T. Kingfisher is an old friend of mine, whose success delights me. Her prose is very much like how she talks when on a roll, and she does great things with it in both fantasy and horror.
Nettle and Bone was my first T. Kingfisher as well and I also fell in love with her writing! I read seven of her books this year and they are all amazing!
Robin Hobb is definitely the fantasy GOAT. So glad that she's finally getting some much over due accolades. Ruby Fever and Legends and Lattes were definitely favorites of the year for me too. I also loved Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. He knows how to write a great cozy fantasy too. Crowbones by Anne Bishop was another favorite of mine. I love her Others series. It's like Richard Scaary for adults.
Omgosh! Thanks to you, I love, what I call historical fantasy. And after years of hearing you talk about Robin Hobb, I finally ordered Assassins Apprentice...why did I wait soooo long! Love love love her writing. Thanks for doing what you do Mara!
"An embarrassment of riches"!! What a wonderful phrase and wonderful thing. I think 2023 will begin my Robin Hobb odyssey, and you've also inspired me to try out Legends and Lattes :)
Unpopular Opinion: I gave Black Sun 4 stars because I really don't understand why people like it so much in their feelings, and I gave Fevered Sun 4 stars because I really don't understand why people dislike it so much in thier feelings. Point being, for me, while I don't love them, I like them equally enough so I just don't understand either side 🤷🏽♀️😂
I love when you described Thimble, you started a giddy hair twirl. I'm on a wait list at my local bookstore fir L&L. I just received all of the Innkeeper Chronicles in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to start.
Fevered star was a lot of setting up like you said. I can’t wait to see where everyone ends up in the end. I cannot wait!!! Yes robin hobb all day everyday!!!
Excited to get back into Ilona Andrews with Catalina’s trilogy & I need to read the Into the Riverlands before the year is out. Loved When Tiger Came Down the Mountain too! Also need to read Babel and Legends and Lattes! ❤great list
I am glad you are excited to finish the Broken Earth Trilogy. I think you will love it. It really expands and develops the world and the story. The characters and themes are deep. That is all I'll say because I hope not to spoil anything for you and that you can enjoy the rest of the story without too many clues or guesses going into it.
I kind of am obsessed by When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain's cover...maybe I need to try that novella series. Ooooh yay Tasha Suri!!! I LOVED the Burning Kingdoms and am excited to check out Empire of Sand and its companion. Fascinating...you're the only one who wasn't crazy disappointed by Fevered Star, love that for you. I have been surprised how many best of lists have Legends and Lattes on them...I need to get to that sooner rather than later I suppose haha.
I just got into Robin Hobb this year (I’ve read farseer and liveships) and she’s definitely the GOAT to me. She just manages to check off so many of my favorite things in books
I love Robin Hobb and have since the 90s when I first read her books. But my GOAT is Janny Wurts. If you haven't read any of her books yet, you should. A great Sci-Fi book for you to try is The Mountain in the Sea. It was published this year (October?) and was a 5 star read for me, taking out my top spot for 2022.
I just started Empress of Salt and Fortune! I read Siren Queen by Nghi Vo this year and it was one of my favorites. It's about old Hollywood. So good! My top sci-fi read was Project Hail Mary, but I also read Artemis by Andy Weir and that book needs more love.
I am glad I 'discovered' your channel. You and I have similar tastes in books. And if you like Robin Hobb's books, I was fortunate enough to meet her in person a few years ago. She is so nice and someone you would love to just sit and have a cup of coffee with and chit chat. Now I have to go pick up the books in your list I haven't read.
This is great! I'm glad you had so many really enjoyable fantasy and science fiction to choose from. I'm in the middle of Nettle and Bone, and Legends and Lattes is the next book I'll read after.
So got my Milk Frother lined up for HotChocolate while we are foggy frosty. Also as long as you are enjoying novellas recommend Urban Paranormal/Sci Fi etc maybe Christmas/New Year Treat Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter. Like this series because it has little bit of edge. Same reason just cannot do Legends&Lattes. Ugh. Sounds little too edge-less
I think you would love The St. Mary Chronicles. It's about historians that travel back in time to examine famous historical event and of course nothing goes wrong.
Unpopular Opinion #2: I did not like Babel and gave it 2 stars. I personally disagree with the idea that the characters had any character development as they all felt like characatures instead of real people. Also, the book just felt like if an author turned a non-fiction book into a fiction book. Plus, I'm not white, I am biracial so for me a lot of its discussion, except for translation portions perhaps, I am already aware of or already have read about, but in better ways in other books. (And I moreso definitely agree with Liene with her takes on the book as she also gave it 2 stars lol) Edit #2: So apparently some white lady gave Babel 0 stars, which I don't understand why people are fueling like have we learned nothing, but I digress, since apparently we care for some random white lady's opinion, my own negative review of the book has nothing to do with what she said. And if anything, reviews like that and people being upset with her, rather than the books actual issues moves the focus away from reviews like from Liene, or even me, who didn't like the book at all, but for other reasons which have nothing to do with whatever that lady said. And it annoys me that we're having that conversation rather than talking about RFK just butchering character development, writing terrible pacing, and an overall boring experience which literally has nothing to do with race or colonialism. *Spoiler Alert* I also hated that in the book between Ramy and Robin there was a lot of unresolved sexual tension and then Ramy dies. Now, I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not, but as a queer person it didn't sit well with me at all and it honestly felt like queercoding and to then kill a queer coded character in your story really pissed me off. Edit: Spelling
I gave Babel 1.5. Poor.character development. Info dumpy. Lots of issues with the footnotes. I almost DNFd several times, and only finished it because I wanted to dona rant review at that point
You should read the techromancy scrolls series by Erik Schubach. It’s fantasy with sapphic romance mixed in. With what I think is a cool and original premise.
Nice video. I have different opinions on some of your favorites, but I 100% agree with you on Robin Hobb. I just started my journey this month and I loved Assassin's Apprentice and immediately started the sequel. Looking forward to reading more in the series next year. My top fantasy book of the year is Jade Legacy, but Assassin's Apprentice also earned a rare five stars from me. The writing and character work is simply exquisite.
A lot of these are on my list to read for 2023 so I'm excited to see if I share scifi/fantasy taste with you! I'm really interested in The Tea Master and The Detective and I'm going to be jumping into liveship traders for the first time as well. I'm very excited! I'm going to have to give Empire of Sand another try. I read it in 2020 and didn't love it but I wonder if that's because it was pitched to me as a romance rather than a fantasy with romantic elements so at the time it wasn't what i was looking for. Looking forward to the rest of your top books for the year !
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson is one of my favourite fantasy books this year. I'm currently reading Legends and Lattes and I'm enjoying it a lot.
I’m so looking forward to Legends and Lattes! Also, because of your love of JD Robb and Ilona Andrews, I’d push you to give Kelley Armstrong’s new book a try, A Rip Through Time. I gave it 5 stars and thought of you while reading. A mix of murder mystery, historical fiction, and sci fi- a current police detective is chasing a serial killer and somehow ends up going back in time and then must solve the case while being a woman in Victorian times.
Since you like T. Kingfisher, I highly recommend you check out her comic, Digger, under her real name Ursula Vernon. It's a fantastic fantasy series about an anthropomorphic wombat who has to find her way back home. It's hilarious, action-packed, imaginative, and at times a bit heartbreaking. I think you'd love it.
Really love how so many people started getting into Realm of the Elderlings ❤ Also, the recent appreciation for T. Kingfisher. Reminds me of my own excitement when I found those works. I hope you enjoy Realm of the Elderlings until the end even though the first 3 trilogies are the best in my opinion.
Absolutely giddy about the surprise Kate and Curran novella coming out in Jan. 2023. Between that and the Innkeeper book I'll at least be able to get a fix from my favorite authors. I swear they need a warning ⚠ label: Caution: These books may induce hyper reading syndrome and cause severe book hangovers upon completion. 🤣😂 I would say we should set up a "support group ", but they technically have the BDH (book devouring horde) and they're just a bunch of enablers. I know because I'm also a member. 🤣😂🤪
@@bookslikewhoa They just released a bunch of store merch too. I may have ordered a cutting edge monster 👾 attack shirt and ferret mug. Happy Merry Christmas to me. 🎄
I’m glad you had such an amazing year with SFF books. You’ve definitely convinced me that I want to try Ilona Andrews. I agree completely that Robin Hobb is exceptional in her writing. If you value the quality of prose in books, she’s top tier for SFF writers.
Seruously, read the Locked Tomb series. You will understand how Nona the Ninth, the third in a series, was the third most popular book in the Goodreads Choice awards for scifi
Now that "cozy fantasy" is having a moment, I am putting in my plug for the Castle Waiting graphic novels by Linda Medley. There are 2 volumes and they are wonderful: fairy tale world setting, found family, stories within stories, a castle infested with house sprites, and bearded feminist nuns. It's so good.
My only issue was with the decision of where to end Black Sun and begin Fevered Dream. Writing, characters, all beautiful. But I think these books are set up to be read back to back. I felt like at the end of BS we were sprinting to the end and then it just stopped. And waiting for a year and then picking up FS it felt like being told to slow down, but still do a pretty lengthy jog before we could breath.
I think that's a very fair point - I probably will do a binge reread before getting to the finale next year. That strategy can work once all the books are out, but it can be a frustrating reading experience while they are being released
Can I just read the trilogy that Ruby Fever is a part of, or do you suggest the entire series? 👀 I've seen you mention Ruby Fever enough times now that I'm convinced I must read it 😆
Hmmm... I personally would recommend going back to the first trilogy with Burn for Me, because I'm not sure you'd be as invested in the character arc or macro-plot developments if you start with Sapphire Flame. That said, all Ilona Andrews is pretty entertaining, so you won't be totally lost if you start with Sapphire Flame
T. Kingfisher is an old friend of mine, whose success delights me. Her prose is very much like how she talks when on a roll, and she does great things with it in both fantasy and horror.
Nettle and Bone was my first T. Kingfisher as well and I also fell in love with her writing! I read seven of her books this year and they are all amazing!
Robin Hobb is definitely the fantasy GOAT. So glad that she's finally getting some much over due accolades. Ruby Fever and Legends and Lattes were definitely favorites of the year for me too. I also loved Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. He knows how to write a great cozy fantasy too. Crowbones by Anne Bishop was another favorite of mine. I love her Others series. It's like Richard Scaary for adults.
I also adore The Others series. I re read every time a new book comes out.
@@surpriseitsus9622 I just finished a re-read of the original 5 book series. Meg and Simon are my favorite book couple. 😍
I totally agree with Legends and Lattes and T Kingfisher!
Omgosh! Thanks to you, I love, what I call historical fantasy. And after years of hearing you talk about Robin Hobb, I finally ordered Assassins Apprentice...why did I wait soooo long! Love love love her writing.
Thanks for doing what you do Mara!
"An embarrassment of riches"!! What a wonderful phrase and wonderful thing. I think 2023 will begin my Robin Hobb odyssey, and you've also inspired me to try out Legends and Lattes :)
Off topic but goooood lord your hair looks fantastic!
Aw thank you!!
Unpopular Opinion: I gave Black Sun 4 stars because I really don't understand why people like it so much in their feelings, and I gave Fevered Sun 4 stars because I really don't understand why people dislike it so much in thier feelings. Point being, for me, while I don't love them, I like them equally enough so I just don't understand either side 🤷🏽♀️😂
I bought Legends and Lattes. I can't wait to read it! I'm reading the first In Death book at the moment.
The In Death series is one of my all time favorites. I wish I could read for the first time. Enjoy. Lynn in AZ
I hope you enjoy it!!!
I think you're the first Booktuber I've seen who liked Fevered Star. Gives me hope!
Cozy + dark is a vibe I love, so I'm definitely going to have to check a few of these out 👀
I love when you described Thimble, you started a giddy hair twirl. I'm on a wait list at my local bookstore fir L&L. I just received all of the Innkeeper Chronicles in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to start.
Hope you enjoy!!
Fevered star was a lot of setting up like you said. I can’t wait to see where everyone ends up in the end. I cannot wait!!! Yes robin hobb all day everyday!!!
Excited to get back into Ilona Andrews with Catalina’s trilogy & I need to read the Into the Riverlands before the year is out. Loved When Tiger Came Down the Mountain too! Also need to read Babel and Legends and Lattes! ❤great list
Thimble the baker is THEEEE BEST. Also happy to see The Fifth Season make the list ❤
Thimble is just my heart
my first T. Kingfisher was her Fall of the house of usher retelling, but I've since bought nettle and bone. I'm super excited to check it out soon!
I am glad you are excited to finish the Broken Earth Trilogy. I think you will love it. It really expands and develops the world and the story. The characters and themes are deep. That is all I'll say because I hope not to spoil anything for you and that you can enjoy the rest of the story without too many clues or guesses going into it.
It's definitely on my 2023 reading plan!!
I kind of am obsessed by When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain's cover...maybe I need to try that novella series. Ooooh yay Tasha Suri!!! I LOVED the Burning Kingdoms and am excited to check out Empire of Sand and its companion. Fascinating...you're the only one who wasn't crazy disappointed by Fevered Star, love that for you. I have been surprised how many best of lists have Legends and Lattes on them...I need to get to that sooner rather than later I suppose haha.
Legends & Lattes got us across Kansas on I-70 and it was delightful.
It's so lovely!!
I just got into Robin Hobb this year (I’ve read farseer and liveships) and she’s definitely the GOAT to me. She just manages to check off so many of my favorite things in books
I love Robin Hobb and have since the 90s when I first read her books. But my GOAT is Janny Wurts. If you haven't read any of her books yet, you should.
A great Sci-Fi book for you to try is The Mountain in the Sea. It was published this year (October?) and was a 5 star read for me, taking out my top spot for 2022.
I just started Empress of Salt and Fortune! I read Siren Queen by Nghi Vo this year and it was one of my favorites. It's about old Hollywood. So good! My top sci-fi read was Project Hail Mary, but I also read Artemis by Andy Weir and that book needs more love.
Got Siren Queen lined up prolly No3.
I am glad I 'discovered' your channel. You and I have similar tastes in books. And if you like Robin Hobb's books, I was fortunate enough to meet her in person a few years ago. She is so nice and someone you would love to just sit and have a cup of coffee with and chit chat. Now I have to go pick up the books in your list I haven't read.
Yay hope you enjoy!!
This is great! I'm glad you had so many really enjoyable fantasy and science fiction to choose from. I'm in the middle of Nettle and Bone, and Legends and Lattes is the next book I'll read after.
My goal is to read Assassin’s Quest by the end of the year! I started reading Robin Hobb this year and hope to continue next year~
So got my Milk Frother lined up for HotChocolate while we are foggy frosty. Also as long as you are enjoying novellas recommend Urban Paranormal/Sci Fi etc maybe Christmas/New Year Treat Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter. Like this series because it has little bit of edge. Same reason just cannot do Legends&Lattes. Ugh. Sounds little too edge-less
I think you would love The St. Mary Chronicles. It's about historians that travel back in time to examine famous historical event and of course nothing goes wrong.
That sounds so fun!
Unpopular Opinion #2: I did not like Babel and gave it 2 stars. I personally disagree with the idea that the characters had any character development as they all felt like characatures instead of real people. Also, the book just felt like if an author turned a non-fiction book into a fiction book. Plus, I'm not white, I am biracial so for me a lot of its discussion, except for translation portions perhaps, I am already aware of or already have read about, but in better ways in other books. (And I moreso definitely agree with Liene with her takes on the book as she also gave it 2 stars lol)
Edit #2: So apparently some white lady gave Babel 0 stars, which I don't understand why people are fueling like have we learned nothing, but I digress, since apparently we care for some random white lady's opinion, my own negative review of the book has nothing to do with what she said. And if anything, reviews like that and people being upset with her, rather than the books actual issues moves the focus away from reviews like from Liene, or even me, who didn't like the book at all, but for other reasons which have nothing to do with whatever that lady said. And it annoys me that we're having that conversation rather than talking about RFK just butchering character development, writing terrible pacing, and an overall boring experience which literally has nothing to do with race or colonialism.
*Spoiler Alert*
I also hated that in the book between Ramy and Robin there was a lot of unresolved sexual tension and then Ramy dies. Now, I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not, but as a queer person it didn't sit well with me at all and it honestly felt like queercoding and to then kill a queer coded character in your story really pissed me off.
Edit: Spelling
I dnf'ed 70% through. Rare for me. Very unpopular opinion.
I gave Babel 1.5. Poor.character development. Info dumpy. Lots of issues with the footnotes. I almost DNFd several times, and only finished it because I wanted to dona rant review at that point
You should read the techromancy scrolls series by Erik Schubach. It’s fantasy with sapphic romance mixed in. With what I think is a cool and original premise.
Nice video. I have different opinions on some of your favorites, but I 100% agree with you on Robin Hobb. I just started my journey this month and I loved Assassin's Apprentice and immediately started the sequel. Looking forward to reading more in the series next year. My top fantasy book of the year is Jade Legacy, but Assassin's Apprentice also earned a rare five stars from me. The writing and character work is simply exquisite.
You have some many wonderful books ahead of you in RotE!! And I'm excited to finish the Green Bone Saga next year I've heard great things
A lot of these are on my list to read for 2023 so I'm excited to see if I share scifi/fantasy taste with you! I'm really interested in The Tea Master and The Detective and I'm going to be jumping into liveship traders for the first time as well. I'm very excited!
I'm going to have to give Empire of Sand another try. I read it in 2020 and didn't love it but I wonder if that's because it was pitched to me as a romance rather than a fantasy with romantic elements so at the time it wasn't what i was looking for.
Looking forward to the rest of your top books for the year !
Ah, yes, I could see if you thought it was a romance, Empire of Sand would not fully scratch that itch!
I am so happy you loved Empire of Sands 🎉🎉🎉 it was my best of last year
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson is one of my favourite fantasy books this year.
I'm currently reading Legends and Lattes and I'm enjoying it a lot.
I've got that one on my TBR - can't wait to get to it!!
YES TO THE T. KINGFISHER LOVE 🥰
I’m so looking forward to Legends and Lattes! Also, because of your love of JD Robb and Ilona Andrews, I’d push you to give Kelley Armstrong’s new book a try, A Rip Through Time. I gave it 5 stars and thought of you while reading. A mix of murder mystery, historical fiction, and sci fi- a current police detective is chasing a serial killer and somehow ends up going back in time and then must solve the case while being a woman in Victorian times.
Broken Earth has been on the top of my tbr for forever, i really need to pick it up!
It's well worth the journey!
Since you like T. Kingfisher, I highly recommend you check out her comic, Digger, under her real name Ursula Vernon. It's a fantastic fantasy series about an anthropomorphic wombat who has to find her way back home. It's hilarious, action-packed, imaginative, and at times a bit heartbreaking. I think you'd love it.
Assuming my trajectory with her continues, I assume I'll get there some day!!
Really love how so many people started getting into Realm of the Elderlings ❤ Also, the recent appreciation for T. Kingfisher. Reminds me of my own excitement when I found those works.
I hope you enjoy Realm of the Elderlings until the end even though the first 3 trilogies are the best in my opinion.
I actually just finished Rain Wild Chronicles and loved it! I'm looking forward to the final trilogy next year
Absolutely giddy about the surprise Kate and Curran novella coming out in Jan. 2023. Between that and the Innkeeper book I'll at least be able to get a fix from my favorite authors. I swear they need a warning ⚠ label: Caution: These books may induce hyper reading syndrome and cause severe book hangovers upon completion. 🤣😂 I would say we should set up a "support group ", but they technically have the BDH (book devouring horde) and they're just a bunch of enablers. I know because I'm also a member. 🤣😂🤪
How did I miss that was coming out??? Pre-order taken care of now!
@@bookslikewhoa They just released a bunch of store merch too. I may have ordered a cutting edge monster 👾 attack shirt and ferret mug. Happy Merry Christmas to me. 🎄
I’m glad you had such an amazing year with SFF books. You’ve definitely convinced me that I want to try Ilona Andrews. I agree completely that Robin Hobb is exceptional in her writing. If you value the quality of prose in books, she’s top tier for SFF writers.
She is at the very top of my list of SFF greats
You should really love the Rain Wilds Chronicles. You’re right that no one does it like Robin Hobb. Except maybe Ilona Andrews😄
Seruously, read the Locked Tomb series. You will understand how Nona the Ninth, the third in a series, was the third most popular book in the Goodreads Choice awards for scifi
Now that "cozy fantasy" is having a moment, I am putting in my plug for the Castle Waiting graphic novels by Linda Medley. There are 2 volumes and they are wonderful: fairy tale world setting, found family, stories within stories, a castle infested with house sprites, and bearded feminist nuns. It's so good.
ooo I will have to check it out!!
My only issue was with the decision of where to end Black Sun and begin Fevered Dream. Writing, characters, all beautiful. But I think these books are set up to be read back to back. I felt like at the end of BS we were sprinting to the end and then it just stopped. And waiting for a year and then picking up FS it felt like being told to slow down, but still do a pretty lengthy jog before we could breath.
I think that's a very fair point - I probably will do a binge reread before getting to the finale next year. That strategy can work once all the books are out, but it can be a frustrating reading experience while they are being released
I have found where we diverge and that’s in our Fitz opinions 😂 in Fool’s Fate and he is my emotional punching bag these days lol
By the end of Fool's Fate... lets just say I was not as on the Fitz train as I was in the first 2 Tawny Man books :D
Can I just read the trilogy that Ruby Fever is a part of, or do you suggest the entire series? 👀 I've seen you mention Ruby Fever enough times now that I'm convinced I must read it 😆
Hmmm... I personally would recommend going back to the first trilogy with Burn for Me, because I'm not sure you'd be as invested in the character arc or macro-plot developments if you start with Sapphire Flame. That said, all Ilona Andrews is pretty entertaining, so you won't be totally lost if you start with Sapphire Flame