Best Sci Fi & Fantasy Books of 2021

oh hello today we are talking about my best sff picks of the year these are science fiction and fantasy books that i read in 2021 not necessarily books that were released in 2021 though some were these are just what i read that i most enjoyed this year this was an interesting year for me in general now that i'm like looking at my end of the year lists and some of the ratings and stuff i think this is the first one you guys are seeing i had a lot of four star books this year and for me a four star is let's call that like an a-minus kind of a book but not that many four and a half and five stars so in particular on this list i have one five star and then i had a bunch of four stars to pick from so that was interesting also this was a year where i read a lot of middle grade and why a fantasy sci-fi stuff and that hasn't necessarily been the case the last few years i think frankly that's just because it's been sort of like a comfort thing particularly middle grade during crazy time in our world that has been something that i have very much enjoyed kind of retreating into as a comfort kind of thing so anyway all that to say this list feels very different than past lists in terms of what all's on here but we're just gonna roll with it these are all books that i really enjoyed so we'll start at the bottom and work our way up number 10 is where the drowned girls go by seanan mcguire now this is i know going to be infuriating to some of you because this is actually a book that has not yet come out this comes out in january of 2022 but it was one of my favorite things i read in 2021 and this is the i want to say the sixth book is that right seventh book i guess in the wayward children series from shauna mcguire and this one in particular delighted me because i feel like it was definitely a progression for the series as a whole on a macro plot level because in this book we explore and go to a different school for children who have gone through a portal to a fantasy world and come back it is not as benevolent as the wayward children that we have been spending most of our time at we also are spending a lot of time in this one with cora who's one of my favorite recurring characters in the series i mean nobody will top jack jack for life jack for president but cora is one of my favorite characters in the series i'm still shipping her and christopher though maybe it's gonna end up being her and kade but this is one where we get a lot from her and i think thematically this is a really interesting book in terms of addressing fat phobia in a way that i really appreciated and these books tend to be pretty direct in their thematic content like it's not hidden it's not a mystery but in this particular case i feel like that really worked i liked what this kind of did for the series as a whole on a macro plot level and all in all definitely one of my favorite sff picks for the year next we have a very under hyped book that i wasn't on my radar but the author i guess actually watches this channel and reached out to me and offered me an arc this came out from simon schuster i think at the beginning of the year and it's called the girl from shadow springs by ellie cipher i wanted to put this on the list because i feel like this was a really beautifully written book so i felt like this was very evocative of its winter setting in particular the setup for this is that this is sort of like a maybe kind of like a post-apocalyptic type western us it's definitely a western it's like a ya fantasy western and actually the next one we're gonna have to talk about on this list is also aya fantasy western but this one is a retelling of the snow queen mythos so it is a wintry version of hawaii fantasy western and our main character is trying to survive on the frontier with her little sister her little sister is taken from her after she accidentally finds something she wasn't supposed to find our main character does she has to enlist the help as somebody who was killed on an expedition his nephew teams up with her so it's sort of like a road trip kind of book but it also ends up just being a lot about sisterhood and it goes to the sort of myth retelling place that i wasn't necessarily expecting at the beginning of it so all in all i just really liked this i felt like it was very under hyped this year and well worth seeking out if you appreciate genre bending y a fantasy that is very well written like the actual prose is nice and this is particularly evocative of winter so if you need something to kind of snuggle up with i think that this could be a good one and by the way i'm sorry i got so dark in here the sun was out and now it's hidden so we're just gonna deal with the sort of backlit vibes of this i hope you guys are into that let's think of it as sort of like a warm christmas tree kind of glow number eight is deathless divide by justina ireland and this is the finale in a duology that started with dreadnation and this is also a ya fantasy western but one that has a very different vibe than the girl from shadow springs i feel like that this was a really worthy finale to the story that got set up in dreadnation thematically now i will say from a plot perspective very different vibes in this from the first one so i see why this came out i think in 2020 and there was a pretty mixed reaction up to this book in particular and i can see that because i do think that it's a very different plot vibe than the first one had but i actually really liked where this book ended up going because what it was doing in its plot i think was a really insightful and thought-provoking progression on the themes introduced in the first one particularly around questions of identity and passing which has been a big part of the black american story and i feel like this talked about that in a very interesting way i really liked hearing from catherine as a point of view character in this one overall i just felt like this was a really good progression to those series wasn't as good to me as dread nation but i do feel like it was still very thought-provoking interesting i enjoyed reading it and actually i did this several of these i did as buddy reads i just realized with leanna this is when we buddy read together and we both had i think a pretty similar reaction that we liked it much more than it seems like sort of the consensus was when it came out then number seven is the long way to a small angry planet by becky chambers this has this came out i think in 2014 so i'm way late to the party on this one but it's definitely emerging i think as sort of a modern sci-fi space opera type classic and i totally see why the comparison that gets made for this one pretty often is to firefly i think that's an apt comparison because i would describe this as very character driven space adventure i really enjoyed spending time with these characters i think the world building in particular i thought was very well unspooled to the reader in a way that was detailed but not info-dumpy and i think that that is a real skill and it seems like that in my opinion is one that becky chambers does have i do think that for me i don't know that i i i got to the end of this book and was like i'm surprised this is a series i don't think i will actually continue on in this series because i just feel like i got what i wanted to from this cast of characters i really enjoyed my time with this cast of characters my particular favorites were lovey and kissy it's an entire cast of very lovable characters maybe except for corbin they're all lovable in their own unique way we had to spend time with all of them and i liked the plot of it pretty well i felt like the pacing was a little not totally working for me but overall very well written like the actual prose of this i think is very high quality and if you're somebody like me who is a very very character driven reader for speculative fiction i definitely think this is a crowd pleaser so i'm not gonna keep going in the series but i really enjoyed this kind of as a standalone and i do think it works as a standalone and yeah i just i really like this i thought this was real great number six is a master of gen by peter jelly clark this is the third book in his series that started with a dead jen in cairo and this is his first full novel that i'm aware of at least he has been working mostly in novellas and short stories up to this point of which i think he is a literal master like i think he is one of the most talented novella writers i've ever encountered this is his first foray into a full novel i do think you feel that and that is the one criticism i have of this book is that it feels almost like an interconnected series of novellas rather than feeling fully like a cohesive novel but with that criticism to the side i think that the character work in this is fantastic fatma continues to be a very compelling main character she's sort of a the setup for this is that it's a sort of like an urban fantasy steampunk kind of vibe in cairo in the 20s but with sort of like gin magic so gin and efret and and that type of magical system and but also coexisting with ancient gods of egypt as well as islam so i think there's a lot of sort of different religious and mythological influences on this story that make for a very compelling and thought-provoking world and then it's also fatma is our queer dandy detective a la poiro so we're getting a detective story in the midst of that setting and also she has like this romance going on with this woman who is like kind of a priestess of one of the ancient egyptian gods so it's just there's a lot of interesting stuff happening in this series and particularly in this book i do think like i said the pacing was a bit off but overall very thought provoking very fun this is my kind of book that like i am a sucker for a speculative world with a mystery plot engine and some romance thrown in that's my perfect kind of book and that's exactly what this delivers so for that reason this just like speaks to what i really enjoy in books quite directly and therefore i really love the series the writing is fantastic like the actual prose quality is very high just i love this series i really am looking forward to more from him in the series but just from him in general he is basically an auto by author for me at this point number five is amari and the knight brothers by bb alston this is his middle grade fantasy debut novel that is the first in i'm not sure if it's a series or a trilogy but there's going to be more books to come this was an incredibly strong debut i think and does what i like best in middle grade fantasy which is it is humorous it is very wholesome in its overall tone and feeling there's a lot of emphasis obviously on friendship and family and found family uh but also this has this very intriguing fantasy magical setup where our heroine's older brother was in this magical kind of cia type agency and went missing she doesn't know why she doesn't know about that society and neither does her mom but she gets invited to essentially like apprentice for the agency and she is trying to find out what happened to him and discover potentially powers that she herself has so i just felt like this was really everybody hyped this up to me who had read it earlier in the year and i totally agree this gave me the feeling that i want to have while reading middle grade fantasy this evoked it and i think the characters were particularly strong he is particularly skilled at writing villains like i really hated some of the villains and also thematically i thought this was a very interesting exploration really of class and how that impacts opportunities and perspectives on the world et cetera so all around i just love this and i'm very excited for the next one number four is fugitive telemetry from martha wells i don't know how much i really need to say about this i am a well-known uh you know high priestess in the church of the good news of murderbot i love murderbot as a character period i know that there are people who don't like the series because they feel like there's not enough world building for me in a novella that's kind of part of the deal i'm somebody who's a very passionate advocate for uh shorter speculative works because i feel like there can be among fans of sci-fi and fantasy can be an over premium on very detailed world building which is not something that i come to speculative stories for so i am actually quite a big fan of shorter works like this where really what we're getting are sort of the sketches and the contours of the world that suggest at a lot of interesting things but doesn't get too frankly like masturbatory in the detailed description just pages and pages of descriptions of political structures or magic or science whatever that's not really what i'm coming for i'm coming for that as the overall backdrop and then i want compelling characters with an interesting story that's like really what i'm coming for and to me the murderbot diary series delivers on that because i love the character of murderbot so so much and this particular entry is literally murderbot being a murder mystery detective because there is a murder at the base that they are at and their person is in danger so they have to like figure out what's going on that just works for me we get some of the characters that we know and love from earlier works we get some new ones that are interesting and new connections to new characters which is fun i think if you enjoy the series and if you're like me and you like a murder mystery you will particularly very much enjoy this but yeah this delivered this like gave what it was supposed to give for me and for other people who enjoy this series okay we are now in our top three which is gonna end up being a cheat and you will see why but i will say that number three and two are both in the realm of the elderling series but they are in two different trilogies within the series so for that reason i decided that i was allowed to have them stand as their own entries on the list as number three and two respectively so first we've got royal assassin from robin hobb this is the second book in the first trilogy of the realm of the elderlings which is the original like fitz farseer trilogy this is the beautiful illustrated edition that they've recently started putting out definitely my favorite of this original trilogy it starts with assassins apprentice and ends with assassin's quest this is royal assassin and to me this is sort of like an empire strikes back kind of situation where the second book in the trilogy is the strongest i think that this has really great character development building on what we learned in assassin's apprentice about fitz who is a royal bastard with a specific gifting magic wise that has been banished and so he has to try to both learn that magic but also somewhat keep it a secret and he's also training to yes be an assassin but really he's like taking his place in the court and in the political machinations and this series from robin hobb is incredibly character driven some of the best character writing i've seen in fantasy the prose itself i feel like this is a refrain and you're seeing that that is something i clearly value in most of my sci-fi fantasy reading the prose itself is incredibly high quality from robin hobb and this one i think the reason it is definitely my favorite of the original trilogy is because the ending it literally made my jaw drop i was buddy reading this with leona and i was like you have to let me know when you finish this because i read it before she did i was like we have to talk about this i can't even really get into the substance of it because it would be spoilers and also just like you you wouldn't get the impact unless you've read the book but the one of the best cliffhanger slash endings of a book in fantasy i've ever read so definitely my favorite of the original trilogy and i think just an incredible testament to what the value is of really spending time with and like living in character relationships can do i also think that the the relationships in this are just so well rendered both romantic platonic familial like all of the different relationships that fitz has are just very well rendered and very interesting so this is my third favorite book of the year in sci-fi fantasy my second favorite book of the year in sci-fi fantasy was ship of magic by robin hobb which is the first book in the second trilogy of the realm of the elderling series which is the live ship trader series and i would say that this is my favorite robin hobb book to date now i am about to read the mad ship which is the second book in the trilogy and i have expectations that that will become my new favorite but for now this is my favorite in robin hobb's uber that i've read so far unlike the original trilogy in the series the second trilogy has multiple point of view and it's it is very close point of view for each of the characters you're following but it's not as deep as you get into fitz's point of view in the original trilogy so if that is what put you off the original trilogy i would say that you could start here i so far do prefer this it is in the same world and i am told that once you get through the whole series of the realm of the elderlings you see what happens in this book and how it connects back to what's happening with fitz so far i don't know how that ties in but i'll find out at some point i guess but i just love i mean the villains in this are so hateable like kyle haven i hate i think that this has so much to say about family the political machinations are interesting the world building is cool we get like a different point of view on what we've been seeing in the original trilogy in terms of like what is known about that area we i the the concept of having ships that are alive is such a cool world building concept and i think she totally pulls it off the ships themselves like that some of my favorite character work in this book we've got like a lady a lady pirate or somebody who's attempting to be like a lady merchant this just goes a lot of interesting places thematically like i think there's really interesting stuff about religion in this especially at the end it goes a lot of interesting places thematically the character work is great and the world building is there and the plot itself i was more interested in this round of it so all in all second favorite fantasy book of the year very excited to get to the next book in the trilogy this just generally reading three books in this series this year felt like a big kind of like big rocks in my jar of fantasy reading for the year um and i did all those with leanna so thank you to leanna for being my co-sojourner through the land of the elderlings uh and we will continue trekking along next year and then da da we're at the top of the list now here's the thing this is somewhat of a cheat because it is three books not one and that is because three books on my original top ten were all in the exact same series and i just felt like that was too much so i decided to consolidate them all into the top slot and that is i had at number 10 titans curse by rick riordan that got four stars i had at number two originally the battle of the labyrinth by rick riordan this got four and a half stars and then unquestionably my favorite fantasy book of the year is percy jackson and the last olympian by rick riordan and this is my only five star sff pick for the year now i'm so late to the game on this i did not grow up reading percy jackson because i was slightly too old for them when they were first coming out and i thought you know i was too much of a snob at that point as like a 14 year old or whatever i was to want to read it but i've come back to these as an adult and i will tell you that i think this is my f new favorite why a or middle grade fantasy series ever because i love the macro plot of this part of what i think is very interesting about this series is that the first two books are really good like they're solid middle grade fantasy concept is super fun which is basically greek mythology but in our world and like a fantasy version of it middle grade it's very action adventure oriented very humorous and actually his humor works very well for me i guess because in my heart i am a 12 year old boy so there you go but the humor is there you know it's middle grade so it has those themes of friendship and family that i love so the first two books were good but starting in titan's curse the macro plot of it really picks up steam so it definitely got a step i mean for sure it's established in the lightning thief and continued in the sea of monsters but it really takes off in titan's curse and where the macro plot goes i love i love the different themes we get along the way i like the way that the tension escalates over the course of the books in terms of like what the stakes are i really enjoy the character work in this in particular and just the fact that this is called and the last olympian like you have to read the book to get what that means but what that statement says thematically about where uncle rick sees the weight of the series going i think is beautiful like i just love this and in 2020 i mean i started this in 2020 and finished the series in 20. i want to say this is one of the first things i read in the year i think i read this in like january so this was really like my pandemic comfort read and this just was what my weary soul needed and i just loved it i this just hit me where i needed it to do you have books that just meet you in your moment and therefore you love them all the more i definitely think that percy jackson as a whole qualifies for that but then particularly the last olympian this is unquestionably my favorite sff book of the year and i just love it it's one of my all-time favorite books now and i've really enjoyed continuing on in the heroes of olympus i haven't loved any of those as much as i loved the titans curse though i've given all of them four stars so far but i'm hopeful i'm in the middle of the mark of athena right now i've been told that the back half of this series much like percy jackson things get really intense and real so i'm excited for that to fully kick in and yeah i just i'm an uncle rick convert in the last year and a half or so and this book is definitely far and away my favorite from him so far and it just it's definitely the top of the list for me five stars love it so with that that concludes my best of sff for this year definitely let me know how your reading for sci-fi fantasy books went in 2021 did you have any big hits did you have any big disappointments were you like me and just comfort reading great nya fantasy all over the place let me know that in the comments below and yes think that that will do it for this video so if you enjoyed it please like subscribe follow me on the social needs if you are so inclined i have all that information listed in the description box below and i think that that will do it i hope you're having an absolutely lovely day today and i will just talk to you soon bye you

Channel: bookslikewhoa

Views: 6,031

Keywords: books, reading, booktube, literature

Id: EuvayHrysto

Length: 22min 20sec (1340 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 07 2021