These are predominantly drawn from the last couple of years, because that’s when I was doing them. I will try to expand out further backwards as and when I remember things.
Best Books of 2025
The River Has Roots – Amal El-Mohtar
Sour Cherry – Natalia Theodoridou (reviewed for ARB here)
The Incandescent – Emily Tesh (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
Notes from a Regicide – Isaac Fellman (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
Best Books of 2024
Rakesfall – Vajra Chandrasekera (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
The West Passage – Jared Pechaček (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
Ixelles – Johannes Anyuru (reviewed at ARB tbc)
The Ministry of Time – Kaliane Bradley
The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain – Sofia Samatar (reviewed at Ancillary Review of Books here)
A Mourning Coat – Alex Jeffers (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
In Universes – Emet North (reviewed at Strange Horizons here)
Three Eight One – Aliya Whiteley
The City in Glass – Nghi Vo (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Private Rites – Julia Armfield
Metal from Heaven – august clarke
North Continent Ribbon – Ursula Whitcher (reviewed at Ancillary Review of Books here)
Remember You Will Die – Eden Robins (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Kalyna the Cutthroat – Elijah Kinch Spector
Best Books of 2023
Some Desperate Glory – Emily Tesh (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Chain-Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah
OKPsyche – Anya Johanna DeNiro (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera
He Who Drowned the World – Shelley Parker-Chan
Hybrid Heart– Iori Kusano (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Mammoths at the Gates – Nghi Vo (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
The Lies We Tell Ourselves – L K Kitney
Ashes of the Ancestors – Andrew Knighton (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar – Indra Das
The Lies of the Ajungo – Moses Ose Utomi
Rose/House – Arkady Martine
Menewood – Nicola Griffith (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Best Books of 2022
The Bone Orchard – Sara A. Mueller
Babel – R. F. Kuang (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
The Grief of Stones – Katherine Addison
Wrath Goddess Sing – Maya Deane (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Nettle and Bone – T. Kingfisher (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Nona the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir
Ocean’s Echo – Everina Maxwell (reviewed more fully at Nerds of a Feather here)
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance – Foz Meadows
The Spear Cuts Through Water – Simon Jimenez (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
Spear – Nicola Griffith
Weird Shit
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera
Rakesfall – Vajra Chandrasekera
OkPsyche – Anya Johanna DeNiro
Vellum – Hal Duncan
Harrow the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir (sequel to Gideon the Ninth)
The West Passage – Jared Pechaček
Mad Sisters of Esi – Tashan Mehta
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility – Isabel Waidner
Private Rites – Julia Armfield
Three Eight One – Aliya Whiteley
In Universes – Emet North
Sour Cherry – Natalia Theodoridou
Queer Fantasy
Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir – lesbian necromancers in space
A Marvellous Light – Freya Marske – Edwardian gay magicians (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance – Foz Meadows – diplomatic marriage shenanigans
A Taste of Gold and Iron – Alexandra Rowland – a prince and a bodyguard and economic shenanigans (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
The Bruising of Qilwa – Naseem Jamnia – blood magic, healing and family, legacies of power, pseudo-historical (reviewed for Nerds of a Feather here)
She Who Became the Sun – Shelley Parker Chan – genderbent reimagining of the rise of the Hongwu Emperor
Uncommon Charm – Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver – early 20th century English magic slice of life (reviewed at Nerds of a Feather here)
The Spear Cuts Through Water – Simon Jimenez
Metal from Heaven – august clarke
A Mourning Coat – Alex Jeffers
Notes from a Regicide – Isaac Fellman
Queer SF
Winter’s Orbit – Everina Maxwell – gay space diplomacy (and the sequel)
A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine – cultural colonialism, legacy and identity in space
Ninefox Gambit – Yoon Ha Lee – weird calendrical space opera bullshit (affectionate)
Some Desperate Glory – Emily Tesh – space fascism, discuss
Chain-Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah – incredibly dystopian near future American prison system turned to gladiatorial combat death sports
The Dragonfly Gambit – A. D. Sui
Approaches to Imperialism
The Traitor – Seth Dickinson – working within the empire and what that can cost a person
The Hands of the Emperor – Victoria Goddard – 900 pages of bureacracy with a sprinkling of yearning
A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine – cultural colonialism, legacy and identity in space
The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain – Sofia Samatar – class mobility/oppression, academia and spirtualism in a space ship
Metal from Heaven – august clarke
Romance
A Marvellous Light – Freya Marske – Edwardian gay magicians (plus sequels)
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna – Found family witch in Britain
Half a Soul – Olivia Atwater – regency magic, romance and fairies
Mortal Follies – Alexis Hall – regency magic, romance, fairies, gods and smidgen of human sacrifice (plus the sequel, Confounding Oaths)
Cosy and Comforting (your mileage may vary, but they comfort me)
The Goblin Emperor – Katherine Addison – pseudo historical court politics in the elflands
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna – Found family witch in Britain
Half a Soul – Olivia Atwater – regency magic, romance and fairies
Legends and Lattes – Travis Baldree – leaving a D&D party to start a coffee shop
Paladin’s Grace – T. Kingfisher – falling in love amidst horrible beheadings and being accused of murder
The Last Sun – K. D. Edwards – the world may be terrible but you can face it if you find your people
Sweet Sadness
Sarantine Mosaic duology (Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors) – Guy Gavriel Kay – all things must pass, even beautiful art
Pretty much anything else by Guy Gavriel Kay to be honest
The Emperor’s Winding Sheet – Jill Paton Walsh – the fall of Constantinople, but make it extra sad
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell – space Jesuits, language, and one man’s changing relationship with his faith
Salt Slow – Julia Armfield – sad lesbians
Historical/Mythical
Wrath Goddess Sing – Maya Deane – trans reimagining of the Iliad
Bright Air Black – David Vann – unapologetic heavily bronze age Medea
Ithaca – Claire North – what was Penelope up to during the Iliad and Odyssey, narrated by Hera
The Wolf Den – Elodie Harper – a prostitute’s life in Roman Pompeii
Hild – Nicola Griffith – the life of St. Hilda of Whitby, stunningly immersive (and the sequel Menewood)
When the Angels Left the Old Country – Sacha Lamb – an angel and demon leave a small shtetl and travel to America
Fairies
Midnight Never Come – Marie Brennan – Elizabethan fairy court politics
Sixty-One Nails – Mike Shevdon – urban fantasy London fairies
Roses and Rot – Kat Howard – New England artist retreat fairies
Half a Soul – Olivia Atwater – regency magic, romance and fairies
Graphic Novels
DIE – Kieron Gillen – D&D goes very very wrong
Once and Future – Kieron Gillen – Arthurian legends as modern menace
Wonder Woman Historia – Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez – extremely pretty Wonder Woman comics
A Reader of Else 