Best Fiction Read in 2023

I'm going to have to come back and tweak this later, but here are my top fiction reads in no particular order:

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Spear by Nicola Griffith
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Honorable mentions:
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

(Edited to add authors and fix touchstones.)

My best novel was This Is How It Always Is. I also enjoyed:

Monk and Robot
Blow Up and The Mayors of New York (favorite mysteries of the year, although there were a lot of others that I enjoyed)
The Broken Earth series

>2 Jim53: The Monk & Robot books were a lot of fun! I read This Is How It Always Is in 2022 and found it both hilarious and touching.

Top fiction for me:
5-star Escape from Victory by Caimh McDonnell, novella

4-star The Law by Jim Butcher, Dresden novella
Love will Tear us Apart by C.K. McDonnell
The Sea Runners by Ivan Doig

I don't include rereads or possibly series, it depends on my mood. I gave 4 stars to a couple of mysteries by Margaret Frazer, but that is my go-to rating for that series unless there is a real stinker.

I read only classics last year so there were many stand out tomes, but the one I was most surprised about was The Quiet American by Graham Greene. What an amazing work of fiction!

>5 littlegeek: Good to know. I might start off the year with The End of the Affair. It's been on my TBR for decades.

Thanks to some lovely book friends, I discovered Dorothy Dunnett. So my top fiction reads of 2023 were the first four books of the Lymond Chronicles:

The Game of Kings
Queen's Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense

Best sci-fi reads, in no particular order:

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
Translation State by Ann Leckie
Excession by Ian M. Banks (I am slowly making my way through the Culture novels, and what a pleasure it is...)

Best fantasy reads, in no particular order:

At the Feet of the Sun
The Return of Fitzroy Angursel
Those Who Hold the Fire
Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander
The Game of Courts
The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul
You might have noticed that these are all by Victoria Goddard ;)

I've also discovered mysteries by Keigo Higashino, The Devotion of Suspect X, Salvation of a Saint and Midsummer's Equation were all excellent.

I've read extremely little non-fiction in 2023 (even for me, that is - my brain tends to scream "homework!" as soon as I look at a non-fiction book). But these were wonderful:
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley - probably one of the most touching memoirs I've ever read.
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England - this is a great series and I plan to read it all.

>7 Alexandra_book_life: I didn't know there was a new Leckie! Wish there was an easy way to track these sorts of things.

My 5* were
the dark is rising sequence childhood/xmas favourite
some desperate glory
Foul is fair a very rare ER 5* title - urban fantasy werewolf/police crossover worked very well.
Adrian tchaikovsky everything he's written!
Alex Verus the whole series is very clever - manages to keep an underpowered hero believable throughout, and so far hasn't had to suddenly give him new powers.

>8 reading_fox: I'm with you on the Tchaikovsky worship. Just finished Doors of Eden and will soon start Shards of Earth. Everything of his, particularly the newer stuff, is really imaginative and wonder-full.

>8 reading_fox: looks like the wrong link to Foul is fair, but it does sound interesting. Is the tone of voice similar to the first person description on the page? Because I am a little sensitive to narrative styles, and that one comes across as slightly too manic for ny taste.

My best new reads of 2023 were probably:
Translation state by Ann Leckie
Spinning silver by Naomi Novik
Nettle and bone by T Kingfisher
siren Queen by Nghi Vo
The goblin emperor by Katherine Addison
Hvide blomster by Sissel-Jo Gazan

And for non-fiction:
How Big things get done by Bent Flyvbjerg
Invisible women by Caroline Criado-Perez

My top five fiction reads were

Hopeland by Ian McDonald
City of bones by Martha Wells
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
True Biz by Sara Novic
Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney.

In no particular order, my top 2023 fiction reads:

- Terra Ignota, (this one actually is my #1 for 2023 ;)
- Hopeland
- A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace
- Ghostwritten
- Boy's Life
- The Raven Tower
- Winter Tide, Deep Roots, and The Litany of Earth
- The Emperor's Soul (after reading this wonderful novella, Elantris is now on the list for 2024).
- Among Others (re-read)

>1 clamairy: I read Spear between xmas & new years of 2022. If I had waited a week, that book would definitely be on my 2023 list. I'm not a big Arthurian Fantasy fan but Griffith really worked a marvel, IMHO.

>2 Jim53: I agree that The Broken Earth is amazing. I borrowed the e-books from overdrive but ended up buying in print to re-read.

>7 Alexandra_book_life: Elizabeth Moon: I loved Remnant Population when I read it a few years ago. The Speed of Dark is another favorite. I have a (very thick!) hardcover omnibus of the first three Heris Serrano novels on the TBR that I plan to get to this year.

Translation State is also on my shelf but I need to re-read the original Imperial Radch trilogy and Provenance before cracking it open.

>8 reading_fox: I read Children of Time this past year. Although it didn't make my top reads list, I liked it well enough to try more by Tchaikovsky. Dogs of War and Bear Head will be arriving in my mailbox within the next week or so.

>12 Sakerfalcon: Hopeland was an amazing book for me as well and I have Saint Death's Daughter on my overdrive wishlist for this year, (BB attributed to you, I believe).

>11 amberwitch: Lovely! Spinning Silver, Nettle and Bone and The Goblin Emperor are all favourites of mine. Have you read anything else by these authors?

>8 reading_fox: I hope you'll enjoy Translation State! It's quite different from her other books, but the characters, world building, and the ideas are all great, as usual.

>13 ScoLgo: Spear reminds of McKillip at her best. Wonderful stuff. Thank you again. My daughter loved it, too.

My best fiction books of 2023 were:
The Chrysalids,
Darkness at the Door,
A Fire Endless,
Bookbinder of Jericho,
House with the Golden Door,
Rise of Endymion,
Dune,
Running Grave,
Dark Forest,
Temple of Fortuna.
Honourable mentions to The flight of Cornelia Blackwood, Tyger, and Prophet of Edan. Biggest surprise of year was David Copperfield - I'm doing a 2 year challenge to read all Dickens in publication order - some have been more of a challenge than others! - but I loved DC.

>17 infjsarah: Yay! Another fan of David Copperfield! It's been a few decades since I read it, but I have an audio book lined up for this year. The Chrysalids was good fun. It's too bad it's not something that could be made into a movie without spoiling the reveal at the end.

My favorite series gloms of 2023:
--Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn
--Tuyo book series by Rachel Neumeier
--Tales of Magatama by Noriko Ogiwara -- only first two books are translated into English. They can be read as stand-alones because each book takes place many generations apart. I hope the 3rd book gets translated some day!

Other favorites:
--The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
--The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw
--The Broken Sword and Hrolf Kraki's Saga by Poul Anderson
--A Theory of Haunting by Sarah Monette
--Hospital by Han Song
--The Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson
--The Book of Zog by Alec Hutson

My favorite fiction reads for 2023 were:

Tsalmoth by Steve Brust
All The Seas of the World by G.G. Kay
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

>19 ludmillalotaria: The Housekeeper and the Professor is so lovely! I enjoyed it very much as well, such a touching story.

>19 ludmillalotaria:, >21 Alexandra_book_life: I was about to say the same thing! It's one of my favourite books.
I've really enjoyed the books by Rachel Neumeier that I've read; will have to look into the Tuyo series.