. What a loveable wretch he is!!
He is actually in the Age of Madness trilogy as a side character, so there will be more of him :)
@@booklanerecommendations Awesome! I literally could read just page after page of him thinking to himself 😂
@@joshuabean846 Yeah, no Glokta pov anymore, alas. Lots of other great points of view though. I can't think of any other author who writes pov as well as Abercrombie.
@booklanerecommendations Right!?! Also, he has a knack for making you like characters who are absolutely horrible people to their core. Lol
@@joshuabean846 Yeah true (though I gravitate towards flawed characters in general)
So many of my favs on here! I can’t wait to try Dandelion Dynasty, and I’m so excited to track your journeys through the rest of Dresden and Temeraire!
You have fantastic taste, Merphy. Excited for you to continue Dresden. It only gets better and better.
Annihilation was trippy! Haha The lines “the walls were breathing” “they were descending into an organism” were so eerie in the best possible way.
You might also like Vandermeer’s Borne (I loved it!) - also weird but it’s more emotional (with themes of survival, parenthood, etc.) 😁 I’ve only read the first book but it’s one of my all-time faves
Have you read the rest of the Southern Reach series? I really want to since I liked Annihilation so much but I was told the sequels are very different..
@@loxee4769 I've been meaning to but I haven't read the rest of the series. Still on my by tbr, though!
To add to the Discworld hype, I read Hogfather this year, a great book for around the holidays and easily an A tier Discworld book in terms of its themes and characters! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that one
And the Three-Body Problem made it!! 👏 I knew Merphy you will love it when I suggested it!! 💙 (The sci-fi is so missed from these channels from the old fashioned type.) You really could give a try to Banks - Culture. It’s for you. 😉
Reading the Dandelion Dynasty from start to finish was not on my bingo card, but I wound up relatively binging the series. And I fell in love. I love the short story-esque structure of the chapters throughout the series. The Veiled Throne being my favorite of the four is apparently an unpopular opinion.
If you need recommendations on what next to read from Stephen Graham Jones, I have recs! Haha.
The way Octavia E. Butler writes, with such directness, makes everything so much more heavy.
No Don Quixote?! 😭
My top nine (for now):
1. Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
2. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
3. City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky (currently reading House of Open Wounds, which has a very good chance of taking this spot)
4. Sacraments for the Unfit by Sarah Tolmie
5. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
6. The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu
7. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
8. A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
9. Evil for Evil by K. J. Parker
Wild Swans is one of my favorite nonfiction reads. I was lucky to read it as assigned reading in college.
Just happened across this list randomly and so many of your picks are among my favs as well. Subscribed!
I read Lev Grossman's the Magicians trilogy because of you and its become one of my favourite series of all time!! Thank you very much ❤️
The television series was excelent, when the author of a book is part of the writing team for the adaptation it certainly helps
Was going to say it would be rough to narrow it down to 10, you had several great reads
Why do sci fi and horror go so well together? Anyway I'm reading The Three-Body Problem and I understand why you got interested in the cultural revolution. Not even halfway done and I already got chills multiple times!
Very awesome list with a lot of books I also still want to check out!
I am envious of the amount of reading you managed this year.
Really enjoyed your rundown of the top books of 2023! Your insights on "Tress of The Emerald Sea" and "Discworld" were particularly thought-provoking and will definitely guide my reading list for the year. I appreciate your honesty about the 'cheating', it adds a personal touch to your reviews. Thanks for taking the time to share your literary expertise with us. Looking forward to more such videos!
I'm currently on Malazan book 3 (Memories of Ice). I'm so looking forward to the Age of Madness trilogy but want to read the standalones first so that's a 2024 priority for me. Finally, I'm also starting the Dandelion Dynasty in 2024. Looking forward to it. The Wager sounds really cool too! -Cheers!
Yay for Temeraire getting an honorable mention! You've made me really interested in picking up Blood Over Bright Haven and the Dandelion Dynasty as they both sound like something I'd enjoy
I'm on book 2 of dandelion and the thing that sticks out to me as what really makes the books so good so far I never hear booktubers discussing. They are the themes and philosophies of the characters in the books. The characters are always debating socioeconomics, ethics, philosophy, education, political theory, etc. These conversations and debates alone are really what make this top tier for me even though I'm only on book 2.
Love seeing The Remembrance of Earth's Past on the list. Those are some of my favorite books of all time.
OMG !! Temeraire !!! I love the series ❤ you are the first booktuber that I have seen reading the first installment. I read the first one about 16 years ago
I appreciate your love for books and how much joy they bring you. Thank you for making videos and spreading book love!
Greetings from Wales. Excellent book recommendations, I love your enthusiasm, Tis almost contagious. Will keep watching now, thank you.
I’ve read about half of these, but I have to say the Temeraire series is in my top ten series of all time. Those books are beyond excellent. Nothing she has written since can compare. I also read both the Abercrombie series and you are spot on. Those books are amazing ! I was thinking about getting back into Discworld, but this year is for Sanderson rereading, leading up to the December Book 5. That’s a lot of books, plus everything else on my tbr starting with Ken Liu.
I love how excited you are in this video! It was so fun to watch you cut yourself off and have to back track because you get ahead of yourself. You can truly tell how much you love these books. It felt like I asked you personally to tell me your favourite books of the year 🥰
I’m so glad you enjoyed the beginning of the City Watch series, but man I can’t wait to hear your feelings on Night Watch! I know it will take longer to get there with going on chronological order but I think you’ll love it 😊
My favorite books of this year were Tress of the Emerald Sea by Sanderson and Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson. Pirate Hunters is a non fic story about two treasure hunters uncovering the secrets of Joseph Bannister's pirate ship from the 17th century. I read this book in 3 days and even annotated it, which goes to show how much I loved this book. Highly recommend!
Age of Madness was stellar. I'm still sore about my boy REDACTED at the end, by the way. Abercrombie, we need more!
Discworld has IMHO the best depiction of Death as a character I've seen. Looking forward to your thoughts on Reaper Man!
Dead Beat, ahh, Dead Beat. "The correct kind of nonsense" is beautifully put, and I will be stealing that phrase for my personal arsenal (with attribution, of course).
Currently reading Temeraire, as someone who's never liked Novik, and yes just as you say, charming is the word. She seems to work best when dealing with a simple concept that is appealing and easy to get into.
Yes! Honorable mention to Dead Beat!!!!
You're going to love the next book :)
polka will never die!!!!!!
When are you guys going to collaborate?
Dead Beat gets so much love due to the cool ending, but I find Proven Guilty to be superior, mainly because the Molly and Charity stuff is great.
Love your best books of 2023! Here are mine:
🥇"Speaking Bones" - Ken Liu
🥈"Blood Over Bright Haven" - M. L. Wang
🥉"The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi" - Shannon Chakraborty
"The Book That Wouldn't Burn" - Mark Lawrence
"Spinning Silver" - Naomi Novik
"Perdido Street Station" - China Mieville
"Bloodchild and Other Stories" - Octavia E. Butler
"Lone Women" - Victor LaValle
"Talonsister" - Jen Williams
"Godkiller" - Hannah Kaner
A bit late to this, but Everything Sad is Untrue is an amazing read. I've been following your channel for a while and I am fairly certain it would strike all the right chords with you. It's s fairly sad memoir told through a child in the most sincere and humorous way!
Love the fact that Discworld made your top 10 this year! The City Watch books are probably my favourite parts of the series, though Mort is probably my favourite overall.
Annihilation was one of my favorite reads in the year I read it too! Sci-fi horror is right up my alley and I immediately picked up on the Lovecraftian vibes too. It such a great short atmospheric read. Personally, though I treat it as a standalone. I haven't gone on to the other two books but the way Annihilation ended felt fitting to me.
I think anyone watching you can tell ur not a poser, truly have extreme passion, and how animated you are is genuine. I hope ur channel grows. Ur hubby does a great job editing. How many books do you read a year?
Seeing this makes me want to put The Age of Madness at the top my TBR. I love Abercrombie's characters, and still believe Glokta to be one of the best characters in a fantasy series.
Annihilation is a modern classic. That whole trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time. If you liked it, also check out Roadside Picnic, a sci-fi novel written in the USSR during the Cold War that’s only recently had its full text available in America. Similar story.
glad to see malazan and discworld. cant wait for your reapers gale review. I took a break at 8, when you start 9 I think i will join in
I believe that I heard about, and read, Blood Over Bright Haven based on your review of it. I thought it was a very enjoyable read! Thanks for the review and putting it on my radar.
I love that you almost said “my discworld” instead of “my discord!” 😂 Excellent list!
I may have read Butler's Dawn as a teen. Your description sounded familiar and, sure enough, reading the official synopsis it sounds like one of those stories that has tickled my memory for so long, but I never took the time to re-find. Whether I would like it now, I don't know, but I'm adding it to my TBR.
Points for Dandelion and Mannequins, but minus a bunch more for The Wager's positioning.
Glad you finally found the word of Kemler :) you have no idea how good Dresden is going to get!! Especially books 15-17
THE PILE!! Loved your list.Lots Ive read and lots I havent. Thank you.
You’re my favorite book reviwer. You got me to reading books! Thank you!🙏🏽 🎉❤😊
I'm really looking forward to reading some Joe Abercrombie. I've read nothing by him but I do like dark, gritty fantasy. Nice list!
I focused on Discworld in 2023 and managed to read 15. My favorites by far are the Witches books, and Granny Weatherwax is easily my favorite character. I'm hoping we get to hear more about your Discworld journey soon.
I read a fairly recent sci-fi book called Children of Time this year. It was fantastic!
Brief summary of the premise: Humanity has almost destroyed itself, but before doing so, it had seeded life on other planets. When humanity rebuilds itself to a point that it can attempt to be space-faring once more, it sends vessels on one-way trips to try to help some vestige of the human race find a more habitable planet. The novel sets up a collision between one ship of such humans and the civilization of intelligent spiders we inadvertently seeded on another planet. (We also see the course of that spider civilization from its inception until its first contact(s) with the remnants of humankind.
I went on a sci-fi horror kick this year. If you love Anihilation, you should try: blindsight by Peter Watts, Blood Music by Greg Bear, and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. All absolutely incredible and fascinating!
Blindsight is a first contact that has a very Gothic and fear of the unknown atmosphere. More philosophical ideas in this one.
Solaris is also a first contact that and the turmoil of dealing with your past.
Blood Music is about a scientist creating AI stim cells that creates a plague and you go through the horrors of that.
oh yay! Thank you so much for these recs, Solaris is already on my March TBR, and the other two sound perfect for the mood I've been in as well!
@@merphynapierreviews Blindsight is my favorite book I've ever read, but all 3 are probably in my top 10 for the year out of 60.
I wait for this video all year! Thanks for the recommendations!
I read Wild Swams years ago and loved it.
Oh sweet and wonderful Temeraire! I just think the series is such a fun blend of historical fiction and fantasy and how it's interesting to see what happens in her alternate Napoleonic Wars universe. I suspect I may like the Powdermage series if I liked Temeraire. But either way, very curious to see what you think beyond His Majesty's Dragon.
My favorite book of the year was The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. It’s sci fi, though it’s often shelved in the horror section. I didn’t find it to fit that label but it did break my brain many times over. I read it in June I think, and I have not stopped thinking about it
Tress was my first Sanderson book and I loved it! I have since only read Warbreaker and really liked that one. I'm just slowly dipping my toe into his worlds
I am really excited for you. You have so much great reading in your future! I feel that everything he writes is great and there is so much of it!
I love Pratchett. If you haven't read it yet, try to squeeze in Hogfather before the end of the year--it's the perfect Christmas/winter holiday read that I reread often in December!
Completely agree with your description of Dead Beat! Liked Dresden before that book, but loved the series after that.
So happy Dead Beat got an honorable mention. Yeah, the shenanigans at the end are the perfect kind of ridiculous. One of my favorite Dresden files.
Hi Merphy! I was wondering if you (or the commenters) could recommend a Backman book for my mom? She has very different taste from me, and I haven't read any Backman yet myself, but based on your videos, I wondered if it might be her thing. But I'm not sure which ones would suit her tastes.
She likes:
- Humorous situations: they can be 'relatable' (like old age problems) or wacky (like a road trip with a mannequin doll, or the poop pie in The Help), or somewhere in between
- Deeper observations about life
- Hopeful tone (not too depressing)
- Topics she finds relatable and/or interesting (old age, toxic or unusual families, intergenerational trauma, other cultures, immigrant stories)
- Descriptions of nature (like the rhododendrons in Rebecca)
- Memorable details
- Books by Elisabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton) and Roy Jacobsen (The Unseen, The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles)
She's not so into:
- Icky, creepy, gory or very violent content
- Very depressing books
- Most fantasy (besides magic realism which she does like)
- Cynical worldview
- Types of humor that don’t quite match her own humor, like dad jokes, very dry humor, or very cynical/mean humor
- Books that she finds too complicated (especially plot-wise)
Any ideas?
Try Anxious People. It was amazing. Sounds like the perfect fit according to the criteria you mentioned.
Anxious People would be my recommendation to start with, from reading the tastes above
And
A Man Called Ove
Sounds like Anxious People or A Man Called Ove would be a good fit for her!
@@merphynapierreviews Thank you so much! And thanks to the rest of you too :)
She saw Anxious People in the store once but thought she wouldn't like it because of the title (she has anxiety and thought it sounded depressing). Is it a lot about mental health struggles or is that just a misleading title? For the rest, it sounds like something my mom might like.
This is a good list but the one thing I found highly questionable was choosing Night of the Mannequins over Something Wicked This Way Comes. I think it's kinda like choosing The Hunger Games over Red Rising. Not that Night of the Mannequins is bad, because it's actually a good book, but Something Wicked This Way Comes is just on a different level as far as overall quality goes.
I’ve only read some of these, and some are way too intimidating (Malazan) but the mixture of styles of fantasy and science fiction seems to be close to mine
The “correct kind of nonsense” is a wonderful way of explaining what made me love the middle chunk of the Dresden books
I’m also a big fan of Abercrombie and discworld. I enjoyed annihilation. And am very much anticipating Ken Liu’s books
Haven't been around for a while and am surprised to see naomi nokik here, i read her scholomance trilogy like 3 times this year , now i'm more hyped to get into temeraire, if you havent read the scholomance trilogy in do recommend checking it out
Very strong Sci-fi representation by including Three Body Problem and Annihilation.
I'd recommend a nice sci-fi companion read to those with 2006 Peter Watts book "Blindsight".
Omg Dresden book 8 is so goood it’s so much fun and I can’t wait to see your thoughts
Yay Temeraire! Book two in the series is even more exciting!!! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on it ^^
I'd recommend you check out the book series 'Scum Villain's Self-Saving System' by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.
It's about a man ending up inside the world of a novel he hates, and he's ended up in the body of the villain. So now he has to figure out how to survive even though his body has already committed a lot of the crimes he'll later be punished for. The POV is written in a comedic way, and I was entertained the whole way through.
Dead Beat is my all time favorite book in the series! POLKA. NEVER. DIES.
Thanks, Merphy. I'm picking up three off your list (Wild Swans, Night of the Mannequins and The Wager). Thanks for bringing them to my attention.
I confess I don't get your love for Annihilation. I read it, didn't have a clue what it was about and ditched the series. Sorry, but if I'm supposed to read the series, the author has to give me something to wrap my head around. Annihilation didn't.
"Something wicked this way comes" is one of three Disney movies for children that was truly dark. You can hunt down the DVD of it. I bought it to add to my library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror media for my events that I was running.
You’ve convinced me to read book 2 because I thought book one was a bit difficult to read because of the lack of background in the first quarter of the book and the last quarter of the book had a lot of meaningless descriptions that I didn’t think added to the storyline. It kept going on and on and on about something that could’ve been explained a lot more concise. This is the first book that I’ve read that has been translated from Chinese so maybe that was my block. But I will give The Dark Forest a try. MAYBE a good recommendation would be to read Wild Swans before one reads Three body problem to help understand the cultural revolution in China.
Thank you for recommending Temeraire--I looked it up, did you know his name means "Reckless"?--I read it right after you did and already have "Throne of Jade" on standby at the library!
My recommendation is "Temple Alley Summer" - YA novel, recent winner of the Batchelder Award. Here's the hook: What would you do if a ghost suddenly transferred into your school, but everyone around you acted like they were a regular alive person who they had known since kindergarten?
It's that time of the year then ! :D
Here's mine:
10- Southern Reach Trilogy
9- Murderbot Diaries
8- The Lies of Locke Lamorra
7- Asimov Foundation universe
6- This is how you lose the time war
5- Kingkiller Chronicles
4- Before the coffee gets cold
3- Project Hail Mary
2- Dresden Files
1- Tress of the Emerald Sea
Reading Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian right now and about halfway through I am really enjoying it.
Yay for Dandelion Dynasty! I read the first one aaages ago when it came out. I really need to re-read that and read the rest of that series because I remember loving it so much! Discworld's amazing too! The Night Watch are my fav group to read about in the series. Second is of course, Death XD If you love Terry Pratchett and have read Neil Gaiman I highly suggest reading Good Omens if you haven't. Cheers to more reading in 2024~
I'd love to hear your thoughts and comparisons for Annihilation the book and Annihilation the movie. Natalie Portman is in it.
The ridiculousness at the end of Deadbeat is one of the best events in the entire series so far, IMO. There are some moments that top it, but the sheer absurdity of it always makes me smile when I think back to it. I have that whole section of the book bookmarked in the audible app so I can re-listen to it when I'm in a bad mood.
My history teacher recommended Wild Swans to me in high school over ten years ago and I've had it on my shelf unread for almost as long but have for some reason never picked it up. I know I'm going to love it, but fiction just almost always wins when I have to choose how to spend my time. But, maybe next year will be different and I will finally read it!
I can't wait until you get to the Tiffany Aching series. I think it genuinely might be my favourite Pratchett book series
Please please please please check out Roadside Picnic if you liked Annihilation, it came out in the 70s but it's eerily similar. China Mieville's stuff might also scratch a similar itch (with it being extremely strange) I especially enjoyed Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
My youthful start into enjoyment of reading if you want to give it a go. Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I would love to see your excitement in dealing with dragons or see what you think. Please and thank you. Loving the videos on both channels. Dead beat spoilers so much fun for me ya.
I feel your pain: just made my own top ten and it was ever so hard! 😂 Always love to see Discworld in a list like this
Tress/Yumi, The Wager, Fragile Threads of Power, Defiant and Starsight (not released this year but i read it this year) were my favs
Have you read Armor by John Steakley? It is a sci-fi book about the psychological effects of warfare.
It also has in my opinion one of the greatest quotes from a sci-fi novel: "You are what you do when it counts."
I loved Yumi!!! Also, the Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan and the Ryiria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan were very good. Nonfiction-wise, I really enjoyed Adorning the Dark and Orthodoxy.
Glad to see Temeraire here! Such a good series
Thanks for a great list, but man Dead Beat! Love it! ❤
I read all of the Xenogenesis-trilogy by Octavia E. Butler this year and then I read Kindred. She was amazing author and I really hope to continue reading her work. I actually didn't consider Dawn that much as a horror even though it had those elements. Whole trilogy explores humanity, freedom and xenophopia deeply without being hard to read or follow. On contrary they were really hooking reads.
Sometimes I feel like I read a completely different book when I read The Three Body Problem. So many people seem to like this book but to me it was borderline unreadable. It is the only book I've ever rated a 1 star and didn't DNF purely because I needed to know why it was so highly rated. The dialogue felt like I was reading a caricature of how Asian people would speak english and felt unbelievably shallow. The concept was cool but I still don't understand how the actual implementation of this book hit with so many. Should I stay away from Ken Liu if I hated the The Three Body Problem so much?
Love the Age of Madness trilogy though, especially Wisdom of Crowds. Liked this so much more than the First Law. I look forward to some of his other works.
Maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker, but I don't agree with that take. While it's an English translation, the dialogue is still happening in chinese, so obviously it's not going to be perfect in English. Regardless it's not really the dialogue that's hooking me, but rather the atmosphere and mystery (I'm only halfway through the first book though).
I feel like you’ve been reading Discworld for longer than a year but I always look forward to a new video on it
Stoked to see Annihilation on the list. That book rules. I’ll be reading the next one soon!
Best wishes with your reading choices in 2024 and to your channel.
glad to see discworld on this list! im about to start it, but im debating on whether to start with guards guards or equal rites
Love to see that Temeraire made the list!!
Would you ever consider doing a video on book-to-screen adaptations? I think I've heard you say you don't watch much tv but I'd love to hear what you think of the movie adaptation of Annihilation.
I saw the film of Annihilation but never got round to reading the books, I really should! The film was so disturbing and weird, you have convinced me to get the series!
❤📚📚❤️ Perfect! Have you read Lexicon by Max Barry?
Speaking Bones gave me a book hangover in the best way!
I also read night of the mannequins this year. I didn't know it was low rated -- I really enjoyed it
My Top 10 reads of 2023
My Top Favorite Read of 2023, is a tie between «Under Heaven» by Guy Gavriel Kay & «The Veiled Throne» («Dandelion Dynasty #3) by Ken Liu: «Under Heaven» should be teached next to «War & Peace» and «Le Miserables» for GGK’s prose and Ken Liu’s Character Work has few if any rivals! A character that has only one scene in «TVT» (though a series veteran in «The Dandelion Dynasty»), earned with that scene alone my favorite character of 2023: Cogo Yelu!
Next is another tie between «The Retreat to Avalon» by Sean Poage & «The Winter King» by Bernard Cornwell: Poage has written my favorite take on «A Historical King Arthur» and the Seige of Yves Trebon/St. Michel in «TWK» shows why Cornwell might be the best at writing battles!
The next are unsorted:
«The Way of Edan» by Philip Chase
«Bold Ascension» by Vaughn Roycroft
«The Winter Road» by Adrian Selby
«Salammbo» by Gustave Flaubert
«The Farthest Shore» by Ursula K. Le Guin
«Brigantia» by Adrian Goldsworthy
Honourable Mentions
«The Little Emperors»/«The Conscience of the King» by Alfred Duggan (Love very dry British humor on ambitions, politics and bureaucracy (so many great quotes!), and excellent descriptions of how (possibly) Roman Britain fell!)
«Tortilla Flat» by John Steinbeck (my biggest laughs this year, Great Feelgood Read if you don’t mind some tragedy too!)